NORTH DAKOTA

constituent state of the United States of America. It is bounded by Canada on the north, Minnesota on the east, South Dakota on the south, and Montana on the west. The state has an area of 70,702 square miles (183,119 square kilometres). The largest city is Fargo, and Bismarck is the centrally located capital. Officially classed as one of the seven western north central states, North Dakota was admitted to the Union as the 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889. It is a land of generally clear skies, seemingly endless grain farms, and vast cattle ranches. The state is rural, agricultural, and sparsely populated. Its terrain rises through three regions from east to west, incorporating parts of the two major physiographic provinces that separate the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountain systems. The state's name derives from the Dakota division of the Sioux Indians who inhabited the plains before the arrival of Europeans. Among the last regions of the American frontier to be settled, the area that became the state of North Dakota experienced comparatively little of the fighting, lawlessness, and gold-rush excitement that give other frontier areas a colourful and sometimes lurid history. Instead, the region developed first as the home of hunting and farming Indian peoples, later as a trading area for white fur traders and for steamboats working the upper Missouri River from St. Louis, and then as a rich farming land for white settlers. The cool, subhumid climate of its location made it ideal for spring wheat and for cattle ranching. The area subsequently developed a way of life dependent on outside centres of population, industry, and economic power. With adaptation to the environment, however, North Dakotans also developed constructive reactions to those conditions that underlie their state's dependency. The Midwest. constituent state of the United States of America, lying in the west north-central United States, bounded on the east by Minnesota, on the south by South Dakota, on the west by Montana, and on the north by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The capital is Bismarck. Various tribes of Plains Indians, especially the Mandan and the Hidatsa, were the original inhabitants of North Dakota. The first European explorer to reach the area was the Frenchman Pierre Gaultier de Varennes. Traders from Hudson Bay and Montreal began to visit North Dakota regularly in the 1790s. Most of present-day North Dakota became a part of the United States by way of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wintered among the Mandan Indians in 180405. The northeastern corner of the state became a part of the United States by treaty with Great Britain in 1818. The fur trade declined in the 1860s, and white settlement began in earnest in 1871, when railroads reached the Red River. A flood of pioneers acquired land under the Homestead Act and turned to wheat farming. The Dakota Boom (187886) saw the population increase almost sixfold. In 1889 North Dakota became the 39th state. North Dakota straddles two major physiographic regions. To the east is the Central Lowland, comprising the Red River valley and the Drift Prairie, the latter consisting of rolling country covered with glacial drift. To the west are the Great Plains, the North Dakota portion of which is called the Missouri Plateau. Here the landscape has been shaped by running water that in some places has carved spectacular cliffs, buttes, and valleys. North Dakota has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. In July the average daytime high temperatures range from 88 F (31 C) in the south to 82 F (28 C) in the north. In January they range from 26 F (-3 C) in the southwest to 10 F (-12 C) in the northeast. Average precipitation for the whole state is about 17 inches (430 mm). North Dakota's population is predominantly white and of northern European extraction. American Indians in the late 20th century comprised barely 3 percent of the population and blacks not even one-half of a percent. The earliest white settlers included many Norwegians, Canadians, and Germans. In 1920 only one-third of the white population was of native-born American parentage. The single largest religious denomination is Lutheran, followed by Roman Catholic. During most of the 20th century, the state consistently lost population until 1970, after which immigration fell sharply. The urban population is just less than one-half of the total, and the overall population density is relatively low. Agriculturally, the state produces large numbers of beef cattle and ranks first in the nation in the production of barley, sunflower, and flaxseed. Wheat is the most important source of farm income, and rye, oats, sugar beets, and potatoes are also major crops. Oil is the most important natural resource, followed by lignite coal. Manufacturing accounts for only about one-tenth of the state's income. North Dakota's transportation network includes a well-developed system of rail lines and eastwest- and southeastnorthwest-oriented highway routes. Without a large metropolitan centre, the cities and towns with colleges and universities provide the main cultural leadership. Orchestras are in Fargo, Minot, and Grand Forks. Grand Forks also has the North Dakota Ballet. Indigenous folk traditions continue among the Sioux, Ojibwa, Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan Indians. Norwegian language and literature are taught at the University of North Dakota. Area 70,702 square miles (183,119 square km). Pop. (1990) 638,800. Additional reading Federal Writers' Project, North Dakota: A Guide to the Northern Prairie State (1938, reprinted as The WPA Guide to 1930s North Dakota, 1990), also updated in a 2nd edition (1950, reprinted 1976); and Francie M. Berg, North Dakota (1977), are valuable descriptive works. Melvin E. Kazeck, North Dakota: A Human and Economic Geography (1956), although dated, is also useful. John P. Bluemle, The Face of North Dakota: The Geologic Story (1977), is a sound introduction. L.R. Goodman and R.J. Eidem, The Atlas of North Dakota (1976), contains maps depicting geophysical data and economic, social, and administrative aspects; while DeLorme Mapping Company, North Dakota Atlas & Gazetteer (1999), emphasizes topography. Mary Ann Barnes Williams, Origins of North Dakota Place Names (1966), uncritically preserves a few preposterous local legends but is nonetheless a useful collection. William C. Sherman and Playford V. Thorson (eds.), Plains Folk: North Dakota's Ethnic History, rev. and corrected ed. (1988), provides detailed ethnographic information on settlement and the state's cultural and religious traditions. The story of the German-Russian settlers is well told in Adolph Schock, In Quest of Free Land (1964). Mary Jane Schneider, North Dakota Indians: An Introduction (1986), is the most comprehensive work of its kind. On the development of agriculture in eastern North Dakota, specifically in the valley of the Red River of the North, three books are particularly helpful: Stanley Norman Murray, The Valley Comes of Age (1967), covering the period 18121920; and Hiram M. Drache, The Day of the Bonanza (1964), and The Challenge of the Prairie (1970). A good collection of well-documented essays on major political personages and movements is Thomas M. Howard (ed.), The North Dakota Political Tradition (1981). Elwyn B. Robinson, History of North Dakota (1966, reissued 1982), is the authoritative and exemplary history up to about 1960. Robert P. Wilkins and Wynona Huchette Wilkins, North Dakota: A Bicentennial History (1977), is a sound, interpretive treatment. Robert L. Morlan, Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League, 19151922 (1955, reprinted 1985), questioned on some points of fact by later writers, remains a classic. Vera Kelsey, Red River Runs North! (1951), a regional history, has literary as well as historical value. North Dakota History (quarterly), contains articles on the history and culture of North Dakota and the northern Great Plains. Bernard O'Kelly The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica