Changes

Three out of four residents today are descended from [[German Americans|German]] and Norwegian pioneers who arrived as farmers in growth years, 1880 to 1914. Many of the German speakers came from Russia, and are known as "Russian Germans."  [[Yankees]] arrived too; they became townspeople, not farmers. Religion has always been strong, especially in Lutheran and Catholic churches.

Three out of four residents today are descended from [[German Americans|German]] and Norwegian pioneers who arrived as farmers in growth years, 1880 to 1914. Many of the German speakers came from Russia, and are known as "Russian Germans."  [[Yankees]] arrived too; they became townspeople, not farmers. Religion has always been strong, especially in Lutheran and Catholic churches.

Norwegian folk came to North Dakota with a reputation for honesty, hospitality, and thrift; they were modernizers and soon acquired new traits involving good manners, a greater respect for women, more democratic ideas, and disregard for European class distinctions. "In Norway," one pioneer recalled, "we were in many respects a helpless tool in the hands of the state. There we had the state church. The child must be baptized or a fine must be paid." Ole Lima said that when his people came to America they became "a more wideawake people and more independent thinking. . . . The Norwegian, who has lived a while in America, is more civilized than if he had not been here.  He has seen more, experienced more, thought more, and all this has opened his eyes and broadened his view."<ref> Quoted in Robinson (1966) p 548</ref>

Norwegian folk came to North Dakota with a reputation for honesty, hospitality, and thrift; they were modernizers and prohibitionists and soon acquired new traits involving good manners, a greater respect for women, more democratic ideas, and disregard for European class distinctions. "In Norway," one pioneer recalled, "we were in many respects a helpless tool in the hands of the state. There we had the state church. The child must be baptized or a fine must be paid." Ole Lima said that when his people came to America they became "a more wideawake people and more independent thinking. . . . The Norwegian, who has lived a while in America, is more civilized than if he had not been here.  He has seen more, experienced more, thought more, and all this has opened his eyes and broadened his view."<ref> Quoted in Robinson (1966) p 548</ref>

On the other hand the German Russians were traditionalists. They arrived later, worked poorer farms, and were not as well off as other groups. Negatively influenced by their miseries and isolation in Russia, they saw themselves a downtrodden class cheated by businessmen and railroads; they raised large families with harsh discipline; they did not believe so much in schooling, treated their

On the other hand the German Russians were traditionalists. They arrived later and settled mostly in the south-central part of the state, the so-called German-Russian triangle. They worked poorer land, and were not as well off as other groups. No educated Germans-speaking pastors, teachers, professional men, or tradesmen had joined the peasants who migrated to America.  The older generation was still speaking German (they never spoke Russian) in the 1940s, while the next generation was bilingual.  Negatively influenced by their miseries and isolation in Russia, they saw themselves a downtrodden class cheated by businessmen and railroads; they raised large families with harsh discipline; they wanted their children to be farmers so took them out of school around age 14; they treated their womenfolk as inferior, and were slow to diversify their farms. In World War I (1917-18) their patriotism was ambiguous; distrusted by their neighbors they rejected prohibition and Americanization efforts and supported radical far-left political movements such as the NPL ("Non-Partisan League").<ref>Robinson (1966) pp. 285-87, 557; Gordon L. Iseminger, "Are We Germans, or Russians, or Americans? The Mcintosh County German-russians During World War I," ''North Dakota History'' 1992 59(2): 2-16,  </ref>

womenfolk as inferior, were slow to diversify their farms, and supported radical far-left political movements.<ref>Robinson (1966) p 557 </ref>

==Climate==

==Climate==