Tag: Fargo (page 3 of 3)

Downtown Gentrification, the Good, the Bad, and the Unaffordable

December 15, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Artists face difficulties as Fargo’s Downtown grows 

By C.S. Hagen 
FARGO – The art trade in Fargo is a cutthroat business. Photographers, painters, potters struggling for local sales are now also fighting for spaces in the downtown area.

Recognized by many as the cultural avant-garde of downtown’s awakening and current revitalization programs, some artists are being forced out, others are fearful of what future gentrification programs will bring.

Change doesn’t come without casualties, artists recognize, they’re simply asking not to be forgotten. The city has answered, but artists aren’t sure it’s enough. They describe a Cartesian Circle of artists bringing life back into rundown blocks, which spark investments, which then raises rents effectively kicking them out to start over again in a space they can afford.

Fargo’s downtown, once filled with brownstones and brick and mortar, grocery stores, taverns, and a sprinkling of brothels, fell prey to fires over the centuries and received a near-lethal blow during urban renewal programs of the 1950s. City policy makers offered incentives to landlords to tear down old buildings to pave parking lots, Kilbourne Group General Manager Mike Allmendinger said. And the mass exodus to the suburbs began.

It was a time many in Fargo wish never happened.

Now, as city investors and entrepreneurs turn their eyes once more to city center, rents are increasing.

“It happens in the Renaissance Zone, we’ve had buildings downtown go from a total of USD 150 million to over USD 600 million right now,” Mayor Tim Mahoney said. “It’s almost by association that we have that going on. The problem that we have is buildings in the center core that have not had a lot of changes or any money put into them, and they want to take a higher rent, and yet they haven’t improved the building in any way.”

He’s in the process of figuring out spaces where lower income rental spaces can be made available. One suggestion was to move across the Red River into Moorhead, but it doesn’t have the space, Mahoney said.

“We’re one of the top ten cities in the United States, and the arts is a very critical part of that,” Mahoney said. “You have to have things that interest people. It’s not the big chain stores. More often than not it’s the smaller shops and stores for people to look at. That’s what keeps us viable. We’re going to try and do that.”

The Downtown Study, an evaluation Fargo paid USD 400,000 to conduct and will be finished early 2017, will help redefine what the downtown area should be in the future, including issues of retail, parking, and housing for peoples of all incomes, Mahoney said.

Mahoney spoke of one instance where a Microsoft employee was on the verge of leaving Fargo, until the individual moved downtown. The healthy interaction with different people and the downtown improvements helped make him stay, Mahoney said.

“He hated Fargo before, now he loves it,” Mahoney said.

Fargo’s City Deputy Assessor Rob Harshberger said the practice of landlords increasing rents because adjacent buildings have increased in value is inescapable and normal, and there’s little his department can do about the situation.

 

Meg Spielman-Peldo

In recent years downtown areas across the country have demonstrated renewed interest as social and cultural centers vital to a city’s healthy growth. Meg Spielman-Peldo, a Fargo artist, potter, and photographer who focuses on newborns, children, and weddings, shares the space along with other artists next door to the Red Raven espresso bar on Main Street, and although she has just signed a new lease, she worries gentrification will catch up to her.

“For one thing, the city is assessing buildings to standards of newly remodeled buildings when they’re not,” Spielman-Peldo said. “They’re basing their assessments on costs per square feet, when my building is not anywhere near the level of a Kilbourne building. If the rent goes up, I will have to give it up. We would have to get rid of one studio, and that would probably mean we would lose one of our photographers, at least.”

For her current lease, her landlord didn’t raise her rent. “I’m really fortunate, but it’s not going to stay that way.”

The building where her 3,300 square foot studios are located have character, but also have issues. In some places the floor is uneven. “It’s a nice, old building, but the bathroom is in the furnace room. It’s very beneficial to have other people to talk with. It’s really great to walk down the hall and have a conversation. It’s nice.”

To prepare for the future, she has looked at other downtown locations, but the rents are ridiculous, she said. Gentrification has sent rents into orbit, even if a building has not undergone renovations.

“I value what Kilbourne has done downtown, and they’ve heard us talking about this, and are doing what they can,” Spielman-Peldo said. “It’s unfortunate, and I know it happens in cities and everywhere, but just because gentrification is happening everywhere else doesn’t mean that it has to happen here.”

 

Kevin Taylor

Art runs in Kevin Taylor’s family. He’s a photographer who has recently stopped renting in downtown Fargo and purchased an old grocery store built in the 1920s a few blocks north. His son is a ceramic artist, who digs his clay from the Red River banks.

Photographer Kevin Taylor in his studio displaying an old Polaroid camera – photo by C.S. Hagen

Before his purchase Taylor weighed the pros and cons. Rent had just gone up at his photography studio Taylor Made Photography near NP Avenue, and because he works full time, his chosen career demanded he make a tough decision: leave or stay.

“It is important to have an office and storefront so you can walk in and really see the work and the place,” Taylor said. Old cameras hung from the walls. His studio is well lit with natural light streaming from two large windows at the front.

Taylor Made Photography on 10th Street North was originally built as a grocery store in the 1930s. He tore up three layers of old linoleum to rediscover the floor is made from maple; ripped out a drop ceiling and found extra space.

Taylor and the photography business have both changed since the invention of iPhones and digital cameras, he said, and the price for photography services has gone up. Before digital photography, Taylor was a self-described “gigantic nerd” sporting a ponytail and wearing a photographer’s vest filled with rolls of film, light meters, and filters. Twenty years ago he charged between USD 800 and 1,000 to shoot a wedding, now, he can’t charge less than USD 2,000. He once used television and radio advertisements to find customers, today, he relies on word of mouth and referrals for business.

The rise of digital photography in all its forms has heralded a rapid rise of “hobbyists,” or people with little training and others who do not need to work full time, Taylor said.

“To tell the story you have to have experience,” Taylor said. “Anyone can put pictures up on a website and say ‘Hey, look at me.’ When I started in town there was probably a dozen studios, now you can’t tell the difference between a hobbyist and a professional.” The difference though, is enormous, and most people can see the hobbyist’s facade. He finds light in all his frames, focuses on time efficiency and learned documentation for weddings, which make up a large portion of his business.

“I have to make a living, and I have to price accordingly,” Taylor said. His studio is grandfathered into North Fargo’s residential district as a commercial building, he said, which is an idea he hopes city leaders plan for in the future. The downtown area should expand, mixing residences and commercial areas.

“We looked at places on Broadway, and it was really apparent really quickly that it wasn’t going to work,” Taylor said. “All over downtown there are empty buildings.”

His old studio wasn’t the perfect working place for him, it was narrow, and was once a simple storage area. “It was literally the only place that worked for me downtown because it was all we could afford.”

Now that his studio is only half a block from Broadway, he still considers the area as a part of downtown. “I love walking downtown, I love living near downtown, it’s really my favorite part of Fargo, so I wanted to be here, and I didn’t want to be in a strip mall. I would rather operate out of my home than in a strip mall.”

 

Steve Revland

Former owners of the Uptown Gallery, Steve Revland and Maren Day Woods, left their South Broadway studio due to burdening overhead costs in April 2016. They chose the old Goodyear Tire building further north on Broadway to open the Revland Gallery, a “pop-up” studio and in September initiated the START Project, an arts program designed to help students find confidence in their art.

The name START is a play on the words, combining student and art, Woods said. The gallery won’t last long. The Kilbourne Group, the biggest revitalization company involved in downtown gentrification work, plans to tear the building down this upcoming spring, making room for tiered “Dakota skyscrapers.”

Steve Revland talks about the START Project at his studio on Broadway called – photo by C.S. Hagen

“We wanted this to be the first place where they sold their work,” Woods, the gallery’s executive director, said. The idea isn’t lucrative, but it isn’t about the money. “We want them to feel the galleries are approachable, and they’re good enough. We’re trying to build confidence.”

New artists entering the Fargo art scene can feel intimidated, Woods said. Students chosen to participate in the START program currently have their pieces displayed outside the building, and their works will be auctioned off at a later date.

Revland’s formative years as an artist were bittersweet; he survived on microwaved Prego and pasta, drank beer by the case, had a penchant for marijuana. He traded his first handcrafted chair for a root canal.

Revland’s favorite medium is wood – curly sequoia – from which he designs tables, vases, and at one time chairs. Surprisingly, Revland flunked woodworking class twice in high school. He began work as a musician, singing and strumming 30 songs a night, but as a soloist his performances demanded perfection, and he grew weary of the stress. He bought a book on building birdhouses, which piqued his interest into woodworking.

Like Fargo’s young artists today, Revland, now 64, said his early years were not without challenges.

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard of a complaint, I’d have about five dollars,” Revland said. He’s not an engineer, but a businessman who happens to be an artist, and knew from a young age that he would have to blaze his own trail.

Fargo’s downtown renewal projects have already forced him to move once, and although he walked eyes wide open into the Goodyear Tire building site, if he cannot find a third gallery next year in the downtown area his storefront may go digital, or he’ll work from his home in North Fargo.

Currently, art sales are down, Revland said. Although his rent has gone down from more than USD 7,000 to less than USD 2,000 per month, business is tough.

Lack of adequate support for local artists drive many by necessity into commercial trinkets, or daytime jobs.

 

James Wolberg

Roberts Street Studio on North Broadway is an artist’s dream, smells of fresh paints and wet clay. The 2,000-square-foot studio’s floor is cracked cement. Paintings, ceramic hands, years of artwork are piled high to the studio’s lofty ceiling. It’s warmed by a wood fire stove, is unfettered by creature comforts. A peacock decorates the front entrance.

“It’ s not guaranteed, it’s a lot of stress,” James Wolberg, one of the owners, said. “Everybody is like ‘if only I could make art all day and make my living off of that, it would be so relaxing. Life would be great.’ Even if you go to school for whatever it is, it’s a creative craft or art, and you’re not required to take any marketing classes, and then they kick you out into the real world. Then you go get an application for Starbucks.”

