Dakota Datebook

In 1916, the North Dakota Press Association held its summer gathering at Lake Metigoshe. The newspaper editors were impressed with the area, which most of them had never visited. Newspapers across the state were subsequently filled with reports on the region’s beauty.

The North Dakota State Archives preserves two-dimensional objects like papers, photographs, film footage, diaries, and maps that document the history of the state and region. In 2022, the archives received a donation from the family of Marilyn Cross Hudson. She was born in Elbowoods in 1936. She married Charles Kent Hudson Sr. in Parshall in 1959.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook we'll listen to Diane Fox, enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, talk about the Eloise Cobell lawsuit.

In 1854, white settlers were beginning to travel through present-day North Dakota. As a result, whites and Lakota Bands began clashing. Before then, the Lakota Nation was divided into many factions, but this conflict brought them together by the 1860s. They later divided again over internal conflicts.

On this date in 1995, the Bismack Tribune reported on Bro Halff’s 1993 trip to North Dakota. After spending only three days in Bismarck, he enjoy the city so much that he stayed for three weeks. He came back the summer of 1994 bought a house before returning to San Diego for the fall. By 1995, he was living half the year in North Dakota, and half in California.

At 11:15 a.m. on this date in 1934, “a lone bandit” robbed the Merchants Bank in Rugby. He made off with $429. In the bank at the time were its president, cashier and a farmer, who happened to walk in mid-holdup. The robber quickly fled in a vehicle stolen the day before from a veterinarian in Minot. The robber also held up a gas station attendant in Granville and stole 10 gallons of gas. The Associated Press called the crime the first bank robbery in Rugby’s history.

In September 1925, Mrs. Florence H. Davis began working as librarian of the State Historical Society. She had been known in the community for a number of years, serving as librarian of the Bismarck Public Library since 1918.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll listen to Diane Fox, enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, as she talks about the Fort Laramie Treaty and the Dawes Act.

This week in 1823, the National Intelligencer published a letter rebutting a New-York American editorial that had criticized the Monroe administration's policy of punishing Arikaras for attacking fur traders.

Life changed drastically for Americans when the Spanish flu pandemic struck in 1918. Nearly one third of the world’s population became infected. The death toll is estimated as high as fifty million people. Almost seven hundred thousand Americans died. News reports from Spain were not subject to censorship like they were in the rest of Europe, so the rest of the world learned about the disease through Spanish reports. This led to its name as the “Spanish flu.”