Bismarck/ND: Germans from Russia in North Dakota

These immigrants were not told that their new land in America was forcefully taken from the Native Americans . North Dakota, also referred to as the Sioux State after the original inhabitants, is largely populated by Native Americans. When the railroads were built and gold was discovered in the Black Hills, thousands of white settlers were attracted to the area.

The Native Americans were forced to give up their land to make room for the new settlers. One of the most vivid examples of the determination with which the Native Americans fought to hold on to their land is the battles Chief Sitting Bull and his tribe waged at Little Bighorn. The cavalry was heavily defeated, but the white settlers continued to drive out the Native Americans.

The Russian-Germans, however, knew nothing of this conflict when they decided to emigrate to America. When they arrived in North Dakota, the area evoked memories of the land they had left behind in Russia: the prairie was flat and almost devoid of trees - similar to the Russian steppe.

Margie Miller explains: They settled in land that was like where they came from. Most of them were farmers. They checked out the soil and whatever the soil was - it was like in the old country.

Margie Miller and her family live on a farm north of Bismarck. The land her ancestors were given was farmland with rich soil, though working it was hard labor. The first settlers lived in primitive homes of stone, earthen mud and grass.

Glen Krugerberg, a Russian-German who lives in Pick City, a village near Bismarck, remembers many moving stories from the early days. Today Glen and other Russian-Germans meet in the German Club every other week to keep up their German.

Prior to the Second World War, they spoke only German. When Germany was declared an enemy in war, the immigrants were forced to stop speaking in their native tongue. As in many other American communities with a large German immigrant population, German was virtually banned from public usage. Whoever was caught speaking German, was faced with strong penalties.

"Deutsch - Warum nicht?" German is the only language permitted at the German Club in Pick City

Margie Miller: They even got so far that if you spoke German, if they heard you speaking German - like in a gas station - they wouldn't fill gas for you. They thought you were a Nazi or something.

In the course of the years, many Russian-Germans have almost forgotten their native tongue. Today, the younger ones often cannot speak a word of German. So when Glen Krugerberg and his friends meet at the German club, it is often only the elderly who can still remember the words of the traditional folk songs.

One of them is "Du, du liegst mir im Herzen, du, du liegst mir im Sinn",a sentimental song about the difficulties of distant and unanswered love.

The members of the club keep up a strict rule that may sound strange to outsiders: If anyone is caught speaking English at the meetings, he or she has to pay a cent into a special 'penalty cash box'. Unfortunately, the box is getting fuller and fuller