On this date in 1918, the Spanish Flu had reached North Dakota. The state’s first confirmed case was a U.S. Marine on leave in New Rockford. Within a week, 100 local cases were reported, along with two deaths.
Similar symptoms had appeared elsewhere since January. Doctors in Madrid identified a particularly virulent strain of influenza, and within a year, the Spanish Flu became a global pandemic, killing between 20 and 40 million people.
World War I had severely disrupted sanitation and healthcare, not only in Europe but in U.S. towns where medical workers were called away to serve. Troop movements helped spread the virus. In fact, half of the U.S. soldiers who died in the war died of the flu, not battle.
North Dakota lost around 3,000 people, despite bans on public gatherings. Hospitals were limited to larger cities, and many towns had no sanitation systems, raw sewage was still dumped into rivers, even in Fargo.
The hardest-hit group was adults aged 20 to 60, though children and elders were also vulnerable. Schools closed, but the Wahpeton Indian School, then a residential, military-style government institution, remained open.
Its on-campus hospital was a state-of-the-art facility, with contract doctors, nurses, and dentists, far better than any in town. A strict quarantine was enforced throughout the pandemic.
But near the end of October, just as the flu seemed to be easing, Principal Carl Fletcher and student Louisa Wadena died at the school hospital. Their names were among the many listed on the front page of the local paper.
Mr. Fletcher, age 38, was buried in Shields, North Dakota. Louisa, 16, from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, was buried in an unmarked plot at Fairview Cemetery. Train shipments of flu victims were prohibited, and no burials were allowed on school grounds. Her burial was paid for by students and staff.
In 1995, alumna Joyce Burr, then Superintendent, remembered Louisa’s grave. With art teacher Laura Youngbird, she helped design a marble marker featuring a girl in a jingle dress.
That dress, now a staple at powwows, was born during the pandemic. An Ojibwe elder dreamed it while praying for his granddaughter’s healing. As the girl danced, the sound of the jingles turned sorrow into healing, a rain of hope in the time of sickness.
Dakota Datebook written by Lise Erdrich
SOURCES:
- FLU EPIDEMIC IN COUNTY ABATING ACCORDING TO THE LATEST REPORTS. The Globe-Gazette, October 24, 1918, Page 1
- History of Wahpeton Indian School. 50th Anniversary classroom project.
- State Historical Society of North Dakota. 5 Fun Facts About September 1 in North Dakota History. https://www.tfdsupplies.com/blogs/today-in-history/5-fun-facts-about-september-1-in-north-dakota-history#:~:text=1.,state%20to%20enter%20the%20Union.
- Scott Wager, The Deadly Year of the 1918 Flu. North Dakota Newspaper Association, 10/12/2012. https://www.ndna.com/ndna-sponsored-web-site/stories/5372/#:~:text=In%20North%20Dakota%2C%20it's%20believed,was%20recovering%20from%20the%20flu.
- Harper Esty, The History of the Jingle Dress Dance. National Congress of American Indians, https://www.ncai.org/news/the-history-of-the-jingle-dress-dance
- Jingle Dress Story told by Jason Kingbird, teacher at Circle of Nations Wahpeton Indian School.
- University of Minnesota. The Jingle Dress, a Modern Tradition. Interview with Brenda Child, February 20, 2020.
