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The Sioux Beliefs, and George Washington

Just as we call ourselves Americans first and then specify "Texan" and then "Tyler-ites," the Sioux was a nation - a group of diverse people connected by heritage - that could be broken down into large groups named Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and then into more specific groups:

Hunkpapa (Campers at the Horn)
Minneconju (Planters beside the Water)
Sihaspa (Blackfoot)
Oohenopa (Two Kettles)
Itazipcho (Those without Bows)
Sicangu (Burnt Thighs)
Oglala (They Scatter their Own.)

The Sioux, as did most if not ALL Native Americans, believe in the Great Spirit.  He is a big god, in all things, in all people, very present all the time and very involved in their lives.  The Sioux believe in Controllers - powerful good spirits and less powerful evil spirits.  The Sioux believe that through the power of the Great Spirit almost anything is possible.  His power comes to a few easily; to some with great difficulty; to many, never.  (Almost sounds like Christianity, huh?)


This may explain a re-telling by Indian chiefs of a George Washington encounter during the French and Indian War:


In this specific battle the Indians specifically targeted Washington because he was on horseback and appeared to be a leader of great importance.  And yet, Washington survived.  No big deal.  Unless you consider the fact that there were 1300 men fighting with Washington in that battle, and by the time the Indians rested every other officer on horseback was dead and only 30 Englishmen remained alive!



It was July 9, 1755 in the area of what we now know as Pittsburgh (Fort Duquesne then) at the Battle of Monongahela.  The English were fighting as they always had: in great long lines marching across open fields.  The French and their Indian allies fought guerrilla style like, well, Indians!  Washington was 23 years old, an officer, and in this battle, a messenger - which is why he was on horseback.

According to David Barton's book, "The Bulletproof George Washington," one Indian warrior testified that he had shot at Washington 17 times. The Indian exclaimed that "Washington was never born to be killed by a bullet!" Another Indian, Red Hawk (of the Delaware tribe I think), had shot and missed him 11 times. He had not missed a shot before, and became convinced that Washington was being supernaturally protected by the Great Spirit. In 1770, fifteen years after the battle, an old Indian told Washington in person that he had sought out to meet him. He had been fighting in the battle that day, and he had told all the Indians with him to shoot at him, and make sure that he died. When they all missed, he told them to stop. On that evening, he predicted that Washington would never die in battle, and would be "the founder of a mighty empire."

The old Indian was right. George Washington never was even wounded in the battles that he fought. During the American Revolution, Washington once again seemed to be supernaturally protected. In 1779, a British Major who happened to be the head of the British sharpshooters, was about ready to shoot an American officer at close range. He felt a strong impulse not to shoot. The officer that he failed to shoot was George Washington.

Perhaps the Indian god is, after all, our God, too!

Native American (Indian) Traders

I thought even children understood "cowboys and Indians." 

Then I began to ponder that thought.  No.  No, as a matter of fact, no, I don't think that.  I grew up with a WHOLE bunch of TV shows about cowboys and Indians:  Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, Maverick, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, High Chaparral, Little House on the Prairie ... just to name a few off of the top of my head!  My grandfather is even part Native American.  MY generation has "known" about Indians all our lives.

But, today's children?  Na-da.  There are not hardly even any movies about cowboys and Indians.  I wonder if I could get my grandchildren to write down for me everything they "know" about Indians...  Probably not.  I don't think I could even get my children to do that for me.  But I suspect I have forgotten more about Indians than they know!   By the next generation, cowboys and Indians may be more myth than reality.  How heart-breaking.

Since I decided to start this blog for my children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, I guess I should ... what? share my fascination with Indians?  Yuppers!!

Ever wonder what Indians did for money?  Nothing. They didn't buy and sell things like Europeans did.  They were traders, barter-ers.  What's really interesting though is that they didn't trade "even-Steven."  They were really good businessmen; they always wanted to accomplish a 100% "profit."  Interesting, huh?

Before Europeans showed up, the Mandan and Hidatsa traded with the Cree, the Assiniboin, Crow and Cheyenne.  They all lived off of the land, but they all specialized in different things.  The hunter tribes traded furs (for the desperately cold North Dakota winters) and dried meat with the gatherer tribes for corn, beans, and other agricultural crops.  The plains Indians would trade hides with forest Indians for dried fish.

In this way, trade goods made their way across the continent east to west and west to east. Archeologists working Native American sites in North Dakota have uncovered seashells from both coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.  Conversely, flint (crucial for making fires) from the Dakotas has been found in Canada, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

The Indians were smart traders with an eye to the future.  They might trade with one tribe for things they would rarely use, knowing that there was another tribe on their other geographical side that would trade handsomely for things they would use.  That's how they made their "profit."

