South Dakota South Dakota South Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who compose a large portion of the population and historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the seventeenth largest by area, but the fifth smallest by population and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population
South Dakota State University FCS Division 1 stadiums. South Dakota State University has produced a number of the current members of South Dakota's state government and in Congress, including current Congresswoman Kristi Noem, who subsequently is the first-female Governor-elect of South Dakota, and current U.S. Senator Mike Rounds. Members of the South Dakota Supreme Court, current Chief Justice David Gilbertson and Associate Justice Mark Salter, attended the university for their undergraduate degrees. In the federal cabinet, Stephen Censky, current United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, and in federal foreign service, former Governor of South Dakota Dick Kneip served as United States Ambassador to Singapore.