Today's fear that English is losing ground to the languages of recent immigrants parallels similar reactions throughout U.S. history. Traces historical moves to establish English as the official language and the development of bilingual education. Concludes that, although legislating of language use is nearly impossible, English as the unofficial…

In North Dakota, the schools played the major role in imparting American culture to the immigrants who by 1920 numbered 67% of North Dakota's population, but rural schools were not ideally suited to the task. The immigrants tended to cluster in nationality groups in geographic areas of the state, giving communities distinct ethnic identities. The…