Black Hills
3
4.9
- proper noun
- /blæk hɪlz/
:
Montañas Negras
- Even though the Washita River site, where Custer and his troops massacred Cheyenne, and the Little Big Horn battlefield are in Montana, the Black Hills and Wounded Knee are in South Dakota.
- Black Hills of South Dakota
- Black Hills National Forest
- sacred Black Hills
Examples
-
Where I lived on Pine Ridge, it is 160 miles each way to the county seat up in the Black Hills town of Hot Springs.
Blog text (22) -
This treaty, among other things, promised the western half of what is South Dakota, including the sacred Black Hills, to the Lakota.
Academic text (2017) -
Editor's note and update: Pe 'Sla sits on 1,942 acres of land in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Blog text (22) -
Legislation to halt uranium mining in the southern part of the Black Hills, a site considered sacred, was cited as another example of the state's lack of respect for Native Americans.
Academic text (2017) -
We left the Standing Rock Reservation and traveled to the Black Hills, where we received permission to film the buffalo herd in that location. After that, we relocated to Bear Butte State Park, where we interviewed individual Lakota about the significance of Bear Butte.
Academic text (2004) -
So it is that in 2012, a time of change and transformation in American politics—and also according to the Mayan calendar—we come face to face with the smallness and the greatness of humans in the Black Hills.
Blog text (22) -
The Black Hills are a sacred place to the Sioux people, rich in history and culture.
-
Many tourists visit the Black Hills each year to see landmarks like Mount Rushmore.
-
The Black Hills of South Dakota are known for their stunning landscapes and outdoor activities.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase plainly combines 'black' + 'hills', so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a group of hills (likely dark-coloured) and plausibly recognize it as a place name. However, as a capitalized proper noun referring to a specific mountain range with particular geographic location and cultural/sacred significance, that full referential and cultural meaning is not recoverable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
The place name Black Hills comes from the Sioux words meaning black hills, because the hills were covered with pine trees and looked dark from far away. That's why Black Hills is the name of the mountain range in South Dakota and Wyoming, a place the Sioux people call 'sacred'.