Editing L. Frank Baum (section)

===The South Dakota years===
In July 1888, Baum and his wife moved to [[Aberdeen, South Dakota|Aberdeen, Dakota Territory]] where he opened a store called "Baum's Bazaar". His habit of giving out wares on credit led to the eventual bankrupting of the store,<ref>Rogers, pp. 23–25.</ref> so Baum turned to editing the local newspaper ''[[The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer]]'' where he wrote the column ''Our Landlady''.<ref>Rogers, pp. 25–27 and ff.</ref> Following the death of [[Sitting Bull]] at the hands of Indian agency police, Baum recommended the wholesale extermination of all America's native peoples in a column that he wrote on December 20, 1890 (full text below).<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sutherland|first1=JJ|title=L. Frank Baum Advocated Extermination Of Native Americans|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/10/27/130862391/l-frank-baum-advocated-extermination-of-native-americans|access-date=May 20, 2017|publisher=NPR|date=October 27, 2010}}</ref> It is unclear whether Baum meant it as a satire or not, especially since his mother-in-law [[Matilda Joslyn Gage]] received an honorary adoption into the Wolf Clan of the [[Mohawk Nation]] and was a fierce defender of Native American rights,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Matilda Joslyn Gage |title=The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation |url=https://matildajoslyngage.org/about-gage |access-date=May 31, 2022 |website=Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation |language=en-US |archive-date=May 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515140610/https://matildajoslyngage.org/about-gage |url-status=dead }}</ref> but on January 3, 1891, he returned to the subject in an editorial response to the [[Wounded Knee Massacre]]:<ref>Stannard, David E, ''American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World'', Oxford Press, 1992, p. 126 {{ISBN|0-19-508557-4}}</ref>

<blockquote>The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination {{sic}} of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.<ref>[https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/second/en213/term1/l_frank_baum.pdf Hastings, A. Waller. "L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation"], ''Northern State University.'' (Retrieved November 27, 2017)</ref></blockquote>

Baum's description of [[Kansas]] in ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' is based on his experiences in drought-ridden [[South Dakota]].<ref name="r489">{{cite journal | last=West | first=Mark I. | title="The Dakota Fairy Tales of L. Frank Baum" | date=February 2, 2007 | url=https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-30-1/the-dakota-fairy-tales-of-l-frank-baum |journal=South Dakota History |volume=30 |issue=1 | access-date=June 22, 2024}}</ref> During much of this time, his mother-in-law was living in the Baum household. While Baum was in South Dakota, he sang in a quartet which included [[James H. Kyle|James Kyle]], who became one of the first [[populism|Populist]] ([[People's Party (United States)|People's Party]]) senators in the U.S.{{Citation needed|date = December 2012}}