The Norwegian Press in North Dakota

Abstract

by ODD SVERRE L0VOLL 3 The Norwegian Press in North Dakota * Norwegian-American showed a remarkable vitality journalism and in endurance North Dakota in the showed a remarkable vitality and endurance in the face of keen competition from the established Norwegianlanguage newspapers and periodicals published farther east. At a time when North Dakota was still years away from permanent settlement, the immigrant press flourished in the close-knit Norwegian colonies in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin . Migration to the Red River Valley of northern Dakota Territory was largely from these regions, and the frontiersmen who moved westward continued to subscribe to the papers with which they were familiar. For this reason papers published in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other cities in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin were widely distributed in the Norwegian settlements in northern Dakota. Although settlement in the upper Red River Valley was a part of the northwestward advance of the frontier, the im- * In preparing this article, a digest of a master's thesis in 1969 at the University of North Dakota, the author made use of numerous interviews with persons involved in the editorial and political policies and events described. He also found useful information in many secondary sources, especially the following: Johs. B. Wist, "Pressen efter borgerkrigen," in Johs. B. Wist, ed., Norsk-ameri kanemes festskrift 191JĻ , 41-203 (Decorah, Iowa, 1914); Juul Dieserud, "Den norske presse i Amerika: En historisk oversigt," in N ordmands-F orbundet , 5:153182 (April, 1912); Olaf M. Norlie, N orwegian- American Papers , 18Ķ7-19JĻ6 (Northfield, Minnesota, 1946) ; and Elwyn B. Robinson, History o/ North Dakota (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1966) . The title of Mr. L0voll's thesis is "History of Norwegian -Language Publications in North Dakota." K.OJB. 78 THE NOBWEGIAN PRESS IN NORTH DAKOTA mediate cause of Norwegian migration into the region was the work of the lawyer and pioneer journalist, Paul HjelmHansen . He visited the valley in 1869 as an agent of the newly created Minnesota board of immigration. His enthusiastic reports describing the excellent opportunities offered by the Red River region, with its fertile and tillable land free under the Homestead Act, attracted the attention of his countrymen, both in older settlements and in Norway itself. The same year marked the beginning of permanent Norwegian colonies in northern Dakota. A large number of the immigrant frontiersmen were already American citizens and acquainted with the institutions and political life of the New World. Their potential strength in territorial politics, on both a local and a regional basis, was therefore realized at an early date - by themselves as well as by groups of native Americans. This fact largely explains the early appearance of a local Norwegian press. The eastern papers circulating in the settlements of the area could not adequately serve the population, although they were to compete for subscribers with local papers during the whole span of their lives. In 1878, the year marking the beginning of immigrant journalism in North Dakota, the Norwegians were only about 8,000 strong. The next year saw the beginning of the "great Dakota land boom," and from then on Norwegian settlement in northern Dakota took on the proportions of a large-scale folk migration. Settlers rushed into the Red River country and later westward along the main line of the Great Northern Railway in the northern part of what became North Dakota in 1889. By 1900, there were almost 75,000 Norwegians in the state - a little over 23 per cent of the total population. In 1910, about 125,000 of the residents were of Norwegian stock, constituting the largest single ethnic group. The immigrant press more than kept pace with the increase in population. In all, Norwegian-language papers persisted for 77 years, from 1878 to 1955. During this period, 79 Odd Sverre Lpvoll more than 50 publishing ventures were attempted. Many of them, to be sure, were short-lived, but their very numbers reveal that the Norwegians in North Dakota were a highly articulate group. Native American politicians were the first to approach the immigrant voter in his own language for a specific objective. Thus Red River Posten (The Red River Post, 1878-1884) in Fargo and Nordstjernen (The North...