Imagine viewing a land where sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires are blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. This extraordinary region is the Badlands, located in southwestern South Dakota, just east of Rapid City.

The best of these savagely beautiful badlands comprise the 244,000 acres of Badlands National Park, a unique region so ruthlessly ravaged by wind and water that has become a scenic wonderland.

This particular area is home to the Oglala Sioux, which is part of the Great Sioux Nation. This vast region was once home to the mysterious and little studied paleo-Indians who are thought to be some of the first inhabitants of the Badlands region.

The Badlands are also known worldwide to have the most significant mixed-grass prairie, the best known Oligocene fossil resources, and remnants of sea and turtle shells, leading proof this area was once under water. Paleontologists and many institutions continually study this region, giving insight to life of 33 million years ago.

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