Class III of Rural Leadership North Dakota began our second year of the program with a seminar encompassing the areas of New Town, Tioga and Stanley, discussing the seven capitals. 

We stayed at 4-Bears Lodge in New Town.  On Thursday we began with lunch and we learned what each of us had been doing and experiencing both personally and professionally since the last time we had met in April.  Mayor Clare Aubol welcomed us to New Town and enlightened us with the origins of New Town.    Janelle Lee, an alumnus of RLND joined us and spoke about the changes in the banking system.  Lynette Flage with NDSU Extension Service, specializing in the Horizons Community Leadership program was our featured speaker for the day.  Lynette had a very enlightening and interesting presentation to our group regarding the seven capitals, what they represent, how they come about and the importance of keeping them all in line.  Former RLND alumnus from Class I Don Longmuir and his wife joined us for dinner.

After dinner we watched a movie called "Waterbuster", followed by comments and answers to our questions by Fred Baker and Marilyn Hudson, Tribal Elders.  We found this movie and their comments to be very moving and increased our awareness to the plight of the Native Americans in our region.

Friday proved to be a full day of touring the countryside.  We toured New Town with some of our focal points being, New Town Bridge, Northrop Grumman Industries, NDSU office and the Wolf Trading Post.  The gals at the NDSU Fort Berthold County Extension office provided us with homemade fry bread with a blueberry sauce, which we all enjoyed very much.  Kathy Neset, with Neset Consulting, made a geological presentation regarding the oil wells during lunch at the Sportsman Cafe in Tioga, after which we toured the city of Tioga and Sheldon Welding with the help of Tioga City Auditor, Jamie Eraas and the Ass't Auditor, Jennifer Weisgerber.  Representative Dorvan Solberg, Cecile Wehrman and Senator John Warner joined us for lunch. After Tioga we traveled onto Stanley, where we toured the Ina Mae Rude Aquatic Center, stopped at Dakota Drugstore for their renowned "Whirly Whips", and the Bronze Studio.  We then traveled down a very bumpy gravel road, well traveled by the multitude of oil field trucks and got on site with an oil derrick.  We ended our day with a wonderful meal at the Scenic restaurant.  Senator John Warner, Gary Peterson, President of Lakeside State Bank in New Town, and Dwight Schmitt, GM/CEO of Northwest Communication Coop headquartered in Ray, were our guests for dinner.  Gary Peterson and Dwight Schmitt each talked with us about their respective business and how it affects our communities.

Saturday morning was filled with discussion on our seven capitals and how we feel they relate to our communities and ourselves.  We went over our upcoming seminar and our Washington DC seminar in February.  After which we visited the earth lodges outside of New Town.  We found these lodges to be very interesting.  We are all looking forward to our November seminar in Fort Yates.

By Mary Schmitt