A Modest Proposal

Okay, I knew this was going to happen. Among the notes I got last night and this morning were these two:

“If Secretary of State Jaeger is going to put Josh Voytek on the ballot, he should put him in the Secretary of State’s race, not the PSC. At least he got some votes for that one.”

“I think Voytek should be in the race for Secretary of State . . . There’s nothing set in stone yet about the ballot. It isn’t printed until September. He didn’t get any votes for PSC and he wasn’t certified by the State Canvassing Board, so nothing is being taken away from him except an offer from Jaeger. Give him Secretary of State as a compromise. I bet Wayne Stenehjem could find a way to make that legal.”

Well, how do you disagree with those two? It’s a great idea. Heck, Al can just have a do-over on his announcement and say that instead of Voytek going into the PSC race, he'll in the Secretary of State race. (I’ve been wondering, incidentally, if Al consulted Kevin Cramer before he put Joshua on the PSC ballot. Kevin can’t be too happy about that.)

Better yet, here’s my suggestion. Let’s decide it the democratic way, and take the pressure off Al at the same time. Let’s just put a link on the Secretary of State’s website that would let people vote what they want Joshua to run for—Secretary of State or Public Service Commission. All 400,000 or so eligible voters would be allowed to cast their ballot for one office or the other. Whichever one gets the most votes, that’s where Al will put Josh on the ballot.

How about that? I bet Josh would go along with it—look at the name recognition he’d get. Could get Al Jaeger and Kevin Cramer busy e-mailing their friends to vote for the other office. They’re both in tough races and don’t need a third party candidate siphoning off conservative votes.

Hmmm, I like this idea . . .

Nah, Let's Just Throw Him Out Of Office

Somebody isn’t telling the truth. Somebody named Al Jaeger. (The other problem, of course, is that no one in the news media is asking the right questions, and if no one asks the right questions, Al doesn’t have to provide the right answers. So I decided to do that myself.)

Let me start out by saying that, on the phone at least, young Joshua Voytek sounds like a very nice young man. A little naïve, perhaps, but sincere and friendly and open. (That's him on the right. Looks innocent enough, doesn't he? Doesn't he?). Joshua, you may recall from news stories, editorials in the Bismarck Tribune (good guys, kind of) and Fargo Forum (bad guys, mostly), and my recent blog post, is going to be on the General Election ballot as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for North Dakota Public Service Commission in November. On the General Election ballot even though he does not meet the legal requirements to be there, because he did not get any votes for that office in the North Dakota Primary Election, because his name was not on that ballot, because Secretary of State Al Jaeger lost his paperwork and then, in a panic made up a story and got Attorney Wayne Stenehjem to cover for him and rule that he should be there.

But Jaeger’s story to the newspapers just didn’t sound right. The AP reported that Voytek “was not informed of the oversight” until June 16. Well, I don’t know if those were Jaeger’s words or the AP’s but Jaeger sure wasn’t willing to tell the rest of the story. I didn’t figure Al was going to want to answer my questions, so I called young Joshua. Here’s what he told me.

On April 10, the day after the filing deadline to get on the Primary Election ballot, Joshua and the Libertarian Party State Chairman, Richard Ames, looked over the candidate list, and they noticed Joshua’s name wasn’t on it as a candidate for the Public Service Commission. So Ames called Al Jaeger’s office to inquire. He was told that Joshua had neglected to send in his forms.

Now Joshua was pretty sure he had sent them in. I don’t know if there was a scramble in the Secretary of State’s office to find the forms. I doubt it. But surely THAT was the day to have fixed this problem. But Jaeger, always the stickler for details, always following the letter of the law, just said sorry, no forms, no ballot access. Always the stickler for details, that is, until he discovered that it was his office that had screwed up and LOST the forms. Then the letter of the law went right out the window, and Joshua was granted ballot access in November. Isn‘t it just CONVEEEEENIENT that details and laws can be overlooked when the Secretary of State screws up, but not when, as Al believed, young Joshua screwed up?

None of that, of course, was reported. We were just told that the paperwork was found May 24, and, three weeks later, after the Primary, Al ‘fessed up and announced that Joshua was going to be on the ballot this November. No story that this was discovered as early as April 10.

But wait, there’s more to this story. I had to do a little detective work to track down Joshua, because he’s not in the phone book. So, being a young techie myself, I went to Facebook. Sure enough, there he was. Know what I found? Joshua’s a persistent little cuss.

