FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Scott Schaffnit
October 2, 2009
(701) 328-2794
BISMARCK – Awards honoring individual and group achievements in history were presented at the recent 21st Annual Governor’s Conference on North Dakota History in Bismarck. The conference was sponsored by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
The 2009 recipient of the State Historical Society’s Excellence in Local History Award was Jean Miller of Valley City. This award is given to those whose activity in local and regional history serves as a role model of excellence to others.
Miller has served many years on the Barnes County Museum board of directors, and served on the Valley City Fine Arts Association as a promoter of the arts and art history. She has brought many stories and artifacts to children in area schools, explaining the history of the area in memorable fashion. Miller, 91, was also a long-time trail rider, storyteller, quiltmaker and historian on the Fort Seward Wagon Train, where she helped history come alive for people of all ages. She assembled several quilts documenting the experiences of trail riders on the Fort Seward Wagon Train, and her work can be seen by visiting www.covered-wagon-train.com. The annual event celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.
Receiving the 2009 Association for Excellence in Local History Award was the Northeast North Dakota Heritage Association of Icelandic State Park. This award is given to the association/organization whose activity in local and regional history serves as a role model of excellence to others. The Association entered into a partnership with the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department and Icelandic State Park in 1985 to build a park visitor center as a tribute to the state’s centennial in 1989. The Pioneer Heritage Center, completed in 1988, was fully funded by the Heritage Association. Associated buildings were restored to their historic condition by 2000. The buildings were donated to the Department to ensure future operation and maintenance. Today, the Association remains active and just completed an expansion of the Pioneer Heritage Center that required them to raise $250,000, which they are close to completing. During its 24 years of operation, the Association has developed, in addition to the Center’s main exhibit gallery, 40 temporary exhibits on settlement, social life, schools, churches and various other story elements, as well as secure 88 traveling exhibits. It has also organized nearly 100 events during its 24 years. Icelandic State Park hosts about 100,000 visitors annually, with more than one-third of them taking in the exhibits at the Pioneer Heritage Center and the associated buildings on the site. The Heritage Association is focused on interpreting the 26 nationalities that have been recorded as settling in the region from the 1860s through the early 1920s.
The 2009 recipients of the State Historical Society’s Heritage Profile Honor Award were
co-winners Marilyn Hudson of Parshall and Neil Howe of Fargo. This award is given to those who have
made a significant contribution in preserving, interpreting, promoting, researching or otherwise extending the knowledge and understanding of the history of North Dakota.
Hudson has had a distinguished career in public service after she retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1992. Following her retirement, she began working part-time at the Three Affiliated Tribes Museum in New Town, where she continues to work today. In addition to managing the administrative work of the facility, she designs exhibits, researches historical events, and serves as liaison between the museum and other organizations. She served for several years in the 1990s on the State Historioal Society’s Local History Council, where she guided the agency in field services needs for the state’s 140 county, local and tribal museums. Hudson served on the State Historical Records Advisory Board from 2002 to 2008. This statewide board oversees the guiding principles and processes in the acquisition, retention and archiving of important records and documents for the state. She is currently the Region 1 (Divide, Williams and McKenzie counties) representative on the North Dakota Council on the Arts. Hudson was one of seven women to serve as a curator on the Quillwork Advisory Committee for the exhibit, Sacred Beauty: Quillwork of Plains Women. The exhibit received national attention when the American Association of State and Local History presented the State Historical Society with an Award of Merit in 1998. Her willingness to share her knowledge of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara culture has made her presentations much appreciated at several of the State Historical Society’s annual Governor’s Conference on North Dakota History, and at the Buffalo Bill History Center in Cody, Wyoming.
Since his retirement as director of the North Dakota Center for Distance Education, Howe has been responsible for creating the textbooks through which North Dakota’s students will learn the state’s history for the next generation. His efforts led in 2007 to new textbooks for the fourth and eighth grade North Dakota Studies course requirements. The previous materials for these classes varied from almost 20 to 50 years in age. Under Howe’s direction, new textbooks and accompanying teachers’ guides were created that balance solid historical content with a visual presentation designed to entice modern students’ interest. In 2008, Howe and the Center for Distance Education worked in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota in preparing a textbook, where none had existed before, on North Dakota history for high school students. Utilizing articles from the Society’s journal, North Dakota History, it has been a major success and the recipient of national awards, used in most high schools in North Dakota, as well as several state colleges and universities. It is also a valuable resource for many others interested in learning more about the state’s story. Howe also worked with the State Historical Society to create an innovative online series of additional lessons that encourage students to explore some of the many valuable primary historical resources available in the Society’s collections. Howe has also worked with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in creating a series of publications on the habitats and natural history of the state; the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission in featuring online its series of four publications on the history of North Dakota’s Indian reservations; the University of North Dakota on publishing a new edition of Governing North Dakota, the primary resource on North Dakota state government; and the North Dakota Department of Agriculture in developing a student text on agriculture in the state.
The National Register Award was presented to the owners of North Dakota properties listed between October 2008 and September 2009 in the National Register of Historic Places, which is the federal government’s list of properties it considers worthy of recognition and preservation. Listing in the National Register offers such benefits as eligibility for restoration and stabilization funding, and historic rehabilitation tax credits for commercial buildings. The 2009 recipients were the Gunlogson Farmstead
Historic Site in Pembina County; the John Stern Homestead in Hettinger County; the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility (now known as the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site) in Griggs County; Fort Abercrombie State Historic Site in Richland County; the Grand Forks County Fairgrounds Works Progress Administration Structures in Grand Forks; the Custer Military Trail Historic Archaeological District in Billings and Golden Valley counties; 1019 Reeves Drive, Grand Forks Near Southside Historic District in Grand Forks; the Double Ditch Indian Village State Historic Site in Burleigh County; and the Evangelisch Lutheraner Dreieinigkeit Gemeinde (Trinity Lutheran Church) in Grant County.
The winner of the 2009 Editor’s Award for best article during the preceding year in North Dakota History,the State Historical Society’s quarterly journal, was Claudia M. Pratt, owner/operator of CMP Consulting, which assists small museums and non-profits, and executive director of the Nordic Culture Clubs. Pratt was also the State Historical Society’s outreach programs coordinator from 1994 to 2000. Pratt was honored for her article in Volume 74.3 & 4, “Sculpting Lincoln: North Dakota’s Gift to the People of Norway.” She is the great-granddaughter of Dr. Herman Fjelde, a member of the Lincoln Statue Commission.
The annual award presentations were made during the September 25 conference banquet at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck. The theme for the 21st annual Governor’s Conference on North Dakota History was The 3 Rs in North Dakota: Education from 1870 to 1950, the first of a two-part theme for this annual conference. The 2010 history conference theme will be The 3 Rs in North Dakota: Education from 1951 to 2010. The conference will take place October 1-2, 2010 at the North Dakota Heritage Center.
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