North Dakota

Human occupation of what is now North Dakota began about 13,000 BC in the southwestern corner of the state, which at that time was covered with lush vegetation. Drought drove away the aboriginal hunter-gatherers, and it was not until about 2,000 years ago that Indians from the more humid regions to the east moved into the easternmost third of the Dakotas. About AD 1300 the Mandan Indians brought an advanced agricultural economy

up the Missouri River. They were joined by the Hidatsa and Arikara about three or four centuries later. Moving from the Minnesota forests during the 17th century, the Yanktonai Sioux occupied the southeastern quarter of the state. Their cousins west of the Missouri River, the Teton Sioux, led a nomadic life as hunters and mounted warriors. The Ojibwa, who had driven the Sioux out of Minnesota, settled in the northeast.

European penetration of the Dakotas began in 1738, when Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vérendrye, of Trois Riviéres in New France, traded for furs in the Red River region. Later the fur trade spread farther into the Red and Missouri river valleys, especially around Pembina, where the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company had their posts. After the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804–06) explored the Missouri, the American Fur Company traded there, with buffalo hides the leading commodity.

In 1812, Scottish settlers from Canada moved up the Red River to Pembina. This first white farming settlement in North Dakota also attracted numerous métis, half-breeds of mixed Indian and European ancestry. An extensive trade in furs and buffalo hides, which were transported first by heavy carts and later by steamboats, sprang up between Pembina, Ft. Garry (Winnipeg, Canada), and St. Paul, Minn.

Army movements against the Sioux during and after the Civil War brought white men into central North Dakota, which in 1861 was organized as part of the Dakota Territory, including the present-day Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. The signing of treaties confining the agricultural Indians to reservations, the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Fargo in 1872, and its extension to the Missouri the following year led to the rise of homesteading on giant "bonanza farms." Settlers poured in, especially from Canada. This short-lived "Great Dakota boom" ended in the mid-1880s with drought and depressed farm prices. As many of the original American and Canadian settlers left in disgust, they were replaced by Norwegians, Germans, and other Europeans. By 1910, North Dakota, which had entered the Union in 1889, was among the leading states in percentage of foreign-born residents.

From the time of statehood onward, Republicans dominated politics in North Dakota. Their leader was Alexander McKenzie, a Canadian immigrant who built a reputation as an agent of the railroads, protecting them from regulation. Between 1898 and 1915, the "Second Boom" brought an upsurge in population and railroad construction. In politics, Republican Progressives enacted reforms, but left unsolved the basic problem of how North Dakota farmers could stand up to the powerful grain traders of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Agrarian revolt flared in 1915, when Arthur C. Townley organized the Farmers' Nonpartisan Political League. Operating through Republican Party machinery, Townley succeeded in having his gubernatorial candidate, Lynn J. Frazier, elected in 1916. State-owned enterprises were established, including the Bank of North Dakota, the Home Building Association, the Hail Insurance Department, and a mill and grain elevator. However, the league was hurt by charges of "socialism" and, after 1917, by allegations of pro-German sympathies in World War I, as well as of mismanagement. In 1921, Frazier and Attorney General William Lemke were removed from office in the nation's first recall election.

The 1920s, a period of bank failures, low farm prices, drought, and political disunity, saw the beginnings of an exodus from the state. Matters grew worse during the Great Depression. Elected governor by hard-pressed farmers in 1932, William Langer took spectacular steps to save farms from foreclosure and to raise grain prices, until a conflict with the Roosevelt administration led to his removal from office on charges that he had illegally solicited political contributions.

World War II brought a quiet prosperity to North Dakota that lasted into the following decades. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the rise of oil prices throughout the decade spurred drilling for oil, encouraged the mining of lignite for electrical generation, and led to the construction of the nation's first coal gasification plant, at a cost of $2 billion, in a lignite mining area near Beulah. In the 1980s, however, North Dakota's economy suffered a setback when oil prices dropped. In addition, a drought that began in 1987 damaged over 5.3 million acres of land by 1988 and persisted into the 1990s and early 2000s. Agricultural production was strong in early 1990s. However, severe storms and flooding in 1994 damaged about $600 million in crops. The state continued to experience extreme weather conditions. Drought was followed by flooding rains in early summer 2000, destroying crops.

The state's economy was boosted by the 1991 repeal of the "blue laws" enforcing the closing of all retail businesses on Sundays. Republican Governor Ed Schafer, elected in 1992 and reelected in 1996, set an aggressive plan for the state's economic development, resulting in an estimated 10% increase in the number of jobs and record-low unemployment. By 2000 Fargo boasted one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. Nevertheless, poverty was on the rise in the 1990s. With 15.1% of its residents living below the nationally established poverty line, North Dakota ranked as the 9th-poorest in the US in 1998. The state had begun the decade ranked nineteenth, with a 13.7% rate. It was also one of just 15 states where child poverty was on the rise—one in five children lived in poverty in 1998.

Census Bureau figures in 2000 showed the state (population 642,200) continued to be one of the least populated in the nation—only Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming had fewer residents. Stemming the tide of North Dakotans moving out of state was a top priority. The state enjoyed the rank of safest in the nation in 1999, with only 89 crimes per 100,000 people.

As of 2003, it was illegal for unmarried couples to cohabitate; however, the legislature was considering the repeal of that law. Lawmakers were debating tobacco-related issues in 2003, including banning smoking in public and nonpublic workplaces, and outlawing the sale of flavored cigarettes. Republican Governor John Hoeven in 2003 was calling for budget proposals to combine economic growth and education.