Tickets for the South Dakota State Historical Society’s banquet honoring the return of the Great Sioux Horse Effigy are still available, but time is running out to purchase them.

The last chance to purchase tickets will be Wednesday, Oct. 7. Tickets can be bought at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center, located at 900 Governors Drive in Pierre. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.sdhsf.org or by calling (605) 773-3458.

The banquet is at the Ramkota Hotel in Pierre and begins at 5:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday, Oct. 11. Tickets are $55 for an individual, $425 for a table of eight and $750 for a sponsor’s table. A cash bar will be available as well.

Two prominent speakers will make multimedia presentations at the banquet. Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and Gaylord Torrence, senior curator of American Indian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., will speak. Torrence was the chief curator for the international touring exhibition “The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky” which included the Great Sioux Horse Effigy. Gover is an Indian leader who will speak about effigies and horse memorials, including the horse memorial from his institution that will be displayed alongside South Dakota’s horse effigy in a new exhibit that opens Oct. 10 at the Cultural Heritage Center.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting will record the banquet for future programming use.

“We are pleased with ticket sales to date, but we want to make sure people know walk-up tickets are not available for the event and they need to be purchased in advance,” said Jay Smith, director of the museum at the Cultural Heritage Center and one of the event organizers. “This is going to be a memorable night for attendees, as both speakers are leaders in the museum field who will deliver powerful and eloquent presentations.”

The effigy return celebration will take place at several locations around Pierre beginning Saturday, Oct. 10, culminating in a Native American Day ceremony at the Cultural Heritage Center on Monday, Oct. 12, at 2 p.m. CDT.

For more information about the banquet or weekend events, please visit the society’s website at history.sd.gov or call (605) 773-3458.