is the famous falls on the big sioux river from which the city takes its name. right now we are on one of the main thoroughfares of sioux falls, south dakota. i lost some of the older buildings of sioux falls where you get a good feel for what would be considered the main street of sioux falls. this is part of the sculpture walk in downtown sioux falls. to the left is the federal courthouse. you can see that it is built out of this pink sioux falls quartz, which is on the reasons the sellers chose this because it is an plentiful supplies. >> that would be downtown sioux falls, or is that representative of historical sioux falls? john: historical sioux falls. downtown is coming back. for a while downtown moved out to the west side where the malls where. there has been a big resurgence in downtown sioux falls, like a lot of downtown in many cities across the country. >> to break down the population are the ethnic diversity here as far as numbers are concerned. john: well, let me give you a fact about that you are to our left is a little restaurant. it is where we had lunch earlier. wonderful lunch. that restaurant is an old greek restaurant. in the early 20th century there were about 15 greek restaurants and confectionery's in sioux falls which shows some of the immigrant makes who came in to sioux falls because of the timing of the growth of sioux falls. it was about the same time as it was a large influx of middle eastern immigrants, lebanese, greek, and assyrians in particular. -- they may be surprised by this but south , dakota is the only state in the union that has had to delta lebanese senators. we just drove by the downtown -- the one state in the union two lebanese senators. we just drove by the downtown holiday in in sioux falls, which has been there for a long time. that is the hotel that george mcgovern stayed in in november of 1972 and he was waiting for the election return to come in from the presidential race. of course, george mcgovern is only south dakotan to be nominated to run for president. i do not think he was shocked when the result came in and he election badly, including those in south dakota, his home date, which -- his home date, which i think he always deeply regretted. >> so we are pulling into? john: this is falls park, named after the sioux falls, or the big drop in the big sue river -- the big sioux falls river which created these rapids or falls. this is the namesake of sioux falls. this is why it is called sioux falls. straight across you can see the queen be mele which is built on the rapids so that they could capture the rapids and turn on the machine to grind wheat. for two or three years that mill cranked out 1000 barrels of flour a day. i think in the end, it did not produce as much weed as a -- as much weight as thought because the river died down later in the summer. i also wanted to point out the old coliseum. this is where a lot of the major events were held in downtown for many decades. it was built about the time of world war i. after world war i, woodrow wilson went on to this speaking tour of the country to try to sell the country on joining the league of nations. he had a major fight with the senate including many midwestern were isolationist or skeptical of getting involved in the league of nations, but he gave a big speech there trying to convince south dakota senators to join the league which ultimately failed in the senate. we mentioned the german immigrants to sioux falls a number of times, this is currently the new are echo city hall built in the 30's and 40's of sioux falls. before that, it was the old germania hall built by german immigrants to have big meetings, festivals, as rhetoric. most importantly, it was also the site of the rating of the south dakota constitution during the statehood movement. in 1883, 18 85 and there were 1889, separate constitutional convention held in germania hall. up here on the left is an old fire hall in sioux falls. what is significant about it is that in the year 1900, when he was campaigning on the national ticket, national republican ticket as a vice presidential candidate, teddy roosevelt had a major rally on this corner. he barnstormed through south dakota at e time. he made 27 stops in south dakota in about two days taking the trades around. they did whistle stop tours and teddy roosevelt loved doing these. he especially loved being out here in the dakotas and have this place in north dakota. coming up, i wanted to point out to you this statue, it is on a bluff overlooking the big sioux river. over there about eight miles or less would be the state of file -- the state of iowa. straight ahead that way, about 18 miles is the state of minnesota, so you're kind of at this junction of minnesota, iowa and south dakota. you have a very midwestern spot for you and a very nice view of the river valley. i also wanted to point out this memorial, which was put up by the minnehaha academy historical society and its related plaque. the plaque is designed to help people remember the consequences of what was called the great sioux uprising for the settlement at sioux falls. in 1862, there was a rebellion theantee siouxby by the settlers who were pushing into their areas and starting to farm. the santee sioux fought back and killed about 700 minnesota farmers in the area. when the army came in, and of course this was during the civil war, so there were not many troopers around, when the army finally came in, many of the santee sioux spread out into this part of dakota territory. they attacked the settlement at sioux falls, or there was great fear of an attack, so everyone left the settlement and went to other places in sioux city to be safe. sioux falls was a small prairie city most of its life. much of its economy was based on being a supporter of the surrounding agricultural areas and being kind of a real hub -- have for people to come and go from sioux falls. >> how did you become so involved in history? john: i am not sure how, i always had that itch to scratch going back to grade school. i have always loved it. i guess it had to do with wanting to know more about your roots and heritage to better understand your identity. i always find that when you start talking about it, other people are interested in it too. maybe they had a boring high school teacher of history so they maybe they were turned off by it somewhere along the line, but if you start to connect the dots for them and asked wayne why the place a come from shapes them and forms them, i think that they are more interested. and as her >> our staff recently traveled to sioux falls, south dakota, to learn more about its rich history. learn more about sioux falls and other stops. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. announcer: this year marks the 50th anniversary of sociologist robert bellah's essay on american civil religion, a term given to a shared set of values, beliefs, and rituals. next on american history tv, yale university sociology professor philip gorski gives a history of civil religion in america and shares his views on the cultural wars defining the nation. the arizona state university center for the study of religion and conflict hosted the event. it is just over one hour. >> today's lecture is part of the speakers' series on religion and conflict. as dear friends, the marshalls endowed the speakers because it reflected their concerns to promote peaceful solutions to pressing, complex problems in our world.

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