North Dakota

—North Dakotan.

a state in the N central United States. 652,695; 70,665 sq. mi. (183,020 sq. km). Cap.: Bismarck. Abbr.: ND (for use with zip code), N. Dak.

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State (pop., 2000: 642,200), U.S. Situated in the north-central region, it is bordered by Canada and the U.S. states of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana.

It covers 70,704 sq mi (183,123 sq km); its capital is Bismarck. The Missouri River crosses it; the Red River forms its eastern boundary. There is evidence of prehistoric inhabitation throughout the state. At the time of European contact, it was inhabited by various tribes of Plains Indians. It became part of the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The northeastern corner was added by a treaty with Great Britain in 1818. In 1804–05 the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered there among the Indians. In 1861 it became part of the Dakota Territory. Separated from South Dakota, it was admitted to the Union in 1889 as the 39th state. In the 20th century North Dakota's history was marked by the increasing mechanization of agriculture, the enlargement of farms, and the loss of a rural population. In the 1950s it became an oil-producing state, and in the 1960s air bases and missile sites were built there. Its larger cities include Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot.

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▪ state, United States

Introduction

North Dakota, flag of    constituent state of the United States of America. North Dakota was admitted to the union as the 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889. A north-central state, it is bounded by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana to the west. The North Dakota town of Rugby is considered to be the geographic centre of the North American continent. Bismarck, located in the centre of the state, is the capital.

      The state's name derives from the Dakota division of the Sioux peoples who inhabited the plains before the arrival of the Europeans in the 18th century. Indeed, present-day North Dakota was first inhabited by various Native American groups who were hunters and farmers. It later became the site of fur-trading posts and settlements for those who arrived on steamboats on the upper Missouri River from St. Louis. Still later, the area became a rich farmland for Anglo settlers (meaning those of European heritage rather those of Anglo-Saxon descent specifically), and it has continued to be a land of large farms and ranches.

      North Dakota is one of the least-populated states in the country. Seen from above, it appears as endless flat or rolling prairie, bearing the black earth of the plowed land, the green blanket of a new crop, or the yellow cover of ripened grain. Although North Dakota's climate is ideal for agricultural production, the state is vulnerable to major natural disasters (drought, floods, tornadoes, and blizzards) and has remained heavily dependent on government aid. North Dakotans have generally been resilient, balancing realism with long-range optimism and seeking new methods of economic development while preserving their love of the land and what it can produce. Area 70,700 square miles (183,112 square km). Pop. (2000) 642,200; (2007 est.) 639,715.

Land (North Dakota)

Relief

 The eastern half of North Dakota is part of the Central Lowland region of the United States. Both the Red River valley, a flat, glacier-formed lake bed extending from 10 to 40 miles (15 to 65 km) on either side of the Red River of the North, and the Drift Prairie, a rolling plain covered with glacial drift, lie in North Dakota's portion of the Central Lowland. The western half of the state is part of the Great Plains region of the United States. The Missouri Escarpment separates the Drift Prairie from the Great Plains. In essence, the state's topography consists of three broad steps rising westward: the Red River valley (800 to 1,000 feet [250 to 300 metres] above sea level), the Drift Prairie (1,300 to 1,600 feet [400 to 500 metres]), and the Missouri Plateau (the North Dakota portion of the Great Plains, 1,800 to 2,500 feet [550 to 760 metres]).

      The Missouri riverbed is covered with a thick layer of glacial drift to the north and east. The Missouri Plateau has numerous potholes, lakes, and sloughs. West of the Missouri River the landscape has been shaped by water and wind erosion, and along the Little Missouri River (a branch of the Missouri) are spectacular cliffs, buttes, and valleys that form the North Dakota Badlands, in the far western part of the state. The highest point in North Dakota is White Butte (3,506 feet [1,069 metres]), near the southwest corner of the state in the Badlands area.

Drainage and soils

      About two-fifths of the state is drained by the systems of the Red and Souris (Souris River) rivers, with roughly another two-fifths—the Missouri Plateau and the James River system—drained by the Missouri River. Devils Lake, in northeastern North Dakota, is the largest natural body of water in the state. It has fluctuated widely in depth and area over time. Throughout the 1990s, water levels began to rise dramatically because of increased rainfall and decreased evaporation. By the turn of the 21st century, the water had risen some 25 feet (7.5 metres), causing extensive flooding and destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in its surrounding area. Efforts to lower the water level of the lake by connecting it to the Sheyenne River have been controversial because of the high levels of sulfate found in the river.

