The history of North Dakota stretches from thousands of years of Indigenous habitation on the northern plains, through nineteenth-century treaties that stripped Native nations of most of their land, a politically delayed admission to the Union in 1889, a farmer-led revolt that built state-owned institutions found nowhere else in America, and into a modern era defined by oil, pipelines, and ongoing legal fights over sovereignty and water. It is one of the smallest states by population and one of the most unusual in how it governs itself.
The First Nations of the Northern Plains
Long before European contact, the land that became North Dakota was home to several Indigenous nations with their own governments, trade networks, and territories. The Mandan and Hidatsa built agricultural villages along the Missouri River. The Lakota and Dakota Sioux ranged across the western plains. The Pembina Band of Chippewa lived in the northeastern woodlands.
Two Fort Laramie treaties shaped the early relationship between these nations and the United States. The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed at Horse Creek, tried to fix territorial boundaries for the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, and granted the U.S. rights to build roads and military posts across Native land in exchange for $50,000 in annual goods. Congress unilaterally cut the payment period from fifty years to ten without tribal consent, and the boundaries were, in one account’s words, “quickly ignored by nearly all sides.”1National Park Service. Horse Creek Treaty
The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie established the Great Sioux Reservation across the western half of present-day South Dakota, including the Black Hills, and set aside additional unceded Indian Territory closed to white settlement without tribal consent. Any future cession required approval by three-fourths of adult male tribal members. After gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. violated those terms, and the land was confiscated in 1877 following military conflicts including the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Ownership of the Black Hills remains legally disputed.2National Archives. Fort Laramie Treaty
In the northeast, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa went through its own series of cessions. The 1863 Old Crossing Treaty pressured the Red Lake and Pembina Bands into giving up 11 million acres at roughly eight cents per acre. Commissioner Alexander Ramsey conceded at the time that “no territorial acquisitions of equal intrinsic value have been made from the Indians at so low a rate per acre.”3North Dakota Studies. Turtle Mountain The 1892 McCumber Agreement cut the Turtle Mountain lands further. When Chief Little Shell III refused to sign, the government assembled a handpicked council to negotiate around him. Five hundred twenty people, including Little Shell’s followers, were struck from tribal rolls and displaced to Montana. Under the final agreement, the tribe gave up all claim to North Dakota lands except a reservation twelve miles by six miles, for $1,000,000.4Oklahoma State University. Agreement With the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, 1892
From the Louisiana Purchase to Dakota Territory
The western half of what would become North Dakota passed into U.S. jurisdiction with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Thomas Jefferson sent the Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to map the territory, open trade with Indigenous nations, and search for a route to the Pacific. The expedition wintered in 1804–1805 at Fort Mandan near present-day Washburn, where it established contact with the Mandan and Hidatsa at the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers.5National Archives. Lewis and Clark
In 1859, residents near Yankton petitioned Congress for a civil government. President James Buchanan signed the Organic Act on March 2, 1861, creating Dakota Territory.6State Historical Society of North Dakota. Territorial Documents At the start, the territory was huge, covering present-day North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and part of Nebraska. By 1868, with Montana and Wyoming carved off, it had shrunk to the land that is now the two Dakotas.7South Dakota Secretary of State. About the State of South Dakota The president appointed the governor, judges, and marshals; residents elected a legislature. The 1860 census had counted just 2,375 non-Indian residents, and only free white males over 21 could vote. Yankton served as the capital, and the first territorial legislature convened on March 17, 1862, drawing eighteen counties and adopting civil and criminal codes.8North Dakota Studies. Dakota Territory
Becoming the 39th State in 1889
Statehood was blocked for years by partisan math. The heavily Republican northern half of Dakota Territory looked like a threat to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which stalled admission through the 1880s. The Northern Pacific Railroad also preferred the lighter regulation of territorial status. Republican Benjamin Harrison’s election in 1888 broke the standoff.9North Dakota Studies. Statehood
Congress passed the Omnibus Enabling Act on February 22, 1889, providing for the admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington. The act divided Dakota Territory along the seventh standard parallel, authorized the election of 75 constitutional convention delegates in each new state, and appropriated $20,000 for North Dakota’s convention expenses.10North Dakota Legislative Branch. The Enabling Act Delegates elected on May 14, 1889 included 51 Republicans, 19 Democrats, 2 Prohibitionists, 2 Populists, and 1 Independent. They assembled in Bismarck on July 4, 1889, under chairman Fred Fancher.11State Historical Society of North Dakota. Constitutional Convention 1889
