Newspaper editors and publishers came to Pierre on Thursday from across South Dakota. I saw Charlie Najacht, who has returned to the Black Hills after many years away to own and publish the Custer, Hill City and Winner papers. We knew each other 30 years ago when we were fellow weekly newspaper publishers. While I was talking to Charlie, Gary Wood and another fellow came by to say hello. Gary recently became the local owner of the Yankton daily paper.

I told them that I was happy to see some local ownership occurring, and reminisced about when I started a newspaper in 1978 it cost $13,000 for one computer. "An ambitious kid with a $500 MAC could be in business today," I said, "so I wonder why they aren't starting newspapers and competing with some of these corporate owned weeklies that are doing such a poor job of covering their communities, like those weeklies the Argus Leader owns around Sioux Falls?"

Charlie and Gary looked a bit uncomfortable, and so did the other fellow who I hadn't yet met.

"I bet you're with the Argus Leader." I said.

He replied, "Randall Beck, publisher."

The less you say in Pierre the better you get along. Why haven't I learned that lesson?

The Olson family never fed the friendly deer that started to hang around their ranch near Reva in extreme northwestern South Dakota, but the buck became a pet just the same and after awhile the neighbors knew that the big buck — who came to be known as Hartford when his antlers grew — was off limits to hunters. Everyone watched out for the buck.

So you can imagine the pain when the Olsons saw Hartford lying dead in a road ditch as they drove to church one Sunday morning. And then, to add insult to injury, when they returned from church they saw that someone had cut off Hartford's head, apparently as a trophy mount.

On Wednesday the Game, Fish & Parks Commission sought to increase the fine for anyone who poaches a deer for the purpose of obtaining a trophy mount to $5,000. Proponents of the bill said there is a huge demand for such mounts. However, the bill ran into all sorts of trouble on the House floor during debate and even Rep. Betty Olson, Hartford's friend, rose to speak against the bill. She thought it was just too complex and high-handed.

She told me afterwards that she didn't want to slap a $5,000 fine on whoever took Hartford's head, "but I sure would like to kill them!"

The Brookings Daily Register proudly reports that SDSU student Alexandra Hoffman — aka Miss South Dakota – was chosen as one of four "viewers' favorites" at least week's pageant, where she finished a respectable 12th and represented her home state with great class.

Alex comes from a great South Dakota family. Her grandfather LeRoy Hoffman was a successful opera singer who came home to South Dakota to ranch in McPherson County and then ran for governor in 1978. Her father, Charlie, has just begun his first term in the State House of Representatives.

Some Pollock residents are still shivering from the -47 temperatures two weeks ago. And the Mobridge Tribune reports that another nearby weather-watcher reported a -50 temperature. I bet it's safe to walk on the ice in Walworth County.

Our Jan/Feb issue of the magazine has some readers' input on good things about cold weather that we collected a year ago. Of course, the weather is a good conversation starter and it surely makes you appreciate a 30+ day.

And then there's the fellow who wrote in to explain that the cold kills the parasites on the rabbits so they're safe to eat.

We were talking about the proposed smoking ban yesterday when an old fellow remarked how he used to drive down the country roads with a beer in his lap, a cigar in his mouth, no seat belt in sight and a few young kids riding in the pickup box. He would be breaking four laws today — five if he crept above 55 mph.

"I guess we didn't know any better," he said sheepishly.

We had farms about five miles apart in Yankton County. Those five miles were a long trip on a B John Deere, so to pass the time I would occasionally count to see whether there were more Hamms cans or Schlitz cans. The Hamm's bear usually won, but both were popular. Cans literally littered the sides of the road; sometimes there were more cans than gravel.

Our alcoholic neighbor's wife wouldn't let him drive the famliy car to Utica because she knew he'd just get drunk. So he went out in the "back forty" with the tractor and then escaped onto the road and drove it to Utica at about 8 mph. He always brought a bottle home with him and tossed it in a plum bush along the road when he was a half-mile from the "back forty." Then he'd retrieve it on his return trip to Utica so he wouldn't be thirsty enroute.

A Greek smart-alec once said, "Nothing changes but change."

