NDSU Center for Heritage Renewal receives grants to study Dakota War battlefields

NDSU Center for Heritage Renewal receives grants to study Dakota War battlefields

Published: 11 September 2013

The Center for Heritage Renewal at NDSU has received two new research grants from the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service. The first grant, in the amount of $26,473, funds historical research, archeological survey and digital mapping of sites associated with the 1862-64 Dakota War in Dakota Territory. The second grant, in the amount of $62,761, funds a more concentrated study of one particular battlefield of the war, the site of the Battle of Killdeer Mountain in 1864.

Tom Isern, NDSU University Distinguished Professor of history and center director, is the principal investigator. “The Dakota War was a genesis event for North Dakota,” said Isern. “It was both destructive and formative, generating the conditions under which we live still today. And the Battle of Killdeer Mountain is the Gettysburg of the Plains. We are delighted to help bolster public knowledge of these significant events.”

Key center personnel for the research on Dakota War sites are Richard Rothaus, CEO of Trefoil Cultural and Environmental, a well-known cultural resource management firm, and Aaron Barth, NDSU doctoral candidate in history. Native scholars collaborating with the center on this line of research include Tamara St. John, Dakota Goodhouse and others.

The center already is at work on a study of the Siege of Fort Abercrombie in 1862, also funded by the American Battlefield Protection Program. The three active research grants from the National Park Service anchor a general research and programming initiative exploring the Dakota War in Dakota Territory.

The Center for Heritage Renewal was established by the State Board of Higher Education “to identify, preserve and capitalize on the heritage resources of North Dakota and the northern plains.”

For more information, contact Isern at isern@plainsfolk.com.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.

http://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/detail/9829/

Basin pulls substation from battlefield

September 05, 2013 12:45 am  •  By Lauren Donovan

Jim Jeske, left, and Allan Dolezal look over a map of Basin Electric Power Cooperative's proposed transmission line overlaid by the boundaries of a Killdeer Mountain Battlefield study area.

(2) More Photos

KILLDEER, N.D. — Basin Electric Power Cooperative said Wednesday it won't build a substation in the historic Killdeer Mountain battlefield area, but it's still planning to build a major transmission line through the heart of where the battle was fought.

The co-op's plans were detailed in a hearing that started in the morning and ended in the evening at Killdeer, just miles from the controversial location.

The Public Service Commission held the hearing to learn why it should waive certain requirements and move directly to issuing a route permit for a 200-mile transmission line that will start at the Antelope Valley Station near Beulah and end near Tioga.

The co-op wants to send another 500 megawatts of electricity into the oil patch to meet an ever-growing appetite for power in the booming oil development area, particularly in the McKenzie County region.

Commission President Brian Kalk said it could be two months before the commission makes any decision and even that will likely be pending federal approval under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The federal OK is needed because Basin plans to use USDA financing for the $375 million project.

Basin doesn't expect any federal decision until March 2014.

Much of Wednesday's hearing was spent sorting out the confusion caused by the recent announcement that the National Park Service, though its American Battlefield Protection Program, has approved a $90,000 grant to study and survey the battlefield for possible inclusion into a National Registry of Historic Places. The study contract was awarded to North Dakota State University's Center for Heritage Renewal.

Basin's engineering manager Duey Marthaller said the co-op didn't learn of the study until early last week and moved immediately to remove a 12-acre substation, but still wants to proceed with the line.

The battlefield study area is about 26 square miles on the south-facing slope and plains of the mountain area. Approximately 48 single pole structures 115 feet high would be spaced across it.

Aaron Barth, who will assist in the battlefield study, said the center didn't know that the battlefield study and the proposed power line were in conflict until the Tribune's story on the issue last week.

"We applaud the development, but we'd like to find some other way around here," Barth said.

Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said she wasn't happy with the apparent lack of communication.

"This is a very disturbing unfolding of events in the last week and a half. I would hope you all in cultural resources would get together to avoid this in the future. This not showing up on the State Historical Society's radar until a week before (the hearing) — something is off there," Fedorchak said.

Commissioner Randy Christmann wasn't pleased either, but for a different reason.

Christmann chastised Barth, saying none of the landowners were aware their private land was now inside a study area until the Tribune story.

"I'd be offended if a government agency took something this far without talking to me first," Christmann said.

Killdeer Mountain landowner Craig Dvirnak said he owns more than six sections inside the battlefield study area. He said he's neutral on the transmission line, but he is against the proposed study.

"All they've done is instilled mistrust. They should have gotten the landowners on board from day one. With federal money and the Native American culture, when you mix the two, it's never a good outcome for the landowner," Dvirnak said.