James Wolberg, long time ceramic artist in Downtown Roberts Street Studio – photo by C.S. Hagen

Wolberg’s day job is as a studio manager for the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center at Plains Art Museum. He enjoys the work, considers himself fortunate, but to pay costs at his studio he makes sinks for companies, coffee cups for Christmas presents. A lone concrete sculpture stands behind him – a work in progress he sculpts when he has the time. Fargo is not a city that can fulfill an accomplished artist’s dreams, but it’s not entirely impossible either, he said.

Ten years ago, Wolberg used to run the Upfront Gallery, where the gold exchange currently is. It was an experimental gallery where artists displayed everything from erotica to pottery.

“We made quite a bit of noise, but it’s expensive. Everybody also needed to be doing their own jobs as well as making their art.”

After five years, he shut the gallery down.

He pays approximately USD 1,300 for rent and utilities he said, which is fair, and split between the artists working inside. He’s safe, for now, nobody is looking to purchase the building as he says most investors want historical buildings.

“A lot of them that have been taken over were fairly dilapidated and not taken care of by their previous owners.”

Some buildings downtown used to be considered nightmares, he said, like the Black Building.

“I think it’s necessary if we want to maintain the historical presence of the structures, which I think it brings enormous character to the place. But once you put a lot of money into a building, they’re not just out for to fix buildings and make things nicer, they’re also out to make money. Obviously, it’s a business. Can’t throw a bunch of money into fixing a building and not expect rents to jump.

“It’s jumping to a place where a lot of people cannot afford the place they’ve always inhabited.”

At a projected price of USD 25 per square foot per year, Wolberg says the price is insanity.

The downtown area is the cultural and musical scene of the city. With the exception of missing a grocery store, most amenities can be found in the downtown area. Aesthetically, the area is pleasing; making new friends is easy.

In the suburbs, most people stay in their “boxes” and shop at chain stores, he said, but not downtown residents. Since his studio’s inception 10 years ago, Wolberg has seen huge changes to the area.

As a ceramic artist, Wolberg’s needs aren’t cheap. He needs 220v electricity to run his ovens, vacuum chambers, and space to store his supplies.

Fargo’s market depends on the medium, Wolberg said. Usually, the arts are the first to go when a city is experiencing difficulties, especially during election years. The price point for doing business is directly related to size and price.

“We’re doing okay. The smaller items are doing well, but larger paintings and such are really difficult to place.”

Most galleries in Fargo don’t charge for an exhibit. Artists receive a portion of the sales and a commission or show fee goes toward the studio. He doesn’t depend on social media for advertising, and his website is “lame,” he said.

“It’s good to see this in a way, because it is driving in people who can afford luxurious items, if you can afford a USD 250,000 condo in the sky, you can probably afford to furnish it, and spread the money around a little bit. It’s good to see the money coming in, but it also it raises everybody’s rent. I think what has happened in a lot of different communities is that it ends up pushing the artists in different directions. Maybe it’s got to be the industrial district next.

“That’s the whole reason a lot of these downtowns get their flavor back, because it’s been rundown for years and years and years, the rents are cheap, they don’t care about the buildings, you can do anything to them you want.”

If his rent increases beyond his price range, he will have to “roll with the punches.” He would look into an industrial building, he said.  

 

Dawn Morgan

Never judge a book by its cover or a storefront by its original red wood door, or so the ancient sages say. The Spirit Room in the middle of downtown on Broadway is a labyrinth for yoga, meditation, line-dancing, ballroom dancing, and cozy, individual studios rented by local artists.

Dawn Morgan, the owner, said the building was vacant for 30 years before she moved into it; a city rule would not allow upper floors to be rented if the company did not have proper access to the first floor, she said.

The Spirit Room owner Dawn Morgan talks about the arts in downtown Fargo – photo by C.S. Hagen

Built in 1904 as a general merchandise store by the Hancock Brothers, it was also home to photography studios and architects, and was “too far gone” by the time Morgan rented it approximately 20 years ago. She’s fixed the place up, expanded, and renovated the additions, and has kept a close eye on Fargo’s growth over the years.

“Everybody knew each other in those days,” Morgan said. “The city was big enough where you didn’t know everybody, but you knew families. When you come to downtown Fargo talking about that [gentrification], there’s a lot of interaction of people who know a lot about downtown Fargo. There’s a long history of almost like a large family, extended family, in downtown Fargo,” she said.

Locals want the family traditions to continue, which can differ from the corporate blueprints, she said.

“The gentrification can be one part, but it cannot be the whole. The whole belongs to the people.”

She has been involved in focus groups for years offering suggestions to the city for what the Fargo’s downtown should be like. Places like the Plains Art Museum, the Fargo Theater, Theater B, and the Spirit Room are now household names, and have been vital to downtown’s growth, she said. Downtown should be a place for rich and poor, for artists and businesses, for singles and for families.

“How can we weave this all together?” Morgan said. “It’s like an intricate fabric.”

Although downtown has improved in the last 10 years, there still isn’t enough change yet. Why would someone want to build a million-dollar condo for a view of the sugar beat plant? Morgan said. “There is a misconception about what downtown Fargo is, and what it wants to be. With the developers that are coming in, we want to make sure they’re included in the view with the people who are here and have been here and what they want for their downtown.

“It isn’t right that one group of people should have an overwhelming say in what happens. I like to think the downtown as being a hologram of all these luminesce being interacting with each other, and that one individual isn’t better than another.”

Morgan is a self-described project oriented person, and guides her non-profit company through creativity and determination. Times have not always been easy, but entrepreneurs find a way, she said. For the first eight years of business she didn’t pay herself. She works on projects ranging from Sanford’s cancer patients to nationally organized “Listening Room” performances. Art bedecks her walls as well, but her company’s survival doesn’t depend on the sales.

“Don’t be dependent on one single thing – diversify,” Morgan said. “It’s challenging to figure out how to make it all work, and really important to the long-term vibrancy of downtown Fargo.”

 

The Kilbourne Group and the Arts Foundation

The Kilbourne Group, founded by Governor-elect Doug Burgum, cut its chops on the Renaissance Hall, a building was once slated for demolition, Allmendinger said. The company’s dream is “vibrant downtowns create smart, healthy cities,” and so far, it is only investing in downtown Fargo.

Urban renewal programs were still in effect in the 21st century, Allmendinger said. “Believe it or not as late as 13 years ago there were still buildings being torn down,” he said. “The attitude was for these downtowns to remain viable was that they needed surface parking lots to sustain them.”

Art Partnership Executive Director Dayna Del Val in the APT building – photo by C.S. Hagen

Old saloons and buildings along both sides of the Red River, brick houses surrounding city hall, and even where the Frying Pan family restaurant currently is were bulldozed to make room for development, Allmendinger said.

“Today that would never happen. Ten years ago when the Kilbourne Group was starting out nobody else was involved because it was considered too risky. Now we get excited when Broadway, our seven blocks of it, tells a story along the way.”

During the company’s research into downtown’s history, they’ve discovered interesting stories behind the sites. The building where Halberstadt’s Men’s Clothiers now stands, was destroyed by fire in the late 1960s when a devious previous owner burned the building down to escape an inventory check.

“We certainly feel that the best impact we can have in this region is to focus on projects in downtown Fargo.” Such as the Renaissance Hall, the old Woodrow Wilson School, the Roberts Street site, the area surrounding the Goodyear Tire building, the old MEPS building, and more. The company’s project on Roberts Street is built on land that was once the Columbine Hotel, then turned into Carnegie Library, which was torn down in the 1970s due to urban renewal programs. During excavation, the company discovered six fuel tanks buried in the ground, and other treasures, such as soap dishes, teacups, and cigarettes wrapped in a cigar box.

“We start off from a spot that we value and recognize that having a diversity of people living and working in downtown Fargo is really important to long-term vibrancy,” Allmendinger said. Community planning began more than 20 years ago, he said, when the downtown area was falling apart, both physically and financially. The average price for commercial areas per square foot will rise from an average of USD 10 to approximately USD 20 per year, he said.

The building, when finished, will be more than a parking ramp; it will offer affordable apartments and commercial storefronts as well.

“Broadway is the downtown for Fargo, and there are many different groups of people that want to have experiences down here. Those experiences may be living, working, retail, food and beverage, parades, community gatherings… when we think about projects and renovation of them, we must think about who wants to be down here.

“Artists are a group that are experiencing changes down here, we do recognize that. We’re looking for ways to partner with other organizations to find solutions to have spaces down here and be an active part of downtown Fargo.”

The Arts Partnership, a non-profit organization and an advocate for arts and culture, is one company the Kilbourne Group has partnered with to help local artists.

“The Arts Partnership is collaborating on a demonstration art incubation space with the Kilbourne Group for two years to just see what happens when we create a collective of makers and creators in one space,” Art Partnership Executive Director Dayna Del Val said.

The Kilbourne Group recently purchased the old MEPS building for the experiment. No longer a site for military enlistment tests or urine samples, the building will be known as APT, which is short for “the idea of being able, and coming together, and having an aptitude for something,” Del Val said.

Prices vary from $137.50 to $350 per space per month, which will range from approximately 200 square feet to 500 square feet spaces, Del Val said. Larger rooms will be available for galleries or small-scale performances, she said.

“Artists create the culture that make us want to live where we live. They’re just a really important part of the economic and cultural piece that makes a community valuable. Mostly people can choose where they want to live today, and the arts are often what make anybody decide to either stay in a community or move to a community.”

In two years the building will be torn down, but depending on the success of the experiment, Del Val and Allmendinger may have an idea for the future.

“Our hope is that this is so successful that we’ll have a permanent home two years from now,” Del Val said.

Wolberg said the experiment is needed, but might not be enough for local artists.

“It’s kind of an experiment to see what you can do with a multi-use building,” Wolberg said. “It’s a cool large maze of areas, which can be split up into nice-sized studio spaces.”

