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Dakota Datebook
6:42 am, 8:42 am, 3:50 pm, 5:44 pm, and 7:50 pm CT

Sitting Bull to Phil Jackson, cattle to prairie dogs, knoephla to lefse. North Dakota's legacy includes many strange stories of eccentric towns, war heroes, and various colorful characters. Hear all about them on Dakota Datebook, your daily dose of North Dakota history.

Dakota Datebook is made in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and funded by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities North Dakota or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

You can find all Dakota Datebooks from 2018-today below. Our archive of Datebooks from 2003-2017 can be found here.

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  • In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll listen to Dr. Twila Baker, enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation. In part one of "We Laugh So We Don't Cry."
  • Mid-March brings two things to North Dakota: blizzards and basketball tournaments. Tournament time brings both happiness and heartache, as teams from across the state vie to be crowned champions.
  • Dakota Territory began the work of organizing counties in 1861. Pembina was the first official county, established in 1867. Some North Dakota counties remain in their original form. Others were carved up. The southern portion of Hettinger County, for example, became Adams County. And the Bowman County story is interesting. Created in 1883, it was eliminated in 1903 due to a lack of settlement, then reestablished 1907.
  • On this date in 1993, the Bismarck Tribune reported that Agnes Geelan had died three days earlier in a Fargo nursing home. One biographer called her “one of North Dakota's grand ladies.” Another called her “debater extraordinary.” Another called her “a North Dakota legend.”
  • Anna Ingulsrud was 18 years old when she worked as a waitress in a Fairdale, North Dakota. Otto Weberg, 24, courted her, determined to marry. Anna, however, did not return his affection. Weberg became distraught upon learning Anna was seeing another man.
  • In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll listen to Eileen Little Ghost, Lakota Elder, as she talks about the medicine wheel.
  • Veterans, even those who were wounded, have not always been readily supported. It’s an issue the United States has struggled with since its founding. The Continental Congress pledged money for anyone wounded in the Revolutionary War, but the new government was strapped for cash and didn’t follow through. Veterans of the Mexican American War only received pensions forty years after the war ended.
  • For decades, North Dakota’s Legislature had only one way to vote on bills: roll calls of the many lawmakers. That time-consuming method changed with the installation of an electric voting machine in 1947.
  • During World War I, American farmers benefited from high prices. Enjoying the extra income, many borrowed money to buy more land and equipment. But agricultural prices fell suddenly after the war. The cost to produce a bushel of wheat was seventy-six cents, but wheat was selling for only sixty cents!
  • As 1931 faded into the rearview mirror, the presidential campaign of 1932 began heating up. Held against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, it promised to be a tough contest for incumbent President Herbert Hoover. Democrat William H. Murray, the governor of Oklahoma, was among the challengers.

Dakota Datebook is made in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and funded by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities North Dakota or the National Endowment for the Humanities.