The 1864 Battle of the Killdeer Mountain has been called the largest military and Plains Indian engagement of the Great Plains. Barth said it's arguably the most important historic site in North Dakota.

Gerard Baker, an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes who has a 35-year career with the National Park Service, said more tribal views are needed, especially from the Sioux tribes that were engaged in the battle.

He said the battlefield should be avoided.

"I encourage you to move it (transmission line) out of the area so that there can be a pure area where people can stand in the middle of the battlefield and talk about what they were fighting for for their children and their grandchildren," Baker said.

Basin's environmental manager, Chris Miller, said the transmission line project has been in the works for three years and the corridor was developed with comment from the public.

He said the co-op will agree to recommendations from the State Historical Society that were issued Tuesday. It will move the substation, assess the visual effects of the transmission line from both the Medicine Hole on top of the mountain and from the battlefield historic monument, use a magnetometer along the line route inside the battlefield area to find artifacts, and conduct more archaeological testing if necessary.

Miller said its options are limited because of the nearby highway and an existing transmission line.

Beside the proposed line and based on booming load growth, Basin said it is also looking at building another transmission line around the east side of the Killdeer Mountains. It may use a route studied as an alternative to the one on the table Wednesday.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said presenting two alternative routes in an environmental document and then building in both of them is not in the spirit of planning and disclosure.

"The alternatives should be out there so that the power line could be built without impacting these cultural areas. If both are built, it's hardly an alternative," she said.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/basin-pulls-substation-from-battlefield/article_25adcc54-15e4-11e3-ae2a-0019bb2963f4.html

Public Service Commissioner hears concerns over Basin power line

KILLDEER — Basin Electric Power Cooperative committed to moving a substation off Killdeer Mountain Battlefield at a public hearing for the project Wednesday. Despite the concession, opponents of the project still have concerns. By: Katherine Lymn, The Dickinson Press

• Baker

Press Photo by Katherine Lymn At Killdeer City Hall on Thursday, Gerard Baker, who grew up near the Killdeer Mountains, asks for Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s proposed power line to be taken off the mountains at a public hearing on the project.

KILLDEER — Basin Electric Power Cooperative committed to moving a substation off Killdeer Mountain Battlefield at a public hearing for the project Wednesday. Despite the concession, opponents of the project still have concerns.
The Killdeer site was a hot topic at the Public Service Commission hearing here, where Basin presented its plans and members of the public voiced concerns over the location and effects of the line.
The $300 million project would route a 200-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line from the existing Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, west through Killdeer and then north through Williston, ending at a substation near Tioga.
While there was some fiery opposition, others seemed resigned to and accepting of a compromise between the natural environment and oil-related development, saying the power lines would just blend into the background after a while.
“If you’re worried about impact, the impact is already there,” said Craig Dvirnak, who owns land near the project.
Cris Miller, Basin’s senior environmental project administrator, pointed out residences, oil wells and existing power lines already in the Killdeer Mountains area.
Part of the route, which Basin says will help meet the oil boom’s growing energy need, would run straight through an area to be studied by North Dakota State University historians.
The purpose of the study, which would more specifically define the boundaries of the battlefield, is to bring the site to the attention of the National Park Service for possible special designation, research assistant Aaron Barth told the commission.
Since finding out about the battlefield last Tuesday, Basin has committed to moving the Gumbo Creek substation in Killdeer and will work with the State Historic Preservation Office and the NDSU study coordinators.
Basin hasn’t found a new location for the substation yet.
The company also has agreed to use materials that help the transmission towers blend into the natural environment more, as requested by the State Historic Preservation Office.
Moving the Gumbo Creek substation is appreciated, “but the proposed transmission line route remains a concern,” Lori Jepson, an area landowner and a member of the Killdeer Mountain Alliance, told the commission.
Valerie Naylor, superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, presented the National Park Service’s concerns with the project, which focused more on the larger picture of oil development affecting nature.
This project is one of many with minor to moderate impacts attributed to oil development, and “the cumulative impacts from the Bakken oil boom are enormous,” Naylor said.
According to a preliminary analysis, portions of Basin’s power line would be seen from up to 30 percent of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit.
The PSC will also host hearings for the project in Tioga today and in Williston on Thursday, Sept. 12.
A problem with the process
The fact that Basin only heard of the battlefield last Tuesday, after the project has been in development for a couple of years, raised a red flag for many.
“Perhaps there’s a better way so that things like this come up sooner,” Basin project coordinations representative Curt Pearson said. “This points out the need for a more comprehensive data exchange.”
PSC member Julie Fedorchak said she found it “disturbing” that Basin and the PSC found out about the battlefield so late in the game, and called on Barth and others in his field to work to find a better system for alerting developers of historically significant places earlier in the process.
Miller said if Basin had heard of the battlefield’s significance sooner than last week, there could’ve been a chance to move the power line completely off the mountains.
Former National Park Service administrator Gerard Baker, who grew up in sight of the Killdeer Mountains, said in his Native American culture, he learned of the battle not from books, but “from the lips of the elders.”
He asked for the line to be moved off the mountains for the benefit of future generations.
Baker wants people in the future to be able to go to the mountains and “stand in the middle of that battlefield and talk about this battle” and the Native Americans, “fighting for their land.”

