Papers of the 2013 Dakota Conference
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The Spanish Northern Plains Papers of the Forty-Fifth Annual DAKOTA CONFERENCE A National Conference on the Northern Plains Cover Illustration: Untitled, by Vladan Stiha, courtesy Frank & Jan Gibbs Art Collection THE CENTER FOR WESTERN STUDIES AUGUSTANA COLLEGE 2013 The Spanish Northern Plains Papers of the Forty-Fifth Annual Dakota Conference A National Conference on the Northern Plains The Center for Western Studies Augustana College Sioux Falls, South Dakota April 26-27, 2013 Compiled by: Amy Nelson Jasmin Graves Harry F. Thompson Major funding for the Forty-Fifth Annual Dakota Conference was provided by: Loren and Mavis Amundson CWS Endowment/SFACF Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission Tony & Anne Haga Carol Rae Hansen, Andrew Gilmour & Grace Hansen-Gilmour Mellon Fund Committee of Augustana College Rex Myers & Susan Richards Joyce Nelson, in Memory of V.R. Nelson Rollyn H. Samp, in Honor of Ardyce Samp Roger & Shirley Schuller, in Honor of Matthew Schuller Jerry & Gail Simmons Robert & Sharon Steensma Blair & Linda Tremere Richard & Michelle Van Demark Jamie & Penny Volin Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................... v Anderson, Grant K. State Sponsored Hail Insurance in South Dakota (1919-1933) ............................................. 1 Browne, Miles A. Abraham Lincoln: A Founding Father .................................................................................. 20 Browne, Miles A. The Gettysburg Address Lights the Path ............................................................................. 31 Carlson, Katherine Ethnic Diversity on the Great Plains: An Emphasis on the Hispanic/Latino Population ..... 42 Evans, Lauren High in the Heartland: A Look at the Regional Factors that Contribute to Methamphetamine Addiction in the Great Plains .............................................................. 52 Fanebust, Wayne Fighting Alex McCook and the Civil War ............................................................................. 68 Funchion, Michael F. The Irish in South Dakota by the Numbers ......................................................................... 83 Gasque, Thomas J. Hispanic Place Names in the Upper Midwest ................................................................... 103 Gutch, Elizabeth Riggs Stories of Doctors’ Wives .................................................................................................. 121 Johnson, Robert G. and L.J. (Janey) Westin Evidence for 13th Century Norse Residence and Inferred Trade in the Red River Region, Upper Great Plains ............................................................................................................ 131 Kangas, Alvin E. Homesteading in Hamlin County, Dakota Territory .......................................................... 149 La Vallie, Martina Rural Depopulation ........................................................................................................... 158 Rahja, Jean Elliott Nehemiah George Ordway, Governor of Dakota Territory .............................................. 171 iii Sundall, Herb C. James Abdnor’s Early Life and the Rise of the Lyman County Mafia ................................ 180 Veselka, Allison The Great Father and His Children: How the Dakota War Conflict of 1862 Changed the Nature of Government Interaction with Native Tribes ..................................................... 187 Wilson, Jerry Latino Stories: Immigration on the Great Plains ............................................................... 200 Woodard, Aaron Robert Spanish Progeny-American Buckaroos .............................................................................. 212 iv PREFACE For the 45th Annual Dakota Conference on Northern Plains History, Literature, Art and Archaeology, April 26-27, 2013, the Center for Western Studies focused on Spanish exploration of and Hispanic/Latino immigration to the Northern Plains. The Spanish were the first Europeans to explore and establish settlements in the Great Plains. Cabaza de Vaca provided the earliest written account of the Southern Plains, as one of only four survivors of the disastrous Narváez Expedition of 1527-28. Searching for the fabled cities of gold, Coronado pushed as far north as central Kansas in the 1540s, claiming the Plains for Spain. José Naranjo had made several expeditions into Nebraska by 1714, before Pedro de Villasur’s fateful search in 1720 for evidence of French incursion into Spanish territory. In present-day Nebraska, near the Platte and Loup rivers, Villasur was attacked and killed by Pawnees and Otoes, possibly in league with the French; only a few of the Spaniards were able to escape and return to Santa Fe. At its zenith, in the 1790s, New