      Chernozem soils are found in the Red River valley and the Drift Prairie. Lighter, thinner, dark brown soils are common on the Missouri Plateau.

Climate

      North Dakota's north-central location gives the state a continental climate that is noted for its extreme temperatures. Temperatures have surged above 120 °F (about 49 °C) in summer and have plunged into the −60s F (about −51 °C) in winter. The western part of the state experiences lower humidity, less precipitation, and milder winters. In general, average temperatures in January range from near 0 °F (about −18 °C) in the northeast to the low 20s F (about −6 °C) in the southwest. In July the average temperatures range from the lower 80s F (about 28 °C) in the northeast to the upper 80s F (about 31 °C) in the southwest. Statewide average annual precipitation is about 17 inches (430 mm), but it ranges from 13 inches (330 mm) in the northwest to slightly more than 20 inches (510 mm) in the southeast. The farming season in North Dakota varies considerably, from 134 days at Williston, in the northwest, to 104 days at Langdon, in the northeast.

Plant and animal life

      Most of the state is covered by grasses, which generally protect the soil from erosion and provide pasture. Perennial grasses grow early in spring and are usually dormant by summer. Drought and fires have inhibited tree growth; in fact, less than 1 percent of North Dakota's land is forested, though rows of trees are commonly planted around farms to reduce wind erosion. Sections of relict virgin prairie are protected; however, in arable regions, croplands have replaced the prairie.

 The grasslands still serve as a natural habitat for herds of buffalo and antelope, though many of the buffalo are protected in state parks. Belts of timber and brush along the rivers are home for white-tailed deer, elk, and bears. The Missouri Plateau is a principal flyway for wildfowl.

People (North Dakota)

Population composition

      Several peoples were living in the territory of North Dakota when European settlers arrived in the mid-1700s. In the early 21st century, Native Americans (Native American) were the largest minority group in the state, constituting about 5 percent of the total population. Many of them live on reservations: various Sioux groups at Standing Rock Indian Reservation along the Missouri River south of Bismarck, at the Sisseton Indian Reservation in extreme southeastern North Dakota, and at Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in east-central North Dakota near Devils Lake; the Ojibwa (locally called Chippewa or Anishinaabe) at the Turtle Mountain Reservation near the Canadian border at Belcourt; and the Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan (known as the Three Affiliated Tribes) at Fort Berthold in the Missouri River area in the western part of the state.

      The fur trade of the 1700s attracted French, Scots, English, Canadians, and Americans to North Dakota, and by 1800 peoples of mixed European and Native American ancestry, known in North Dakota as Métis, were an established group. Other early settlers included ethnic Germans who had earlier migrated to Russia and Norwegians. By 1890 the foreign-born population accounted for about two-fifths of the population, a higher proportion than in any other state at the time; and by 1920, when pioneer settlement had been completed, about two-thirds of the population was foreign-born. By the early 21st century, more than nine-tenths of the state's total population was of European ancestry, and less than one-tenth was foreign-born. In addition to Native Americans, the remainder of the population is made up of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and recent immigrants from Africa and eastern Europe.

      About one-half of North Dakotans are Lutherans and more than one-third are Roman Catholics. Most of the remainder are divided among other Christian denominations. There is a small Jewish community in North Dakota, as well as groups of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, mainly in urban areas. The state was the home of the first mosque to be founded in the United States, which was built by Lebanese immigrants in 1929 at Ross, in the northwestern corner of the state. (The mosque was torn down in the 1970s, and a new, though smaller, one was built in the same spot in 2005.)

Settlement patterns

      Since the second half of the 20th century, North Dakota's population has shifted from primarily rural to primarily urban in makeup. More than one-half of North Dakotans live in urban areas. Many hamlets and villages have disappeared, while in many small towns businesses and houses have been abandoned. The state's larger cities have expanded, and shopping centres, housing complexes, and cultural institutions have been built. Fargo has grown especially as a result of a boom in agricultural-implement manufacturing, the development of high-technology research facilities at North Dakota State University, and the general increase in employment opportunities in the service industry. Bismarck also experienced population growth as migrants settled in the area to work in the nearby lignite fields to the north and the oil fields to the west.

