Tag Archives: Memory

11/04/2026

Northern Great Plains History Conference, 61st Annual

By Aaron Barth

From October 28 to November 1, 2026, Montana State University (MSU-Bozeman) hosted the Northern Great Plains History Conference (NGPHC), 61st Annual, in all its splendor and glory. All speakers and panels and presentations were hosted in the MSU Strand Student Union.

It had been around 13 to 14 years since I had last attended the NGPHC, somewhere in 2012 or 2013 (when it was at the Fargo downtown Radisson). Downtown Fargo looks a bit different today than it did in 2012/2013.

Great intentional coordinating energy was expended, well before the start of the conference, during, and cleaning up after. Professor Micah Chang was the lead air traffic controller for this conference, and balanced operations of the conference with chair commentator hosting of this and that panel, then recalibrating back to operations, and so on. Applied liberal arts. As sometimes I say to myself. Well done, Micah.

The panel I was able to be a part of took place on Thursday, October 29, 10:30AM to 12-Noon, with Alan Anderson as chair and commentator, and the line up being William Bain, Dakota Goodhouse, and myself. Each paper in our panel looked at the Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass from then, the lead up to it, and 50 years later (through the lens of Hibernian-American immigrant Patrick Byrne).

Returning to an in-person conferences with prepared papers reminded me of the importance of attending in-person conferences. Delivering prepared papers. Listening to prepared papers. Sharing knowledge after. Reminding oneself of the decorum of sharing comments and knowledge, asking questions, and listening to others share remarks, comments, and knowledge.

As a follow up, Alan Anderson e-mailed me to let me know, after reading and listening to my paper, he located the archival repository of a related line of inquiry that my paper hinted at: namely, the paper trail of Soldiers of the Plains that would truthify (paper trails) the group that actually approached Putnam and Son’s to purchase its copyright after its 1926 publication. Anderson said he found the prior subsidiary (it’s in an e-mail and I’m not gonna open it up right now) of Putnam located in the archives at University of Illinois Champagne. The plot thickened at the conference.

It’ll be fun to make time to figure out how to track those documents down for review, as it has the potential to paper-truth one of the oral histories I mentioned: that a Custer-phile group orchestrated by Libby Custer tracked down the copyright of Byrne’s book, and bought it. So it would never be published again. Yes: clandestine suppression of historical narratives in the 1920s and 1930s. Juicy stuff.

A couple photos in this blog post of the actual conference. Next year it is in Duluth. So get your plans planned accordingly.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

07/09/2026

Little Bighorn-Greasy Grass at 150 and Wally McRae’s “Reincarnation”

By Aaron Barth

On June 25, 2026, Shadd Piehl, Dakota Goodhouse, Prairie Rose Seminole and I physically visited Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (LBBNM) for the scheduled 150th (1876-2026) of the battle. That day, at approximately 2:58pm (mountain time), just after a 2-hour rain shower, the clouds parted and we were given a view of all the markers on the hillside along with smells of prairie grasses, and a distant horn from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s locomotive. The latter train noise provided a nod to why this battle took place 150 years prior, as the U.S. Military worked hand in hand with United States policy makers and the industrial railroad (the Northern Pacific Railway at that time, the Northern “N” being the part of BNSF today) to punch linear train tracks east-west across the continental interior. It was a global theme. (I’m not going to search for it now, but you can locate at about some time in the 1860s, a quote from Leo Tolstoy bemoaning or critiquing the railroad punching through the Siberian forests — railroads were punching linear everywhere).

Shadd and I rode out together to LBBNM that morning from Medora (which, as well, dedicated and opened the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on July 4, 2026). From Interstate 94 heading west, we decided to take the Colstrip Exit, and head south on Montana Highway 39. While on that stretch, Shadd started chatting a bit about the late Wallace McRae, and one of his popularized cowboy poems, Reincarnation. Shadd mentioned that McRae tended to encourage the younger up and coming cowboy poets to push their craft in new directions. His words reminded me of the thoughtful historians I have had the privelidge and intensity to know over the years who also have done the same.

