However, during The Medieval Climate Anomaly, or the Medieval Warm Period, flooding increased in the basins.
For example, large-scale flooding of the Black Hill basins occurs at a probability rate of 0.01, making such floods occur once in every 100 years. Stratigraphic records indicate environmental changes in the land, such as flood and drought patterns. Scientists have been able to utilize carbon-dating to evaluate the age of tools found in the area, which indicate a human presence that dates as far back as 11,500 BC with the Clovis culture. 1.2 American conquest of the Black HillsĪlthough the written history of the region begins with the Sioux domination of the land over the native Arikara tribes, researchers have carbon-dating and stratigraphic records to analyze the early history of the area.Devils Tower National Monument, located in the Wyoming Black Hills, is an important nearby attraction and was the United States' first national monument. The first Rally was held on August 14, 1938, and the 75th Rally in 2015 saw more than one million bikers visit the Black Hills. Locals tend to divide the Black Hills into two areas: "The Southern Hills" and "The Northern Hills." The Southern Hills is home to Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Black Elk Peak (the highest point in the United States east of the Rockies, formerly and still more commonly known as Harney Peak), Custer State Park (the largest state park in South Dakota), the Crazy Horse Memorial, and The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, the world's largest mammoth research facility.Īttractions in the Northern Hills include Spearfish Canyon, historic Deadwood, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, held each August.
Īs the economy of the Black Hills has shifted away from natural resources ( mining and timber) since the late 20th century, the hospitality and tourism industries have grown to take its place. Unlike most of South Dakota, the Black Hills were settled by European Americans primarily from population centers to the west and south of the region, as miners flocked there from earlier gold boom locations in Colorado and Montana. The US government took the Black Hills and forcibly relocated the Lakota, following the Great Sioux War of 1876, to five smaller reservations in western South Dakota, selling off 9 million acres (36,000 km 2) of their former land. However, when settlers discovered gold there in 1874, as a result of George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition, miners swept into the area in a gold rush. government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, establishing the Great Sioux Reservation west of the Missouri River, and exempting the Black Hills from all white settlement forever. After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took the territory of the Black Hills, which became central to their culture.
Native Americans have a long history in the Black Hills. The hills are so called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they are covered in evergreen trees. The name "Black Hills" is a translation of the Lakota Pahá Sápa. The Black Hills encompass the Black Hills National Forest. Black Elk Peak (formerly known as Harney Peak), which rises to 7,244 feet (2,208 m), is the range's highest summit. The Black Hills ( Lakota: Ȟe Sápa Cheyenne: Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva Hidatsa: awaxaawi shiibisha ) are a small and isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States.