The Europeans introduced horses, beads and metal into the trade cycles.  It seems that, no matter how metal came to them (guns, sheet iron or whatever), the Indians reshaped it into arrowheads or tools for processing their hides.  It makes sense.  What good was a gun with no bullets or gunpowder?  But an Indian could fire off arrows faster than Europeans could fire - reload - fire their guns.  Indians, rightly so, found arrowheads much more valuable that guns!  The hunter Indians wanted to shape tomahawks and axes, too.  Once, as the story goes, a Mandan was given a metal corn mill for grinding their grain.  The European thought it a wonderful gift because the Indians ground their corn by crushing it between two rocks.  Sometimes the rocks would end up getting ground into the corn, too, causing chipped teeth.  The Mandan studied that corn mill for awhile, then he broke it into pieces and fitted the small ones onto the end of arrows for arrowheads and used a bigger piece to shatter bones to pieces and get at the marrow!  Beauty is in the eye of beholder, eh?

So, kids, did you know all of that?  Did you know that my great-grandparents (your great-great- great grandparents) were half Indian?

North Dakota Organized

HISTORICAL CENTERS

Camp Atchison SHS (State Historical Site)

Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile SHS

Maple Creek SHS

Fort Ransom State Park and SHS

Gingras Trading Post SHS

Fort Totten SHS

David Thompson SHS

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Fort Mandan Historic Site

Fort Clark SHS

Fort Union National Historic Site

Double Ditch Indian Village SHS

Menoken Indian Village SHS

Killdeer Mountain Battlefield SHS

Fort Dilts SHS

Chateau De Mores SHS

Writing Rock SHS

Whitestone Hill Battlefield SHS

Menoken Indian Village SHS

Huff Indian Village SHS

Fort Rice SHS

Cannonball Stage SHS

 

INDIAN RESERVATIONS

Spirit Lake Reservation

Turtle Mountain Reservation

Standing Rock Reservation

Fort Berthold Reservation

WILDLIFE REFUGES

Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge

Camp Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Audubon National Wildlife Refuge

Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge

Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge

Sully's Hill National Game Preserve

Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Slade National Wildlife Refuge

Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Lonetree Wildlife Management Area

J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge

Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge

Des Lac's National Wildlife Refuge

STATE PARKS

Turtle River State Park

Little Yellowstone Park

Icelandic State Park

Beaver Lake State Park

Doyle Memorial State Park

Graham's Island State Park in Devils Lake

Fort Stevenson State Park

Sakakawea State Park

Little Missouri State Primitive Park

Sullys Creek State Primitive Park

Lewis and Clark State Park

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park

OTHER LOCATIONS

Carl Ben Eielson Memorial Arch

Sibley  Crossing

Clausen Springs

Pembina State Museum

Pembina Gorge

International Peace Garden and Music Camp

Geographic Center of North America (continent)

North Dakota Heritage Center

McDowell Dam Recreation Area

Sitting Bull Gravesite

Schnell Recreation Area

Four Bears Memorial Park

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

North Dakota Heritage Center

The Enchanted Highway

Burning Coal Vein and Columnar Cedars (?)

White Butte - Highest Point in North Dakota - Elevation 3,506 ft

Camel Hump Dam

Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch

Missouri Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center Fort Buford SHS

Maah Daah Hey Trail (connecting the two Theodore Roosevelt National Parks)

Theodore Roosevelt National Park North

Theodore Roosevelt National Park South

What Is There To Do In North Dakota?

What is there to do in North Dakota?  We've asked that question of everyone we encountered since discovering we were coming here.  The only thing everyone could come up with is the two (yes, two) Theodore Roosevelt National Parks.  (That's it?  In an entire state?!)

Last week I got online and found the North Dakota tourism site ( www.ndtourism.com ) and requested a state map and their 2012 Tourism Guide.  I haven't had a chance to look through the Guide (John captured it), but the map reveals a lot.

Working outward from Grand Forks on the map I find:

Turtle River State Park (Turtle River is the name of a Native American tribe)
Carl Ben Eielson Memorial Arch
Camp Atchison SHS (State Historical Site)
Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile SHS
Sibley Crossing
Maple Creek SHS
Fort Ransom State Park and SHS
Clausen Springs
Little Yellowstone Park
Icelandic State Park
Pembina State Museum
Pembina Gorge
Gingras Trading Post SHS
Spirit Lake Reservation
Graham's Island State Park in Devils Lake
Fort Totten SHS
Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge
Sully's Hill National Game Preserve
Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Slade National Wildlife Refuge
Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Beaver Lake State Park
Doyle Memorial State Park
Whitestone Hill Battlefield SHS
International Peace Garden and Music Camp
Turtle Mountain Reservation
(How about this!) The Geographic Center of North America (continent)
Lonetree Wildlife Management Area

Now to the WESTERN half of North Dakota:

