Dakota: The Story of the Northern Plains by Norman K. Risjord

by Norman K. Risjord

The northern plains are often ignored by the rest of the nation or, if not, are mentioned in the context of the weather, Mount Rushmore, or the Black Hills. However, North Dakota and South Dakota have a colorful past—and present—deserving of greater recognition.Norman K. Risjord relates the remarkable histories of these two states, from the geological formation of the Great Plains to economic changes in the twenty-first century. Risjord takes the reader on a journey through the centuries detailing the first human inhabitants of the northern plains, the Lewis and Clark expedition, homesteading and railroad building, the political influence of the Progressive movement, the building of Mount Rushmore, and Wounded Knee II. Included are stories of such noteworthy characters as French explorer Vérendrye, the Lakota leader Red Cloud, North Dakota political boss Alexander McKenzie, and South Dakota Democrat George S. McGovern.Despite the shared topography and the rivers that course through both states, the diverse reactions of the two states to the challenges of the twentieth century provide opportunities for arresting comparisons. This captivating look at the Dakotas’ geography, ecology, politics, and culture is essential reading for Dakotans and those interested in the rich history of this important region.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published December 19, 2012

About the author

AKA Norman Kurt Risjord;
University: BA, College of William and Mary (1953)
University: PhD, University of Virginia (1960)
Professor: History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Reviews

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an adequate capsule history of America's most overlooked region, unfortunately written by someone who has never actually lived in the Dakotas, since people from the Dakotas with those sorts of academic credentials are few and far between.

Risjord obviously put *some* effort into this book, though after writing histories of Wisconsin and Minnesota he seems a bit tired and often overwhelmed as to how to approach the histories of a place he admits in the introduction to knowing nothing about before he started writing. However, the coverage, while comprehensive, is often incomplete and very uneven. Parts are really great, parts are rushed, and other parts are simply boring the way he covers them....but I think the biggest mistake he tried to make is discussing North Dakota and South Dakota in the same breath. These states are so different from each other that they really needed to be talked about entirely separately past a certain point in the early 20th century; South Dakota is basically a rectangular Wyoming with Mt. Rushmore, less oil, and more Indians, while North Dakota is a weird conservative Scandanavian/Russian German socialist experiment that's culturally more like Minnesota and structurally unlike any other state in the country (it has its own bank, lots of unusual socialist laws on the books from the 1940's, etc.). Though Risjord mentions these differences, I don't feel as though he fully understands them, and it's really to the detriment of the work.

The organization of this book is also very choppy apart from that issue. I feel as though he's jumping around between sources trying to weave a coherent narrative, but he's got a few pieces missing. Proofreading could also use some work. The text is fine, but every single one of his maps is missing the "c" in "Bismarck" - a common error for people who don't actually live in the Dakotas, but one that really wouldn't be hard to spot, or to correct, with a little more diligence. It's a bit embarrassing, really. I also wish he'd used sources beyond texts, which are fairly lacking in a culture founded by farmers, many of whom were illiterate or nearly so until the 20th century, and many of whom, especially in North Dakota, wouldn't have even spoken English at home until after World War II. He needed a lot more emphasis on oral history and travel to historical sites to pull off a comprehensive history of this region, and that's not work that he did.

There are some great stories here, or at least introductions to them; his coverage of things that are more "on the radar" nationally, such as Lewis and Clark and the history of Mount Rushmore, are very well covered; however, these are the things that are enough in the national consciousness that there are plenty of sources. The bits in the middle covering the more obscure or mundane history really degenerate quickly into "so and so explored such and such" or "such and such an election was decided in this way", and those parts really tend to be unmemorable. One gets the feeling that he found the one handful of North Dakota-related sources available at the University of Wisconsin library, drove through North Dakota on I-94 without really stopping much, popped down to Mount Rushmore, and fudged the rest.

Overall, this is a solid effort with scholarly sources, and currently the only history of the Dakotas that exists in-print anywhere. I'm grateful that Risjord tried. However, because conventional historical methods are not ever going to show a complete picture of either Dakota, but especially North Dakota (at least not without some in-person visits to local historical archives that are still very much in the last century), there's a lot of room for a better history to come along someday if someone has the motivation to write it.

[Shrike58 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes one gets a book that's less than the sum of its parts, and such is the case here. For the most part, you'd be better off reading the Wikipedia entries on either North or South Dakota, before going off to find a more specialized work on a given topic. I'm probably being a bit hard on the author, as what I thought I was going to be reading was a more focused examination of the territorial period of the region.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I've been in ND my whole life I expected to find this book more interesting than I actually did. Some parts are comparable to eating dust and some are interesting. Most of the maps misspell Bismarck. I feel like there is a lot that's missing, but since it took me a l-o-n-g time to finish this book I should probably be grateful more wasn't included.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasant blind buy for me, Risjold gives my home state's worthy issues (like racialized colonization, populism, agricultural economy, the civil war, rail, new deal, etc etc) all a decent looking for the length of the overview.

[Prashanth · Rating 3 out of 5]

History about French expeditions, Lewis & Clark, Mt Rushmore and Native history were interesting. As it got to modern times, it turned into political history more than actual local history of the towns and cities which is why I've rated it a 3/5. Book is fairly well written.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the bits and pieces from both N and S Dakota as history progressed, would like to see a new version with additional history about the Bakken Oil Boom, now that we are somewhat removed from the original boom, since this book was written around the time of the boom.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

FYI to anyone looking to read this book: it offers a pretty good overview of some of the highlights of the history of North & South Dakota, but it is by no means comprehensive.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a nice overview and has given me some ideas on where I want to dig deeper.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but not very in-depth. It’s more like a biographical sketch, with a few factual errors, such as placing the state-owned North Dakota Mill and Elevator in Fargo instead of Grand Forks.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Project Read-a-History-of-Every-State-in-Order-of-Statehood #39
There is no separate history of North Dakota?!?

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining overview of the history of the Dakotas. The problem is that it's hard to be sure the book is accurate. There are misspellings and clear inaccuracies. (Such as using the term "Dakota" to refer to Lakota peoples.) It's difficult to know what else might be wrong with the narrative. That being said, the pre-colonization history presented was valuable and I enjoyed the focus on the populist and progressive movements' rise and fall in the Dakotas.

[Thomas Isern · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have reviewed this work for publication