Spain constituted most of the American West. The Spanish tried to intercept the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06) as it explored the Louisiana Purchase, land claimed alternately by Spain and France but acquired in 1803 from France. Motivated by reports from the Lewis and Clark Expedition of trading opportunities in the Missouri River Valley, St. Louis merchant Manuel Lisa established posts along the river, beginning in 1807. In the years that followed, agriculture and meat processing brought many Hispanic and Latino people into the Northern Plains. Today, large Hispanic/Latino populations live in the region, especially in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Colorado. In South Dakota, for example, the Hispanic/Latino population numbers 20,000 with as many as 10,000 in Sioux Falls, constituting the city’s largest minority, most of whom were born in Central America. Eight conference sessions were devoted to the Spanish theme, including three plenary sessions: Pablo Rangel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, traced the development of the vaquero, or Spanish cowboy, on the Plains and in American culture at the Friday luncheon. Juan Bonilla, President of LaVoz Hispana TV and Chair of the Sioux Falls Diversity Council, spoke about the challenges and opportunities presented by the large Hispanic/Latino population in Sioux Falls. In the concluding session, Michael Olson revisited the neglected heritage of Hispanics on the Santa Fe Trail. As always, many topics other than the conference theme were addressed: former South Dakota Senator James Abdnor, the past thirty years of political reporting in South Dakota, and South Dakota immigrant groups. v The Saturday autograph party featured sixteen writers, including Washington, D.C.- based journalist Stew Magnuson, author of Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding, which chronicles last year’s conference on Wounded Knee, and Norma Wilson, USD Emeritus Professor and author of Under the Rainbow: Poems from Mojácar. Many of the more than seventy presentations, however, did not result in a format that could be included in this compilation or were withheld for publication consideration elsewhere. Four of the papers included here deal with the conference theme. Dedicated to examining contemporary issues in their historical and cultural contexts, the Dakota Conference is a signature event of the Center for Western Studies, which provides programming in Northern Plains Studies at Augustana College. In awarding a Challenge Grant in support of the Center’s endowment in 2008, the National Endowment for the Humanities cited the Dakota Conference, specifically, for its hallmark blending of academic and non-academic presentations. Harry F. Thompson, Ph.D. Executive Director The Center for Western Studies vi State Sponsored Hail Insurance in South Dakota (1919-1933) Grant K. Anderson Mother Nature is a potent foe of South Dakota farmers. Rain, or lack thereof, wind, and hail can damage or destroy an entire season’s crops. To offset these perils modern day farmers rely on crop insurance. In the early 1900s hail was the only natural force for which insurance coverage was available. Not all farmers availed themselves of this protection feeling premiums made it cost prohibitive. The idea of state sponsored hail insurance first surfaced in the 1909 South Dakota legislature. A bill was introduced in the next biannual session but garnered scant support. Representative Henry Solem, (Rep-Minnehaha), presented a measure to the 1915 session modeled after the Saskatchewan, Canada provincial plan. He envisioned all South Dakota land, tillable or not, taxed to fund a hail insurance department. Strong opposition from west river ranchers doomed Solem’s plan.1 Peter Norbeck reunited the Republican Party to capture the 1916 South Dakota gubernatorial race. He campaigned on a platform of broad governmental involvement in the promotion of economic welfare for his state. Norbeck urged the state to enter the business realm with public approval. A plank in his platform urged creation of a state department of hail insurance.2 1 Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader, 11 February, 1919, 6. 2 Schell, Herbert S, History of South Dakota, (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln: 1961), 265. 1 The Governor requested the 1917 legislature enact a measure seeking public approval at the next general election. Hail insurance was “declared to be a public purpose,” by House Joint Resolution 13 agreed to March 5. It was submitted to the electorate as Amendment K of Article XXI of the state constitution.3 Norbeck set out to mold public opinion by printing a 50 page pamphlet entitled “A Message to the People of South Dakota.” In the January 1918 document the Governor explained,” the purpose is