Menoken Indian Village SHS
North Dakota Heritage Center
McDowell Dam Recreation Area
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
Huff Indian Village SHS
Fort Rice SHS
Sitting Bull Gravesite
Standing Rock Reservation
Cannonball Stage SHS
Schnell Recreation Area
J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge
Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge
Des Lac's National Wildlife Refuge
Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge
Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge
Camp Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Audubon National Wildlife Refuge
Four Bears Memorial Park
Fort Berthold Reservation
Fort Stevenson State Park
Sakakawea State Park
David Thompson SHS
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
Fort Mandan Historic Site
Fort Clark SHS
Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center
Double Ditch Indian Village SHS
Menoken Indian Village SHS
North Dakota Heritage Center
Little Missouri State Primitive Park
Killdeer Mountain Battlefield SHS
Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge
The Enchanted Highway
Burning Coal Vein and Columnar Cedars (?)
White Butte - Highest Point in North Dakota - Elevation 3,506 ft
Fort Dilts SHS
Sullys Creek State Primitive Park
Chateau De Mores SHS
Camel Hump Dam
Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch
Missouri Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center Fort Buford SHS
Fort Union National Historic Site
Lewis and Clark State Park
Writing Rock SHS
Maah Daah Hey Trail (connecting the two Theodore Roosevelt National Parks)

But, hey, there's nowhere to go or anything to do in North Dakota... 

Who ARE the Indians?

Today, they are accurately called Native Americans - but I can't stop thinking of them as Indians because what would a cowboy be without an Indian to go along with him?  What would the Lone Ranger be without Tonto??

But, just to be sure we all get it, Native Americans are not all one people, using one language, nor do they live their lives the same way.  What Europeans discovered as they arrived and spread across the North American continent was that some Native Americans were gentle and receptive; other Native Americans would just as soon slit your throat as look at you.  The more intrusive Europeans became, the more negative the Indians would become.

In North Dakota, as I said in an earlier blog post, the Europeans found the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Chippewa, but also the group of Indians known as the Oceti Sakowin.  Individually you might recognize their names:  Lakota, Nokota, and Dakota - the great Sioux Nation!

Each of these tribes got to North Dakota by different routes and for different reasons:

Mandans - as early as the 1200's came here by traveling up the Missouri River.  (Wait a minute!  I thought the native Americans got here by crossing the land bridge between Russia and Alaska?  Oh. That was thousands of years ago.  By the 1200's they had spread across the North American continent to the east coast and were now in the process of migrating back toward the west.  And don't think of the United States yet - it didn't exist for another 500 years.  North America was, uh, north America, so mentally erase the U. S. Canadian border.) The Mandan were an agricultural based society living in fixed earthlodges.  Until the smallpox invaded they were receptive to Europeans.

Hidatsa - came to the Missouri River Valley from the east 2-300 years after the Mandans in three different groups (Awatixa, Awaxawi, Hidatsa Proper) .  The Awatixa passed the Mandan and settled upriver from them with the Hidatsa Proper coming a hundred years later.  They also lived in fixed villages and traded their crops with other tribes in the area.

Chippewa (or Ojibwa if you're in Canada) seems to have migrated west with the French fur traders.  They fought with the Sioux (using firearms from the French) for what is now Minnesota's (Land of 10,000 Lakes) abundant fur bearing animals for almost 100 years.  That's how the Lakota branch of the Sioux tribe became Plains Indians - the Chippewa pushed them south.  How bad were the battles between the Indian tribes?  They actually went to the American government in 1804 and asked THEM to establish tribal boundaries to end the warring!  The Chippewa were traders rather than hunters or crop growers for food, though when they also got pushed onto the Plains, they depended on the buffalo as much as the Lakota for so-o-o many of their daily needs.

The Great Sioux Nation - probably originated in North Carolina, moseyed west and ended up hundreds of years later in what we now know as Wisconsin and Minnesota.  (Hey!  John and I went across the river into Minnesota just last weekend to shop at Cabela's and see a movie!)  This is when the Sioux split into the Lakota, Nokota and Dakota.  As the Chippewa pushed the Lakota, the Lakota pushed the Cheyenne - farther west and south.

The Lakota both hunted game and grew crops, but were more into tent-camping than living in fixed housing.

A-l-l Native American tribal society was organized along family lines, relied on their elders to pass on their individual oral histories, were very spiritual, very flexible in that they had to adjust to new homelands as circumstances moved them geographically, and finally, they were all impacted by the white man's incursion on their lives and lands.  (But how was that different from the Chippewa incursion on the Sioux?)

Simply transitioning tribes from the east to the west changed their diet from wild rice, fish and forest game, to buffalo, and to access the buffalo the tribes had to become more nomadic, their lodges transitioned from permanent wigwams to moveable tipis, the canoe was given over to horses, breakable pottery gave way to skin pouches which were lighter, easier to pack, and essentially unbreakable, soft-soled moccasins were uncomfortable on the plains and so they evolved into hard-soled moccasins.

