North Dakota Books

This book brings a theorectical analysis of the subject of american Indian education that is still fresh today. The problems associated with Indian education raised in this text are sadly still with us and much of the reason for that continuing problem can be found in the failure of the educators, whose job it is to teach American Indian youth, to follow some of the suggestions contained in this text. On the down side, the statistics in this text are dated and in need of revision. I would still even with that proviso recommend it heartily to any anthropologist or educational theorist looking into problems associated with Indian educational failure. Buy this book!

Frontier historians have long been appreciative of the importance of Fort Laramie, at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie rivers in present-day Wyoming, as a frontier outpost. Established in 1834 to support the fur trade, the fort had become by the 1850s a key post in the U. S. Army's logistical system and an important center for the orderly movement of settlers on the frontier. The troops at the post were involved in most of the major campaigns fought against the Indians of the northern Great Plains, until the post's inactivation in 1890.

Paul L. Hedren, superintendent of the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site here presents an impressive study of the role of Fort Laramie in the Sioux Indian War of 1876-1877, as the episode that broke the back of the Plains Indians. Using Fort Laramie as the backdrop from which to discuss this important episode in American history, Hedren analyzes in lively fashion the Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Powder River expeditions against the Sioux conducted by Gen. George Crook. There is also comment on Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn, the gold rush into the Black Hills, and the general discord of the Indians at the various agencies.

But "Fort Laramie in 1876" is more than a recitation of the events of the Sioux Indian War. Many other historians have told that story over the years, and if Hedren had limited his book to the war I would have questioned the necessity of its publication. Instead, Hedren recognizes the army post for what it was, the most important installation on the northern plains and the critical site from which the army's campaign against the Sioux was both orchestrated and supplied. While the author's narrative ranges from Omaha, the headquarters ox the army's Department of the Platte, to the campaigns in Montana and the escape of some of the Sioux into Canada. Hedren's focus is always on Fort Laramie and its contributions to the war in terms of personnel, equipment, commanders, communications, and logistics.

Hedren is the first to draw on the large body of material relating to the operation ox the post contained in the National Archives, particularly Record Group 393; the extensive collection of primary materials at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and documents at the U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point. The result is impressive. Fort Laramie in 1876 captures the essence of the military outpost at war. It is an excellent companion volume and deserves a place on the shelf of all serious students of the American West and the Indian wars.

This is the first book that I found on this subject that tells the emigration story from Russia (i.e. ship and train rides) to the North Dakota Territory.

The black and white photo in the book's cover suggests a decades-past flood. But the episode studied is very recent. The 1997 Grand Forks flood in North Dakota.

Fothergill found a neat way to look at the tribulations of those townspeople. She shows how the experiences were very inhomogeneous. Normally, one might facilely think that in a natural disaster, suffering might be, if not uniformly distributed, then at least randomly so. But here we see that the gender, social class, race and even sexual orientation, can play marked effects on what difficulties a person experiences, and for how long these are endured.

She focuses on women. Since many families suffered, and often, these families had the mothers as the core, holding them together.

Father Joseph Zimmerman, S.J., was born on an Iowa farm near Westphalia. He worked for some years among the Sioux in South Dakota. This booklet consists mainly of letters he wrote his sister about his efforts as a missionary. It was not easy work but he accepted it in good fashion, since he knew he was helping the poor people he served so faithfully. He died Sept 21, 1954, while in South Dakota and is buried at Holy Rosary Mission in Pine Ridge. The book is an inspiration and well worth reading.

Johnny stands

By: Harry W. Paige

Johnny was with his grandfather. He lives on a reservation with him and Johnny likes it. His grandfather tells him stories of when he was in a tribe and an old Indian ways of doing things. One day an agent from social services say that Johnny has to leave and go back to his auntýs house in Denver and his grandfather doesnýt have the money for his property or to support Johnny. Johnny knows that if he goes back his grandfather will need a lot of help because he can not see read or write. So they run away and hide in abandon churches and keep moving so no one will find them. They face many changes in the church I think the story was exciting and suspenful you never know whatýs going to happen next in this book.

Gary C. Anderson is considered an expert on Dakota/Sioux history, largely due to this book, "Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862." It is a reprint, I believe, of his doctoral dissertation, and includes a new introduction of the original 1984 printing ... For a neophyte such as myself, the book is a bit too detailed for an introduction to Dakota history, but Anderson does help the beginner by vigorously emphasizing general themes throughout the book.

Anderson's central theme in his book is one of kinship ties. In Dakota culture, Anderson argues, one could be "adopted" into a tribe, band, or Dakota family by going through either a ceremony or marrying a Dakota. Once this was done, that person (and there is no distinction among Indians or Whites in this matter) is considered a part of the tribe. White traders as early as the French in the 17th century used these ties to great effect because it allowed the traders to employ Dakota hunters as fur gatherers. But the ties also required the traders who used them to treat their new Dakota kin as family, something some traders failed to do on a regular basis. Some of these traders let the relationships lapse, or did not give gifts to their Dakota kin (an essential aspect of the give and take of the relationship). Throughout the book, Anderson sledgehammers this concept again and again, showing how kinship bonds so heavily relied upon in the earliest days of Dakota-White contact faded into obscurity as time went by and Whites gained the upper hand in the region in terms of military, political, and economic strength. By the time of the Dakota uprising of 1862, kinship ties were nearly nonexistent.

