North Dakota Books

Narratives by women who were captured by Indians once comprised an integral part of the literature of the American Frontier, defined by Frederick Jackson Turner as the "meeting place between savagery and civilization." Although many such narratives were lurid, dime-novel accounts, akin to the supermarket tabloids of our own time, Fanny Kelly's was the real thing.

At the age of 19, she was traveling west with her husband and family when she was captured by Oglala Sioux warriors west of Fort Laramie on July 12, 1864. Hers is a remarkable tale of survival by an intelligent, strong young woman and she was finally released at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory on December 12, 1864.

MY CAPTIVITY AMONG THE SIOUX INDIANS is one of the best captivity narratives as well as one of the last. If you were with an emigrant train on the Oregon Trail, you would know Fanny Kelly and her story.

Her book is available in a number of formats and editions. Mine is an old paperback edition with an excellent introduction by Professor Jules Zanger of Southern Illinois University. I gave it five stars because I found Fanny Kelly's writing clear, easy to understood, and accurate insofar as I could verify it.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) lends itself to the Trails Illustrated Series because it consists of several different units (North, South, and Elkhorn) that can be splayed over both sides of the map. This map also covers the 90-mile long Maah Daah Hey Trail, which connects all three units while going through the Little Missouri National Grassland.

The map is done at a very useful scale. Though there's only about 500 feet of elevation in the entire park, there's a lot of fairly steep up and down in places. (That's why they called it "Badlands.") The contour lines show this very effectively, so you shouldn't be surprised.

In terms of production values, this is the most beautiful of the Trails Illustrated maps that I have. Parcels of land are shaded by owner (national park, forest service, state of North Dakota, private) and the colors are well-chosen so that the whole map *looks* good. There are also colorful symbols for prairie dog towns, oil wells, water sources, vegetation, and other features. Again, it's just pleasant to look at in addition to being useful.

Roads are marked so that you don't trespass, and the official wilderness areas are also clearly marked as such. All in all, it's what a topo map should be.

I loved looking through the book and seeing pictures of places I have been. It is filled with interesting facts and history that I enjoyed. There was even a picture of a place a few blocks from my childhood home. I showed the picture to all my freinds in Texas.

The "Portrait of America" series is a wonderful introduction for pre-teens to the 50 states and to the places and events that shaped the history of the United States. This "North Dakota" installment is particularly good. The book is broken down into sections like "History", "Culture", "Economy" etc., and each section is thoughtfully written and edited. The "Culture" section is especially good and is very inclusive.

This book, as well as the entire "Portrait of America" series, will prove to be a valuable teaching tool to all primary school educators.

Death of a Swagman was written in the mid point of Arthur Upfields career and shows in his attention to detail and his ability to capture the feling of Australian country towns in the early part of our century. The story is a good detective novel in its own right with plenty of plots and action and red herrings. Bony's relationship with Rose Marie is used as a strong pivot point throughout the novel giving a useful viewpoint of the running of the town from a child's perspective. The advantage of this book over other bony novels is the character development of the subjects. This gives a depth and humanity which remains after the story is finished. The narrative of the swagmans lifestyle and its mythology is addressed here with great detail and provides a refreshing glimpse of a bygone era.

This is one of the best joke books I have ever read. Montanans (oh which I am one) tell jokes about North Dakotans, and this has a collection of some of the best jokes compiled by Mike Dalton. When I was a child, I carried this book around and told anyone who would listen the jokes in the book. Some of these jokes have been around for years and repackaged as blond jokes among many others. I HIGHLY recommend this classic joke book for adults as well as older children. It is clean and very funny with illustrated pictures for some of the jokes, even.

Matt Malone comes through again, and so does Marlene Chabot. Her second novel in the series is again rich in detail, local color, and interesting twists. Ride along to North Dakota for an ending sure to surprise you!

If you like to know the history of placenames, this is a great book. I lived in North Dakota for 15 years and first heard about such a field of study from Greek teacher at the University of North Dakota. This book, written by an amatuer, is clearly a labor of love and the definitive one in its field. All the minutiae are in it. Good job all around. And the pictures are wonderful.

A wonderful nostalgic look back to the hardships of settling in the Dakotas to the hardship of battle in the Pacific during WWII. Very telling of life and history.

Northern Harvest documents the rise of Pentecostalism in North Dakota from a few scattered congregations at the turn of the twentieth-century to its present status as the state's fourth largest religious group. While revivals in Topeka, Kansas (1901) and Los Angeles, California (1906-09) became the focal point of the emerging worldwide Pentecostal movement, earlier revivals in Minnesota and the Dakotas provided it with precedents and leaders. This is the first significant study of Pentecostal origins in Scandinavian pietism in Minnesota and the Dakotas, exploring the movement's roots outside the American Wesleyan and Holiness traditions.
This account chronicles:

- Histories of over 400 Pentecostal churches and outstations in North Dakota, plus outreaches in additional cities and churches in border communities in surrounding states

- Previously undocumented information about Pentecostals in Minnesota and the Dakotas from the 1890s-1900s, including brief biographies of Carl M. Hanson (early evangelist) and Mary Johnson (earliest-known Pentecostal missionary)

- Histories of two dozen Pentecostal denominations or groups in North Dakota (including Apostolic Faith Mission, Asamblea Apostolica de la Fe en Cristo Jesus, Assemblies of God, Assembly of God Missionary Fellowship, Association of Vineyard Churches, Calvary Chapel, Christian International Network of Churches, Church of God (Cleveland, TN), Church of God in Christ, Church of God (Jerusalem Acres), Church of God of Prophecy, Church of God of the Firstborn, Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, German Church of God, Gospel Crusade, Independents (Oneness, Trinitarian, and Word of Faith), International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, National and International Pentecostal Missionary Union, Open Bible Standard Churches, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Pentecostal Church of God, The Church of God, and United Pentecostal Church)

- Pentecostalism's development among Anglo, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Native American, African American, and Slavic peoples in North Dakota

- The role of female ministers in Pentecostal churches in North Dakota

- The community and political involvement of early Pentecostals in North Dakota

Northern Harvest is well-documented (containing 1,732 footnotes), its indices tally 497 cities and 2,843 personal names, and nineteen pages of tables and charts contain extensive statistical data regarding Pentecostalism's development across North Dakota. This book contains a wealth of information - unavailable elsewhere - regarding geneaology and family history.