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When the Landscape is Quiet Again
The Legacy of Art Link
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Former Governor Arthur A Link has become virtually a mythic figure in the North Dakota consciousness. His father was an immigrant from the German Sudetenland, who homesteaded on the hardscrabble land of Northwestern North Dakota. Art Link was governor of North Dakota during the first great evergy crisis in the 1970's.
The nation's thirst for new energy sources threatened that which Art Link loved most: the land. Governor Link insisted that North Dakota's energy development was in harmony with values deeper than mere extraction: stewardship, the agrarian ideal, the integrity of rural communities.
On October 11, 1973, Governor Link delivered what is widely regarded as North Dakota's "Gettysburg Address." His creed written in the margins of his prepared speech moments before he was introduced, is known by it's opening phrase: "When the landcape is quiet again."
This is the story of that man, that speech, and the landscape that inspired it.
This film is the first of many for the Dakota Institute of the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation
Click here to order
NEWS ARCHIVE
Link film premieres in Bismarck, Fargo
Sep 24, 2008 - 06:37:34 CDT
By KEN ROGERS
Bismarck Tribune
Art and Grace Link are beloved by many North Dakotans.
Now, a North Dakota group has made an hour-length documentary film of Art Link's life that captures much of his character and the former governor's strong beliefs about conservation, developed at a time when the state's lignite coal, land and water resources were called upon to fuel gasification and power plants.
The film, "When the Landscape is Quiet Again," will premiere in Bismarck at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Belle Mehus Auditorium and in Fargo at 7 p.m. Monday at the Fargo Theatre. The premier showings are open to the public and free.
The title for the documentary comes from a speech then-governor Link gave on Oct. 11, 1973, that defined his position on energy development in the state. Link's words from that night are often quoted and continue to be cited by some as a wise environmental course for North Dakota. The voice of Garrison Keillor, reading those lines in the film, gives incredible resonance to Link's words, and then to hear Link himself, now 94, read the same text makes a powerful statement about the man and his philosophy.
Clay Jenkinson and David Swenson, both of Bismarck, working through the Dakota Institute, created the film.
"When the Landscape is Quiet Again" moves through the chronology of the Links' life, story by story, as told by the people who worked with them and knew them. It's a gallery, with rare exception, of Democrat-NPLfigures led by the state's two U.S. senators and longtime Link chief of staff Bob Valeu.
The stories about Link's late-night stops - returning to Bismarck after a political meeting somewhere else in the state - for truckstop pie and coffee, are endearing.
The film is rich in imagery, garnered from the Links' personal photo albums, footage from television archives and newly-captured views of the people and landscape of the North Dakota.
"I'm just so proud," said David Borlaug, president of the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, parent of the Dakota Institute. "And to think, this was done right here in Bismarck, North Dakota - that's great."
Link was a member of the North Dakota House of Representatives from 1946 to 1970, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1970 to 1972, and governor from 1973 to 1980.
It was in the 1970s that most of the state's existing coal-fired plants were constructed. And the Link administration pushed hard for strong strip mine reclamation laws.
The film captures much of the tenor of that time.
Dakota Institute Investigates Local History, Heritage and Identity
From the Bismarck Tribune
Jun 22, 2008
By KEN ROGERS
With Meriwether Lewis and William Clark floating farther into the past, the Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Founda-tion plans to claim new territory along the river of time - present and past.
The Dakota Institute has been formed to do this work.
"It's a bigger tent to hold things under," said foundation president David Borlaug, who described the institute as another vehicle for films, book projects, symposiums and conversations on public issues.
"The Art Link project is front and center," Borlaug said. The Link project, a 60-minute documentary film on the life of the former North Dakota governor, will be unveiled in the fall. It will have premiere showings in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Alexander (Link's hometown) and other North Dakota communities, as well as a run on Prairie Public TV and the multi-tiered Minnesota public broadcasting.
Also in the fall, the Institute will partner with Bismarck State College for a symposium titled: "The Travels of Maximilian and Bodmer," complete with a cast of notable academics and museum professionals. Artist Karl Bodmer and naturalist Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied visited North Dakota in 1833 as part of their expedition to record the natural history of the American West.
Borlaug said he invited top scholars in the U.S. and Germany on the topic, expecting many would not be able to make it, but nearly everyone said sure.
"It's a perfect way to launch the Institute," Borlaug said.
Merle Paaverud, director of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said he looks at the work of Borlaug's group "not as a competitor, but as a partner." They have special areas of interest, such as Lewis and Clark, while the historical society has a broader responsibility, he said.
