Wednesday, September 11, 2013

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.

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Tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer Mouintain Battlefield line

Published September 11, 2013, 06:45 PM

Tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer Mouintain Battlefield line

KILLDEER — North Dakota’s Native Americans officially oppose further development on the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield Historic Site, the United Tribes of North Dakota said in a resolution.
By: The Associated Press,

KILLDEER — North Dakota’s Native Americans officially oppose further development on the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield Historic Site, the United Tribes of North Dakota said in a resolution.
Basin Electric Power Cooperative has proposed a power line that would run through the battlefield area. That project is in the public comment stage, and the United Tribes’ resolution alerts the Public Service Commission of tribes’ opposition.
United Tribes represents the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, the Spirit Lake Tribe, the Standing Rock Tribe, Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
The tribes oppose the proposed power line and any facilities that could disturb the remains of those killed at the site, according to a release on the resolution.
In July 1864, Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully led soldiers in a battle against Native Americans on the site. With more than 2,000 fighters on either side, the battle is the largest military engagement to take place on the Great Plains, said Tom Isern, a historian at North Dakota State University.
“That was the last resting place for those people,” said Diane Desrosiers, tribal historic preservation officer for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe.
“It doesn’t seem right that we should disturb them.”
The site was important to Native Americans before the battle, too, as a gathering place.
At a public hearing for the project last week, the Public Service Commission heard concerns from landowners and historians about the line. Basin has committed to moving a substation that would’ve been on the battlefield site, but the line still bisects the battlefield area.
Several tribes have already passed their own resolutions in opposition of the power line, Desrosiers said.
The five tribes make up more than 31,000 Native Americans in the state and represent 5 percent of the population, according to the state Indian Affairs Commission.
Tamara St. John, of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Historic Preservation Office, said it’s important to preserve such sites because the world needs reminders that Native Americans were here.
“The world believes that history began when Columbus arrived and that’s what our children are taught in the schools,” St. John said.
Sites like the Killdeer battlefield are “evidence that we were here. We’ve always been here.”

http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/15940/
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5 North Dakota Native American tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer battlefield power line

  • First Posted: September 11, 2013 - 6:18 pm
    Last Updated: September 11, 2013 - 6:20 pm

BISMARCK, North Dakota — Five American Indian tribes in North Dakota have passed a resolution formally opposing a transmission line planned for the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.
Basin Electric Power Cooperative wants to build the 200-mile line from the Antelope Valley Station power plant near Beulah to near Tioga to deliver more electricity to the Bakken oil fields, where there is a growing demand for power. The Public Service Commission is scheduled to hold a third hearing on the project Thursday in Williston.
The proposed $300 million project — which also needs federal approval because Basin plans to seek financing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — comes as a tribal alliance is trying to protect the Killdeer Mountains region from oil drilling.
The United Tribes said in its resolution that it opposes the project because it could disturb the remains of native people killed by the U.S. Army in 1864 and buried along an eight-mile stretch.
"The history of the Native Nations is filled with places of overwhelming sacred and cultural significance, with many places being identified only by a few persons, including places of overwhelming grief and tragedy," the resolution said.
Scott Davis, executive director for the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, said the sites are important to Native Americans like himself, but the tribes are only now formally opposing a project that's been in the works for years.
"If I was a tribal leader, I would hope I would know about a cultural site that's important to my tribe," he said. "Burial sites, spiritual sites — those are very important to our people."
Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said Wednesday the company already has obtained about 75 percent of the required easements from property owners along the eight-mile line. The Bismarck-based company has no plans to deviate from its original route, he said.
"Our intention is to move forward," Hill said.
The tribes' resolution will be one of the factors the PSC takes into account, he said.
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Tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer Mouintain Battlefield line

Published September 11, 2013, 04:58 PM

Tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer Mouintain Battlefield line

BISMARCK — Five American Indian tribes in North Dakota have passed a resolution formally opposing a transmission line planned for the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.
By: The Associated Press,
BISMARCK — Five American Indian tribes in North Dakota have passed a resolution formally opposing a transmission line planned for the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative wants to build the 200-mile line from the Antelope Valley Station power plant near Beulah to a spot near Tioga to deliver more electricity to the Bakken oil fields, where there is a growing demand for power.

