Wounded Knee

The various reservations in SD (I am a resident) are very unfortunate places, which are not touristic in any sense. I've been thru Pine Ridge and Rosebud. I doubt I will return.

The rest of the Black Hills is quite nice. Hill City has a great fossil museum. The actual monument of Mt Rushmore is worth visiting, as is Crazy Horse. There are 2 caves. The Badlands park is again a great stop. Nearby stops include the Mammoth dig in Hot Springs, the Devil's Tower in WY, Custer's last stand in WY, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.

I agree with Paul. I grew up in SD (now live in MN). My parents took my brother and me to the Black Hills and Badlands every other year for a vacation when we were young. We never visited Wounded Knee. There is a reason. The reservations are just not someplace you go for tourism.

Mine is a slightly different take: If you know the history of what happened there then a visit to the cemetery where the mass grave from the 1890 massacre is located is "worth it", though as has been mentioned it isn't a tourist site but more of a pilgrimage destination. It's a very moving place - brought to mind our visit to the Doolough Memorial in Ireland.
The downside (and here our experience matched some of the reviews I scanned) is that the surrounding reservation is a truly sad place to visit. If you do go, be prepared to be accosted as soon as you step out of your car by some of the local layabouts asking for a "donation" - nothing particularly aggressive but it did detract somewhat from the experience of being on what many consider to be sacred ground.
If you've not been, the nearby Custer State Park is one of the nation's finest. The Wildlife Loop Road alone is wort the price of admission, and Sylvan Lake has to be one of the prettiest in the US.

Voting also that reservations are not tourist attractions - that goes for Idaho as well except for the big casinos where tourist are welcome.

I read some of the reviews and apparently there are some visitors who don't understand the reservation is part of a sovereign nation. I suspect the reviews are not tinged by misunderstanding, unfortunately.

Thanks for the specific experience information. I am going to the Rez for work so visiting Oglala is happening anyway, there’s no Black Hills component to the trip.

This will be my fifth SD reservation for work, the others were just fine. I’ve never experienced begging or being accosted. Generally quiet pride is a native characteristic and this kind of behavior would not fly. I would encourage anyone to visit reservation casinos and museums. Roads can be driven for scenery but don’t wander by foot. Because of feral dogs, running along the roads for a workout is never recommended. After visiting 70+ reservations my only bad Rez experiences have involved dogs.

It is my sense that native animosity towards non-natives peaks in central/western SD and the Standing Rock part of ND. In most of the country the relations are excellent and cooperative.

Tom, wondering what sort of work has you going to reservations so many times? Are you Native American?

There are a lot of possibilities for Rez work. A reservation is like any other local government. Lots of consulting possibilities, and now with the casinos many business ventures happening too. It’s not Billy Jack anymore.

I think that there are stereotypes out there regarding reservations. There are some places that might fit the stereotype exactly. There are others where it doesn't resemble the situation at all. Much like when people discuss the "typical American tourist."

I am really only familiar with the Pacific Northwest. I worked in a community on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho for 7 years. There was a great deal of pride in the heritage and history this tribe had. The modern tribe worked consistently with the surrounding communities for the good of all. I was able to ride the tribal bus to work and back each day (an hour each way) for a very nominal fee.

I then worked in the area that is the traditional lands of the S'Klallam people on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Once again, this tribe brought many, many benefits to the communities that surrounded it. When Covid vaccination first came out and was difficult to get an appointment for, they reached out and provided the local school teachers with immunizations no matter what the age. The teachers were extremely grateful! This tribe has invested heavily in the entertainment industry (hotel and casino) and welcomes visitors.

I have visited other reservations where the challenges for the population have been more extreme. The story of the US government's treatment of Native peoples in our history is not something to be proud of. The number of times it made agreements and subsequently broke them is heartbreaking.

Back to the original question: I think that the experience of Wounded Knee will depend on what your expectations are. Expecting a typical tourist site? Probably going to be disappointed. Wanting to see the location in the context of history and the impact on our history? Probably going to be more meaningful.

Adding: the twin occurrences of tribal casinos/hotels/concert venues and rural decline have joined to really turn things around for natives in much of the country. The reservation has become the main employer for the county in often bleak economic environments. Also adding that non-native casinos are legal in SD (also Montana) so this phenomenon is weaker, although the population density can be very low around some of these reservations.

I also received a covid vaccination from a tribal health service.

Custer's last stand in WY,

?

Do Montanan's know Wyoming has annexed part of their state?

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
756 Battlefield Tour Road
Crow Agency, MT 59022
https://www.nps.gov/libi/planyourvisit/directions.htm

We stopped in Wounded Knee quite some years ago when my children were young. We had come through Nebraska, through the town in which the tribal government was trying to close the liquor stores. This was in the news at the time. Then, into the reservation. As I remember, we stopped in Wounded Knee, maybe for hour, talked to some people, then drove north through the reservation, seeing the poverty. We then visited the Badlands Visitor Center that was run by the Sioux. All of this made a lasting impression. I am glad we made all of these stops.

I remember my son asked about the ghost dance at the Badlands Visitor Center and he didn’t get the answer he was expecting. We had an interesting conversation in the car afterwards. Yes, some of this was a little uncomfortable. But I think tourism is all about learning about someone else’s point of view and that can be uncomfortable.

I’m very glad we went.

I am really enjoying this discussion of what is in many ways an uncomfortable topic. I read Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee in 1971, and it haunted me for years. 25 years later, one of my nieces married a Muscogee who I consider a nephew, and their children are spectacular (no brag, just fact). Dee Brown graduated from George Washington University, and GW Magazine published this article.

https://archives.magazine.gwu.edu/legacy-bury-my-heart-wounded-knee

Well, my two days at Pine Ridge are over, and work never reached as far south as Wounded Knee so missed it. It's a huge Reservation.
Coworkers said it was hard to get much from a Wounded Knee visit due to the distraction of the touts and the lack of informative signage. I had already noted from reading about it that the massacre site itself has been paved over and is now under the main road.

A few comments:
I have seen worse poverty, this reservation at least visually wasn't too bad. Very little graffiti. I have even seen worse looking white rural communities. There's a new community called Thunder Valley that has jazzy new housing, looks like it's in Norway.

Pine Ridge (aka Oglala) has a majestic beauty to it. The north/east sides have badlands that merge into the national park, it's pretty. I expected the "other" side of the Badlands to be arid but it was actually lush. Lots of heathy crops being grown, apparently without irrigation. There's a myth floating that Indians always ended up with the worst land, but it isn't true.

Despite walking several waterways, I was never questioned. Sometime you get a lot of questions, which is fine, but in adjacent Rosebud it wasn't always friendly interactions for me. Waterways were very clean, almost no litter. There's a rez in NE Nebraska where the waterways look like garbage dumps.

I'm too far in the game to tell a tribe what they "should do," but if there's member interest there's quite a bit of tourism potential, from the paved tribal overlooks of the Badlands to some tribally owned resort/campground businesses, to a fixed up Wounded Knee, add a museum, some arts and craft stalls-- there's a potential "Lakota Loop" that could be made, there sure are a lot of tourists just to the north.

add a museum, some arts and craft stalls

There is a nice heritage center close to Pine Ridge that I have thought about going to. I'd like to visit Wounded Knee, but I think the reviews are accurate. With all the distractions, I think it would hard to get much out of the visit except frustration.

"the massacre site itself has been paved over and is now under the main road."
Not completely true. Just down the hill from the cemetery is a viewpoint from which you have a sweeping panorama of the little valley where the event took place. Though the road does cross part of the site there's plenty there to see that will give you a good perspective on the geography of the battle site.