No comments about Historic North Dakota - A Collection of 17 Books Relating to 18th and 19th Century North Dakota History, Genealogies and Its People.

5 comments about Dakota - A Spiritual Geography.

1. Folks such as I (reared on the high plains and inclined to contemplative ways) will relish Kathleen Norris' Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (New York: Houghton Miflin Company, c. 1993), but I think the book can also nourish all Christian pilgrims. Norris is a published poet who, with her husband, left New York to settle in Lemmon, South Dakota, occupying the home of her deceased grandmother.
   Dakota tells how she settled in, finding a place for herself, a spiritual base she'd never found in the busyness and rat-race pace of New York City life. She discovered how important it is to have a geography conducive to spirituality. She learned to revere the bond between silence, "the best response to mystery" (p. 16), solitude, simplicity, prayer, listening ("the first word of Benedict's Rule), to the awakening of one's awareness to God. Indeed, "the Plains have been essential not only for my growth as a writer, they have formed me spiritually. I would even say they have made me a human being" (p. 11).
   And her writing brings us into her world, discerning transcendent truths symbolized in the rugged grandeur of western Dakota landscape. "The land and sky of the West often fill what Thoreau termed our 'need to witness our limits transgressed.' Nature, in Dakota, can indeed be an experience of the holy" (p. 1). In the openness--in fact the "emptiness"--of space on the high plains, Norris found her face to face with permanent things.
   The great Spanish philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gassett, said "Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are." Dakota landscape appears stark faceless to the cavalcades cruising down the interstate highways which carry traffic across the region. People have, throughout this century, slowly deserted the area, finding it impossible to earn a living. Norris documents this process, providing portraits of pioneers' descendants who have lost the will to preserve a toehold on the "home place." The heat and cold, the thunderstorms and blizzards, make Dakota (to many) unattractive. One cannot long live there without losing humanistic, Promethean pretenses, for the elements of the Plains often overwhelm puny man!
   Yet this austere region, so "lifeless" at first glance, has the potential to enliven one's soul. Those who live there sometimes share the wisdom of a young rancher, "a third-generation Dakotan who says 'the land lives'" (p. 128). Certainly it lived for the Sioux who still hang on in various parts of Dakota. As Paula Gunn Allen said, "'What makes an Indian an Indian,' she explains, is a deep connection to the land, built over genera¬tions, 'that imbues their psychology and eventually their spirituality and makes them one with the spirit of the land'" (p. 128).
   Earlier in life, Norris had abandoned her adolescent faith when a German professor of religion, who'd studied under Bultmann, taught her Sunday school class in Hawaii. As she remembers, "I needed liturgy and a solid grounding in the practice of prayer, not a demythologizing that left me feeling starved, thinking: If this is religion, I don't belong" (p. 92). So she left and never visited a church for 20 years, living a thoroughly secularized life before returning to Dakota.
   Once there, however, she sensed a hunger for spirituality. She hungered for something of the fulfilling faith her grandmother had lived by. So she slowly involved herself in the local church, even taking on "preaching" assignments in time. "Step by step, as I made my way back to church, I began to find that many of the things modern people assume are irrelevant--the liturgical year, the liturgy of the hours, the Incarnation as an everyday reality--are in fact essential to my identity and my survival" (p. 133).
   Still more: she discovered, in Benedictine monasteries scattered throughout the Dakotas, a ancient way of life more nourishing and satisfying than the godless years of her urban past. Benedict's Rule provided cohesion for the communities, proving the durability of permanent things. Theology took on life, full of practical activities, proving its truth in personal experience. Better than most of us, monks face reality, especially the reality of death which is so evident on the plains, charting the course for pilgrims of the Absolute.
   Yet for all their devotion, their serious vocation, the monks delighted Norris with their "contemplative sense of fun" (p. 215). They fully enjoy life! As St Bernard of Clairvaux said, speaking of the monastic life, "'It is . . . a good sort of playing which is ridiculous to men, a very beautiful sight to the angels . . . it is a joyous game'" (p. 207).
   Through the Benedictines Norris discovered the riches of the Ancient Fathers, especially the Desert Fathers and Mothers who followed the example of St Anthony, who answered a question concerning his lack of reading material by saying: "'My book, O philosopher, is the nature of created things, and any time I wish to read the words of God, the book is before me'" (p. 132). In that desolate place, his biographer, St Athanasius says, "'Anthony, as though inspired by God, fell in love with the place'" (p. 132). So too Dakota provides the place which, if it's loved, affords one access to God. Indeed, "like mystics, monastic people have often been a counterweight in a religion that has often denigrated nature" (p. 184).
   Norris discovered that "A person is forced inward by the spareness of what is outward and visible in all this land and sky. The beauty of the Plains is like that of an icon; it does not give an inch to sentiment or romance. The flow of the land, with its odd twists and buttes, is like the flow of Gregorian chant that rises and falls beyond melody, beyond reason or human expectation, but perfectly" (p. 157).
   Dakota is a finely crafted literary work, full of wisdom and beauty. It stands as a witness to the incurable longing of the human heart for transcendent reality. It reveals the importance of creation in directing one's mind to ultimate truths. As Melissa Pritchard wrote, in her Chicago Tribune review, it's "a contemplative book, a book of stories, a book of prayer, a book to be read meditatively and well. It is a gift of hope and balance, a place to begin."