hhttp://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/71752/

08/30/2013

The Killdeer Mountain Battlefield Landscape

By Aaron Barth

The Bismarck Tribune’s graphic of the proposed route through what essentially is the Gettysburg of the Northern Great Plains, the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield from 1864. Historical actors involved included Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, Gall, Sully, among others.

This morning a story broke in The Bismarck Tribune on a proposed transmission line route directly through the core area of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield. North Dakota State University’s Center for Heritage Renewal, led by Professor Tom Isern, responded with the following media release:

Aug. 30, 2013
Media Advisory
The Center for Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State University is preparing a submission for the North Dakota Public Service Commission hearing in Killdeer on Sept. 4. The subject is an electrical power transmission line and substation proposed to be built, by Basin Electric, in the core area of the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield. The topic has been covered by North Dakota media, starting yesterday.
The Center for Heritage Renewal was established to identify, preserve and capitalize on the heritage resources of North Dakota and the northern plains. One of the center’s objectives is to assist state agencies, private organizations and the people of the state and region in generating prosperity and quality of life from heritage resources. Another objective is to provide expertise and action in the fields of historic preservation and heritage tourism.
The center recognizes the efforts of Basin Electric to support regional development but is concerned that the environmental impact statement for the project takes no cognizance of the historical significance of Killdeer Mountain. 
The center has signed a contract with the National Park Service to survey and study the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield, which the park service has identified as a significant Civil War-era site in North Dakota. The contract is with the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service.
Killdeer Mountain was the chosen ground on which Dakota and Lakota fighters, including Inkpaduta and Sitting Bull, confronted the Northwest Expedition, commanded by General Alfred Sully, on July 28, 1864. This was the largest military engagement ever to take place on the Great Plains of North America, and a crucial episode in the Dakota War of 1862-1864.
University Distinguished Professor Tom Isern, founding director of the center, observes, “Killdeer Mountain is the Gettysburg of the Plains. It is, arguably, the most significant historic site in all of North Dakota.”
Isern is available to discuss this issue. He can be reached at 701-799-2942 

More to come…

http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/08/30/killdeer-mountain-battlefield-landscape/

Remembering Whitestone Hill 150 Years Later: August 24, 2013

By Aaron Barth

On August 24, 2013 (a week from tomorrow), the State Historical Society of North Dakota is hosting the 150th year of observances at Whitestone Hill in southeastern North Dakota. You can drive to the site, and there is an official Facebook page which you can link to here. I also thought I’d just copy and paste the August 24, 2013 line up below. Here it is, verbatim, and I’ve also provided links with the particular names (just click on them to learn more):

Whitestone Hill 150th Commemoration event, Saturday, August 24, 2013
Schedule – August 2013
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Demonstration stations: all day
Dakota Lifeways, Dakota food demo, military life re-enactors, settler life re-enactors, Dakota drum and dance, Dakota War information, interpretive signs –either a prototype or actual sign that will be installed on site by SHSND
Speakers:
9 a.m. Kevin Locke – opening prayer 
9:15 0r 9:30 a.m. Ladonna Allard – Life in the James River Valley 
11 a.m. Richard M. Rothaus – “The Military Context of Whitestone Hill–Tactics, Artillery, and Non-Combatants.” 
11:45 a.m. Aaron Barth – “Remembering Whitestone Hill” 
1 p.m. speaker to be announced – Identity and Story of the Native People of Whitestone Hill
3 p.m. Speaker Panel – Preservation of Whitestone Hill – Past, Present and Future. Alden Flakoll, Board member of the Whitestone Hill Battlefield Historical Society, Dakota Goodhouse, Program Director for North Dakota Humanities Council, Ladonna Allard, Tourism Director for Standing Rock Reservation, Tamara St. John, Tribal Historian for Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Diane Rogness, Historic Sites Manager for the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
4 p.m. Kevin Locke – dance
5:30 p.m. Buffalo supper, RSVP required

Published April 20, 2013, 12:00 AM

Athletes, scientists to tackle North Dakota Badlands to see oil boom affects

All in the name of science, a seemingly unlikely pairing of athletes and scientists will descend upon the North Dakota Badlands in an effort to catalog the area and determine if the oil boom is affecting the wilderness from the Killdeer Mountains to the Elkhorn Ranch to Sully Creek State Park, south of Medora.

