New Titles
Field Guide to Custer's Camps: On the March to the Little Bighorn
Dust off your bicycle, or muddy it up, however you prefer to hit the trail. Don Weinell, a long-distance bicyclist, biked the trail described in A Field Guide to Custer’s Camps: On the March to the Little Bighorn, keeping a log of his experiences and GPS locations, which inform this travel narrative. Weinell’s on-the-ground method of exploring history puts him in contact with the elements, the terrain, and the physical demands of cross-country travel. For readers not quite ready to don rain jackets, cold- and hot-weather wear, or snakebite kits, this field guide is the next best thing to following the trail in person.
Paperback/144pp/77 full color photos and maps
Prairie Madness
About a year ago, Katherine Hoerth moved to Nebraska from Texas; her poems chronicle the experience of adjusting to life on the Great Plains amid the isolation and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The term "prairie madness" feels, Hoerth observes, particularly fitting as it was once used to describe the "madness" of women pioneers of Nebraska and Kansas who endured extreme isolation.
Hoerth is an assistant professor of English at Lamar University and editor of Lamar University Literary Press. Her work has been published in journals such as The Georgia Review and Valparaiso Review. She is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and in 2015 she won the Helen C. Smith Prize for the best book of poetry in Texas.
Prairie Madness is the sixth volume of our Poetry of the Plains & Prairies letterpress chapbook series. Each copy is unique, with hand-assembled pressed flowers.
Price Per Barrel: The Human Cost of Extraction (limited edition paperback)
First responders, once called to duty, refuse to abandon their posts, even when their towns change around them. They rise far and above their job descriptions, putting aside their own PTSD until the boom is over. But the trauma they endure at the hands of newcomers and outsiders is real, persistent, and contagious. Emergency response is the kind of work that will change a person, the kind of work that leaves an indelible mark. Each person in that profession finds some way to cope with the horrors of mankind. Or, they don’t survive.
Robin Lynn Behl's means of coping was to drive. For years, she drove long distances across the country, across the continent, until she had seen all fifty states and every province in Canada. Her years on the road included six months living in her truck and talking to the people on the front lines. Along the way, she ran into friends--her brothers and sisters—in the badge. She found the other people who were still doing the work she had done, and they started to tell her their stories. By telling their story, she can tell hers, and maybe be rid of the burdens.
Song for Liv, A
“A Song for Liv by Wayne Gudmundson is a love letter to his daughter, Liv. Serendipitously, the modern Nordic name Liv also means ‘life.’ As well as a gift to his daughter, A Song for Liv, is a personal meditation on place, the search for personal and ethnic identity, and the complexities therein, much of which is located in the mists (and myths) of time with only the ancient landscapes of those stories remaining. Combining travel notes, Icelandic history and lore, and family relationships, Gudmundson’s form here—best characterized as hybrid—weaves a tapestry that is at once inviting and accessible, each page entry a stanza-like lyric of the larger song."
—Thom Tammaro, three-time Minnesota Book Award recipient and author of When the Italians Came to My Home Town and Italian Days & Hours
“Written as a gift from a father to his daughter, A Song for Liv gathers up what wisdom and understanding a father can offer. His story begins its search for ancestral places in the Faroe Islands, where Gudmundson explores his investment in the larger Scandinavian world, having claimed a portion of the Faroes as his own. The narrative of the Norse invasion of Scandinavia continues on through Iceland to Canada to the settlement of Gimli, Manitoba, and from there to a small church in North Dakota, the home of Gudmundson’s grandparents and the protean poet K.N., whose spirit hovers over the entire narrative.”
—David Arnason, writer, professor, and Viking from Gimli, Manitoba
Radium
Radium is about two bad-luck brothers from a bad-luck town in the flat farmland of western Minnesota. Jim, the narrator, is fifteen and damaged, the result of a car accident years before that left him with a head injury and a tweaked view of the world. He sees his big brother, Billy Quinn, in near mythic terms. Billy is wild and strong and capable of things other men are not.
