Power in the pasture: energy and the history of ranching in western South Dakota

Abstract

Transitions in the use of energy transformed the landscape, labor, and domestic life of cattle ranching in western South Dakota from the late-nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth centuries. The introduction of new energy sources to the Black Hills spurred the expansion of European Americans into the region, while helping to displace native peoples like the Lakotas. Changing energy use also intensified ranch labor in the pastures and in the household, drawing individual ranches into new connections with their surroundings. Examining cattle ranching through the lens of energy provides new insights into the momentum of energetic systems in societies, affording historians a way to understand past energy use as they consider present and future environmental concerns.