Heading up the Dakota Institute as director will be foundation board member and scholar Clay Jenkinson.
"I prefer (as a title) custodian," said Jenkinson, a well known humanities scholar whose focus ranges from Meri-wether Lewis and Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt and Robert Oppenheimer. Jenkinson also writes a weekly column for the Tribune.
The foundation has assumed responsibility for Jenkinson's Jefferson Hour, an hourlong syndicated public radio show, recorded at the Makoche studio in Bismarck..
Currently, Jenkinson has his attention on the Link film.
"We are nearly done. I have three more interviews to do," said Jenkinson, as Link's former staffer Bob Valeu looked out from the video editing screen at Makoche.
In doing the 20-30 interviews for the film, Jenkinson found a great respect for Link among those with which he talked.
"There's a love of Art Link," said Jenkinson, describing the former governor as the Jimmy Carter of North Dakota.
Success on the film, for Jenkinson?
"That Art Link will like it," and that it's viewed as nonpartisan. "It's about a man who's beyond politics," Jenkinson said.
David Swenson of Makoche has been the videographer for the Link film, and Jenkinson gives him much credit for the visual and sound quality of the film. "I"m immensely proud of it," Jenkinson said.
As for the symposium on Maximilian and Bodmer, on the 175th anniversary of their visit to North Dakota, Jenkin-son points out the two men - serious notetakers - arrived at the villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa a few short years before the smallpox epidemic of 1837 radically changed the future for the two tribes.
"A lot of what we know about the Mandan language and Four Bears comes from Maximilian," he said.
Borlaug sees it as an opportunity for scholars to present "in a way accessible to the general public" on the history and people of this place.
In addition to potential book projects ahead for the Institute, Borlaug and Jenkinson see a need for a sort of North Dakota think tank. "Clay brings an opportunity to bring a great convergence," Borlaug said. And, "It's as much about the future as the present."
Jenkinson sees conversations about the future of the Great Plains and the North Dakota identity. "It's as BSC presi-dent Larry Skogan suggests: Asking the questions North Dakota should be asking," he said.
Topics might be the future of corrections in the state, or reparation of Indian land.
Jenkinson wants the Institute to develop a reputation for being fair minded and humanities based, for investigating ideas, working through arguments, identifying best practices, and carefully avoiding stated positions.
Fort Mandan. Lewis and Clark. The fur trade. First farmers. Washburn has become a center for the presentation of heritage and history along the Missouri River between the Heart and the Knife rivers. With the Dakota Institute, Borlaug sees heritage and cultural tourism and interests continuing to evolve.
Terry Harzinski, executive director of the Bismarck-Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, "We look at them as an asset for Bismarck-Mandan. We send a lot of people their way."
Special Guest on The Thomas Jefferson Hour®
 Listen as President Jefferson speaks with Kevin Locke (Tokeya Inajin), a Lakota flute player, hoop dancer, and storyteller in a two-part show. Throughout the first part, Jefferson converses with Locke, and the second of the two part show features Clay Jenkinson and Kevin Locke discussing Kevin's music and Lakota history. Also, be sure to read Clay's Column about Locke, whom Clay refers to as, "a gifted, graceful, wise and extraordinary Lakota artist." If you'd like to hear more of Kevin Locke's music, you can order from Makoché, on iTunes, or by calling 1-800-637-6863. Visit Makoché's website and Kevin Locke's website. If you missed these shows, go to iTunes, our media player, or download the show today.
Clay on the Colbert Report
BISMARCK, ND - “King of the Jefferson’s” From ND North Dakota native Clay Jenkinson appeared on the Colbert Report on the Comedy Central channel on Wednesday, November 15, 2006.
 Jenkinson and two other Thomas Jefferson interpreters were guests of Stephen Colbert, who hosts the notorious Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Jenkinson, who has won national awards for his portrayals of the Third President, appeared with Bill Barker of Colonial Williamsburg and Steven Edenbo from of Philadelphia. The segment on the Colbert Report was a cross between the Dating Game and American Idol. It was, as Colbert put it, America's search for the real Thomas Jefferson.
In the end, Jenkinson's Jefferson was crowned America's Thomas Jefferson. Colbert literally put a crown on Jenkinson's head, gave him a scepter, and covered his shoulders with a faux ermine robe. "On the set, I said, "You love me, you really really love me," Jenkinson said, but that part of the four hour interview was cut before final production. "Naturally, I am thrilled to be America's Thomas Jefferson, even though it came by way of a coin toss, and I of course want to say that my best statements wound up on the cutting room floor."