The endless flow of Europeans onto the North American continent literally overran the Native Americans, brought epidemic diseases and death, booze that was maybe as devastating, and ultimately forced Native Americans onto cramped reservations.  Those reservations still exist.  We have traveled through a couple of them during our travels; those reservations are not pretty places...

Dakota Jackpot !

For days and days I've searched for information on the history of North Dakota.  I've picked up some pieces and parts here and there.  I even searched for a book store here in Grand Forks.  I found a used book store in the mall (of all places) and the University of North Dakota campus bookstore.  Not much I could use in either place.  But today, today I hit the mother lode.  It's a awesome website: ndstudies.org.  It tells me the things I want to know - and me want more! 

I already told you that Varennes was the first white trader into the area. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye (1685 - 1749) was given all of the fur trade west of Montreal by the King of France. By 1738 he had reached the Mandan and Hidatsa villages on the Missouri river in what is now North Dakota. That was thirty years before the American Revolution!  The fur companies required their people to keep detailed records, so we have our first documentation of the tribes.  Can you imagine being born in the 1600's in France and ending up in the American West?!

Geographer David Thompson (1770 - 1857)  (that's from before the American Revolution to after the Civil War!  What a phenomenal time to live!!)  Thompson was the first to map the huge lands southwest of Hudson's Bay.  He began in 1797 when he was twenty-seven years old.  He became known as "the greatest practical land geographer of all time" because he not only drew maps but he kept journals, too.  Those journals weren't found until years after his death - and not published until after the turn of the century - 1916.  Mmm-mmm-mmm, how I'd like a copy of that!

Alexander Henry set up a permanent trading post at Pembina (which is two miles south of what is now the U.S.-Canadian border, and it exists to this day!) in 1801.  He journaled about the Chippewa , the Red River Valley, and the Hidatsa chief, Le Borgne.

In1804 we had the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  We all know about it and it's documentation.  It's interesting how many men on that expedition could read and write, and it seems that they all kept journals.  Besides Lewis and Clark, Charles Floyd, John Ordway, Patrick Gass, Joseph Whitehouse, and Robert Frazer all kept journals, and all but Frazer's were published.  (I want copies of them, too!)

Francis A. Chardon detailed daily life at Fort Clark, an American Fur Company outpost, between 1834 and 1839, including the dying words of the Mandan Chief, Four Bears, condemning white people for the treachery of disease that came with the white man.

Then came the great American Civil War and folks began to move west in search of healing and peace and escape...

No!! Absolutely Not!!

Obama's proposed solution to the fiscal cliff isn't about taxes and stimulus. That was to be expected. But his plan includes giving the Executive Branch (Obama) the power to raise the U.S. debt limit. Not just no, but HELL NO! 

Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Give a single man power over YOUR money and you have given him absolute power over YOU.  Would you hand over your bank account to your best friend and let him control your life?  WHY would you give it to Obama or Bush or Reagan or George Washington, Adams or Jefferson!!!

There's a reason all legislation having to do with money has to start in the House of Representatives (which is why Obamacare is illegitimate - it started in the Senate.) The reason "money" starts in the House is because, with local representation at it's highest there, the House is closest to "the people." The Senate has two representatives per state no matter how big or small the state is. The House has hundreds of elected representatives.

Even then, the legislation has to go to the Senate for approval, and to the Executive Branch to be signed.  It's called OVERSIGHT.  If you give a single person the power to raise the U.S. debt limit, where's the oversight? 

Contrary to popular belief, America is NOT a democracy - it is a representative form of government. It is that way because, even in the age of computers and the internet, it would be impossible to get every American to vote on every piece of legislation. It is much more manageable to have voters choose a representative to do that for them - hence the House of Representatives. SO CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL HIM, "HELL NO!" TO GIVING THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH ANY MORE POWER OVER YOUR MONEY!! Google your representative and email him - often! Don't know who he/she is? Call your local elections office. Do it NOW!

Snug as a Bug

Okay.  So, we are firmly ensconced in our incredible (Lovely word, incredible.  Aptly describes our home here in North Dakota - beyond credibility) home away from home.  I am still holding my breath that there has been some mistake and a knock on the door will take it all away...

But, John is already settled in at the hospital and full-time staff is so comfortable with his work - after just a few days! - that they're taking vacation days to get in some Christmas shopping.  He was on call Tuesday night, too.  That's so cool to me - that they trust him so completely.  He's that kinda guy!  I'm so proud of him!

We've done some verbal research with acquaintances about things to do here in the winter.  We're on the North Dakota / Minnesota state line with a river as the dividing line.  Apparently there is park land on either side of the river with 30 miles of maintained trails for folks to cross-country ski on, and I understand that there is at least one ski shop that will rent me snow skis.  (I gotta be crazy!)

