Submitted Photo Ray Cross, left, is shown with his son Cade who graduated from University of Chicago Law School in June 2018.

BISMARCK – When he was around the age of 12, Ray Cross handwrote his magnum opus: “The History of the World.”

Likely, it had a great deal to do with his longtime interest in history.

“At age 17, while speaking with a guidance counselor at Santa Clara (Calif.) High, I blurted out that I’d like to be a history teacher (that is if my NBA pro basketball career didn’t panout),” said Cross in an email to the Minot Daily News.

This past year Cross, a retired law professor, was the recipient of the 2018 Heritage Profile Honor of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Cross has done extensive work to interpret and preserve Native American heritage and culture, especially relating to the Fort Berthold Reservation and other tribal nations, according to a SHSND news release announcing the award.

An enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation, Cross now lives in Tucson, Ariz. He was born at Elbowoods on the Fort Berthold Reservation to Martin and Dorothy Cross, and grew up in Parshall. (He attended high school for two years in Santa Clara and graduated from Parshall High School in 1966.) He also graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Conn. During his career he was the attorney for the Three Affiliated Tribes, including successfully negotiating the economic recovery fund for the tribes. He retired as a law school professor at the University of Montana at Missoula.

Cross has authored numerous works on interpreting Indian law and a number of his works have focused specifically on tribal history.

As a law professor, Cross said several of his publications represented socio-historical analysis of phenomena such as “The Rise and Fall of Indian Ranching On The Northern Great Plains” and “Twice Born From The Waters”: Two Hundred Year Journey of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

As part of a book commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Cross wrote a chapter entitled “Twice Born From The Waters: The Two Hundred Journey Of The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Peoples.” The book was published by the Cal Berkeley Press in 2004.

In addition to his own writing, Cross has been featured in a biographical children’s book of respected Native Americans. Vincent Schilling’s “Men of Courage from our First Nations,” published in 2008, profiles Cross’ contribution as the tribal attorney for the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes).

“In my retirement I am planning to write a definitive legal history of the TAT (Three Affiliated Tribes),” Cross wrote.

(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Editor Mike Sasser at 857-1959 or Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send email suggestions to msasser@minotdailynews.com.)

Nominations for State Historical Society of North Dakota’s Local History Awards are due the second Friday in July annually. Nominations can be made anytime, but those not received by the due date will be considered for awards the following year. For more information about the Local History Award program, contact Danielle Stuckle at 328-2794 or dlstuckle@nd.gov, or visit the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s website at history.nd.gov.