Demographic trends

      Most of North Dakota's rural areas had reached their peak populations by the 1920s. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, rural North Dakota lost population as a result of low birth rates and an out-migration of younger people to urban areas or out of state. By the last few decades of the 20th century, fewer and fewer young people were starting careers as farmers or ranchers, because of the high overhead costs and low income. The elderly constitute the fastest-growing segment of the state's rural population, with about one-seventh of the total population over age 65.

Economy

      North Dakota's economy underwent substantial changes in the last two decades of the 20th century. The state's two chief sources of revenue—agriculture and fossil fuels—became unreliable sources of income. The agriculture sector declined in part as a result of adverse national farm policies associated with the 1996 Freedom to Farm bill, which gradually moved farmers off federal support payments, and partly because of the effects of disastrous weather. Similarly, oil production fluctuated greatly in response to changes in the international markets. Consequently, by the early 21st century, services had become the dominant economic activity, accounting for more than one-third of state income. The state remains dependent on mining and agriculture, however.

Agriculture and fishing

      Farms and ranches accounted for about nine-tenths of North Dakota's land area at the end of the 20th century. The number of family farms and ranches dropped significantly beginning in the 1930s, but the average size of farms increased. These changes were a result of the consolidation of operations (the formation of farming cooperatives), increased mechanization, and the allocating of agricultural land to other uses. The state principally produces small grains, among them canola, spring and durum wheat, rye, barley, sunflower, and flaxseed, as well as legumes (pinto beans, peas, and lentils). Wheat, soybeans, corn (maize), and sugar beets are cultivated for export. Livestock raising, while of lesser economic importance than crops, includes hogs, sheep, poultry, and bison.

      Recreational fishing is the most common type of fishing in North Dakota, especially the catch of perch, walleye, and northern pike in Devils Lake and Lake Sakakawea. Paddlefish are raised in reservoirs, and their roe is made into caviar for export.

Resources and power

      North Dakota's resources include sand and gravel, cement rock, clay, salt, uranium, and volcanic ash, but its two most valuable have been lignite coal and petroleum. In the early 21st century, the state produced about 30 million tons of coal annually. Originally mined as early as 1873 to use for heating and as fuel for steam locomotives, lignite remains the state's main fuel source for generating electricity and is extracted through strip-mining (strip mining) techniques.

      Oil in the state was first produced commercially in the Williston Basin, starting with the 1951 drilling season in Tioga. In general, oil production in North Dakota has followed a boom-and-bust cycle in sync with the national economy and international events. By the early 21st century, oil production had revived and drilling began again. Companies have used advanced horizontal drilling techniques to tap crude oil and natural gas under Lake Sakakawea, a reservoir formed by the damming of the Missouri River. Also, horizontal drill rigs have been used to explore large underground oil shales. The state's oil fields, traditionally in far western North Dakota, more recently have extended toward the centre of the state. There is an oil refinery in Mandan.

      The production of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) has been a growing industry in North Dakota since the 1990s, and several ethanol plants throughout the state can collectively produce more than 100 million gallons of fuel annually. Some of the plants' production has been slowed, however, as a result of high corn prices and lack of water supply.

Manufacturing

      Less than one-tenth of North Dakotans work in the manufacturing industry. Manufactures include foodstuffs, farm and transportation equipment, and computer software. Fargo is one of the state's chief manufacturing centres.

Services and labour

      Services make up the bulk of the North Dakotan economy, and about two-fifths of the labour force is employed in this sector. Telephone call centres, financial corporations, travel agencies, and transportation companies are located in the state. The U.S. Air Force bases at Minot and Grand Forks employ thousands of North Dakotans. There are two state-owned industries: The Bank of North Dakota (in Bismarck) and the North Dakota State Mill and Elevator (in Grand Forks). The Indian gaming (gaming, Indian) industry grew substantially in the early 21st century, creating jobs and generating revenue that helped make possible the construction of health facilities and other improvements in the quality of life for reservation members. Even with the growth of gaming, however, unemployment is generally higher among the Native American population than the rest of North Dakotans.

