The Sioux Empire Podcast

Without warning Four shots ring out and echo through the valley of Poorman’s Gulch outside of Lead South Dakota.  Father Belknap lies bleeding on the ground.  He’s been shot at point-blank range by four .45 Caliber rounds.  Here on the ground, he will bleed to death in his priestly vestments that he’d quickly put on, having been lured to this spot by being told a member of his flock desperately needed last rights.  The brutality of this crime will shock both Catholics and protestants across South Dakota.  The year is 1921 and Father Belknap’s killers will never be found. The rise and fall of the Klu Klux Klan in South Dakota is next. Learn more at https://www.thesiouxempirepodcast.com/ This episode features interviews with: Dr. Michael Gérard White, Film professor and head of the Hot Attic Film school at Wayne State College and teaches film criticism and production. https://www.wsc.edu/info/20079/communication_arts/197/michael_white Shelby Hagerdon, a historian...

In 2019 South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem vetoed a popular bill in South Dakota to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp. At the time she famously said that South Dakota was “not ready.” But just over one hundred years ago, a South Dakota Governor would beg Washington and the private sector for help getting an emergency hemp industry started in the state. The Story of how hemp went from commodity, to odity, to war hero, to menace to children, to war hero again, to menace, to a cash crop of the future is next. LISTEN HERE Transcript Although cannabis as a drug and industrial hemp both derive from the species Cannabis sativa and contain the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), they are distinct strains with unique phytochemical compositions and uses. Hemp has lower concentrations of THC and higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD), which decreases or eliminates its psychoactive effects. However, for the purposes of this story these two plants are going to of...