The Dakotas
South Dakota and North Dakota, two northern plains states in these United States, but they are not as plain as you might assume.
Once part of the mighty Dakota Territory, one of the last areas of the country Americans settled, they split up, and today there is a mild rivalry between the two.
People get them mixed up, although in this video I’m going to explain how they are quite different, despite sharing part of a name.
But first, what do they have in common? Well, other than being irregularly-shaped rectangles.
Both are about the same size, although South Dakota is a bit bigger.
There’s also not a big difference between the population of the two states, although South Dakota has more people.
Historically, their populations have rarely been far apart, with North Dakota’s population even surpassing South Dakota’s a few times.
Currently, North Dakota is growing at a faster rate.
Both don’t have a metro area that even gets near half a million people, which is why Minneapolis-St. Paul is pretty influential over both.
Both states are considered part of the Midwest.
Most of the two states are made up of mostly prairie, part of what’s known as The Great Plains.
Both have mostly continental climates, and generally the further west you go in each state, the drier it gets.
While both have four seasons, both have fairly mild summers and long, extremely cold winters.
North Dakota does get a little colder in the winter being further north.
The Missouri River is the major river that runs through both states.
Both are about as far from the ocean as you can get.
West of the Missouri River in both states, the land becomes much more rugged, with badlands and buttes.
Wait, did I say butts? I meant buttes.
Both are mostly rural states with lots of agriculture.
Residents of both states are younger, on average, than most of the country. (36.8 SD, 35 ND).
Residents of both also tend to be Christian. 77% in North Dakota and 79% in South Dakota identify as such.
And most residents in both are of European descent. The largest ethnic group minority in both states today is American Indian.
Both states lean conservative politically, and reliably have voted for the Republican Party since the 1960s.
So how about those differences? Well, first of all, North Dakota borders a foreign country. Canada, eh?
Speaking of Canada, North Dakota residents have an accent that is more similar to their northern neighbor or eastern neighbor of Minnesota that seems distinct from those living in South Dakota.
Eh, that’s what I’ve noticed anyway.
South Dakota has more thunderstorms and tornadoes.
South Dakota has two national parks. North Dakota one.
Both have different histories.
Of course, humans lived in what would become the two states for thousands of years.
There was the Mandan people and later the Dakota people, which is where the name of the two states comes from.
By the time the French La Vérendrye brothers explored the region in 1743, the Great Sioux Nation controlled much of the area.
Other American Indian peoples came and went in the region as well.
After the French lost their claims to the area, most of it came under the control of the Spanish in what was known as Spanish Louisiana.
Then the French controlled it and sold it to the United States, of course. It was famously known as the Louisiana Purchase.
The next year, the Lewis and Clark expedition followed the Missouri River through the region, but for decades, the area was sparsely settled by the United States.
It wasn’t until Congress created Dakota Territory, which included parts of present-day Montana and Wyoming, when Americans from back east began to move out there.
Part of the lack of settlement was the isolation, part of it was fear of American Indian attacks since there would inevitably be conflicts over land use, and part of it was the fact the railroad wasn’t out there yet.
The railroad being built throughout Dakota Territory and the Homestead Act are both what finally brought thousands of both Americans and western and northern European immigrants to settle there.
In 1874, someone discovered gold in the Black Hills.
However, the Lakota, who had control over the Black Hills, declined to let Americans mine them, as they viewed them as sacred land.
However, a military expedition led by the infamous George Custer, as well as other miners and explorers, straight up ignored the Lakota, illegally trespassing on their land to get to the gold.
A war broke out, and long story short, the Lakota lost the Black Hills and the American government placed them onto reservations away from their sacred land.
Still, most of the American settlers ended up in the southeastern portion of Dakota Territory.
The southern portion of Dakota had 98,000 residents by 1880, whereas the northern portion just had 37,000.
The southern settlers viewed the northern settlers with hostility from the earliest days, but especially after the northern settlers got Bismarck to be the territorial capital, far away from where most of them lived.
In 1889, residents decided they wanted to be admitted to the United States as two separate states.
They even fought over the Dakota name, since it had become sort of a brand.
With both sides being stubborn, they decided to go with the North and South before Dakota.
