Set amongst Hunter’s photographs is a small black-and-white image of a handsome young man. His light eyes shine under a U.S. Army service cap. They are the same blue eyes looking at me now from behind a pair of glasses.
Hunter is one of 16 million Americans, and 60,000 North Dakotans, who served in the military during World War II.
“Emmit’s a mini-Eric,” says Candace Sieg, the family’s matriarch. “He remembers everything and anything that comes out of Dad’s mouth.”
Emmit’s two older sisters, Isabel, 18, and Avery, 10, are also part of Eric’s fan club. You can see it in the way they look at their father and talk about one of their favorite family activities – hunting. All three children grew up hunting with their dad; Eric started them young.
“When they were 3 years old, Eric would dress them up at 5 in the morning, and they would go lay in the blind,” Candace says.
Derrick Bulawa had recently arrived in Steele to take over as general manager of BEK Communications Cooperative. He set his eyes on adding a TV service to BEK’s portfolio that offered local sports, and he pegged Jordan Hassler as the young buck to move the idea forward.
“They wanted to do something different, something that gave them a competitive advantage when they launched,” Hassler says. “They wanted to give something to their members that they couldn’t get anywhere else.”
“There’s this culture of being tough and having to suck it up, and that is why you have such a high burnout rate,” she says.
She speaks from experience. In 1991, Thompson moved to Steele from Wisconsin. A new neighbor asked her if she wanted to join the ambulance squad. She agreed. The neighbor handed her a pager, and just like that, she was on call.
Four hours later, the pager went off.
“I had no training whatsoever, no orientation. I didn’t even know the crew. And I was just told to show up to the ambulance hall,” she recalls.
She, like many engaged in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), supported women’s right to vote, about as much as she favored prohibition. It was due, in part, to both these lesser-known suffragists and suffragist leaders in North Dakota – Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Elizabeth Preston Anderson, Clara L. Darrow and Linda Slaughter – that the state Legislature swiftly passed the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote upon ratification Aug. 18, 1920.
“You can’t sit around here and do nothing, or you’re going to be crazy,” she told Dixie.
The tight-knit Keene community encouraged Dixie to open the café, knowing she had worked in restaurants since her teen years.
“My biggest fear was I didn’t know how to make soup, or omelets,” she recalls, knowing that soup-and-omelet making would be required by the job.
Many factors outside of Thompson’s control will determine if she can oblige Mundt’s request. Price. Supply. Distribution. Allocation. Add the increased price tag to obtain lower volumes of goods and higher transportation costs to rural areas, and the shelf price of gingersnaps might be more than Mundt or other customers are willing to pay. The options dim. Sell the cookies at a loss or don’t get the gingersnaps at all?
This conundrum speaks to a much larger issue – one that has been given a platform by a worldwide pandemic.
SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS
Disruptions in the supply chain and slaughter capacity limitations from temporary closures or reduced workforce have caused frustration for ranchers and consumers alike.
“That limitation has caused an impact by backing up the supply,” Ellingson says. “I’ve heard from many producers that have been unable to obtain a bid – they have fed cattle ready to go – not just a low bid, but no bid, for weeks on end because there hasn’t been an outlet for them to deliver it to.”
While their stories intersect today because of their jobs in a worldwide pandemic, there is clear distinction between the two. For him, it is governing and leading North Dakota through a big – uneasy and uncertain – moment in history. For her, it’s using this new platform (that she never asked for and certainly would give back) to create awareness and turn hearts toward inclusion.
“Social media can cause conflict and be viewed in a bad light, but this project has brought so much joy,” she says. “Some of these photos have reached their families thousands of miles away.”
“The smiles are so genuine, laid back and easy,” she says.
Since starting her Front Porch Project, Mueller estimates that she has photographed around 100 families, with more in the works.
“As people heard what we were doing, the response has just been immense,” she says. “I am still just shocked how willing and happy everyone was to participate.”
