North Dakota Releases Updated Tribal Textbook

(Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction has released the first of a series of updated textbooks on the five Native nations that share land with North Dakota.

The book — titled “Journey to Understanding” — provides a brief introduction to the tribes’ history and culture. It’s the first time a new edition of the work has been released in more than two decades.

The textbook will soon be distributed to schools across the state, though a digital version is already available to download for free on the University of North Dakota’s Scholarly Commons website.

“Journey to Understanding” was first published in 2002 as cultural training material for social workers at the North Dakota Department of Human Services. The agency hired the Bismarck-based Native American Training Institute to write it to help its employees better understand the state’s Native communities.