The first supporting question, “How are plants and animals important natural resources in North Dakota?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. Facilitate a discussion in class about the wildlife of North Dakota, including fish, birds, and game animals. As a rural state, home to grasslands, badlands, rivers, and forests, North Dakota has prime habitat for game animals such as ducks, grouse, antelope, elk, deer, moose, and, at one time, bison. The region has also attracted hunters for thousands of years. The earliest records of European visitors to the region demonstrate amazement at the quantity and variety of large game animals. Bison were always the most exciting of the animals they viewed, but they also wrote of elk, deer, pronghorn (antelope), wolves, and smaller animals such as badgers and prairie dogs. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their 1804-1806 expedition enjoyed looking at the herds that sometimes blackened the plains with their huge numbers, but also hunted the animals for fresh meat to feed their crew. They were soon followed by fur traders and fur trappers who sought precious beaver pelts for international markets. North Dakota is also known as an important flyway for migrating birds. What features of the state’s topography attract birds? Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 1
Using evidence from the sources, define “natural resource,” and understand and identify how wildlife populations and habitats are important natural resources in North Dakota. Using the list of natural resources found in North Dakota that students developed while staging the question, take a deeper dive into game animal populations. Research historic and current wildlife populations. Why are these populations important? How does it impact the landscape and human populations if wild game populations fluctuate? Are game animals just something nice to have, or do they have an impact on our quality of life? Have students discuss in class, write a summary, or create a graphic organizer to summarize and report what they have learned. Students may need to use library and internet resources to do research beyond the Featured Sources included here.
Featured Sources 1
The sources featured below are primary sources. They are the raw materials of history—original documents, personal records, photographs, maps, and other materials. Primary sources are the first evidence of what happened, what was thought, and what was said by people living through a moment in time. These sources are the evidence by which historians and other researchers build and defend their historical arguments, or thesis statements. When using primary sources in your lessons, invite students to use all their senses to observe, describe, and analyze the materials. What can they see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste? Draw on students’ knowledge to classify the sources into groups, to make connections between what they observe and what they already know. This will help them make logical claims about the materials that can be supported by evidence. Further research of materials and sources can either prove or disprove the students’ argument.
Read Featured Sources A-E. In a group or as a class, answer the following questions: What type of sources are these (letters, photos, maps, diaries, etc.)? What kind of information do they contain? Who wrote these texts? Who was the intended audience? Why was this written? When was it written? How do we know? What else can you find?
| Source A |
From the letter of Pierre Gaultier deVarennes et de La Verendrye in reporting his travels to the Missouri River in 1738: Game is to be found in great abundance. |
| Source B |
From the Journals of Lewis and Clark (“goat” refers to pronghorn or antelope): 18th of October Thursday 1804 [on the Missouri River a few miles north of the mouth of the Cannonball River] ...Saw Great numbers of Goats on the S.S.[starboard side of the boat] comeing to the river our hunters Killed 4 of them Some run back and others crossed & proceded on their journey to the Court Nou [Black Hills] passed a small creek on the L.S. [larboard side of the boat] 1 mile above the last, and camped on a Sand bar on the L.S. opposite to us we Saw a Gangue of Buffalow bulls which we did not think worth while to kill. Our hunters killed 4 [G]oats 6 Deer 4 elk & a pelican & informs us that they Saw in one gang: 248 Elk... ...I kild. 3 Deer...Great numbers of Buffalow Elk & Deer, Goats. Our hunters killed 10 Deer & a Goat to day and wounded a white Bear [Grizzly Bear] I saw several fresh tracks of those animals which is 3 times as large as a mans track.... 20 of October Satturday 1804 [on the Missouri River between |
| Source C |
Settlers who came to Dakota Territory in the late 19th century had a different experience. Most of them never saw a live bison, though they picked up the bones of these great animals and sold them to earn much needed cash. Except for the earliest arrivals, they seldom saw deer or antelope and considered it a great curiosity if one animal should happen to wander by. On July 14, 1873, a Bismarck Tribune article welcomed a steamboat from Fort Benton Montana. The article helps explain why the numbers of wild animals fell so dramatically: She had 9000 buffalo robes, 123 bales of wolf, 40 sacks of wool, 94 bales of deer [hides] and antelope, 18 tons of silver... Another article from the Bismarck Tribune (April 15, 1874) reveals how technological changes in the North Dakota landscape might also have affected game animals: A five mile race between the train and two herds of antelope, delighted the passengers on a late train from Fargo to Bismarck. At first the animals gained on the train and kept ahead of it for some time, and finally fell behind and were passed after running about five miles. |
| Source D |
Christian Hintz who settled near Hebron in 1880 remembered seeing pronghorn in the early days: There were a great many antelope, often as many as 50-100 in a herd. They used to come up to our yard in the mornings and look on with curiosity. |
| Source E |
Lillian Foell farmed with her husband south of Menoken in the 1930s. Her words indicate that deer were not a common sight around her farm: I loved the quiet, the smell, the sound of the birds and the hope that just maybe I would see a deer if I got out early enough. Lillian Agnew Foell, Lil’s Courage (n.p., 1995), 61. |
| Source F | 
Hunters have been drawn to North Dakota’s prairie potholes because of the huge flocks of ducks, geese, (and other nongame migratory birds). ND is located on the Central Flyway. SHSND A6561-1. |
Learn more about wildlife, hunting, fishing, and conservation efforts in North Dakota by visiting the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum or the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.