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2/15/2005: It was on this date in 1901 that Dakota Territory’s eighth governor died in Chicago. Gilbert Ashville Pierce was born in 1839 in Cattaraugus County, New York, where he attended public school. Later, he moved to Indiana to attend the University of Chicago Law School.

2/19/2005: On this date in 1916, the Bismarck Tribune reported a Mr. William Hollis had been arrested in Minneapolis for vagrancy. He was on his way to Port Huron, Michigan, and had just walked 250 miles from Fargo through snowstorms and sub-zero weather.

2/23/2005: As we’ve noted before, North Dakota has a rich and unique history resulting from the efforts of the Non-Partisan League and farmer organizations, especially during the 1930s. In History of North Dakota, Elwyn Robinson writes, “...Governor Langer and the League began a bold operation to meet the crisis in North Dakota. Angry crowds were surging into Bismarck; a spirit of desperation was seizing many; the state treasury was empty...Langer believed that it was imperative to raise farm prices, to save farm property from foreclosure, and to reduce public expenditures. Although seriously ill at the beginning of his term, he acted with daring and imagination.

3/1/2005: Oakley Crawford was born on this day in 1847; it was an event many people came to regret.

3/3/2005: Four years ago today, Esther Burnett Horne was inducted into the Northwest Minnesota Women’s Hall of Fame during Bemidji State University’s observance of Women’s History Month. The theme was “Uppity Women of Courage and Vision,” and Essie was honored for her advocacy of the American Indian.

3/4/2005: Today’s story is about Joe Albert, who lived in the Belcourt area during the first part of the 20th century. In February 1940, he was interviewed by WPA workers in Williston as part of the Federal Writers Project for North Dakota, and authors William Sherman, Paul Whitney and John Guerrero later included his story in their 2002 book, Prairie Peddlers: The Syrian-Lebanese in North Dakota.

3/6/2005: The late Bill Shemoory, a newspaperman in Williston, told a story of a winter day in the 1930s when several boxes of coyote pelts were brought to the Williston post office for shipping.

This Sunday on Prairie Public Presents: Who are our mothers and how have they shaped our lives? We hear 10 people from around the world talk about their mothers ⁠— the good, the bad, and the messy ⁠— and who they are because of their mothers.

7/22/2004: Yesterday, we told you about Heber Creel’s efforts to gain control of the land on the north shore of Devils Lake as the railway headed in that direction. Creel and his cronies used every tactic, legal or not, to make sure they would make a tidy profit if the railroad bought their claims.

8/17/2004: Today’s story was written by Native American historian, Tracy Potter, who wrote the biography Sheheke: Mandan Indian Diplomat: The Story of White Coyote, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark, which was released to great acclaim earlier this year. Potter is the Executive Directory of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, which is responsible for administering the interpretation of the On-a-Slant Mandan Indian Village.