By: Katherine Grandstrand, The Dickinson Press

All in the name of science, a seemingly unlikely pairing of athletes and scientists will descend upon the North Dakota Badlands in an effort to catalog the area and determine if the oil boom is affecting the wilderness from the Killdeer Mountains to the Elkhorn Ranch to Sully Creek State Park, south of Medora.
“Everything’s still set to go,” said Simon Donato, Adventure Science founder. “We’re not going to stop because of the snow, but it certainly added some considerations for us now.”
On Monday, Earth Day, Adventure Science will launch the first 100 Miles of Wild trip through the North Dakota Badlands.
A former ExxonMobil geologist who worked in the oil sands field in Canada, Donato is no stranger to oil development. He had heard stories about how oil development was encroaching on the wilderness of the North Dakota Badlands.
“Our whole project — it’s a neutral project,” he said. “We take no sides. We go out there objectively and just collect data. What we want to do out there is say, ‘OK, this area is going to be expanded into. They’re bringing rigs in, they’re building roads. What stands to be lost? What are they moving into? What are they moving over?’
“Until boots hit the ground, we don’t know what stands to be lost.”
Joining the Adventure Science team are archaeologists Andrew Reinhard, of Princeton, N.J., and Richard Rothaus, of Sauk Rapids, Minn. The duo had planned a camping trip to the North Dakota Badlands last year, but had to put it off when Rothaus broke his leg.
At the time Reinhard had never been to North Dakota, but had been backpacking in the other 47 contiguous states.
“It was 15 below out with no wind chill, which was a little crazy,” he said of his first trip to the state earlier this year, during the Punk Archaeology conference in early February in Fargo.
The Adventure Science trip will be his first backpacking experience here. Rothaus has been to the Badlands several times throughout his life and had been looking forward to the camping trip. When the pair talked about planning the Badlands trek again, they discussed the changes happening in the area and decided that their camping trip could be something more.
Rothaus and Reinhard had both completed Adventure Science trips before, and thought the North Dakota Badlands would make a perfect setting for a trip. They set about getting Donato on board.
“Now we’ve got a full-on expedition to go out and check the status of the wilderness,” Reinhard said.
The group will start in the Killdeer Mountains, head west to the Elkhorn Ranch and drop south to Sully Creek State Park.
“I have a real curiosity to see what’s going on in the wild spaces,” Reinhard said. “If what’s going on in the Bakken formation is affecting anything — maybe it is, maybe it isn’t we just don’t know.”
The scientists will start Monday and the athletes — who Rothaus and Reinhard admit move much quicker — will join Friday.
“We basically combine athletes and scientists to go tackle projects that most other people aren’t really interested in doing,” Donato said. “We take things out of the lab.”
The athletic team is comprised of ultra-marathoners and other endurance sport enthusiasts, Rothaus said.
The team has mapped out their route, including camping sites, although those might have to change due to snow and mud.
“If we have to search a little harder to find those ideal camp spots — right now we’ve got our route mapped and we’ve got the areas that we’d like to camp — we’ve got the coordinates selected for those already,” Donato said. “We will be fluid in the field in the sense that we’re going to kind of have to adapt on the fly if the area that we wanted to camp is a mud hole because of the snow.”
The snow and mud might make archeological finds more difficult, but should not alter the rest of their mission, Donato said.
The crew will still stay in tents overnight, but participants had to provide their own winter-camping gear before signing up, he said.
The team will not be completely alone; there will be support vehicles available for emergencies and to move equipment from site to site.
“We’re going in prepared for anything from tornados to blizzards,” Reinhard said. “If we need to bail out if things get really hairy, we’ll have support, which is really good.”
This will be the eighth mission led by Donato of Calgary, Albert, Canada.
Adventure Science’s first trip was a search and rescue mission after millionaire pilot Steve Fossett disappeared in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 2008.
The team will be updating interested parties through online resources when available. For a complete list, visit www.adventurescience.ca.
http://www.bakkentoday.com/event/article/id/67687/publisher_ID/6/

