The 39th state admitted to the US was North Dakota, on November 2nd, 1889. The name North Dakota comes from the Dakota Sioux Native Americans, meaning "friend" or "allies". There are a few nicknames for the state including "Peace Garden State" for the International Peace Garden located on the border by Canada, the "Flickertail State" for the Richardson ground squirrel, and the "Roughrider State" for the first US Volunteer Cavalry that was formed to fight in the Spanish-American War. The very first mosque in the US was built in 1929 in Ross, North Dakota. The state is known for its 70,000-acre Badlands. In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt took a journey to the Dakota Territory to hunt, and he was moved by the beauty of nature. This trip guided him to protect and preserve nature and national parks throughout the country. It is said that the clothing dryer was invented in North Dakota. The state capital is Bismarck, the state bird is the Western Meadowlark, the state flower is the Prairie Rose, and the state tree is the American Elm.
The state was first settled by Native Americans thousands of years ago. When the European settlers arrived in the 1700's, the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Ojibwa, Cree, Assiniboin, Yankton, Wahpeton, and Teton all inhabited areas from the Missouri River to the northeast, north, southeast, and west. In the early 1900's, around 6,000 indigenous tribes lived in North Dakota, and approximately 31,000 Natives live there today. They lived on reservations and used around 349 different plants as food, medicine, dyes, and rope. Many treaties between natives and the government were signed to help recognize tribal sovereignty in the state. They established the rights of the tribal people and their reservations.
A Canadian fur trader named Pierre Gaultier de Varennes was one of the first explorers of the state in 1738. Other fur traders made their way to the state in the 1790's, and in 1801, the first permanent trading post was established in North Dakota. The US acquired the state through the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. By the 1820-1830's, American trade exchanged goods, but also brought diseases back to the states. Natives traded with theses people, and they got sick and died of disease. Trading fur began to decline around 1860, and white settlers came in large numbers as the railroads expanded. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, pioneers acquired land for wheat farming. The wheat brought farmers together and supported the Populist Movement region-wide. The Dakota Territory was established in 1861, it was divided into North and South in 1889, and then both states were admitted into the union in November of 1889.
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