I didn’t get to read and sit with McRae’s “Reincarnation” until after I returned to the Northern Plains from LBBNM. I sat down on June 29, 2026, around 12:24AM (central) and transcribed it word for word into my journal. Writing in the analog has always impressed new paths into my memory better than typing it out on these here digital platforms. The third section of McRae’s poem is as follows, and below that a picture from our June 25, 2026 site visit. I thought about that and the time we spent at LBBNM, 150 years later, 1876 to 2026:

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

07/15/2024

Landscape Memory of Dill: Baltic Sea and Central North America

By Aaron Barth

This early morning, while in the kitchen, I was cutting the leafy hats off the strawberries (jordgubbar) to make a larger bowl for the family breakfast (frukost). I opened the little lid to the compost Tupperware vessel we keep on the countertop. Once open, a waft of dill ran up my nose and into my brain, activating my mental hard drive.

I was at once in farmor’s kitchen. She was standing at the sink, back always to us as all single filed through the entry door opposite of the kitchen that led us past and into the efficient dining area. “Hello!” she would greet us with, smiling.

I text messaged this memory to a couple friends, one living in the desert southwest. And another who spends time in the Atlantic World, a large chunk along the eastern Baltic Sea and the United States.

The latter texted me back, noting how the Baltic Sea area is replete with dill and the landscape. Lots of dill on new/small potatoes and herring.

Dill. Ancient Mediterraneans noted how rosemary was and remains an herb of memory. But so is dill, the memory herb of the steppes, the Baltic Sea, and central North America.

A photo below of the dill growing in our own backyard garden. This dill was a starter early this season from Forager Farm. It has produced many delicious cold potato salads and cucumber salads already this summer.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

05/09/2024

Mow Backyard Memories

By Aaron Barth

Subscribe to continue reading

Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

Comments Off on Mow Backyard Memories   |  tags: , , | posted in Uncategorized

08/04/2016

Maah Daah Hey 100: Supply and Gear

By Aaron Barth

A couple weeks ago a friend, Tayo, texted and asked if I would be his supply line for the Maah Daah Hey 100+ this coming Saturday, August 6, 2016. His original text read, “Do you have any interest in spending a night in the badlands and being my support vehicle for the Maah Daah Hey 100 bike race the first weekend in August?” I asked about exact dates. And then checked with the calendar. And then quickly talked myself into doing this after chatting a bit about it with my wife (she was enthusiastic too).

The trail name, Maah Daah Hey, is from a local language, the Mandan people. The trail name translates into something along the lines of an area that has been or will be around for a long time. I know this because I Google’d it. But there is likely a ton more nuance to the phrase than is captured by this one, Google’d definition.

So what does one need before doing the entire supply and gear (SAG for short) for a comrade and friend? It first requires time to think about what to bring and how to prepare. The Maah Daah Hey association has built up an impressive road map and guide for both riders and the SAG support vehicles. While the rider zips through an impossible and marked course in the rugged badlands of western North Dakota, the SAG vehicles zip around on the scoria/klinker covered roads to meet their riders at the next check point. I was reading that just a bit ago and decided to blog these thoughts.

Before all this, though, Tayo and I spent the last week hypothesizing how we might locate or bum an appropriate SAG vehicle. Even a modest weekend outing in western North Dakota requires a bit of gear. And something that requires gear requires the proper vehicle to haul that gear. The last time I did something recreational like this was with Adventure Science, the 100 Miles of Wild: North Dakota Badlands Transect. In this 2013 outing, I helped the team with supply and gear. It was during the late winter or early spring. With the snow thawing, it turned the badlands silt into super slick mud during the day and afternoons. Then, at night, it would refreeze. And the process would repeat itself. It’s been doing this for a long time. Which, when thinking about it, makes the Mandan description applied to this place all the more fitting. It’s the first week of August, though, so we don’t need to concern ourselves with the thaw and slick mud. I checked the weather forecast, and it said no rain too.

I touched base with a friend who has a huge pick up truck (but small by Bakken Oilfield standards). He said go ahead and use it over the weekend. So this evening my wife and I picked it up and drove it over to Tayo’s to load most of his gear. It’s now parked. And I’m taking this blogging break from laying out my own gear. I still have to toss a couple changes of cloths into a backpack.

