Search results for ""South Dakota State Historical Society""

Pickup trucks and eagles, yellow school buses and painted horses, Mother Earth and Sister Meadowlark all join together to greet the dawn. They marvel at the colours and sounds, smells and memories that dawn creates. Animals and humans alike turn their faces upwards and gaze as the sun makes its daily journey from horizon to horizon. Dawn is a time to celebrate with a smiling heart, to start a new day in the right way, excited for what might come. Birds sing and dance, children rush to learn, dewdrops glisten from leaves, and gradually the sun warms us. Each time the sun starts a new circle, we can start again as well. All these things are part of the Lakota way, a means of living in balance. S. D. Nelson offers young readers wonder and happiness as a better way of appreciating their culture and surroundings. He draws inspiration from traditional stories to create Greet the Dawn. His artwork fuses elements of modern with traditional. Above all, he urges each of us to seize the opportunity that dawn offers each day.

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From the time he was four years old, Joseph Jacob "Joe" Foss (1915–2003) found flight fascinating. As an adolescent, he followed the career of flyer Charles Lindbergh and could hardly wait to get into the air himself. In college, he took private flying lessons, and as war broke out across Europe in 1939 and 1940, he joined the South Dakota National Guard, preparing himself for combat by earning more flight time on weekends. After graduation, he joined the United States Marines Corps' flight training program. Finally, in 1942, Joe was ready to be a fighter pilot, just as he had always dreamed of being. But he was now twenty-six years old, and the military deemed him too old for combat. Instead, the Marine Corps assigned Joe to teach men eighteen to twenty-three years old how to fly.Joe accepted his role but also volunteered for special assignments. He became an aerial reconnaissance photographer, hoping the job might lead him to the battle front. He pestered his superiors until he was allowed to take combat training in the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the carrier-based dogfighter of the Pacific theater. Still, he found himself stateside rather than at the front. He continued to volunteer for dangerous assignments, and his determination eventually won him a spot in a fighting unit just as the war in the Pacific heated up.Joining the Marine Corps' VMF-121 fighter squadron as executive officer, Capt. Joe Foss and his unit shipped out to Guadalcanal, code-named "Cactus," in the Solomon Islands. They arrived in early October 1942, just weeks after the Allies had taken Henderson Field on Guadalcanal from the Japanese. By mid-October, Joe had shot down five enemy airplanes, which officially made him a flying ace. With his leadership and his pilots' daredevil tactics, the VMF-121 became known as Foss's Flying Circus, the heart of the Cactus Air Force. Shooting down a total of twenty-six enemy planes between October 10, 1942, and January 25, 1943, Foss became America's Number One Ace and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in Guadalcanal. He was a hero known around the world for his prowess in the skies.Using pen and ink, Hector Curriel draws readers into his subject's triumphs and trials as Joe Foss overcomes difficult and dangerous situations. He is shot down twice, contracts malaria, and loses his friends and comrades in battle. American Ace places action at the forefront, using the escapades of Foss during World War II to showcase the experience of many fighter pilots, while highlighting the perseverance that made this man unique.

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Perfect Reading for Ages Five and UpTHUMP! BOOM! BAM!Animals stop and listen. A new sound is in the forest. The beat vibrates through the trees and across the meadows. What is it? Where is it coming from? Muskrat and Skunk thump on a hollow log—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Birds begin to dance. Buffalo and Antelope join in. There is a rustle in the bushes; a large shape emerges. The animals scatter. Muskrat and Skunk drum on.The story of the drum connects the instrument’s sound to the heartbeat of Mother Earth—a beat inside all of us. For the Lakota people, the drum is more than something to be played. Its rhythm is felt, and it is central to many ceremonies.Donald F. Montileaux retells the origins of the drum, using traditional stories that Lakota people still tell today. His colorful images breathe life into Muskrat and Skunk, enhancing our understanding of the Lakota culture.

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Curiosity leads a young warrior to track a new animal. It leads him far from home, but at last he finds a herd of the strange new creatures. They are horses that shimmer with colour and run swift as the wind. The Lakota capture and tame them, and the people grow rich and powerful. They become filled with pride. With their newfound strength they rule over the plains. Then the Great Spirit, who gave the gift of the horse, takes it away. Donald F. Montileaux retells the legend of Tasunka from the traditional stories of the Lakota people. Using the ledger-art style of his forefathers he adds colorful detail. His beautiful images enhance our understanding of the horse and its importance in Lakota culture.

