How to stereotype a South Dakotan

I am a South Dakotan through and through. I was born in Pierre and moved to Sioux Falls when I was two. My mom went to law school with Tim Johnson and my parents’ insurance agent used to be Governor Mike Rounds. Also, I have seen every SD tourist trap from the Terry Redlin Museum to Al’s Oasis. But even with all of this South Dakota experience, I still have not found the distinguishable mark that makes someone from SD truly unique from other states.

I have thought about this for quite some time, and for some reason, I don’t think SD possesses any truly unique regional qualities. In Minnesota, they have a slight accent where they elongate the o’s and say things like, “You betcha.” Wisconsin is similar, and they use words like “bubbler” to refer to a drinking fountain and “time machine” for an ATM.

I can’t think of any accent or phrases that South Dakotans possess to make them uniquely “South Dakotan.” My friends from different places can be identified by strangers, but I have never been associated properly with my home-state. One of my roommates and I went to the same high school and it often surprises others to find out we are from the same city, not to mention the same state.

About the only thing that I am usually victim to when confirming where I’m from is that people know almost nothing about the Bob Barker state. Most can barely name the capital, and if they do say it, they usually add the fruity French accent. When people find out I’m from Sioux Falls, they ask where in Iowa that is. My mother once told me about a lawyer from New York who was concerned about his client moving to Sioux Falls because he didn’t think there were any doctors in the entire state.

Ironically, while in my home-state, I can see unique, but subtle, differences between those who live in different parts of SD. Those that live West River have usually adopted more of a Western lifestyle, and enjoy country music more than most who live East River. And there seems to be a slight rift between people from other cities toward those who live Sioux Falls. Once somebody from Yankton found out I went to Lincoln High, his first question was, “So you are gay, right?” After giving him a puzzled look, he said, “Well, 60 percent of people from Lincoln are gay and the other 50 percent wants to be.” This tells me two things: there is an apparent homosexual stigma that follows LHS, and people from Yankton can’t count.

I’m sure there are things that make us stand out as a state and the one thing that comes to my mind is every South Dakotan’s ability to name famous people from the state. Since there are so very few of them, we all seem to possess great knowledge of our celebrities. I would venture to say that 98 percent of South Dakotans can differentiate between Mary Hart, Jason Kubel, January Jones, Pat O’Brien, Tom Brokaw and Mike Miller. Just watch, if somebody ever says one of those names, a South Dakotan will tell you not only that the person in question is from SD, but will name the city from which they hail.

After living in Minnesota for nearly two years now, I get the impression that most people pay little to no attention to our state. We do, after all, receive very little national attention and I would say most prefer it that way. We are an unassuming bunch, usually trying not to bring attention to ourselves, unlike those brash Iowans. We are like the rest of the Midwest in that we will go out of our way to avoid confrontation. In fact, about the only time we will step into a fight is if somebody from North Dakota says their state is better. That’s when we call them liars and remind them that they are the United States’ equivalent to the Pittsburgh Pirates—usually forgotten and completely useless.

Maybe we should change our state motto from “Great Faces, Great Places” to “Thank God We’re Not North Dakota.”

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Tagged as: Eric Meyer