 Jenkinson, the co-creator of the modern humanities tent Chautauqua movement, has been portraying Jefferson for twenty years.
The program was taped on Friday, September 28, 2006 at Colbert's New York studio. Jenkinson said he was thrilled to be invited to participate in the program--which he watches whenever possible--even though he knew that Colbert's irreverence would be a challenge.
"I regard it happily as the nadir of my career as a public humanities scholar. I trained for several weeks by getting my Jefferson discourse down to the puniest sound bites. I knew that if I tried to be serious I would only become one of Colbert's stooges. So I decided to relax and just have a good time. I assume serious historians will 'get it' that the program is broadly satirical and meant for pure entertainment."
Jenkinson has previously appeared on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect, on the Today Show, on CNN, on Fox's Fox and Friends, and as one of the principal humanities scholars and talking heads in Ken Burns' documentary on Thomas Jefferson.
"My goal is to be a guest of Bill O'Reilly, whose new book, Culture Warrior, I just reviewed (negatively) in my weekly column in the Bismarck Tribune; on Countdown with Keith Olbermann , on Bill Maher’s freewheeling HBO program Real Time, and on Hannity and Colmes . I believe the United States needs an 18th century cultural commentator--in or out of character--and now that Colbert has crowned me, I feel a certain regal ambition."
The Jefferson segment begins with the three Jefferson pretenders being groomed by Tim Gunn of Project Runway. “We arm wrestled, answered at least fifty questions, sang songs, made tri-corner hats, read a miss-quoted copy of the Declaration of Independence, and much more. I had hoped that more of the interview would be in the final produced piece. It was a circus in the Colbert studio. Jefferson would have fainted dead away."
 "There is no actual competition between the three of us. Each of us comes at Jefferson from a different perspective. Bill Barker is my good friend, a marvelous Jefferson, who not only looks like him but is the most authentic of the three of us. Stephen is a more theatrical Jefferson, and he portrays the great one at a comparatively young period in his life. I'm the least compelling from a theatrical point of view, and I take chances with Jefferson that strain the strict historical paradigm. I regard myself as humanities scholar first, a Jefferson historian second, and a theatrically accurate Jefferson almost not at all. Besides, the whippersnapper in me is irrepressible."
Watch the segment: The Colbert Report
Jenkinson's Letter of Apology to Thomas Jefferson for Appearing on The Colbert Report
Dear Mr. Jefferson,
I was on the Colbert Report. I'm afraid I diminished you without intending to. Probably you would not approve of television at all, and certainly not snotty postmodern television like the Colbert Report. Even though I dress up in tights, wear a fairly cheesy wig, and bring a level of irreverence to what I do that in no way resonates with your great earnest spirit, I have given much of my adult life to keeping the flame you lit on 4 July 1776 alive. I feel, Mr. President, that in spite of good intentions I have let you down. You deserve a clear voice in the world. I have tried to provide it. All I can say is that the interview was more than three hours long, and had all that I said been included, I think you would have been pleased.
With chagrin,
Clay S. Jenkinson
President Thomas Jefferson's Reply to Clay Jenkinson
Dear Mr. Jenkinson,
As a stoic, I certainly am not likely to have my spirit ruffled by the scurrilities of such a being. This Colbert reminds me, my dear sir, of James Callender, that disreputable scribbler whom I for a time supported, who later tried to blackmail me. Callender, by the way, later drowned in three feet of water in the James River at Richmond. I hope your listeners and friends will not discredit the French merely because this Colbert pretends to be Gallic.
Please do what you can to keep the spirit alive.
Sincerely,
President Thomas Jefferson
From Rich Kaarlgard's Column in Forbes Magazine November 2008
Among “Five Easy Reads” in a column…..
Message on the Wind: A Spiritual Odyssey on the Northern Plains--by Clay Straus Jenkinson (Marmarth Press, $19.95). One of the great things about America is the rich diversity of its landscapes and the regional writers who perfectly portray their own slice.
Jenkinson is the best contemporary writer grappling with the majesty and mystery of America's western plains, a sparsely populated land of big skies, extreme weather and Indian ghosts.
Jenkinson does for the western plains what Saul Bellow did for Chicago and Wallace Stegner did for the Far West.
Here's Jenkinson describing a summer thunderstorm: "The universe split slowly along its seams, like an over-ripe watermelon. The flashes of lightning revealed sheets of water cascading down the slick brown canvas of the tent, pools of water accumulating around the stakes, and--in those microseconds--we saw in each other's faces a mix of wonder and terror, joy and total presence."
Jenkinson has also written books on Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis. He might be America's best historian and essayist you've never heard of.
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