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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 devastatingly hard
times. In 1989, the essential problem remains the same as a
century earlier--finding the capital necessary to provide
services and benefits of a 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.
First 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 dating ca. 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 an 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.
Fur Trade
The fur trade linked the Northern Plains to a world-wide
economic and political system. European nations, competing
for mercantile supremacy, claimed the plains, and Great
Britain, France, and Spain exchanged the territory several
times through wars and treaties. In the 1763 Treaty of
Paris, all French lands drained by Hudson's Bay were given
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 virtually wiped out the Mandan people at
Fort Clark.
In the Red River Valley, the fur trade created a new nation,
the Métis. Descended from Euro-American fur trade employees
and Chippewa Indian women, the Métis melded the two cultures
in language, lifestyle, and economy. In 1843, regular
caravans of high-wheeled, wooden Red River carts began
hauling buffalo robes and pemmican, the proceeds from
semi-annual hunts, to St. Paul along well-worn trails. The
Métis center in the United States was St. Joseph (now
Walhalla), and men such as Antoine Gingras headed a
self-conscious new nation. The Méti nation, however, faded
as the buffalo became ever less available east of the
Missouri River.
Military Confrontation
For the most part, the incursion of the Euro-Americans into
the Northern Plains caused few confrontations with Indian
peoples. In 1863, 1864, and 1865, however, the pattern
changed. Major military expeditions searched the Northern
Plains for Santee Dakota who had participated in a violent
uprising in Minnesota in 1862. Battles at Whitestone Hill in
1863 and at Killdeer Mountain and in the Badlands in 1864
diminished Dakota resistance, forcing many onto reservations
to avoid starvation. A chain of military outposts, beginning
with Fort Abercrombie in 1857, continually increased Federal
power, and the great slaughter of the northern bison herds
after 1870 eventually caused the nomadic tribes to submit.
Some bands of Dakota resisted into the 1880s, but their old
way of life on the plains was lost.
Several parts of the struggle between opposing cultures yet
remain sources of legend and controversy. In 1876, units of
the 7th Cavalry commanded by Lt. Col. George A. Custer left
Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck to search for Dakota who
had refused confinement on reservations. The resulting
annihilation of Custer's immediate command at the Little Big
Horn River in Montana Territory made names such as Crazy
Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull familiar throughout the
nation. Many Dakota moved to Canada to escape relentless
punitive expeditions sent by the army, and remnants finally
surrendered at Fort Buford in 1881. Nine years later Sitting
Bull, the leading opponent of reservation life, identified
with the Ghost Dance religion, one that forecast the return
of traditional Plains Indian ways. Standing Rock Reservation
Indian police were sent to arrest the elderly leader at his
home in 1890, and Sitting Bull was killed.
American Settlement
American settlement of the Northern Plains commenced in
earnest after 1861, when Dakota Territory was organized by
Congress. Significant immigration commenced when the
westbound Northern Pacific Railway built to the Missouri
River in 1872 and 1873. Along and near its line, new towns
sprang up to serve the settlers, the tracklaying crews, and
other, sometimes rowdy frontier citizens. Fargo and
Bismarck, for example, both began as rough-and-tumble
railroad communities. Spurred by the 1862 Federal Homestead
Law, farming settlement developed gradually after the first
claim west of the Red River was filed in 1868.
A great settlement "boom" in northern Dakota occurred
between 1879 and 1886. During those years, over 100,000
people entered the territory. The majority were
homesteaders, but some organized large, highly mechanized,
well capitalized bonanza farms. These operations, several of
which lasted into the 20th Century, made names such as
Dalrymple and Grandin well known throughout the United
States and helped publicize the northern frontier.
Ethnic variety characterized the new settlements. Following
the first settlement "boom", a second boom after 1905
increased the population from 190,983 in 1890 to 646,872 by
1920. Many were immigrants of Scandinavian or Germanic
origin. Norwegians were the largest single ethnic group, and
after 1885 many Germans immigrated from enclaves in the
Russian Ukraine. A small, but strong community of
Scotch-Irish-English background played an especially
influential role, contributing many of North Dakota's early
business and political leaders. Many other groups, including
Asians, Blacks, and Arabs, settled throughout North Dakota.
