Instead, that designation went to another song for which Putnam composed the music, the "North Dakota Hymn".
[1] On February 24, 2016, Dean Bresciani, the president of NDSU, asked the academic community to remove all but the first stanza and to create a committee to study the song and find an appropriate compromise.
Here in autumn throng the nations, Just to gather in the spoil, Throng on freight-cars from the cities, Some to feast and some to toil, Then the yellow grain flows eastward And the yellow gold flows back; Barren cities boast their plenty And the prairies know no lack.
Hushed upon the boundless prairies Is the bison’s thund’ring tread, And the red man passes with him On his spoilers’ bounty fed.
But the Norse, the Celt and Saxon With their herd increase, and find Mid these fields of green and yellow Plenty e’en for all mankind.