Title: Austin Engel Papers
Dates: ca. 1900s-1999
Collection Number: MSS 10312
Quantity: 7 feet
Abstract: Consists of Engel's files relating to various organizations, including the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, United Tribes of North Dakota Development Corporation, Governor's Interstate Indian Council, American Indian Crafts Cooperative, New Town Industrial Development Corporation, Congregational Christian Conference of North Dakota, Northwestern Association of the Congregational Christian Conference of North Dakota, and the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party.
Provenance: The papers were donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota by Austin Engel in 1983. Additional material was added in 1983, 2005 and 2010. The collection was processed and the inventory created by Emily Ergen Schultz in December 2009 and updated in 2010.
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code or an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements are needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Austin George Engel, Jr. was born August 9, 1928 in Little Falls, MN to Austin George Engel and Eugenia Donahue. On August 11, 1950 he married Mary Roessel of St. Louis, MO and they had five sons: David James, Michael Robert, Peter Clarke, Paul Monteith, and Steven Johnstone. He received a B.A. from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN and a B.Div. from Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT. From 1954-1960 he was Pastor at the United Church of Christ in New Town, ND. He served as a social minister for the Congregational Church Board of Homeland Ministries on the Fort Berthold Reservation. In 1965 the Governor appointed Engle Director of Indian Affairs. In 1972 the Governor appointed him Director of State Planning. He earned a law degree in 1985 and practiced law in Bismarck and New Salem. His activities ranged from religious to political to artistic and focused on Fott Berthold, the United Tribes, the Democratic-NPL Party and the Congregational Church. Austin Engel died in Bismarck on October 3, 2008.
BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY
OVERSIZE
- Certificate of Honorary membership in the United Tribes of ND for King Olav V of Norway, May 5, 1968
- Architectural Drawings - Mandaree Congregational Church
- Three Political cartoons by John Baer (Lloyd B. Omdahl stamped on back)
Congregational Christian Conference of North Dakota (CCCND), 1950-1963
Box 1:
1 Constitution, by-laws, amendments/revisions, procedures, articles of incorporation, position descriptions, administrative material, 1953-1964
2 Memoranda and correspondence, 1957-1963
3 Agenda, 1956-1962
4 Minutes and reports to meetings, 1950-1963
5 Minutes and reports to meetings, 1956-1962
6 Annual reports of meetings, 1954-1963
7 Budget material, 1954-1963
8 Newsletters, 1957 & 1961
9 Yearbook (First Congregational Church, Minot), 1963
10 Studies, 1956 & 1958
11 Notes
12 Committees, 1957-1963
13 Local chapters/churches, 1961-1968
14 Publications – other organizations, 1957-1963
Congregational Christian Conference of North Dakota – Northwest Association (CCCND NW Association), 1930-1964
15 Constitution, by-laws, appendices, resolutions, organization, 1938-1962
16 Correspondence, memoranda, agendas, programs, 1954-1964
17 Minutes and reports, newsletters, 1930-1963
18 Financial and budget material, 1961-1963
19 Administrative material, mailing lists, 1961-1963
20 Publications, 1951-1952
3 (loose) Film strips:
-“Church on the Reservation,” produced by the Office for Audio-Visuals, the Department of the Church in Town and Country, and the South Dakota Conference, United Church of Christ, images of church activities, services, and parishioners on an unidentified reservation, ca 1950s;
-“Life on an Indian Reservation,” produced by the Stewardship Council Office for Audio-Visuals and the Board for Homeland Ministries, Town and Country, United Church of Christ, images of activities, people and places on an unidentified reservation, ca 1950s
North Dakota Conference of the United Church of Christ (NDCUCC), 1958-1968