So significant was this foreign immigration that in 1915
over 79% of all North Dakotans were either immigrants or
children of immigrants.
The influence of the railroads and their business allies
guided northern Dakota from its earliest territorial days.
Led by political agent Alexander McKenzie of Bismarck and
St. Paul, these groups worked to attract investment capital
to the Northern Plains. The 1883 removal of the territorial
capitol from Yankton to Bismarck on the main line of the
Northern Pacific Railway demonstrated the power of these
outside corporate interests in Dakota Territory's affairs.
Statehood
On November 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison approved
the admission of North Dakota to the Union. The new state
was a Republican Party stronghold. The first Governor, John
Miller, presided over a turbulent initial legislative
session that, among other issues, fought about the question
of legalizing lotteries and prohibition.
Political life revealed an insurgent tendency that has
continued to the present day. In 1890, the cooperative
Farmers Alliance formed an Independent Party to challenge
the "McKenzie Gang" that dominated the Republican Party. The
Independents fused with the minority Democratic Party in
1892 and captured state government with a platform promising
significant reforms. Their efforts, however, were frustrated
by political inexperience, and in 1894 the Republican Party
regained power. Controlled by conservatives, North Dakota
government encouraged investment by establishing liberal
banking, regulatory, and taxation policies; to support their
policies, conservatives argued that capitalists would not
invest in North Dakota unless state government did its part
to diminish risk and enhance profits.
Though severely criticized by progressives, the strategy did
result in some industrial development. Large lignite mines
opened near Beulah and Wilton, and local brickworks and
flour mills soon dotted the state. The railroad industry,
bolstered by completion of both James J. Hill's Great
Northern Railway in 1887 and the Soo Line in 1893, built
branch lines and fostered new towns. Rail expansion peaked
in 1905 when the GN and Soo squared off in a "railway war"
in northern North Dakota.
Evidence of development, however, did not quiet the
progressive opposition. In their opinion, the state provided
too many incentives, and they pointed out that huge profits
were being taken from North Dakota, that the distant
leadership of rail and commodities companies were often
arrogant and unresponsive to the needs of their customers,
and that rural people were often taxed out of proportion to
their means. Most galling, however, was the frequent
evidence that out-of-state corporate interests dominated
North Dakota government, using it to further private goals
rather than the general welfare of the citizens.
By 1905, the swelling chorus of protest caused a political
upheaval. Republican progressives united with Democrats to
elect John Burke as Governor, and his election commenced a
reform era. In the next decade, a series of other movements
surfaced. For example, in 1907, a new cooperative movement,
the American Society of Equity, came to North Dakota and by
1913 had procreated well over 400 marketing and purchasing
locals throughout the state. Among the many new settlers who
immigrated during the second Dakota "boom" after 1905 were
radicals, and they united into the North Dakota Socialist
Party. Both the cooperative and radical movements questioned
the preference given to out-of-state corporations, called
for fair taxation, and demanded better services from state
government. For these movements, the goal was returning
control of North Dakota's government and economy to the
people, and they were not afraid to demand that state
government organize and operate banking, insurances, and
processing businesses in order to bring the benefits of
competition, lower costs, and better services to the people.
Nonpartisan League
These movements procreated the Nonpartisan League, North
Dakota's greatest political insurgency. The NPL, born in
1915, united progressives, reformers, and radicals behind a
platform that called for many progressive reforms, ranging
from improved state services and full suffrage for women to
state ownership of banks, mills and elevators, and
insurances. Led by A. C. Townley, the NPL used the primary
election to take control of the Republican Party in 1916,
dominated all state government by 1918, and enacted its
program in 1919. It's administration, headed by Governor
Lynn J. Frazier, instituted many reforms in state
government; among them were re-organization of state
services, expansion of educational services, development of
health care agencies, and improved regulation of public
services and corporations. However, it's core program
generated fierce opposition fueled by funds from
out-of-state corporations; those interests used every means
to obstruct the NPL program, including lawsuits and extreme
propaganda.
