Generations of neighbors, mothers and fathers, schoolchildren and teachers, workers and entrepreneurs have shaped the history and communities of the Black Hills more than the gunfighters, warrior chiefs and cavalry that make the region famous.
With one of the most famous pieces of sculpture in the world, it's not surprising that the arts play an important part in the culture of the Black Hills. Despite its size, Mount Rushmore reflects only the granite high-point of an energetic and dynamic arts scene that includes muscians, dancers, painters, sculptors and extraordinary craftspeople.
From the Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche to the Trails, Trains and Pioneers Museum in Edgemont, Black Hills historical institutions transport visitors and residents back to earlier eras in the region's history. They collect, maintain and exhibit artifacts and images that make the past more than a foreign land.
Online collections of pictures tell the history of our area and allow the viewer to experience the past. These collections are from many sources, such as the Digital Library of South Dakota and the Library of Congress among others.
As early as June 1876, Black Hills residents could get local news through the media – that is to say the Black Hills Pioneer, the region’s first newspaper, which was described as a “sprightly, well-edited local sheet, devoted to the mining and other interests of the town and surrounding county.” In the years that followed nearly every community in the region – including Tinton, Terry, West Virginia City and other now-abandoned mining towns – would come to boast its own newspaper. The Rapid City Journal, now the state’s second largest newspaper, began publishing in 1878.
More than 135 years later the Black Hills Pioneer and the Rapid City Journal are still publishing. But today’s Black Hills residents can select from numerous media options and news sources, from newspapers to local radio and television stations to countless Internet blogs and other on-line offerings.
According to Larry Wild, an assistant professor at Northern State University, South Dakota’s first radio station, WCAT, began broadcasting from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus in Rapid City in 1922. Today listeners can choose from 29 full-service and low-powered FM and AM stations in the Black Hills.
In 1983, members of the American Indian Movement made history by starting KILI radio in Porcupine on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The country’s first Indian-owned radio station, it continues to broadcast today.
For West River residents, the television era began July 1, 1955, when KOTA went on the air in Rapid City. It was the second television station in South Dakota. KOTA has been owned by the Duhamel family since its beginning and continues to broadcast today as an ABC affiliate. A second local television station, now KEVN-FOX, began broadcasting July 11, 1976. KNBN, an NBC affiliate, went on the air May 14, 2000. Western South Dakota is also home to several translator stations that carry South Dakota Public Broadcasting programming.
Changing Times
The media landscape has changed dramatically in the past 10 years in the Black Hills, as it has everywhere in the country. More and more people are using the Internet and relying on it, as well as on cable and satellite television, to provide them with information. Newspaper readership and circulation have declined, which has led many papers to cut staff, reduce coverage or close their doors. Meanwhile, on-line media sites and blog sites (some of them started by former journalists) are gaining steam and drawing readers. Inside Dakota Sports, for example, provides in-depth coverage of local sports teams ranging from Little League to the Rapid City Rush hockey team.
Local media outlets continue to look for ways to adapt and better serve local residents through the Internet. Many are also experimenting with “community journalism” projects aimed at recruiting community members to serve as reporters.
Black Hills newspapers now include the Butte County Post (Belle Fourche), Hot Springs Star, Meade-County Times Tribune (Sturgis) and Rapid City Journal, all of which are owned by Lee Enterprises; the Custer County Chronicle; Hill City Prevailer News; Black Hills Pioneer (Spearfish); Edgemont Herald Tribune; New Underwood Post; and Pennington County Courant (Wall). For more information, see the South Dakota State Newspaper Association.
Rapid City is also home to a quarterly magazine, Black Hills Faces, which began publishing in 2005.
Followers of many different faiths can find fellowship in the Black Hills. The vast majority of residents, like South Dakotans in general – 78 percent – identify themselves as Christians according to a 2008 national survey. Some of the more common denominations and even individual churches can trace their roots back to the region’s earliest white settlers. Preacher Henry Weston Smith is said to have brought Christianity to the Black Hills, holding the area’s first church service in Custer in May 1876. Smith continued on to Deadwood where he preached to miners and helped establish the Methodist Church before he was killed that August.
Today more than 15 percent of South Dakota’s population is of Norwegian descent and 40 percent are of German ancestry, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And as of 2001, more than one in four South Dakotans identifies himself or herself as Lutheran, the predominant religion in both Norway and Germany. Another 13 percent of South Dakotans are Methodist, while 25 percent are Catholic. The Catholic Diocese of Rapid City serves all of Western South Dakota.
The Black Hills are also home to a small but vibrant Jewish community. Jews played a major role in the early days of Deadwood, and Rapid City’s Synagogue of the Black Hills still uses what’s called the “Deadwood Torah.” History holds that the Torah traveled by boat, train and stagecoach from Koenigsburg, Germany, to Deadwood in 1886.
As the largest city in the region Rapid City plays host to a greater diversity of religious groups than do smaller communities. In addition to a wide variety of Christian churches there are several Buddhist Sanghas, a Baha’i community, an Eckankar center and a small Muslim population, many of whose members are or have been students or instructors at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.
The Black Hills themselves are at the heart of one religion. About 10 percent of the local population is Native American, most of them Lakota or Dakota Sioux, and many follow traditional Lakota spirituality that views the Black Hills as sacred. Traditional Lakotas believe that their ancestors emerged onto this earth through Wasun Niya, a cave in the Black Hills that is now known as Wind Cave. There are other sites in and around the Black Hills, such as Hinhan Kaga Paha (Harney Peak) and Mato Tipila (Devils Tower) that are recognized as particularly important, and where ceremonies are regularly conducted. Mato Paha (Bear Butte), has special spiritual significance for Lakotas and numerous Plains Indian tribes, is frequently used for prayer ceremonies and vision quests, and hikers are likely to see prayer bundles and offerings along the route to the summit.
In November 2010 the state approved an order allowing for up to 24 oil wells to be drilled within 1.5 miles of Bear Butte. That, along with plans for wind energy development in the area prompted the National Trust for Historic Preservation to name Bear Butte, or “Mato Paha,” to its list of most endangered historic places in June 2011.
A significant number of Native people also belong to the Catholic and Episcopal churches, both of which established missions near the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies in Dakota Territory in the late 1800s. Catholic schools, such as Red Cloud Indian School at Pine Ridge, still thrive on many reservations.
Religion – more specifically, Christianity – has also played a part in the Black Hills economy. Spearfish hosted the Passion Play, an outdoor pageant depicting the last days of Jesus Christ, for more than 75 summers before the show closed in 2008. Hills Alive, a Christian music festival, draws thousands of people to Rapid City each July.
Data on Religion in the Black Hills
A statewide chart of religious adherence shows that residents of western South Dakota, including the Black Hills, are less likely to belong to a religious congregation. While religious adherence in western South Dakota lags the eastern portion of the state, it is only slightly below the nation as a whole. In Pennington County, for example, congregation members account for 34.2 percent of the population, compared to 47.3 percent for all of South Dakota and 35.6 percent for the United States. (Association of Religion Data Archives)
Listing of Religious Institutions in the Rapid City Area
For a directory of religious institutions in the Rapid City Area, click here.
