North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State

by Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota

NORTH DAKOTA INDIAN TRIBES TODAY

Present-day North Dakota Indian life offers a vastly different picture from that which the Verendryes saw in 1738, or that which three-fourths of a century later presented itself to Lewis and Clark. The lives of the groups on the various reservations bear many points in common. They have all been brought very quickly from the age of stone and thrust precipitately into the bright light of the modern world. They are all survivors of Indian nations whose ranges once extended from the forests of the Great Lakes to the Rockies, and from the prairies of western Canada to the Platte. Now on much restricted areas and amid a complex and alien culture they are endeavoring to build homes and rear children in a manner that will at once accord with the limitations set by the dominant white race, and yet retain what they feel is worthy in their own cultures and traditions.

In spite of these fundamental similarities the material life of the Indians on the various reserves presents not only a mingling of white and Indian cultures, but also somewhat wide differences in economic status. With the exception of that done at Fort Berthold little farming is carried on, a situation not generally due to lack of land; while more than 6,000 Indians at Turtle Mountain are crowded into 72 square miles, and while the present homes of all of the tribes are rather infinitesimal in comparison with their former wide ranges, most of them do not lack space for farming. However, particularly at Standing Rock, a certain antipathy for the white man's settled mode of life, coupled with semiarid conditions unfavorable to agriculture, have discouraged efforts along that line.

The land has been allotted in severalty for the most part, and the concept of individual ownership has in general been adopted, although there is a movement in the Standing Rock area to return to the communal form. A small amount of grazing and timber land is held tribally at Fort Berthold and Standing Rock, and the latter reservation has a tribal herd of 1,500 cattle. Much Indian land is rented to whites for grazing or farming.

The relatively superior economic situation of the Fort Berthold Indians is doubtless due to the ancient agrarian background of the tribe. Long centuries of farming fitted them for ready adjustment to the agricultural life of the reservation. A general view of the farming section of their area presents an aspect not greatly unlike that of any other farming section in a similar territory. While many of them live in log houses of two to four rooms, others live in better buildings than those of the average rural district. Homes on the other reservations vary from primitive shacks and log cabins to modern dwellings, and are usually clustered about agencies or subagencies. In summertime many of the Indians, showing a longing for the old tipi life, live in tents placed in their yards, and cook over open fires. Wikiups, improvised shelters of willows, are also used in fair weather.

Although the primitive food-gathering methods of hunting and fishing have no great economic value at the present time, the Indians still make use of their traditional knowledge of certain native foods and simple ways of preserving them. They dry much of their food, especially meat and vegetables. Among the Fort Berthold Indians one may still be offered pemmican, corn balls, butter from marrow, sausage, and tripe. Mint and balm leaves for tea, chokecherries, berries, red bean and tipsin roots, and wild onions, artichokes, and plums are still added to the larder. Rattlesnake oil, skunk oil, sweet grass, cedar tree needles, and wild sage are used as medicines. In addition the Sioux at Standing Rock make wakmiza wasna by pounding corn meal and raisins into beef tallow, and forming the whole into small cakes. Wojapi is made of chokecherries, June berries, and flour, and some women add a little sugar to make a kind of pudding. Wild beans are taken from caches where they have been stored by mice, the supplies thus removed always being replaced with corn. Kinnikinik or killiklik, a mixture used for smoking, is made of dried and shredded red willow bark, sprinkled with tobacco.

Some basketry is still made, and most of the Indian groups do tanning and very good beadwork. Porcupine quills, horse hair, and feathers are employed in the designs in embroidery, and elk teeth, shells, colored clays, and weasel tails are used for adornments. Objects of Indian art are on display and for sale at the annual fairs on the reservations, and usually can be purchased at the agencies or subagencies.

Complicating the struggle for existence for most of the tribes is the prevalence of tuberculosis, of which one-third of the people at Standing Rock are said to be victims. Trachoma also is common. In spite of these facts, however, the tribes are gaining rapidly in numbers, with an average birth rate more than twice as high as the death rate.

The Government has sought to aid the Indian in his transition to the new culture by giving him a part in the realm of political relations. All the reservations have native police, employed by the Government; and Standing Rock has two Indian police judges, who hear all cases and pass sentence on all minor Indian violations of law. At Turtle Mountain there are no Government restrictions in the use of land and stock, and the tribe has complete charge of property. All the Indian groups except that at Fort Totten have tribal councils, which, while their legal powers are not great, have considerable weight in an advisory capacity.

The acceptance by the tribes of the white man's fundamental educational principle of daily formal schooling has had a large part in their assimilation. Mission schools established by the various churches frequently brought the first formal education to the Indians, and most of the groups are still served by such schools. Small and large Government schools have been provided to give the Indian child the same educational opportunity as that afforded the white. Fort Totten and Turtle Mountain both have consolidated Indian schools, and a boarding school offering high school work is maintained at Wahpeton.