“Their idea was you can come in and rent this space and we’ll give you two years, you can do whatever you want with this space. It’s not bad if you think about it from certain perspectives, but if you think about it from a perspective where a lot of people practicing artwork, it could be out of range for a lot of people. Unless you have a really good professional job, or you’re working a normal labor job, that’s like a 150 bucks for a tiny little room. If you have to invest in infrastructure, it gets complicated.

“There is a lot of excitement about that development, but what they ended up doing was bringing their price down.”

If the downtown revitalization programs stumble, Taylor’s worried that chain stores will walk in offering twice the price for commercial spaces. “That was one of the choices we had to make. We could be in this prestigious building so you could charge more or you don’t have to charge more. Wedding photography is expensive, it costs a lot of money to be in this business. I’m not a wealthy guy by any stretch of the imagination, and if you double my rent, I will have to double my prices. And I don’t want to do that.”

Taylor also hopes downtown planners will cater to local entrepreneurs and small businessmen, and not chain stores like Walmart or Starbucks. Allmendinger agrees.

“The more projects there are in downtown Fargo, the less the rents will increase,” Allmendinger said.

Taylor believes in supporting local artists, no matter the cost. A coffee mug might be more expensive than a cup made in China and sold at Targets, but the extra spent is valuable, not only to the artists, but to the spirit.

“It’s an important part of my life and makes my life more whole and more complete. At a certain point in time – we’re fortunate people and we all live in a beautiful city with beautiful things – and after you get to the point where you’re feeding yourself, you find your soul. That’s what art does for me: it fills in a gap where you can put things of beauty in your life.”

Revland Gallery, slated for demolotion in 2017 – photo by C.S. Hagen

 

 

Fargo Wants Peace, State Wants More Help, Energy Transfer Partners Will Carry On

December 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

As Veterans for Standing Rock bow in an apology to Native Americans, Energy Transfer Partners said their plans will not be changed

By C.S. Hagen 
FARGO – Fargo city leaders asked the state for a peaceful resolution Monday, while veterans from across the nation apologized for colonialist behavior, bowing before Native Americans in Standing Rock.

Energy Transfer Partners reported it didn’t care what the US Army Corps of Engineers said. The Dakota Access Pipeline will carry on.

More than 2,000 veterans travelled to Standing Rock over the weekend, according to Veterans for Standing Rock’s Facebook page. Their arrival assisted Standing Rock and the tribe’s supporters in its fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to activists, and an apology made by the veterans to Native Americans helped heal old wounds.

Veterans asking for forgiveness in a ceremony led Wesley Clark Jr. and Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Faith Spotted Eagle, Chief Leonard Crow Dog, Phyllis Young, and Ivan Looking Horse, among others. Wesley Clark Jr. is in front - photo provided by Redhawk

In a ceremony led by Wesley Clark Jr. asking forgiveness for atrocities committed on behalf of the US military to Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Faith Spotted Eagle, Chief Leonard Crow Dog, Phyllis Young, and Ivan Looking Horse, among others. Wesley Clark Jr. is in front – photo provided by Redhawk

“We came, we fought you, we took your land,” Wesley Clark Jr., son of retired General Wesley Clark Sr., said. Clark Jr. is one of the organizers of the Veterans for Standing Rock. “We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faces of our presidents onto your sacred mountain… and then we took your children, we tried to take your language. We didn’t respect you. We polluted your earth. We hurt you in so many ways, and we’ve come to say we are sorry. We are at your service.”

The group then took a knee, bowing before Native Americans. Some kneeling choked back sobs. The hall was silent when Chief Leonard Crow Dog placed a hand on top of Clark’s head, saying all was forgiven.

“World peace,” Crow Dog said. “We will take a step, we are Lakota sovereign nation. We were a nation and we’re still a nation. We have our language to speak. We have preserved the caretaker position. We do not own the land. The land owns us.”

According to some estimates more than 12,000 people are currently at Oceti Sakowin, or in nearby shelters as the second snow storm in as many weeks hit the area.

Dr. Cornel West at Standing Rock. West is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, author, public intellectual, and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America - photo by C.S. Hagen

Dr. Cornel West at Standing Rock. West is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, author, public intellectual, and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America – photo by C.S. Hagen

On Monday, one person was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after he allegedly crossed Backwater Bridge. The arrest total is now 566, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

“This is the kind of stuff that re-escalates things, and then he brings the attitude right along with it,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said. Laney has been working as operations chief for Morton County since August.

Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics said the decision made by the US Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday to reject the easement proposal for crossing the Missouri River at Lake Oahe was a “purely political action.

“For more than three years now, Dakota Access Pipeline has done nothing but play by the rules,” a press release made available by Energy Transfer Partners reported. “The White House’s directive to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.

“As stated all along, [we] are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this administration has done today changes that in any way.”

Politicians around the Peace Garden State echoed Energy Transfer Partners condemnation. Few congratulated Standing Rock on its win.

Congressman Kevin Cramer R-ND., called President Obama lawless.

Morton County Chairman Cody Schulz hopes the federal government sends in troops to clear out the camps after President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.

Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley, a frequent naysayer against Standing Rock and its supporters has also spoken on radio shows such as the Flag and on Rob Port’s SayAnything blog damning the protests and reporting activists have nobody to blame but themselves for injuries or hardship.

Wrigley dropped hints to the Fargo City Commissioners on Monday that Morton County still needed Fargo’s police support against No DAPL activities.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, it is not a protest,” Wrigley said. Assaults on police, illegal activities, illegal camping on lands owned by the Army Corps do not constitute a protest, he said. “The protest has now gone up to about 7,000 people, the state of the situation remains very tense, and I don’t see it being resolved anytime soon.

“Nobody wants there to be a humanitarian disaster out there. They’re in tents, in yurts… It’s cold, it’s snowing.”

Allegations against excessive use of force by law enforcement, are only on social media have not been substantiated, Wrigley said. He made no reference to the dozens of lawsuits filed by the Lawyer’s Guild Mass Defense Committee and other law firms. All reports of activists injured have not been substantiated, Wrigley said. He praised law enforcement for holding their ground.

“Law and order has to be maintained,” Wrigley said. “There have been more than 500 arrests, the reason there are not four times that amount of arrests is that we are so outnumbered. We have a 3.8 billion dollar infrastructure project, and it is critical, not only to our economy, but to our way of life.”

Fargo Police Chief David Todd said all city police officers are now home in Fargo.

“Before we send out any more assistance we’re going to see how the decision [Army Corps easement denial] plays out,” Todd said.

At no time during confrontations did Fargo police, the state’s largest police force, use pepper spray, rubber bullets, or water cannons on activists, Todd said.

Fargo Police Chief David Todd speaking before mayor and city commissioners about Fargo Police involvement in No DAPL controversy in Morton County - photo by C.S. Hagen

Fargo Police Chief David Todd and Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley speaking before mayor and city commissioners about Fargo’s involvement in No DAPL controversy in Morton County – photo by C.S. Hagen

Morton County asked every department and police chief in the Peace Garden State for help, Todd said, and nearly every department responded.

Every Fargo police officer who went to Morton County volunteered to go, Todd said. “I did not force anyone to go. I have been to Morton County twice… and at times I’ve stood with them on the line as the protests occurred. Many of the protesters are peaceful, and we have supported their First Amendment rights.”

Todd also asked Wrigley for prompt reimbursement of Fargo’s costs during the controversy.

Few voices spoke in defense of the Native Americans: City Commissioner John Strand was one.

“We are very proud of our law enforcement here in town,” Strand said. He is in his third year on the Native American Commission, and said to his knowledge, he knows of no one who advocates violence against police. “The folks I know do not endorse or support unlawful behavior. They stand in prayer and they stand peacefully. To my knowledge it is as spiritual as it is anything else.”

He didn’t divulge into the politics behind the project, but said the public deserves transparency, Fargo police deserved honor and respect, as well as Native Americans. He asked members of the Native American Commission to stand, and he thanked them. A round of applause filled the city commissioners’ room.

“I join in thanking the law enforcement and thanking the Native American leadership for being Americans, and participating, and being engaged, and standing for what you believe in, and for advocating for peace for prayer, and advocating for a higher consciousness for all of us as we move through this.

“I am an eternal optimist – that we will come out of this better for it. There will be an opportunity after this is all done to step up our relationship with our native communities and with each other.”

Mayor Tim Mahoney agreed, saying that Fargo would support peaceful means in the future.

“We on the commission support the fact that we have a strong Native American Commission, and we listen to them, we listen to their thoughts, and we listen to any of their suggestions in our community,” Mahoney told Wrigley. “We know that you and the governor have a tough task before you, we’re all concerned that somebody might get hurt.”

More than 7,000 people against North Dakota’s forces is “just asking for a disaster,” Mahoney said.

“If there’s some way we can help with a resolution, we would be happy to do that. We would like a peaceful resolution, and we will support that 100 percent.”

 

Chairman of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council Russel Stabler during press conference - photo by C.S. Hagen

North Dakota Veterans Oppose Veterans for Standing Rock

December 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Chairman says law enforcement and locals are victims, hopes to influence nationwide veterans movement

By C.S. Hagen
FARGO – As thousands of US veterans prepare to converge on Standing Rock, North Dakota Veterans took a step back.

They’re remaining neutral. Their stance nationally is not popular, Chairman of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council Russel Stabler said during a press conference. And they’re adamantly opposed to any North Dakota veteran joining Veterans for Standing Rock movement set to arrive on December 4. The North Dakota Veterans organization also refuses to take a stance on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“The one thing we’ve fought for all our lives is the right for someone to have an opinion, and we do not want to step on anyone’s rights,” Stabler said. “We’re not standing in support of either side, everyone has the right to protest peacefully and not to attack law enforcement,”

Chairman of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council Russel Stabler during press conference - photo by C.S. Hagen

Chairman of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council Russel Stabler during press conference – photo by C.S. Hagen

Bolstered with a total membership of approximately 60,000, the North Dakota Veterans organization said DAPL protesters have cost the state USD 10 million, and wreaked millions of dollars in damages to vehicles, equipment, property, and livestock owned by private corporations, citizens, family farms, and government agencies.

