With Meriwether Lewis and William Clark floating farther into the past, the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Founda-tion plans to claim new territory along the river of time - present and past.

The Dakota Institute has been formed to do this work.

"It's a bigger tent to hold things under," said foundation president David Borlaug, who described the institute as another vehicle for films, book projects, symposiums and conversations on public issues.

"The Art Link project is front and center," Borlaug said. The Link project, a 60-minute documentary film on the life of the former North Dakota governor, will be unveiled in the fall. It will have premiere showings in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Alexander (Link's hometown) and other North Dakota communities, as well as a run on Prairie Public TV and the multi-tiered Minnesota public broadcasting.

Also in the fall, the Institute will partner with Bismarck State College for a symposium titled: "The Travels of Maximilian and Bodmer," complete with a cast of notable academics and museum professionals. Artist Karl Bodmer and naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied visited North Dakota in 1833 as part of their expedition to record the natural history of the American West.

Borlaug said he invited top scholars in the U.S. and Germany on the topic, expecting many would not be able to make it, but nearly everyone said sure.

"It's a perfect way to launch the Institute," Borlaug said.

Merle Paaverud, director of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said he looks at the work of Borlaug's group "not as a competitor, but as a partner." They have special areas of interest, such as Lewis and Clark, while the historical society has a broader responsibility, he said.

Heading up the Dakota Institute as director will be foundation board member and scholar Clay Jenkinson.

"I prefer (as a title) custodian," said Jenkinson, a well known humanities scholar whose focus ranges from Meri-wether Lewis and Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Oppenheimer. Jenkinson also writes a weekly column for the Tribune.

The foundation has assumed responsibility for Jenkinson's Jefferson Hour, an hourlong syndicated public radio show, recorded at the Makoche studio in Bismarck..

Currently, Jenkinson has his attention on the Link film.

"We are nearly done. I have three more interviews to do," said Jenkinson, as Link's former staffer Bob Valeu looked out from the video editing screen at Makoche.

In doing the 20-30 interviews for the film, Jenkinson found a great respect for Link among those with which he talked.

"There's a love of Art Link," said Jenkinson, describing the former governor as the Jimmy Carter of North Dakota.

Success on the film, for Jenkinson?

"That Art Link will like it," and that it's viewed as nonpartisan. "It's about a man who's beyond politics," Jenkinson said.

David Swenson of Makoche has been the videographer for the Link film, and Jenkinson gives him much credit for the visual and sound quality of the film. "I"m immensely proud of it," Jenkinson said.

As for the symposium on Maximilian and Bodmer, on the 175th anniversary of their visit to North Dakota, Jenkin-son points out the two men - serious notetakers - arrived at the villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa a few short years before the smallpox epidemic of 1837 radically changed the future for the two tribes.

"A lot of what we know about the Mandan language and Four Bears comes from Maximilian," he said.

Borlaug sees it as an opportunity for scholars to present "in a way accessible to the general public" on the history and people of this place.

In addition to potential book projects ahead for the Institute, Borlaug and Jenkinson see a need for a sort of North Dakota think tank. "Clay brings an opportunity to bring a great convergence," Borlaug said. And, "It's as much about the future as the present."

Jenkinson sees conversations about the future of the Great Plains and the North Dakota identity. "It's as BSC presi-dent Larry Skogan suggests: Asking the questions North Dakota should be asking," he said.

Topics might be the future of corrections in the state, or reparation of Indian land.

Jenkinson wants the Institute to develop a reputation for being fair minded and humanities based, for investigating ideas, working through arguments, identifying best practices, and carefully avoiding stated positions.

Fort Mandan. Lewis and Clark. The fur trade. First farmers. Washburn has become a center for the presentation of heritage and history along the Missouri River between the Heart and the Knife rivers. With the Dakota Institute, Borlaug sees heritage and cultural tourism and interests continuing to evolve.

Terry Harzinski, executive director of the Bismarck-Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, "We look at them as an asset for Bismarck-Mandan. We send a lot of people their way."