- [Narrator] This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

(faint piano music) - [Larry] From the start, Flandreau has been the hub of cultural fusion, burial mounds and ancient artifacts establish that Native Americans have lived in this area for thousands of years.

French trappers first mapped the area in 1683 and 20 years later, established a trading post near the first town site.

But it wasn't until the mid-1800s that the Dakota Land Company plotted the land for development.

Then, in 1869, the roots of the community were planted when a group of Santee Dakota families, displaced during the 1862 uprising, migrated from Santee, Nebraska, to the area that they called River Bend.

Today, we say, welcome to Dakota life and greetings from Flandreau.

(upbeat piano music) - [Narrator] This program is made possible with your support and with a gift from Royal River Casino and Hotel in Flandreau.

- For centuries if not more, the Big Bend of the Sioux River has drawn people from all around the Prairie Coteau and across the continent.

The town's namesake was Charles Flandreau, an Indian agent and a territorial judge.

Santee families built the first Presbyterian Church in 1873 and it's the oldest continuously operating church in South Dakota.

Coming up, we're gonna learn more about Flandreau's parallel histories of Native American and white settlement, as well as an even more diverse population today.

We're gonna visit a classroom where young native students are learning about drone photography, and we'll scour the Rimrock above Spearfish Canyon in search of natural arches.

Our first stop is at the Deadwood Rodeo Grounds, where the near forgotten tradition of live music of the rodeo lives on, thanks to the Flandreau-based band, The Barn Flies.

- [Announcer] Here is a horse that, so far, in 2021, has not been successfully ridden.

That would say to me, an opportunity here to put some points on the board.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Saddle bronc events like this come with excitement built-in.

Will the cowboy stay on long enough to earn points or will he end up with his face planted in the arena dust?

While the audience ponders those questions, upbeat music accompanies the action.

Today, that rodeo-ready music is live and courtesy of The Barn Flies, a band based in Flandreau.

(upbeat country music) A fronting duo of Casey Wilson and his wife, Carlene Wild Wilson, along with basses, Thad Drietz, and drummer Eric Blissmer, play what amounts to background music during breaks and downtime in the rodeo action.

But when a bronc bursts out of the chute, The Barn Flies play the soundtrack for whatever is about to happen next.

They call it chase music.

(upbeat country music) - You kinda wanna start out kinda slow, and when the gates bang, you want everybody to get excited, and that's what you're trying to build that tension a little bit, and then if he falls off, you kind of do something that might be dissonant, that doesn't sound well.

(upbeat country music) - [Narrator] Wilson grew up in the Plankinton area and remembers when live music was one of the best parts of the rodeo experience.

- We had a local band where I grew up, Kyle Evans and the Company Cowboys, and they were family friends of ours too, and their kids rodeoed with us, and so they played at all the local rodeos around there, and that's my earliest musical memories is listening to those guys.

And so, yeah, 30 years ago, a lot of bands played at the rodeos rather than having prerecorded music or streamed music like they do now.

- [Narrator] As to why live bands aren't the norm at rodeos these days.

- [Wilson] Well, I think that was the easiest thing to cut out for expenses for these rodeo committees and just hire somebody to run sound, you know, prerecorded music, and so they've kind of gotten away from it.

- [Narrator] Wilson knows how to play at a rodeo because he knows rodeo.

- So grew up from a rodeo family.

My brothers, my mom's side of the family, is from the scenic South Dakota area, south of Wall and the Badlands area, and they're all rodeo people.

So I grew up going to rodeos.

That's all we knew.

- [Narrator] Casey Wilson rodeoed through college at Black Hills State University, before going pro, as a pro he traveled a circuit that took him all over the country for about 15 years.

- Probably longer than I should have been (laughs).

- [Narrator] Wilson's laugh hints at something he learned about the life of a professional cowboy, it demands a lot.

- That was my sole focus in life is roping, mostly, team roping is what I did, and got divorced and it was hard to go rodeoing with my kids and have them every other weekend and have them the time I did, so I kind of hung that up and picked up my guitar, and that's what I, what I do now, you know.

♪ Ended up ♪ ♪ With a few dollars saved ♪ ♪ Praying for luck this just won't go away ♪ - [Narrator] The cowboy might be out of the rodeo, but the rodeo is definitely not out of the cowboy.

Wilson and the other members of the barn flies have other jobs, but the band stays busy on the weekends, playing bars, county fairs, and other events.

