This is a land of pristine mountain lakes And deadly dry alkaline deserts It is a land of abundance and haunting scarcity This is a land whose thirst is fed by the mighty Missouri The meandering James And the Big Sioux This is a land born out of fire Forged by the forces of wind and water and time This is the land of the Dakota The Nakoda and the Lakota This is the land where eagles soar This is South Dakota [ Music ] [ Music ] On the Great Plains Grass is everything Everything that creeps or crawls or flies or drives a pickup owes its existence to grass [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] Nature in Dakota can indeed be an experience of the holy [ Music ] [ Music ] We cut plenty of teepee poles up along the creeks that came down the east side of the Black Hills and there was all we wanted to eat for The hills were like a big food pack for our people [ Music ] Coming from any direction the land changes before you have a chance to get ready for it You come around a turn intent on the ruggedness of the mountains and suddenly the pine trees rocks and fast running water are gone Below you though still 50 miles off off is the flattest smoothest most treeless stretch of land imaginable [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] There is something magical in the variety of impressions one gets from the sight of the prairies One never wearies of it [ Music ] [ Music ] The weather is so cold that we do not think it prudent to turn out to hunt in such cold weather Or at least until our constitutions are prepared to undergo this climate [ Music ] [ Music ] The flow of the land with its odd twists and buttes is like the flow of Gregorian chant that rises and falls beyond melody beyond reason or human expectation but perfectly [ Music ] the high plains the beginning of the desert west often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them like Jacob's angel The region requires that you wrestle with it before it bestows a blessing [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] I believe everyone has a sacred place a place where we can take a deep breath let our eyes ride the horizon [ Music ] this is reality The real West sturdily defying the shallow theories dreamed up by metropolitan thinkers in high rises People whose well shod feet and clean hands never touch earth or blood [ Music ]