After he found out that he couldn’t be on the ballot for Public Service Commission, he decided to launch a write-in campaign for another statewide office. Want to guess what office he ran for? Here’s his Facebook post at 12:53 a.m. Tuesday, June 8 (Primary Election Day):

Joshua Voytek wants to remind everyone to vote today in the North Dakota Primary at your local polling places. Remember to write my name in for Secretary of State under the Libertarian column.

Here’s the link to his Facebook page, although I don’t know if you can go there unless you’re a Facebook member. If you can’t, at least you can see Joshua's Facebook profile "photo" up above, and then you'll just have to trust me on the rest. I’m not making any of this up.

Never mind the technicality of electioneering on election day, in violation of state law (although a candidate for Secretary of State probably ought to know the election laws). So, out of frustration with Al Jaeger, perhaps, Joshua ran a write-in campaign against . . . AL JAEGER! But not a very good campaign. He only got 12 votes. Too bad. If he’d gotten 300, he would have been the official candidate of the Libertarian Party for Secretary of State. Gee, I wonder if Al Jaeger would have put him on the ballot for Public Service Commission then.

Two closing thoughts:

1. I didn’t hear a whisper out of Joshua about his Secretary of State’s race once this PSC snafu got public and Jaeger announced he was going to make Joshua the PSC candidate of the Libertarian Party. Surprise. I bet he was kind of hoping no one would remember that he had run for Secretary of State. Joshua, didn’t your parents ever warn you to be careful what you put on Facebook?

2. I also didn’t hear Al Jaeger mention that Joshua ran against him and got 12 votes, even though the way I found out Joshua got 12 votes was by going to the Secretary of State's website, and even though Al Jaeger chaired the subsequent State Canvassing Board meeting which certified Joshua’s 12 votes. Here, take a look at the website, which reflects the official canvass. To see the names of the write–in candidates, just click on the little + sign. Notice that old Al himself even got three write-in votes as the Libertarian candidate.

Finally, as to the question of whether Al ought to go to the pokey for conspiring with Joshua: Probably not. Joshua seemed to accept the fact his paperwork was late and just ran for another office. Joshua is not nearly as devious and unscrupulous as Al, best I can tell. Al won’t go to the pokey. But he should be thrown out of office.

Should Al Jaeger Go To The Pokey?

Note: It took me a long time to work through this Jaeger screwup deal, and I want to approach the results, at least in my mind, slowly, so please bear with me as my thought processes turn until I get to the point at the end of this story.

I’ve been on the fringes of enough elections to know most of what is in Section 16.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, which holds North Dakota’s elections laws. So have North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. In fact, they should know exactly what those laws are, since they are charged with carrying them out and enforcing them. Sadly they are not doing that. I say sadly because the laws that govern elections should be the most sacred laws of all in a democracy. They are what makes us a shining example to the people of third world, dictator-led countries who have no election laws. Who have no elections.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger made the biggest screwup I’ve ever seen a North Dakota elected official make: He left a candidate’s name off the ballot. By leaving that candidate’s name – Joshua Voytek, a Libertarian – off the ballot, he denied that candidate the subsequent opportunity to appear on the November election ballot as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for the Public Service Commission. Period.

Wait. Erase that period. Wayne Stenehjem to the rescue. “A fiery horse, with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty ‘Hi Yo Silver !’ Wayne Stenehjem, the Lone Ranger, rides again!”

The Associated Press reports that Jaeger realized his mistake May 24 and called Wayne Stenehjem right away to ask what to do. I can just about imagine Wayne's response:

“Aw, never mind the law, go ahead and put him on the ballot anyway,” Wayne says to Al. "If the guy sues us, there are going to be more newspaper stories, and TV stories, and it’s going to get really embarrassing for you, and you’re up for re-election this year, and you’ve been a good soldier, ruling in favor of Republicans in every election dispute, in fact you’ve been the most partisan (thank God you’re on our side) Secretary of State ever, and I’ll be running for Governor one of these days and I know I don’t want this young Mock guy in that office making sure the state is following the law if I screw up somehow, and I don’t want to piss off those Libertarians, because most of them will vote for you and me this November if we treat them right, and they’ll be pissed at the Democrats if they challenge this, and we’re going to lose in court anyway if this guy Voytek sues us, so just flout the law, and see if anybody sues us for doing that.”

Well, somebody should. Sue them. Problem is, Stenehjem and Jaeger know nobody will, because then it will look like whoever sues is trying to keep this guy off the ballot. So there’s this big ass-covering going on which makes the problem go away from the news and from the minds of voters when they go to the polls in November. Well, that’s a worrisome and dangerous precedent—allowing a state official to break the law just because it is more convenient than proceeding through the judicial system to solve the problem legally.

