Vol. 34, No. 1 Annual Report February 2019 South Dakota State South Dakota State Historical Society: Historical Society Annual Report for 2018 Administrative Staff Jay D. Vogt, Director Society members, South Dakotans and Bruce died unexpectedly in December after Jeff Mammenga government officials can have different per- having been with the society for eight years. Caroline C. Uecker spectives on the work of the State Historical During the 2018 history conference in Society, depending on their interests. Some Rapid City, the society acknowledged out- South Dakota State people see the society as either a research standing contributions to the field with the Historical Society institution or a museum. For others, it is a Governor’s Awards for History. Pierce and publisher, regulatory body, storage facility, Barbara McDowell of Sioux Falls and Ken- Board of Trustees academic foundation, private organization neth Wetz of Newell received the Individ- Brad Tennant, President or state agency. In fact, we are all those ual Award; the Charles Nolin Monument David A. Wolff, things. Our mission is to collect, preserve, Restoration/Revitalization Committee of Vice President interpret and promote the history of the peo- Sturgis collected the Organizational Award; John D. Fowler ple of South Dakota through archaeology, Melvin Fathke took home the Teacher of the Richard D. Harnois archives, historic preservation, the museum Year Award; and Margaret Preston of Sioux Jeffery A. Hazard and research and publishing. The society has Falls won the Herbert S. Schell Award for Robert E. Kolbe endeavored to care for South Dakota’s histo- best article in South Dakota History. The Laurie Langland ry since its founding in 1901. society also recognized the late Patricia Part of our ability to fulfill this multi- Adam of Pierre for her years of service as Jon Lauck faceted mission has been due to consistent board of trustees president and foundation Peggy Sanders leadership on the board of trustees. In 2018, board member with the Robinson Memori- Rolene R. Schliesman Governor Dennis Daugaard re-appointed al Award, the society’s highest honor. The Tom D. Tobin Jon Lauck of Sioux Falls and Francis White- archaeology office organized the confer- Francis Whitebird bird of Saint Francis, and society members ence, titled “Infinite Variety: Past, Present, re-elected Peggy Sanders of Oral and Ro- Future,” which focused on the diversity of Department lene R. Schliesman of Wilmot to three-year South Dakotans and our history. terms. Other trustees include President Brad The society is a division of the Depart- of Education Tennant, Vice President David A. Wolff, ment of Education. As a state agency, we Ben Jones, John D. Fowler, Richard D. Harnois, Jeffery have a budget of $5.7 million, consisting Interim Secretary A. Hazard, Robert Kolbe, Laurie Langland of 38.5% state general funds, 21% federal and Tom D. Tobin. funds and 40.5% other funds from sources Nevertheless, leadership does change, such as membership dues, other earned in- and after 42 years with the State Histori- come, like contracts and fees for services, cal Society, State Archaeologist Jim Haug and a small portion of the state tourism tax. retired in June. Senior Archaeologist Ter- In addition, the South Dakota Historical So- Administrative ri Bruce served as the interim leader until ciety Foundation raises money for programs Office: Renee Boen of Rapid City took over the and projects not funded through the state Cultural Heritage Center position in October. Boen was also a senior budget. Public and private support are essen- 900 Governors Drive archaeologist with the society but most re- tial for the efficient and effective operation Pierre, SD 57501-2217 cently worked with the U.S. Bureau of Rec- of the State Historical Society. Thank you (605) 773-3458 lamation as an area archaeologist. Sadly, for your continued support. history.sd.gov Archaeological Research Center ARCHAEOLOGY Staff During the past year, Archaeological Re- from the St. Louis District’s Mandatory Cen- Renee M. Boen, search Center staff conducted 52 pedestrian ter of Expertise for the Curation and Manage- State Archaeologist surveys and 16 evaluative testing projects to ment of Archaeological Collections complet- Matthew Busch determine the eligibility of various sites for the ed a facility assessment of 13 repositories in National Register of Historic Places. The State preparation for their study on collection re- Dan Byrne Historic Preservation Office sponsored two gionalization efforts. They concluded that the Michael Fosha grant projects to determine the possibility of Archaeological Research Center curates the Katie Lamie adding sites to the National Register. With the largest volume of Corps of Engineers material Aaron Mayer help of tribal entities, we completed Phase I of in the nation. Their forthcoming recommenda- the process to establish criteria for evaluating tions could help frame future collection reha- Cassie Vogt stone circles for consideration and began an bilitation projects and funding efforts. Jane Watts