Box 2:
1 Constitution, by-laws, administrative material, address, budget material, articles of incorporation, 1958-1964
2 Agenda, minutes, memoranda, annual reports, publications, 1963-1968
3 United Church of Christ Thrift Shop, 1967
Miscellaneous church publications, speeches and papers, 1954-1967
4 Miscellaneous publications:
- “The Catholic Church: Its Influence in the Development of ND (1818-1889)” Master’s Thesis by C. Larry Plante, Montana State University, 1954;
- First Congregational Church Women’s Fellowship Retreat Meditation Guide, Tempe, AZ, May 5, 1965;
- “My Fellowship – Bush league Bonanza” by Betty Mills;
- “A Plan for Prayer,” Roy Pearson;
- “Economic and Sociological Trends Affecting Town and Country Churches in ND,” Stanley W. Voelker, ND Council of Churches, 1962;
- Great Plains Observer, July 1967
Indians, organizations and projects, 1905-1982
5 ND Indian Affairs Commission (NDIAC), 1965-1999
6 The Governor’s Interstate Indian Council, Inc. (GIIC), 1969-1972
7 American Indian Crafts Cooperative, 1966-1967
8 American Indian Crafts Cooperative, 1965-1968
9 American Indian Crafts Cooperative, 1965-1972
10 United Tribes of ND Development Corp., 1968-1970
11 United Tribes of ND Development Corp., 1968-1971
12 United Tribes of ND Development Corp., 1967-1971
13 New Town Industrial Development Corporation, 1955-1962
14 Indian goals study, 1960s
Box 3:
1 Fort Berthold reservation, 190- & 1967-1971
2 Standing Rock Reservation - discussion on history, land and land use, March 9, 1939
3 Proposed Indian family training center at Fort Lincoln, 1969
4 Research paper – “An Investigation of Occupational Aptitude Patterns of Trainees enrolled at the United Tribes Employment Training Center,” Master’s Thesis, NDSU, Allen M. Gillette, August 1970
5 The Three Tribes Herald, Fort Berthold Council of Congregational Churches, 1959-1982
6 The Fact News, Fort Berthold Reservation, ca 1976-1977
7 Miscellaneous publications, 1926-1982
-“Maihepi Kidu Wetsikiwats” Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Elbowoods Congregational Missionary Work and Forty-fifth annual meeting congregational Conference of ND, Elbowoods, ND, June 1926;
- Mandan-Hidatsa Myths and Ceremonies, Martha warren Beckwith, The American folk-lore society, G. E. Stecherd [Stechert] & Co. (New York), 1938
- “Indian Rights and American Justice,” Harold E. Fey, Christian Century Foundation (Chicago, Illinois), 1955;
- “The Plight of the Upper Midwest Indian,” reprinted from the Minneapolis Tribune, February 17-March 3, 1957;
- Reprint from the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from June 2-June 20, 1957 issues;
- “America’s Lost People” from the Congressional Record-Senate, No. 11—2, January 22, 1960, p. 947-958;
- Indian Truth, Indian Rights Association (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), May 1967
- Chapter seven from unknown book “Policies which Impede Indian Assimilation” Guts & Tripe, Coalition of American Indian Citizens, Sore Eye Moon, 1970;
- Resource Directory in the Areas of Environmental Protection & Individual Health & Safety,” Americans for Indian Opportunity (Albuquerque, New Mexico), 1982;
- “Maaduidi Adi: The Path of Life,” by Rev. A. L. Riggs, D. D., translated into Hidatsa by Edward Goodbird and C. L. Hall, Santee Normal Training School Press (Santee, NE), n.d.;
- 75th Anniversary Map Fort Berthold Indian Mission, ND, 1876-1951, n.d. (two copies)
8 Miscellaneous publications, 1905-1970
-“Hymns and Scripture Selections in the Mandan Language,” First Edition, 1905 (two copies); Second Edition, 1926;
-Congressional act regarding surveying and sale of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation land, June 1, 1910 (two copies);
- “Regulations for the Sale of Lots in the Town Sites of Sanish, Parshall, and Van Hook, in the Former Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, ND,” Department of the Interior, October 12, 1916 and Presidential Proclamation, March 3, 1917 (two copies);
-“Nikutati Isatau Natcitcitu (I Am the Bread of Life): Bible Translations and Hymns in the Ree or Sanis Language,” Third Edition, 1924;
