The White House announced on Monday that Obama would deliver a commencement address at the Lake Area Technical Institute on May 8.
South Dakota is perhaps most famous for being the home of Mount Rushmore, a national monument dedicated to America's most celebrated presidents.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln all have their likenesses etched on the granite mountainside.
Obama -- America's first black president and a keen student of presidential history -- has been less revered in the state.
He lost South Dakota to his Republican challengers in both 2008 and 2012 elections, and by substantial margins.
At the last presidential election Mitt Romney won 58 percent of the vote there to Obama's 40 percent.