Opinion

I’ve now been Governor of South Dakota for about 2 weeks. We finally have bills reaching my desk. I just signed my first bill as Governor, Senate Bill 7, which bans Sanctuary Cities in South Dakota.

District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Education, Health & Human Services Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

The elimination of birthing services at Winner Regional Health hospital on February 1, 2025, will force dozens of expectant mothers in a wide swath of south-central South Dakota to drive one to two hours on rural highways to give birth under the care of a doctor.

Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committees: Chair Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chair Government Operations and Audit, Vice-Chair House State Affairs, Member of House and Joint Legislative Procedure Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

Senator Mykala Voita District 21 Aurora, Charles Mix, Douglas, Gregory, Tripp Counties Committee: Appropriations Capitol Address: 500 E. Capitol Ave.

In the last half of the 1800’s, Governor Jayne appointed the following agents to take a census of the territory which would be used in the apportionment of the representation in the Dakota Territory first legislative assembly:

While Ya n k t o n was the first point occupied by a permanent settlement of whites on the Missouri slope in Dakota, the country opposite Fort Randall contained a number of white men, not soldiers, who had probably come as civilian employes with the Harney expedition in 1855. They located in that vicinity by 1857, for the purpose of sharing in the wood and hay contracts that were annually given out by the army at Fort Randall. They were also engaged in the hauling of supplies for the government.

DITOR Dear Editor, Throughout his 2020 presidential election campaign Donald Trump repeatedly said, without any evidence to support it, that countries all over the world were opening their prisons and sending violent criminals to invade the United States as illegal immigrants.

In 1925, a group of leaders had a vision. They wanted to create something in South Dakota so grand it would draw visitors from all over the world. And they were successful! This year, we celebrate 100 years of the establishment of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, an attraction so grand it brings millions of visitors to our state each year.

There were few towns and post offices in the Dakota Territory in 1870. The number had made a small increase in ten years. A traveler coming into the territory from Sioux City and crossing the Big Sioux River on the Government Bridge would journey a distance of twenty miles to Elk Point before reaching a town, though a post office had been established at Jefferson, eight miles east of the Point, on the stage road.