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The original native American tribes in what is now North Dakota were the [[Mandan]], [[Sioux]], Arikara, [[Chippewa]], [[Cheyenne]], Assiniboine, and Hidatsa. Today only the Sioux and Chippewa remain; they comprise about 4% of the population.
The original native American tribes in what is now North Dakota were the [[Mandan]], [[Sioux]], Arikara, [[Chippewa]], [[Cheyenne]], Assiniboine, and Hidatsa. Today only the Sioux and Chippewa remain; they comprise about 4% of the population.
Settlers arrived in large numbers from the 1880s to 1910, most straight from Europe. Since then the population has held steady at about 650,000. Young people are moving out of rural areas to other states or to the few cities. The four urban counties (containing Fargo, Grand Forks Bismark and Minot) grew from 134,000 people in 1930 to 338,000 in 2007, while the other 49 counties--heavily rural--declined from 546,000 in 1930 to only 301,000 in 2007, and the decline continues. Thanks to high prices for oil and wheat, the state is prosperous and the state budget has a surplus. Higher education is a priority; he state ranks first in spending per capita on state colleges and universities.
==Ethnicity==
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.
===Norwegians===
===Norwegians===
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>
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>
===Volga Germans===
===Volga Germans===
On the other hand the "Russian Germans" or "Volga Germans" were traditionalists. They were germans who had lived isolated lives for generations in the Volga River region of Russia. They settled mostly in the south-central part of the state, the so-called German-Russian triangle. They brought little money and so 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. Many grew sugar beets. 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") in state elections and [[Robert LaFollette]] in 1924.<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>
On the other hand the "Russian Germans" or "Volga Germans" were traditionalists. They were germans who had lived isolated lives for generations in the Volga River region of Russia. They settled mostly in the south-central part of the state, the so-called German-Russian triangle. They brought little money and so 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. Many grew sugar beets. 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") in state elections and [[Robert LaFollette]] in 1924.<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>
==Climate==
==Climate==