375:. The new Fort Totten Indian Industrial School focused on assimilating local Native American children into white American society, introducing them to desired ways of life, and cutting them off from their indigenous cultures. Alongside their regular academic studies, additional classes for practical skills were segregated by gender; girls learned homemaking skills, such as cooking and cleaning, while boys were taught industrial skills such as carpentry, woodworking, agriculture, and other trades. Most pupils were from western North Dakota and Montana; most local families, especially those at Spirit Lake, favored St. Michael's Mission due to Fort Totten's rigid structure and English-only curriculum. Meanwhile, classes at St. Michael's Mission were bilingual until 1887. Additionally, Fort Totten imposed harsh punishments on its students for rulebreaking. By 1910, Fort Totten had introduced a system that allowed local students to commute and live at home, rather than boarding. Although this increased enrollments and as such improved the school's revenue, due to financial struggles, the school briefly closed from 1917 to 1919. At its height, Fort Totten Indian Industrial School had as many as 400 pupils enrolled.
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in 1871. The following decade saw a boom of new construction, expanding in a square pattern around a central plaza. This center yard was used for drills and military parades. New buildings included a hospital, mess hall, four barracks, storehouses, and multiple other stores and offices. All of these additions, including the main building, cost about $ 100,000. Most were built from bricks crafted from locally sourced clay and lime quarried at Devils Lake and placed on stone foundations. Later additions included corrals and stables for horses and livestock, a brewery, and a
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self-sufficient. Indeed, as historian
Heather Mulliner writes, "the army’s presence at Totten had become more a nuisance than a source of support." The Spirit Lake Tribe had established their own government and police force, who often clashed with the soldiers at Fort Totten. At the fort, more and more idle soldiers were turning to alcohol and beginning to become unruly. With the army unable to justify its presence on Devils Lake any longer, Fort Totten was decommissioned and abandoned on December 20, 1890.
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school. Several of the original fort buildings were demolished during the boarding school period: the dead house, well house, a guardhouse, and half of one of the mess halls. A gymnasium was constructed over the spot where the destroyed barracks and mess hall had once stood. Hallways were constructed to connect two of the former barracks to two former officers' quarters. A water tower was also built. The Fort Totten Little
Theater, built during this time period, also still stands today.
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300:. One of these was to be located on the shores of Devils Lake. Although Pope canceled his plans for this fort in the fall of 1864, efforts to establish a military foothold there were revitalized in early 1867. This was due to a new treaty signed by the Sissetons and Wahpetons that established two new reservations in Dakota Territory:
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converted into the Totten Trail
Historic Inn in 2001 and 2002, which functions both as a hotel and also as a conference and event venue. In 2015, the State of North Dakota and the State Historical Society of North Dakota jointly allocated and raised $ 600,000 for renovations to the cafeteria/hospital building.
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joined the Fort Totten garrison and remained there until the fort's eventual closing; and until its closing, the fort was continuously manned. Soldiers here oversaw the 1874 establishment of the nearby St. Michael's
Mission school. Fort Totten was also the gathering point for an expedition to survey
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infantrymen who were garrisoned there—were already constructing more permanent buildings, although official authorization from
Congress to do this was not granted until April 6, 1869. The new main building was placed about 800 yards (730 m) south of the original log structure and was completed
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to the south and Devils Lake Indian
Reservation (now the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation) in the north. The latter was to be a 240,000-acre (97,000 ha) reservation encompassing the southern shore of Devils Lake. Fort Totten was officially established by the Secretary of War on July 17, 1867. It
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Visitors can access an interpretive center, take a walking tour of 16 original buildings, visit the
Pioneer Daughter's Museum, take in a show at the Fort Totten Little Theatre, and stay at the Totten Trail Historic Inn bed and breakfast. School children often attend the "Fort Totten Living History
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on
December 9, 1971, and the State of North Dakota allocated funds for renovations. Only the buildings and area immediately surrounding the central square are included in the listing, and nothing of the original fort remains outside this area. One of the former officers' quarters was restored and
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By the time the boarding school was founded, the buildings were in dire need of maintenance. Due to the cold but humid climate, the brick buildings had to be frequently painted to keep the structures from crumbling, and the school's pupils supplied most of the manual labor to upkeep the physical
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The Spirit Lake Tribe had faced severe hardship since arriving in the region, and the winter of 1866–1867 had been particularly difficult. As such, the first missions of the fort were to support the tribe and offer protection from raids. The initial fort was meant to be temporary and was quickly
