Minnesota Now and Then: How Minnesotans celebrated the July 4, 1976 bicentennial
Many local restaurants and businesses along Knapp Avenue decorated with American flags for the 4th In The Park Parade in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood in St. Paul, Monday, July 4, 2016.
Tom Baker for MPR News
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NINA MOINI: On the 4th of July in 1976, the United States was celebrating its bicentennial, or 200 years. There was a series of celebrations and observances that paid tribute to US independence. Here at MPR News in 1976, we aired a special program hosted by Gary Eichten that looked at how Minnesotans across the state observed the milestone. Take a listen for this Minnesota Now and Then.
GARY EICHTEN: So here we are, July 4, 1976. Despite all the problems, and the disagreements, and the differences, we've made it to our bicentennial. That's what the celebration is all about in Minneapolis, and Duluth, and St. Joseph, and Trosky, and in Fargo-Moorhead. Bill Siemering is on the line from Fargo-Moorhead. And, Bill, how did your area spend this day?
BILL SIEMERING: Well, Gary, the weather was perfect for the annual Old Fashioned 4th of July celebration at Morehead State University, with a clear sky and occasional white clouds providing a passing umbrella of shade. The low-key family affair began with a parade of decorated bicycles headed by fife and drum players Beth and Angie Olson of Fargo, who talked with me later about the celebration.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
What would you like to see the country be in the future?
GIRL: Well, to get someone real good in government, to get rid of all the mess we're in.
BILL SIEMERING: Do you think much about the fact that you're Americans and not some other nationality?
GIRL: Well, yeah. I think that they have lots of problems in other countries, and I'm glad that I'm here instead of there, like starvation and stuff like that. Another thing I want out of the government is to be able to help them and stuff so they won't be in-- so they'll be like us.
BILL SIEMERING: How would you like to help them?
GIRL: Send them food and stuff like that.
BILL SIEMERING: Are you enjoying the day?
GIRL: Yeah. Having fun.
BILL SIEMERING: Good.
GIRL: Oh, but the boots are so--
GIRL: Hot.
GIRL: They're hot.
BILL SIEMERING: And I talked with Ed. He's 63 years old, lives on Social Security, was hitchhiking through, heard the music, and stopped over. And he gave these thoughts about America.
ED: It's the best. I think that even though-- how hard you may have it, it's still the best. Still the best.
BILL SIEMERING: What do you like most about this country?
[MUFFLED ANNOUNCEMENT]
ED: Well, what you'd have to most is the freedom you've got. That's what you'd have to like, outside of-- I don't have any of the wealth, but it's here. It's here.
But I think the biggest thing about this country is the freedom. The freedom the people have. Freedom to go where you want to, do what you want to, as long as you please to do right and don't hurt nobody. Don't hurt nobody else with what you do, well, you're all right.
Give me a couple of more hot dogs over there, one or two. How's that? I've been sitting here hoping somebody would come along and give me one.
["THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND" PLAYING]
- (SINGING) This land is your land
This land is my land
From California to New York Island
From the redwood forests and gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking
BILL SIEMERING: President Roland Dill of Morehead State University read the Declaration of Independence and preceded the reading with these remarks.
ROLAND DILL: We have celebrated the fulfillment of the great promise of the Declaration of Independence. That is, our independence as a nation. And we have celebrated the incomplete fulfillment of the promise of individual freedom and dignity.
BILL SIEMERING: Dr. Dill, in your remarks, you said that the Declaration of Independence was both a complete act, and yet there's something that's incomplete. What do you see as the incomplete part of our country?
ROLAND DILL: The Declaration not only suggests something about individual freedom and dignity, it really talks about it. That is, the rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, really talked to individual rights. And there, our record has not really been that good.
BILL SIEMERING: What can we do to help promote the sense of community as individuals?
ROLAND DILL: It really does come down to something quite simple like love your neighbor. And that's-- one feels silly saying that, but I really do believe that what is required by each of us is not what we have had for some years now, a tolerance of our neighbor. What we need is a concern for our neighbor.
[TRIUMPHANT MUSIC]
[MUFFLED CANNON FIRE]
GARY EICHTEN: There was a time in our nation's history when people fought for the right to worship. Soul liberty, Roger Williams called it. And today, long before the band started playing, many Minnesotans, like many people throughout the country, celebrated this bicentennial by exercising that liberty of the soul.
["AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL" PLAYING]
(SINGING) Oh, beautiful for spacious skies
WOMAN: This is the best way for me to celebrate it, is to come here to mass this morning and to thank God for it.
MAN: I think this is one of the most important things in my life, and certainly the thing that we have tried to teach our children, that the important thing is to worship God and to be able to worship him the way we want to.
WOMAN: If we didn't go, and we didn't keep up our religion, and really care about it, what would be the use of having churches? We'd just close them down. Other people don't realize that we keep our churches open, the people, by going and by believing in it.
