Around the State: June 24, 2024

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

JDA requests extension for art funding

The Divide County Job Development Authority is requesting an extension for grant money set aside for the Arts Across the Prairie project after securing land for an earthwork installation.

The $75,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts is set to expire June 30. The proposed installation of the new site for the Writing Rock by Crosby native Thane Lund has experienced several setbacks after the original location, Writing Rock State Historic Site, backed out of hosting the project last summer.

The motion and vote to request an extension were conducted over email. JDA Director KayCee Lindsey said this was done because of the quick deadline once landowner approval was confirmed.

(Story by Jordan Rusche, the Journal, Crosby)

Compiling stories of boarding school survivors

Research continues into a tragic history of Native American young people who were sent to boarding schools across the country.

At the forefront of this investigation are stories from individuals who actually attended these schools, which held fast to the objective of "civilizing," or assimilating Native American children and youth in Anglo-American (Euro-American) culture. The end goal was to extinguish Native American culture or as Richard Pratt, the founder of the first off reservation boarding school famously said, "Kill the Indian in them and save the man."

Dr. Denise Lajimodiere, a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribe, is a former North Dakota State University professor and the state's current poet laureate. She's also a member of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), the first and only national organization whose purpose is to advocate on behalf of Native peoples impacted by U.S. Indian boarding school policies. While teaching at NDSU, she penned a book gleaned from more than 30 interviews with survivors of boarding schools.

Despite the extensive research, Lajimodiere said there still isn't a full accounting of how many people from Turtle Mountain attended these institutions.

"I personally keep doing this work because survivors have asked me to 'tell the world what happened to us,'" Lajimodiere said. "I call the American Indian boarding school era America's best kept secret."

(Story by Jason Nordmark, the Turtle Mountain Star)

Lilley could be first Native to become Miss N.D.

Turtle Mountain citizen Gabriella Lilley is on her way to becoming the first Native reigning Miss North Dakota. She will qualify to seek the Miss America Crown if she wins the state title.

Lilley said in an interview with Buffalo's Fire; her passion for helping people embrace diversity is what put her here today.

"I started competing when I was 16 years old in another organization," she said. "But what really drew me to the Miss America organization was the emphasis on community service."

Before becoming crowned Miss Turtle Mountain, Lilley won the titles of Miss Grand Forks 2023 and Miss Williston 2022. Another organization, Miss USA, crowned Lilley's fellow tribal citizen SaNoah LaRocque Miss North Dakota USA in 2022.

Lilley received the title of Miss Turtle Mountain 2024 on October 16, 2023 which put her in line for the Miss North Dakota pageant.

(Story taken from the Turtle Mountain Star)

Company profits from wind farm scam

In 2018 The Walsh County Record ran a story about recycling wind farm blades.

Back then Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) was in the process of recommissioning blades that were being stored on a five-acre section of land near Ardoch.

On March 27 of this year The Record ran a photo of crews cutting and compressing wind turbine blades that had been stored there since 2018 and loading them onto trucks. It was assumed that they were finally being hauled away to be recycled.

This is the rest of the story.

The blades came from a wind farm near Langdon. Every 10 to 15 years they need to be removed from the windmill and replaced. The blades are coated with a material that protects the fiberglass from the elements. In this time coating wears off and the blades need to be replaced.

Jay Gudajtes bought the land the blades were stored on 10 to 12 years ago.

According to Gudajtes, GFS was working on a grant that was given to them from General Electric which was a federal grant.

"General Electric received a federal grant and then used the monies from the grant to hire GFS to remove the blades and recycle them," he said.

"GFS took the money, removed the blades and then lied to GE about them being recycled."

After about five years or so Gudajtes received a letter from the North Dakota Department of Environmental quality saying he did not have a permit to store the blades at that site.

As far as Gudajtes knows none of the blades were ever recycled.

(Story by Todd Morgan, the Walsh County Record)

Garrison middle school archers compete in world championship

Everything these girls did throught the NASP Archery season led up to this.

The NASP Championship was June 6-8 in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Kaylee Magandy and Braelynn Smith made their way south to compete in the highest level of NASP competition in the United States.

About 2,696 archers from fourth grade through seniors in high school participated in the World Championship event.

The girls competed in the middle school division for 3D and Bullseye.

Kaylee Magandy competed in the Bullseye division and shot a 277 coming in 89th out of 429. She was the highest placing North Dakota archer in the Middle School 3D Division.

Braelynn Smith ended up placing 44th out of 449 archers in the bullseye division and shot a new personal best. She also competed in the 3D division and placed 87 out of 321 competitors.

Smith was the highest placing North Dakota archer in the Middle School Bullseye Division.

(Story by Tyson Matthews, the McLean County Independent)