2. Excellent and compelling reading of place, and time. Exquistly written, for the thoughtful. I have given it as gifts and will do so again.



3. 'Dakota' was somewhat rambling but had several good nuggets of thought about how location affects our outlook. Broadens the mind to stretch now and then.



4. In Saudi Arabia there is a vast area, almost a fourth of the country, known as "The Empty Quarter," (Rub Al Khali), with perhaps a thousand permanent residents. It is the lack of good water that makes permanent inhabitation practically impossible. America has a similar region, although the conditions are not as dire. It is the area between the 100th and 105th meridian, roughly spanning a seventy-fifth of the world's circumference. Due to the lack of sufficient rainfall (less than 20 inches per year), John Wesley Powell (as well as others) said that the land should never be tilled. It was; one of the "fallouts" was the Dustbowl days of the `30's. Today, those who have not emigrated face a hard-scrabble existence, with the remaining farmers tapping deeper and deeper into the Ogallala aquifer. The area is called the High Plains, largely pancake flat, has strong winds, and unlike Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Dakotas, it can be bitter cold.
   
   Why would anyone voluntarily move there? Kathleen Norris did. She left a life in New York City, and embraced the austere bleakness that is northwest South Dakota. Many of her friends were flabbergasted at the move, and this book is largely an answer to why she did it. There are three principal subject matters: the environment, which encompasses the land and the weather; the kind of people who struggle to live there; and, as indicated by the subtitle, "a spiritual geography," dollops of philosophical musings. Norris has brief chapters entitled "Weather Report", with a given date, and generally the reports are not surprises, save, perhaps, the extremes that they can cover. Early in the book she assesses the dynamic tensions and contradictions in the people with a: "...between hospitality and insularity....between open hearts and closed minds." Later she says: "Small-town society often reminds me of the old joke about academic politics--they're so vicious because there so little at stake." And one of the sadder observations that she makes, and counterintuitive in some ways, since you would figure that it is the remote places that reading is more likely alternative: "Many teachers here also seem to give up any thought of lifelong learning... why so many adults in a town like Lemmon stop reading. More than once I've been surprised to discover that people who show no sign that they've ever read a book in their lives, are in fact former teachers, college graduates from the days when an education was said to mean something." She fleshes out these general observations with pithy vignettes involving the very real people of the town.
   
   Concerning how the inhabitants relate to the past, Norris says: "One popular form of writing on the Plains is the local history. These books reveal a great deal about the people who write them but do not often tell the true story of the region... As one old-timer told me, `people have been writing it the way they wished it had been instead of the way it was.'" But it this a "differential diagnosis" of the region's people, or a broader observation on how much of history is written?
   
   As to the philosophical musings, her erudition shines through, and her referential points bounce from Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th century to Carl Jung. Fitting for a place with `spiritual geography', she becomes involved with a nearby Benedictine monastery, and mentions the tales of Heloise and Abelard, when the "monk's face brightens, almost innocently, as he says, "It was the Benedictines who castrated him, you know.'" One might assume it was time to move on! Some of her spiritual geography might be too "new age" for some readers, but I was able to suspend some of my natural cynicism, and reflect on the impact of that "infinite horizon."
   
   So few people live in this area, and only a hand-full have Norris's knowledge and perspective, which is the real strength of this book. Particularly for those on the coasts, looking out their windows as they do indeed "fly over," this book would make their journey much more insightful.