The anti-NPL movement gained strength during and after World
War I. Charging that the NPL's leaders, many of whom were
former Socialists, were opponents of American participation
in World War I, the anti-NPL forces coalesced in late 1918
into the Independent Voter's Association. Vitriolic
political infighting followed. The IVA attacked on many
fronts, rapidly sowing disunity within the NPL and splitting
the coalition of cooperative groups that had helped support
the League. Economic distress caused by the precipitous
decline in grain prices after World War I and a drought in
western North Dakota helped diminish NPL support. In 1920,
the IVA took control of one legislative house and in 1921
forced a recall election that deposed Governor Frazier and
other members of the Industrial Commission that governed
state-owned industries. The NPL era, one that significantly
altered North Dakota government, had ended.
The NPL left an indelible mark on the state. The Bank of
North Dakota at Bismarck, opened in 1919, has become a large
and powerful economic force; the State Mill and Elevator at
Grand Forks, completed in 1922, provided a market for grain
and a source of feed and seed; the state hail insurance
program benefitted many farmers until its elimination in the
1960s. Perhaps most importantly, the NPL established an
insurgent tradition in the state that blurred party lines
for four decades, and both the League and the IVA elevated a
generation of leaders to power. Each official recalled in
1921, for example, later regained public office.
For North Dakota the 1920s and 1930s proved to be
watersheds. An economic Depression, starting with the 1920
collapse of wartime prices for grain, punctured the economic
expansion of previous decades. More North Dakota banks
closed in 1921 than in any other year; the resulting
contraction of credit caused many farm foreclosures.
Simultaneously, farm sizes increased, and many farmers
mechanized their operations. A dramatic shift to motorized
transportation placed greater emphasis on better roads and
bridges. As the times changed, new devices entered the
state's homes; radio, especially, became commonplace after
the first stations went on the air in North Dakota in 1922.
Likewise, motion pictures attracted thousands, and many
theaters were built in towns across North Dakota. These
economic and social factors had by 1930 made North Dakota a
different place than a decade earlier. The fire that
destroyed the old state capitol building on December 28,
1930, symbolized the end of an era.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression of the 1930s both slowed progress and
sped change. Heavy farm debt loads and low commodity prices
caused a crises of farm foreclosures and bank failures.
Those farmers in a better financial position enlarged their
holdings. Rural population diminished while cities grew.
North Dakota reached its peak population in 1930, but the
total thereafter dropped steadily until 1950.
As a rural state, North Dakota suffered greatly when the
prices received for farm produce declined. The search for a
solution to that problem brought about different movements
in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, cooperatives enjoyed a
renewed popularity in the 1920s. As farmers tried to band
together to market their produce and reduce the costs of
farming, the North Dakota Farmers Union spread across the
prairies. Substantial organizing efforts in the mid-1920s
resulted in formation of a state Union in 1927; Farmers
Union locals built elevators and organized oil cooperatives
that served the needs of an increasingly mechanized rural
economy. In 1932, the cooperative group helped form a
militant defense organization, the Farmers Holiday
Organization, to take direct action against low commodity
prices and farm foreclosures.
The renewed militancy in rural North Dakota quickly spread
into state politics. A revitalized Nonpartisan League
emerged in 1932, electing the colorful populist William
Langer as Governor. Langer took bold actions when he assumed
his office in 1933; he slashed state spending, imposed
moratoriums on mortgage foreclosure sales, and embargoed
shipment of grain from the state. However, his disregard of
law brought Federal investigations, and in 1934 he was
convicted of campaign law violations and removed from
office; Lt. Governor Ole Olson finished the term. That same
year, a divided NPL lost the Governor's office to Democrat
Thomas Moodie; he assumed office in 1935, but was quickly
disqualified when an investigation discovered that he did
not meet state residency requirements. Lt. Governor Walter
Welford succeeded Moodie, becoming the fourth Governor in
seven months. Langer returned to the electoral wars in 1936
after successfully overturning his conviction and then being
exonerated after four new trials in 1935. In 1936, he was
re-elected Governor; though defeated in 1938 when he ran for
the U.S. Senate, he unseated incumbent Lynn J. Frazier in
1940 and retained that office until his death in 1959.
