Black Hills
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The Black Hills ( German Schwarze Berge, Paha Sapa Lakota ) are a mountain range in the western area of the U.S. state of South Dakota that extends to north-eastern Wyoming. The mountain chain is isolated in the Great Plains and has a differs from the surrounding flora and fauna. A subspecies of Junko occurs, for example only here and in the forests are coastal pines to find white spruces and pines Flexible. Due to the dense coniferous forests birds such as Clark's Nutcracker, Common Crossbill and Firecrest Indians are located here.
The extension lies between 43 ° 30 'and 45 ° north latitude and 103 ° and 105 ° west longitude. The chain is about 160 km long and up to 96 km wide. It is the continuation of light emanating from the Rocky Mountains Bighorn and Snow Mountains.
The base of the Black Hills is located in 760-900 m height. The highest point is Harney Peak with 2208 m. In the 19th century, significant gold deposits were discovered here, even lead, coal, iron, salt, oil and uranium occur in these areas.
History
The Black Hills are the Lakota Sioux as sacred mountains. In them play many of their myths and spiritual places in the mountains will be examined to date for religious activities. The Treaty of Fort Laramie, which the U.S. government and graduated in 1868 with the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians, the three nations, the Sioux were awarded Reserve and the Black Hills promised the Lakota as an exclusive hunting area. An illegal under the Treaty Expedition under George Armstrong Custer explored 1874, the Black Hills and found gold in the mountains. After the discovery of gold, the government sought the Lakota to move to an assignment of the mountain range, but without success. Prospectors invaded illegally into the area, it became a gold rush. Conflicts in the winter 1875/76 led to renewed use Custer and the 7th Cavalry Regiment and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. According to the final defeat of the Indians in the autumn of the same year 1877 the Great Sioux Reservation were smashed and the Lakota, the Black Hills withdrawn.
A process of Lakota from 1921 lasted until 1980, when the Supreme Court in the decision in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371 (1980 ) classified the action as expropriation and the Lakota $ 105 million as compensation zusprach. Although the Lakota Reserve is one of the poorest regions of the United States, the representation of the people took the payment is not in, but demands to today the return of the mountains. The funds had grown to 2007 by interest on over $ 750 million.
A bill of Senator Bill Bradley (D; NJ) from the mid-1980s did the Lakota award a round -sixth of the mountains, who had remained in federal ownership. He failed in advance of the formal procedure at different conceptions to the Lakota.
Tourism
The best known tourist attraction in the Black Hills are the four presidents' heads that were carved in Mount Rushmore National Memorial. A similar project, the Crazy Horse Memorial is a work in progress. Both projects incurred the displeasure of the Lakota on to defile them, but to them sacred Black Hills.
In the Black Hills continue to be the Custer State Park, where bighorn sheep have been successfully settled again and two cave systems paramount importance, the Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. In the region around these cave systems successfully Wapiti were also reintroduced, which had been temporarily wiped out by European settlers. The monolith Devils Tower National Monument is located in the northwest of the mountain. The parts of the mountains in Federal ownership are largely reported as Black Hills National Forest, a national forest.
The place Custer was the first gold mining town in the Black Hills. The town of Deadwood is the venue of the same TV series from HBO.
Sturgis is famous for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which is one of the biggest motorcycle events in the world with about half a million visitors.