Voters ratified the constitution on October 1, 1889, by a margin of 27,441 to 8,107. A separate prohibition article also passed, 18,552 to 17,393, making North Dakota a dry state from day one.11State Historical Society of North Dakota. Constitutional Convention 1889 President Harrison signed the act of admission on November 2, 1889. To avoid favoring either Dakota, Harrison shuffled the admission papers before signing them, making it impossible to say which state entered the Union first. North Dakota is listed as the 39th state by alphabetical convention.9North Dakota Studies. Statehood
A Constitution Built for Direct Democracy
The 1889 constitution runs about 17,500 words, roughly three times the length of the federal document. Its Declaration of Rights contains 25 provisions, compared to the ten amendments in the federal Bill of Rights. It established three branches of government with separated powers, created specific articles on education, trust lands, and public finance, and barred unreasonable searches in language nearly identical to the Fourth Amendment.12University of North Dakota School of Law. North Dakota Law Review The North Dakota Supreme Court has historically read the constitution using an originalist approach, looking for the “original public meaning” the people who adopted each provision understood.13North Dakota Studies. Constitution of North Dakota
Amendments require voter approval. The state ranks in the top five nationally in its use of the initiative and referendum, which was adopted in 1914 after a twenty-year effort that began with bills introduced by Lars Ueland in 1893.14North Dakota Studies. Initiative and Referendum
The Nonpartisan League and the State’s Experiment in Public Enterprise
No political movement left a bigger mark on North Dakota than the Nonpartisan League. Founded in 1915 by former Socialist Party organizers Arthur C. Townley and Albert Bowen, the NPL channeled decades of farmer frustration with grain elevator monopolies, unfair grading, and tight credit into organized political power. Rather than running as a third party, it took over Republican primaries, endorsing candidates who pledged to its platform: state-owned terminal elevators and flour mills, state hail insurance, state inspection of grain, tax exemptions for farm improvements, and rural credit at cost. By 1916, membership hit 40,000, and NPL-backed candidates won major offices, including Lynn Frazier as governor and William Langer as attorney general.15North Dakota Studies. Origins of the Nonpartisan League
The 1919 legislature, controlled by the NPL, enacted the League’s Industrial Program. The Bank of North Dakota was established by House Bill 18, capitalized with $100,000 in state funds and $2 million in bond sales. Its purposes included low-cost rural credit, financing state enterprises, and serving as a clearinghouse for state banks.16Bank of North Dakota. The Birth of the Bank The same session authorized the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association, meant to break the grain trade monopolies by buying wheat from farmers and milling flour at competitive rates.17State Historical Society of North Dakota. Mill and Elevator The Grand Forks Herald called the session a “socialistic laboratory.”
Both institutions survived. The Bank of North Dakota is still the only state-owned bank in the United States, widely credited with helping the state ride out downturns.18North Dakota Studies. Bank of North Dakota and State Mill and Elevator The North Dakota Mill, in Grand Forks, is the only state-owned flour mill in the country. It processes more than 130,000 bushels of wheat a day, takes no state subsidies, and has sent more than half its profits to the state general fund for over fifty years. Its products are sold under the “Dakota Maid” label.19North Dakota Mill. About
In 1956, after years of internal ideological division, the Nonpartisan League merged with the Democratic Party to create the Dem-NPL. Democratic representation in the legislature grew from 5 of 162 members in 1955 to 67 by 1959.20Dem-NPL. About
Recalls, Convictions, and a Governor Who Declared Martial Law
The NPL’s rise also produced an unusual run of political crises. On October 28, 1921, North Dakota held the first successful gubernatorial recall election in American history. Voters removed all three members of the state Industrial Commission: Governor Lynn Frazier, Attorney General William Lemke, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor John N. Hagan, replacing them with candidates backed by the conservative Independent Voters Association. Frazier’s defeat came by a small margin, and voters kept the NPL’s state-owned institutions even as they ousted the officials who had created them.21North Dakota State Library. Recall 1921
A sharper crisis followed in 1934 around William “Wild Bill” Langer. Elected governor in 1932, Langer was indicted on federal conspiracy charges tied to a scheme funneling money from state and federal employee paychecks into an NPL-controlled account. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. When the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld his removal in July 1934, Langer barricaded himself inside the Capitol Building and declared martial law. Lieutenant Governor Ole Olson declared himself governor and took command of the National Guard. Once the Guard began taking orders from Olson, Langer gave up.22Inforum. The Time a ND Governor Was Convicted of a Felony, Refused to Leave Office, and Declared Martial Law
