Dakota Datebook: Where is Pembina?

August 5, 2019 — In 1816, Congress passed a law that stated, “Licenses to trade with the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States shall not be granted to any but citizens of the United States unless by express direction of the President.”

The law didn’t apply to the traders in the north and eastern sections of what is now North Dakota, because at that time, it belonged to Great B...