Topics that range from Missouri River ferry boats to the Beatles in Minnesota are engaging participants of the Northern Great Plains History Conference in Bismarck through Saturday afternoon.

"It's fantastic," said Mike McCormack, professor of history from Bismarck State College and council board member. "It's wonderful, we are able to piggyback on a national history conference. We can share scholars. We can share papers."

After spending Thursday and this morning listening to presenters read their papers in meeting rooms at the Radisson, the conference activities will move to the Circle of Cultures on the campus of the University of Mary to take on living history.

Nearly 200 people registered for the conference. Next year, it will be at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

The group's keynote speaker for a banquet tonight will be noted Western historian James P. Ronda. At that time, the Larry Rown Remele Award will be presented. The conference is hosted by the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

One session Thursday morning was "Lives of Native Americans on the Northern Plains." Presenters included Anastasia Bowe, of West St. Paul, Manitoba; Clara Kelly, of Valley City; and Tracy Potter, of Bismarck.

Bowe's presentation was about how Ojibway women in Canada were influenced by missionaries in the 19th century.

Closer to home, Kelly's paper addressed the "preventorium" that existed at Fort Totten between 1935 and 1939, and was an experiment aimed at reducing the incidence of tuberculosis among Indian children through nutrition, good hygiene and watching for the early signs of the disease.

"More than a school, it made children healthier," Kelly said.

By the time the experiment ended, the field nurses were better able to help families address tuberculosis-related issues on the reservations, she said.

Potter talked about how the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara were separate people during the time that Lewis and Clark visited, 1804-06. There were, Potter said, tensions between the tribes, some that manifested themselves in 1812, a part of the American conflict with Britain.

Even today, Potter said, although individuals say they are Mandan-Hidatasa or Hidatsa-Mandan, there are distinctive Mandan and Hidatsa cultural traditions among families.

The conference is set up with two or three presenters gathered under loose topic categories, reading their papers in host of meeting rooms. Four or five of the categories are presented simultaneously. It creates snapshots of history in a random sort of order.

The annual Governor's Conference on North Dakota History will be held at the state Heritage Center Nov. 12-13.