What should be (have been) done? Let’s go back a month, to May 24, the day Jaeger discovered his screwup, according to Associated Press stories. What did Jaeger do that day to address the problem? Nothing, officially, except to go next door to Stenehjem’s office and said “I made an oops, please help me fix it.” It looks like, from the AP story, that it took Wayne three weeks or so to finally say “Okay, Al, I’m going to get you off the hook on this one, because we’ve got the Democrats in a tight spot. They won’t dare challenge me because then they will be the bad guys for keeping this guy off the ballot.”

Well, this is nuts. Elected officials can’t just make up new laws when they break an old one. What country is this—Iran? North Korea? One of those countries that ends in “stan”? Government officials don’t like the law so they jut make up new ones? Happens in those “Axis of Evil” countries all the time, but in North Dakota?

Instead, Jaeger (likely upon Stenehjem’s advice) hid the problem until after the election and then announced that it didn’t matter, Voytek was going on the ballot anyway.

As for Stenehjem’s rationalization that “we’d lose in court anyway,” that is equally outrageous. What the hell is up with that? Who gives Wayne Stenehjem the power of the court? We don’t need a court system—we’ll just let Wayne (Ahmadinejad) Stenehjem decide what’s legal and what’s not. Way cleaner and more efficient. Let’s not screw around with a messy court system. Sheesh.

Jaeger should have called Mr. Voytek the day he discovered the error, more than two weeks before the election, brought him into the office, and said “Look, we made a mistake.” Then he should have provided Mr. Voytek with legal counsel, they should have filed a suit asking the Supreme Court to take original jurisdiction (they can do that—remember back in 1985 when we had two governors and they resolved that in just a couple days?). Then the decision could have been made by the court and had the force of law instead of this arbitrary unofficial verbal opinion by Stenehjem which may in the long run be challenged anyway, at a much greater cost to the state. Then there should have been a big publicity effort to get the word out to write in Voytek’s name if you’re a Libertarian and support him, and they could have even printed stickers, which has been done in other similar cases.

But no, that would have been embarrassing for Al just before an election, so it was covered up for three weeks, and then solved by collusion by a couple of Republican elected officials. All of this, I repeat, is unforgiveable. Al Jaeger should be held accountable. Not just for the screwup—that was made by someone in his office. But for the coverup. Coverups are almost always worse than the original mistake. Ask Richard Nixon.

Now, here’s the danger. Let’s say, by some fluke, Voytek wins the job in November. Let’s say Voytek attracts a huge amount of money and runs a great campaign, and wins (the Republican candidate for that PSC job, Kevin Cramer, is pretty much a party hack who just likes to see his name on the ballot for something—anything—and Brad Crabtree is pretty much an unknown). Or, maybe Cramer gets tired of the criticizing by Crabtree on decisions about MDU and Ottertail Power, and challenges Crabtree to a duel, and they are both killed (actually a more likely scenario than Voytek winning), leaving Voytek as the only living choice. NOW watch the lawsuits start to fly. That’s going to be interesting. Here’s a candidate who wasn’t even on the ballot legally, about to become an elected North Dakota Public Service Commissioner. Somebody’s going to be looking to nullify that election and hold a new one, you can count on that. Uffda. Then we got a mess.

But hold on—maybe there’s a little more to this story. Back in May, the sample ballot was printed, twice, in every one of the 53 official county newspapers. I’m finding it almost incomprehensible that the Libertarian candidate did not bother to look at the sample ballot in one of those county newspapers and notice his name was not there. I mean, I’ve never run for public office, but if I did, I’m pretty sure I’d look at the ballot to see my name on it—that would be pretty cool, at least for a first-time candidate like Mr. Voytek. But apparently Mr. Voytek didn’t even bother to do that. The AP story says “Voytek was not informed of the oversight until June 16, three weeks later.”

Something’s fishy. Didn’t Voytek vote, either? The election was June 8, more than a week before, as the AP reports, he was told his name wasn’t on the ballot. I can hardly imagine he didn’t vote. What about the Libertarian leadership? Didn’t they vote?

Or DID he see the sample ballot in the papers? DID he notice that his name wasn’t there, and call Al Jaeger to see what’s up? DID the coverup start way back when the ballots were first printed in the paper? DID Voytek call Jaeger, only to be told, back in May or early June, well before the election, “Don’t worry, we’ll put you on the November ballot anyway. But you’ve got to keep this a secret until after the primary. If you go public and make a stink, then you’re probably going to end up having to sue the state to get your name on the ballot, and that is going to be time consuming and expensive, and you might not win. But if you just keep quiet until then we’ll take care of you. Deal?”