- “Scripture Selections and Hymns in the Hidatsa or Gros Ventre Language,” Fourth Edition, 1926;
- “The Hidatsa Earthlodge,” Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Gilbert L. Wilson, Bella Weitzner, Ed., 1934;
- “The Resources, People and Administration of Fort Berthold Reservation, ND,” Gordon Macgregor, Social Economist, Missouri River Basin Investigations Staff, Region 2, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Billings, MT, August 24, 1948;
- “Known Migrations of Historic Indian Tribes with an Introduction on Prehistoric and Protohistoric Movements in the Upper Mississippi-Missouri Area,” Edward A. Milligan, February 1949;
- “Social and Economic Report of Fort Berthold Reservation, Supplement No. 1: A Summary of Data Obtained in the Fort Berthold Family Survey #2,” Missouri River Basin Investigations Staff, Region 2, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Billings, MT, August 31, 1949 (two copies);
- “Report Concerning Tribal Delegation to Washington, December 16-22, 1951,” to the Tribal Business Council of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Reservation from James E. Curry, Tribal Attorney;
- “Americanizing the White Man,” Felix S. Cohen (reprinted from The American Scholar, Vol. 21, 1951-1952;
- “Brief History of the Fort Berthold Mission,” H.W. Case for Consultation on Indian Affairs, November-December 1958;
- “Fort Berthold History,” Ralph M. Shane (reprinted by ND Indian Affairs Commission, Bismarck, ND February 1970);
- “Looking Down the Arikara Road,” Judge Peter H. Beauchamp, n.d.;
- “Prairie Chicken Goes to School” booklet, n.d.;
- “Reminiscences of Sitting Crow,” Jefferson Smith interpreting, n.d.
9 Publications, Garrison Dam, 1949-1954
- “Water Is Coming” (Souvenir, Garrison Dam Project), Leo D. Harris, 1949;
- “General Report, Fort Berthold Indian Reservation on the Relocation Problems of the Reservation,” R.W. Quinn, Superintendent, January 20, 1950;
- “(Preliminary Draft) Fort Berthold Relocation Problems,” Robert Merrill, University of Chicago, August 1, 1951;
- “Moving Day for Like-a-Fish-Hook,” Galen R. Weaver, Advance, February 8, 1954;
9 “Congressional Bills on the Naming of the Impoundment created by Garrison Dam,” n.d.
10 Audio – Dr. James Murray, Economist, Moorhead State College, “The Needs of ND Indians and How They Are Being Met,” Annual meeting, Fargo League of Women Voters, March 23, 1965
11 Engel’s booklets – notes, prayers, and “The Minister’s Companion”
12 Engel’s booklets (continued)
North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party, 1956-1979
Box 4:
1 Constitution, by-laws, resolutions, platform, reports, budget material and miscellaneous, 1962-1978
2 Constitution, by-laws, resolutions, platform, reports, budget material and miscellaneous, 1956-1978
3 Policy Committee, 1977-1978
4 Finance Committee, 1977-1978
5 Headquarters Aid Committee (HAC), 1966-1968
Box 5:
1 Committees, 1968-1978
2 Correspondence and mailings, 1964-1978
3 Personnel, 1977-1978
4 Appointments, 1969-1978
5 Campaigns, 1966-1978
6 Press (news) releases and letters to the editor, 1962-1978
7 Administrative material - notes, contracts, 1961-1978
8 Workshops, 1978
9 Democratic Conventions, 1964-1972
10 Burleigh County Democratic-NPL Party, 1960s
11 Legislative Assembly employees, 1978
12 Century Club, 1974-1979
13 Get out the vote, canvassing, voter registration material, voting material, 1968-1976
14 Republican Party training pamphlets
Box 6:
1 Catalogs, 1960 & 1964
2 Brochures and programs, 1960-1978
3 House and Senate Bills, Resolutions
4 Districts, 1976-1977
5 Districts (Continued), 1964-1966
6 Districts (Continued), 1964-1978
7 District 32, 1969-1970
8 Precinct 53, 1966
9 Precincts (other than 53)
10 Reapportionment & reorganization, 1975-1976
Box 7:
1 Special election, 1973
2 Newsletters and magazines, newspapers and clippings, 1960-1976
3 ND Young Democratic-NPL Clubs, 1961-1962
4 National Platform, 1976 & n.d.
5 Democrats 1962-1967
6 Legislative Advisory Council
7 John F. Kennedy (JFK) Memorial Center, 1967
8 Political photographs
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