The North Dakota Highway Patrol was created in 1935 with a responsibility to enforce motor vehicle law on the state highways. Five patrol officers were sent to attend the Minnesota State Highway Patrol training program that year.

Upon completion of the training, the officers had to travel up to Duluth from St. Paul to pick up the five 1935 Buick coupes purchased for them which arrived by freighter from Michigan, and drive them back to Bismarck.

Those Buicks were eventually joined by two Fords, a Plymouth, a Lafayette and a motorcycle. 248,000 miles were patrolled by the NDHP from 1937 to 1939. 1951 was the year the NDHP adopted their symbol as Red Tomahawk, a Teton Dakotah (Sioux) Indian who lived on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Mandan.

His distinctive and impressive profile has been associated with the agency ever since. Once limited to only matters of traffic law and operator licensing, the scope of the NDHP's policing capabilities began to expand in the 1960's including the enforcement of criminal law on highway right-of- ways in 1967.

In 1983, there was a consolidation of the Truck Regulatory Division of the Highway Department into the Highway Patrol. The NDHP became an nationally accredited law enforcement agency (CALEA) on July 29, 1989. In 1992, a Canine Unit was introduced. Today, the NDHP has over 130 sworn Troopers providing safety and security of the residents and visitors to the Peace Garden State.

North Dakota State Flag

North Dakota's dark blue field displays a bald eagle holding an
olive branch and a bundle of arrows in its claws.
In its beak, the eagle carries a ribbon with the words
" One nation made up of many states". The shield on its breast
has thirteen stars, representing the original thirteen states.
The fan shaped design above the eagle represents the birth
of a new nation, the United States. The name "North Dakota"
appears on a red scroll below the eagle.