South Dakota State Coat of Arms

The design is circular rather than a traditional heraldic shield. South Dakota uses it as both its Great Seal and its coat of arms. The circular field shows an outdoor landscape with all four major industries of the territorial economy arranged around a central river view.

The motto Under God the People Rule arcs across the top of the design on a banner. Around the outer ring, the words State of South Dakota and Great Seal appear, along with the year 1889. An official colored version of the design was adopted in 1961, based on an original painting by John G. Moisan of Fort Pierre.

The design comes from the 1885 Constitutional Convention, held while South Dakota was still a territory. Reverend Joseph Ward, founder of Yankton College, chaired the Committee on the Great Seal and Coat of Arms. He organized the imagery and chose the motto.

Ward selected the English phrase Under God the People Rule instead of a Latin motto. His reasoning was direct: the people governed by the seal should be able to read it. That choice set South Dakota apart from the majority of states that use Latin mottoes.

When South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, the new constitution carried the 1885 design forward with only two changes: the words State of Dakota became State of South Dakota, and one phrase describing the mining scene was adjusted. The imagery itself was unchanged.

In 1961 the South Dakota Legislature adopted an official colored version of the coat of arms based on an original painting by John G. Moisan of Fort Pierre. That painting established the standard colors used in all official reproductions.

The design shows four scenes arranged around the Missouri River. Each scene represents one of the industries that defined South Dakota in the territorial era.

The design maps the territory's economic geography. Mining is on the left because the mines were in the west, in the Black Hills. Farming is on the right because the farms were in the east, on the prairie. The Missouri River runs between them because it was the border between those two worlds.

Placing all four industries in one landscape was a statement about what South Dakota was and what it hoped to become. The territorial leaders who designed it wanted to show a complete economy, not just one kind of place.

The motto ties the imagery together. Under God the People Rule is not a description of the land but a statement about who governs it. Ward put it at the top of the design, above all four industries, as the organizing principle of the whole.

The 1885 territorial design and the 1889 statehood version are nearly identical. The only documented changes were the substitution of State of South Dakota for State of Dakota and one adjustment to the description of the mining scene.

No coat of arms or seal existed for South Dakota before 1885. The state was part of Dakota Territory, which had its own territorial seal. South Dakota adopted a new design at the 1885 convention rather than carrying forward the territorial emblem.