I have long been grateful that I was born and grew up in the State of South Dakota.  There is something quiet, and unassuming about the state, and the people there. It is a beautiful state, with an unbelievable variety of topography, from desert-style buttes in the northwest, to the mountains of the Black Hills and, of course, the world famous Mount Rushmore, to the Badlands, the open ranges of the western state, the plains and gentle rolling hills of the agricultural east. The people, too, are diverse, from the Lakota Nation which is indigenous to the state, and from whom I learned that … [Read more...]