North Dakota State Nickname: The Peace Garden State

This nickname comes from Richardson ground squirrels, commonly called flickertails because their tails twitch rapidly as they run or before they enter their burrows. These animals inhabit much of North Dakota’s grassland regions and live in large colonies. The species was identified by Scottish naturalist Sir John Richardson, which later influenced the nickname. In 1953, lawmakers considered adopting the flickertail as an official state emblem, but the proposal failed. North Dakota does have an official march titled the Flickertail March, composed in 1975. The nickname remains widely recognized but unofficial.

Tourism officials promoted this nickname during the 1960s and 1970s. It honors Theodore Roosevelt’s First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, which fought during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Several cowboys from North Dakota joined the regiment and fought on foot in Cuba when horses could not be transported. Legislators introduced bills in 1971 and 1973 to replace Peace Garden State with Roughrider Country on license plates and as the official nickname, but both efforts failed. Roosevelt’s time ranching in the North Dakota Badlands later inspired the creation of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and overlaps with North Dakota's Nokota horse heritage.

The word Dakota comes from the Sioux language and translates to friend or ally. Dakota and Lakota tribes lived in the region for thousands of years before European settlement. When Congress organized the Dakota Territory in 1861, the name acknowledged the Indigenous peoples of the area. The territory later divided, and North Dakota and South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889. Although used less often, this nickname reflects the Native American origins of the state’s name. South Dakota developed its own identity from the same roots — the meaning of the Mount Rushmore State shows how the southern half of the original Dakota Territory built a nickname around one of the most recognizable monuments in America, while North Dakota's constitutional identity appears on the state motto page.