5. This book came recommended to me during a spiritual retreat. I found it a thought provoking read in prayerfully reviewing my spiritual direction, as well as informative on small town, prairie living in a place dying, but unwilling to embrace outsiders. It also provided alot of information on the Benedictine monasteries. I took my time reading it and the book will be one I long remember.

3 comments about Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past.

1. I couldn't put it down...read it over the weekend. This was a great book to get an intimate perspective of dakota native american life during the 1860's that was woven into the tracing of family roots. I learned a lot of details from that time and bonded with the family-I loved seeing pictures of several generations and following the impact of how events that happened long ago still impact us generations later.



2. Jumping into this work was like being wrapped in a time machine and taken back to places and circumstances hidden from history. It carries the feel of a story being shared by Lakota elders in the context of one families linage. So personnal, yet compelling as it takes you on a journey into the depths of Souix people at the apex of cultural modification programs for Native Americans. It's a view of history reserved for those who made the trip. A great read anyway you look at it!!



3. The road to discovering the details of one's family tree can be an emotional ride, especially when potentially painful memories are uncovered. Diane Wilson, the daughter of a Swedish American father and a mother with Native American roots, sets out to fill in the blanks of her maternal ancestry while her mother is still alive to confirm them. She wants to figure out her place within the wider view of the world, and more specifically, within the history and geography of her part of it: Minnesota and the Dakotas and their Native populations.
   
   Her narrative weaves back and forth: from her own genealogical research and interviews with her mother and aunts, to the fate of the Dakota Sioux who lived along the Minnesota River in 1862. By working both ends, she comes upon her own truths, somewhere in the middle. Here she provides insights that traditional history texts cannot. Wilson relates her story within the framework of her participation in the Dakota Commemorative March of 2002, which duplicated another "Trail of Tears" march of 150 miles from the Lower Sioux Agency in Redwood to Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. To walk where her own people have walked serves as a powerful culmination to her research.
   
   Anyone who has driven the interstates and back roads of the Northern Plains will recognize many of Wilson's routes, but probably not her specific destinations. With her genealogical mission in mind, she feels at times as though her car is filled with the ghosts of her ancestors, all demanding her attention and to tell their own stories. Surely hers took on the characteristics of a magical quest in search of self.
   
   "Spirit Car" is one woman's story and memoir, successfully connecting the Then to the Now in a very personal way. Readers should be grateful to be able to tag along.

1 comments about Fort Laramie in 1876: Chronicle of a Frontier Post at War.

1. Frontier historians have long been appreciative of the importance of Fort Laramie, at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie rivers in present-day Wyoming, as a frontier outpost. Established in 1834 to support the fur trade, the fort had become by the 1850s a key post in the U. S. Army's logistical system and an important center for the orderly movement of settlers on the frontier. The troops at the post were involved in most of the major campaigns fought against the Indians of the northern Great Plains, until the post's inactivation in 1890.
   
   Paul L. Hedren, superintendent of the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site here presents an impressive study of the role of Fort Laramie in the Sioux Indian War of 1876-1877, as the episode that broke the back of the Plains Indians. Using Fort Laramie as the backdrop from which to discuss this important episode in American history, Hedren analyzes in lively fashion the Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Powder River expeditions against the Sioux conducted by Gen. George Crook. There is also comment on Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn, the gold rush into the Black Hills, and the general discord of the Indians at the various agencies.
   
   But "Fort Laramie in 1876" is more than a recitation of the events of the Sioux Indian War. Many other historians have told that story over the years, and if Hedren had limited his book to the war I would have questioned the necessity of its publication. Instead, Hedren recognizes the army post for what it was, the most important installation on the northern plains and the critical site from which the army's campaign against the Sioux was both orchestrated and supplied. While the author's narrative ranges from Omaha, the headquarters ox the army's Department of the Platte, to the campaigns in Montana and the escape of some of the Sioux into Canada. Hedren's focus is always on Fort Laramie and its contributions to the war in terms of personnel, equipment, commanders, communications, and logistics.
   
   Hedren is the first to draw on the large body of material relating to the operation ox the post contained in the National Archives, particularly Record Group 393; the extensive collection of primary materials at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and documents at the U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point. The result is impressive. Fort Laramie in 1876 captures the essence of the military outpost at war. It is an excellent companion volume and deserves a place on the shelf of all serious students of the American West and the Indian wars.