04/06/2013

US-Dakota Wars, Then and Now: Ellendale, North Dakota, April 5, 2013

By Aaron Barth

Last night in Ellendale, North Dakota (not far from a September 1863 massacre site of memory and mourning that is Whitestone Hill), a panel discussion between Natives and non-Natives took place at the Ellendale Opera House. The discussion opened with introductory remarks by North Dakota State University’s Tom Isern, and then by philosopher of ethics, Professor Dennis Cooley (Dennis is co-founder of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute, linked to here). From there Richard Rothaus provided an overview of the US-Dakota Wars that started in the Minnesota River Valley, 1862, but did not end in Mankato with the largest execution in United States history. In the following years, the US engaged in a protracted punitive campaign against all Sioux, regardless of whether they participated in the US-Dakota Wars throughout the Minnesota River Valley in 1862 — the many were punished for the actions of a few.
I think one of the main reasons folks came to this — and they expressed it — was to listen to what Tamara St. John (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, South Dakota) and Ladonna Brave Bull Allard (Standing Rock Tourism Director, North Dakota) had to say. Toward the end of the conversation, several of the Ellendale residents expressed immense thanks for the opportunity to listen, and one individual said they will use this panel discussion to navigate how to go about organizing the 150th year event at Whitestone Hill this September.

The US-Dakota War Panel Discussion from April 5, 2013, at the Opera House in Ellendale, North Dakota.

http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/04/06/us-dakota-wars-then-and-now-ellendale-north-dakota-april-5-2013/

To solidify our imagined sense of geographic history, I thought that it might be helpful to circulate the following map above that situates Native America on the northern Great Plains circa 1862, and contrasts it with the 2013 Eisenhower Interstate system. Also,linked here is a audio recording of the panel discussion in Ellendale, North Dakota, from April 5, 2013, taken by Kenneth Smith. The entire event was sponsored by the North Dakota Humanities Council and the Center for Heritage Renewal.

US-Dakota War Memory and History

03/24/2013

US-Dakota War Memory and History

By Aaron Barth

This last Friday (03/22/2013), I attended one of the four US-Dakota War Panel Discussions, this one at Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, Standing Rock Nation, North Dakota. The events are co-sponsored by the North Dakota Humanities Council and the Center for Heritage Renewal. The discussions are a give-and-take, where three Native and non-Native historians and discussants give introductory remarks and impressions of where we are “at” today, 150 years after engagements, battles and massacres — what today we call Total War — started in the Minnesota River Valley in 1862, and concluded albeit temporarily at Killdeer Mountains in 1864. (I say “albeit temporarily” because the Battle of Greasy Grass [aka, Little Big Horn] and Wounded Knee had yet to come).

Two of the many impressions I had at this particular event are as follows:

Photo from the US-Dakota Wars panel discussion at Sitting Bull College on March 22, 2013.

1) This public format remains one of the best ways to open a discussion that broadens the exchange not just with the “official” panel discussants, but with the audience members as well. The quasi-lecture and conversational format brings new voices into the fold, and this is important in that it allows researchers an opportunity to hear about historical particulars that simply do not exist in the archives or in “official” histories.

2) In this Sitting Bull College context, one audience participant noted how they, as a Native, felt a bit more comfortable opening up and chatting about the history and memory of the US-Dakota wars: depending on social contexts, individuals may or may not decide to talk about particular points of memory and history. This is an interesting intersection between our Sense of Place and Sense of History: the history we will talk about is largely dependent on where we are and who we are with. This also made me think about how it would be interesting to track how each one of these discussions played out. For example, in chatting with Richard Rothaus after the discussion happened on March 23, 2013 in Watford City, North Dakota, Rothaus noted how the audience contributed a completely different set of voices, and asked a completely different set of questions. This no doubt is due to the different range of cultural back-drops everyone comes from, and also how our vision and memories of the past are shaped by the different cultures we are born in to (for example, the first panel discussion was approximately 240 miles from the second panel discussion, both of which were in North Dakota: the first was at Sitting Bull College, Fort Yates, the second in Watford City, North Dakota).

This is the first of 4 discussions, and each discussion is happening (or happened) at a different location.  The third discussion will take place on Friday, April 5, 2013, at the Ellendale Opera House in Ellendale, North Dakota, and the fourth discussion will be at the Lake Region Heritage Center in Devils Lake, North Dakota on Saturday, April 6, 2013. More details at the following links here and here.

http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/03/24/us-dakota-war-memory-and-history/

The North Dakota NAYS against the History and Archaeology of the Killdeer Mountains

The North Dakota 

NAYS against the 

History and 

Archaeology of the 

Killdeer Mountains

By Aaron Barth

In the last couple months, Killdeer Mountain land owners, professional historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, tribal historians, Native elders and biologists spent a good deal of time at the capitol in North Dakota to inform the legislature on the importance of being a bit more deliberate than usual when it comes to drilling for oil on Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota. Ultimately, SB 2341 was created but voted down with moderate rather than extreme impunity by North Dakota’s 63rd legislature. Sigh…

Had the bill passed, it would have allowed moneys for the State Historical Society of North Dakota and North Dakota State University students, and professors of history and archaeology, to conduct an archaeological survey of Killdeer Mountains. I’m thinking I didn’t do a good enough job communicating that message to fellow North Dakotans who happen to be senators. Maybe next time around.Earlier this morning I started to wonder about who voted against the bill. The results are linked to here, and the image is a copy of who voted against SB 2341. I have yet to chat with all the individuals who voted “NAY” on this bill, at least to garner an understanding as to what motivated them to do what they did.

