NORTH DAKOTA’S MISSION

Pioneers of North Dakota Spread her fame! Bid thy youths and bid thy maidens Guard her name!— Tell them of your dreams and visions— Tell them of your great ambitions;— How you fought to win the land; Tell them of brave Custer’s band. Tell them how you fought the Red Man, How he lost— Tell them North Dakota’s story And the cost!— Can they too, like you, the price pay? Can they too, like you, their lives lay Down, if need be, for their state? Dare they share her every fate?— * * * * To the children of Dakota This we give, First of all, a glorious vision How to live— Them we give our mines and “bad lands,“ Prairies broad and fertile wheat lands Stretching from Missouri’s bed To the Valley of the Red. And the fame of North Dakota’s name Shall rise, Like the never-tiring Phœnix To the skies!— State of promise and of fair play, State where rises bright a new day For the weak and the oppressed, State which millions shall call blest! Men and women of Dakota Who shall say What the fruitage of our efforts Of to-day?— Labor then, nor lose the vision Of this North Dakota’s mission, To free body, soul, and mind, To help all their true work find.