Badlands, South Dakota

Badlands are defined as a type of dry terrain where where softer sedimentary rocks have been extensively eroded.

Badlands Buttes

The Badlands National Park consists of hundreds of thousands of acres  in South Dakota characterized by prairie grasslands and eroded buttes and geological deposits which contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds.

The National Park consists of over 200 000 acres of prairie and geological erosion.

Native American Indians (the Great Sioux  in the more recent era) have long inhabited this area.  It was here that the Sioux prophet, Wovoka called on his followers to dance the Ghost Dance and wear Ghost Shirts which were supposed to be impervious to bullets.  The Wounded Knee Massacre proved this flawed and was the last major clash between plains Indians and the US Military until the 1970s.