“Slaughtering livestock, throwing Molotov cocktails, and assaulting law enforcement officers is not the military manner in which our veterans behave and not the kind of assembly and actions veterans should be a part of,” Stabler said.

North Dakota Stockmen’s Association Executive Vice President Julie Ellingson said several cases involving stolen cows and butchered buffalo are still under investigation, and the agency is still accepting tips, and offering a reward up to USD 14,000 for information that leads to arrest and conviction.

Attorney Chase Iron Eyes, who ran for Congress this year, said media and law enforcement agencies are misinforming many across the state. “They are trying to instill fear, confusion, and doubt,” Iron Eyes said. “We are the new Ghost Dancers, only this time others of all origins are in this vision with us.”

Since the beginning, tribal leaders have called for prayers and peace. More than 130 charges against the 561 arrested have already been dropped by Morton County, according to court records. Some charges have been combined and changed from misdemeanors to felonies; one case has gone federal.

“Natives are peaceful and passive right now because of a very deliberate process of de-arming us, destroying our economy, imposing poverty cultures and values to turn us into begging dependents, forcefully colonizing us via boarding school, spiritual invasion, emasculation, and capturing methods,” Iron Eyes said. “Our natural state as human being is to be liberated; it’s not to be passive. Peace requires action.”

Approximately 2,500 veterans plan to arrive at Standing Rock December 4, according to Michael A. Woods Jr., an organizer for Veterans for Standing Rock. They are coming to take a stand against what they call police militarized aggression. There are thousands more who want to come to Standing Rock, but finances, which have come in the form of donations now exceeding USD 250,000, will limit the numbers, Woods said. The organization’s goal is to reach USD 500,000 in donations.

“If the cops there want to be state sanctioned agents to brutally beat non-violent veterans that have served their country honorably, if they’re going to beat us, then that should be the signal to the rest of the world what our country is doing,” Woods said.

The North Dakota Veterans would prefer out-of-state veterans didn’t come at all, Stabler said.

“We don’t need that many coming, and as we said, putting disrespect on veterans, because as a veteran they have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and to fight against all enemies foreign and domestic,” Stabler said. “I for one, and these gentlemen behind me, will not violate that oath.

“We’re hoping to influence them… and everything, and hope that if they do come they will be respectful. If not, we want it understood, these are not North Dakota veterans, and they do not represent the veterans of North Dakota, and we are encouraging all of our people not to go out there.

“Please don’t punish the North Dakota veteran for what someone from outside this state does.” 

The Veterans for Standing Rock organization is proud to be standing with Standing Rock. “We are a support mission,” Woods said. “We’re there to protect the water protectors and to get in front of them. We are veterans, we are trained, we have resources, and we will be guided by the locals that know exactly what they’re doing.”

The stand could become a “battle of attrition,” Woods said. As a former police officer, Woods said law enforcement do not want to be out in the cold, and a battle of “who wants it more” could ensue.

“And I think we want it a hell of a lot more than the cops do.”

Logistics for the endeavor are massive, Woods said, but necessary. He is constantly reminding veterans to be respectful toward local culture, native traditions, and to remember that many natives also are veterans. Police, he added, are not to be considered enemies, as the Veterans for Standing Rock should not be considered an enemy of the state. Officers are simply caught up in a system directed by an “oligarchy” that writes their paychecks, and they should understand the organization’s goals.

“Native American people in this country have served at a higher percentage in the United States military than any group in this entire country,” Woods said. “The Navajo saved us through code talking and being able to pass intelligence around. If there was one group in this country that adequately and thoroughly represents the military it is the Native American people.”

Oceti Sakowin - wintry wonderland - photo by Terry Wiklund

Oceti Sakowin – wintry wonderland – photo by Terry Wiklund

The Peace Garden State and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have recently begun a type of modern siege against the camps outside of Standing Rock by first issuing emergency evacuation orders, then announcing anyone supplying Standing Rock with goods or equipment could face up to USD 1,000 in fines. Highway 1806, the main road leading to the camps and Cannonball, has been closed for weeks, increasing trip duration from Mandan by at least 30 minutes.

Both Governor Jack Dalrymple and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District Colonel John Henderson later backtracked their statements, saying law enforcement will not be shutting down any additional roads, or hunting out-of-state activists, but anyone left on Army Corps lands after December 5 may still be subject to arrest.

More than 95 percent of the pipeline in North Dakota is finished, Dalrymple said. The only part that remains is the section under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, and which Energy Transfer Partners, Dakota Access Pipeline’s parent company, lacks the easements for. On behalf of Energy Transfer Partners, North Dakota politicians have been increasing the pressure on President Obama’s administration and on the Army Corps for weeks in attempts to obtain the necessary permission.

“National Guard is mobilized, the governor keeps posturing, first responders are filling up Bismarck,” Iron Eyes said. “If the Army Corps grants this easement to drill under the river, it’s going to be unpredictable. December 5th draws neigh. It’s scary as hell, not going to lie. What’s scarier is watching your children die because we didn’t stop this pipeline.”

 

No DAPL National Day of Action: Thousands March Across USA, 29 Arrested in North Dakota

November 16, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Hundreds defy DAPL in Fargo, activists march on man camps in Mandan

By C.S. Hagen 
FARGO – From San Francisco to Washington D.C., Maine and Massachusetts to Arizona, Mandan to Fargo, tens of thousands of activists marched against the Dakota Access Pipeline on Tuesday in a nationwide call to action initiated by the Standing Rock Sioux.

The No DAPL National Day of Action was issued before a long-awaited victory for the Peace Garden State tribe and supporters when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers temporarily denied Energy Transfer Partners the rights to drill under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe on Monday. Energy Transfer Partners has less than one week to make good on its vow made approximately eight days ago to begin drilling under the river.

The leader behind the pipeline is confident that under President-elect Donald Trump his company will finish the job, according to an interview with Kelcy Warren on CBS This Morning last week. “We will get this easement and we will complete our project,” Warren said on CBS This Morning. Trump holds minor holdings in Energy Transfer Partners, and Warren invested USD 103,000 into Trump’s presidential campaign. Warren also stated in the CBS This Morning interview that it is naïve to think Standing Rock and the tribe’s supporters will stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, and that he is ready to reimburse the state of North Dakota for the millions various agencies have spent during the controversy.

Namarie Dansuri-Keating - "When I heard something was going on in Fargo, I was I am totally there"- photo by C.S. Hagen

Namarie Dansuri-Keating – “When I heard something was going on in Fargo, I was like I am totally there”- photo by C.S. Hagen

In between Fargo and Moorhead, the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group or MPIRG, organized a rally against the Dakota Access Pipeline over the Red River of the North on the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Approximately 200 people from both sides of the river joined the National Day of Action rally. Many waved banners saying “No DAPL” during rush hour traffic. Cars honked in response. Only a few pickup trucks revved their engines loudly while driving by.

Police officers did not order the activists from the bridge. No streets were cordoned off to the public. No tear gas or pepper spray was used. No rubber bullets were fired. During the 90-minute rally one police car drove past.

“One of these days I would like to see us fill the whole bridge,” Willard Yellowbird said. Yellowbird is a liaison for the Native American Commission and has traveled to Standing Rock before. He’s seen the front lines, and hopes one day the tribal flags and flags from across the world will come to the Peace Garden State’s largest city to support Standing Rock.

“Here we are, just a support group in a spiritual way,” Yellowbird said. “They’re the front line people, we’re here to support them through financing, through prayer, through energy.

“We send them all our strength and spirit and energy from here.”

Activists cheering on Veterans Memorial Bridge - photo by C.S. Hagen

Activists cheering on Veterans Memorial Bridge – photo by C.S. Hagen

Elizabeth Arroyo, from Moorhead, plans on visiting Standing Rock in December to assist a Nicaraguan group with translation work. She took a stand on Veterans Memorial Bridge because she’s worried about the native heritage and their sacred sites becoming rubble, she said.

“It’s the weak who always suffer,” Arroyo said. “America should be an example for the rest of the world to follow.”

Jonathan Taylor (right) and Adam Heckathorn hold up a sign during the National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock - photo by C.S. Hagen

Jonathan Taylor (right) and Adam Heckathorn hold up a sign during the National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock – photo by C.S. Hagen

Most people wanted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut DAPL down permanently, but they also realized if that wasn’t an option, a reroute should be considered. Some like musician and sportsman Iron Ike, hopes oil never flows through the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Everyone who gathered Tuesday evening was concerned about how the Native Americans and supporters are being treated.

“I’m just appalled at the level of unnecessary violence,” Adam Heckathorn, from Moorhead, said. “North Dakota really needs to make progress. This is what a third-world country does, and that’s what I see over there.

“If their complexion was a little paler, I doubt they would be shooting rubber bullets.” He helped friends hold up a cardboard sign that read, “Dalrymple spent $10M on DAPL Law Enforcement.”

“Look at us here today,” Heckathorn said. “Nobody is shooting at us.”

Namarie Dansuri-Keating and her friends follow the controversy in the news. Some think the pipeline should be rerouted; other friends want the pipeline gone for good, but all her friends, she said, believe Native Americans are being mistreated.

Activists on Veterans Memorial Bridge - photo by C.S. Hagen

Activists on Veterans Memorial Bridge – photo by C.S. Hagen

Two hundred miles away in Mandan a very different scene unfolded along the BNSF railroad track near an oil workers’ man camp. A group calling themselves the “Black Snake Killers” and other supporters carried a message to the camp: “No more stolen sisters.”

Activists spoke from megaphones, describing how the rise of man camps in western North Dakota have coincided with a parallel increase in meth addicts, crime, murder, and human trafficking on indigenous reservations.

Men took the front lines; women formed circles to sing and pray.