We've also discovered that the Dairy Queen on the corner sells Orange Julius'.  I LOVE Orange Julius', and cattywompus from the Dairy Queen is Wal-Mart and Sam's.  Directly across the street from us is a Dollar Tree and across the street from THAT is the mall with Macy's, Sears, J.C. Penney and all the usual mall stores. 

We brought the little Christmas tree we bought in Virginia, but we will need to buy ornaments.  We're getting quite a little collection because of Christmas' in Hawaii and Virginia - and now North Dakota.

We went across the river into Minnesota last weekend and saw the movie, "Lincoln."  This weekend we think we'll go see the new James Bond film, "Skyfall."  The theater is pretty neat because the seats are like padded rocking chairs with reclining backs.

The River Theater is also directly across the street from Cabela's.  We dropped in there for a quick look-see and found hi-tech snowshoes for $110, sleeping bags that keep you warm down to -40 degrees for $349 (on sale for $190), and a tent with a wood-burning stove in the center for only about $2,000.  (Guess if that knock on the door ever comes we could stay in a tent... Please God, no-o-o-o-o!)

North Dakota weather?
Nov 22nd - Thanksgiving Day - 26 degrees with a windchill of 12.  Blizzard conditions with ice pellets.  By 5 o'clock the wind chill was 1 degree.
Nov 23rd -  Snowing
Nov 24th -  Snowing hard :)
Nov 25th -  Snowing.  By 8 p.m. it was 6 degrees with a windchill of -7

One of the locals asked what I would do when winter gets here.  Winter?  THIS isn't winter?  Ah, no.  Winter is when the high is -20 for two straight weeks with a 40 mph wind which make the windchill - ah, I don't even want to know what that factor comes to!!

NASCAR !!

Ah!  I forgot to tell you about the free NASCAR tickets!

Just as I was finishing up one of our school bus routes the Transportation Director comes on the radio and asks if anyone wants some last minute free tickets.  I wait a few minutes, and not hearing anyone else speak up, I say, "Well, yeah!"

Now, we've never been to a NASCAR race before, but you should know by now that I never pass up an opportunity for a new experience!  I calculate the likely "yes's" I might get from our family and ask for that many tickets.

The long and the short of it is, John, his brother, and his 27-year-old nephew, Henry, made the races.

The last thing Angie said to us when she handed us the tickets was, "Buy earplugs."  Wise words, very, very wise words!

John took his other camera to the races - and left that camera in Texas, so I have no photos to share with you :(

That's Granma: School Bus Driver!

New Chapel Hill Independent School District

GO DAWGS!!

(That's Texan for "dogs")

It all started for me a few years back when one of the local school districts was on the evening news saying that they didn't have enough school bus drivers and, therefore, the drivers they DID have were having to do double routes.  They would drive their regular routes, go back to the bus pen, get on a different bus, and run that route, too.  Students were getting home sometimes a couple of hours later than their regular time.  Always the helpful one, I said to myself, I can drive a bus...

 I drive long buses and short buses...

old buses and new buses.

Actually, I'm kind of carrying on an old family tradition.  John's father drove a school bus, and John put himself through college driving a school bus.  I think it's a fun thing to do - and a helpful thing to do.  So, between John's traveler contracts, I work as a substitute bus driver which means I drive every day, but I don't have one particular route.  I drive all of the buses on all of the routes.  Angie just tells me what time and what bus, and I'm good to go.

 Sometimes there are three students to a seat - maybe 80 students?

Or a Special Needs bus may only have four students.

I drive ALLLLLLLLL the buses !!

And here in Grand Forks, North Dakota, we went to the theater to see "Lincoln," and what to my wondering eyes appears?  An add in the previews for school bus drivers!  I guess they are in need all across the nation!  But, alas, I don't have a North Dakota license, and we only have one car so someone would have to walk to work - in -40 degree weather?  I don't think so...

Transportation to the Territories

The federal government and the railroads worked together to connect the East coast to the West coast.  Wagon trains were good - but very susceptible to weather and Indian attacks, etc.  The railroads took care of most of that, could carry cargo for homesteaders and saloons and trading posts, and settlers didn't have to walk 3,000 miles in order to save the livestock for pulling the wagons.

So the federal government gave land grants to almost every railroad I'VE ever heard of being built in America!  The railroads then used the land as collateral to borrow money to buy rails and trains and to hire construction crews.  The Federal government also gave every other "section" of land to homesteaders.

A "section," according the our Public Land Survey System, is equal to one square mile and contains 640 acres.  By 1832, 40 acres became the smallest area that could be acquired.  After the Civil War, former slaves, forever freed in America by the 13th Amendment, were given a quarter-quarter section and a mule, hence the phrase "40 acres and a mule."  Have you ever heard someone say "out on the back 40?"  Same source: a quarter-quarter section of land.  Frontier surveyors sometimes (often) had a shaky grasp of mathematics and had to work feverishly to keep up with land-rushers.  Also, dividing up the "section" of 640 acres was much, much easier than any other quantity.

