Newsletter Fall 2015

Volume 7, Issue 3 NORTH DAKOTA STUDIES A Program of the State Historical Society of North Dakota • Fall 2015 Speaking of History By Barbara Handy-Marchello, PhD. In recent years, historians have applied the fundamental definition of history – the study of change over time – to a great variety of topics, events, people, and things. As a result, our knowledge of how change (or progress) came about in human economic, political, and social relationships has expanded vastly. Such studies can focus on the great sweeps of human history or local North Dakota history. Teachers benefit from these historical investigations when they find a bit of history that generates curiosity and interest among their students. Take, for instance, NORTH DAKOTA African Americans in North Dakota. STUDIES long with Europeans and In 1804, York, William Clark’s slave, into slavery, but some records indicate European Americans, people entered North Dakota as a member of that by the 1850s he was living among of African descent entered the Corps of Discovery. York enjoyed the Lakota tribes on the northern plains. North Dakota at various times equality with other members of the He engaged in trade and became fluent Ain its history, usually drawn by economic expedition and was allowed to carry a in the Lakota and Cheyenne languages. opportunity. The historic record tells gun (an unheard of privilege for slaves) Legend has it that the Lakotas noticed us that the population of blacks in for protection and for hunting. Clark that Dorman avoided white settlements. North Dakota was never large, but the recognized that York, because of his dark If that was true, it might mean that he actual numbers of black residents and skin color, his strength and size, and his had escaped slavery. In 1865, he showed their names and occupations have good humor, was an important asset in up at Fort Rice looking for work. The often gone unrecorded. While many establishing diplomatic relations with Army employed Dorman as a civilian people inaccurately assume that African the tribes the Corps met on their long woodcutter, then a mail carrier. He Americans did not have an important journey to the Pacific. Unfortunately, eventually became a trusted scout and presence in North Dakota, it might be York returned to slavery at the end of was paid well for his work. In 1876, more appropriate to assume that we will the journey. Accounts suggest that York Lt. Col. George A. Custer requested not ever know the extent of their historic strongly resisted re-enslavement. Dorman accompany his expedition against presence and contributions to this state. the Lakota as an interpreter and scout. African Americans continued to move Dorman lost his life at the Battle of the The first man of African descent known westward with the fur trade in the first Little Big Horn. to enter what is now North Dakota was half of the 19th century. Many established Pierre Bonga (or Bonza). Bonga was the close ties with an Indian tribe, sometimes The Army depended on steamboats to valued employee of Alexander Henry marrying an Indian woman or achieving supply the Upper Missouri forts. Many the Younger at the North West Company leadership. Some of these men had steamboat workers (roustabouts or fur trade post near Pembina. Bonga had escaped slavery, some had been freed deckhands) were African American. As been born to parents who lived as slaves from their bonds. towns grew up along the river, deckhands to a British military officer stationed built homes and settled in the area. They at Montreal. The officer later freed The U.S. Army began to establish military worked on the river during the warm the couple and their children. Bonga posts in Dakota as the Civil War drew to a months, and found day labor in town traveled to western Canada and married close. Formerly enslaved men and women during the winter. Small, somewhat a Chippewa woman. In 1802, Bonga’s found work with the Army as scouts, transient, black communities existed in wife gave birth to a child that carried the woodcutters, servants to officers, and segregated neighborhoods in the larger blood of Chippewa, African, and European laundresses. One of the most interesting towns like Bismarck. forebears. That mixture heralded the of those who worked with the Army was cultural diversity of the future state. Isaiah Dorman. Dorman was likely born EDUCATORS For African American women as well as white women, teaching was one of the best and most available professional jobs. In the United States before the 1960s, black women teachers were mostly confined to black schools in black neighborhoods. However, black teachers made their mark in North Dakota schools. For instance, Mattie B. Anderson was the first teacher when the Venturia School in McIntosh County opened in 1907. She continued to teach there until 1914. Between 