By Bev Pechan
We probably don't think about it much, but South Dakota is on the map and in the news much more than we perhaps realize. Everyone knows about the iconic image of Mount Rushmore, though lots of Americans still don’t have a clue where it is located. Great things and great people have come out of South Dakota and have been absorbed in our culture and our history more often than is realized.
When “Dances With Wolves” first hit the screen in 1990, the spinoff publicity fed tourism coffers for at least the next 20 years. Then there was the Sue story — a true story about the world’s largest T. rex and her rise to fame via South Dakota’s longest and costliest lawsuit and more recently, the release of the movie “Dinosaur 13,” a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Lots of firsts happened in our state, too. Each year the Custer State Park buffalo roundup and auction gets a bigger fan base. Sturgis and the motorcycle craze needs no further mention.
Then there was the “Deadwood” television series that put us on the map all over again. I finally watched it for the first time a couple months ago on home video with mixed feelings. The settings, etc., were well done. The vocabulary was a turnoff and words and terms were used that I’m certain were unknown during that period. That said, I had difficulty understanding why no one apparently bothered to get actors who resembled the characters they were portraying. Carradine as Wild Bill Hickok was maybe the closest and, though I have never seen a photo of Al Swearingen, I could imagine him resembling the actor who played him. Calamity Jane did a great job of showing her character, though the likeness was way off the mark, and Charley Utter and Seth Bullock were perhaps the worst. In real life, Utter did not wear a derby, he wore the buckskins of a mountain man and had the long, dark beard to go with it. Seth Bullock is instantly recognized in old photos by his large, hooked nose and huge, bushy mustache that drooped at the corners —certainly not the baby-faced characterization we see on the screen. He looked more like Sandra to me.
I’m thinking about this because I have been watching lots of old movies and TV shows on retro channels while I am in Minnesota. Nearly every day, it seems like someone mentions Deadwood, the Black Hills, Sitting Bull, Hickok or Custer. Often times the scenery is vintage Arizona, but the names stick with you. Countless movie characters use Cheyenne as a monicker. Indians wear black wigs that appear to be made of yarn, but then, one of the most iconic of Indian figures — Iron Eyes Cody — was found upon his death to be Italian with no connection to any tribe. Russell Means and Floyd Westerman went to Hollywood and gave outstanding performances representing Indian country.
South Dakota gained worldwide notice when the Stratophere flights took place near Rapid City in the 1930s — the beginning of America’s space program. In the 1940s, the Black Hills was in the top running for the world headquarters of the United Nations.It was beat out by New York in the end, but it almost happened and there are blueprints to prove it. No other place in the world has the world’s largest sculpture (Crazy Horse) and the life-size bronze figures of our American Presidents — all the way from number one to G.W.Bush — cost $50,000 each and created by superb South Dakota sculptors. Locals often take them for granted and many Rapid City children I am told have never been to see “the faces,” but the outside world can tell you about our history.
We have pigtail bridges and mountain lions. The movie “Hidalgo” starring Viggo Mortensen was about a man from South Dakota and his horse. Mountaineer Jedediah Smith was mauled by a bear and crawled for months to reach civilization, living on bugs, snakes and rodents. Just as amazing was the feat of his biographer, South Dakota's Frederick Manfred, who repeated much of Smith’s ordeal to tell the story in his classic “Lord Grizzly.” Laura Ingalls Wilder made prairie life palatable by printing only her best recollections of the many hardships her family endured.
Famous people came from South Dakota, where they learned to work hard and to be resilient. Athletes Jim Thorpe, Casey Tibbs and Sparky Anderson helped put us on the map. Jim Abnor, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Tom Daschle and Bill Janklow defined politics during their eras. V.J. Skutt grew up near Faith and founded Mutual of Omaha. Tom Brokaw fondly recalls his youth in South Dakota, as did Al Neuharth, founder of USAToday. There’s more, of course, but you get the general idea.