Image via WikipediaIf you have never visited South Dakota, you're in for a surprise. The state is split in two by the Missouri River. The land east of the Missouri is called "East River", the land to the west is "West River".When people think of South Dakota, many picture the flat farmlands of east river. West river is completely different - the prairie starts to roll, the sky opens up to fill the horizon in every direction until you finally reach the Badlands and Black Hills region on the western edge of the state.
This is bison country, the home of the Lakota Sioux people who were the original hunters of the majestic American Bison. In the late 1800s these animals were hunted nearly to extinction by settlers who would kill an animal and take only the tongue to sell as gourmet food to easterners, leaving the corpses to rot under the prairie sky.
American bison were reintroduced to western South Dakota in the early part of the 20th century. Bison are making a comeback today with free-roaming herds such as you can see at Custer Sate Park or Wind Cave National Park or on private ranches such as 777 Ranch or privately and tribally owned herds of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations.
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