Langer’s conviction was reversed on appeal, and a federal jury acquitted him in December 1935. He was re-elected governor in 1936 and won a U.S. Senate seat in 1940. A Senate select committee recommended his exclusion over allegations of jury tampering and kickbacks, but the full Senate voted 52–30 to seat him. He served until his death in 1959 and was one of only two senators to vote against the United Nations Charter.23United States Senate. William Langer Expulsion Case
Because Langer was barred from the 1934 race, his wife Lydia ran in his place and lost to Democrat Thomas H. Moodie, 145,333 to 127,954.24State Historical Society of North Dakota. Governor William Langer25State Historical Society of North Dakota. Governor Thomas H. Moodie26State Historical Foundation of North Dakota. Thomas Moodie, North Dakota’s Shortest-Tenured Governor
Women’s Vote and the End of Prohibition
North Dakota entered the Union dry, with prohibition written into the 1889 constitution. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, led for forty years by Elizabeth Preston Anderson, tied suffrage to the defense of prohibition, arguing that women’s votes would keep the prohibitory clause intact.27National Park Service. North Dakota and the 19th Amendment
The vote came slowly. Women got the right to vote in school elections in 1883, during the territorial period. A full suffrage bill came within a single vote of passage in the territorial legislature in 1875 and was vetoed by the governor in 1885. After statehood, suffrage bills were introduced in every legislative session from 1901 to 1911 and all failed. In 1911, the legislature actually narrowed existing rights by rewriting the voting laws to specify “male persons.” A suffrage bill passed in 1913 but was referred to a public vote of men only, who defeated it 49,348 to 40,209 in 1914.28North Dakota Studies. Woman Suffrage 1912–1920 The breakthrough came in 1917, when the NPL-controlled legislature passed a limited suffrage law signed by Governor Frazier allowing women to vote for presidential electors and county and municipal officials. North Dakota ratified the 19th Amendment on December 1, 1919, the twentieth state to do so.27National Park Service. North Dakota and the 19th Amendment
Garrison Dam and the Flooding of Fort Berthold
The twentieth century’s most consequential event for Native land in North Dakota was the Garrison Dam, authorized under the 1944 Flood Control Act and completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1953. The dam created Lake Sakakawea, which permanently flooded over 152,000 acres of the Fort Berthold Reservation, home to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. The flooding destroyed 100 percent of the reservation’s irrigable farmland, buried nine communities, and displaced roughly 78 percent of reservation families. The tribal headquarters and hospital went under water. In 1948, Chairman George Gillette signed the land sale contract with Secretary of the Interior J.A. Krug, saying: “We will sign this contract with a heavy heart … With a few scratches of the pen, we will sell the best part of our reservation.”29National Library of Medicine. Garrison Dam The dam’s location had been chosen to spare nearby white towns from flooding.30University of Montana. Garrison Dam Thesis
The initial compensation of $12.6 million, set unilaterally by Congress after the government and the tribes failed to reach a negotiated settlement, was widely viewed as inadequate. A 1991 Government Accountability Office report confirmed the tribes had received less than they requested, and in 1992, Congress authorized $149.2 million in additional compensation under Public Law No. 102-575.31U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. GAO Testimony
Tribes, Voting, and a State With No Voter Registration
North Dakota today is home to five federally recognized tribal nations: the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, the Spirit Lake Nation, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Nation. More than 31,000 American Indians live in the state, about 5 percent of the population, with nearly 60 percent on reservations.32State of North Dakota. Tribal Governments Each tribe operates as a sovereign nation with its own constitution, courts, and elected leadership, dealing directly with the federal government through the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The state government has no authority over tribal nations; the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission handles cooperation between the two.33North Dakota Studies. Tribal Government
North Dakota is also the only state in the country that does not require voter registration. The state abolished registration in 1951, and later efforts to bring it back have failed, with policymakers calling it costly and restrictive. The system traces back to the state’s small rural precincts, where election boards could recognize voters on sight. Instead of a registration roll, the state keeps a “central voter file” created in 2008 with the Department of Transportation and updated from several state agencies. Voters must present identification showing their name, current residential address, and date of birth. Because North Dakota had no registration system when the National Voter Registration Act was enacted, the state is exempt from many of its requirements.34Bipartisan Policy Center. How North Dakota Administers Elections Without Voter Registration
The ID rules have drawn litigation. In 2013, the legislature repealed provisions letting voters use affidavits or be vouched for by election board members. In Brakebill v. Jaeger, challengers put forward evidence that 23.5 percent of Native Americans in North Dakota lacked a valid voter ID, compared to 12 percent of non-Native Americans.35University of North Dakota School of Law. North Dakota Law Review The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and the residential address requirement took effect before the 2018 general election.
