The rich farmlands of the Dakota Territory in 1887 are finally beginning to yield the abundant harvest the pioneers had dreamed about so long. The establishment of the railroad has brought significant changes to the small town of Blessing as well as prosperity to the Bjorklund family and their neighbors. Among the townsfolk is reverend John Solberg. The reverend, rejecting the persistent efforts of matchmaking mothers, develops a friendship with Mary...

"The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a punishing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats-- leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen...

"In 1861, Congress created Dakota Territory. It was a vast area embracing the present states of North and South Dakota, most of Montana, much of Wyoming, and a small portion of Nebraska north of the Niobrara River."--Foreword to 4th ed. This history concentrates on South Dakota.

Here East German celebrity Gojko Mitic stars his very first Indianer film, or East German Western, as the fearless chief Tokei-ihto, whose Dakota tribe is being driven from the land of their ancestors. Based on the carefully researched fiction of Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, it became East Germany's answer to the West German fascination with author Karl May. This production began the most successful series of box office hits in the history of East...

Rumors of gold in the Black Hills, even before Custer's 1874 expedition, enticed many a fortune seeker to Dakota Territory, where lawlessness ruled the day. To the Dakota frontier in 1873, President Grant sent Peter C. Shannon as the new Chief Justice of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court. A Pennsylvanian, Shannon brought the rule of law, trying murderers, horse thieves, vigilantes, men of fortune, women of the night, and a passel of blacklegs. Among...

Even at the tender age of nine, Anna Ingevich knows her life will never be the same when her mom, Karin, dies at the age of thirty. Anna's father, Bjorn, is a hard man but that is what living in Norway requires. Life does not get any easier for her when he marries Marion, who already has three children of her own. As the days go on, she begins to ask herself one question, over and over: How do I escape Norway and get to America? Iver Olson loves his...