If that’s the case, that would be a serious crime, an elected official making a deal like that well before an election. If that happened, then Jaeger should be disqualified from office and go to the pokey. And anyone else who knew about the illegal deal should go with him. Conspiracy is a crime in North Dakota. And Voytek, if he was a party to such a deal, should not be on the November ballot.

If, however, Voytek didn’t even bother to read the paper and look at the sample ballot, or didn’t bother to cast his vote, and didn’t bother to find out why his name wasn’t on the ballot until eight days after the election, and really was an innocent player in all this, then Heaven help us if that Cramer/Crabtree duel takes place and someone as dufus as that gets elected.

Land of the Dacotahs

Long it’s been since I have read it,
Read the Song of Hiawatha,
Thus forgot that when the poet
Sought a wife for Hiawatha
Sent him off to the Dacotahs
For the maiden Laughing Waters
Now, forever, when we read it,
Read the Song of Hiawatha,
We shall thank the poet Henry
For including the Dacotahs,
And the best words he has written
Can be shared with all today.

The Song of Hiawatha
X. Hiawatha's Wooing

"As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man is woman;
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows;
Useless each without the other!"

Thus the youthful Hiawatha
Said within himself and pondered,
Much perplexed by various feelings,
Listless, longing, hoping, fearing,
Dreaming still of Minnehaha,
Of the lovely Laughing Water,
In the land of the Dacotahs.

"Wed a maiden of your people,"
Warning said the old Nokomis;
"Go not eastward, go not westward,
For a stranger, whom we know not!
Like a fire upon the hearth-stone
Is a neighbor's homely daughter,
Like the starlight or the moonlight
Is the handsomest of strangers!"

Thus dissuading spake Nokomis,
And my Hiawatha answered
Only this: "Dear old Nokomis,
Very pleasant is the firelight,
But I like the starlight better,
Better do I like the moonlight!"

Gravely then said old Nokomis:
"Bring not here an idle maiden,
Bring not here a useless woman,
Hands unskilful, feet unwilling;
Bring a wife with nimble fingers,
Heart and hand that move together,
Feet that run on willing errands!"

Smiling answered Hiawatha:
'In the land of the Dacotahs
Lives the Arrow-maker's daughter,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Handsomest of all the women.
I will bring her to your wigwam,
She shall run upon your errands,
Be your starlight, moonlight, firelight,
Be the sunlight of my people!"

Still dissuading said Nokomis:
"Bring not to my lodge a stranger
From the land of the Dacotahs!
Very fierce are the Dacotahs,
Often is there war between us,
There are feuds yet unforgotten,
Wounds that ache and still may open!"

Laughing answered Hiawatha:
"For that reason, if no other,
Would I wed the fair Dacotah,
That our tribes might be united,
That old feuds might be forgotten,
And old wounds be healed forever!"

Thus departed Hiawatha
To the land of the Dacotahs,
To the land of handsome women;
Striding over moor and meadow,
Through interminable forests,
Through uninterrupted silence.

With his moccasins of magic,
At each stride a mile he measured;
Yet the way seemed long before him,
And his heart outran his footsteps;
And he journeyed without resting,
Till he heard the cataract's laughter,
Heard the Falls of Minnehaha
Calling to him through the silence.
"Pleasant is the sound!" he murmured,
"Pleasant is the voice that calls me!"

On the outskirts of the forests,
'Twixt the shadow and the sunshine,
Herds of fallow deer were feeding,
But they saw not Hiawatha;
To his bow he whispered, "Fail not!"
To his arrow whispered, "Swerve not!"
Sent it singing on its errand,
To the red heart of the roebuck;
Threw the deer across his shoulder,
And sped forward without pausing.

At the doorway of his wigwam
Sat the ancient Arrow-maker,
In the land of the Dacotahs,
Making arrow-heads of jasper,
Arrow-heads of chalcedony.
At his side, in all her beauty,
Sat the lovely Minnehaha,
Sat his daughter, Laughing Water,
Plaiting mats of flags and rushes
Of the past the old man's thoughts were,
And the maiden's of the future.

He was thinking, as he sat there,
Of the days when with such arrows
He had struck the deer and bison,
On the Muskoday, the meadow;
Shot the wild goose, flying southward
On the wing, the clamorous Wawa;
Thinking of the great war-parties,
How they came to buy his arrows,
Could not fight without his arrows.
Ah, no more such noble warriors
Could be found on earth as they were!
Now the men were all like women,
Only used their tongues for weapons!

She was thinking of a hunter,
From another tribe and country,
Young and tall and very handsome,
Who one morning, in the Spring-time,
Came to buy her father's arrows,
Sat and rested in the wigwam,
Lingered long about the doorway,
Looking back as he departed.
She had heard her father praise him,
Praise his courage and his wisdom;
Would he come again for arrows
To the Falls of Minnehaha?
On the mat her hands lay idle,
And her eyes were very dreamy.

Through their thoughts they heard a footstep,
Heard a rustling in the branches,
And with glowing cheek and forehead,
With the deer upon his shoulders,
Suddenly from out the woodlands
Hiawatha stood before them.

Straight the ancient Arrow-maker
Looked up gravely from his labor,
Laid aside the unfinished arrow,
Bade him enter at the doorway,
Saying, as he rose to meet him,
'Hiawatha, you are welcome!"

At the feet of Laughing Water
Hiawatha laid his burden,
Threw the red deer from his shoulders;
And the maiden looked up at him,
Looked up from her mat of rushes,
Said with gentle look and accent,
"You are welcome, Hiawatha!"

Very spacious was the wigwam,
Made of deer-skins dressed and whitened,
With the Gods of the Dacotahs
Drawn and painted on its curtains,
And so tall the doorway, hardly
Hiawatha stooped to enter,
Hardly touched his eagle-feathers
As he entered at the doorway.

Then uprose the Laughing Water,
From the ground fair Minnehaha,
Laid aside her mat unfinished,
Brought forth food and set before them,
Water brought them from the brooklet,
Gave them food in earthen vessels,
Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood,
Listened while the guest was speaking,
Listened while her father answered,
But not once her lips she opened,
Not a single word she uttered.

Yes, as in a dream she listened
To the words of Hiawatha,
As he talked of old Nokomis,
Who had nursed him in his childhood,
As he told of his companions,
Chibiabos, the musician,
And the very strong man, Kwasind,
And of happiness and plenty
In the land of the Ojibways,
In the pleasant land and peaceful.

"After many years of warfare,
Many years of strife and bloodshed,
There is peace between the Ojibways
And the tribe of the Dacotahs."
Thus continued Hiawatha,
And then added, speaking slowly,
"That this peace may last forever,
And our hands be clasped more closely,
And our hearts be more united,
Give me as my wife this maiden,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Loveliest of Dacotah women!"

And the ancient Arrow-maker
Paused a moment ere he answered,
Smoked a little while in silence,
Looked at Hiawatha proudly,
Fondly looked at Laughing Water,
And made answer very gravely:
"Yes, if Minnehaha wishes;
Let your heart speak, Minnehaha!"

And the lovely Laughing Water
Seemed more lovely as she stood there,
Neither willing nor reluctant,
As she went to Hiawatha,
Softly took the seat beside him,
While she said, and blushed to say it,
"I will follow you, my husband!"
This was Hiawatha's wooing!
Thus it was he won the daughter
Of the ancient Arrow-maker,
In the land of the Dacotahs!

From the wigwam he departed,
Leading with him Laughing Water;
Hand in hand they went together,
Through the woodland and the meadow,
Left the old man standing lonely
At the doorway of his wigwam,
Heard the Falls of Minnehaha
Calling to them from the distance,
Crying to them from afar off,
"Fare thee well, O Minnehaha!"

And the ancient Arrow-maker
Turned again unto his labor,
Sat down by his sunny doorway,
Murmuring to himself, and saying:
"Thus it is our daughters leave us,
Those we love, and those who love us!
Just when they have learned to help us,
When we are old and lean upon them,
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,
With his flute of reeds, a stranger
Wanders piping through the village,
Beckons to the fairest maiden,
And she follows where he leads her,
Leaving all things for the stranger!"

Pleasant was the journey homeward,
Through interminable forests,
Over meadow, over mountain,
Over river, hill, and hollow.
Short it seemed to Hiawatha,
Though they journeyed very slowly,
Though his pace he checked and slackened
To the steps of Laughing Water.

Over wide and rushing rivers
In his arms he bore the maiden;
Light he thought her as a feather,
As the plume upon his head-gear;
Cleared the tangled pathway for her,
Bent aside the swaying branches,
Made at night a lodge of branches,
And a bed with boughs of hemlock,
And a fire before the doorway
With the dry cones of the pine-tree.

All the travelling winds went with them,
O'er the meadows, through the forest;
All the stars of night looked at them,
Watched with sleepless eyes their slumber;
From his ambush in the oak-tree
Peeped the squirrel, Adjidaumo,
Watched with eager eyes the lovers;
And the rabbit, the Wabasso,
Scampered from the path before them,
Peering, peeping from his burrow,
Sat erect upon his haunches,
Watched with curious eyes the lovers.

Pleasant was the journey homeward!
All the birds sang loud and sweetly
Songs of happiness and heart's-ease;
Sang the bluebird, the Owaissa,
"Happy are you, Hiawatha,
Having such a wife to love you!"
Sang the robin, the Opechee,
"Happy are you, Laughing Water,
Having such a noble husband!"

From the sky the sun benignant
Looked upon them through the branches,
Saying to them, "O my children,
Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,
Life is checkered shade and sunshine,
Rule by love, O Hiawatha!"

From the sky the moon looked at them,
Filled the lodge with mystic splendors,
Whispered to them, "O my children,
Day is restless, night is quiet,
Man imperious, woman feeble;
Half is mine, although I follow;
Rule by patience, Laughing Water!"

Thus it was they journeyed homeward;
Thus it was that Hiawatha
To the lodge of old Nokomis
Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,
Brought the sunshine of his people,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Handsomest of all the women
In the land of the Dacotahs,
In the land of handsome women.

So ends Chapter 10 of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s masterpiece, “The Song of Hiawatha,” the best of all the chapters, I think, and some of the best words ever written that we can claim as part of our own literature, even though it is more closely related to the land “on the edge of the prairie,” as Garrison Keillor says every Saturday afternoon. Still, the place I live and write from, here in the Missouri River Valley, is indeed the "Land of the Dacotahs." Speaking of that, I'm re-reading, right now, Bruce Nelson's book, "Land of the Dacotahs." It's his version of what has happened in the last few hundred years here on this part of the prairie. I wouldn't exactly call it a North Dakota history book, but it is full of wonderful stories about this region, and I think he took the title from Longfellow. It's the first history book about this part of the prairie I read as a youngster, outside of Conrad Leifur's godawful textbook "Our State, North Dakota," for seventh grade civics class (or was it eighth grade?), a book which does not, I believe, contain any of the best things ever written about North Dakota. Or maybe I just have bad memories of Lefty Swenson's classes. I think I'll have to go back and take another look at it one of these days. Or not.

The Poetry of Paul Southworth Bliss

Today I want to give you another taste of the great prairie poet Paul Southworth Bliss. Largely unknown to North Dakotans, Bliss led a remarkably interesting life, the highlight of which seems to be the years he spent in North Dakota in the 1930's, if you can judge the quality of his life by the quality of the poetry he published here between 1933 and 1937.

Born in Wisconsin in 1889, his family later moved to Minnesota. Bliss attended Hamline College, where he was a star track athlete, once setting both half mile and mile run records within the same half hour one afternoon (at least that’s what the bio inside one of his book jackets says). He transferred to, and graduated from, Harvard, where he also did post-graduate work. He worked at newspapers in New York, Boston and Minnesota, and served overseas in World War I, where he earned the commission of colonel in the Officers’ Reserve Corps. He came to North Dakota as Field Director for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and later worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Those jobs took him to every corner of the state, and his poetry reflects his travels in, and his love for, North Dakota.

As best I can tell he published ten books of poetry, three of them in North Dakota, and each poem is labeled at the end as to the date he wrote it and the location in which he wrote it. It’s some of the best North Dakota poetry I’ve come across. I’ve become a big fan, and am still in the process of trying to collect all his books—I do have his North Dakota books, and it is from those I share the pieces below.

There’s a mystery or two surrounding Bliss. For some unknown reason, his mother had purchased a quarter section of land east of Hettinger, in eastern Adams County. In 1935, while still employed by the federal government, Bliss bought an adjacent quarter and built what is believed to be the first “rammed earth” house in North Dakota. Rammed earth is a process of making mud from prairie dirt and pressing it into wooden fames for drying, and when it dries hard like concrete, it is used as a brick would be to build a house. The house and garage he built in Adams County, both substantial structures that must have taken a very long time to construct, are still standing, although one wall of the house has collapsed. Still, much of the rest of the house and the garage are intact, and I’ve been trying to get the Adams County Historical Society to get involved in at least saving them, if not restoring them, to no avail. Bliss sold the place to local ranchers, and I went to church with their kids as a youngster, but that family is gone and the neighbor who bought the pasture in which it sits doesn’t seem interested in it at all. The picture above shows the house and the immense rock--actually clinker--wall he built atop a knoll on the prairie, giving the place a bit of a castle look. Lillian is standing in front of the wall to provide scale. The wall itself was a tremendous undertaking. If you're interested in seeing it yourself, let me know and I'll provide directions. Maybe if enough "tourists" show up somebody will do something about preserving it.

