Editorial

Halloween Shimmers in the Red River Valley

October 23rd, 2019

The Witching Hour - by Mark Elton

By Davin Wait
davin.wait@hcsmuseum.org

Most folks in the Upper Midwest will remember the last week of October 1991 for a singular reason: the weekend heroics of Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves in 7 games for their last World Series title. Of course, the world was busy with other things, too.

National and local media were still reeling from Anita Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Across the…

Making a scene and being heard

October 18th, 2019

Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Greta Thunberg meets Chief Arvol Looking Horse, climate activist Tokata Iron Eyes, and Greta Thunberg - photograph by Sabrina Hornung

Last week we had the opportunity to attend the Climate Change Forum at Standing Rock High School in Fort Yates. If there was one word to describe the experience it would be inspiring.

Tribal elders, Executive Director of Indigenized Energy Cody Two Bears, and teenage activists Tokata Iron Eyes and Greta Thunberg led the charge in expressing the importance of youth voices to a room of 500 youths. It was a positive message that many of us need to hear, old and young. Two Bears led the…

Come together, right now

October 9th, 2019

Greta Thunberg and wet plate photographer Shane Balkowitsch waiting for the wet plate magic - photograph by Chad Nodland

As a country of people truly and clearly divided, it would appear there’s a moment’s reprieve coming. Folks are starting to take note of the disheveled state of our state and are bemoaning that we need to get along better and quit all the nasty bickering.

Well, hear, hear!

Without pointing fingers of blame, we all need to move past the truly toxic conversation that has become an apparent new low standard of decency and behavior. Truth is, people on every side of this divide need to…

Mutiny on the Bounty

October 2nd, 2019

Cyanotype by Sabrina Hornung

Last weekend, my friend and I were exploring the back roads of rural Eddy County, collecting wild plums and running dogs. We stopped into a little country bar, chatted with the locals and we were enjoying ourselves until one guy looked me in the eye and told me that “If it weren’t for f*ckin’ there ought to be a bounty on women.”

I thought I misheard him and asked him to repeat himself and he said exactly what I thought he said. He also went on to say that there’s too damn…

You can have your science and your religion too

September 18th, 2019

North Dakota prairie alligators in the wild - photograph by C.S. Hagen

According to an article written byJohn Reinan in The Star Tribune last Friday, Sue Kern, chairwoman of Brainerd’s school board said, “You know, Darwin’s theory was done in the mid-1800s and it’s never been proven, so I’m wondering why we’re still teaching it.” I’m no math wizard but I’m willing to bet Creationism pre-dates Darwin’s theory and even Darwin himself.

According to the article, members of the faculty and district staff soon explained that the theory of…

Another deadbeat summer

September 11th, 2019

Houses being torn down for th eNewman Center project - photograph by C.S. Hagen

By Zach Nerpel
zachnerpel@gmail.com

Every Summer, I perform the same tired dance routine trying to convince myself to make the most out of the limited weather. Go outside and experience nature more, you schlub! Walk around some trees or something and observe the woodland sprites, in the process learning more about yourself. Take it all in, breathe the air deeply because this air is warmer and full of the manic rush to enjoy it while it lasts. Partake in the frenzy!

Go to a lake, you…

Happy 25th Birthday, HPR

September 4th, 2019

That the Reader has had 25 birthdays is nothing short of significant. It goes without saying we are proud as can be. Yet newspapers are challenged these days in unprecedented fashion. That said, The Little Newspaper That Could is reinventing itself so as to be relevant and important for its next 25 years.

Back in the beginning, HPR was a Grand Forks bi-weekly newspaper. We’ll always admire Peter Ryan, Len Schmid, Ian Swanson, Jim Johnson and others who were instrumental in those early…

Whither the Resistance? Comfortably numb

August 29th, 2019

Photograph by Ty Singman

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

"All efforts to reform the American system is capitulation."
— Chris Hedges
"Without massive resistance to white supremacy and war, the U.S. empire threatens to devour itself alive and will no doubt attempt to take us with it."
— Danny Haiphong
"No serious change, remotely popular sovereignty, no protection and advance of the common good will be forthcoming without prolonged, organized, and massive civil disobedience — genuine popular resistance."
— Paul…

The power of song

August 21st, 2019

Where the deer and the antelope play - artwork by Sabrina Hornung

In this issue David Crosby said, “You know, music is like a lifting force. It makes things better.” Truer words have never been spoken.

This week we decided to change things up a bit and offer our readers an exclusive music issue. We chatted with Maria Cree in Minot to see what the scene was like in the Magic City, then we headed to Grand Forks to see what the haps was with the Greenway Takeover Festival and then on over to Ojata Dogmajal to treat not only your earbuds but your…

Pride and Prejudice

August 14th, 2019

Pride - photograph by Raquel Smith

Thousands of people gathered for Pride Festival in Fargo-Moorhead last weekend. It was absolutely stunning to see and to experience. The Festival truly has become a community event and the inclusion of families gave testimony to how far we’ve come on that front. All this in the only state in the country without even a gay bar!

My, how times have changed.

Though it’s no secret at all that LGBTQ folks do not have anti-discrimination protections here in North Dakota, we can only sense…