A biography of Helen Hastings Sibley, the daughter of Henry Sibley and a Dakota Indian mother, who spent her childhood with the Brown family in St. Paul where she met her future husband, Sylvester Sawyer, moved to Milwaukee as the wife of a doctor, and died of scarlet fever.

As South Dakotans endured the Great Depression and developing Dust Bowl in 1932, they elected a cowboy as their governor. Tom Berry rode in the great, iconic 1902 cattle roundup ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt. He established the successful Double X ranch next to the Badlands. Big voiced and tireless, Berry commanded the attention of all, including President Franklin Roosevelt, who broke protocol and called him "Tom" or "Cowboy" in White House meetings. Berry faced bitter political rivalries and weather that threatened to blow South Dakotans off their land, but he is remembered for his humorous wit throughout. Author Paul S. Higbee traces the history of South Dakota and its iconic governor.