Transportation

      Intrastate and interstate traffic moves primarily east-west through the state. Fargo is a main stopover point on the way to other towns in North Dakota, to Minneapolis–St. Paul, the nearest metropolis, and to the Pacific Northwest.

      North Dakota had a well-developed system of rail lines, but railroad deregulation in the 1970s and '80s made it easier for railways to abandon track, especially grain elevator-oriented branchlines. Loss of such branchlines became a common occurrence throughout the state as the agricultural sector began to decline. Service was reduced except to selected inland grain terminals. Increasingly, trucks are transporting commodities, but mainline rail freight service continues to carry grain and coal. By the end of the 20th century, various short-line railroad companies had developed branchlines for transporting grain. Passenger rail service is limited, as is commercial bus service. Some counties in the state (especially those with aging populations) have begun providing small buses that travel from rural areas and small towns to larger retail centres.

      There are commercial airports in North Dakota's larger cities and private airfields throughout the state. North Dakotans generally must fly through Minneapolis–St. Paul or Denver as the first and last leg of a trip.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

  North Dakota's government is headed by a governor who is elected for a four-year term. The state's bicameral legislature consists of a 47-member Senate and a 94-member House of Representatives. North Dakota's highest court is the Supreme Court, on which five justices sit. There are also a Court of Appeals and municipal courts whose judges are elected in nonpartisan elections. The unified court system has evolved significantly as a result of legislation in 1981 (replacing the multilevel county court structure) and 1991 (combining county courts into district courts, shifting to a single-level trial court, and reducing the number of trial judges).

      North Dakota's 53 counties, with populations ranging from barely 900 to more than 100,000, elect commissions and officers. Most of the counties are further divided into townships, all of which elect administrative officers. The great majority of the state's municipalities (designated by law as cities regardless of size) have mayor-council governments; about one-sixth of cities have home rule charters.

      Politics in North Dakota is rooted in the radicalism of the Nonpartisan League; founded in 1915, this socialist farm-oriented organization advocated government ownership of mills, grain elevators, and banks and threw its support to either Democratic or Republican candidates that adopted its positions. By the early 1960s the league had largely folded into the Democratic Party, which dominated politics in the state until the late 20th and the early 21st century, when more conservative issues and candidates began making inroads in the state.

Health and welfare

      North Dakotans have traditionally received excellent medical care. However, since the 1980s fewer and fewer dentists and doctors are practicing outside the dental clinics and the major hospitals in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot. While few people live more than a two-hour drive from one of these urban centres, it has been increasingly difficult for elderly people to access treatment. Consequently, some regional hospitals have developed satellite systems of clinics. The state also has several regional mental health centres and a state hospital for those with mental illness. Nursing homes, senior citizen centres, and home health care businesses have been increasing throughout the state because of the aging population. Public health services are provided through the North Dakota Department of Health. The colleges of medicine and nursing at the University of North Dakota (North Dakota, University of) are notable for educating practitioners and training health care administrators. Branches of the Indian Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services serve the Native American population.

      Economic assistance and a variety of social services (for the elderly, children, and those with disabilities) are provided by the Department of Human Services of the state of North Dakota. Aid is also given by county social services boards, private welfare agencies, and denominational groups.

Education

      Many rural elementary and high schools in North Dakota are too small to provide full programs. Throughout the 1990s there were numerous efforts to consolidate school districts and to create school academic and athletic cooperatives in response to the decrease of the school-age population. One-room schoolhouses for kindergarten through eighth grade still exist in the remoter reaches of the state, most notably in the Badlands area. Resources are scarce, and there are teacher shortages in this area.

      The majority (about nine-tenths) of North Dakotans finish high school, and most of them pursue further education within the state. Indeed, state-supported higher education is greatly prized by residents. The University of North Dakota (North Dakota, University of) (1883), with campuses at Dickinson, Mayville, and Minot, and North Dakota State University (1890) are the state's largest public institutions. Trinity Bible College (1948) in Ellendale and the University of Mary (1955), with campuses at Bismarck and Fargo, are privately run faith-based schools. Distance and online learning increasingly are being offered through the state's public and private institutions of higher education as well. A two-year college is maintained by each of the state's Native American reservations. The North Dakota State Library in Bismarck develops information services statewide, and all the state's libraries are connected to an online catalog.