To learn more about the band check out their page at Facebook.com/thebarnflies.

- In 1989, as part of the State Centennial, local artist Dorothy Lyford created a series of murals, celebrating Flandreau's cultural heritage.

Each panel is a montage that represents a 20 year time span of an agricultural community with a diverse population.

- It was part of the lasting legacy projects that the state encouraged each community to undertake, and indeed, these turned out to be a lasting legacy for Flandreau.

- [Larry] Bill Ellingson researches and writes about local history.

The story of Flandreau is depicted from 1869 to 1989.

The first panel sets the stage for a community of Native American and white families, for the most part, living and working side by side.

- It depicts right from the outset of the settlement of this community, the interaction between the Native American residents and the non-Native American residents, Europeans who settled in the area.

And that panel of those two girls playing along the banks of the Big Sioux River, which is a big part of the background of the community, yeah, that says so much.

- Roxie Johnson is a former member of the Santee Sioux Tribal Council, and chair of the Moody County Historical Society.

Her ancestors were displaced to Nebraska in the late 1860s and eventually came to Flandreau and she says the Santee Sioux heritage is quite different from other tribes in the state.

- The difference between us, is when Jacob Eastman and them came up here, they decided, they became Christians down in Nebraska, when they came up here, they decided, "Okay, we're going to drop our native ways and we're going to live like the white man and we're gonna farm and we're gonna make this our home, and that's what they did, they came up here, so that was kind of their mindset.

They built the meeting house, which eventually turned into the First Presbyterian Church on the hill, which is still up there, and it's the oldest active church in South Dakota right now.

- [Larry] But there are individuals who stand out in Flandreau history.

- I had family, Dr. Charles Eastman, is a member of our tribe, and he was the first Native American doctor in the United States.

In fact, I read the other night in an article where it said Dr. Charles Eastman was supposed to be the smartest Native American man in the United States, and I had never read that before.

- Dr. Eastman was also instrumental in starting YMCAs around the country and contributed to some of the foundation of the Boy Scouts.

Bill Ellingson remembers Dr. Frederick Spafford.

- Now we had a great school named after Dr. Spafford after he passed away in the 20s, and everybody is generally familiar with the fact that he was a physician in our community for many years, but we were not all aware of how much he contributed to education statewide, not only served on a local school board, but he served on the South Dakota Board of Regents, for a number of years.

- [Larry] The Flandreau Indian School itself has helped shape the community.

- It's just a rich culture here that, when Flandreau Indian School kids come in, they come from seven different states.

They're here for nine months and they go home, that's always been, and back in the day, when the Indian school started, they had 600 kids, 300 boys, 300 girls.

That was a big contribution to this community.

- [Larry] Today that tribal contribution is an economic juggernaut, from the casino and industrial park and other land development.

There's strong support from the city administration and the Flandreau Development Corporation.

But even though economic goals for growth may be the same, there is a very distinct racial mix in Flandreau, native white Filipino and central American.

Roxie Johnson has experienced racial disparity firsthand in her lifetime, but she hopes the new Flandreau Friday project will help share cultures and promote understanding.

And she challenges everyone to learn the community's complete history.

- I'm willing to learn about yours, we were taught yours, so you should learn about ours, and learn the real history, not just what you think, what people think it is, 'cause we have a lot to contribute and we have contributed a lot, not only to this community, but to the whole state.

- [Larry] There is a lot of history to see in the bustling downtown Flandreau business district.

The historic St. Vincent Hotel is now an apartment complex.

John Dillinger and crew were probably the most infamous guests, using their stay to plan the robbery of the Security National Bank in Sioux falls.

We're inside the beloved Flandreau Bakery, that's been family run since 1930.

If you want to try they're locally famous Long John's, the word around Second Avenue is you better show up early.

The historic Crystal Theater was built in 1913, by the early 80s the reels had stopped spinning, and the theater was in disrepair.

The community donated time, money, and effort to restore it, right down to the original neon marquee.

Today, the Crystal hosts a wide range of live entertainment from children's theater productions to traveling acts.

The post office features a New Deal era painting, Wheat in the Shock by artist Matthew Ziegler, Harvey Dunn's iconic tribute to homesteaders, The First Furrow, and Elizabeth Jackson's portrait of native American matriarch, Granny Weston, are on display in the county resource center, but it's modern photography from a drone overhead that captures the imagination of Flandreau's youth today.