MAN: Well, that is one of the principal purposes for which this country was founded. The people who originally came here, the pilgrims, came in search of a land where they could worship as they chose, without the direction of the state and without oppression from any form of government. And so I think that is our essential-- quintessential liberty.
["AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL" PLAYING] America, America
GARY EICHTEN: Some sounds from a bicentennial church service today at the Holy Rosary Cathedral in the Northeastern Minnesota community of Duluth.
[VOCALIZING]
There are some people in Minnesota who are not celebrating this bicentennial. Many Native Americans, for example. But even among American Indians, there is a tradition of reunion and celebration on the 4th of July, a chance to meet with relatives and friends.
ROSE BARSTOW: My name is Rose Barstow right now, and I was born rose Mary Shinglebee. I was born in Onamia, Minnesota. At seven years, my mother died and I was removed to the White Earth Reservation.
In those days, there was always that kind of a back-and-forth type of relationship between the Eastern Dakota Indians, as well as the Ojibwe, the Western Ojibwe. They had a communication type of thing. They exchanged dances, they exchanged songs, and they sang honor songs back and forth to one another.
It was really fantastic. And it was always competitive games played. Races for kids ranging all the way from tots right on through. And there was a lot of fun in the competition. There was no animosities.
Now you can't compete for anything. But what you feel, almost a sting and a bite, even, in a glance, or a look at you. People don't speak to you if you get a little bit ahead in something.
It's really kind of funny. The whole thing has changed from what it used to be. Contests now takes up most of the time of the powwow.
Contest after contest is the fancy dancer, and there's all this and that, whereas before, they'd have one contest through the whole powwow. There'd be like three or four days of powow. And there was only two forms of dancing, the traditional and the fancy, or the fast, they called it.
And now they call it fancy dancing and stuff. It used to be fast dances and stuff. You get out there and dance. I entered many of those contests from age seven on. Practically every year, I always entered a contest.
My grandparents provided me with the neatest costumes. And I used to hate to give them away when I'd outgrow them and have to give them away. And I guess maybe Indians, for some reason, had a feeling for that.
It wasn't what you call-- they go running around carrying the flag all over. But they had the greatest respect for the American flag. I remember that so well. The flag led the procession.
[VOCALIZING]
GARY EICHTEN: Like Rose Barstow, and like Americans everywhere, Minnesotans this day are reflecting and remembering, as well as celebrating. We've come from different lands at different times, from different traditions. There is a pluralism to Minnesota, to America. But there's also a unity, a common history.
[FOLK MUSIC] Come all ye men of enterprise
That feel inclined to roam
We'll go beyond the Mississippi
And seek a pleasant home
NINA MOINI: That was former MPR News host Gary Eichten, with a statewide profile of 4th of July celebrations in 1976, or the Bicentennial. By the way, next year will be the United States semiquincentennial. I don't know if I've ever said that word. 250 years.
GARY EICHTEN: So here we are, July 4, 1976. Despite all the problems, and the disagreements, and the differences, we've made it to our bicentennial. That's what the celebration is all about in Minneapolis, and Duluth, and St. Joseph, and Trosky, and in Fargo-Moorhead. Bill Siemering is on the line from Fargo-Moorhead. And, Bill, how did your area spend this day?
BILL SIEMERING: Well, Gary, the weather was perfect for the annual Old Fashioned 4th of July celebration at Morehead State University, with a clear sky and occasional white clouds providing a passing umbrella of shade. The low-key family affair began with a parade of decorated bicycles headed by fife and drum players Beth and Angie Olson of Fargo, who talked with me later about the celebration.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
What would you like to see the country be in the future?
GIRL: Well, to get someone real good in government, to get rid of all the mess we're in.
BILL SIEMERING: Do you think much about the fact that you're Americans and not some other nationality?
GIRL: Well, yeah. I think that they have lots of problems in other countries, and I'm glad that I'm here instead of there, like starvation and stuff like that. Another thing I want out of the government is to be able to help them and stuff so they won't be in-- so they'll be like us.
BILL SIEMERING: How would you like to help them?
GIRL: Send them food and stuff like that.
BILL SIEMERING: Are you enjoying the day?
GIRL: Yeah. Having fun.
BILL SIEMERING: Good.
GIRL: Oh, but the boots are so--
GIRL: Hot.
GIRL: They're hot.
BILL SIEMERING: And I talked with Ed. He's 63 years old, lives on Social Security, was hitchhiking through, heard the music, and stopped over. And he gave these thoughts about America.
ED: It's the best. I think that even though-- how hard you may have it, it's still the best. Still the best.
BILL SIEMERING: What do you like most about this country?
[MUFFLED ANNOUNCEMENT]
ED: Well, what you'd have to most is the freedom you've got. That's what you'd have to like, outside of-- I don't have any of the wealth, but it's here. It's here.
But I think the biggest thing about this country is the freedom. The freedom the people have. Freedom to go where you want to, do what you want to, as long as you please to do right and don't hurt nobody. Don't hurt nobody else with what you do, well, you're all right.