The YEAS and NAYS for SB 2341, a bill that would have appropriated moneys to fund an archaeological and historical study on the Killdeer Mountains in western ND.
http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/03/15/the-north-dakota-nays-against-the-history-and-archaeology-of-the-killdeer-mountains/

How Best To Preserve The Story Of The Killdeer Mountain Conflict

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2013

How Best To Preserve The Story Of The Killdeer Mountain Conflict

An image of a soldier engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a warrior. The image is engraved upon the elevator doors on the ground floor and main floor. 

Bismarck, N.D. – The polished hall outside the Missouri Room of the Bismarck State Capital building gradually filled with archaeologists, historians, tribal representatives and land owners from around Killdeer Mountain, all from different disciplines and walks of life, all concerned citizens of a proud state.

The study area of the Killdeer Mountain Conflict within the purple boundary.

The citizenry gathered in little groups here and there to introduce themselves and exchange greetings. It seemed like a fellowship of near universal concerns that brought everyone together, and life is like that. Sometimes it takes one thing to bring people together who might not have met in another situation.

An alarming amount of existing wells and proposed wells within the Killdeer Mountain Conflict area.

The hearing was scheduled at 2:00 PM CST and the fellowship exchanged the hall of polished stone and brass for the quiet cell of the Missouri River Room. A coterie of archaeologists clustered together in one corner, the tribal representatives quietly moved themselves to a corner close to the front, and historians scattered amongst the throng. Chit chat grew to a loud buzz, and though the Government and Veteran Affairs Committee was delayed an hour the motley collection of citizens didn't seem to grow impatient.

This is North Dakota, and sometimes things happen when they’re scheduled to, and other times things happen when they should. Farmers might call it natural time, Indians would agree.

Senator Triplett explains that next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Killdeer Mountain Conflict. "Its an opportunity for the state to reflect on the tragedy that shaped our statehood and include the story that has been under represented these long years," said Triplett, or something like that - my pen could not move fast enough.

The good people who made up the committee apologized for their unexpected delay and things quickly got started when Chairman Dever (Dist. 32, Bismarck) brought the gavel down with great ceremony and authority.  The hearing was to hear Senate Bill 2341, a proposal by senators on either end of the political spectrum, introduced by Sen. Wardner (Dist. 37, Dickinson) but the voice of the bill was provided by Senator Triplett (Dist. 18, Grand Forks).

Senate Bill 2341 proposed to appropriate $250,000 to do an archaeological and historical survey of the Killdeer Mountain conflict study area. A packed room of about forty-five people, including the good senators, heard testimony from several individuals representing various entities, and a few who spoke as private citizens.

Paaverud maintained an impeccable composure of respect for the committee as he endorsed the Heritage Center's support of the bill.

Mr. Merlan Paaverud and Ms. Fern Swenson represented the interests of the State Historical Society of North Dakota and voiced the SHSND’s endorsement of this bill. Ms. Swenson offered that the Killdeer Mountain study area consists of 17,433 acres or about 23 square miles, a core area of about 5,421 acres and only about 569 acres has been surveyed. Swenson also shared that the site has had a continual cultural occupation for the past 3,000 years.

Dr. Isern addresses the committee. He said his piece in about five minutes or less and gave some handouts with points explaining the nature of heritage preservation. 

Dr. Tom Isern, Director of the Institute for RegionalStudies, rendered a concise and wonderful explanation of the intrinsic value of Killdeer Mountain as a heritage site and acknowledged the attraction of the site to hikers and lovers of history and nature who would be drawn to this site, as many like-minded visitors have in the past. Dr. Isern expressed his institute’s support of the bill.

An immaculately groomed Aaron Barth (looking at the camera) visited with Mr. Jepson of Killdeer.

A few concerned citizens took to offering their support of this bill. Mr. Aaron Barth, founding writer of The Edge Of The Village, shared the need to survey and catalogue the Killdeer Mountain as a start to preserve the story of the site, if the natural integrity of the site is to be developed. “There’s a story to tell, and we must do all we can to share it,” as he compared the need to tell the stories of all combatants, like the American Civil War.