“We can’t have any more of our sacred women disappearing into these perverted man camps, all they care about is making money, satisfying themselves,” said Julie Richards, founder of Mothers Against Meth Alliance, or M.A.M.A. at Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

Her war pony, or car, has been smashed. Guns have been held to her head, she said, because of her work with M.A.M.A. Before an audience of hundreds, she spoke of days when the US Army sent smallpox into native tribes, and then quickly followed with trading liquor. She called it liquid genocide. Today, Native Americans are still threatened, but this time against methamphetamines. “Our reservations are a cash crop for these cartels,” she said. “Meth is poison. Chemical genocide. We will not put up with them anymore.”

Activist holding NODAPL umbrella - photo by C.S. Hagen

Activist holding NODAPL umbrella – photo by C.S. Hagen

Richards’ daughter became hooked on crystal meth three years ago, she said, and Richards has been fighting the cartels and drug distributors ever since. She started M.A.M.A. to help raise awareness, and as a support group for families suffering from similar circumstances.

Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s description of the scene differed from the activists’ message. Nearly 400 activists shut down the BNSF railroad by moving a pickup truck onto the tracks, then slashing its tires and placing brush under the vehicle.

“A rope attached to the vehicle was soaked in kerosene and protesters attempted to ignite the vehicle,” Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. “State troopers used an extinguisher on the rope to stop the fire.”

Activists hindered law enforcement from making arrests, Morton County Sheriff’s Department stated, which resulted in officers using less-than-lethal force.

Activists were shot with pepper spray, sponges, and beanbags, and one activist was shot with a Taser, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported. Law enforcement made 29 arrests in conjunction with the No DAPL National Day of Action. The total number of activists arrested is now 478, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

Iron Ike holding sign as sun sets - photo by C.S. Hagen

Iron Ike holding sign as sun sets – photo by C.S. Hagen

Other marches in North Dakota included a rally at the Morton County Law Enforcement Center. Additionally, 50 people marched on the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office, and another 100 people on the United Tribes Technical College, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.

One of the arrests occurred at Turtle Hill, a short distance north from Cannonball after an activist allegedly trespassed onto U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ land, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.

In Washington D.C., at the front doors of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters building, Standing Rock resident Ladonna Brave Bull Allard said her homeland is now a war zone. She talked of the injustices her family and others experience on a daily basis.

“The police officers who have pulled out of this engagement with Standing Rock, I honor them,” Allard said. She is the daughter of a police officer, and said the events she has witnessed at Standing Rock are not honorable. “Stereotypes are still predominant in America today. Why is that? We are all just human beings. We’re asking for a basic human right to protect the water… and we have a right to live. And so today, we ask the Army Corps to stand by that, who is supposed to be protecting the water, the people, the environment, we ask them to stand against Dakota Access Pipeline.”

Activists along Veterans Memorial Bridge cheer as cars honk horns - photo by C.S. Hagen

Activists along Veterans Memorial Bridge cheer as cars honk horns – photo by C.S. Hagen

Nothing to fear, but fear itself

May 27, 2016 / / 0 Comments

By C.S. Hagen 

FARGO – Under the shadow of KVLY’s towering signboard approximately 200 protestors rallied Sunday demanding a change of what they call the Fargo television station’s recent fear-mongering agenda.

It was the fourteenth of such broadcasts in as many months.

“These guys are spreading lies and creating animosity between the mainstream and ethnic communities,” Hukun Abdullahi, organizer of the rally said.

Hukun Abdullahi welcoming the protestors

Hukun Abdullahi welcoming the protestors. Photo by C.S. Hagen

Abdullahi, originally from Kenya, arrived in Fargo in 2014. He referred to a Valley News Live May 16, 2016 report entitled Could Kindness be Bad for Your Health, a controversial broadcast stating 22 percent of Fargo refugees are health risks and carry latent tuberculosis.

“What Valley News did is not acceptable,” Abdullahi said in his welcome speech. “They violated their basic journalism principles and any journalistic integrity – if they had any left – to go one step beyond to classify us as a vector for disease.

“We are not mosquitos. We are survivors with families and children, who fled violence, persecutions, wars, and death.”

The broadcast wasn’t the first time the local television station turned to fear-mongering tactics to boost its ratings, said Hamida Dakane, a co-organizer of the protest. In December 2015 the television station reported the story of an assault case in Mapleton when a Somali man named Abdulrahman Ali allegedly attempted to rape a gas station attendant in the bathroom while repeating the words “Allah Akbar,” or God is great. The television station later changed the story reporting that officers heard Ali say “Allah Akbar” before his arrest, according to a column written by Mike McFeely on Inforum.

“We condemn the Valley News attempt to target us, and their attempt of fear-mongering by framing us,” Abdullahi said. “We are no Trojan horses bringing disease or are a ticking bomb.

“We are here… to stand against a bully, and clarify that we are not the threat. News outlets like Valley News are the ones that are a threat to any community like ours, who would take advantage of their user base to spread false rumor, accusations, and promote xenophobia.

“We are better than this.”

The protest, which was peaceful, lasted from noon until 2 p.m., and brought nationalities from around the world. A verifiable melting pot of African-Americans, Caucasians, Asians, Middle Easterners, and Latin, joined together to demand fairness and change from the television station.

“This is about discrimination,” Harka Subba, an immigrant from Bhutan, said. “People have been here for two centuries before, but in the end we are all immigrants.” As president of the Bhutanese Community in Fargo, Subba said that until the television station’s broadcast he felt accepted by the Fargo community. Work has not been typically difficult to find. Many in the Bhutanese community have become entrepreneurs, and have created jobs, paid their taxes. Life in Fargo was good when compared to the Nepalese refugee camp in which he stayed in for eight years.

“I’m here to stand up for the rights of immigrants and for the truth,” Grace Mbuthia said. She is originally from Kenya. “What they’re doing separates people.”

All Fear wordsA protestor pointed to a Marine Corps billboard next to the television station. “For our Nation For Us All,” the billboard read.

“The way the news is working, we need to be sure that they try to get it right,” Fargo Deputy Mayor Mike Williams said. Amidst much cheering, Williams disputed the television station’s report calling it slanted. “This sensationalistic report that tuberculosis is out of the normal for our area just isn’t so.

“North Dakota has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis in the country, just over 1 percent of 100,000 population actually has active tuberculosis… but our health officials in Fargo, in Grand Forks, and in the state say it’s not an item that is not treatable.”

“Our community has become more diverse since 1997,” Williams said. “And it’s made our city better. Our food is better, our culture, our art. We were losing our population until 2000, but now we are a stronger city and state because of our immigration policies.”

Morehead Mayor Del Rae Williams denounced Valley City News reporting tactics.

“This is something we do not want happening in our community,” Williams said. “For a mayor it is not the easiest thing to stand up against a media group. Let me tell you that when it needs to be said, it needs to be said. Our community cannot be at risk by journalism that is false.

“We wont stand for this kind of abuse in our community. We will stand for things that are true.”

Barry Nelson of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition also stepped up to the bullhorn. Surrounded by minorities from around the world, he said the television station’s agenda was sparking fear in the community.

“I am disturbed by the fact that some in our community seem to have an agenda,” Nelson said. “I am very disturbed and angry that some members in my community are being targeted, targeted with misrepresentation, fear, and hate.”

In addition to elected leaders, two former employees of the station joined the protest. John Rodenbiker, who is running for the Fargo School Board said he was embarrassed of his former employer.

“I’m out here standing in solidarity with all of our residents of Fargo and standing against ignorance and hatred,” Rodenbiker said. “I’m ashamed that news media in our community would do the kind of reporting that we’ve seen over the past weeks and months.”

Another former employee, Paul Leintz, expressed frustration with the station.

“I used to walk the halls of Valley News Live,” Leintz said. “I was an employee here and the change I’ve seen over the years is the reason why I’m not working here anymore. Look at our numbers. And look at the numbers against us.” He pointed to a lone counter protester across the street.

“You guys make me proud to be an American with all of you.”

Another former employee of KVLY, who wished to remain anonymous expressed some fear at being spotted at the protest, but admitted they “had to be there.”
Protestors cheered after the speeches were given, and then they prepared to march. Across the street under the shade of a young maple tree, the lone supporter of the television station’s broadcast sat. He wore a blue “Trump, Make America Great Again” t-shirt.

“I believe Valley News was correct with the exception of active and passive tuberculosis,” Deven Styczunski, Fargo resident and a grain inspector said. “Their data is solid. These people should be protesting the Center for Disease Control and the North Dakota Department of Health.”

He said many others in Fargo were debating the issue in online platforms, but were too busy to join his side of the street during the protest. “I have no problem with people coming to the USA, but they’re claiming xenophobia, and I don’t think this is what it was about,” Styczunski said.

A protestor handed Styczunski bottled water. He refused. “I’ll just stay on this side of the street by myself,” he said.

In a Valley News Live Facebook post pertaining to Sunday’s rally in the comment section, Adam Hewson, a self-declared white nationalist said, “We in Fargo never got asked to be a resettlement community. We don’t want them, the diseases, drugs, and crime they bring into our town. If they don’t like it Somalia is only a plane ticket away.”

His initial post received 206 replies within 24 hours, but no “like” buttons were pushed.

“Okay, looking at everything, I love how the race card gets thrown so easily,” another comment on Facebook from Fargo resident Dan Gunderson said. “Some refugees come here and actually take advantage of what we give them. Those types of refugees are a small, small percentage. Then you have the rest that sit on their asses and collect the government’s money and walk around like everyone else owes them something.”

When asked for a comment on Valley News Live recent coverage of immigration issues, Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota CEO and President Jessica Thomasson said their focus is on assisting the families they serve. A total of 85,000 immigrants will be relocated in the USA in 2015, Thomasson said, of which approximately 506 will arrive in North Dakota. From that number 70 to 80 percent, mostly from Bhutan, Iraq, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, will find new homes through Lutheran Social Services in the Fargo-Morehead area.

All immigrants, Thomasson said, are carefully screened before they board the airplane to the United States.

“All refugees who come to the USA are screened prior to leaving, and it is overseen by the Center for Disease Control and the State Department working with a panel of physicians. If they identify anything that needs to be treated, they deal with that overseas. They don’t have the right to come to the US until it is taken care of.”

