WPA Writers’ Program — American Guide Series2.0

“The South Dakota volume in The American Guide Series, prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration, represents a sincere attempt to describe briefly, faithfully, and as entertainingly as possible the varied background and contemporary life of the State.” So begins the preface, which is candid about the difficulty of the work. It had been no easy task for the small staff, engaged since the autumn of 1935, to gather information through research, interviews, and personal observation, and then to select without bias from a huge mass of material the significant and interesting facts relating to this comparatively new State — one of the last ten to enter the Union, and still one of the most sparsely settled. The book, its editors wrote, was frankly only a beginning, a spur to further research and interpretation of life in South Dakota.

South Dakota, the preface continues, is extremely conscious of its newness as a State, of the fact that it offers one of the few remaining opportunities to see pioneer life; and it is just as conscious of its great geologic age, vividly manifest in the Black Hills formations and the Badlands, one of the most picturesque and scientifically interesting eroded areas in the world. The three nicknames given the State — the Sunshine, the Blizzard, and the Coyote State — in a sense describe it. Its official name, Dakota, taken from the Sioux language and meaning ‘an alliance of friends,’ is equally characteristic, for the State believes in its motto, ‘Under God the People Rule.’ It was the first State to introduce the initiative and referendum in State affairs.

In his foreword, WPA administrator Harry L. Hopkins set the South Dakota guide within the national series, written by members of the Federal Writers’ Project and designed to give useful employment to needy writers and research workers while presenting to the American people a portrait of America — its history, folklore, scenery, cultural backgrounds, and social and economic trends. In one respect, he wrote, the undertaking was unique: it represented a far-flung effort at cooperative research and writing, drawing upon all the varied abilities of its personnel, with the final editing done by experienced authors in the central offices.

Publication was made possible when the State Legislature of 1937 set up a revolving fund under the supervision of the South Dakota Guide Commission. The Federal Writers of South Dakota, wrote State Director Lisle Reese, acknowledged with gratitude the help of the South Dakota Historical Society, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State College, the National Park Service, the United States Forestry Service, and the State Department of Agriculture. The volume opens with background essays — natural setting, Indians and Indian life, history, agriculture, education and religion, transportation, architecture, folklore, and recreation — then turns to nine cities, a chapter on the Black Hills, and fifteen mile-by-mile motor tours, closing with a bibliography and an index.