Old Trails and New Roads in South Dakota History (book)

Rhodes Professor of History at the University of Oxford Pekka Hämäläinen leads off this collection of new perspectives on South Dakota history with a stunning interpretation of Lakota power in the Northern Plains. With their mastery of the horse, the Lakota mounted “an expansive and constantly shapeshifting Indigenous regime that controlled human fates in the North American interior for generations,” writes Hämäläinen.

The essays that follow take up a variety of topics on South Dakota history:

• Borders, by Thomas D. Isern

• Railroads, by H. Roger Grant

• Weather, by Christopher R. Laingen

• West River Country, by John Henris

• Wildlife and Parks, by Frank Van Nuys

• Radical Tradition, by Jeffrey A. Johnson

• German-Language Press, by Samantha M. Litty

• Changing Foodways, by Sara Egge

• Sports, by Paul Higbee • Hunting and Fishing, by Lance Nixon

• American Indian Movement, by Carson Walker

• Movies, by Jon D. Schaff.

The collection is edited by Jon K. Lauck, whose most recent book is The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900.  Publication of Old Trails and New Roads in South Dakota History was made possible, in part, by a major gift from Jan Hovey and Reliabank.

Front cover: Tasunka Oyate-Horse Nation, 2022, by Donald F. Montileaux