An effective way to read this book, and one that my professor is trying to drill into our heads, is to try and examine Anderson's findings from an Indian perspective. When this is done, numerous problems with the book emerge.

First, Anderson relies heavily on European sources for his information. While his list of these sources in the back of the book is truly impressive (he examines everything from diaries, travelogues, journals, letters, government documents, books, and treaties), his use of native oral tradition is scarce. Dakota oral stories do exist concerning contact with Europeans, but after reading this book, you would never know it. This may stem from the time in which Anderson wrote the book, as there is now a greater awareness of the need to utilize these sources in order to achieve a finer balance and larger historical picture.

Second, for an Indian scholar, Anderson at times shows a slight insensitivity to the Dakota. It is easy to get carried away with this point and indulge in the type of reckless statements made by the politically correct crowd, but a few statements Anderson makes could be considered crass. For instance, he calls Andrew Jackson's removal program, a program that forced Indians throughout the United States off of their land (often at gunpoint), "humane." During his exposition of the Dakota uprising in 1862, Anderson incessantly refers to Dakotas as either "friendlies" or "hostiles." Now this may be true from the standpoint of the settlers in the region dodging Indian bullets, but it probably had different connotations for those Dakotas who participated in the revolt.

Despite the few biased comments, Anderson doesn't disregard the shameful aspects of the treaty process between Dakotas and the United States government. Time and time again, treaties signed with the Dakotas promised much and delivered little. It was the traders who committed the most egregious sins; they used their position as suppliers for the Dakota to falsify debt records, presenting bills to the federal government for outlandish amounts of money "owed" to them by the Dakotas. When the treaty money finally came through, the traders skimmed this amount right off the top, often getting the amounts written directly into the treaty agreements. As if that isn't bad enough, some of the treaty commissioners indulged in a little corruption themselves, taking tens of thousands of dollars as "fees" for transporting the payments from Washington to the Dakota tribes in Minnesota. At least when this happened, it still meant the Dakotas got some of the money. Oftentimes, either the money didn't come through at all, or would be delivered months late, leading to starvation for the tribes who needed the funds for essential supplies. Eventually, the government realized they could purposefully withhold the money in order to force the Dakota to do things the government wanted done. This withholding of funds is what led to the destructive uprising in 1862, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Dakotas and Whites.

It would have been extremely helpful if Anderson included some decent maps in this book. We get two, one puny map of the upper Mississippi area and one of the Dakota reservations along the Minnesota River. Neither does effective service to the huge amount of place names Anderson drops during the course of his work. They also fail to help the reader place the various tribes within the Dakota Nation. This is important because Anderson often refers to the Mdewankantons, Sissetons, Wahpekutes, etc. These are the separate Dakota tribes, and they move about frequently, so frequently that locating them on the maps provided defies even the hardiest efforts.

For a detailed, scholarly history of the Eastern Dakota tribes, this book, despite its many flaws, does the trick. The research, for the sources it does utilize, is well done. Gary Anderson is to be commended for a fascinating look at a way of life long gone from the American scene.

This book highlights the work of a Milwaukee church designer, Anton Dohnen, who in the early part of the 20th century did work re magnificent Catholic Churches in the central Dakotas. Especially interesting is his account of St. Anthony's Church in Hoven, South Dakota, often called "The Cathedral of the Prairies" even though it is not a cathedral strictly speaking--it was just built with the magnificence which is sometimes put into a cathedral. As I read the account I surely wished that I could at once go to Hoven and see the church, which apparently has not been 'modernized' to such an extent as to lose the character which inspired the builders. The account of how some of these great Dakota churches have been done over so as to destroy their original appearance is so sad, but the people and priests at Hoven did not succumb to the fever which swept thru land in the sixties and seventies. It is also of interest that some of the destruction which was done to historic churches in that era is now being undone and the churches are being restored to their original magnificence. The book is a book to treasure, and one is grateful to the authors despite their seeming to be somewhat unfamiliar with Catholicism and its tenets and practices. Anyone interested in church architecture and living in or planning to visit North or South Dakota should glory in this book.

I found this book to be enjoyable and interesting. It reminds of the small town in south central North Dakota were I was raised. The rural life of these small towns has changed from the postcard displays but in many ways they retain the flavor of the pioneer spirit of the settlers. Historically, this book has value because the evolving nature of farming and rural life is bringing about the demise of more rural communities every year.

I gave this book to my mother, who grew up in North Dakota. She loved it.