Active tuberculosis is a red flag for health officials, but more than one third of the world’s population has latent tuberculosis, Thomasson said, a disease that is not transmittable.

Deven Styczynski, Fargo resident, lone opposition to the protestors

Deven Styczynski, Fargo resident, lone opposition to the protestors, rests beneath a maple tree. Photo by C.S. Hagen

Fauzia Haider, a doctor of medicine and surgery from Khyber Medical College in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1987, said even those who were immunized against tuberculosis as a child can test positive for latent tuberculosis.

“And it is fully treatable,” Haider said. “Even latent tuberculosis is treated by health officials. This disease does not discriminate or limit itself to one group of people. It’s not only refugees that carry it. To contract it, however, you must have prolonged exposure to it. It’s not like influenza where someone sneezes and you catch it.”

Bad hygiene, lowered immunity, and overcrowding – the conditions in a refugee camp – are ideal breeding places for the disease to manifest itself, not in cities like Fargo, Morehead, Grand Forks, or Bismarck.

Valley Community Health Center Dr. Marsha Lange wrote to the Grand Forks Herald on May 20, 2016, urging readers not to worry about catching tuberculosis from recent immigrants and refugees. Being in charge of ordering tuberculosis tests at the Valley Community Health Center in Grand Forks, Lange wrote that no refugees so far have tested positive, and that local residents should be more worried about the ever-growing problem of obesity from delicious food newly-arrived immigrants are cooking across North Dakota, rather than tuberculosis.

Health Officer at Fargo Cass Public Health Dr. John Baird said cases of tuberculosis have arisen in Fargo during the past few years, both from refugees and long time residents alike, but that there is no reason for worry.

“From every standpoint I look I do not see that refugees are a risk to our community,” Baird said. “The individuals that come here as refugees come from difficult situations. They’re screened when they leave, and checked when they arrive.”

Latent tuberculosis has a ten percent chance during a person’s lifetime of ever becoming active, Baird said. “And there are antibiotics that can treat it,” Baird said.

Long time Fargo resident and owner of the Discount Market, Sharif Mohamed, spent 12 years in a refugee camp in Kenya before he was able to bring his family to Fargo. “I was thinking to myself last night about the name United States,” he said. “United States. Dividing people is not the right way.

“We are scared now because they deliver the wrong message,” Mohamed said.

The protestors, many wearing surgical masks, marched one block south on University Drive waiving banners that read “Stop labeling,” “My wife was killed by terrorism,” “I was a refugee,” and “Tell the truth.”

As director of the Afro-American Development Association, Abdullahi led the marchers speaking into a megaphone.

“Valley News,” Abdullahi said.

“We are one,” the protestors answered.

“Valley News,” Abdullahi said.

“Stop the hate.”

Protestors along University Drive 2

Protestors along University Drive – photo by C.S. Hagen

A taxi driver halted in a nearby parking lot to give the protestors two thumbs up. More than a few passersby honked while the protestors marched. One unknown driver of a SUV pulled out of the television station’s parking lot, rolled down the window, and gave the protestors the middle finger symbol, according to onlookers.

Haider said her family has felt welcomed by the Fargo-Morehead community since her arrival 20 years ago. Her goal as a leader and frequent speaker for the Center for Interfaith Project is to bridge the gap between immigrants, new and old.

“We deal with misconceptions,” Haider said. “And try to educate people, create harmony and learn to live together. It doesn’t help that the media is fanning the flames that separate us.”

In a letter delivered to KVLY Fargo, the Afro-American Development Association, the Somali Community Development of North Dakota, the Bhutanese Community of Fargo, and the Buddhist Community of North Dakota demanded an official apology and the immediate resignations of Valley News Live Reporter Bradford Arick, News Director Ike Walker, and Jim Wareham, the television station’s general manager.

“We will need additional encouragement, a sense of acceptance, and motivation so that we and our families can actually feel that we belong here,” the letter stated. “After all, we believe this is the only nation and the only home known to us, where we can be safe, be heard, and be a productive member of the society.”

The Fargo Human Relations Commission also sent a letter addressed to KVLY and to Ike Walker, Jim Wareham, Gretchen Hjelmstad, Bradford Arick, and all other KVLY anchors, reporters, and staff.

The letter challenges KVLY and its staff to “heighten its awareness, sensitivity, and standards for fact based reporting,” The letter further admonishes that “the damage from false and irresponsible journalism, compounded with intolerance of people based on religion, race, and ethnicity, damages lives and affects real people,” which the Human Relations Commission opposes.

The Fargo Human Relations Commission also made references to the values espoused by NBC Universal, the parent company of KVLY, saying that the local affiliate station should strive to adhere to those stated values of celebrating “diverse cultures and backgrounds by presenting positive role models, telling diverse success stories, commemorating heritage and fostering dialogue on a variety of platforms.”

The protestors’ fight, according to the Afro American Development Association, has only just begun.

On Monday, the Afro American Development Association began contacting local KVLY advertisers and sponsors, including Sanford Health, Corwin Auto, North Dakota State University, among others, to pull their advertising spots. They’ve also started a #DropKVLY campaign on the association’s Facebook page urging sponsors to join the fight against Valley News Live apparent anti-immigration agenda. The group is also asking community members to check back on their Facebook page for updates and opportunities to circulate letters, sign petitions, and join future actions against KVLY.

Harka Subba, 28, holds sign with friend Madan Rana. Photo by C.S. Hagen

Harka Subba, 28, holds sign with friend Madan Rana. Photo by C.S. Hagen

“We value you, we support you, you are one of us,” Nelson said when he ended his speech to the protestors. “Fargo has become a place for people to begin new lives. Together, Fargo has become a world-class city.”

“Some of you didn’t choose Fargo,” Mike Williams said. Protestors chuckled. Many of the recent immigrants come from south of the equator, where snow appears only in the movies or in dreams. “But we want you to stay here.”

Grace Mbuthia, right, with Jonix Owin

Grace Mbuthia (right) with Jonix Owin, protesting. Photo by C.S. Hagen

Requests for a response from Valley News Live management were ignored. Emails and telephone messages sent to KVLY News Director Ike Walker were not returned. Nate Bakke, who works in the station’s production department, said employees were not allowed to speak to the press on the issue.

Bonanzaville – Fargo’s Haunted Mansion

May 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

By C.S. Hagen

FARGO – Late at night, the north wind whistles through the Houston House cracks. Raindrops – tiny footsteps to the imagination – flick against the 135-year-old frame, now fitted with aluminum siding.

Darkness retreats reluctantly under a lantern’s light revealing Victorian opulence: fine lace curtains, a dusty gilt leather bound Bible, thick as a set of encyclopedias, an Art Deco mahogany bookshelf towering above parlor chairs, a pump organ sitting silently and opposite a medieval hunting tapestry. A once plush couch hugs a polar bear rug, its death grin sparkles before slipping back into the shadows.

Above the ornate walnut staircase from a second floor bedroom, a floorboard creaks. Rumors the Houston House, built by David Henderson Houston Sr., is haunted become momentary fact as breath mists before the eyes.

The Houston House - photo by C.S. Hagen

The Houston House – photo by C.S. Hagen

Some of the legends emanating from the Houston House are undeniably strange, although proof the old homestead is haunted has yet to be found. Workers and visitors to Bonanzaville Village, a sprawling museum dedicated to North Dakota history, have reported instances of hearing children laughing inside the Houston House, in the middle of winter, when no children were anywhere near. Ghost hunters visited the house three years ago and found evidence the homestead and a nearby tavern and one-time brothel named the Brass Rail Saloon, possessed paranormal activity, according to Brenda Warren, Bonanzaville’s executive director.

“In the upstairs southeast bedroom of the Houston House there is always an indentation in the pillow,” Brenda said. She has worked at Bonanzaville for three years. “And I always fluff it back up. When I come back to check on things there is always the same indentation in that pillow.

“I’ve never really believed in the paranormal, however, this keeps happening over and over again,” Brenda said. “So it makes me wonder if maybe there might be something there.”

The room where Houston, a former inventor, farmer, and poet, and hailed as one of Cass County’s most remarkable citizens, died from a brain hemorrhage after becoming lost in a blizzard in 1906, museum records report. Mental torment, which stemmed not only from the blizzard, but also from watching his life’s work ripped away from him by corporate giants, attributed to his death, according to museum records.

Reoccurring pillow indentation inside Houston's bedroom where he died - photo by C.S. Hagen

Pillow indentation inside Houston’s bedroom where he died – photo by C.S. Hagen

Missy Warren, Brenda’s daughter and the special events and wedding coordinator at the museum is fascinated with the Houston House. “It’s my favorite structure on the premises, hands down, because of all the beautiful pieces in it. It adds a lot to the ambiance to the house to know that people have heard of and seen things in that house. I really do believe that if there is a spirit, there is a very kind and patient spirit.”

Missy once heard a loud noise inside the Brass Rail Saloon, which to this day gives her the shivers. “There is something in the saloon, and everything that has been heard has come from the upstairs, where it was most likely once a brothel.”

If ghosts exist, and return to the land of the living because of unfinished business, then the Houston House is at the very least a viable setting, both Brenda and Missy agreed.

 

Houston, the Man

Houston was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1841, and immigrated with his family via New York City to Wisconsin in 1841 when he was three years old, according to a 1900 edition of the Compendium of History and Biography. Houston moved to the Cass County area, outside of Hunter, North Dakota, alone when he was 38 years old and fell in love with the windswept Dakota Territory plains. A time when buffalos and Native Americans still roamed freely, according to his niece-in-law Mina Fisher Hammer in her 1940 book The History of Kodak and its Continuations.

A diminutive figure, bespectacled and bearded, a reader of the classics, studious and borderline recluse, he never attended church, but took pleasure in long walks at dawn, and working not only with the earth and his skills at farming, but beneath it, in a cyclone shelter, to further his photographic inventions.