The United Tribes say it opposes the project because it could disturb the remains of people killed in the 1864 battle.

A Basin spokesman says the resolution will be one of the pieces of information the PSC will use in deciding whether to approve the project.

The PSC holds a third hearing Thursday in Williston.

Check back later for more on this story.

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/71958/
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/411883/group/homepage/
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/272917/
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United Tribes Oppose Industrial Development at Killdeer Battlefield

United Tribes Oppose Industrial Development at Killdeer Battlefield

Posted: Sep 11, 2013 3:30 PM CDTUpdated: Sep 11, 2013 3:30 PM CDT
By Krista Harju - email
The United Tribes of North Dakota oppose further industrial development at the Killdeer Battlefield Historic Site. Their opposition focuses on the proposed construction of an electric power transmission line or other facilities that the tribes believe "could potentially disturb the remains of those killed at the site."
Killdeer Mountain is a sacred location made even more culturally significant by a brutal encounter in July 1864. U.S. Army troops attacked a peaceful hunting encampment, killing Dakota and Lakota men, women and children. Those who managed to escape were unable to give relatives appropriate burial ceremonies and many bodies remain buried on the site.
The resolution was passed unanimously on September 6 and signed by UTND Board Chairman Tex "Red Tipped Arrow" Hall, chairman of the Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation, and UTND Board Secretary Robert Shepherd, chairman of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate.

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5 North Dakota Native American tribes pass resolution opposing Killdeer battlefield power line

BISMARCK, North Dakota — Five American Indian tribes in North Dakota have passed a resolution formally opposing a transmission line planned for the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area.
Basin Electric Power Cooperative wants to build the 200-mile line from the Antelope Valley Station power plant near Beulah to a spot near Tioga to deliver more electricity to the Bakken oil fields, where there is a growing demand for power.
The United Tribes say it opposes the project because it could disturb the remains of people killed in the 1864 battle.
A Basin spokesman says the resolution will be one of the pieces of information the PSC will use in deciding whether to approve the project.
The PSC holds a third hearing Thursday in Williston.

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Tribes oppose development at Killdeer battle site

Tribes oppose development at Killdeer battle site
11 September 2013

BISMARCK (UTN) - North Dakota's five Native American tribes have gone on record opposing further industrial development at the Killdeer Battlefield Historic Site northwest of Killdeer in the state's oil patch.
      The United Tribes of North Dakota approved a resolution alerting the North Dakota Public Service Commission and other entities to its opposition.
      Members of United Tribes are the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Spirit Lake Tribe, Standing Rock Tribe, Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
      Their opposition is focused on the proposed construction of an electric power transmission line or other facilities that the tribes believe "could potentially disturb the remains of those killed at the site."
      Killdeer Mountain is a sacred location made even more culturally significant by a brutal encounter in July 1864. U.S. Army troops, led by Brigadier General Alfred Sully, attacked a peaceful hunting encampment, killing Dakota and Lakota men, women and children. The soldiers destroyed hundreds of lodges, tons of buffalo meat, and piles of tanned hides, clothes, utensils and tipi poles.
      Those who managed to escape were unable to give relatives appropriate burial ceremonies and many bodies remain buried on the site.
      The so-called "battle" was part of the military's punitive campaign in Dakota Territory following the 1862 Minnesota/Dakota conflict. The United Tribes resolution says the campaign "would now be called a war of genocide."
      The resolution was passed unanimously September 6 and signed by UTND Board Chairman Tex "Red Tipped Arrow" Hall, chairman of the Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation, and UTND Board Secretary Robert Shepherd, chairman of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate.

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