Without waver or hesitation, Young shared a resolution regarding sacred places from the National Congress of American Indians.

Ms. Waště'Wiŋ Young, Standing Rock Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, took the stand and pointedly stated that “the Indian voice has yet to be heard.” Young boldly shared with the committee a resolution adopted by the National Congress of American Indians in October of 2012 regarding the protection and preservation of sacred places. She read the whole thing, expressed her office’s support of Senate Bill 2341, and quietly departed.

Bravebull-Allard representing Standing Rock Tourism supports this bill.

Ms. LaDonna Bravebull-Allard, Director of Standing RockTourism, shared her lineage going back to survivors who were at Killdeer Mountain when General Sully forced his command on the Yanktonai Dakota, Hunkpapa Lakota and Santee Dakota. Bravebull-Allard spoke about how Killdeer Mountainwas a sacred site, not just to the Dakota and Lakota people, but the Mandan, Hidatsa, Chippewa and Assiniboine. With practiced confidence of a story-teller she shared that the site was where Sun Dreamer ascended Killdeer Mountain in 1625. Bravebull-Allard’s office supports this bill.

St. John spoke with dignified authority, less than two minutes, and left many of the committee nodding their heads in approval of her gracious support.

Ms. Tamara St. John, Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, eloquently and briefly echoed Young’s and Bravebull-Allard’s sentiments of protecting a special site like KilldeerMountain and her office’s support of the bill.

Sand called for the state to move carefully and deliberately to preserve North Dakota's heritage sites.

Mr. Rob Sand, a representative of the Killdeer MountainAlliance, a tall gentleman with the gait of a lifelong rancher took to the podium briefly and passionately encouraged oil development to wait. Sand offered the support of the Killdeer Mountain Alliance in favor of the bill.

Rothaus, self-described hard-boiled skeptic, put the bill on a scale but explained the overwhelming need to preserve as much of the story of Killdeer as possible and endorsed the bill.

Dr. Richard Rothaus, founder and director of TrefoilCultural and Natural, drove like a mad man from his office in Sauk Rapids, MN to render cold and succinct explanation of the Killdeer Mountain conflict’s standing in US military history as one of the largest, if not the single largest, Indian-White conflict in the west and why North Dakota needs to preserve as much of the conflict site and stories as possible. A former university professor, Rothaus came across brutally blunt but also exceptionally honest. He also endorsed his support of the bill.

Dvirnak proudly wore a Fighting Sioux windbreaker to the hearing. He forgot to bring one for me.

Lastly, Mr. Bryan Dvirnak, a lifelong rancher on family-owned and managed land at KilldeerMountain, shared his family’s generations-long commitment to the preserving the cultural and historic integrity of the conflict site. “No one has done more to preserve and protect the site. We’re all for preserving the property,” said Dvirnak in a moving testimony to the committee. Dvirnak expressed that his brother could best articulate how their family has forged relationships with various Indian communities in state and  into Canada. The Dvirnaks have graciously allowed traditional ceremonies and prayers to be conducted on their land throughout the years.

Dvirnak, regardless of his family’s openness to the American Indian presence on his family’s land, managed to convey his open skepticism of the bill. “What will the [archaeological] study do?” he wondered aloud. Dvirnak conveyed his disillusionment with the bill, the sharpest point of his argument manifested itself in his question about what the bill would mandate him to do on his own land.

The bill doesn’t mandate anyone to do anything on their own private land. In fact, the bill mandates that the archaeologists who conduct the investigation must acquire the permissions of all landowners in the study and core areas of the Killdeer Mountain conflict. Senator Dever, the chairman of the Government and Veterans Committee, understood Mr. Dvirnak’s position and told Sen. Triplett to include language in Senate Bill 2341 that expressly and clearly articulates a mandate for archaeologists to acquire permission of landowners to survey on their land.

Mr. Dvirnak and his family have the best intentions, a family mission taken to heart, passed down from father to sons, to preserve the heritage of Killdeer Mountain. They opened their lands in the past to the Indian communities. They also donated a tidycollection of artifacts from the KilldeerMountain conflict to Dickinson State University.

They did this because there’s a story that needs to be preserved and shared, and that’s something that everyone who testified can agree. 

