Standing Rock Monument

Dakota and Lakota nations hold this stone sacred, as a woman and child turned into stone.  For generations, this stone was carried from place to place until Lakota leader Sitting Bull held a council that decided the stone should remain at Fort Yates.  There are several origin stories of this stone, with the most prominent being the one explained on the stone’s plaque.  According to this inscription, the stone is the body of a young woman and her child, who refused to accompany her people as they were forced to move south, eventually turning into stone.  This monument is the namesake for the Standing Rock Reservation that encompasses over two million acres alongside the Missouri River.