1949 and 1967, Thelma Bertha Daggs taught at the Fort Totten Indian Boarding School on the Fort Totten Indian Reservation (today’s Spirit Lake Reservation). Though Daggs struggled with the racial and gender complications of being the sole black woman teacher at the school, she was a woman of personal strength and was able to rise above social turmoil. As a teacher at an Indian Boarding School, she had the advantage of federal job security. During her career, she earned the respect and affection of her students. Catherine Cater began teaching English at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in 1962. She was born in New Orleans in 1917 to a family that valued education. Her father became dean at Talladega College in Alabama. Cater earned her bachelor’s degree at Talladega in 1938. She then earned a master’s degree at the University of Michigan. Like so many women, black and white, she was unable to find a college teaching job in the 1930s, so she returned to college and studied library science. But her heart was in literature, and she eventually earned her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. Few universities were interested in hiring a woman of color, but she found positions at Olivet College and Moorhead (MN) State University. After 13 years at Moorhead State, she had a chance to take a position at NDSU in 1962. At NDSU, she taught courses in English, Humanities, and Philosophy. Cater continued teaching for many years after her official retirement in 1982 much to the delight of her many students. Catherine Cater was born in 1917 in New Orleans. After teaching at various universities, she came to NDSU in 1962. She became a highly honored, deeply respected, and much beloved teacher of English, Philosophy, and Humanities before her death in 2015. (NDSU 2 NORTH DAKOTA STUDIES ADi77-Cater) Members of the Second Baptist Church in Bismarck gather for a portrait. North Dakota cities had higher populations of African Americans than rural communities. (SHSND 00739-v1-p14b) By 1885, the census shows that African Americans, many of them freed from slavery, had migrated to northern Dakota Territory to claim a homestead. Thirteen land owners in ten different counties were listed in the census. There were no rural black communities like those that appeared in territorial cities. Most of these landowners eked out a living on 160 acres and found outside work to supplement their income. Some, like Isham Evans, worked for other farmers. Evans (along with his wife and three children) came to Dakota with A. F. Giddings, who owned a large farm in Page Township of Cass County. Evans Veterinarians used a kit like this one to test cattle for brucellosis, a disease that managed Giddings’ farm. The Evans family affected both cattle and humans. The Tuskegee-educated veterinarians who became permanent residents of Cass practiced in North Dakota tested hundreds of cattle for brucellosis. County. Another substantial landowner, Tuskegee Veterinarians William T. Montgomery, had been born into slavery and fought for the Union in During the 1950s, several African American veterinarians, many of them educated at the Civil War. The reordering of the social Tuskegee University in Alabama, were recruited to work in North Dakota. Dr. Dorsey and political structures of the rebel states Murphy practiced at Devils Lake. Dr. C. E. Hubbard, Dr. Leon C. Dents, and following the war (Reconstruction) gave Dr. O. J. Fox practiced at Powers Lake. Dr. Hubbard spent a few years working with the Montgomery the opportunity to hold U.S. Department of Agriculture at Fargo. Dr. Othello Curry also worked for the USDA, elective office as treasurer of Warren but later purchased a veterinary clinic in Bottineau. Dr. Rollie Anderson worked in Rolla and Dr. William Guess worked in Minot and Bismarck. Most of these veterinarians County, Mississippi. In 1884, Montgomery spent seven or eight years in North Dakota. moved to Dakota Territory and purchased 640 acres in Eagle Township of Richland Another African American veterinarian spent the last years of his career in North County. He had good land on the Chicago, Dakota. Dr. William Waddell arrived in Fargo to work for the USDA in 1963. Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad line Dr. Waddell was born in Virginia in 1908. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine about two miles from the Red River. He (DVM) degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1935. During World War II, he was able to increase his holdings to 1,020 served in the famed (but racially segregated) 9th Cavalry, known at one time as the Buffalo Soldiers. He saw service in Africa and Italy and was wounded in combat. acres and build a grain elevator. Some have referred to him as a bonanza farmer After World War II, Dr.

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