South Dakota
Billy Mills portrait donated to South Dakota State Historical Society
PIERRE, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A North Dakota photographer presented the South Dakota State Historical Society with an image of Oglala Lakota Olympian Billy Mills at the society’s most recent conference.
Shane Balkowitsch of Bismarck presented the historical society with a wet plate collodion image he had created of Mills.
Mills won a gold medal in the 10,000-meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. According to the society, Balkowitsch recently had Mills in his Bismarck studio to make several of the images.
“Billy Mills is a national hero for his effort at the Tokyo Games in 1964. He remains an inspiration to many young athletes around the world as they chase their dreams. It was important for me to immortalize this man in the historic wet plate process and equally as important to find a formal archive to have the history preserved,” said Balkowitsch.
Balkowitsch performed a demonstration of the wet plate process at the history conference.
“Mr. Mills came from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and his performance changed the world. It was a given that one of the original plates would be entrusted to the South Dakota State Historical Society. In their careful and skilled hands, this plate will be preserved, and his legacy remembered for generations to come,” said Balkowitsch.
Balkowitsch has donated over 30 plates to the South Dakota State Historical Society. Most of the images are of Native Americans from South Dakota as part of his photographic project, “Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective.”
Copyright 2024 KSFY. All rights reserved.
South Dakota
Republican businessman Toby Doeden advances to primary runoff in South Dakota governor’s race
Republican businessman Toby Doeden has advanced to a runoff in South Dakota governor’s race, NBC News projects.
Gov. Larry Rhoden, who replaced Kristi Noem last year when President Donald Trump nominated her to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was battling with Rep. Dusty Johnson and former state House Speaker Jon Hansen for a second spot in the July 28 runoff. The primary will go to a runoff because no candidate eclipsed 35% of the vote.
Trump did not issue an endorsement in the race. Doeden branded himself on his campaign website as “a total political outsider who’s tired of the government’s failure to deliver on its promises” and one of Trump’s “fiercest supporters.”
Rhoden, a former lieutenant governor, agriculture secretary and lawmaker, campaigned on property tax cuts and lowering crime in his bid for a four-year term.
Johnson is the state’s lone representative in the House, where he previously was chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus. Hansen, who was elected to the South Dakota House in 2010, held several leadership positions before he became speaker.
The Republican nominee will be the favorite to win the general election in the solidly red state this fall. A Democrat has not served as governor in South Dakota since the 1970s, and Trump carried the state by 29 points in 2024.
News
Agronomist: eastern South Dakota crops hit and miss
An agronomist in eastern South Dakota says corn and soybeans are hit and miss as the growing season begins.
Steven Zemlicka with AgTegra Cooperative tells Brownfield, “We’ve got corn anywhere from V1 all the way up to V4. Biggest stuff’s maybe touching V5. Corn’s coming right along, looks pretty good. A little bit of hail here too, but I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue. Stands for the most part are pretty good, pretty solid.”
Zemlicka says soybean emergence has been slow due to the wet, cool conditions, and there are a few fields that still need planted.
“People were still working on planting soybeans when we got the recent rain.”
He says recent rain totals ranged from a half inch to as much as four inches in the northeast part of South Dakota; the southern part of the state has been drier.
South Dakota’s corn is rated 61 percent good to excellent, with soybean conditions rated 57 percent good to excellent, according to USDA’s first condition ratings of the season.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The South Dakota Community Foundation is encouraging nonprofits to apply for funding this June.
Beth Massa and Ginger Niemann joined us live with what you need to know before applying.
Watch the full interview above.
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Copyright 2026 KOTA. All rights reserved.
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