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Dakota datebook: April 17-21

Clara Peltier/Sakakawea Junior Club

By MERRY HELM

April 17 — On this date in 1930, Emma Zuger received a check for $121.10 from the warden of the State Penitentiary. The money comprised donations from prisoners in appreciation of the many times the Sakakawea Junior Club had entertained them with operettas and cantatas.

The Sakakawea Junior Club was the only study club in the nation made up entirely of American Indian girls. These girls were from the Bismarck Indian School and represented nine different tribes and were known for their musical skills.

Lyric soprano Clara Peltier often landed the leading roles. Four years earlier, the club performed a two-act operetta called “Feast of the Red Corn” in the Bismarck City Auditorium. Peltier played the role of Queen Weeda Wanta. A review published in the Bismarck Tribune reported: “Miss Peltier possesses a strong, clear voice, and her tones are beautiful and smooth. She sings with remarkable understanding and technique, and many of the audience were heard to say that she would be one of the outstanding singers of the country in a few years.”

Indeed, a striking portrait of Clara, dressed in Native costume, appeared in papers as far away as Alaska just four years later — which brings us back to 1930 and that contribution of $121.10.

The inmates at the penitentiary took up the collection to help the girls’ club cover travel expenses to Denver, where they were slated to perform at the 20th Biennial convention of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a 10-day gathering of up to 15,000 women.

Eighteen club members, with their director, Mrs. Hermann Scheffer, and other chaperones, left Bismarck by bus on June 5, arriving in Denver four days later. The Sakakawea Junior Club was the only Native American group in attendance, and according to newspaper reports, they attracted a lot of attention. Among other activities, they were invited to banquets and luncheons held in their honor, including one hosted by a New York woman, Mrs. Joseph Linden Smith, who had donated $300 to the girls’ travel fund.

On the evening of the 10th, the girls performed Mon-dah-min, an operetta written by composer Paul Bliss. The piece was based on a 1918 article by Hen-Toh titled: “Mon-dah-min, and the Red Man’s World-Old Uses of Indian Corn as Food.” It appeared in The Journal of Home Economics and explained the legend of how American Indians received corn through a spirit guide who wrestled a boy during his rite of passage into manhood.

In the operetta version, Clara Peltier portrayed a chosen Ojibwa maiden who needed to walk through fields of young corn alone at night to magically protect the sprouts from “beetle, bug and crow.” The performance was a success.

Mess at

Camp Rucker

By MERRY HELM

April 18 — The war in Korea was raging in the spring of 1951, but North Dakota guardsmen from the 164th infantry and the 188th field artillery units were still in the states, training at Camp Rucker, Alabama. On this date in ’51, F.J. Froeschle reported the North Dakotans were doing well. In fact, many had gained as much as 25 pounds, thanks to the ample amount of food being served in the mess halls.

Brothers Orville and Virgil Shipman, of Bismarck, took part in preparing hearty meals for Company A. Led by Mess Sergeant Alois Holzer, the Shipman brothers and nine other men were up by 3:30 each morning preparing meals for 248 men — work they didn’t complete until 7:30 at night.

When asked about a recent report that Camp Rucker had a pepper shortage, the men told Froeschle that pepper was plentiful. It was pepper shakers they were lacking.

Dead Man Walking

By MERRY HELM

April 19 — A strange sight was seen by motorists outside of Minot on this date in 1916. A dead man was lying beside the road.

Authorities were quickly notified, and soon after, States Attorney O. B. Herigstad and Deputy Coroner A. B. Hill were speeding to the scene in their automobile.

About halfway there, they met up with the corpse in question — he was walking toward town. The man had innocently laid down and fallen asleep, not realizing he gave the impression that he was dead.

While that might seem less than newsworthy, the last line of the article is worth noting. It read: “The man refused to allow the coroner to sit on his body.”

Marbles

By SARAH WALKER

April 20 — All across North Dakota in 1937, boys and girls age 14 or younger were preparing to go head-to-head in a great marble tournament.

Depending on the size of the community, schools held tournaments first; then cities held their own tournaments, waiting for the best player to shoot his or her way to the top. Next, county tournaments separated, and then, tri-county tournaments. Finally, the top shooters were sent to Grand Forks on May 15 to compete for district and state championship.

Marble Champs were “out for blood” in Bismarck. There were reports of expected “kibitzing” from the grade-schoolers. “If the excitement of the school tournaments last Saturday is any indication, police squads will have to be called out … to quell the inter-school riots as fans root for their champs,” the Bismarck Capital reported.

It was a big deal in Ashley, too. After the paper printed a listing of rules, and a listing of awards to come, in the results of a long tourney, one boy and one girl were to travel on to the tourney for McIntosh County. It was on this day that Ashley hosted a vicious, county play-off against Wishek. Wishek won; then the problems began.

Some of those involved in the tournament found that it was unfair: “Members of the committee, consisting of four boys … protested on the grounds that the county marble tournament was not satisfactory, and because of the cold weather, should never have been played.”

Indeed, the weather was particularly bad that week, and papers across the state reported roaring gales that carried sleet, snow and dust with them to different parts of the state. Whether or not that affected the outcome of the tournament was debatable — but it was debatable enough that they decided to leave all decisions about the tournament’s outcome up to the county supervisor.

It didn’t matter in the end, though. The big game in Grand Forks — and, in fact, every game he played there — was won by 11-year-old William Stroh, from Mandan. He beat Howard Moen, a 13-year-old from Mayville, by 3-1 in the final match. Third place went to Cornet Haroldson of Aneta, fourth to Dale Butterfield of Stanley, and fifth to the “southpaw” Bob Odney of Grand Forks.

In this case, one tournament caused the whole state to lose its marbles.

Look! Up

in the Sky!

By STEVE STARK

April 21– Carl Ben Eielson’s history-making 1928 flight over the North Pole in his orange Lockheed Vega was reported on this date in North Dakota papers, but another colorful flight made smaller, more hysterical than historical headlines in the state.

A broken wheel on a refrigerator car 18 miles west of Jamestown caused the derailment of 15 railroad cars. There were no reported injuries except for bruised and damaged fruit, which reportedly went flying trackside in all directions. The track suffered damage to about 15 lengths of rail.

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota.

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