But, back to the railroads...

For the Dakotas, the success of the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads was due to the abundant agriculture and fast settlement of the Red River Valley along the Minnesota state line between 1871 and 1890.  Major development of the Dakota Territory took place during these years. 

The Great Northern BOUGHT its land from the federal government, operated offices in Germany and the Scandinavian countries to promote and resell its lands, and brought European settlers over at low cost.  I've heard, "Build it and they will come."  Guess the Great Northern believed in it!

Now, there was competition between the railroad moguls.  This battle was a blessing to the soon to be state of North Dakota.  As they battled to control access, nearly 500 miles of new track and more than 50 new town sites were created in just a single year.  Many of the towns were never settled though and later abandoned completely - but not from lack of trying by the Great Northern and Soo Line railroads...

Lest you get too romantic about train travel back then, think about no heat or air conditioning, open windows (if there were windows at all), and soot and cinders, sand and dirt blowing in on you.  There was no restaurant car so you had to pack your food.  (At least in a wagon train you could stop and cook up something - and shoot some game TO cook!)  And I suppose they had a "chamber pot" somewhere if you had to go, but I can't imagine a lady with all those skirts trying to use one on a rocking, tossing, bumping train...  Whew!  I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

Ah, But Is North Dakota REALLY A State??

According to 82-year-old Grand Forks history teacher, John Rolczynski, no.  A single word was left out of North Dakota's 1889 constitution which puts it in non-compliance with the United States Constitution and, therefore, North Dakota cannot be a state.  Territory, yes; state, no.

It was widely reported last year across the nation - and even internationally - that, after a seventeen year quest, Rolczynski finally got a U.S. Congressman to take him seriously, and the people of North Dakota were to vote on amending its constitution to fix the problem last month.

What's so very interesting is that last month some North Dakotan's submitted a petition to the White House to SECEDE from the Union.  (Someone should make up their minds here...)

Now, if Rolczynski is right, and no vote was put on the ballot,  I'm guessin' secession isn't necessary, huh?

According to Elizabeth Chuck of MSNBC.com, before teaching, Rolczynski served in the U.S. Air Force — one of his trainers was Charles Lindbergh, he said — and took political science classes because of his father's wish for him to be a lawyer. Rolczysnki ended up getting a degree in Spanish, French, and social sciences, and later learned Russian. He told the Grand Forks Herald he credits his attention to detail to the skills he learned as a Russian linguist in the Air Force in the 1950s.

Seems a pretty credible guy to me...

A Little History of North Dakota

Of course there were the Native Americans first:  Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Sioux, and Chippewa, to name a few.  The Mandan tribe, also known as the "White Indians," was perhaps of the greatest importance to future settlement by Europeans. 

Oral history says that the Mandan ancestors climbed up the roots of grapevine from deep in the earth.

Some say La Verendrye was the first European to visit the Dakota area; others hold to an account of a Welsh man,  Madog Owain, born at Dolwyddelan castle, coming to this area in the twelfth century.  (c. 1170 AD).  (That's over 300 years before Christopher Columbus!)  He apparently landed on the Gulf coast and came up through the Mississippi River valley.  I'm thinkin' he and his men turned west onto the Missouri and ended up with the Mandans.  In support of this account, some point to the unusually light skin coloring, hair coloring, hazel, blue or grey eyes, Welsh words and sentence structure in the Mandan language, and the use of implements such as coracles (skin covered boats) just as are used today in Wales.

La Verendrye visited the Mandan around 1738 and was much impressed by their level of development.  The permanent locations of the Mandan villages and the Mandan's friendliness with the Europeans aided in limited trade with Europeans throughout the remainder of the 1700's.  As they say in real estate, location, location, location...  The location of the villages at the northern end of the Missouri River gave the nearest portage to the Hudson River basis and, therefore, the quickest access to European traders (mostly French and British.)

By the mid-1700's the Mandan had settled nine villages in what is now south central North Dakota on the Heart River.  On the banks of the Missouri River, the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the Mandan in 1804, and here Sacagawea became a part of the quest for a northwest passage.  According to the Expedition, the Mandan's tribe numbered about 1,250 when Lewis and Clark were with them.

Between 1804 and 1837, an epidemic of smallpox and cholera broke out, and the Mandan's tribe was reduced to about 150 persons.  These diseases were inadvertently brought to Native Americas (but sometimes intentionally) by Europeans.  The Mandan had always been friends of the white man (Europeans), but not after watching their tribe decimated by white man's plagues.  They joined with the Hidatsa in 1845 when they moved from Knife River to the Forth Berthold trading post.  Subsequently, in 1870, a reservation was set aside for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara in that area.

When Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 it extended from New Orleans north to the Canadian border along about the western border of today's Montana.  HUGE piece of land!!

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In 1812, when Louisiana became a state, the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase became known as the Missouri Territory.   Other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota were eventually carved out, and by 1861 the Dakota, Colorado, and Nebraska Territories came into being.