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As war waned and the threat of raids dwindled, the army struggled to justify its upkeep of a strong military presence across the
American frontier. At Fort Totten specifically, the area was so rural that it almost never saw combat. Additionally, the Spirit Lake Tribe had long since become
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398:. Its financial situation never recovered after the Great Depression, and in 1959, a new campus opened east of the Fort Totten location. On March 6, 1959, Fort Totten ceased operations and the BIA turned the property over to the
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By the time the Great
Depression started, the school had partially converted into a day school, with dormitories still maintained for boarding students. Between 1935 and 1939, it hosted a
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to enforce the peace among local Native American tribes and to protect transportation routes. After its closing in 1890, it operated until 1959 as a
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617:""Land Was One of the Greatest Gifts": Women's Landownership in Dakota Indian, Immigrant Scandinavian, and African American Communities"
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402:; its ownership began in 1960. Fort Totten became a North Dakota State Historic Site later that year and was listed on the
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Forts of the West, Military Forts and Presidios and Posts Commonly Called Forts West of the Mississippi River to 1898
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732:"Fort Totten, deemed one of the best-preserved frontier military forts in the nation, continues to tell its story"
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called it "one of the best preserved military posts... in the Trans-Mississippi West for the Indian Wars period".
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Fort Totten, 12 miles southwest of Devils Lake City off Route 57, Devils Lake vicinity, Benson County, ND
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and spanned about 600 by 400 feet (180 by 120 m). This lumber was provided by a sawmill at nearby
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Fort Totten was one of nearly 150 forts constructed across the American western frontier during the
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Mulliner, Heather (December 2019). "Two Posts, Two Pasts: Preserving Forts Sisseton and Totten".
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687:"The Smell of the White Man Is Killing Us: Education and Assimilation among Indigenous Peoples"
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Northern Plains Overland Trails 1866-1877 map on display at the Fort Totten Historic Site
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Forts of the Northern Plains: Guide to Historic Military Posts of the Plains Indian Wars
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National Register of Historic Places listings in Benson County, North Dakota
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constructed out of oak logs surrounded by an 18-foot-tall (5.5 m) log
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541:"National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Fort Totten"
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Original First Lieutenant's quarters, now the Totten Trail Historic Inn
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Fort Totten, Captain & First Lieutenant's Quarters, Building No. 2
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Fort Totten, Captain & First Lieutenant's Quarters, Building No. 4
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had put forth plans to create a line of forts across the newly formed
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National Register of Historic Places in Benson County, North Dakota
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After its decommissioning, Congress turned over Fort Totten to the
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Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota
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Hansen, Karen V.; Osterud, Grey; Grim, Valerie (Summer 2018).
672:, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Okla., 1965, p. 115.
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Fort Totten, Second Lieutenant's Quarters, Building No. 1
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Fort Totten, Second Lieutenant's Quarters, Building No. 5
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HABS—Historic American Buildings Survey of Fort Totten
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List of National Historic Landmarks in North Dakota
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961:St. Boniface Cemetery, Wrought-Iron Cross Site
884:Fort Totten, Company Barracks, Building No. 12
849:Fort Totten, Company Barracks, Building No. 11
814:Fort Totten, Surgeon & Chaplains' Quarters
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239:. During its 13 years of operation as a fort,
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486:. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008.
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288:) had been relocated to the area around
261:State Historical Society of North Dakota
1062:Native American history of North Dakota
1047:1867 establishments in Dakota Territory
842:Fort Totten, Quartermaster's Storehouse
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1022:Museums in Benson County, North Dakota
505:"National Register Information System"
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1037:Pre-statehood history of North Dakota
539:Sperry, James E. (October 28, 1971).