Oh, well, enough history and whining. At least we still have his poetry. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, especially the way, in many of his poems that he manages to provide a bit of a surprise ending, making them more story-like than you might expect from someone who seems to be at best a dreamer about the romanticism of the prairie. Occasionally you can find his books for sale on ABE or Alibris websites. I was able to buy signed copies of his North Dakota books for very little money. Oh, yes, one more mystery: Bliss’ life ended on New Year’s Eve 1940, when he put his army pistol to his head in a YMCA room in Kansas City, leaving the end of his own life story untold.

GREAT PROPERTY MAN

The Great Property Man
Toils under heaven’s proscenium.
One wall he hangs
With enormous murals
Of pink cirro-stratus,
Another
He fences with bars of lilac.

At stage left
He unfurls crisp banners of pink-blue;
Upstage
He lights a fireplace,
Red as an Argonne barrage;
In the wings
He tacks a silver slit for New Moon,
And
A jeweled sparkler, Venus,
For Evening Star.

The stage is set . . .
But no actors take the boards;
The Great Property Man
Has stolen the show
Himself.

October 17, 1936
En route, Bismarck to Hettinger, N.D., Highway No. 21

BADLANDS SAGA

A magpie’s black and white,
Shrieks against the dun
Of the clay domes;
Rabbit brush blooms yellowy
In the windows
Of the buttes;
A steer gazes at the edge
Of a chimneyed precipice . . .
A road signs reads:
“Use Chains in Wet Weather.”

Something seems to change in the sky,
Something seems to change in the soil,
Something seems to change in me:
It is the Badlands!

The road drops stickily
Around a plastic-blue wall;
The valley of the Little Missouri
Comes slowly into focus.

Reds, blues, grays, yellows,
Band themselves in mighty onslaught;
I am overwhelmed by the color-marksmen
That I cannot see.

In the ledges of gravel
And blue clay and coal,
And gray shale,
And sandstone.
I read the chaptered saga
Of a million years. . .

But the trickle of the river,
Writes on the floor of the valley
Nature’s tantalizing legend:
To Be Continued!

September 25, 1934. Minot, N.D.

Author’s note: When I came northward on Highway No. 85 from Dickinson to Williston, N.D., ten days ago, the Little Missouri seemed to be resting before taking up again the mighty saga of the Badlands.


PRAIRIE SUNSET

A sunset in a prairie sky—
You have not seen one then? . . .
Where coursing colors leap and die,
And leap up yet again . . .

The sun from out his treasure chest
Brings heaps of amber gold,
And spreads them out upon the west
With lavishness untold.

He adds, flame-red, and tints emerge,
The spectrum never knew;
Like billows in the sky they surge,
And all alone stand you.

Stand you, upon your lips a seal,
Too much a single word;
And what it is within you feel
Feels every beast and bird.

Then when the color-strife is drawn,
The sun brings out the rose
That he has gathered from the dawn;
And now the whole sky glows.

You hill men! You in cities bound,
You seek the sunset, west;
The prairie men look all around,
Oft eastward see it best . . .

So may the ranking gods be kind,
And bring you ‘ere life’s done,
To see a prairie sunset bind
The east and west in one.

February 14, 1934

Author’s note: The mightiest sunset I have seen in my lifetime occurred on Lincoln’s birthday anniversary, February 12, 1934. On a cold late-afternoon I left Williston in western North Dakota and drove 90 miles on Highway No. 85 over bare prairies to Crosby, near the Canadian boundary. The sunset began as I left and continued for about an hour and one-half; it was dark as I reach Crosby. The beauty and variety of the color pageant, ranging from fire to tints of the most delicate dawn, can be but inadequately suggested. It covered the entire sky; the east view was even more fascinating than the west.

One More Time: When The Landscape Is Quiet Again

Listen up, Senator Dorgan, Senator Conrad, Congressman Pomeroy and Governor Hoeven.

We are all grateful for your kind words about Art Link, your kindness to his widow and family, and your presence here as we laid him to rest. But if you’re going to sit in the front pews at his funeral, you have a responsibility to leave that funeral and practice what Art Link preached.

Art Link preached “cautious, orderly development.” To be sure, development was the operative word in that phrase, but development under control, with safeguards and reasonable assurances that “when the landscape is quiet again,” that we will not have ruined our most precious natural resource, our land. And our state’s heritage. That we would not have sacrificed our state’s future for a “one time harvest.”

