Preaching the Gospel on the Dakota-Montana Prairies

Abstract

It was fitting that Professor K.G. Sievert was assigned to write a history of the Dakota-Montana District on its fiftieth anniversary in 1970. Sievert had been a pastor and, then, professor in the Dakota-Montana for forty-nine of the district’s fifty years. The essay takes the reader to the earliest, pre-district days of the 1870’s in eastern South Dakota. It continues to the beginnings of ministering to the German-Russian populations of northcentral South Dakota and southcentral North Dakota before continuing into eastern Montana. Following the district’s founding in 1920, the author takes a decade-by-decade approach to the historical account. The author gives attention to events that he lived through, such as the breakup of the Synodical Conference and the ensuing turmoil within the district itself. He also includes a history of Northwestern Lutheran Academy and a gentle rebuke to the readers of the district who take the school for granted.