H. Elaine Lindgren

Biography

Dr. H. Elaine Lindgren, professor of sociology, was a member of the North Dakota State University faculty from 1970 until her retirement in 2005. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.

Dr. Lindgren's research interests include social change, gender and citizen participation.  Recently, she completed an e-book entitled “Work Makes Life Sweet, Or Does It?” This is a pictorial documentary of work in North Dakota. 

Lindgren's article "Coal, Cuba, and Courage: The Adventuresome Spirit of Annie C. Lind, " published in North Dakota History, Vol. 67, No. 2, 2000, received the North Dakota History's 2001 Editor's Award for this article.

Land in Her Own Name: Women as Homesteaders in North Dakota

Land is often known by the names of past owners. "Emma’s Land," "Gina’s quarter," and "the Ingeborg Land" are reminders of the many women who homesteaded across North Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Land in Her Own Name records these homesteaders’ experiences as revealed in interviews with surviving homesteaders and their families and friends, land records, letters, and diaries.

These women’s fascinating accounts tell of locating a claim, erecting a shelter, and living on the prairie. Their ethnic backgrounds include Yankee, Scandinavian, German, and German-Russian, as well as African-American, Jewish, and Lebanese. Some were barely twenty-one, while others had reached their sixties. A few lived on their land for life and "never borrowed a cent against it"; others sold or rented the land to start a small business or two provide money for education.

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Work Makes Life Sweet, Or Doesn’t It