Garrie Kills-a-Hundred is a historic preservation officer for the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe.

He's also an educator who uses drone photography to broaden the horizons for young Native Americans.

- [Narrator] Garrie Kills-a-Hundred does a lot of his work with drones and ground penetrating radar.

The radar lets people see underground objects by sending electric pulses through the earth.

They can detect what's beneath the surface based on reflections from the electric waves.

Kills-a-Hundred has used the radar with First Presbyterian Church in Flandreau to look for any unmarked graves at the cemetery, then the church can put up a monument to mark the grave instead of leaving it lost underground.

Accurate locations also prevent the church from accidentally digging up a grave in the future.

Kills-a-Hundred is working with young tribal members to teach some of this technology.

He wants to educate kids, so they might pursue future careers.

- Because of the social pathologies that we have on the reservation, I think that the one way we have to address this is through as many different ways as we can, and science and technology is gonna be one of them.

- [Narrator] Kills-a-Hundred demonstrates his equipment to kids at Marty Indian School.

The pandemic put the brakes on these school demonstrations, but he plans to resume his school trips as a way to share his knowledge with students.

He's optimistic for the future.

- So helping other tribes will be a top priority too, just so that they can be exposed to this technology that we have here, and hopefully they can join in, and get a force going, an inter-tribal force, so that we can confront a lot of our problems and deal with some issues here.

- [Narrator] Kills-a-Hundred thinks this can open up potential careers to many Native Americans.

For example, once they become registered as a licensed drone pilot, they can work independently or for company.

And he says this opens up opportunities that could let people stay in South Dakota after receiving an education, instead of looking elsewhere for jobs.

- Trying to get companies and tribes and different entities to accept younger people to do these jobs that they do so effortlessly, that's what I'm hoping comes to, not just reservations, but everybody, I would like to see that done.

- [Narrator] Kills-a-Hundred says he is already seeing a spark amongst kids who are interested in science.

- My cousin Dwayne says that if you do something like that, you're following your spirit.

And I really do think that some of these young people are following their spirit because they're talking, they'll go to a class and then they'll talk about, "Well yeah, but in a few years, we can do this."

And they're already thinking about the future and how they can use this technology, what they can do, and it's all beneficial.

- [Narrator] Garrie Kills-a-Hundred is continuing his work with the church and community.

He hopes to expand his travel to include more schools.

He wants to give students a greater understanding of the benefits of science and technology.

- [Larry] The Bend in the Big Sioux River, can inspire the imagination of photographers and the hope of anglers alike.

The city dam and the site of the old flour mill, are popular fishing spots.

The dam helped power the mill in 1881, but hasn't served that purpose for many years.

The city hopes to replace the dam with a structure that will improve human safety and fish migration.

The Oxbow Wetlands Nature Trail takes you along the river and the wetlands, and the nearby Japanese Gardens Dance Pavilion, hosting dances since 1919, is one of the last original early 19th century dance halls, and it's under renovation.

Each fall visitors from around the nation enjoy Spearfish Canyon's fall colors.

They highlight the steep limestone cliffs and the cold trout-filled waters of Spearfish Creek, but not even all of the Spearfish locals are aware of the geological wonders that are hidden in the Rimrock, natural arches, as impressive as they are inaccessible.

We joined up with a local blogger to search for these elusive marvels.

- [Narrator] There are many reasons people visit and revisit Spearfish Canyon.

Some are obvious, but the canyon still holds secrets, shoddy fishing holes that nobody knows, gluttonously panoramic points of view, then hidden in the crevices among the cap rocks, far above the canyon bottoms, wind and water have sculpted wondrous forms inaccessible to most.

Your SDPB outdoors correspondent has long been a geo form fan, but only first heard about the Spearfish Canyon arches last winter, so I enlisted a colleague and started searching for them.

Sometimes in the snow, sometimes without much luck, we started with the Rim Rock Arch, which is visible from the main road through the canyon, standing atop a sheer cliff.

We found a faint trail with a steep slippery ascent.

Taking in the wide canyon views from within the arch is worth the climb, if you can make it safely.

We're not gonna offer step-by-step directions to the arches here, in part because getting to them, is an undertaking, and maybe those who search them out are more likely to take it seriously.

The Iron Creel Arch was easy enough, a quick steep climb above the Iron Creek Trail.

This arch is probably the most Instagrammable, due to its accessibility, and a flat walkable surface above the main arch.