Well, take a look out in western North Dakota, right now, today. There’s a free-for-all going on out there. Cautious and orderly? I don’t think so.

Senator Conrad, you told me Thursday you had just been out there, and were amazed at what you saw. I expect you will do something to try to help with roads that not long ago were used by just farmers and small town residents and friends who came to see them, but now are being destroyed by oil field trucks. I expect you other three have been there too, and will help, with roads and other impacts of rapid, disorderly development.

Today’s oil industry in North Dakota, because of the newly adopted methods of getting that oil from deep in the ground, depends on water. Much as the coal industry did in Art Link’s day. Then, and still, water heated by our coal to produces steam to turn the turbines that generate electricity for an entire northern tier of cities and states. Today, water is needed to fracture the rock that contains the oil to free it for its release into a pipeline to feed refineries throughout the Midwest.

Then, and still, that need for water threatens our groundwater resources, and leads us to the Missouri River and giant Lake Sakakawea as a more reliable source. But oil has brought a greater threat—a threat that has become a reality: the desecration of our Bad Lands. Because, unlike the mining of our rich coal deposits, this second "one-time harvest" is taking place in the most fragile environment in the state.

I’m not going to suggest to you what you should be doing about this right now. I did that in an earlier blog when I asked you to consider saving a few small scraps of roadless areas of the Bad Lands by supporting the Prairie Legacy Wilderness Proposal. (I could, I suppose, ask Byron and Kent to oppose the Murkowski amendment this week, and ask Earl to oppose it when, and if, similar legislation comes to the House.) But I would say this: Ask yourself what Art Link would do. And read, once more, what he said 37 years ago:

We do not want to halt progress We do not plan to be selfish and say “North Dakota will not share its energy resources.”

No . . . we simply want to insure the most efficient and environmentally sound method of utilizing our precious coal and water resources for the benefit of the broadest number of people possible.

And when we are through with that, and the landscape is quiet again,
when the draglines, the blasting rigs, the power shovels and the huge gondolas
cease to rip and roar

And when the last bulldozer has pushed the last spoil pile into place
and the last patch of barren earth has been seeded to grass or grain

Let those who follow and repopulate the land be able to say,
“Our grandparents did their job well. This land is as good as, and, in some cases, better than, before.”

Only if they can say this will we be worthy of the rich heritage of our land and its resources.

Surely those are some of the best words ever written – or spoken – in North Dakota.

Survival

Survival. I promised to report that just before I left with six friends for five days in the North Dakota Bad Lands. Three canoes and a kayak, seven one-man tents, a whole bunch of coolers, a modest (by someone’s definition) amount of alcohol, and quite a lot of the meat of cows and pigs floated from the Limber Pines area to the Ponderosa Pines area of the Badlands on the Little Missouri River Sunday through Thursday.

That’s all I’m going to say. What happens on The River stays on The River. Except for this:

34 years ago, some friends from Bismarck-Mandan decided to find out what it would be like to canoe on the Little Missouri. They liked it. A lot. This was the 35th annual excursion, a pretty amazing feat for a group of men. The cast and the venue have changed a little over the years. Two of the early members are dead now, two have moved to distant spots and no longer return. Of the four remaining early members, only one has been on all 35 trips. But one has been on 34, one on 33, and one on close to 30. Some of the trips have been on the Wild and Scenic stretch of the Upper Missouri River in Montana, commonly known as the White Cliffs area. A few have been just camping or hiking trips because of logistics or low water. But mostly we've gone to the Little Missouri River.

I think we were all in our twenties when this started. Now, for most of us, the first number in our age is 6. We’ve slowed and stiffened a little (one member this year said “The canoes are getting lower,” as he struggled to get out), but each trip still ends with a short discussion of next year’s trip. It was suggested this year that next year’s agenda include both the Little Missouri in the Spring and the Upper Missouri in the Fall. We’ve never done that before. We’ll see. At our age, recovery from these excursions takes a while. At least from Spring until Fall.

Jeff Weispfenning has put some scenic pictures from this year’s trip up on Facebook. You can go to his page and look if you want. I’m sharing the group photo of some pretty mangy looking guys at the end of the trip. For the record, they are Bill Knudson, Larry Dopson, Mike Burbach, Jim Fuglie, Mike Jacobs, Ken Rogers and Jeff Weispfenning.

35 years. We marveled some at that on this trip. Here’s what I marveled at: For the first time in 35 years, I forgot to pack toilet paper. That made me very creative. A guy just doesn’t go asking his friends to borrow some toilet paper.

But I survived. We all did. And it was great.