North Dakota centennial blue book, 1889-1989 - Page 35

• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Canada; Indian; Pacific; St. Louis; assiniboine; glacier*
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndbb/id/5739

NORTH DAKOTA CENTENNIAL BLUE BOOK 35 NORTH DAKOTA HISTORY: OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY When North Dakota entered the Federal Union in 1889, its leaders prophesied a glorious future for the Northern Prairie State. Great cities and prosperous farms, said the promoters, would make Dakota the " jewel" in the crown of Democracy. The ensuing century has proven the " boomers" both right and wrong. North Dakota has enjoyed prosperity, but it has also seen devastaringly hard times. In 1989, the essential problem remains the same as a century earlier — finding the capital necessary to provide services and benefits of modern society to a far- flung population. As it was in 1889, North Dakota remains a social, cultural and economic colony, a producer of raw materials, a consumer of manufac­tures and capital, and an exporter of educated young people. Before Euro- American settlement of the Northern Plains began in the 19th Century, the land had been occupied for many centuries. Archeological investigations document the presence of big game hunting cultures after the retreat of the continental glaciers about 10,000 years ago and later settle­ments of both hunting and gathering and farming peoples datingca. 2000 B. C., to 1860. When the first white explorers arrived, distinct Indian groups existed in what is now North Dakota. These included the Dakota or Lakota nation ( called " Sioux," or enemies by those who feared them), Assiniboine, Chey­enne, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. Groups of Chippewa ( or Ojibway) moved into the northern Red River Valley around 1800, and Cree, Blackfeet and Crow frequented the western buffalo ranges. These peoples represented two different adaptations to the plains environment. Nomadic groups depended primarily upon vast herds of American bison for the necessities of life. When the horse was brought to the Northern Plains in the 18th Century, the lives of the Dakota, Assiniboine and Cheyenne changed dramatically. These bands quickly adapted to the horse, and the new mobility enabled them to hunt with ease and consequently to live better than ever before. The horse became a hallmark of Plains cultures, and the images of these mounted Indians bequeathed a romantic image of power and strength that has survived in story, films and songs. In contrast, the sedentary Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara lived in relatively permanent earthlodges near the Missouri River and supplemented produce from extensive gardens with hunting; their fortified villages became commercial centers that evolved into trading hubs during the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. Indians and Euro- Americans came into contact during the 18th Century. The first recorded visitor was La Verendrye, a French explorer who reached the Missouri River from Canada in 1738 while searching for a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Others followed, including La Verendrye's sons in 1742. However, most contact resulted from the Canadian fur trade until Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the American " voyage of discovery" up the Missouri from St. Louis in 1804. The fur trade linked the Northern Plains to a worldwide economic and political system. European nations, compering for mercantile supremacy, claimed the plains, and Great Britain, France and Spain exchanged the territory several times through wars and treaties. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris gave all French lands drained by Hudson's Bay to Great Britain, including the country tributary to the Red River of the North. France had ceded lands drained by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to Spain one year earlier; this territory was returned to France in 1800. Three years later Emperor Napoleon Bona­parte sold French possessions to the fledgling United States. This sale, known as the Louisiana Purchase, inaugurated American ownership of lands now included in North Dakota. Intense competition characterized the fur trade, and rival companies competed for prime locations. In 1801, Alexander Henry, Jr., established a post at Pembina that after 1812 became the center for an agricultural colony sponsored by the British crown. However, British influence diminished along the Missouri after 1800, and the Red River Valley likewise fell into American control in 1818 when the London Convention established the 49th Parallel as the northern boundary between the United States and British possessions in North America. Ironically, many of the colonists near Pembina moved north into Canada when an 1823 boundary survey found them to be residing in the United States. With several notable exceptions, contact between the Native peoples and American traders, explorers and military personnel in the Northern Plains remained peaceful during the early 19th Cen­tury. Indians became instrumental in the fur trade; major trading posts at Fort Union and Fort Clark, and others of lesser significance, catered mainly to Native trappers and hunters. In exchange for their meat and furs, the Indians received guns, metal tools, cloth and beads and other trade goods. This exchange forever altered Indian cultures, and it often brought dangers; in 1837, for example, smallpox viritually wiped out the Mandan people at Fort Clark.