's high schools. and a discussion on the 19 picks 70 forced desegregation of little rock high school. friday night, from the oral history series, interviews with prominent photojournalist who documented major event throughout houston -- throughout history. watch this week in prime time he spent three. long, american history tv is joining our mid-code cable partners. to showcase the history of pierre, south dakota. to learn more about the city's on the current tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. we continue with a look at the history of history of pierre. reporter: describe the state of south dakota. gov. daugaard: south dakota is an agricultural state.

it is our number one industry. today, it is the foundation of our economy. i grew up on a farm, many people in south dakota are one or two generations or immediately off a farm or ranch. that is our strength. we are also a tourist destination. we have mount rushmore, the badlands. lots of things that ring tourism -- that brings tourism to south dakota. we are also a financial services locale. people would not think that. but in the early 1980's, when the interest rates were skyrocketing and citibank was losing money in new york, they were -- they moved their credit card operation to south dakota, where it continues to be based. other credit card issuers have followed wells fargo's ace here. quite a few credit card operations. we are financial services

locale, people do not think of us that way. reporter: lives in south dakota? gov. daugaard: i would say our democrats are not different than the nation. we maybe have a few older people than our population might be older than the nation as a whole. we are increasingly urbanized in the sense that people in the rural areas are moving to more populated areas. that is chiefly because farming and ranching is more efficient in larger scale. instead of needing a farm every quarter section, you have a farm every two or three sections now. that is our nature. reporter: describe the political makeup of the state? gov. daugaard: south dakota is

pretty conservative. predominantly republican. republicans have a sizable registration advantage over democrats. the third most frequent registration is independent. it is republicans, 250,000. about 250,000. democrats, 160,000. independence, 100,000, something like that. politically you will see more republicans. both houses and the legislature are over two thirds republican. i am the 32nd governor of south dakota. south dakota and's have only elected five non-republicans. south dakota has been a state since 1889. about 120 something years, 125, something like that. reporter: you mention the

agriculture is the biggest economic driver. how does that affect legislation? gov. daugaard: certainly, we are focused on our egg economy. south dakota is a hands-off state. we have a laissez-faire attitude in government. we don't regulate a lot. the u.s. chambers of commerce foundation seized the regulatory climate as the best in the nation. they rank us number one for reasonable regulations. whether you are in the egg business or some other business, it's not that we don't regulate businesses but we don't over regulate. reporter: into 2011, you established the first office of tribal relations for any state. how does the south dakota government strive to work with

native people? gov. daugaard: we have nine tribes in south dakota, all sue indian tribes. some are lakota speaking, some are the coda speaking. some are not protest speaking. there are three different dialects of the same language. they are all separate sovereign governments. one thing i have always been deliberate about is not treating all tribes the same. what is of interest to the citizen and one tribe it or may not be of interest to another try. in each case, where i have interaction with tribal governments, and i am deliberate about that, every year i go to visit at least three of the tribes on their turf. last week i met all morning with

the tribal president and tribal council members. i visited their housing office, their transportation office. i tried to focus on what barry r -- on what they are interested in, what their challenges and opportunities are. each tribe may be different. reporter: you are the first child of deaf parents to be elected governor of any state. gov. daugaard: i think it has made me more sensitive or empathetic to people with disabilities. i also think that people sometimes see a person with a disability as having that be there defining characteristic. i know from my own personal experience, everyone is different and everyone has to be treated as individuals. there are some people with

disabilities that use it as a crutch and let it be an advantage they leverage. there are others who try to let their disability be completely ignored and want to achieve and work hard and do well in spite of those. if anything, i think people with disabilities have to work harder because of it. they often become more determined. and achieve because of that determination. reporter: you are the most popular governor of the u.s. state among your constituents. with a 74% approval rating. to what to you credit this? gov. daugaard: poor polling, i think. that poll, varies a little bit. there will be times when i popular governor and other times

i am not as popular. it is nice, but at the same time, in some ways you can see it is a black mark because you -- because if you are popular, it might mean you are doing things that are popular, not because they are necessary or appropriate. it's like the parent that always gives candy to the child or grandchild. that pair is going to be popular. he is giving candy to the kids all the time. is that a good thing? probably not. i believe that politics is complicated enough and legislation matters and it is difficult enough that we need to represent -- we need a representative government. in theory, a pure democracy would allow all citizens to vote on everything. that would also demand they spend the time and gain the knowledge, the background is sufficient to allow them to make an informed judgment. that's not realistic in today's complicated world.