The Bakken Boom and the Dakota Access Pipeline
Beginning around 2007, hydraulic fracturing opened the Bakken shale in western North Dakota, reshaping the state’s economy. At its peak, North Dakota produced over one million barrels of oil per day. Oil and gas regulation falls to the Industrial Commission, made up of the governor, attorney general, and agriculture commissioner. Critics have noted the commission members accept campaign contributions from the companies they regulate. In 2011, the commission allowed ConocoPhillips to extract up to 43 million barrels in and around Little Missouri State Park. When Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem later proposed buffer zones around 18 “extraordinary” sites, including areas near Theodore Roosevelt National Park, industry pressure led the proposal to be scaled back to cover only public lands.36High Country News. A Tale of Two Parks
The Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile crude oil line operated by Energy Transfer that carries oil from North Dakota to Illinois, became the center of one of the most prominent environmental and Indigenous rights disputes in modern American history. In 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, joined by the Cheyenne River Lakota and Rosebud Sioux, led large demonstrations against the pipeline’s crossing of Lake Oahe on the Missouri River, citing threats to water supplies and treaty rights.37NRDC. Dakota Access Pipeline: What You Need to Know
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July 2016. In 2020, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Corps had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to conduct a full environmental impact statement and revoked the pipeline’s easement to cross Lake Oahe. An appellate court reversed his order to shut the pipeline down, and it has kept operating without a current easement, carrying 750,000 barrels of oil per day.37NRDC. Dakota Access Pipeline: What You Need to Know In March 2025, Judge Boasberg dismissed the tribe’s latest lawsuit, ruling the court could not step in while the Corps completed its environmental study. The tribe appealed to the D.C. Circuit, and as of May 2026 the Army Corps granted final approval for the pipeline. In a separate proceeding, a jury found Greenpeace liable for damages tied to the 2016 protests and ordered the group to pay Energy Transfer about $667 million, a verdict Greenpeace is seeking to reverse.38North Dakota Monitor. Standing Rock Appeals Dismissal of Latest Dakota Access Pipeline Lawsuit
North Dakota Today
Kelly Armstrong, a Republican from Dickinson, became North Dakota’s 34th governor on December 15, 2024, succeeding Doug Burgum. Armstrong defeated Democrat Merrill Piepkorn in the general election after winning a contested Republican primary against Tammy Miller. A lawyer and former vice president of his family’s oil, gas, and agriculture business, he previously served in the North Dakota Senate, chaired the state Republican Party, and spent six years as North Dakota’s sole U.S. House representative.39Governor’s Office. Governor Kelly Armstrong40North Dakota Monitor. Kelly Armstrong Takes Office as North Dakota’s 34th Governor
North Dakota remains one of four states whose legislature meets only every two years. A 2025 bill to move to annual sessions was defeated in the state Senate.41North Dakota Monitor. North Dakota Senate Defeats Plan for Legislative Sessions Every Year Governor Armstrong called a special session in January 2026, primarily to authorize $199 million in federal health care funding through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Rural Health Transformation Program. The session also addressed expanded prescriptive authority for pharmacists and other health measures.42North Dakota Monitor. What to Know About North Dakota’s Special Legislative Session
In June 2026, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a ballot measure that would have imposed term limits on state officials. The state is weighing newer policy questions around data centers and artificial intelligence regulation, and has launched a $157 million enhanced oil recovery research initiative aimed at pushing Bakken production back toward its peak of 1.5 million barrels per day.43North Dakota Monitor. $157 Million Oil Research Effort to Boost North Dakota Production to Start This Year