Rapid City – Art on the Land

Rapid City – Art on the Land

As part of my Art on the Land series, I traveled across South Dakota exploring the landscapes where history, culture, and spirit converge. This journey traced the paths of early explorers, fur traders, and tribal leaders, connecting rivers, prairies, and sacred mountains that continue to hold deep meaning today.

Beginning in Rapid City, I walked through Founders Park where the city first took shape along Rapid Creek, and reflected at Sioux Park beneath Skyline Drive’s ridgeline. Heading east, I visited the Verendrye Tablet site — a 1743 marker left by French explorers claiming the region for King Louis XV — and the ruins of Fort Pierre Chouteau, once the largest fur trade post on the Upper Missouri. Nearby, on La Framboise Island, I traced the trails of early traders and Dakota scouts along the river.

In Pierre, the state capital, I explored how the Missouri River shaped settlement, then followed the water south to Fort Thompson and the Spirit of the Circle Monument, a place of remembrance for the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. At Crow Creek, I paid tribute at the gravesite of Chief Solomon Iron Nation, a Yanktonai leader who signed the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty and guided his people through great change.

Returning west, I visited Mount Rushmore — carved between 1927 and 1941 into the sacred Black Hills — before standing beneath the towering presence of Devils Tower (Mato Tipila) across the Wyoming line, revered by many Plains tribes as a site of prayer and origin. The journey concluded at Bear Butte (Mato Paha), a living ceremonial mountain where vision quests still take place, tying the past and present together through the language of the land.

These places, viewed together, reveal South Dakota as a living archive — where every ridge, river, and stone holds memory. Through painting and reflection, I sought to honor each site’s role in shaping the story of the plains.

© Justin Mattock — Art on the Land
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