By Amy Dalrymple | Editor
“Now, it’s like they’re singing the same tune of what we were saying, now that it’s going to impact their back door, their backyard.” - Nola Taken Alive, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council representative, on similarities between data center opposition and the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council Representative-at-Large Nola Taken Alive gives a speech on Sept. 17, 2026, at Fort Yates, North Dakota. (Photo Jack Dura/North Dakota Monitor)
By Jack Dura
Protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline left a ripple effect for Indigenous people to stand up for their communities, Standing Rock Sioux tribal leaders said Thursday at a renewable energy event that included reflections on the demonstrations a decade ago.
Indigenized Energy hosted the first People of the Sun event at the Prairie Knights Casino on the Standing Rock Reservation. The nonprofit champions solar and renewable energy and tribal energy sovereignty. Thousands of people gathered in southern North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 to protest the multistate pipeline opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as a threat to its water supply.
“The oil is still flowing. The pipeline hasn’t been shut down, but there’s something really powerful that has happened, even more powerful than that, is of course the world has been awoken,” Nola Taken Alive, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council representative-at-large, told the audience.
The University of North Dakota, pictured March 1, 2024, is under federal investigation related to requirements for reporting foreign gifts and contracts. (Photo by Jeff Beach North Dakota Monitor)
By Michael Achterling
The U.S. Department of Education and State Department are investigating the University of North Dakota for failing to properly report foreign gifts and contracts, the federal agencies announced Wednesday.
Federal reviews of university records found incomplete, inaccurate and untimely disclosures of foreign funding sources, the Department of Education said in a Tuesday letter to UND.
The letter highlights UND’s School of Aerospace and funding from Chinese aviation companies.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, who discussed the investigation in a Thursday radio interview, said there were not any “big alarms” that went off in his mind after looking into the allegations.
“I suspect the work to respond is going to be intense,” Cramer said.
A crowd listens to oral arguments during a Supreme Court hearing at the North Dakota State Capitol on June 30, 2026. (Photo by Tanner Ecker/Bismarck Tribune)
By Mary Steurer
The North Dakota Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously found the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors constitutional, upholding a lower court’s ruling from last year.
The 2023 law makes it a crime to prescribe puberty blockers and other treatments to adolescents.
The high court’s reasoning for its decision mirrored that of South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren, who in October 2025 rejected a North Dakota pediatric endocrinologist’s claims that the law forces him to withhold necessary medical care from his patients.
The Supreme Court found that the North Dakota Legislature hadn’t abused its power in enacting the ban, and that it isn’t the court’s place to interfere with how lawmakers want to regulate the medical field.
Members of the North Dakota Senate participate in a special session of the Legislature on Sept. 4, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
COMMENTARY
By Jack Zaleski
For the moment, set aside the question of whether huge data centers are good or bad for North Dakota. For now, stay clear of the clutter of conflicting information about water usage, the effects on consumer electricity rates, the potential for sound pollution and health problems, and the prospect of gigantic buildings standing empty in a few years should the rapidly evolving technology for data storage change yet again.
Instead, focus on the failure of North Dakota legislators to seize an opportunity to pause the rush to build data centers, so that those very questions could be discussed, and possibly answered. Instead, realize that majority party lawmakers in a special session this month not only further opened the door to this unregulated and extraordinarily powerful industry, but also betrayed the public’s trust by refusing to pass a ban on nondisclosure agreements between billion-dollar, out-of-state companies and local elected officials.
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North Dakota farmers are heading into harvest season facing another major expense – record high diesel prices.
Diesel has climbed above $6 a gallon in parts of the state, roughly double what some farmers paid last fall. Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach joins host Craig Blumenshine to discuss the impact of the high prices on North Dakota producers.
Also, Monitor reporter Michael Achterling talks about his recent reporting on a new tribal law enforcement program in North Dakota that gives recruits a basic training option much closer to home.
A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.
EARLIER ND MONITOR NEWS AND COMMENTARY
AROUND THE REGION FROM STATES NEWSROOM
By Micah Drew
Within a few hours of a social media post showing a license plate recognition camera installation in the parking lot of a big box store in Kalispell, Montana, hundreds of people had commented in the local community group. Many comments expressed concern or outrage at the camera installation.
With the daily debate ranging from Facebook posts to the White House, one Montana lawmaker said he’s planning to address the issue in the upcoming legislative session if he’s reelected to office. One proposal would require local jurisdictions to have public hearings if they plan on using license plate readers on public property.
FROM OTHER ND MEDIA OUTLETS
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