Savage Words: We may just have an identity crisis in our part of the world

We’ve got an identity crisis, South Dakota.

Even though people have been moving here in droves in recent years, we’re still in this little obscure part of the country, and people have a hard time figuring out where we’re at, or who we are.

And maybe it’s not a crisis. I know a lot of South Dakotans who are quite happy with the size of our little state. They’re tired of people moving here, and the more obscure the better.

But the obscurity of our state was on full display again last week when North Dakota State won the FBS National Championship for the fifth time in the last eight years. 

People have a tough time distinguishing North Dakota from South Dakota. I guess you can give everyone a pass. After all, in November 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the law that made both North and South Dakota into states. Before he signed, he shuffled the papers on his desk and covered up the names of the papers. No one knows which state he signed into law first.

So, there’s that. But that was 136 years ago. You’d think we’ve made up some ground since then.

But apparently not. 

After the Bison won the championship last week, ESPN posted a victory note on their Facebook page. It was filled with multiple congratulatory messages, obviously. But it only took a few lines before the ignorance to start flowing from posters.

“I’m sick of this team always winning,” one person wrote. “That’s three in a row.”

Um, actually, South Dakota State won the previous two years, but I guess I get the confusion.

Not only are people geographically challenged when they hear “The Dakotas,” they also apparently can’t seem to figure out that people actually live here. When I traveled all over the country for work several years ago, people asked me where I was from, and they were always so fascinated when they got the answer.

I told them that Sioux Falls was a pretty traditional, midwestern city with a quarter million people bouncing around. They were always floored.

And it’s not just fans posting on Facebook that can make South Dakota mistakes. In 2022, ESPN’s Scott VanPelt referred to the Jackrabbits as San Diego State on SportsCenter. That happens all the time. It even happened to me once when I covered SDSU women’s basketball advancing to the NCAA basketball tournament for the Associated Press. An editor in New York changed it to San Diego State. I took some grief over that from the folks in Brookings. I explained to them later that an editor from a far-away land made the mistake in the editing process. Obviously, this dude from Sioux Falls knew the difference between South Dakota State and San Diego State.

One of the messages on last week’s ESPN post about North Dakota State winning the title struck me in particular.

“North Dakota State will never become part of the Mountain West Conference and the FBS,” it read in reference to some of the schools in our area making the jump to the largest class of college football. “It’s hard to convince top tier FBS talent to move to the Dakotas. They literally had to blow up a mountain to create a tourist attraction.”

I assume the poster was referring to Mount Rushmore, and I let them know it was in South Dakota, not North Dakota.

I chuckled at the “blowing up a mountain” reference, and then got a bigger kick out of the “not being able to recruit FBS talent” remark.

Since 1980, 14 players from South Dakota State have been drafted in the NFL. Nine were not from South Dakota. Over that time span, North Dakota State has had 22 players drafted. Only six were from the Dakotas.

And it’s not just South Dakota and North Dakota where the mistakes are made. Sioux Falls has an obvious built-in confusion when people reference their neighbor to the south, Sioux City. 

That one, I guess, is a little more understandable. Sioux Falls vs. Sioux City? Again, we’re in an obscure part of the country, and it happens all the time when people get the two confused.

At his visit to Sioux Falls during the 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders referred to Sioux Falls as Sioux City. President Barack Obama made the same mistake when he campaigned in Sioux Falls in 2008.

In 2016, I went with a buddy to see comedian David Cross at the District in Sioux Falls.

When he walked out to a large ovation, he smiled, raised his hands and yelled with a funky grin, “Helloooooo Sioux City.”

It was met with some groans.

“I bet you get that all the time, don’t you,” he said with his grin beaming even larger.

We do, funny man. We do.