  Under the North Star: Cultures find similarities at the
Polaris Cafe  October 4, 2013 FLINT McCOLGAN - Staff Writer ( ,
Minot Daily News  Just "Follow the Statoil Star" from the front
door of the main building of Norsk Hstfest to Tromso Hall.
There you will get to sample both northern Norwegian and Native
American cuisine while taking in a performance or two showcasing
the history of Norway. Or stroll through the cultural village
where Native and Sami cultures converge.  "Every nation on the
northern hemisphere has been following the North Star as a
leading point on the sky," Lena Paalviig Johnsen, a Norwegian
from the Lofoten and Vesteraalen Islands in the far north of
Norway near the 69th parallel, said of the name of the cafe.
"When you see that you always know which direction is north so
you can pinpoint out from that. We have it in the Norse culture,
the Sami culture, we have it in the indigenous of America and so
forth."  "The common thread," said Fern Gronvold, nee Peltier,
of Dunseith and Barton, w