North Dakota History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seminole

The Seminole primarily lived in Florida. Native American tribes played a large role in North Dakota's history and, for thousands of years, they were the only people who lived in the area. The Mandan Tribe, in particular, was very advanced for an agricultural society and helped Europeans establish trading posts in North Dakota.

The other tribes who settled the area are the Hidatsa and Arikara.

Answer: Fur trader

La Verendrye, like most early settlers in the region, was a fur trapper and trader. He is better known for exploring large parts of Canada, particularly Manitoba and Saskatchewan. His sons also explored Wyoming and the northern Rocky Mountains.

Answer: True

However, not all of present-day North Dakota was part of the Louisiana Purchase. The rest of North Dakota was part of Minnesota Territory at the time of the 1803 purchase.

Answer: North Dakota is alphabetically first

The "Statutes at Large" that were published for 1889 listed North Dakota first because it was alphabetically before South Dakota. Thus, North Dakota became state thirty-nine and South Dakota, state forty. The "Statues at Large" is a compilation of all the proclamations issued or ordered by Congress.

Answer: German-Russian

Most of the people settling in North Dakota were Germans from Russia, who had been promised and then denied freedom in Russia. They settled in North Dakota, mainly because it was sparsely populated and they were able to establish their own identity in culture. German churches were built and even the language was spoken regularly until World War I when anti-German tendencies swept the nation.

Answer: It was the only transcontinental railroad in the U.S. not funded by the federal government.

All other transcontinental that ran through the U.S. were at least partially publically funded. The U.S. government did at one time own the land the railroad passed through, but the Great Northern bought it for a cheap price and then sold it to farmers and homesteaders.

The GN railway ran from St Paul MN to Seattle WA (completed in 1893). THe GN Railway Compaay disappeared in 1970 when it merged with Northern pacific and other companies to form Burlington Northern.

Answer: North Dakota Democratic Party

Although Townley was an admitted socialist and advocated for state-owned industry, in 1956 the NPL merged with the local Democratic Party to form the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party. Despite its name, it is partisan and politicians belonging to this party, such as Sen.

Heidi Heitkamp and Kent Conrad, have always caucused with the Democrats in Washington D.C. It is also sometimes called the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party like it is in neighboring Minnesota.

Answer: It burned down.

What caused the fire is unknown but the legend is that polished rags that were used to clean desks were placed near a furnace in a closet and subsequently ignited. Almost everything inside the building was destroyed except for the original North Dakota Constitution, which had to be rescued by Robert Byrne, who suffered major injuries as a result.

Answer: John Hoeven

John Hoeven spent much of his career before politics as a banker in Minot. Starting in 1993, he served as President of the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-operated bank in the U.S. In 2000, he defeated his future Senate colleague Heidi Heitkamp by a 55%-45% vote to become governor.

He was later reelected in 2004 and 2008 with over 70% of the vote. When he was governor, North Dakota had one of the fastest growing, if not the fastest, economies in the nation, noteworthy since their was a recession at the time.

Answer: Bakken

The formation is named after a farmer who owned the land where the oil was discovered. The oil and gas boom helped North Dakota excel economically even during a recession that crippled other state economies. Although, the production has produced rapid job growth, it is not without controversy.

In 2013, 77 railway cars carrying oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota derailed and killed almost fifty people in Quebec.