My daughter conquered it while still in kindergarten.

Then we started searching for the elusive crown jewel of the Spearfish canyon arches, the Teapot Arch.

Stout but not short, the teapot is nestled in among a sandstone ridge that descends from Spearfish Peak.

After several tries, we had negotiated massive boulder fields, and near vertical declines.

We even found another small arch, which we'll refer to as No-Name Arch, but not the Teapot.

So we reached out to some locals for help.

- In my high school age, I did a lot of exploring in the Spearfish area, in Spearfish Canyon, and then as I got a little older, kind of into the college years, I came back each summer, and I didn't have much to do, so I'd be working a part-time job, and then I'd be out and exploring in the hills.

And that led me to starting a blog, just kind of detailing the adventures that we were on, and we did a lot of off the beaten path, looking for the unexplored areas.

I found out about the arches, in kind of a few different ways.

Initially I saw pictures of the Iron Creek Arch online, and then from there I have a friend who had been to many of them, and he started giving me tips and tricks, and some details and directions on how to find each of the arches.

No.

That's Rimrock.

So those first couple arches as you're coming up from the base of Spearfish Canyon especially, or coming down from Spearfish Mountain, the elevation change is rather significant, but you kind of grow used to it and more accustomed to it, and the more Spearfish Canyon adventures you have, it just kind of becomes a piece of the race, I guess.

Coming to Depot Arch, it took multiple tries, partially because it's a little bit longer and it's kind of hidden behind a different rock face, and so the first couple of tries, you come out really excited, all gun-ho, you're looking for it, you go through the hike pretty well, and then you come up a little short.

And then the third time was the charm for us, and once we actually came around the corner and came up to it, it was just, you kind a little awestruck and you're like, finally did it and made it to this cool location.

- [Narrator] Jake and his brother Owen finally got SDPB to Teapot Arch, then we set out to find what locals have dubbed The Needle's Eye of the Northern Hills.

Arches spark a sense of the supernatural, like staring through a portal into another dimension, even though they are a natural phenomenon.

- Limestone is the type of rock that we find caves in, all over Black Hills, and that rock is really soluble, so it interacts with water and CO2 in the air and creates an acid that basically dissolves it.

So that's how we get lot of our caves forming, and then this arch probably formed involving an interaction with water and rock.

And in general arches, once they get exposed, then you also have plants and animals that start to degrade and break down that rock, then you get freeze thaw, especially out here in the winter, when it snows, and then that melts, you get this freeze-thaw process.

You can also have wind that starts to erode the rock.

So there's a lot of different things that go to start to break down rock once it's exposed at the surface.

- [Narrator] In all, the SDPB team found our way to five arches along the canyon walls.

Four that were previously known and No-Name.

There are probably others known only to cliff swallows and turkey buzzards.

If rocks could feel, we're not sure if they would want to be discovered or not.

We hope this little love note to these hidden geological rock star, does set some questers questing.

We also hope that those who undertake the journey understand it won't be easy and that they bring with them a reverence for what nature has achieved here.

(serene instrumental music) - Flandreau is proud of its unique heritage and its diversity.

Over time, we learned to live together, but remember where we've come from.

History has exemplified here at the First Presbyterian Church is inescapable.

Joseph LaFramboise built a second trading post in 1822, and led a group of Santee Sioux here to try their hand at homesteading.

Some of those native pioneers lie in turn outside the church where their descendants still sing Dakota hymns from over a century ago.

With funds from the state and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, the small congregation was able to make major restorations and preserve the church and its historic character.

Today, Filipino, Latin American, and other communities add to the native white mix of Flandreau's founders, as you can see here at the new Flandreau Fridays, a celebration of culture.

the city and the Santee Tribe take a proactive approach to infrastructure and economic development, with a well-maintained park system, a waterpark, entertainment venues, community, youth, and senior centers.

When you visit this town on the River Bend, you may feel the presence of Helen Pettigrew and Lucy Columbus playing together on the riverbank, but you'll also see a community looking to the future.

(guitar being plucked) The new season of Dakota Life is underway, and we'll be traveling all around the state with stories from communities on both sides of the Big River.

Revisit stories from our Flandreau's stop, and other communities at sdpb.org/dakotalife.

Thanks for coming along with us.

I'm Larry Rohrer and for all of us at SDPB, thanks for watching.

(pleasant piano music)