November 2 – New States! Two States! Two More Red States!

nPostednon November 2, 2016

nHavenyou ever wondered why there are TWO Dakotas? Why not just one statencalled “Dakota”?

nOfncourse, the Dakotas are not the only split states – the U.S. alsonhas a North and South Carolina and a West Virginia as well asnVirginia.

nNorthnand South Carolina’s evolution from the Carolana colony to twonseparate colonies and then states occurred back in the 1700s – and,nfrom what I can tell, it was caused partly by messy beginnings ofngovernance and poor leadership, and partly by the fact that thenoriginal land grant was too large.

nWestnVirginia split from the eastern portion of Virginia in 1861, becausenthe latter voted to secede from the United States in the lead-up tonthe Civil War.

nNorthnand South Dakota experienced at least two reasons for the split:

nFromn the creation of the Dakota Territory in 1861 until 1883, Yankton wasn the capital, even though it was way down in the southeastern cornern of the territory, really far away from the northern reaches. Yanktonn had a great benefit in the “location, location, location” rule,n since it was a steamboat landing along the Missouri River. However,n the landing was crushed by the breaking of an ice dam, in 1881, andn the entire riverfront and downtown area were flooded with water,n ice, and rocks. So…not such a good “location, location,n location,” at that point.

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nTwo years later, the northern region of the Dakota Territory declared a railroad center named Bismarck as the capital of the territory. The people living in the southern region resented the “capital grab,” and there were a LOT more people in the south. They made a move to become a state,n separate from the northern territory, partly so that they could haven their own capital.

The U.S. government pretty much answeredn these attempts for separate-South -Dakotan statehood with, “Nope.n Come in as one large state, Dakota, or wait until the North hasn enough people to come in as their own state.”

The latter isn what happened. And when North Dakota was finally populated enough ton become a state, in 1889, there was a rivalry about which state wouldn be admitted first. President Benjamin Harrison signed the papers ton formally admit the two separate states on this date in 1889, and hen shuffled the papers together and signed blindly, so that even hen didn’t know which state was first. (But, since “North” comesn before “South” in an alphabetical sorting, North Dakota isn traditionally called the 39^th state, and South Dakota isn the 40^th.)

By the way, South Dakota did not choosen its old capital, Yankton, as the capital. Instead, they went with an city that was centrally located according to the state’s boundaries:n Pierre.
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nAnother,n perhaps more important, reason for two separate states instead ofn one large state: two separate states means four senators, not two,n and more representatives as well. And since Dakotans from the northn and the south routinely voted Republican, the admission of twon Dakotas gave the Republicans a majority in Congress.

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nItngoes without saying that none of these reasons take intonconsideration the lives and wishes of the original inhabitants of thenland. Here are the Dakotan peoples that lost their lands and, in toonmany cases, their lives:

nthen Mandan people

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nthen Lakota and Dakota peoples, including:

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nthen Santee people

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nthen Dakota people n

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nthen Yanktonai people

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nthen Sichangu people

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nthen Oglala people

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nthen Itazipcho people

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nthen Hunkpapha people

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nthen Sihasapa people

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nthen Oohenunpa people

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nAnothernumbrella name for the native peoples are the Sioux. n

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Inhave to admit that I have only been to one of the Dakotas. I made anlist of the things I most wanted to see and do in the Dakotas, andnalmost all of them were in the southwestern corner of the state –nwhich is perfect, since we were driving from Southern California. Sonwe went to the southwestern corner of South Dakota and that was it.nWe saw lots of fun things. Here are just a few of the stand-outs: