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The Star Wars franchise has been a pop culture phenomenon since it debuted in 1977. On this date that year, the Dakota Twin Theatres in Bismarck offered showings of “Star Wars” at 7 and 9:20pm. Ads in the Bismarck Tribune noted that the “cosmic adventure” was in its “6th big week!”

Now in the fields I’ve put the seed / And, Lord, I’ve done my best indeed / Look now with kindness, Father dear / To all the little kernels here!

Sue Balcom is here for Main Street Eats, talking today about hoeing the garden.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 - Tim Giago, the Lakota journalist, author, publisher, veteran, entrepreneur and activist passed away last week. He was 88. He left quite a legacy, an inspiration for Indigenous journalists. Alicia Hegland-Thorpe shares a remembrance. ~~~ We also share a profile of Lydia Sage Chase of the MHA Nation, and a 2021 inductee into the North Dakota Native American Hall of Honor. ~~~ We’re in the middle of the growing season, time to check in with horticulturist Ron Smith. ~~~ TellTale, Dakota Folklife and Stories is a collection of oral histories with senior citizens. Today, we share an episode about polio.

On this date, in 1920, a newspaper advertisement touted the virtues of Huiskamp’s “Barn Yard Shoe” and Huiskamp’s Barnyard Shoe Oil. These work-shoes, according to a 1913 advertisement in Valley City, were manure-proof and ammonia proof; guaranteed “not to rot or crack-through from barnyard service.”

We occasionally hear about beavers being compared to engineers. Well, pocket gophers have been recently compared to farmers! Based on recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Florida it appears that at least the southeastern pocket gopher is tending, or “farming,” the underground plant parts they harvest to eat.

The November 1888 Student, the University of North Dakota's monthly magazine from that era, reported: “[Professor Henry] Montgomery … during the past five years has devoted considerable time to the exploration of artificial mounds in Dakota. The greater portion of this work ... has been in the neighborhood of Devils' Lake, Fort Totten, and Inkster.”

The city of Robinson, in Kidder County, experienced a news-making surprise in 1925. A public water well had begun to produce gasoline! The water had apparently turned bad for drinking a year earlier, but was still being used off-and-on for other purposes. A motorist who stopped to add water to his radiator, realized it was gasoline when he got it to burn.

Tuesday, November 15, 2022 - A new book produced by Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation serves to preserve and promote the Dakota language and oral history. Mni Wakan: Place Names and History of the Spirit Lake Dakota is co-authored by the college’s Dakota Studies instructor Louie Garcia of Spirit Lake, and author and illustrator Mark Diedrich. Alicia Hegland-Thorpe visits with honorary tribal historian Louie Garcia at the college and college president Dr Cynthia Lindquist. ~~~ Harvest Public Media report on rural water conservation. ~~~ The Energy and Environmental Research Center at UND has been studying the use of "salt caverns" to store natural gas, hydrogen, and other materials. The study area is western North Dakota, in the Bakken. What makes this different from carbon sequestration is the materials stored in the caverns will be used for bio-refining and petrochemicals. Prairie Public's Dave Thompson visits with Charles Gorecki, CEO of the EERC. ~~~ Chuck Lura shares an essay titled “Dining on the Prairie.” It’s a look at some of the early food sources before the farming era.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022 - Ashley stops in at the Job and Housing Fair organized by the F5 project. F5 is a non-profit seeking criminal justice reform by helping people currently and formerly incarcerated; and people suffering from addiction. She visits with Chief Programs Officer Scott College and Katy McCoy, who went from meth management after finding work at Panera.