What Is the Sitting Bull Crystal Cavern Dance Pavilion?
This octagonal pavilion was home to the Duhamel Sioux Indian Pageant from 1934 until 1957!
What Makes It Historical?
Long after the Lakota Sioux had been confined to the Pine Ridge Reservation, a medicine man named Nicholas Black Elk (second cousin to Crazy Horse) had a unique idea for how to preserve his people’s traditions and educate about them: tourism! With scores of visitors flocking to former Sioux territory during the Great Depression, Mr. Black Elk realized tourists might just come to see traditional Lakota dances before and after their pilgrimage to Mount Rushmore!
So, he teamed up with shopowner, Alex Duhamel, and his son, Peter, to put on the first Pageant in Rapid City’s Baden Park then later at the Duhamels’ shop. After seven successful years, this theatre in the round opened up at the entrance to Crystal Cavern, also owned by the Duhamels, featuring five magnificent landscape paintings by Sioux artist, Godfrey Broken Rope! With performers from Pine Ridge camping nearby, the Dance Pavilion opened up just in time for the summer of 1934!
Twice a day for the next 23 summers, tourists could see authentic Sun and Ghost Dances, the latter of which had been widely suppressed! Mr. Black Elk himself demonstrated pipe and healing ceremonies, rite of burial and mourning, for most of the rest of his life! Sadly, after he passed in 1950, folks began to lose interest in the Pageant, and the doors to the Dance Pavilion closed for good in 1957. Already a holy man among the Sioux, at the time I visited, Mr. Black Elk was also being considered for canonization by the Catholic Church!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Become a member of the South Dakota State Historical Society!
- Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!
How Do I Get There?
Sitting Bull Road exit from Highway 16
Rockerville, SD 57702
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit?
Visit the exterior whenever you like, but the pavilion and caverns are both permanently closed!
Is there any possibility of the caverns or dance pavilion ever being opened to the public. I was there twice in the 90s and have always wanted to go back. I am absolutely enthralled with the historical and geological significance. What would it take to get the cavern and pavilion back open.
Hi Kevin! Oof, that’s a great question. The development company, Premier Properties, LLC, bought up the land in 2020, so you might try contacting their Rapid City office with your ideas! Let me know what you find out!