For 11K years, Native Americans have used this area for their hunting grounds. The Lakota people called it "mako sica" or "land bad." Extreme temperatures, lack of water, and the exposed rugged terrain led to this name. The area is of significant interest to paleontologists as the area had once been under water, bones of numerous creatures which no longer exist have been discovered. Today NPS protects the sharply eroded buttes along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the US.