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Following the Civil War, in 1889, North Dakota gained statehood along with South Dakota, Montana, and Washington.

Hmmm.  What else was happening in 1889?  Well, the Johnstown Flood, killing thousands, was the biggest news story of the year.  The ever fun, always fascinating Oklahoma Land Rush, the first edition of the Washington Post was printed,and little noticed (but certainly recorded) was the melting of the Greenland ice.  That seems to happen (according to the geological record)  every 150 years or so.  (I've always wondered why everyone was getting all het up about "global warming."  Greenland didn't get it's name because it was always a white sheet of ice, for goodness sake!)

And so now we have our 39th state, North Dakota!

Our Grand Forks Home

Yea!  We have another winner!

I called everyone on Craig's List and everyone on UNDerground and in the newspaper and phone book.  I was getting desperate, so I began explaining the whole 13-week-medical-traveler help-me-out thing.  One guy said, hmmm, he had an idea, but would have to check it out with his siblings.

Turns out, they had just bought their momma a brand new quadplex in a retirement community, and she up and had a kidney infection that ultimately put her in a nursing home permanently.  That was over a year ago and the house has been vacant since - with all of her furnishing left in it.  So, they chatted amongst themselves and decided to let us live in it for the 13 weeks.

Two car garage (no worries over frozen engine blocks!), ceramic top stove, oven, microwave, washer/dryer, refrigerator, garbage disposal...

TWO full bathrooms, brand new queen size bed, two bedrooms and an office, leather recliner and easy chair with a ottoman, carpet throughout.  And there's a fireplace that opens on both sides between the office and living room ...

AND YOU TURN THE FIRE ON BY FLIPPING A LIGHT SWITCH!!  It's all ADA construction, open floor plan, with a ton of windows - double pane with honeycomb shades for insulation.  They said the average utility cost in the dead of winter should be $130-150 a month.  1,600 sq ft., 9 foot ceilings. The retirement association even clears the driveways and roads with sno-blowers, which is good because we're getting a forecast of snow again for the third day in a row.

 

 

Only 12 more weeks to go!

Texas to the Dakota's

What trip ever starts on time?  The plan was to be on the road by 9 a.m.; we made it at 10:45.  Expecting 26 hours overall to get from Tyler to just short of the Canadian border.

Friday night we had reservations in Wichita, Kansas.  Texas to Kansas in the first (short) day; that's not too bad.  After seven hours of driving our sweet ol' van had used just 1/2 tank of gas!   474 miles on 16 gallons - 29 mpg.  That'll work!  Especially for a vehicle with 211,000 miles on it!!

Before noon Saturday we were north of Salina, Kansas on Interstate 35.  We've never been here before, so we are in "uncharted territory" (for us.)  Waa-hoo! 

We passed Delphos, Kansas.  We all know that Abraham Lincoln didn't have a beard when he was elected president, but he grew one after receiving a letter from a little girl saying she thought he'd look better with one.  That little girl, back in 1860, lived in Delphos, Kansas.  It is also famous for the UFO crop circle that appeared there in 1971.

We also crossed the Nebraska state line before noon.  John thinks we've picked up a tailwind which bodes well for the gas mileage!

We stopped for Chinese for lunch.  My fortune cookie said:

Yuppers!!! 
Yea!  Paychecks are goooood!

About 3:30 we crossed the Missouri River:

into Iowa and will follow the river up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night.

John really likes his Jazz music - and I lose patience with it pretty quickly - so I took a bit of a nap.  When I woke up, I said that I must have missed most of Iowa.  John said, no, because he hadn't seen any potatoes yet.  Silly, says I, you haven't seen any potatoes because they're all in IDAHO!  LOL!

We pass a long caravan of "chipper" trucks:

We wonder if they were on the way to the New York area to help with the cleanup of Superstorm  Sandy.

By 4:30 we had been driving 7 1/2 hours, covered 410 miles and used just a tad over half a tank of gas.  We cross into South Dakota.

Around 7 p.m. we pull into the hotel in Sioux Falls, S.D.; should make Great Falls, N.D. in about six hours tomorrow.

Filling the gas tank is number one for Sunday.  We pay $3.39 a gallon for 83% octane fuel with no ethanol.  I'm thinkin' we can't even BUY ethanol-free fuel in Texas.  With ethanol, the price was $3.19 and 87% octane.  Why the difference in octane?  I exchange text messages with our sons.

One says, "Everything here (Texas) has ethanol.  It's bad for engines, but government requires it."

Which government?  Federal?  If yes, North Dakota is breaking the law.  If it's the Texas government, why would oil-rich Texas demand ethanol be added?  The corn lobby of West Texas?

Do any of my blog readers have any light to shed on the subject?

