Pioneers were not always men fighting to tame the frontier. Equally important were the women who followed them, or even headed west on their own. The North Dakota prairies were home to mothers, daughters, and grandmothers who worked as hard as men to survive and prosper in the wilderness. Prairie in Her Heart: Pioneer Women of North Dakota chronicles the stories of these women, through their own words and through the enduring images which offer a brief glimpse into their lives. The interviews and diary excerpts tell of how women claimed their own pieces of land as well as document the myriad of chores which made up their daily routines. From the words of a woman who reveals the shame of buying bread at the store to the accounts of skirmishes between women and men regarding the rights of property, the voices of the past are heard with the vividness of the whistling prairie wind.
Barbara Witteman has a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Miami (OH) University and teaches in the Education Department at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. She is active in her community of Fargo-Moorhead.