On November 2, President Benjamin Harrison signed the documents admitting both, but it was unclear who was admitted first since he shuffled the papers.
Today, the reason why North Dakota is considered the 39th state and South Dakota the 40th is simply because North comes before South alphabetically.
Since the early 1900s, agriculture has declined in both states, but the economies of both have diversified to make up for that.
Today, North Dakota makes a lot more money than South Dakota. Its GDP per capita is currently 6th in the country. South Dakota’s is 23rd.
Much of that money North Dakota makes is from oil.
In fact, in recent decades there has been an oil boom due to the rise of fracking in the western part of the state.
Due to this, North Dakota has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, although South Dakota also currently has a low unemployment rate.
According to Forbes magazine, South Dakota is a better state for business.
Related to this, South Dakota residents pay less taxes than North Dakota residents.
Overall, the main industries in South Dakota are healthcare, retail, and manufacturing.
In North Dakota, healthcare and retail as well, but also education.
Believe it or not, North Dakota has the highest structure in the Western hemisphere and fourth-highest in the world, the KVLY-TV mast, which yes, is a giant TV tower.
The poverty rate is lower in North Dakota (10.3%-13%).
However, crime is a little lower in South Dakota. More North Dakota residents have college degrees.
And the cost of living is generally higher in North Dakota.
South Dakota is better known for its tourist attractions.
It has Mount Rushmore, for crying out loud, which are in the Black Hills, which has a ton of other attractions like Custer State Park and Crazy Horse Memorial.
Wait, Black Hills? More like mountains. Yep, the Black Hills are actually an isolated range of small mountains, almost like the Rocky Mountains coughed them up and they landed in western South Dakota.
North Dakota ain’t got no mountains.
Oh, and I just gotta mention that South Dakota has Wall Drug, one of the happiest places on earth, as well as the World’s Only Corn Palace.
But North Dakota does have a giant turtle made out of wheel rims.
One interesting difference between the two states is regarding the fans of NFL teams. The most popular NFL team in nearly all of North Dakota is the Minnesota Vikings.
They tend to like the Vikings in eastern South Dakota, but most in western South Dakota are Denver Broncos fans.
Remember how at the beginning of the video I said there was a mild rivalry?
Well I’d say a big part of that comes from the football rivalry between the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the University of South Dakota Coyotes.
The two teams have played each other almost every year since 1903.
North Dakota has 61 wins in the all-time series, South Dakota just 30.
Really, there is just as much if not more of a rivalry within South Dakota, between what’s known as the East River region and West River region, both regions named after the Missouri River that splits the two.
The East River and West River talk trash all the time, and actually are pretty different in several ways.
East River has smaller farms with an emphasis in farming corn and wheat and raising pigs and chickens, whereas West River is all about dryland farming, ranching, and tourism.
Many of the earliest Americans to settle East River were homesteaders, while many of the earliest Americans to settle West River were miners.
West River is where Badlands National Park and the Black Hills are.
There’s also a MUCH larger American Indian presence there.
There’s better soil in the East and more rainfall, and-
Orange: What the heck are you doing Mr. Beat? Mr. Beat: What?
Orange: You’re going off on a tangent, man. Stay focused. This is a video comparing South Dakota to North Dakota, not East River and West River.
Mr. Beat: Oh yeah. I’m sorry. I guess I’ll have to make another video about that.
Anyway, I guess where I was going with all that is that some people have called for the Dakotas to reunite. Really!
There’s a petition online right now asking the United States government to merge both states into one called Megakota.
It has over 19,000 signatures so far.
So I don’t think the two states are reuniting any time soon.
However, there is no doubt that today that the two states get along just fine, despite their differences.
And yeah, about those differences... again based on all my research I’d argue the two northern plains states have more differences than stuff in common.
So stop getting them mixed up, alright?
Oh hey I'm Mr.Beat.
Thanks for watching this video. I have a whole series about comparing places
like this one, so check out the whole playlist.
I've put it below. Also I have a
shirt, that you can, um, buy
and the link is below as well.
Which two places should I compare next?
What did I get right? What did I get wrong?
All that stuff. I got a lot of requests for North Dakota and South Dakota, man.
So I'm glad I finally got to it.
And I'll be doing a few more Comparison videos this summer, so stay tuned. Thanks for watching.