Though the explosive politics of the 1930s mostly centered
around Langer, several other North Dakota leaders received
national prominence. Senators Gerald P. Nye and Lynn J.
Frazier became known for reflecting the isolationist
philosophy prevalent among North Dakota people. Nye's
investigation of the role of the munitions industry in
bringing the United States into World War I made him a
national figure and at the end of the decade he helped lead
the national America First movement that sought to keep the
nation out of World War II. Frazier established himself as a
pacifist by annually proposing a Constitutional amendment to
outlaw American participation in foreign wars. In 1936,
Congressman William Lemke was nominated for President by the
new Union Party; though he received fewer than one million
votes, he carried the concerns of drought-stricken farmers
throughout the nation.
Despite economic problems, crop failures, dust storms, and
weather extremes, North Dakota visibly modernized during the
1930s. The new skyscraper State capitol, begun in 1932, was
completed in 1935. Federal relief programs improved
highways, state parks, and city services throughout the
state. State departments addressed public health and safety
problems, and a movement for consolidated law enforcement
was initiated with formation of a State Highway Patrol in
1935. Rural schools consolidated at an increasing rate.
Public utilities extended their reach through development or
rural electric cooperatives; the first, Baker Electric of
Cando, energized its lines in 1938.
For many, however, the economic hardships of the Depression
could not be overcome. Thousands of North Dakotans lost
their farms and either moved into the cities and towns or
from the state. One historian estimates that over 70% of the
state's people required one form or another of public
assistance. The toll in broken dreams, physical hunger and
hardship, and displacement will never be completely
measured. Still, most North Dakotans stubbornly held on,
husbanding their resources and spending carefully. Even
during the hard times, for example, drought-stricken
counties and cities rarely missed bond payments, and indeed
the public debt in the state was substantially reduced
during the Depression years.
More favorable weather improved crop yields in the 1940s.
With more commodities to sell, farmers benefitted even more
from the higher prices stimulated by American entry into
World War II. Within a span of five years, the farm debt in
the state dropped markedly; at war's end in 1945 North
Dakota residents had accumulated the largest per capita bank
deposits in the nation.
Postwar Economics and Politics
Wartime prosperity continued into the late 1940s. Major
Federal projects kept the construction economy booming, for
example. In 1946, the demand for Missouri River flood
control and diversion of the river's waters for irrigation
and industrial development were rewarded with initiation of
construction on the Garrison Dam; project supporters also
envisioned a grand scheme of canals to move the water into
other parts of the state, and the project's start seemed the
realization of dreams voiced since the early 1920s.
Reservoirs on the Sheyenne, James, and other rivers were
also constructed for flood control and municipal water
purposes.
Development of natural resources expanded in 1951 when oil
was discovered near Tioga. The resulting "oil rush"
coincided with expanding use of lignite coal to generate
electricity; in 1952 and 1954, two coal-fired plants were
built near Velva and Mandan, and oil refineries were
established at Williston and Mandan, as well.
Communication and interstate transportation systems improved
dramatically during the 1950s. The first television station
went on the air in 1952 at Minot. Construction of a Federal
controlled access highway system began in 1956. In addition,
by 1960 two large Air Force bases had been built at Grand
Forks and Minot, a modern continuation of an historic role
in Federal military strategy that began in the 1860s.