They live together in a trailer house on the ditch-side of a beet field until Billy gets into bad trouble, and then they go on the run. That’s what wild young men like Billy—growing up rangy and unsupervised in the desperate middle of this country—do when trouble comes. They run. They drive cars fast. They go west. They live on the lam, always about three days from a federal manhunt.
Laws are broken, but with an older brother his only true friend on earth—a brother he loves more than his own next breath—Jim justifies their deeds, willing to do . . . anything . . . to keep Billy free.
Hardcover, 400 pages
Follow this link for a splendid, intellectual interview with John about writing and Radium.
Price Per Barrel: The Human Cost of Extraction (hardcover)
First responders, once called to duty, refuse to abandon their posts, even when their towns change around them. They rise far and above their job descriptions, putting aside their own PTSD until the boom is over. But the trauma they endure at the hands of newcomers and outsiders is real, persistent, and contagious. Emergency response is the kind of work that will change a person, the kind of work that leaves an indelible mark. Each person in that profession finds some way to cope with the horrors of mankind. Or, they don’t survive.
Robin Lynn Behl's means of coping was to drive. For years, she drove long distances across the country, across the continent, until she had seen all fifty states and every province in Canada. Her years on the road included six months living in her truck and talking to the people on the front lines. Along the way, she ran into friends--her brothers and sisters—in the badge. She found the other people who were still doing the work she had done, and they started to tell her their stories. By telling their story, she can tell hers, and maybe be rid of the burdens.
In Order That Justice May Be Done: The Legal Struggle of the Turtle Mountain Band of Pembina Chippewa, 1795-1905
Tribal lands in tribal hands restrained the pursuit of profit. When the cultural identity of the Turtle Mountain Band of Pembina Chippewa was challenged by European Americans—who conceived of progress in terms of cultivated farmland—a tribal-federal conundrum occurred. Historian John M. Shaw untangles the culturally and legally contested concepts of land and its uses and ownership, providing a dynamic legal genesis of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and their intentional action for change. Shaw presents a crucial analysis of federal policy and Native American resistance.
“Shaw systematically informs the reader of historical context and lays out the complex cultural influences—the nucleus of an emerging nation—of the Pembina Chippewa, providing unique insights into historical, legal, and political struggles. An overarching theme is the contrast and comparison of Indigenous and Western worldviews relative to international diplomacy. Shaw’s laser focus presents a critical and authentic analysis of social, economic, political, and cultural events that enveloped the Pembina Band of Chippewa and the United States of America.”—Les LaFountain, Tribal Educator and Historian; former Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal Council Representative; former Legislative Assistant to the United States Senate Indian Affairs Committee
“In Order That Justice May Be Done is an excellent history of the struggle experienced by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa to gain recognition as a tribe and to gain control of their homeland. The documented efforts of Chief Little Shell and Attorney John Bottineau deserve to be recognized and understood.”—Carol A. Davis, Senior Associate Tribal Nations Research Group; Turtle Mountain Community College Co-founder and Second Interim/Acting TMCC President
LCCN: 2022951183
ISBN: 978-1-946163-56-1
6" x 9"
440 pp., paperback
black & white photos and maps
bibliography and index
Tribal-Federal Relations | History 19th Century | Indian Reservations—Law and Legislation
About the Author: John M. Shaw grew up where George Washington led the Continental Army across the Delaware River and surprised the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas day, 1776. One of John's earliest childhood memories recalls his parents bundling him up on Christmas mornings to watch the annual reenactment. This tradition sparked his lifelong interest and passion for history, culmininating in an MA in American Indian Studies and a PhD in History, both from The University of Arizona.
In graduate school, a colleague informed John about a compelling microfilm of an eloquent prayer, address, and legal brief on behalf of the Turtle Mountain Band of Pembina Chippewa. Compiled by Métis tribal citizen and attorney John B. Bottineau, these inspiring documents provided a unique Indigenous perspective on the injustices of federal Indian policy. The tribe's legal struggle for land, sovereignty, and justice derived from the power to narrate their own side of the story through articulate chiefs and delegations, confirming that North Dakota's most populace Indigenous community remain a powerful people with a compelling history.