we have a representative democracy where we delegate our authority to let did representatives to study those issues for us. since we can't predict what they will be, we have to judge who is the person that reflects my character or my values are my style. if i find someone like that i will vote for them. i believe they will make a judgment that will be squared with my attitudes and my values. so i tried to believe -- i like to believe that i was elected to exert my values when i make a vote or when a veto a bill. or when i initiate legislation. but i was first elected, i was not elected to get reelected. i was elected to do what i

thought was right. in the first year i was in office, what i thought was right was not very popular. we had to cut the budget get our budget back into balance. some people are very unhappy about that. i got a lots -- a lot of mail about that. after a few years, most of the people in south dakota c the medicine that we took quickly and all at once was necessary and appropriate. and now our budget is in great shape. and now we are growing and all those cuts have been restored. we are back in good shape. reporter: are there any areas in south dakota's history that you find interesting or influential? gov. daugaard: one part of south dakota's history that is interesting to me is when peter

nor back was governor and later u.s. senator. he was a progressive republican and when he served in the 1920's as governor, he was very instrumental in creating some of the tourist attractions and some natural areas and soft cicada -- south dakota that today are our jewels. for example, he conceived the idea of taking all the small parcels of school and public land that were created when south dakota was freshly a state and in each township a small part of land was set aside. those parcels were all over the state. what he did was exchange or sell and purchase to consolidate a lot of those parcels into one very large parcel in the black hills, which became the second -- what is now, the

second-largest state park in america. custer state park. that is the state park where we have a free ranging heard of 1000 buffalo, where you can see elk, and he also was a very deliberate and personally involved in laying out some roadways that led from the park to mount rushmore. there are two very scenic highways that do not go -- don't take the shortest distance between the park and mount rushmore, but take two winding scenic drives. one is called needles highway. that leads through granite spires, that project out of the black hills and are very popular among rock climbers. another scenic drive is called iron mountain road, which dives through deep valleys and pinetop mountains. just a beautiful drive. the other thing about him is

after he served as governor, and be came elected as u.s. senator, he was instrumental in getting president coolidge to come to the black hills and see the carving of mount rushmore in its infancy, which convinced coolidge to commit federal funds. i think saved mount rushmore from collapsing as a project. and so, for those two reasons, peter nor back was a very forward thinking governor and u.s. senator who really had a great influence on south dakota history. reporter: what is life going to be like for you after public office? gov. daugaard: i have been governor now for six plus years.

almost seven years now. one more to go. then i am done. at the end of 2018, i will be out of office. i will also be 65. i will be eligible for social security and medicare, and counting on you to continue to pay into those programs. because i will be relying on them. i am not sure what i'm going to do. i'm not going to run and four office. i have been in politics for over 20 years. six years as ace a legislator, eight years as lieutenant governor. and now eight more years as governor. i am ready to go back to the private sector.

i will have to do something. i do not have enough money in retirement to just stay low. i do not have any debt. i will go back to a farm where i grew up. my wife and i built a house that there, and that's where my dad was born. that's where i was born. that's where our kids were born. that is home for me. that's what i'm looking forward to, a little bit more peaceful and spending time with grandkids. >> if you are walking through downtown to a, you will come on the presidency, fred kaplan outlines how the sixth president of the united states, john quincy adams, and the 16th president, abraham lincoln, confronted the political dilemmas of slavery from colonization to emancipation. their public careers briefly overlapped in the house of representatives.