307:United States Army Corps of Engineers
259:in 1971; in its nomination form, the
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921:National Register of Historic Places
510:National Register of Historic Places
404:National Register of Historic Places
257:National Register of Historic Places
253:Fort Totten Indian Industrial School
394:for Dakota children suffering from
782:Historic American Buildings Survey
280:. Following the conclusion of the
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1032:North Dakota State Historic Sites
770:Totten Trail Historic Inn website
730:Bonham, Kevin (January 4, 2016).
685:Carroll, James T. (Winter 2009).
363:Boarding school and later history
16:Historic fort in North Dakota, US
1072:Native American boarding schools
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459:Fort Totten Historic Site marker
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302:Lake Traverse Indian Reservation
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55:Buildings at Fort Totten in 2021
763:Fort Totten State Historic Site
373:Native American boarding school
320:Early Fort Totten, 19th century
249:Native American boarding school
225:Fort Totten State Historic Site
793:Fort Totten, Adjutant's Office
386:The Fort Totten Little Theater
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120:South of Fort Totten off ND 57
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107:Show map of the United States
19:United States historic place
1017:State parks of North Dakota
925:Benson County, North Dakota
371:, who repurposed it into a
231:that sits on the shores of
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424:Field Day" in September.
237:Fort Totten, North Dakota
202:NRHP reference
175:9.81 acres (3.97 ha)
129:Fort Totten, North Dakota
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941:Benson County Courthouse
856:Fort Totten, Bakery Shop
784:(HABS) No. ND-17, "
369:Bureau of Indian Affairs
292:. During the mid-1860s,
82:Show map of North Dakota
863:Fort Totten, Commissary
347:the border between the
294:Major General John Pope
966:Viking Lutheran Church
951:Grace Episcopal Church
882:HABS No. ND-24, "
875:HABS No. ND-23, "
868:HABS No. ND-22, "
861:HABS No. ND-16, "
854:HABS No. ND-14, "
847:HABS No. ND-13, "
840:HABS No. ND-12, "
833:HABS No. ND-11, "
826:HABS No. ND-10, "
738:. Forum Communications
621:Great Plains Quarterly
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255:. It was added to the
835:Fort Totten, Magazine
828:Fort Totten, Hospital
819:HABS No. ND-9, "
812:HABS No. ND-8, "
805:HABS No. ND-7, "
798:HABS No. ND-6, "
791:HABS No. ND-5, "
633:10.1353/gpq.2018.0041
558:accompanying pictures
545:National Park Service
515:National Park Service
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311:Joseph Gilbert Totten
156:47.97750°N 98.99306°W
971:West Antelope Bridge
598:South Dakota History
344:7th Cavalry Regiment
333:. By 1868, soldiers—
278:American Indian wars
245:American Indian wars
243:was used during the
933:Historic properties
161:47.97750; -98.99306
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736:Grand Forks Herald
668:Robert W. Frazer:
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335:United States Army
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282:Dakota War of 1862
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517:. March 13, 2009.
442:Fort Totten trail
286:Spirit Lake Tribe
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125:Nearest city
946:Fort Totten
742:January 19,
708:January 20,
654:January 20,
550:January 19,
446:Henry Farny
290:Devils Lake
272:Fort Totten
241:Fort Totten
233:Devils Lake
159: /
135:Coordinates
30:Fort Totten
1011:Categories
491:References
147:98°59′35″W
144:47°58′39″N
991:See also:
761:Official
649:165570837
703:27671173
641:26535381
327:stockade
209:71000629
117:Location
765:website
428:Gallery
267:History
188:Website
1067:Dakota
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419:Museum
353:Canada
340:sutler
699:JSTOR
645:S2CID
637:JSTOR
556:With
444:, by
309:head
235:near
180:Built
996:and
744:2022
710:2020
656:2022
552:2022
229:fort
183:1868
172:Area
923:in
629:doi
204:No.
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