Before noon on Sunday we cross over the lowest continental divide either of us ever saw:  1,106 foot elevation.  A divide designates where rain drops go.  No, really!  If it falls on the east side it goes to the Atlantic Ocean or down the Missouri and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.  If it falls on the west side of the divide that rain drop finds it's way to the Pacific.  Most often the divide is at the top of a mountain 10,000 feet high.  Poor ol' North Dakota rain drops are not gonna have much help from gravity in finding it's way to the ocean...

I notice that ponds (in Texas we call them "tanks") are beginning to show icy patches on the surface and snow accumulation around the edges.

Woohoo!  Only 138 miles to "home."  Temperature at 1 p.m. is 44 degrees with a wind chill of 39.  Sunsets will be coming at 4:47; sunrises at about a quarter to 8.

We pull into the Sleep Inn at a few minutes to 2 p.m.  Plenty of time to get checked in, find the hospital so we know how to get there tomorrow morning, grab a bite to eat and get a good nights rest.  I'll spend Monday trying to find us a "permanent" home here in Grand Forks!

On Our Way Out Of Town...

Since we had to jog over to Dallas on our way to North Dakota(h), we coordinated with our daughter-in-law to stop long enough for grandchild hugs.  They met us in a Wal-Mart parking lot (God bless Wal-Mart) with smiles and "hearts."

Kristin kept her multitudes occupied while waiting for us to arrive by having them make hearts for us to take with us.  This is one of the reasons all of the grandchildren LOVE to have Kristin go on vacations with us because she always has a happy plan to fill those "Are we there yet?" hours.

While they were focused on their little projects, Kristin was busy making us a "roadmap" envelope...

to hold a traveler's Thanksgiving card:

Even her lil' Thomas, a friend she keeps during the day, made us a bit of his heart to carry along!

Precious times.  Precious times.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE !!

And the Winner is .... Grand Forks, North Dakota !!

Maui, Gettysburg, Chicago, 'Frisco, Waco, Texas...  The list goes on and on for locations interested in a traveling cardiac echo tech, and John's resume was submitted to all of them by the several agencies he works with.  (I know.  I know.  Terminal prepositions are terminal!)  with which he works.  (There.  Feel better?)

After three months of lounging around our land in Texas, Grand Forks, North Dakota (Da-ko-tah, as one billboard put it on our way up here.  Don't miss the "h" on the end.) is our new home - for 13 weeks - or more.

We got the verbal contract offer on a Thursday morning, signed the paperwork that evening, I drove my Special Needs school bus route Friday morning, we loaded the car, hit the road and spent the night in Kansas.  By mid-afternoon Sunday we were in a Grand Forks hotel researching long term housing options.

Housing options are slim when most places want a MINIMUM six month lease.  We will only contract for the length of our contract - even though more often than not they are extended upwards of a year.  I always believe someone out there will understand that we are just coming to their community to try and help out the folks.

I call nearly every hotel in "the book," explain our situation, and finally find one - Sleep Inn - that will work with us short-term and, if need be, long-term.  GREAT place, and a take charge, decision-making Kenny is THE MAN!

John shows up at the hospital Monday morning 8 a.m., begins the paperwork / ID badge routine, gets the layout of the hospital and a schedule for Tuesday.  Whew!  It's been a fast few days!

UN Ban On PRIVATE Gun Ownership World Wide - Including Texas?

I'M not saying this ... I'm just reporting what Reuters News Service has published... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto. The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. On Wednesday Obama Took the First Major Step in a Plan to Ban All Firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress. Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments. These are laws that have been developed and promoted by organizations such as the United Nations and individuals such as George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. The laws are designed and intended to lead to the complete ban and confiscation of all firearms. The Obama administration is attempting to use tactics and methods of gun control that will inflict major damage to our 2nd Amendment before US citizens even understand what has happened. Obama can appear before the public and tell them that he does not intend to pursue any legislation (in the United States) that will lead to new gun control laws, while cloaked in secrecy, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is committing the US to international treaties and foreign gun control laws. Does that mean Obama is telling the truth? Obama and the truth have never met.  He is the most consummate liar there is. What it means is that there will be no publicized gun control debates in the media or votes in Congress. We will wake up one morning and find that the United States has signed a treaty that prohibits firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling to the public. We will wake up another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that prohibits any transfer of firearm ownership. And then, we will wake up yet another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that requires US citizens to deliver any firearm they own to the local government collection and destruction center or face imprisonment. This is not a joke nor a false warning. As sure as government health care will be forced on us by the Obama administration through whatever means necessary, so will gun control. Please forward this message to others who may be concerned about the direction in which our country is headed. We are being led like a lamb to the slaughter (Socialism/Dictatorship). DON'T KEEP THIS - SEND IT OUT TO YOUR LIST

Not since the days of slavery have there been so many people who feel entitled to what other people have produced as there are in the modern welfare state, whether in Western Europe or on this side of the Atlantic.