John contributed multiple entries to Making it in America: A Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans (2000) and The Encyclopedia of United States-American Indian Policy, Relations, and Law (2008), as well as several book reviews for UCLA's American Indian Culture and Research Journal and the New Mexico Historical Review. He has taught Native American and U.S. History courses for the departments of American Indian Studies, American Multicultural Studies, and History at The University of Arizona (1996–2003), Minnesota State University Moorhead (2004–2005), and Portland (Oregon) Community College (2005–present).
Gratitude with Dogs under Stars
Gratitude with Dogs under Starsfeatures selections from Debra Marquart’s three collections of lyric poetry (Small Buried Things, New Rivers Press 2015; From Sweetness, Pearl Editions 2001; and Everything’s a Verb, New Rivers Press 1995) and adds twenty-one new poems to round out the experience. Beginning with the new poems, the collection travels back through Marquart’s illustrious career. Long-time fans and newcomers alike can track the trajectory of this poet laureate’s poetic life thus far—the quiet serenity of walking dogs under a starry sky, the horrors of fracking, the beginnings of a tender relationship at a firing range, reflecting on the follies of a youthful life lived carefree.
Debra Marquart is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University, as well as the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program at University of Southern Maine. Marquart serves as Iowa’s Poet Laureate and the Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment. The author of seven books—including the memoirs The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere (Counterpoint 2007) and The Night We Landed on the Moon (North Dakota State University Press 2021)—Marquart has been featured on NPR and the BBC and has received over 50 grants and awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, a New York Times Editors’ Choice commendation, and Elle Magazine’s Elle Lettres Award. In 2021, Marquart was awarded a Poets Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. For more information: debramarquart.com
Paperback, 278 pp
BISAC:
- POE024000 Poetry / Women Authors
- POE023040 Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Places
- POE023050 Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Family
- POE005010 Poetry / American / General
Fifteenth Commandment, The
It is the summer of 1965, and seventeen-year-old Nick Baarda is under pressure from his religious sect to conform to its rigid rules of behavior, including prohibitions on “worldly” activities like dancing and going to movies. On the other hand, Nick and his best friends are determined to enjoy modern life to the fullest, and they devise their own Commandment to give themselves free rein. They also plan to leave town the following year when they graduate from their parochial high school. When a new minister arrives, he makes it clear that he intends to keep the boys firmly under his thumb, and this sets in motion an extended contest of wills. Complicating things is the pastor’s daughter, who becomes Nick’s intellectual soulmate while not reciprocating his romantic overtures. The result for Nick is a roller coaster of infatuation and frustration, while he and the other boys share raucous adventures and deal with relationships, conflict, and calamity. Through it all, Nick wrestles with the quirks and hypocrisy he sees in his religion, and as graduation nears, he is forced to decide whether he will stay or break free.
Forgotten Frequencies
THE FIRST FORTY CUSTOMERS TO ORDER THIS TITLE FROM OUR ONLINE STORE WILL RECEIVE AN AUTOGRAPHED, LETTERPRESS PRINTED CARD FEATURING THE POEM "DECEMBER" FROM THIS COLLECTION.
Winner of the 2023 Poetry of the Plains & Prairies (POPP) Award
Volume 8 of the POPP Award Series
From the author:
I began writing Forgotten Frequencies while working as a country radio broadcaster in my hometown of Montevideo, Minnesota. During this time, I began to conceive of the poetic imagination as a kind of underground radio station of the soul, hosted by the muses. When I am lucky enough to catch the signal, I hear hymns and folk songs and sonnets, sounds of ancient glacial rivers, messages from fields, and voices from this region’s past. This book is a record of my attempts to transcribe this staticky inner music.
