History 605

How can we know what happened in the past? Historians use a wide variety of sources in order to answer that question. But how do we know what happened when there was no written language?

What prompts revolution and calamity? A sudden and sharp rise in grain prices, claims historian Scott Nelson, the UGA Athletics Association Professor of the Humanities at the University of Georgia. Nelson chatted with us about his book, Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World.

Today we talk to Joseph Daniels about how history and heritage will be used to commemorate and celebrate the nation's Semiquincentennial, or the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Daniels is the CEO of the America 250 Foundation charged with supporting the nation's celebration.

In this episode of History 605, I spoke with Roger Grant, a historian of the American railroad. Roger has had a long career teaching at Clemson University and has written several books. I spoke with him about his book, "Railroads and the American People," and his forthcoming essay on South Dakota's railroads with the Center for Western Studies. As Roger reminds us, "An idea is what an idea does,"...

In this episode we ask, "how can we represent and best commemorate the Rapid City Flood?" Troy Kilpatrick and Corey Christianson of Rapid City's Journey Museum and Learning Center talk with us about how they answered that question with their current exhibit.

Much of history is an attempt to understand culture, and language is a window to culture like nothing else. So how can we understand the immigrants on the Northern Plains if we don’t speak their language? In the late 19th century, Germans left Europe in massive numbers and thousands settled in what is now South Dakota. What kind of culture did they bring with them? What kind of culture was created...

The breaking of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty and the creation of several smaller reservations in western South Dakota is often thought to have been President Ulysses Grant’s intent. However, historian Mary Stockwell argues in her book that Grant attempted to pursue a different policy, which included citizenship for American Indians. But despite his wishes, he was unable to make that happen. Unders...

The guest this time is you and me. We thought we’d wrap up the first season of History 605 with a review of how far we’ve come since we launched the podcast last July.

Where did the first Americans come from? Language similarities has pointed toward a link between the Dakota and certain Asian people groups for over a century. But a new book by paleogeneticist Jennifer Raff shares the state of knowledge known and debated by current archeologists and anthropologists. Specifically that the peopling of the Americas happened earlier than previously thought and in a m...

In this episode of History 605, historian Kurt Kemper shares with us that today's "March Madness" is a product of the arguments between schools on the purpose of athletics, cheating scandals, racial tensions, and even fights over the dribble rule. Kemper's curiosity about how the University of South Dakota won the 1958 national championship started him down the path resulting in this book. Kemper'...

In this episode of History 605, Dr. Jones has a conversation with the accomplished historian of the Dakota Indian tribe, Gary Clayton Anderson. His most recent book is "Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, The Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History." Guided by over twenty years of research about the era and the people involved, Anderson seeks to overcome the bias of so many oth...

As we hear much about voting rights in the news, it's worth looking back at how women got the vote in the northern Plains. In this episode of History 605, we talk to historians Molly P. Rozum and Lori Ann Lahlum about their book, Equality at the Ballot Box. The book discusses how women's voting rights came about in North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. The fascinating people and complicated...

How did George S. Mickelson come from behind to become Governor of South Dakota? In this episode of History 605 we speak to Paul Wilson who worked on Mickelson's campaign staff for both the 1986 and 1990 campaigns for Governor. His use of short but effective commercials speaking to voters and focused campaigning in selected parts of the state won the election for Mickelson. Wilson also crafted the...

How did South Dakota's state Constitution come together? What is the state's basic law? How did South Dakota become the first state in the nation to enshrine the popular referendum and how often have the people used this power? In this episode of History 605, Dr. Jones discusses the state's constitution with the former South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson. His expertise in the...

In this episode, we speak with Historian Sean Flynn from Dakota Wesleyan University about his biography on Ben Reifel. How does a boy born into poverty on the Rosebud Reservation become a man who advocates for Indian education and an Indian policy that is, "Without Reservation"? I hope you'll join us for this discussion on how one South Dakota leader sought to manage the challenges of two differen...

Dakota Territory was settled by thousands of Civil War veterans. As Dr. Jones discusses with History 605 guest, USD Provost, and Professor Kurt Hackmer, those vets had a higher rate of combat experiences than the typical Civil War veteran. While the details are murky due to having no medical terminology at that time for conditions such as PTSD, many of those who experienced a great deal of combat...

With Veteran's Day in view, Dr. Jones speaks with filmmaker John Mollison about what he's learned about character from veteran aviators or, as he says, "old guys and their airplanes." John is the recipient of the SD Governor's Award for History and his documentary films of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans are made with K-12 audiences in mind. John has produced very effective "educator ki...

Special Edition: We’re pleased to have the exhibit, “No Child’s Play” come to Sioux Falls and Rapid City in the first two weeks of November 2021.

How did Laura Ingalls Wilder come to be one of the nation's best-selling children's writers? By failing to get her autobiography published. In today's episode, Dr. Jones speaks with editor Nancy Koupal on the new book Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts.

In this episode of History 605, Dr. Jones speaks with Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Historic Preservation Officer Dianne Desrosier. She shares the meaning and the history of the Wacipi, which is Dakota for "They all dance." Listen in to their discussion on the local meaning of what is commonly referred to with the Algonquian words, Pow Wow.

State historian Ben Jones talks with Dakota State University Professor Justin Blessinger about General William Henry Harrison Beadle. It's all part of the podcast project History 605.

How did Clarence Three Stars, a son of the Lakota warrior Yellow Knife, navigate the profound cultural transition from the 1860s to the 1920s?

History 605 host Dr. Ben Jones talks with author Jerome Greene about his book, All Guns Fired at One Time.

Votes for women passed in 1918, after failing several times before. But amidst a World War, a global pandemic, and anxious national discussions about immigrants, South Dakota's suffrage leaders changed their tactics and carried the day in a rapidly changing electoral environment. How did they pull it off? Gerry Boychuck shares the story with History 605 listeners. The South Dakota History issue is...

General Custer is one of the most written about people in American history. Author Sandy Barnard has spent many years researching his life, the US Army in the Plains Indian wars, and worked with the National Park Service on a number of projects about this history. He recently wrote a new biography and Dr. Jones was pleased to have this conversation about Custer's controversial life and what it mea...