by Duke Doering
These October days in 1954, a prison riot at Sioux Falls led to the call-up of South Dakota National Guard units.
A prison riot broke out at the South Dakota Penitentiary in Sioux Falls on Sunday evening, October 10, 1954, over charges by Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Fred Nichol. Nichol said that the state was aware that guards had beaten a prisoner earlier in the year and that the prisoner later died of the injuries he sustained. Governor Siguard Anderson called on Nichol to name the guards and derided him for relying on affidavits of ex-convicts and former penitentiary employees.
About 250 of the 400 prisoners participated in the riot. They took hostages and demanded better medical care, more privileges, and investigations into alleged beatings. Nearly every window in the penitentiary was busted and trashed, and the dispensary and commissary were raided for alcohol. One inmate died after ingesting large amounts of hair tonic.
Governor Anderson called, to State Active Duty, batteries of the 147th Field Artillery Battalion from Flandreau, Canton, and Sioux Falls and placed the Howard Battery on stand-by status. Twenty-five Officers and 135 enlisted men aided civil authorities in quelling the disturbance on October 11, 12 and 13. By October 19 things were under control.
The New York Times years later reported the following:
Officials said the riot, which started suddenly in the state prison mess hall, was politically inspired. Gov. Sigurd Anderson said the riot was touched off by “wild charges made by irresponsible politicians in the heat of a political campaign.” Fred Nichol, Democratic candidate for Attorney General, has accused Warden G. Norton Jameson of “brutality and maladministration.”