Bishop Paul Swain, the relatively new leader of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, faces a busy week. He begins with a trip to Pierre to celebrate a Mass and then dine with Catholic lawmakers. Then he begins a tour of East River, conducting meetings that many believe could result in the merging and closing of rural parishes.

The bishop has played his cards close to his vestments; nobody knows for certain what to expect at the deanery meetings he has scheduled.

But the Catholic Church (and other denominations as well) have been conducting massive parish closings — in cities and urban areas. In other parts of the country, the closings appear to be connected to the clergy sexual abuse scandals and the resulting lawsuits. Some bishops need greater efficiencies (and the sale of church properties) to pay damages. But that hasn't been such a big issue here. Bishop Swain's concern is that priests are at the center of parish life and there just aren't enough priests to serve all the parishes.

It will be interesting to see the reaction to rural Catholics of South Dakota. Ironically, those most loyal to the Church are likely to be the most upset. Already, the Church has been hurt by apathetic and fallen-away Catholics. Does it make sense to know alienate some of the most devout people in the rural communities?

Photo: A picture shot by aerial photographer Dave Tunge of St. Agnes Church of Sigel, located about 10 miles north of Yankton. Click on picture for a big view.

Barack Obama spoke at Mitchell's Corn Palace last summer, and quickly sized up South Dakota by saying it's "warmer, nicer" than most of the country. I doubt that he said the same thing when he went to certain other states.

On this, his inauguration day, we wonder if perhaps the rest of the country is catching up to South Dakota on race relations.

Few states had a worse start. Fourteen months after South Dakota was admitted to the union, the Seventh Cavalry killed 200 men, women and children at Wounded Knee. That episode was seared in our subconscious: we learned about it in books, movies, classrooms and song. It was an inescapable fact. Our state was born with cardinal sin.

But in our 24 years of publishing the magazine, we've come upon many stories relating to race relations. And while we still have issues to address, it seems that South Dakota has come quite a long way in our 120-year history. We elected an Indian congressman in 1960, and he was no shrinking violet. Ben Reifel talked about race in South Dakota. He told our magazine in 1988 that he had two different messages when he spoke: one of the Indian people and another for white people.

He asked whites to seek to understand the Indian culture, and to be patient as the Lakota and Dakota people learn the "Work-Time-Save" principles so ingrained in white European culture. And he challenged Native Americans to embrace the modern world of capitalism and commerce.

South Dakota has benefitted from long tradition of minority leaders — stretching to pre-statehood individuals such as Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Gabrielle Renville and Drifting Goose. We've been home to creative geniuses like Vine Deloria Jr., White Eagle and Oscar Howe.

For many years, Bud Williams — one of Mitchell's few blacks — served his city as a popular mayor. Last night I had the privilege of being seated by his wife, Bonnie, at an event in Mitchell. We agreed that Bud must be smiling from high above as a black hand rests on the Bible today in Washington for the swearing-in ceremony.

We South Dakotans are 88 percent caucasion but we have a rich (and occasionally ugly) racial history. In our travels we've found stories on many people who have helped in big and small ways to bring America to this day — Jan. 20, 2009.

One of South Dakota's salt-of-the-earth leaders died last week. You probably didn't know Curley Haisch and neither did I.

But when I was on Bonesteel a few weeks ago, working on a Gregory County story, just about everyone I met mentioned Curley. He and Rose helped fix our town swimming pool, said one fellow. I worked for him for years, said another. He helped me build the assisted living center, said another. He never said no to anyone, said a woman.

Curley was a sheepman for the famous Mulehead Ranch as a young man. The Mulehead was run by some spoiled-rich Iowa brothers (sons of a former governor). They grew it into one of South Dakota's biggest spreads before going broke. Curley then stuck out his neck and bought the core of the ranch, and through hard work and ingenuity to made it work. The Mulehead is north of Bonesteel along the Missouri River.

Curley died Jan. 15 at the Burke hospital. We didn't know about it until we saw Doug Wiken's Dakota Today blog. There's more on Curley and the Mulehead in our upcoming issue. I only wish Curley could have seen it.