Give me a couple of more hot dogs over there, one or two. How's that? I've been sitting here hoping somebody would come along and give me one.
["THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND" PLAYING]
- (SINGING) This land is your land
This land is my land
From California to New York Island
From the redwood forests and gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking
BILL SIEMERING: President Roland Dill of Morehead State University read the Declaration of Independence and preceded the reading with these remarks.
ROLAND DILL: We have celebrated the fulfillment of the great promise of the Declaration of Independence. That is, our independence as a nation. And we have celebrated the incomplete fulfillment of the promise of individual freedom and dignity.
BILL SIEMERING: Dr. Dill, in your remarks, you said that the Declaration of Independence was both a complete act, and yet there's something that's incomplete. What do you see as the incomplete part of our country?
ROLAND DILL: The Declaration not only suggests something about individual freedom and dignity, it really talks about it. That is, the rights for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, really talked to individual rights. And there, our record has not really been that good.
BILL SIEMERING: What can we do to help promote the sense of community as individuals?
ROLAND DILL: It really does come down to something quite simple like love your neighbor. And that's-- one feels silly saying that, but I really do believe that what is required by each of us is not what we have had for some years now, a tolerance of our neighbor. What we need is a concern for our neighbor.
[TRIUMPHANT MUSIC]
[MUFFLED CANNON FIRE]
GARY EICHTEN: There was a time in our nation's history when people fought for the right to worship. Soul liberty, Roger Williams called it. And today, long before the band started playing, many Minnesotans, like many people throughout the country, celebrated this bicentennial by exercising that liberty of the soul.
["AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL" PLAYING]
(SINGING) Oh, beautiful for spacious skies
WOMAN: This is the best way for me to celebrate it, is to come here to mass this morning and to thank God for it.
MAN: I think this is one of the most important things in my life, and certainly the thing that we have tried to teach our children, that the important thing is to worship God and to be able to worship him the way we want to.
WOMAN: If we didn't go, and we didn't keep up our religion, and really care about it, what would be the use of having churches? We'd just close them down. Other people don't realize that we keep our churches open, the people, by going and by believing in it.
MAN: Well, that is one of the principal purposes for which this country was founded. The people who originally came here, the pilgrims, came in search of a land where they could worship as they chose, without the direction of the state and without oppression from any form of government. And so I think that is our essential-- quintessential liberty.
["AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL" PLAYING] America, America
GARY EICHTEN: Some sounds from a bicentennial church service today at the Holy Rosary Cathedral in the Northeastern Minnesota community of Duluth.
[VOCALIZING]
There are some people in Minnesota who are not celebrating this bicentennial. Many Native Americans, for example. But even among American Indians, there is a tradition of reunion and celebration on the 4th of July, a chance to meet with relatives and friends.
ROSE BARSTOW: My name is Rose Barstow right now, and I was born rose Mary Shinglebee. I was born in Onamia, Minnesota. At seven years, my mother died and I was removed to the White Earth Reservation.
In those days, there was always that kind of a back-and-forth type of relationship between the Eastern Dakota Indians, as well as the Ojibwe, the Western Ojibwe. They had a communication type of thing. They exchanged dances, they exchanged songs, and they sang honor songs back and forth to one another.
It was really fantastic. And it was always competitive games played. Races for kids ranging all the way from tots right on through. And there was a lot of fun in the competition. There was no animosities.
Now you can't compete for anything. But what you feel, almost a sting and a bite, even, in a glance, or a look at you. People don't speak to you if you get a little bit ahead in something.
It's really kind of funny. The whole thing has changed from what it used to be. Contests now takes up most of the time of the powwow.
Contest after contest is the fancy dancer, and there's all this and that, whereas before, they'd have one contest through the whole powwow. There'd be like three or four days of powow. And there was only two forms of dancing, the traditional and the fancy, or the fast, they called it.
And now they call it fancy dancing and stuff. It used to be fast dances and stuff. You get out there and dance. I entered many of those contests from age seven on. Practically every year, I always entered a contest.
My grandparents provided me with the neatest costumes. And I used to hate to give them away when I'd outgrow them and have to give them away. And I guess maybe Indians, for some reason, had a feeling for that.
It wasn't what you call-- they go running around carrying the flag all over. But they had the greatest respect for the American flag. I remember that so well. The flag led the procession.
[VOCALIZING]
GARY EICHTEN: Like Rose Barstow, and like Americans everywhere, Minnesotans this day are reflecting and remembering, as well as celebrating. We've come from different lands at different times, from different traditions. There is a pluralism to Minnesota, to America. But there's also a unity, a common history.
[FOLK MUSIC] Come all ye men of enterprise
That feel inclined to roam
We'll go beyond the Mississippi
And seek a pleasant home
NINA MOINI: That was former MPR News host Gary Eichten, with a statewide profile of 4th of July celebrations in 1976, or the Bicentennial. By the way, next year will be the United States semiquincentennial. I don't know if I've ever said that word. 250 years.
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