Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

The 125th Anniversary at Leola, South Dakota with the GRHC displays for July 3-4, 2009, was a wonderful and rewarding outreach experience. We were most impressed with the response and the wonderful reception we received from the organizers of this outstanding event. Leola, South Dakota can be very proud of their excellent 125th celebration.

Please visit these links to view more photographs from the festivities.

• Leola, SD 125th Anniversary including the McPherson County Courthouse
• Leola, SD 125th Anniversary Parade
• GRHC Displays at Leola, SD

Selma Job Lapp, Eureka, SD, autographing the book, “Researcher’s Guide to McPherson County, South Dakota Cemeteries.” Selma is a compiler of this book.

Float of Die Deutsche Freiheit Chapter, Eureka, SD, of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. The float was a second place winner.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries, Fargo, will feature its display and information tables at Leola, South Dakota, for their 125th Anniversary. The display will be featured at the Municipal Building on main street on Friday, July 3, 10 am to 6 pm and on Saturday, July 4, 10 am to 4 pm.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, Fargo, was pleased to be part of the impressive celebration of Napoleon’s 125th Anniversary.

Burgad family in the parade

Wald family in the parade

Acacia Stuckle assisting visitors at the GRHC booth.

Debra Marquart, Michael Miller and Acacia Stuckle
(Photo Courtesy of Larry Gauper)

The GRHC will have displays and information tables at the 125th Anniversary Quasquicentennial at Napoleon, ND on Friday, June 12 (10 am-6 pm) and Saturday, June 13 (10 am-4 pm) at the Fire Hall. Debra Marquart, a Napoleon native, and well known author of the book, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, will be autographing her book at the GRHC tables.

Jessica Clark, Andrea Mott and Acacia Stuckle conducted oral history workshops in Napoleon and Richardton, North Dakota this past May. The purpose of the workshops were to teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories.

Click here to view some of the information in the educational handouts and comments from workshop participants.

Andrea Mott training participants on equipment during the oral history workshop circuit training session.

Participants registering for the oral history workshop  in Richardton, ND.

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project are coming to Richardton, N.D., to conduct a workshop that will teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories. The event is set for Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sacred Heart Monastery, 8969 Highway 10 West, Richardton.

Acacia (Jonas) Stuckle, special collections associate, will provide information about the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection as well as the Dakota Memories Oral History Project.

Jessica Clark, project coordinator and recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, will present the methodology of oral history from literature to application. She will teach participants how to find materials, narrators and places and how to manage oral histories. The workshops also will provide circuit training on digital recording devices, digital processing equipment and interviewing techniques.

Andrea Mott, 2009 Dakota Memories Oral History project interviewer, will assist with the workshops.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the oral history project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been traveling the Northern Plains, gathering stories and documenting family relationships and childhood memories of second and third generation Germans from Russia. Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.

“Our project only focuses on Germans from Russia, yet there are plenty of other groups out there with rich histories – histories that should be documented and preserved,” Clark said. “So, we are hoping by sharing our techniques and our methodology, individuals will be able to conduct their own histories regardless of their ethnicity.”

Workshops are free and open to the public. Cookies and refreshments will be provided. Lunch is not included in the cost, but it will be available on-site for a fee. If you wish to register for lunch on-site, call Stuckle by May 25.

The workshop is sponsored by the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, NDSU Extension Service and NDSU Extension Service Center for Community Vitality.

The Dakota Memories Oral History Project is a privately funded project sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries. For more information on the collection or the project, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at (701) 231-6596 or www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project are coming to Napoleon, N.D., to conduct a workshop that will teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories. The event is set for Saturday, May 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Downtowner Bar & Steakhouse, 310 Main Avenue, Napoleon.

Acacia (Jonas) Stuckle, special collections associate, will provide information about the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection as well as the Dakota Memories Oral History Project.

Jessica Clark, project coordinator and recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, will present the methodology of oral history from literature to application. She will teach participants how to find materials, narrators and places and how to manage oral histories. The workshops also will provide circuit training on digital recording devices, digital processing equipment and interviewing techniques.

Andrea Mott, 2009 Dakota Memories Oral History project interviewer, will assist with the workshops.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the oral history project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been traveling the Northern Plains, gathering stories and documenting family relationships and childhood memories of second and third generation Germans from Russia. Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.

“Our project only focuses on Germans from Russia, yet there are plenty of other groups out there with rich histories – histories that should be documented and preserved,” Clark said. “So, we are hoping by sharing our techniques and our methodology, individuals will be able to conduct their own histories regardless of their ethnicity.”