Brendan Stermer is a poet from Montevideo, Minnesota. His work is influenced by the rich literary and artistic tradition of the Upper Midwest. He is also the host and producer of Interesting People Reading Poetry, a podcast where artists and luminaries read a favorite poem and share what it means t them. He currently lives in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, and works as a writer exploring rural health issues across the country.
ISBN: 978-1-946163-62-2
Page count: 40
Picture Count: 2
Paperback, stitched
Publication Date: December 12, 2023
Dust Yourself Off: The Gravel Road to a Good Life
Dust Yourself Off: The Gravel Road to a Good Life is the true story of a farm woman in 1940s/50s North Dakota who recovered from a series of shocks and tragedies – and the surprising ways in which she did that. “This project began because I wanted my kids and grandkids to know their grandmother,” said the book’s co-author Tom Sandhei of his mother, Muriel. “She was a remarkable woman.” After Sandhei took the story as far as he could on his own, he teamed up with Tricia Velure, a personal historian and writer from the neighboring town. “Tom and I unknowingly grew up on farms less than 20 minutes from each other in North Dakota, 30 years apart,” said Velure. “Decades later, we met in the Twin Cities, where we lived 10 minutes apart. We were meant to meet and write this story together!”
Dust Yourself Off chronicles Muriel’s life in Fort Ransom, North Dakota, known as “Little Norway” for its forested hillsides above the Sheyenne River Valley and predominantly Norwegian settlers. Readers follow Muriel and her family through farm life during the settlement period, World War I, Great Depression, World War II, and the 1950s. While the co-authors describe Muriel as a quintessential Norwegian American farm girl in North Dakota, she was forced to leave home at age 19. Death and tragedy visited her regularly in her 20s and 30s, when time and again she challenged the traditional norms of what it meant to be a farm woman in her day. Muriel’s quiet yet bold courage helped create this touching family story, rich in historical details and local color.
Velure never met Muriel, who died at age 82 in 2004, but she calls Muriel a “bonus grandmother” and believes readers will feel the same affinity. “This book will appeal to readers who enjoy farm and small-town stories, Norwegian American history, and inspiring stories of everyday women. If you wish you knew your grandparents’ life story, this is a book for you.”
About the Authors
Tricia Velure is a personal historian who helps elders share their life stories with their families. She grew up on her family’s cattle and small grains farm near Kathryn, North Dakota, and earned degrees in English and history from Valley City State University and a master’s degree in history from North Dakota State University.
Tom Sandhei is a retired school administrator who grew up on his parents’ and grandparents’ farms near Fort Ransom, North Dakota. He graduated from Valley City State College, began teaching, then earned a master’s degree in elementary school administration from North Dakota State University. His career in education spanned almost 40 years. Velure and Sandhei have lived in suburban Minneapolis/St. Paul since the 1990s.
Surrender Dorothy
Surrender Dorothy’s earliest poems were born out of a desire to understand the author's place within the larger context of the Midwest and Kansas, and—thinking beyond borders—the Plains ecoregion.
From the author:
What does it mean to be a child of this particular area, filled as it is with ancient prairie land, its cultural associations, folks espousing “Midwestern Nice,” so much overlooked native wildlife, and acres upon acres of Big Agriculture? I found myself drawn to Wizard of Oz characters as a case study, they being so recognizable to people both inside and outside the region. There were layers of privilege to peel back, along with all of the backyards and pastures I’d come to know since my youth, and moments of thinking deeply about my ancestors (animal, plant, and otherwise) and their relationship with the same land. I needed to know more about that past so I could better understand my present, if we can ever locate such a thing.
My goal as a writer is to faithfully represent the voices and characters and narratives of a particular area. That representation can manifest in any number of ways, and so much of Surrender Dorothy arose within a surrealist vein since its messages related to climate change and apathy have nowhere else to turn. The poems are often dark and stark, but I think I achieved what I set out to do over the course of the poems being written.