Changes in communications and transportation were enhanced
by better airline service and a rapid shift away from
dependence on railways. Though airline routes had included
North Dakota since 1927, regular service expanded in the
1940s and 1950s, at least in part as a result of a conscious
effort by state government to develop local and regional
airports. Likewise, the steadily more modern network of
state and federal highways made truck transportation into a
viable alternative to railroads. Those same highways made
private auto transportation more reliable; more North
Dakotans bought cars after World War II than ever, soon
giving the state a ratio of over two vehicles for every
person in the state. As a consequence, however, use of rail
passenger service declined, and by the end of the 1950s
railroads had increasingly become a means for hauling
freight, not people.
Political Realignment
Even as the state modernized, established political patterns
continued. A new insurgency, the Republican Organizing
Committee (ROC), quickly became powerful after 1943. It
elected Fred Aandahl as Governor in 1944 and controlled the
office until the late 1950s. Its leaders included Milton R.
Young, who was selected to fill the Senate seat vacated by
the death of John Moses in 1945 and served until 1981. ROC
success forced realignment in state politics; to unite
liberals under one banner, the Nonpartisan League and the
Democratic Party moved toward consolidation in the 1950s
finally agreeing to run a unified ticket in 1956 and
eventually merging in 1960. The Democratic-NPL obtained some
immediate success; in 1958, well-known liberal leader
Quentin N. Burdick became North Dakota's first Democratic
congressman, and in 1960 the party gained the Governor's
office and held it continuously for the next twenty years,
including four consecutive victories by William L. Guy
(1961-1973) and two by Arthur A. Link (1973-1981).
In the 1980s, political control of the state has shifted
between the two parties. Republican Allen I. Olson upset
incumbent Governor Link in 1980; the election put many
Republicans into state office and in part resulted from the
overwhelming popularity of Presidential hopeful Ronald
Reagan. Within two years, however, Democratic-NPL efforts to
regain the party's momentum resulted in steady gains, and in
1984 Olson's bid for re-election was stymied by Casselton
farmer George A. Sinner. In 1986, Democrats for the first
time won control of the State Senate, as well. After a
century of domination by the Republican Party, North Dakota
now has a vibrant two-party politics.
The major issues of the 1970s and 1980s have been modern
incarnations of longtime debates. One important issue has
been economic development, and once again the discussions
have centered on the creation of a climate favorable to
capital investment in the state. A struggling farm economy
has brought many changes to the state, and demands for
improved state services for people with special needs have
forced major reallocation of available tax dollars. The
basic issue has been determining the proper uses for limited
tax resources and the most productive ways to stimulate
economic development.
Energy Development
Governmental efforts to encourage economic diversification
have taken several forms. In the 1960s, the administration
of Governor William Guy actively promoted massive use of the
vast lignite coal reserves. As the demand for electricity
expanded, coal-fired generating plants became economically
feasible, leading to major development of power plants and
open-pit mining. A national concern with energy
self-sufficiency in the 1970s resulted in huge investments
by generating corporations and cooperatives in western North
Dakota. By 1981, a dozen generating facilities and huge
strip mines were in operation; large power lines carried the
electricity to consumers both inside and outside North
Dakota. The most spectacular result was construction of the
nation's first coal-to-synthetic natural gas conversion
facility near Beulah, which entered production in 1983.
This kind of economic development deeply disturbed many
North Dakotans. Fearing that the "one-time harvest" of coal
might forever destroy the land's suitability for
agriculture, agricultural and environmental interests united
to demand strong reclamation laws. In 1973, 1975, and 1977,
the legislature responded with a set of regulations that
addressed concerns about returning mined land to its
original contours, replacing topsoil, and mitigating impacts
on cultural resources. These laws have come under steady
attack from energy interests, and some of the more stringent
regulations have been modified during the 1980s.
Oil exploration and development also became part of the
debate. High international prices for crude oil stimulated a
"boom" in exploration and development in western North
Dakota after 1978. An influx of workers and capital caused
population explosions in western cities, such as Williston,
Dickinson, and Watford City, and some municipalities went
deeply into debt to provide local services to the new
residents. However, world-wide oil prices declined in 1981,
many oil workers moved on, and some localities found
themselves without the means to pay off large debts incurred
for municipal improvements.