Cultural life

      The traditional North Dakota spirit of self-reliance and cooperation is reflected in the cultural life of the state. Without a large metropolitan centre, the cities and towns are centres for cultural life. Most of the community art associations, performance arenas, and theatre groups are located in college or university towns. The Medora Musical, a long-standing summer musical theatre performance, takes place annually in the Burning Hills Amphitheatre at Medora.

 Native American cultural traditions have been widely preserved in North Dakota. Beadwork, pottery, and other crafts are sold throughout the state. The durable and unique pottery of the Three Affiliated Tribes is particularly sought after. Powwows (powwow) are major cultural events both on and off reservations. In early April the University of North Dakota holds an annual week-long Wacipi (Lakota: “Celebration”) known as Time-Out Week, which includes the Time-Out Powwow, one of the largest powwows in the state.

      North Dakota's European heritage, especially Scandinavian cultural traditions, remain vigorous. The Sons of Norway, a Norwegian American cultural and educational organization, has a number of active chapters in the state. Norwegian culture is celebrated on many occasions but especially on Norwegian Constitution Day, better known as Syttende Mai (May 17). The annual Høstfest in Minot is an international celebration of Scandinavian heritage that draws thousands of tourists to the area. North Dakotans of Icelandic, Czech, Ukrainian, Polish, and German ancestry also retain some ethnic customs, and in some families ancestral languages are still spoken. The Ukrainian Cultural Institute in Dickinson promotes traditional dances, cuisine, and pysanky, the Ukrainian art of decorating eggs at Easter.

The arts

      Federal funds and state appropriations for the arts are administered under the North Dakota Council on the Arts. Most funding, however, comes from private donations. Acclaimed North Dakotan writers include Louis L'Amour (L'Amour, Louis), Era Bell Thompson, Eric Sevareid (Sevareid, Eric), Lois Phillips Hudson, Larry Woiwode (Woiwode, Larry), and Louise Erdrich (Erdrich, Louise). Noted entertainers from North Dakota include Peggy Lee (Lee, Peggy), Angie Dickinson, Dorothy Stickney, Bobby Vee, and the “King of the Champagne Music Makers,” Lawrence Welk (Welk, Lawrence); the Welk homestead near Strasburg is a major tourist attraction.

Cultural institutions

      The North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck is the most comprehensive of the state's museums, but many smaller museums of interest are to be found throughout the state. Located on the campus of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, the North Dakota Museum of Art has established a strong reputation nationally as an innovative centre of fine arts. Also on campus is the Chester Fritz Auditorium; noted for its outstanding acoustics, it hosts symphonies and choral groups. The Historic Fargo Theatre (1925–26) is a restored arts cinema that also offers live performances.

Sports and recreation

 The most popular sports among North Dakotans are fishing, hunting, golfing, and biking. Snowmobiling, ice skating, skiing, snowboarding, and ice hockey are favourite winter sports. Devils Lake is a major recreational area. North Dakota also has numerous state parks. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, located in the scenic Badlands area, is the site of canyons and petrified forest and is inhabited by many bird species. The International Peace Garden, which straddles the Canadian border, has many lakes as well as camping facilities and lodges.

      Minor league and semiprofessional baseball, while no longer prominent in North Dakota, have an important history in the state. Intermittently throughout the 20th century, North Dakota towns had teams in the Northern League. But what sets baseball in the state apart is that, as in Minnesota, teams were racially integrated long before the colour barrier was broken in the major leagues. Central to this history is Negro league star pitcher Satchel Paige (Paige, Satchel)'s tenure with the Bismarck town team in 1933. But no one looms larger in the baseball lore of the state than Roger Maris (Maris, Roger), a Fargo native who for many years held the major league's single-season home run record; a museum dedicated to his accomplishments is located in his hometown.

      Bismarck has a team in the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Developmental League, and Phil Jackson, one of the most successful coaches in the history of the NBA, played at the University of North Dakota, which has enjoyed success not only in basketball but in football and hockey as well. College sports fans in the state also follow the fortunes of North Dakota State University, which won multiple Division II championships in football, wrestling, and women's basketball.