About the Poetry of the Plains & Prairies Award:
Every January 17 through March 17, NDSU Press accepts chapbook-length poetry collections about life on the plains and prairies or North America. Surrender Dorothy is the seventh winner of our annual award. The winning collection is copyedited and letterpress printed by the Introduction to Publishing class at North Dakota State University. Each chapbook is hand-assembled and individually numbered. Each POPP Award chapbook is a unique, limited-edition publication.
POPP Award winners to date are:
- 2022 Surrender Dorothy, by Brett Salsbury (Nevada)
- 2021 Prairie Madness, by Katherine Hoerth (Nebraska)
- 2020 A Muddy Kind of Love, by Carolyn A. Dahl (Texas)
- 2019 Harvest Widows, by Nick Bertelson (Iowa)
- 2018 Destiny Manifested, by Bonnie Larson Staiger (North Dakota)
- 2017 Thunderbird, by Denise Lajimodiere (North Dakota)
- 2016 Land of Sunlit Ice, by Larry Woiwode (North Dakota)
Field Notes
In April 1909, twenty-two-year-old Robert Silliman Judd, born and raised in Bethel, Connecticut, climbed aboard a train bound for the northern plains where his uncle Elmer farmed in Cando, North Dakota. Robert roamed the prairie with Elmer for six months, observing and collecting birds during the great spring migration.
Decades later, Robert’s granddaughter Margaret Rogal discovered his notebooks filled with detailed records of birds, nests, and eggs, along with his letters and summaries portraying his love for North Dakota and the thousands of migrating birds, alighting, it seemed, at his very feet.
Margaret responded to the trove of documents with poetry; each sample herein is an exploration of Robert’s experience.
A Little Book about North Dakota, Volume 1
6"x 6", paperback, 120 pages, color illustrations throughout
Rethinking Rural, Volume 1
Rethinking Rural: Reflections on Today, Insights for the Future
Rethinking Rural Series, Volume 1
250 pp. / paperback
Matt Ehlman, Series Editor Introduction Matt Ehlman, Rethinking Rural Series Editor, host and organizer of the Morning Fill Up, a series of public gatherings intended to inspire and engage and to put creative energies into action for the betterment of the entire community. Chapter 1: My Second-Generation Immigrant Experience in Rural America Taneeza Islam, attorney at law specializing in civil rights and immigration law and co-founder of South Dakota Voices for Peace and Justice Chapter 2: The 2020 Census: Counting Everyone Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place Deirdre Dalpiaz-Bishop, geographic advisor and coordinator for the 2020 Census, chief of the Decennial Census Management Division Chapter 3: Indian Country Antonia Gonzales (member of the Navajo Nation), anchor and producer of National Native News; past associate producer for Native America Calling and television reporter for a CBS affiliate in New Mexico Chapter 4: An Educated People—Higher Education in Rural America Heather Wilson, PhD, president of the University of Texas—El Paso, past president of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and the twenty-fourth Secretary of the United States Air Force Chapter 5: One Farmer’s Rural Perspective Ron Rossman, co-owner of Rosmann Family Farms, founding member of Practical Farmers of Iowa; nationally known for testifying before the US Congress on agricultural issues and hosting international guests learning about new farming approaches Chapter 6: Stories That Bring Us Together Paula Kerger, with Craig Langford; Kerger: president and CEO of PBS and initiator for access to early learning through PDS KIDS; Langford: speechwriter for the mayor of Washington, DC, and the president of PBS Chapter 7: Resilient, Vibrant, and Always Changing—the Rural I Know Kathleen Annette, PhD, member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, past president and CEO of Blandin Foundation and past deputy director of field operations of the Indian Health Service Chapter 8: Getting Things Done in Rural America: Examining Trends in Rural Philanthropy Laurie Paarlberg, professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Chapter 9: Rural America Adam Steltzner and Pam Gildersleeve-Hernandez; Steltzner is a NASA engineer working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and chief engineer for the Mars 2020 Project; Gildersleeve-Hernandez is executive director at CUE, a member-driven education nonprofit. Chapter 10: Righting Relationships: One Perspective on Rural America Robert Grant, pastor during the 1980s farming crisis; currently professor of Environmental and Historical Theology at St. Ambrose University (Davenport, IA); author of books on environmental ethics; winner of the Eddy Award for environmental education Afterword Matt Ehlman Bibliography About the Contributors Index About the Series About the PressContents
Lynched: Mob Murders on the Northern Great Plains, 1882-1931
With a rope and a mission, like-minded neighbors found lynching to be a simple and efficient way to obtain what they regarded as certain justice.
