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Soul Butter & Hog Wash

Rock Garden Tour, a South Dakota Public Radio show, is doing a barn tour called “Soul Butter and Hog Wash.” They taped at Governor Dennis Daugaard’s rural Dell Rapids barn earlier, and on August 29 they taped the show at the Bernie and Myrna Hunhoff barn north of Yankton near the little farming town of Utica.
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Fancy Dancers

Each Tuesday this summer, Rapid City’s Main Street Square and the Alliance of Tribal Tourism Advocates host the He Sapa Center for Performing Arts Northern Plains Art Market. The event includes American Indian artists, jewelry, dance and storytelling and continues through September 1. In July, young dancers from the Wanbli Ska Drum and Dance society performed traditional native dances. Photos by Joel Schwader.
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Hutchinson County Haven

The fertile fields of Hutchinson County became a haven for ethnic Germans fleeing Russia in the 1870s. They had lived there for years, enticed by Catherine the Great to transform the region around the Black Sea into Europe’s breadbasket. She offered freedom from military service, but when Czar Alexander II rescinded that promise in 1871, the pacifist Germans sought new land. Several thousand emigrated to southeastern Dakota Territory beginning in 1873. By the end of the decade, Germans had established farms up the James River Valley to the Menno and Freeman areas, where their descendants still work the land. Joel Schwader, of Rapid City, grew up in Freeman. He visited his hometown this summer and shared these photos from rural Hutchinson County.

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Crooks Rodeo

Crooks hosted its annual rodeo and Community Days May 30-31. Fans have flocked to the little town north of Sioux Falls for last 24 years to see events like barrel racing, steer wrestling, bull riding, team penning and calf roping. Over 70 people competed this year with prize money totaling over $16,000.

Crooks was originally called New Hope. A name change was made in 1904 to honor early settler D.O. Crooks, who acted as depot agent, bank president, waterworks and lighting plant owner, township board member, postmaster and school treasurer. Residents have suffered good-natured ribbing ever since. Photos by Kim Nelson, Vermillion.

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Ranching Peoria Flats

Colleen McCurrin shared photos from Peoria Flats north of Pierre. “My parents have ranched in this area since 1964 and my husband Lee and I are fortunate to live next door to my childhood home,” McCurrin says. “These photos were taken on Good Friday while riding with my brother, Casey, as he put out salt blocks in the calving pasture.”

McCurrin bought her first camera in 1984 while working for Miller’s Photo Studio in Pierre. She’s been interested in photography as a hobby ever since. She works as a truck broker for North Central Logistics.

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Lakota Nation Invitational

We sent a writer to the Lakota Nation Invitational Tournament (LNI) last weekend in Rapid City. We’ll have a major feature article on the LNI in the fall of 2015, but we thought we’d share some photographs of the big winter extravaganza that has been held for the past 38 years at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City. Photos by Bernie Hunhoff.