Houston’s first patent was filed in 1867 for a camera invention. Throughout his life a total of 21 patents including the roll-film mechanism, which was to become the heart of the Kodak camera, were also invented and patented by Houston, according to patent records available at Bonanzaville. He sold the roll-film mechanism patent to George Eastman, the controversial owner of the name Kodak, for $5,700, according to patent records.

Neighbors thought Houston a “little funny,” according to a 1987 edition of The Highlander, but he was soon to become the envy of the land. Preferring quiet to satisfy his curious mind, he didn’t marry until he was 47, after his growing fortunes allowed him to build the Houston House, half of which was moved to Bonanzaville in 1971. He married 23-year-old Annie Laurie Prentiss, a longhaired beauty with flashing black eyes, perfect features, vivacious and daring, according to museum records. Annie was his exact opposite in every way. She was a music teacher, loved the most modern fashions, the piano, and was seen frequently racing trains with her buggy and pair of Hambletonian horses, according to museum records.

pictures houston2

David and Annie Houston – photo by C.S. Hagen

Life for the newlyweds was merry the first years, and became even merrier after Annie gave birth to a son, according to Hammer. The house was filled with parrots, sparkling kerosene lanterns, servants and maids, and was heated with the area’s only known furnace heater. Houston’s inventions, however, including farm plows and high-yielding grain seed, but most importantly his camera equipment, were never far from his mind.

“Hours, even a day and a night, would pass when one saw nothing of him,” Hunter wrote. “He was a dreamer, a seer.”

Houston House main living room - photo by C.S. Hagen

Houston House main living room – photo by C.S. Hagen

“All of the Houstons were spiritualists,” the article featuring the Houston family in The Highlander reported. “One room was used for séances. Mrs. Houston devised a type of short hand to record words for the “other side,” which she claimed came too rapidly for shorthand.” Many of the slats used to record such messages were reportedly from Houston’s favorite poet Robert Burns.

Annie began taking frequent trips into Fargo, where she was always bejeweled with diamonds and wore the most recent fashions, according to museum records. She wintered with their son, David Houston Jr. in Miami, Florida, leaving her husband alone, as was his wish, to continue his studies and inventions.

“She was lonely,” a neighbor was quoted saying about Annie in museum records. “Her days were awfully dull.”

 

Houston, the Forgotten Inventor

As photographers, called Kodakers after Houston’s inventions helped spur the Eastman Kodak Company to international fame and fortune, became a portable device available for $25, Houston continued improving on his inventions.

Much like the dragon and its soft underbelly, genius always has an Achilles heel. Houston could invent revolutionary equipment, but he could not control the entrepreneurs who sought to entrap him, and had no desire to manufacture for himself, according to Hammer.

During the following two decades, Houston became Eastman’s gadfly.

A patent document in museum files

A patent document in museum files

By 1886, Houston had sold all his patents to Eastman, for a collective total of $48,000, according to museum records. Eastman, on the other hand, created a monopoly, eventually wiping out all major competition through shrewd business deals and strong-armed lawsuits, according to Hammer.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb among other equipment, tried to take credit for Houston’s inventions, according to Hammer. Edison and Eastman worked closely together, and to this day Edison is still accredited with the invention of the moving camera, the forerunner of modern movie equipment and a giant leap from what was then known as the magic lantern. Without Houston’s roll film apparatus, however, there would never have been any portable or moving camera invented, at least, for some time.

“The roll film mechanism solved the magic lantern quest for animated photograph, but contained the basis for the moving picture as well,” Hammer wrote in her book. Houston’s soon-to-be controversial invention was designed to utilize a strip of film wound on a roll, which was then fed into an opposing spool as exposures were taken.

“He had the most uncanny genius for camera inventions that I have ever known,” Eastman said about Houston, according to museum records. And yet, despite owning Houston’s patents, Eastman refused to give Houston even partial credit for the invention that transformed the bulky cameras into handheld devices. According to a March 15, 1932 Minneapolis Tribune article on Eastman, Houston’s roll-film apparatus was considered “one of the company’s most valued assets.”

Houston’s loss of recognition for his inventions was also due in part to imperfect patent legislation, which protected the patent owner and not the inventor, according to Hammer.

Additionally, the origination of the name Kodak has been under debate since it was trademarked in 1888. Eastman refused to admit the word Kodak was Houston’s brainchild. Instead, Eastman said the word meant nothing, and that he had “pulled it out of thin air,” according to museum records including official press releases from the Eastman Kodak Company. The name was patented under Eastman’s name before Houston sold his patents, according to museum records.

“Houston named the invention [his first camera] Kodak, after the state of North Dakota in 1880, then patented the device,” Hammer wrote. Hammer was witness to Houston’s mental anguish toward the end of his life, according to U.S. Patent Office records. “But because it is not permissible to patent the name of an invention, it was agreed that Eastman, after he took over Houston’s patent output, should register Kodak as a trademark – making him heir to the name.

“Mr. Houston, of course, during the 1880s, realized that he was engulfed by forces beyond his control,” Hammer wrote. “He was not a fighter in such a sense. It was apparent to him that two course lay open. He must fall in line, appease, or cease inventing.”

Invention was his life. He could not choose the latter, and eventually his patents were swallowed by Eastman’s ambitions to combine the portable camera and the flexible film concepts.

By the winter of 1906, Houston had already decided to end his camera inventions.

“Houston was so disillusioned over his treatment by Eastman that he ordered all his photographic inventions and cameras destroyed,” museum records report.

Houston died in his bed in the room open to tourists inside the Houston House at Bonanzaville. He left behind a modest estate, which was quickly divided up according to his wishes. The Houston House was split in two, passing through different owners until it eventually arrived in West Fargo’s Bonanzaville Village.

Eastman went on to create a company worth $200 million, according to the Minneapolis Tribune. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart on March 14, 1932.

 

Houston, the Ghost

As of April 26, 2016, a pillow inside the southeast room had a perfect human head’s indentation, as if someone taken a nap on it. Could it be Houston, the inventor, or his son’s spirit who died young while at sea? Or could it have been Annie Houston, the beautiful woman who unlike her talking parrots proved difficult to cage?

“If I had to choose anyone it would be Mr. Houston,” Missy said. “I feel he was ripped off to a certain extent. All the accusations came out and said he didn’t invent these things, but there is no solid proof that he didn’t’ invent.” Some newspaper and magazine articles attribute Houston’s inventions to a brother in Wisconsin, claiming that David Houston was only the patent lawyer.

“But I feel he was ripped off,” Missy said. “His inventions should be attributed to him. He should be recognized.”

The Eastman Kodak Company did not respond to requests for a response, but according to recent press releases the company’s official position had not changed. Houston was not recognized officially for his inventions or for creating the name Kodak. Patent paperwork dated from the 19th century disagrees with the Eastman Kodak Company’s position.

“They were kind and giving people,” Missy said of the Houston family. Once, when a fire broke out in Hunter, North Dakota, Houston rushed to help, and being a landowner assisted anyone whose assets were harmed during the conflagration, museum records report.

“If David and Annie are still there,” Missy said. “So be it.”

Bird cage

A bird cage inside the Houston House – photo by C.S. Hagen

Bones from the Armenian Genocide, circa 1920s, from The Commentator.

Twin Sisters Recall 1990 Armenian Pogrom

April 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

101 years after the Armenian Genocide began, the world still refuses to recognize the atrocities

By C.S. Hagen

BAKU, SOVIET UNION  – An angry humming noise kept Karine Eloyse Pirumova from her windows. Curtains drawn, she knew the cacophony was heading her way. Despite the fact her husband had begun sleeping with a knife under his pillow, she refused to believe the rumors, until her telephone rang one afternoon mid January 1990.

“We need to flee the city.” Karine’s twin sister’s voice was panicky. “I’ve just been let go. It’s not safe for Armenians in Baku any longer.” They hurriedly agreed to meet at Karine’s apartment.

The line fell silent. Her sister, Marine, was let go? She had a good job working as a communications specialist with the Caspian Shipping Company. She glanced around her government-supplied apartment. Where to go? What to take?

Pirumova sisters looking over a recently-published Russian book about their family history - photo by C.S. Hagen

Pirumova sisters looking over a recently-published Russian book about their family history – photo by C.S. Hagen

Andrey and Genna, her young sons, played contentedly with their toys. Supper simmered on the stove. Pictures of the Pirumova family, once Armenian generals and nobles, hung from her walls. Karine had heard the news of lootings and beatings, not through heavily censored Soviet news broadcasts, but through her Russian husband, who spoke the local Azerbaijani language. She never dreamed the violence could reach their doorstep.

Hands trembling, Karine packed a small suitcase. Her father’s nearly forgotten stories sent chills down her spine. As a child, her father, Abesalom Pirumov, had seen his mother gunned down in the streets. Her dying words to him were, “Run, my children,” Karine said.

“It was the first thing I thought of. And after 70 years it was happening to our family again.”

“Life was getting hard in 1988,” Marine, Karine’s sister, said. Her hometown, a seaside port in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, was relatively peaceful until the unrest began. Muslims and Christians lived as neighbors with few incidents. “But we kept living our lives. Baku was an international city. We could not believe that in modern Baku this kind of thing could happen again. Just like in 1915. Killing people. Robbing. Raping. It was the same story.”

Karine could almost decipher a chant coming from the rioters in the streets below her apartment. What was to become known in history as “Black January,” Baku city’s Muslim-led pogrom to eradicate Armenians due to ethnic tensions over land claims, had begun.

Bones from the Armenian Genocide, circa 1920s, from The Commentator.

Bones from the Armenian Genocide, circa 1920s, from The Commentator.

No time to pack pictures or jewelry. Food was important. They would need water, and money. In those days, and in the Soviet Union, no one had bank accounts. Cash was the only recognized tender, something of which she had precious little.

Karine stiffened. The chant became clear. “Out! Armenian Christians. Out!” Karine, pronounced Ka-ree-na, told her boys to start calling her Katia, a Russian name, instead of her given and easily recognizable Armenian one.

Marine traveled fast as she could to her sister’s apartment complex. The roads teemed with people. She kept her face lowered to hide her white complexion.  She said there was no time for her to return to her apartment to pack a suitcase.