No comments about Tracing Your Dakota Roots: A Guide to Genealogical Research in the Dakotas.

No comments about History of Sargent County, Vol. 3.

No comments about To Be an Indian: An Oral History (Borealis).

No comments about Researching the Germans from Russia: Annotated Bibliography of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.

1 comments about Honor the Grandmothers: Dakota and Lakota Women Tell Their Stories.

1. "Honoring the Grandmothers" is a slim book, barely bigger than your average sized pamphlet. Edited by Sarah Penman, a video and radio commentator living in Minnesota, the book is a collection of musings by four Dakota/Lakota grandmothers about traditional Indian knowledge and customs and how they relate to today's fast paced world. Penman captured the stories on tape over a period of years, working hard to overcome many obstacles to get the stories to us, the reader. There is little commentary on the stories; Penman allows them to speak for themselves. Two of the grandmothers have since passed away, but their words do continue to speak about maintaining dignity and culture in a world that likes to forget about the Indians and their way of life.

   Celane Not Help Him is the first speaker presented in the book. Celane did not have an easy life; she lived in poverty for most of her life, with little formal education. Her family lost their property when the United States Air Force confiscated it during WWII for use as an artillery range. Celane is the granddaughter of Iron Hail, a Lakota who survived the Battle of Little Big Horn and the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890. Celane provides an oral history of Wounded Knee that is both enlightening in historical terms and depressing in an emotional sense. It is hard to read Celane's account, as her speaking skills do not land easily on an English-speaking ear. It is best to read the account straight through, and then think about it for a time. When this is done, Celane comes across as clear as a star in the sky.

   The next set of stories comes from Stella Pretty Sounding Flute, a Wahpekute-Hunkpati Dakota. The Dakota people, like most Indians, had difficulties dealing with the burgeoning white population of America in the 19th century. After years of declining fortunes, an 1862 uprising in Minnesota brought down every bit of force the American government could muster on the Dakotas. The Dakota did not disappear, but scattered throughout Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Stella does not concern herself with these events as much as she does with the traditions she learned from her own grandparents. Her grandmother passed on skills and knowledge that no school can teach. Stella discusses the loss of the Black Hills, the traditions of pipe carrying, and spiritual beliefs.

   The third storyteller is Cecilia Hernandez Montgomery. Cecilia is part Mexican, part Oglala Sioux, and part firecracker. This is one tough dame. Cecilia spent time in a Catholic school (back when they REALLY used the ruler), studied music, and worked herself dizzy at a series of low paying jobs. Cecilia really came into her own when she started a career as an activist in South Dakota, working hard to improve the living conditions of poor people (all poor people, not just Indians). She sits on many boards, committees, and still pounds the pavement when problems arise. She did all of this into her seventies and beyond, not only exploding the myth of the lazy Indian but also causing irreparable harm to the conception that old people cannot do anything of value.

   The last narrative comes from Iola Columbus, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota. Like many other Indians, Columbus spent time in an Indian boarding school, where military discipline combined with strict adherence to corporeal punishment attempted to erase the "Indian" from the Indians. Columbus's story is different from the others because she went on to become the first woman elected to tribal chair in the state of Minnesota. She later founded a grandmother's society, where women elders can gather to share traditional knowledge with new generations.

   "Honoring the Grandmothers" is really a book about the elderly and their marginalized role in American society. This is occurring not only in white society but in Indian society as well. A couple of the grandmothers lament the fact that their knowledge is not passed on, but disappearing as older members of Indian tribes pass away. In short, the same mentality (of the doddering old fool who is well past his/her prime) that leads whites to toss the elderly into nursing homes happens in Indian society as well. The elderly are rich sources of knowledge and culture in every society. We ignore them at our own peril.

1 comments about The WPA Guide to South Dakota: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s South Dakota.

1. I bought this as a birthday gift for my stepmom after seeing it in a literary catalog, Amazon had it cheaper of course. She is from South Dakota and I had an idea she might like the book, but she LOVED it. She said she clocked in 20 minutes late from her lunch break on the day I gave it to her, because she couldn't put it down. I later learned that she lived in the country and had lots of homes, wells, etc. that were WPA projects. A home run gift on this one, too bad they are not all this easy.