Workshops are free and open to the public. Cookies and refreshments will be provided. Lunch is not included in the cost, but it will be available on-site for a fee. If you wish to register for lunch on-site, call Stuckle by May 11.

The workshop is sponsored by the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, NDSU Extension Service and NDSU Extension Service Center for Community Vitality.

The Dakota Memories Oral History Project is a privately funded project sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries. For more information on the collection or the project, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at (701) 231-6596 or www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.

Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes is a field school that celebrates, investigates, and encourages the preservation of buildings built of earth on the northern plains. Too often considered a temporary expedient of pioneer times, earth buildings are, we argue, an environmental response and a cultural signature of the people of the plains, fixtures in the prairie way of life. As we come to understand them, we are better able to preserve the buildings themselves and the life ways that invest them. Restoring and preserving earth buildings in a region of continental climate offers challenges both technical and logistical, but those challenges can be met. In this field school, offered by North Dakota State University, we learn how.

Experiential learning is at the heart of Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes. Participants in the field school take part in the restoration of an amazing and significant historic property – the Hutmacher Farmstead, in Dunn County, North Dakota. The Hutmacher house and outbuilding walls are constructed of sandstone mortared with clay, both quarried on the farm. The roof uses ridgepoles and rafters locally cut and covered with successive layers of brush (chokecherry, plum), flax straw, clay, and aggregate. The house was built by the children of German-Russian immigrants and was occupied into the 1970s.

In order to broaden the learning experience, participants also will tour and study examples of the earth building traditions of the various cultures to occupy the West River country of the northern plains:

• Mandan & Hidatsa earth lodges
• Sod houses of Anglo-Americans
• Earth houses of the Germans from Russia

Depending on the enrollment option chosen, students will engage in preparatory readings and study prior to the field experience, write curricular materials adapted from the content of the course, or pursue independent research projects springing from it.

Instructors of the field school are Tom Isern (Professor of History & University Distinguished Professor at NDSU, founding director of the Center for Heritage Renewal (www.ndsu.edu/heritage) and Suzzanne Kelley (historian & editor, PhD candidate at NDSU, president of Preservation North Dakota). Tom is instructor of record for regular undergraduate or graduate credit; Suzzanne (an experienced public-school teacher) is instructor of record for the teacher workshops and coordinator of learning vacation experiences; and they share overall responsibility for organization and management of the field school.

Who will benefit from the field school?

• Degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students seeking a rich, hands-on learning experience preservation
• Professionals desiring professional development in earth building restoration and interpretation
• Teachers looking for an active option in continuing education with direct curricular applicability
• Vacationers looking for a learning experience at compelling sites in an unforgettable landscape to 6 hours of credit, undergraduate or graduate

Course Bibliography & Online Resources at:
http://www.ndsu.edu/grhc/instruct/isern/earth

Tom Isern

Note:
Additional information regarding the Hutmacher Farmsite is at this GRHC webpage:
http//library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/arch/index.html.

The NDSU Libraries was included during the biannual Higher Education Showcase, sponsored by the Public Affairs Council of the North Dakota University System on March 4, 2009 at the State Capitol in Bismarck. Each of the public colleges and universities in North Dakota had displays. The Institute for Regional Studies, the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the NDSU Libraries was featured for North Dakota State University, Fargo.

Standing at the NDSU Libraries table display is (l-r): Michael Miller, Director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection; Jim Heilman, NDSU Student Body President; Governor John Hoeven; and John Bye, Director of the Institute for Regional Studies.

Standing at the NDSU Libraries table display is (l-r): NDSU President Joseph Chapman; Michele Reid, Dean of Libraries; and Frank Jennings, NDSU Development Foundation President.

The NDSU Libraries display.

Dr. Ann Braaten will be presenting “Gaining Historical Insight Through Material Culture Studies” at a colloquium sponsored by NDSU’s History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Department. The colloquium take place on January 23 at 3:00pm in the Memorial Union’s Meadowlark room.

Braaten is Curator of the Emily P. Reynolds Historic Costume Collection, College of Human Development and Education, North Dakota State University, Fargo, and Assistant Professor, Department of Apparel, Design, Facility and Hospitality Management.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection clothing and textile donations are housed at the Emily P. Reynolds Historic Costume Collection. Click here to find out more about the GRHC Textiles and Clothing Collection.

Dr. Ann Braaten