Media and publishing

      The state's largest daily newspapers are the Bismarck Tribune, the Fargo Forum, the Grand Forks Herald, and the Minot Daily News.

History (North Dakota)

Early history

      When Europeans reached the territory of present-day North Dakota in the mid-1700s, several peoples (Native American) were already living in the region. The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara were settled along the Missouri River; the Ojibwa (locally called Chippewa or Anishinaabe) and Cree resided in the northeast; and various Sioux groups (the Assiniboin, Yankton, Wahpeton, and Teton) inhabited areas in the north, southeast, and west.

Explorers and traders

 The Canadian fur trader Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur (lord) de La Vérendrye, was one of the first explorers of the North Dakota area. He visited a cluster of earthen-lodge villages near present-day Bismarck in 1738. Fur traders from Hudson Bay and Montreal began arriving in the area on a regular basis in the 1790s. The first permanent trading post in North Dakota was established in 1801 at Pembina. American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (Lewis and Clark Expedition) arrived at Mandan and Hidatsa villages in 1804 near present-day Bismarck. They were taken with the friendliness of the village residents and constructed Fort Mandan nearby, where they passed the winter of 1804–05. (Today the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is at Washburn, about 30 miles [48 km] north of Bismarck.)

      The United States acquired the lands drained by the Red (Red River) and Souris (Souris River) river systems (which from 1670 had been part of Rupert's Land) through the Rush-Bagot Agreement (Rush–Bagot Agreement) of 1817 and the remainder of what became North Dakota from France through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

 In the 1820s and '30s American traders brought in guns, kettles, blankets, axes, and liquor but also disease. The Native Americans became dependent on the traders for their supplies, and in the process many Indians died. In 1837 smallpox reduced the Mandan population of North Dakota from about 1,800 to 125 in a few months. Native American hostility grew when steamboat traffic increased after the discovery of gold in Montana in 1862 and when the U.S. Army built forts along the rivers. In 1876 Lieut. Col. George A. Custer (Custer, George Armstrong) and the 7th Cavalry set out from Fort Abraham Lincoln, south of present-day Mandan, for their fateful encounter with the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Little Bighorn, Battle of the), fought in present-day Montana.

Pioneering and statehood

      The fur trade declined in the 1860s, and Anglo settlement began in earnest in 1871, when railroads reached the Red River from St. Paul and Duluth, Minn. A flood of pioneers who had acquired land under the Homestead Act (Homestead Movement) of 1862 turned to wheat farming. During the period known as the Dakota Boom (from 1878 to 1886), many giant farms stretched across the new state, and North Dakota wheat made Minneapolis, Minn., the milling centre of the country in the 1880s. The Northern Pacific (Northern Pacific Railway Company) and Great Northern (Great Northern Railway Company) railway companies vied with each other to reach the richest grain centres. Dependence on wheat unified the farmers and helped strengthen the regionwide Populist Movement. The Dakota Territory, which was established in 1861, was divided in 1889, and both North and South Dakota were admitted to the union on Nov. 2, 1889.

North Dakota since 1900

      Soon after the period of pioneer settlement ended in about 1920, the Nonpartisan League, which exerted great influence on the state government, established a state-owned bank, flour mill, and grain elevator. The league soon lost its political clout, but the North Dakota Farmers Union (founded in 1927) launched a strong cooperative movement to control the selling of grain and the purchase of farm supplies. (Such radical farm movements led many North Dakotans to oppose U.S. intervention in both World Wars, because they identified participation with war profits it generated for Wall Street firms.)

      Since 1915 North Dakota's history has been marked by increasing mechanization of agriculture, the enlargement of farms, the loss of rural population, and the widespread use of the automobile. After World War II came rural electrification, soil conservation, and highway construction. In the 1950s North Dakota became an oil-producing state. Construction of the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River, completed in 1954, created an enormous reservoir, Lake Sakakawea. But while important for hydroelectric production and irrigation, the dam flooded Native American farmland. (At the beginning of the 21st century, Native Americans' claims for compensation were still not resolved.) In the 1960s, air force bases, missile sites, and antiballistic-missile installations were built in the state. A major expansion of the Interstate Highway System through North Dakota was completed in the 1970s.

      Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the state's economy was affected by worldwide variations in the pricing of both fossil fuels and agricultural products, as well as by adverse weather, most notably a number of severe floods (flood) in the 1990s. The Freedom to Farm Act (1996)—federal legislation that phased out certain subsidies over a seven-year period—had a negative impact on the state's agriculture, and the economy also suffered from the downsizing of military installations, most notably the air force bases.

      In the early 21st century, flooding continued to cause disasters in numerous locations across the state but most notably in the drainage basins of the Red River of the North and Devils Lake. Such catastrophes have a significant impact on even the small percentage of the state's income that is derived from manufacturing and tourism in North Dakota. Other major issues included increases in teenage alcohol abuse and drug use, especially of methamphetamine (more commonly known as crystal meth), as well as gambling problems among adults. Meanwhile, North Dakota's government struggled to reverse current demographic trends by attempting to attract former residents back to the state to raise families. Yet, the stoic approach many North Dakotans take to such issues is not to be confused with defeatist complacency. Indeed, more than ever, North Dakota communities are determined to employ their fierce spirit to overcome these obstacles as they have others.

Elwyn B. Robinson Bernard O'Kelly Douglas C. Munski

Additional Reading

General works

Federal Writers' Project, North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State (1938, reprinted as The WPA Guide to 1930s North Dakota, 1990), also updated in a 2nd ed. (1950, reprinted 1976); and Francie M. Berg, North Dakota (1977), are valuable descriptive works. John P. Bluemle, The Face of North Dakota: The Geologic Story (1977, revised 1991), is a sound introduction to the state's geology and mining activity. L.R. Goodman and R.J. Eidem, The Atlas of North Dakota (1976), contains maps depicting geophysical data and economic, social, and administrative aspects; a more recent atlas is Mohammad Hemmasi, Floyd C. Hickok, and Devon A. Hansen, North Dakota Thematic Atlas (1994), while DeLorme Mapping Company, North Dakota Atlas & Gazetteer (1999), emphasizes topography. Mary Ann Barnes Williams, Origins of North Dakota Place Names (1966), uncritically preserves a few preposterous local legends but is nonetheless a useful collection. Portions of Williams's book are used in Vernell Johnson, North Dakota: Every Town on the Map and More: A Pictoral History (2002). A more readily available study of North Dakota toponymy is Douglas A. Wick, North Dakota Place Names (1988). William C. Sherman and Playford V. Thorson (eds.), Plains Folk: North Dakota's Ethnic History, rev. and corrected ed. (1988), provides detailed ethnographic information on settlement and the state's cultural and religious traditions. The story of the German-Russian settlers is well told in Adolph Schock, In Quest of Free Land (1964); and David Dreyer and Josette S. Hatter, From the Banat to North Dakota: A History of the German-Hungarian Pioneers in Western North Dakota (2006), is a collection of personal histories. Mary Jane Schneider, North Dakota Indians: An Introduction (1986), and her subsequent monograph, North Dakota's Indian Heritage (1990), are the most comprehensive works of their kind. On the development of agriculture in eastern North Dakota, specifically in the valley of the Red River of the North, three books are particularly helpful: Stanley Norman Murray, The Valley Comes of Age (1967), covering the period 1812–1920; and Hiram M. Drache, The Day of the Bonanza (1964), and The Challenge of the Prairie (1970). A good collection of well-documented essays on major political personages and movements is Thomas M. Howard (ed.), The North Dakota Political Tradition (1981).

History

Elwyn B. Robinson, History of North Dakota (1966, reissued 1982), is the authoritative and exemplary history up to about 1960. Robert P. Wilkins and Wynona Huchette Wilkins, North Dakota: A Bicentennial History (1977), is a sound, interpretive treatment. Robert L. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 1915–1922 (1955, reprinted 1985), questioned on some points of fact by later writers, remains a classic. Vera Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), a regional history, has literary as well as historical value. Elizabeth Hampsten, Read This Only to Yourself: The Private Writings of Midwestern Women, 1880–1910 (1982), is a collection of writings by North Dakota women during the settlement years. North Dakota History (quarterly) contains articles on the history and culture of North Dakota and the northern Great Plains.Douglas C. Munski

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