Northern plains lynch mobs shared a belief that what they did resulted in swift and sure justice, which the established courts would not or could not provide. Juries might be reluctant to impose the death penalty, and if a suspect were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison, they might be prematurely pardoned. Perpetrators might successfully evade punishment by using insanity pleas. With a rope and a mission, like-minded neighbors found lynching a simple and efficient way to obtain what they regarded as certain justice.
The distrust many citizens had of the legal profession seemed rooted in the perception that lawyers and the complicated law they practiced appeared to offer more justice to criminals than to crime victims. That distrust extended to jurors considered too soft-hearted to mete out appropriate punishment. Do-it-yourself justice among the lynch mobs seemed fairer and quicker than waiting for what they considered unreliable juries, lawyers, and judges. Perhaps those who disparaged lawyers and the rule of law—and sought to bypass them with a rope—simply did not understand the complexities of American jurisprudence. Based on centuries-old English common law, the court system was malleable and did respond to changing ideas and mores, but these changes came slowly. The people who made up the mobs were unwilling to patiently await such incremental adjustments.
Lynched examines the events surrounding, and the media portrayal of, nine mob murders that resulted in eleven deaths on the northern Great Plains from 1882 to 1931. Revealing a disturbing part of history, Lynched aims at uncovering the stories of these lynchings while shedding light on the volatile mentality of the communities where such injustice happened.
ISBN: 978-1-946163-59-2
Page Count: 320
Picture Count: 29 black and white images
Index: Yes
Bibiliography: Yes
Hardcover
Publication Date: April 13, 2024
Lynched: Mob Murders on the Northern Great Plains, 1882-1931
With a rope and a mission, like-minded neighbors found lynching to be a simple and efficient way to obtain what they regarded as certain justice.
Northern plains lynch mobs shared a belief that what they did resulted in swift and sure justice, which the established courts would not or could not provide. Juries might be reluctant to impose the death penalty, and if a suspect were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison, they might be prematurely pardoned. Perpetrators might successfully evade punishment by using insanity pleas. With a rope and a mission, like-minded neighbors found lynching a simple and efficient way to obtain what they regarded as certain justice.
The distrust many citizens had of the legal profession seemed rooted in the perception that lawyers and the complicated law they practiced appeared to offer more justice to criminals than to crime victims. That distrust extended to jurors considered too soft-hearted to mete out appropriate punishment. Do-it-yourself justice among the lynch mobs seemed fairer and quicker than waiting for what they considered unreliable juries, lawyers, and judges. Perhaps those who disparaged lawyers and the rule of law—and sought to bypass them with a rope—simply did not understand the complexities of American jurisprudence. Based on centuries-old English common law, the court system was malleable and did respond to changing ideas and mores, but these changes came slowly. The people who made up the mobs were unwilling to patiently await such incremental adjustments.
Lynched examines the events surrounding, and the media portrayal of, nine mob murders that resulted in eleven deaths on the northern Great Plains from 1882 to 1931. Revealing a disturbing part of history, Lynched aims at uncovering the stories of these lynchings while shedding light on the volatile mentality of the communities where such injustice happened.
ISBN: 978-1-946163-68-4
Page Count: 320
Picture Count: 29 black and white images
Index: Yes
Bibiliography: Yes
Paperback
Publication Date: April 13, 2024