I want to continue narrating this and uploading it eventually to this blog. I won’t be hooked up to internet. So I’ll type out updates on Microsoft Word and later upload them. That’s the ambition. It’ll provide Tayo and I with a bit of future history and memory. Tayo will be way too focused on the ride. So again, this little log will be quite a bit of fun.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

03/21/2015

Alzheimer’s, History, Memory, Heritage, Identity…

By Aaron Barth

Here’s a quick post, something that rattled though my brain while reading Stanford University’s advancements in Alzheimer’s disease studies. I know all of us have watched Alzheimer’s disease take a close relative or friend from us, and it may have been all the more distressful because your relative or friend is taken from you even before mortality sets in: we literally watch someone’s memory die before they die. This is super-depressing. When Alzheimer’s destroys the memory banks, it destroys our ability to remember what we did, and this means we forget who we were. If we don’t know who we were, or we don’t know our history and heritage, then we do not know who we are. Again, this is troubling for infinite reasons.

Certainly there is more to be said on this, but I’m just sending a flag into the air on it here. Thanks Stanford University, and the research and development and knowledge-sharing that goes with it throughout the global, university world. Let’s all get together on this and have more public discussions. I’d like to see a panel of Alzheimer’s researchers and professional historians explore why this research is so important. I’ll add it to my bucket list.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

09/08/2014

Short Heritage Notes

By Aaron Barth

Just this evening I chatted a bit with Paul, or who I call dad. We found ourselves reflecting a bit, at least why his grandfather (my great grandpa Barth) left railroad work in Cleveland, Ohio to take up a homestead claim just outside of Braddock, North Dakota. This is how one line of our family history goes, at least one of the general narratives.

After a bit of chatting my dad, knowing I am a bit of a bibliophile, produced two books from his late mother’s (my late grandmother’s) library. One of these books was The Joy of Words, published in 1960 by the J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company of Chicago, Illinois. I started flipping through the table of contents and pages, and I arrived at the section called “Historic.” Here, in the opening, on page one hundred eleven, it begins with a quote that seemed to capture the evening conversation I had with my dad:

“The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.”

I thought I’d float that quote our there, at least since it resonated with me. Perhaps someone else might be able to grab hold of it and use it too.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

03/31/2014

Dungeness Crab and North Dakota Walleye

By Aaron Barth

Sensibly priced Dungeness crab.

Sensibly priced Dungeness crab.

Over the weekend I located some Dungeness crab at the Costco in West Fargo, North Dakota. To clear it up for non-Fargoans and non-North Dakotans, yes, Fargo is large enough to have a West Fargo (perhaps an idea for a second Coen Brothers film entitled West Fargo, which Molly says is on the east coast of North Dakota). The crab was so sensibly priced that I couldn’t avoid it. A small contingent — Mira McLain and Ben Simonson — from Valley City, North Dakota, came as well, bringing fresh-caught North Dakota walleye and sauger. Aunt Chris McLain also joined us, as did Matthew Trefz and Karis Thompson.

North Dakota walleye and sauger fish fry.

North Dakota walleye and sauger fish fry.

While eating the crab, I noted a couple things: first, fresh crab eaten in the middle of North America almost confuses one’s sense of place. It’s something that tastes like the ocean but it is so far removed from that locale. So if you’re in Fargo, or Ohio, and if you locate delicious and sensibly priced Dungeness crab, go for it. You get to taste the ocean while on a sea of prairie.

The second thing the royal we noted was that eating whole crab is an event: it takes patience and effort, and plenty of melted butter. Up to this point in time, the lot of us were land-lubbers the most if not the majority of our lives. Sure, one or two of us had the occasional deep-sea fishing experience, but that was more exotic than frequent.

After the feast, even the Chihuahuas were exhausted.

After the feast, even the Chihuahuas were exhausted.

Like I said, Ben, who often squeezes 25 hours of ice fishing into his 24-hour vacation days, brought the North Dakota walleye and sauger. And the feast was just that, a combination of steamed crab from the Pacific Northwest and North Dakota freshwater fish, fried up on the spot to absolute perfection. Aunt Chris provided a homemade fudge and ice cream desert, something she learned from her mother. Heritage dinners are real, and they often involve statements such as, “My mother used to make this.” I thought about that, and how the Sunday evening meal created a memory we could someday look back on 20 years from now.