Killdeer Mountains 150 Years Later: Rescuing the Fallen and Forgotten Veterans from the Past

By Aaron Barth

North Dakota State Capitol meeting room locations. Missouri River Room is #16, bottom-center of map.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 7, 2013, at 1400 hours (CST), North Dakota Senator Connie Triplett (District 18, Grand Forks)will collaboratively sponsor SB 2341, a bill that seeks to carry out an archaeological and historic-archaeological study on the Killdeer Mountains in Dunn County, western North Dakota. I’ll be attending this hearing (it will take place before the Senate Government & Veteran’s Affairs Committee in the Missouri River Room), and Triplett has circulated an e-mail asking historians, landowners, archaeologists, Natives and others for testimonies to support this bill. The Killdeer Mountains figure into our nation’s history and the US-Dakota Wars that spanned from 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley, and carried on through 1864 at Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota.

Taken from the cover of Robert W. Larson, “Gall: Lakota War Chief” (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007).

What we know right now about Killdeer from 1864 is limited (the State Historical Society of North Dakota has a nice and thoughtful write up of it here), and further archaeological and historical research is needed. It was an action between the Union Army and various Dakota nations, and some key players involved were Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, Gall (among others), and General Alfred Sully and his Union soldiers. In many ways, just as this nation recognizes and respects fallen Union and Confederate combatants and non-combatants, this nation owes it to honor the Dakota soldiers and non-combatants killed in Dakota Territory during the Civil War. To extend this honor requires and necessitates a deliberate and culturally sensitive systematic archaeological and historical study like the one proposed in SB 2341. We understandably honor Americans that have fought and died in 21st century warfare, and we ought to also be honoring and rescuing those fallen and forgotten from the Killdeer Mountains from July 1864.

Note: according to Sioux County Veterans Service Officer Roster, today in 2013 Standing Rock has a veteran population of 357.
http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/02/06/killdeer-mountains-150-years-later/

Fallen & Forgotten Veterans Of The Killdeer Mountain Conflict

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Fallen & Forgotten Veterans Of The Killdeer Mountain Conflict

A painting of the Killdeer Mountain Conflict of 1864 by Carl Boeckman.

1863 Killdeer Mountain Conflict: 150 Years Later

Rescuing The Fallen & Forgotten Veterans From The Past

By Aaron Barth, The Edge Of The Village

Bismarck - Tomorrow, Thursday, February 7, 2013, at 1400 hours (CST), North Dakota Senator Connie Triplett (District 18, Grand Forks)will collaboratively sponsor SB 2341, a bill that seeks to carry out an archaeological and historic-archaeological study on the Killdeer Mountains in Dunn County, western North Dakota. I’ll be attending this hearing (it will take place before the Senate Government & Veteran’s Affairs Committee in the Missouri River Room), and Triplett has circulated an e-mail asking historians, landowners, archaeologists, Natives and others for testimonies to support this bill. The Killdeer Mountains figure into our nation’s history and the US-Dakota Wars that spanned from 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley, and carried on through 1864 at Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota.

Sitting Bull, great Hunkpapa Lakota leader, was present at Killdeer Mountain when General Sully decided to attack. The Hunkpapa had nothing to do with the Minnesota Dakota Conflict of 1862. Sitting Bull was among the leaders who took the Lakota west into Elk River country (Little Missouri today) in an attempt to escape an unwarrented attack. He never forgave the Union for the needless death of innocent women and children.

What we know right now about Killdeer from 1864 is limited (the State Historical Society of North Dakota has a nice and thoughtful write up of it here), and further archaeological and historical research is needed. It was an action between the Union Army and various Dakota nations, and some key players involved were Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, Gall (among others), and General Alfred Sully and his Union soldiers. In many ways, just as this nation recognizes and respects fallen Union and Confederate combatants and non-combatants, this nation owes it to honor the Dakota soldiers and non-combatants killed in Dakota Territory during the Civil War. To extend this honor requires and necessitates a deliberate and culturally sensitive systematic archaeological and historical study like the one proposed in SB 2341. We understandably honor Americans that have fought and died in 21st century warfare, and we ought to also be honoring and rescuing those fallen and forgotten from the Killdeer Mountains from July 1864.

Pizi, or Chief Gall, led the Dakota and Lakota in a running battle from General Sibley at the conflicts of Dead Buffalo Lake, Stoney Lake and the Conflict at Apple Creek in 1863. Gall was present at the Killdeer Mountain Conflict and assisted the Lakota in a run west to Elk River (Little Missouri River) to escape Sully's advances.

Note: according to Sioux County Veterans Service Officer Roster, today in 2013 Standing Rock has a veteran population of 357.

Note: It is estimated that perhaps 150 Dakota and Lakota lost their lives at the Killdeer Mountain Conflict. The Dakota and Lakota would say, "Wokiksuya lo," "Remember This."
http://thefirstscout.blogspot.com/2013/02/fallen-forgotten-veterans-1863.html