North Dakota
A Mammoth May be Hiding Below a North Dakota Garage
Grid lines were laid out for a potential fossil dig at a home in northwest North Dakota. Mammoth teeth were found 1988 while preparing the site for the construction of the garage at the right. (Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Geological Survey via the North Dakota Monitor)
(North Dakota Monitor) -Some mammoth bones have been gnawing at North Dakota State Geologist Ed Murphy for more than 35 years.
Murphy on Tuesday described for the North Dakota Industrial Commission how he became aware of a find of mammoth bones in 1988. He updated the commission, which oversees the North Dakota Geological Survey, because his department, in cooperation with the State Historical Society, plans to excavate part of the site and may need to request money from the state to finish the job.
In 1988, Murphy said he received a report of a homeowner finding some woolly mammoth bones while digging a foundation for a garage in northwest North Dakota. Murphy did not disclose a more precise location of the find.
The family had already sent a couple of teeth to North Dakota State University to verify that they had come from a woolly mammoth, prehistoric beasts that lived in what is now North Dakota during the Pleistocene Epoch, commonly called the Ice Age.
Weeks later, word got to Murphy that teeth had been confirmed as coming from a mammoth and he went to the site the next day. But by this time, the foundation had been poured and the garage built.
Murphy said he asked the homeowner if he would be willing to have the garage moved and foundation busted up so there could be an archeological dig. Murphy said the homeowner was willing, as long as the garage was restored the next month.
But Murphy was not able to find the people or the money to make that happen.
In December, 35 years later, Murphy started going through his notes from that visit. After the holidays, he contacted the person who now owns the home and attached garage.
While the property had changed hands, the new owner knew people from the garage construction crew, who had shared that there may be a mammoth under the garage.
So it was not a big surprise when Murphy reached out. The homeowner agreed to a test dig near the garage. Murphy said the small pit revealed some bone fragments and pieces of tusk in the backfill for the garage slab. Digging a little deeper revealed three undisturbed bones.
Margaret Patton, a research archaeologist with the Historical Society, also used ground-penetrating radar at the site.
“It doesn’t make beautiful pictures,” Patton said of the radar, but it does detect anomalies, something different from the soil around it, that corresponded to where construction workers had reported bones being found.
Murphy said a crew will return to the garage for a larger dig — about 6 feet by 6 feet and down at least 30 inches — in mid-September.
“If they uncover a big rock, I’ll be sad, but I’m hoping that it really will be bigger mammoth bones,” Patton said.
Patton said the September dig should provide a better idea of the potential for the site and the potential cost. There may need to be a budget request for the Legislature when it meets in January so work can continue into 2025.
While there have been woolly mammoth tusks and other bones found in the state, “a skeleton or a nearly full skeleton would be a first” for North Dakota, Murphy said.
Several species of mammoth lived in North America, including the woolly mammoth and the Columbian mammoth, according to the North Dakota Geological Survey. They lived alongside other animals like saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths before going extinct in the area about 10,000 years ago.
In 2023, coal miners near Beulah discovered a 7-foot tusk of an ancient mammoth.
“There we had a beautiful tusk that was really in great shape,” Murphy said. In addition, 18 other bones or parts of bones were found.
Murphy said fossil bones like the tusk are soft and need to be encased in plaster to be safely removed. Then it’s a monthslong process to stabilize the fossil.
Murphy said he is hopeful for the new dig site, but there are no guarantees.
“It still will be a gamble of what’s under there,” he said.
GRAND FORKS — A North Dakota composer’s dream is turning into a statewide invitation.
Williston-based musician Emily Black-Driscoll was chosen as the North Dakota Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2026. She’s preparing an original composition that will premiere in August.
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North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
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