History of Bismarck, North Dakota real impetus for growth. In 1883, Bismarck became the capital of the Dakota Territory and, in 1889, of the state of North Dakota. The first well-documented inhabitants of what is now Bismarck were the Mandan Nation. The remains of Chief Looking's Village, one of the Mandan towns, is now a park within the city limits, while another six to eight town sites, including On-a-Slant Village, Large-and-Scattered Village, and Double Ditch Village, made up the homeland of the Mandan Nation from about the mid-1500s to the late 1700s and surround present-day Bismarck for a few miles to the north and south.
Politics of North Dakota federal court ruled that North Dakota's new voter ID law was too restrictive, reverting the state's voting rules to their 2013 revision for the following election. Under the nullified rules, the state would have disallowed use of federal tribal IDs that did not include street addresses, even though most Native Americans on reservations use post office boxes. The court found the state had created a discriminatory burden on Native American voters. As in the national government of the United States, power in North Dakota is divided into three main branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The capital of the state is