Note: Twenty-four hours later, a March 31-April 1 blizzard is going full tilt. I just wanted to document it all. Here’s a video short of Matt Trefz offering a balanced assessment of Dungeness crab.

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

01/15/2014

Memory Groups

By Aaron Barth

It’s closing in on 7:28AM as I type, and I thought I’d do a quick recap of this last week. Just yesterday evening on my walk home from NDSU campus, I was thinking how much more exciting blog posts on exploding trains are in contrast to posts about napping. Yet when it comes down to it, and if I’d have a choice, I’d rather read up on nap studies than exploding trains, since the former — naps — are much more likely to affect and influence a larger cross-section of society than, say, oil trains that explode near Casselton, North Dakota. Both are important. But I tend to enjoy figuring out how to find and make the otherwise mundane and boring (naps, or even a German-Russian homestead) interesting than focusing on the also important mushroom clouds rising up out of the northern Great Plains winter prairiescape.

Anyhow, I just confirmed a couple lecture-talks this semester at universities within the region, and these talks will build off published research on, broadly speaking, how and why the US-Dakota Wars have been remembered for the last 150 years in the Dakotas and Minnesota. I’m perpetually fascinated by this topic of memory. I suppose one reason is that by looking at how and why groups remember an event is just as informative as the actual event itself. And maybe even more. By studying these groups, we’re able to unpack the cultural, social and political set of ethos that various memory groups brought to bear on the interpretation of historical events.

These groups, in turn, are responsible for advancing the general topics in history that we know today. There is, for another example, the world historical event of the Second World War. But there are also the memory groups — in this case led by Tom Brokaw (also from South Dakota), Tom Hanks, and the late Stephen Ambrose — who study, popularize, and consider America’s involvement in the Second World War. These memory groups have reasons for studying what they study, and I want know the philosophy and technics behind it — the why and the how.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

12/22/2013

Thoughts On David Blight’s Race and Reunion

By Aaron Barth

A view this morning of I-29 between Fargo and Grand Forks.

A view this morning of I-29 between Fargo and Grand Forks.

This morning Molly and I drove north from Fargo to Grand Forks, and now we’re waiting at the GF Byron L. Dorgan International Airport to board our flight to lovely Las Vegas, Nevada. I got family in Vegas, so that’s where we’re setting up for the holidays.

While we wait for our flight, I’ve been revisiting David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard University Press, 2001). As the title suggests, Blight looks at how aspects of the Civil War were and were not remembered in the post-Civil War era from 1865 to 1915. At the turn of the 19th century, as the self-fulfilled WASP theory of Social Darwinian thinking — also known as racism — gripped many political leaders, old Union and Confederate veterans tried to find a “happy ending” to the divisive Civil War. To do this, they decided to talk about a lot of the Civil War, but they decided not to talk about emancipation and race. They certainly turned away from memorializing it in icon and statue. In chapter 10 of this work, Blight turns out attention toward the 1897 monument dedicated to the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth. This all-black regiment was commanded by Robert Gould Shaw, a Boston Brahmin. In the context of Civil War memorials, at least in the eastern 1/3 or 1/2 of the United States, Blight says,

The Shaw Memorial was (and still is) different… the Shaw Memorial moved people emotionally. The events it commemorated compelled viewers to acknowledge that wars have meanings that go beyond manly valor. Saint-Gaudens’s relief forced the thoughtful citizen to ask how a struggle in the 1860s between white Northerners and Southerners over conflicting conceptions of the future became a struggle for blacks over whether they had any future in America at all. The monument also asserts with majestic anguish that in the nation founded by the Declaration of Independence, black men had to die by the thousands in battle or of disease in order to be recognized as men, much less as citizens. 

I think about this quite a bit. At least since 2009, I’ve been absorbed by how that same Union army carried out punitive campaigns against the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota, and how these campaigns have been remembered in regional and national history. So those are my thoughts for now. Back to the book. And back to waiting to board our flight. Happy Christmas all.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Uncategorized