Tom Brokaw
Born near Bristol, South Dakota, Tom Brokaw spent his childhood in several small towns in South Dakota. In high school, he took a job at a local radio station to earn extra money. After graduating from the University of South Dakota, he began a career in broadcasting and went on to anchor the top rated NBC Night News beginning in 1983. He was the first newscaster to interview Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev one-on-one, and he was the only TV anchor to report live from the scene as the Berlin Wall fell.
Sitting Bull
Known as Tatanka Iyotake among the Sioux Indians, he quickly became known for his fearlessness in battle. He became the leader of a Sioux warrior society and increased Sioux lands. However, the US Army continually invaded the Sioux territory, decreasing the Sioux's ability to hunt and support themselves. Around 1867, Sitting Bull became the first principal chief of the entire Sioux nation. He worked with the US Government to negotiate the Fort Laramie treaty, which promised that the Black Hills would remain in Sioux possession forever. However, in the mid-1870s, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and white prospectors flooded into the area. The US Government responded by ordering the Sioux onto reservations. The Sioux resisted, and realizing they would not be able to defeat the US Army alone, they allied with the Cheyenne and the Arapaho and defeated George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull and his followers retreated to Canada after this, but famine forced them to return and surrender. In 1885, Sitting Bull joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and traveled throughout the US. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police in 1890 when some of his followers tried to rescue him from being arrested.
Crazy Horse
Also known as Tashunca-uitco, Crazy Horse was a Lakota Indian and was known as a legendary warrior. Not only was he skillful and daring in battle, but he was fiercely determined to preserve his tribe's traditional way of life, and fought against American encroachment on Lakota land. When the War Department ordered all Lakota onto reservations in 1876, Crazy Horse led the resistance. Because he had married a woman from the Cheyenne tribe, he was able to organize a force of 1200 Oglala and Cheyenne and then joined forces with Sitting Bull to defeat Custer's Seventh Cavalry at Little Bighorn. While Sitting Bull retreated to Canada, Crazy Horse refused until he was finally forced to surrender and live on the reservation in 1877. Not yet 30 years old, he left the reservation without permission to take his sick wife to her parents, and was arrested and then killed by one of the arresting officers when he tried to resist.
Hubert H. Humphrey
Born in Wallace, South Dakota, Humphrey grew up in Doland, the son of a drugstore owner. In 1945, he was elected mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1948, he was a delegate to the 1948 Democratic national convention, and then was elected to the US Senate. In 1964, he was nominated for Vice President along with President Lyndon Johnson. In 1968, he ran for President against Richard Nixon and lost narrowly. Following this, he won election to the Senate again, and served in the Senate until his death of cancer.
Russell Means
Means was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near South Dakota's Black Hills, a member of the Oglala/Lakota tribe. In the late 1960, he became involved in the fight for American Indian rights, and became the first national director of the American Indian Movement (AIM). He continues his work on behalf of native people, and worked for over twelve years with the United Nations.