additional submission for bison kill sites. In November, center staff, along with a rep- Dave Williams The center completed a total of 78 pedes- resentative of the State Historic Preservation Roger Williams trian survey reports and an additional 109 Office, conducted a Native American Graves record search reports that did not require pe- Protection and Repatriation Act consultation destrian surveys. Curation staff finalized the for human remains from two sites in Mar- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documentation shall County. Participants from South Dakota project and is nearing the end of the Stoeser tribes included the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, site project for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe and We also started a cultural and paleontological Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as well as the San- curation project for the Bureau of Reclamation tee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska and Spirit Lake while leading additional projects for the South Mni Wakan Oyate of North Dakota. Repatria- Dakota Department of Transportation, Game, tion processing continues into the new year for Fish and Parks, and private companies. these remains. A leadership team from the Corps of En- Over the year, the center’s staff record- gineers visited the Archaeological Research ed 745 new locations and revisited 858 sites, Center in August to learn more about the facil- which were documented with updated site ity and its collections. In addition to Colonel forms. We received and added to the library John L. Hudson, Omaha District Commander, a total of 447 new cultural resource reports the team comprised various officials, includ- and completed 409 record searches in 2018. ing tribal and cultural resource liaisons. The In outreach, we also worked with the Center many functions of the center, and the reposi- for American Paleolithic Research and Hot tory and collections management program in Springs Mammoth Site on a mammoth site in particular, impressed the visitors. In Septem- Jackson County. ber, Andrea Gregory and Molly McMurphy History Notes is published three times yearly by the South Dakota State Historical Society. History Notes is available upon demand on audio tape and large print. Other forms will be considered upon request. Printed on recycled paper. Printing costs available Staff Archaeologist Cassie Vogt conducts shovel test excavations at the upon request. Minneconjou Recreation Area in May. State Archives Archives Staff The State Archives welcomed two new staff The State Archives received a third round Chelle Somsen, members in 2018, archives associate Steve of a National Endowment for the Human- State Archivist Mayer and digital archivist Nicole Hosette. ities grant in September for digitizing historic Sara Casper Mayer oversees the Special Projects Program, newspapers. The funding will allow an addi- which offers microfilming and data entry ser- tional one hundred rolls of microfilmed news- Virginia Hanson vices at the South Dakota Women’s Prison papers to be digitized and placed on the Chron- Nicole Hosette in Pierre and will soon expand to offer digi- icling America website by August 2020. The Sarah Kirchman tization. Hosette is responsible for processing previous round aided in preparing titles such as Steve Mayer and managing electronic records. With an in- the Madison Daily Leader, 1890–1922; Ogla- creasing number of collections being donat- la Light of Pine Ridge, 1905–1920; and Phil- Cherri Reed ed in electronic format, having a staff person ip Weekly Review, 1907–1912, for addition to Matthew Reitzel dedicated solely to their processing is a leap Chronicling America this winter. Kimberly Smith forward for the archives. Ken Stewart The archives reached 1,367 people this year through site visits, tours, presentations and consultations. Staff gave 34 presentations across the state on topics related to preser- vation, online resources and genealogical research. To in- crease public outreach, we also organized two History Trivia Nights in April and October at the St. Charles Lounge in Pierre. Teams of four contes- tants each competed to answer questions about South Dakota and United States history cor- rectly. Other outreach activities included a World War I display in the Cultural Heritage Center lobby featuring the names of military personnel killed in the year 1918 and those who died from war-related ailments be- tween 1919 and 1922; a display case in the archives research room containing woman suf- frage items; and two exhibits featuring pictures of Scotty Philip’s buffalo herd and World War I photographs in the cen- ter’s education room. Images from our collections also ap- peared weekly as a feature in the Pierre Capital Journal. This year, we added 3,172 images and maps We held three events in October to cele- and 622 land survey records to the South Da- brate Archives Month, a nationwide effort to kota Digital Archives, making a total of 79,169 publicize the services and collections available items available online.