Oct 21, 2008 - 04:05:15 CDT
The recent fascination with history has played out in very interesting ways in North Dakota. In a marriage with tourism, it has created an industry of living histories, interpretive sites and, in the last several years, a somewhat more serious presentation of history.This week, a symposium focuses on the 175th anniversary of Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied and Karl Bodmer's visit to what would become North Dakota. It's a partnership between the Dakota Institute and Bismarck State College, and it features top-notch scholars on the period from the United States, Germany and Switzerland. The Dakota Institute is a spin-off of the the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation.
Although North Dakotans have long been proud of their history, symposiums of this nature are relatively new to the area. At Dickinson State University recently, the third annual Theodore Roosevelt symposium featured serious historians and authors from top colleges and universities in the nation, the kind of historians whose books win Pulitzer prizes and make bestseller lists.
For those who have time and resources, these events are fascinating. Rarely do we personally have the opportunity to hear such knowledgeable individuals talk with such perception about events that played out here on the prairie. They can give us insights we might otherwise not have had.
It's fitting because we typically celebrate community and state anniversaries with historic pageantry going back to statehood and beyond. That's what the Custer home, Fort Mandan, Fort Union and Medora are all about. And nearly every community has a museum that sets out artifacts of local historic importance and pride.
The state has recently come off the Lewis and Clark bicentennial ride and is getting ready for the Lincoln bicentennial.
Maximilian and Bodmer's 1832-34 visit to Fort Clark and the area around present-day Washburn really was a boon for people interested in the history of the state. The prince was an observant note-taker and his journals are full of firsthand observations of the life at Fort Clark and among the Mandan and Hidatsa people. They add a layer of information upon the observations of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. And, unlike the earlier dynamic duo, Maximilian brought along an artist, Karl Bodmer, to capture the people and landscape met by his party. The paintings by Bodmer are powerful windows into an earlier culture and time.
Although the word symposium has a sort of academic feel to it, the early history of North Dakota comes across as pretty much blue collar. The combination of the two can help us understand where we've been and help us decide where we want to go.
Larry Howard wrote on Oct 22, 2008 1:03 PM:
Thank you for the opportunity to comment and if there is a documentation of the talks how may I acquire it? "
MsRepublicanWit wrote on Oct 22, 2008 10:54 AM:
mark j halvorson wrote on Oct 21, 2008 1:45 PM:
Mark J. Halvorson
Curator of Collections
State Historical Society of North Dakota
Bismarck, North Dakota 58503-7825 "
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