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South Dakota
Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for South Dakota.
64Documented
1In custody
57Released
Eras of repression in South Dakota
Where South Dakota’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.
1970s 26
1910s 23
1930s 5
1980s 4
2010s 2
1800s 2
Documented cases
64 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.
G
Gladys Bissonette
Released
Gladys Bissonette was an Oglala Lakota elder and a leader of the traditionalist faction on the Pine Ridge Rese...
J
John Bosses
Released
John Bosses, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and began serving his two and a...
S
Sarah Bad Heart Bull
Mother of a slain Sioux youth who was choked and beaten by a state trooper when she was denied entry to the 19...
D
Darrelle Butler
American Indian Movement member ('Dino') tried with Robert Robideau for the deaths of two FBI agents in the Ju...
S
Sioux Casper
Released
Sioux Casper was one of five defendants convicted of attempting to interfere with U.S. Marshals and FBI agents...
N
Nile Cochran
Released
Nile Cochran was an Iowa farmer and milk-strike picket sentenced to three years in the South Dakota penitentia...
L
Leonard Crow Dog
Released
Sicangu Lakota medicine man and spiritual leader of the American Indian Movement who restored the Ghost Dance...
M
Mary Crow Dog
Released
Mary Crow Dog, later Mary Brave Bird, was a Sicangu (Brulé) Lakota AIM activist from the Rosebud Reservation a...
J
Jimmy Eagle
Young Oglala man indicted with Leonard Peltier in the June 1975 Pine Ridge FBI-agent deaths case; The Black Pa...
F
Frank Godlasky
Released
Frank Godlasky was imprisoned at South Dakota State Penitentiary during the era of South Dakota's criminal-syn...
B
Bert Hanson
Released
Bert Hanson was one of seventeen anti-eviction farmers charged with rioting — facing up to ten years — at Siss...
W
William G. Head
Released
William G. Head, from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was sentenced to three years in prison. He was the Secretary...
W
Walter Heynacher
Released
Walter Heynacher, from Aberdeen, South Dakota, was sentenced to five years in prison. He served in Leavenworth...
R
Robert High Eagle
Released
Robert High Eagle was a co-defendant of Sarah Bad Heart Bull, convicted of "riot where arson was committed" fo...
A
Andrew Anna Hofer
Released
Andrew Anna Hofer was a Mennonite Brethren conscientious objector from South Dakota imprisoned during World Wa...
D
David Hofer
Released
David Hofer, a Hutterite from the Rockport Colony in South Dakota, was one of four brothers-in-faith court-mar...
J
Jacob M. Hofer
Released
Jacob M. Hofer was a Mennonite conscientious objector from South Dakota imprisoned during World War I. Court-m...
J
Joseph Hofer
Joseph Hofer was one of four Hutterite absolutists from the Rockport Colony in South Dakota who, drafted in 19...
M
Michael Hofer
Michael Hofer, a Hutterite from the Rockport Colony in South Dakota and brother of Joseph Hofer, was one of th...
K
Ken Hollis
Released
Ken Hollis participated in the 1987 Mount Rushmore protest against acid rain and subsequently served time in S...
P
Paul Kleinsasser
Released
Paul Kleinsasser was a Hutterite conscientious objector from South Dakota imprisoned during World War I. Court...
S
Samuel Kleinsasser
Released
Samuel Kleinsasser was a Hutterite conscientious objector from South Dakota imprisoned during World War I. Cou...
C
Christopher Oliver Land
Released
Christopher Oliver Land was one of five defendants convicted of attempting to interfere with U.S. Marshals and...
S
Steve Loper
Released
Steve Loper participated in the 1987 Mount Rushmore protest against acid rain and subsequently served time in...
Institutions in South Dakota
Prisons, jails, and detention centers in South Dakota that appear in the census’s case files.
Pennington County JailRapid City, South Dakota
2 cases
South Dakota State PenitentiarySioux Falls, South Dakota
1 case
Fort Meade / Federal Court (Sioux Falls)
1 case
South Dakota Women's PrisonYankton, South Dakota
1 case