Garrison Diversion
In like manner, Missouri River diversion has remained a
potent political issue. The Garrison Diversion plan,
authorized by Congress in 1968, entered construction, but by
1976 was stalled by court challenges based on its
environmental impacts; even though many leaders strongly
backed the plan, landowners, environmental groups, and
Canadian officials asserted that the negative effects far
outweighed any benefits. A compromise between these
interests was hammered out in 1986; construction of a
greatly-reduced project has continued, but even that remains
under attack from agricultural and environmental groups. For
many longtime backers of the project, the primary issue
became North Dakota's ability to obtain some benefits in
return for the destruction of Missouri River bottomland by
the Garrison Reservoir. Conceived as a project to combine
municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses for the water,
the project has been substantially modified; presently plans
call for delivery of Missouri River water to the Red River,
Indian Municipal, Rural and Industrial (MR&I) water funding,
and an increase in the statewide MR&I water fund to help
deliver water to cities and towns throughout southwestern
and northwestern North Dakota. For most state residents, the
most obvious benefit from years of planning and effort are
the recreational uses of Lake Sakakawea.
Agricultural Economy
North Dakota's basic industry, agriculture, underwent major
difficulties in the 1970s and 1980s, again emphasizing that
the state was a participant in a world-wide economy. Record
prices for American grain in the early 1970s, the result of
huge overseas sales to the Soviet Union, led many farmers to
expand their operations and others to go deeply into debt to
enter agriculture. As the price of land climbed, so too did
prices for machinery, seed, and the other "inputs" of
agriculture. Commodity prices, however, never returned to
the levels of the early 1970s, and by the end of the decade
many farmers found themselves unable to generate enough
income to maintain their debts. Rural discontent mounted,
generating organization of a state branch of the American
Agriculture Movement, a national rural protest movement, and
leading to development of special credit counselling
services by state government. The trend continued into the
1980s. Though land values dropped substantially, the number
of farms has declined steadily.
Conclusion
The boom-and-bust cycles in North Dakota's agriculture and
energy industries have rippled through the state's economy.
Recent administrations have re-doubled efforts to encourage
new industry and to stimulate other sources of revenue. Some
successes, notably the development of agricultural equipment
manufacturing and food processing, have occurred.
As North Dakota has sought to attract new sources of jobs
and income, greater attention has been paid to tourism.
Substantially larger amounts of public money have been
devoted to promotion and development of historic and
recreational attractions. To attract visitors, efforts to
liberalize restrictive "blue laws" have expanded. The
campaign began in 1979, when some forms of gambling were
legalized; in the 1980s, the opportunities for legal
gambling have been increased, and several attempts to relax
historic "blue laws" that limit business operations on
Sunday and the sale of liquor have become topics for public
debate.
As North Dakota's economy and politics have changed, so has
the composition of its society. Demand for better public
services for disadvantaged citizens resulted in lawsuits
that forced improvement in state facilities and
de-institutionalization of many handicapped people.
Declining enrollments in elementary and secondary schools
have brought about consolidations and school closures. In
higher education, public debate has centered on the number
of colleges and universities in North Dakota and called
attention to the state's ability to support those
institutions adequately.
Perhaps the most striking change, however, is reflected by a
1987 census figure. According to census estimates, more
North Dakotans now live in cities and towns than in rural
areas, an alteration with dramatic implications for the
structure of the state's economy and the composition of its
government.
The issues that face modern North Dakota remain tied to its
history. Attracting the capital necessary to develop
necessary services, providing jobs and income for the
people, and diversifying a colonial economy are tasks that
have faced the state's leaders since its earliest days. The
old issues of self-determination and popular control are yet
relevant as North Dakota enters its second century.
Today, North Dakota is a state where there is little air or
water pollution. During the early 1990s, North Dakota gained
25,000 new jobs. Trade with Canada and Mexico is growing and
tourism is increasing as well. State leaders still strive to
broaden North Dakota's economy that depends heavily upon
agriculture. Increased industrial growth would raise the per
capita income and create more job opportunities for North
Dakotans.
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