“I heard screaming,” Marine said. “It was a woman’s voice. And this time I was scared. I asked myself why hadn’t I left already?”

Twin sisters, Marine and Karine Pirumova, with father and brother

Twin sisters, Marine and Karine Pirumova, with father and brother

X Marks an Armenian

The systematic destruction of anything Armenian left approximately 300 dead, and forced 250,000 Armenians into exile in January 1990, according to a 2010 conference made public by the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. From the South Fargo home of Jim and Eloyce Kenward, Karine’s sponsors, the sisters spoke of a secret list marked with X’s for every Armenian in Baku.

News was heavily censored. Information was blocked. The pogrom was a direct response from Soviet Azerbaijan to the Armenian demonstrators urging the Kremlin to allow Karabakh back into Armenia. Both Armenian and Azerbaijani held claims to the area, which had long before belonged to Christian Armenians.

“In 1923, Stalin gave this land to Azerbaijan, and under Gorbachev, Armenians decided to take this land back,” Marine said.

The protests sparked Azerbaijani hatred, long simmered to coals during Soviet occupation. In an attempt to quash the Armenian movement, special forces called Azeri Omon initiated the pogrom in Sumgait in 1988, and later in similar assaults in Kirovabad, Baku, and in Karabakh, according to the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.

Exact numbers of Armenians killed in 1990 are still a mystery. In 2010, the director of the Center for Caucasus Studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Vladimir Zakharov, said xenophobia was always a problem, even under Soviet rule.

“Hatred against Armenians passed on from generation to generation and today the image of Armenians as an enemy to Azerbaijan is propagated at the national level,” Zakharov said.

Abesalom Pirumov

Abesalom Pirumov

Hatred, Karine said, that her father knew well. Despite the fact that he watched his mother gunned down, that the family mansion and surrounding city was burned to the ground in 1920, and that he was forced to flee to Baku, her father did not reciprocate the hatred.

Once nobility, and at the tender age of 13, he fled the family’s grand ancestral home in Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh, with nothing but the clothes on his back. He survived, and later married a tailor’s daughter, Evgenia Pirumova, and raised twin daughters and one son. He rarely spoke of the troubles of 1920, except to weep openly when he spoke of his mother. He never uttered a harsh word against the Soviet Union, even after his brother was imprisoned for 17 years under Stalin’s regime for crimes against the communist state. Like the Pirumova sisters, his family in 1920 never expected the violence to reach such a crescendo. A recent book published in Russian entitled Pirumov and Pirumova by Yuri Pirumov, shows pictures of extended family, once generals, intellectuals, and revolutionaries, and the family mansion, now in ruins.

Destitute and orphaned, Abesalom survived the 170-mile journey from Shusha to Baku.   Other family members, including the Pirumova’s maternal grandfather, was forced into the death caravans and into the Syrian Desert. He too survived, but rarely spoke of the ordeal while Karine and Marine were young.

A bookkeeper by trade, Abesalom’s aspirations in life were to sleep peacefully at night, and never overstep his bounds. He was an honest, hardworking man, who sipped a little vodka to calm his nerves at night.

Pirumov family mansion ruins1920s

Pirumov family mansion ruins 1920s

During the first pogrom against Armenians by the dying Ottoman Empire, which began on April 24, 1915, more than 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in what most historians now call the Armenian Genocide, according to the New York Times and the Armenian Genocide Museum. Some scholars claim the “Great Crime” was the first genocide of the 20th Century, even though the word genocide was not coined until after World War II.

During the first phase of the organized extermination, young men were conscripted into the Ottoman army, then forced to give up their weapons, dig their own graves, and face firing squads, according to the Armenian Genocide Museum. The second phase began with the arrest of several hundred Armenian intellectuals and elite, who were summarily beheaded. Mass exile began the third phase. Thousands died from organized attacks along the way, epidemic disease, and starvation, according to the Armenian Genocide Museum. The forced marches, nicknamed “Caravans of Despair” sent thousands of Armenians into the Syrian Desert, only to be attacked by Sultan-backed bandits, according to the Armenian National Institute.

Pirumova sisters' grandparents - seated (pre 1915)

Pirumova sisters’ grandparents – seated (pre 1915)

American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire before and during World War I, Henry Morgenthau, reported on the widespread slaughter vigilantly, and later wrote a book called Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story.

“Cold-blooded, calculated state policy,” Morgenthau wrote. “I am confident the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this.”

Escape to Moscow

Under cover of night, the Pirumov family piled into a Lada taxi. The driver was a friend. Streets teemed with rioters. Men with clubs banged on the taxi’s hood, peering inside, asking if Armenians were inside.

The twin sisters crouched low, covering their dark hair and faces as best they could. Andrey and Genna clung to their mother’s waist.

“No.” The taxi driver waved the rioters away. “There are no Armenians in here.”

The drive to a Russian friend’s home was tense, Karine said. “I don’t know if she hadn’t heard the news, or if she was a hero, but she rescued us.”

Despite the growing violence, family friend Marina Korchazhkina endangered herself by giving food and shelter to the Pirumov family for two days, Karine said, until she received word a ship from her trading company could ferry them across the Caspian Sea to Krasnovodsk. During the wait, the sisters learned both their houses had been burgled.

“The very next day men in leather jackets robbed my house,” Marine said. She was single when the troubles began. “If I had been there, I would have been killed.”

While in hiding, the sisters’ also discovered their cousin, Melik, was attacked and nearly beaten to death inside a public bus. If the driver had not taken pity, he might have died, Karine said.

At the shipyard along the Caspian Sea, however, the Pirumovs and thousands of Armenians found some semblance of safety. The growing crowd pushed and shoved. The winter cold was bitter during the hours long wait. Azerbaijani ship crew teased the crowd, lowering the narrow gangplank to arms reach before hoisting it back up, Marine said.

“And we still weren’t sure if we would have been thrown off the ship,” Karine said. But the Pirumovs had no other place to go.

Soviet troops made their presence known throughout Baku, Marine said. “But it seemed they were waiting around for orders. Eventually, some soldiers started to help, like when we were at the shipyard they surrounded us. They were controlling so it was good.” Their encirclement kept rioters at bay, Marine said.

At midnight, the gangplank hit the dock. The crowd jostled forward. Marine screamed at the crowd to board slowly, for the walkway was narrow, and the icy seawaters below would surely swallow anyone who fell. Once on board, Marine found the captain, a former co-worker, who gave them a cabin.

“There were hundreds of people sleeping in the hallways,” Marine said. “We were very fortunate.”

From Krasnovodsk the Pirumov family traveled by plane to Moscow, at one time sneaking Karine’s two sons on board while Marine asked the captain for assistance, which was given. “The Russians were sympathetic,” Marine said. “But the Soviet government did very little to help, many times troops who were supposed to be protecting us turned their backs on us or stood there and watched.”

In Moscow, they stayed with their brother until kindly villagers accepted them in. Karine remembers being treated as an outsider because of her black hair. When her family was given an apartment with two rooms, neighbors bickered. She responded by telling them hard work, and no vodka, was her secret.

Refuge in Fargo

Marine was the first to see the Statue of Liberty from an airplane. Months of waiting in lines, bribing Soviet clerks, procuring the proper documents as a refugee took its toll, but when she landed with twenty dollars in her pocket, she felt happiness, and peace.

Marine's Soviet passport - photo by C.S. Hagen

Marine’s Soviet passport – photo by C.S. Hagen

Her sponsor, Lutheran Social Services, had arranged for her to travel to Fargo, North Dakota. She had never heard of the city or the state before, saw on a map it was close to Canada and wondered if Fargo was cold.

“But I was so happy I was going to the United States, I didn’t care where I was going.” Marine laughed. “I wondered if I could go to South Dakota because it sounded warmer.”

Lutheran Social Services offered Marine a job as a butcher, but she refused, saying she needed to learn English. Her first job was at Kmart, and although she wanted to work in the back, away from people, Kmart managers placed her at a cash register.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t understand,” Marine said. Both sisters no longer have English problems. Their Slavic accents are a delight to the ear. “And I learned quickly when I was on my break to take off my work vest, or customers would ask me questions I could not answer.”

She met the Kenward family through Olivet Lutheran Church, who agreed to become her sister’s sponsor.

“We met 24 years ago,” Jim Kenward said. “And since then we haven’t broken ties. Their family is our family.”

“I am so thankful to them and to the United States,” Marine said. “Our father lost everything, and we lost everything.”

Karine and her two sons arrived in Fargo years later and because they no longer held the status of refugees they arrived as “Privileged Immigration Parolees,” Karine said. She held up the documents proudly to prove it.

In Fargo today, the Pirumovs can find some of the comforts from their former lives. Karine cooks traditional dishes at home. Marine and her husband opened their own business, Anytime Transportation, and employed Karine as their bookkeeper.

“I am so glad I came here,” Karine said. One of her sons graduated from North Dakota State University, the other from Concordia College. She found Marina Korchazhkina, their savior in Baku, on Facebook, and is in frequent contact.

When asked about President Obama’s recent failure to publically recognize the Armenian troubles of 1915 as genocide, Karine sighed. “If genocide had been recognized by the world when this happened, maybe today would be better. Maybe, it wouldn’t have happened to the Jews.”

With the recent rise of ISIS near their home country, the Pirumova sisters are disturbed. There is little difference with the terrorist group’s systematic slaughter to the Ottoman savagery, or the 1990 Azerbaijani pogroms, they said. Armenia, ancient land of the Hittites, once the most powerful kingdom east of the Roman Empire, now a fledgling republic established in 1991, is the only Christian bastion in Central Asia.

“I am always thinking about the refugees, because I was one of them,” Marine said. “America takes immigrants, and this is what I appreciate about the United States. We are a country of immigrants.”

Pirumova sisters enjoying cake with the Keywords - photo by C.S. Hagen

Safe in Fargo, North Dakota, the Pirumova sisters enjoying cake with the Kenwards – photo by C.S. Hagen

 

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