Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, in cooperation with Prairie Public Broadcasting, will air a new radio program titled “Home-Grown: German-Russian Farm Kids Remember.” The program features stories about farm machinery, farm techniques and farm animals from narrators of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project. The narrators grew up on the Northern Plains including agricultural regions of South Dakota, North Dakota and Saskatchewan.
The program will air during the “Dakota Datebook” time slots on April 20-22 and May 11-15. “Dakota Datebook” airs at 8:35 a.m., 3:55 p.m., 5:35 p.m. and 7:55 p.m. A longer version of the radio program will air during the “Hear It Now” time slot on May 5. “Hear it Now” airs at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Agricultural historian Suzzanne Kelley will provide scholarly commentary for the radio program, placing agricultural practices of the Germans from Russia in a larger historical framework.
Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been traveling the Northern Plains, gathering stories and documenting family relationships and childhood memories of second and third generation Germans from Russia. Jessica Clark, recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, coordinates the project and Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.
For the radio program, Jamestown, N.D., native Alvin Graf shared his memory of missing school to work on the farm. “In the spring, around March, we had to stay home to clean grain for spring seeding, oil and grease the harness, break horses and get the machinery in shape,” he said. “In the fall of the year after thrashing – same thing. You didn’t go to school for at least a month and a half after school started. We only had about four months of school.”
The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and Prairie Public provide major funding for the program. A CD of the radio program will be available for $25. To pre-order the CD, contact Acacia Stuckle, special collections associate, at 1-6596 or acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu.
The program can be heard on 90.5 FM in Bismarck, 89.9 FM in Dickinson, 91.5 FM in Devils Lake, 91.9 FM in Fargo, 89.3 FM in Grand Forks, 91.5 FM in Jamestown, 88.9 FM in Minot and 89.5 FM in Williston.
The Dakota Memories Oral History Project is a privately funded project sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries. For more information, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at 1-6596 or visit www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.
April 15, 2009