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First impressions of the political landscape in South Dakota tend towards an assumption of hard-line conservatism, and yet such a conclusion barely scratches the surface of what constitutes political tradition in the Mount Rushmore State.Editors Jon K. Lauck, John E. Miller, and Donald C. Simmons, Jr., have drawn together twelve essays on disparate topics in order to consider the state's underlying political culture. Each essay addresses an aspect of history, politics, or art, subtly exposing the contradictory nature of South Dakotans and elucidating the many elements that comprise the larger political tradition. Scholars from around the country consider topics such as war and peace, literature, environmentalism, the American Indian Movement, left-wing and liberal politics, immigration, and defeat. With each essay, the discussion builds upon itself, allowing the reader to develop a fuller sense of where South Dakota fits into the growing study of political culture in modern society.

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In Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life, Pamela Smith Hill delves into the complex and often fascinating relationships Wilder formed throughout her life that led to the writing of her classic Little House series. Using Wilder's stories, personal correspondence, an unpublished autobiography, and experiences in South Dakota, Hill has produced a historical-literary biography of the famous and much-loved author. Following the course of Wilder's life, and her real family's journey west, Hill provides a context, both familial and literary, for Wilder's writing career. Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life is the first book in the South Dakota Biography Series, which highlights some of the state's most famous residents.

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American Library Association Amelia Bloomer List FinalistMidwest Book Awards WinnerForeword INDIE Awards FinalistBenjamin Franklin Award Silver Award“All the crimes which I was not guilty of rushed through my mind. I failed to remember that I was a born criminal—a woman.”—Matilda Joslyn GageRadical, feminist, writer, suffragist—Matilda Joslyn Gage changed the course of United States history. She fought for equal rights for women not dependent on race, class, or religion. Yet her name has faded into obscurity. She is overlooked when her comrades, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, are celebrated. In the first biography on this important woman, Angelica Shirley Carpenter explores Gage’s life, including her rise and fall within the movement she helped build.Carpenter’s next book, The Voice of Liberty, features the woman suffrage movement’s rousing protest of the Statue of Liberty. In 1886, Gage and other suffrage supporters sailed a cattle barge into the center of the dedication. Find out why they opposed this national icon by visiting sdhspress.com.

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A celebrated warrior who led his people to victory on the battlefield, Red Cloud was also a skilled diplomat who transitioned the Oglala Sioux to reservation life. In Red Cloud: Oglala Legend, John D. McDermott examines Red Cloud’s early years, his rise to prominence, and his struggle to protect his people from cultural domination.McDermott goes beyond Red Cloud’s War to focus on the Oglala chief’s time as a statesman. Chronicling the chief’s diplomatic trips to the United States capital, the author examines the changes in Red Cloud’s vision of armed resistance and his long-term strategy for maintaining Oglala life and culture. Through negotiation, passive resistance, and selective integration, Red Cloud worked to defend his people’s interests in the face of change.As the only American Indian leader to win a war against the United States Army, Red Cloud is a larger-than-life figure in the history of the West. McDermott adds new layers to the story of the chief, illuminating his early youth and worldview through little-used sources.Red Cloud: Oglala Legend is the fourth book in the South Dakota Biography Series, which highlights some of the state’s most famous residents.

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Long hidden in archives, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s original handwritten autobiography is a tribute to her family and her experiences as a pioneer. Written for an older audience, Pioneer Girl is her first-person narrative of the settling of Dakota Territory, the building of the railroad west, and life as a pioneer. The stories in this autobiography formed the basis of Wilder’s international best-selling autobiographical novels, known as the Little House Series. For the first time, readers will have full access to the original manuscript that began it all.Written in six tablets on lined paper, Pioneer Girl follows the Ingalls family through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, back to Minnesota, and on to Dakota Territory over a sixteen-year period. Using revised Pioneer Girl manuscripts edited by Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane, letters written between Wilder and Lane, photographs, newspapers, and other sources, Pamela Smith Hill and other editors of the Pioneer Girl Project lead readers through Wilder’s early recollections and her first attempts at publication. While Laura Ingalls Wilder is a familiar figure, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography re-introduces readers to the woman who defines the pioneer experience and gives new insight into her motivations and experiences.For more information visit: www.pioneergirlproject.org

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