One of the states with the least amount of recognition, this large territory was added to the United States thanks to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1817, the first continuous American settlement, Fort Pierre, was established as a fur trading post. Unfortunately, it was not always a smooth ride for white settlers, as they often came up against the native Sioux tribes, and many disputes were started.

An interesting fact about the state is that it has two nicknames: Mount Rushmore State and the Coyote State. The second nickname comes from the fact that the state animal is the coyote. The first, obviously, is due to South Dakota being home to the gigantic manmade statue, Mount Rushmore.

In 1889, the territory was fully inducted into the nation as a state, along with its northern neighbor, North Dakota. While they were granted statehood at the same time, no one really knows which state was inducted first, thanks to President Harrison, who simply scrambled the papers to make it random.

The state has 66 counties, five of which are entirely within Indian reservations. Two of these counties do not have their own county seat: Todd County and Oglala Lakota County. Instead, their administrative centers are located in adjacent counties.

The state government of South Dakota is styled after the Federal government, with the three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. True settlement of the state did not begin until well after the Civil War, in 1873, and thusly the state government was set up then as well.

As for the Supreme Court of South Dakota, there is one chief justice and four justices, two of which are women as of 2015. All of these justices serve four year terms.

Offender Search Web Page

The purpose and specifics of the Offender Search Web Page in each state varies. Read the disclosures carefully. Updates to the database could be biweekly, monthly and daily depending on the states Corrections Department schedule. Some searches show offenders incarcerated in the entire prison system including county jails and some only state prisons. Sometimes historical offender data is available and sometimes only current inmate records are listed. Youth and adult offenders are sometimes located on separate search portals.

State Offender Search: https://doc.sd.gov/adult/lookup/

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