Culture of the Scandinavians

Norwegian Immigrants on their way to U.S.

 Sara Abolghasemi

In the late nineteenth century, United States was like a glorifying place that everyone wanted to migrate to. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway, and Denmark had this thought that America had the best resources for them to build a colonial home for their families and live a free life. The main reason that these vikings came to the United States was that they decided to migrate and settle in the midwest due to the agricultural demand, economic increase, and cultural living standards.

Photo of the Official Homestead Act of1862 Document

Economic and social transformation affected both Europe and North American during the late 19th century. During the years 1850 through 1950, there were around 50 million Europeans that had settled in areas where they were capable of building a new social group.(1)In the US during 1862, there was this law passed stating that people would be provided free land for western settlers. This became an act that was established to secure homestead to actual settlers, providing settlers with around 160 acres of undeveloped land to encourage western migration. This gave Scandinavians the idea that it was best to migrate and move to the midwest. Being in the midwest gave them their advantage of starting an agricultural plantation and home to live on a farm, since they were already used to farming lives.

Scandinavians were overpopulating the midwest. According to article written by Arnold Dibble, an interviewer for Wilmington Star-News, he said that children of the Vikings became one of the most famous people to become an idol to American boys. Augustus Lindbergh, born in Little Falls, MN, was son of an Scandinavian immigrant farmer whose family owned 110 acres of land. On May 20, 1927, Augustus became the most famous person being the first man to fly the “Spirit of St. Louis” across the Atlantic alone.

Dibble interviewed Dr. Kenneth Bjork, a retired professor of history at St. Olav College in Northfield, and he stated, “There were two major reason why they came to US,...Economics was a major reason, accompanied by a striking increase in population.”(3) They did not want to come to America and live a life of enslavement and be treated poorly in an eastern city ghettos; therefore, they thought it was best to create a Scandinavian way of life, that varied with different religious, culinary, and linguistic tradition that they brought with them and would hopefully gain by living in the midwest.

Jefferson Prairie Lutheran Church Exterior
in Rural Clinton, Rock County, WI

The Scandinavians did not have as much difficulty coming to the US as maybe other immigrants might have had. They relied strongly on their faith and religious rights to help them through life. Majority of Scandinavians such as Norwegians believed in the lutheran church. The Lutheran Church required that every child had to be taught to read and write in Norway; however, when they arrived to the States, they were very highly educated in literacy of their own native tongues. Even though they did not know how to speak very good english, they preserved their native language in the U.S. which was strongly encouraged by the churches.

Scandinavians came to America acting as if it was their country except much more freedom was allowed. They heavily migrated to Minnesota when they came, this result in their cultural impact on the state’s history today. According to Dibble, “In 1882, at the beginning of the election of Knute Nelson in Minnesota, all but three men were Scandinavians. Their overpopulation in the midwest, resulted in having a higher population rate of immigrants in Minnesota’s state census records.

Milwaukee Public Museum Collection
of bronze personal items

As Scandinavians did live a free life in the United States, their future generation still have history to show and tell researchers. Since the Scandinavians migrated to place in the midwest, today the colleges and museums in the area carry on artifacts and have photo archives that are available to the public. There are not much on buildings that still stand from the Scandinavian plantations;however, there is some archaeological collection of their historic periods at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Scandinavians used lithic, also known as stone, tools and bronze item in their job of farming. There are also replicas of rune stones from the Viking Age associated with the early Medieval Period of Denmark:metal collections consist of eight bronze objects and small personal daily use objects. Since these historical artifacts are found in such full museums, this shows that Scandinavian history played and still plays a major role in America’s history.

There are variety of books of Swedish culture that are available in public libraries and the library of congress that subject on religion, education, history, etc. on the group of Swedish-American people which the authors that wrote the book are children of Sweden immigrants such as Anna Olsson, Jakob Bonggren.

Children and grandchildren of Scandinavian immigrants are very proud of their family heritage and feel comfortable talking about the history of the cultural that are evident today. Karin MacDonald-Schmidt, a Norwegian whose family came to North Dakota during the period of migration, says that she is proud and shares the history of her family and the journey that her family went through to get to the United States. She stated, “The right of people to chose religion, to vote for their royalty and republican leaders had long been absent in Norway” and that is one say of why they chose to start a new life in such a free country.

15th Annual Scandinavian
        festival

Scandinavians have such a great impact on cultural festivals and family-orientated programs that still lead on in todays world. Recently in Nisswa,Minnesota, there was a Scandinavian folk music festival that was held on June 6-7 of 2014. This festival known as Nisswa-Staman is held every year by the city itself and there are around 150 musicians performing on 3 stages which the musicians are people from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.This shows that Scandinavian culture is still present in ways that might not show their historical adventure to the U.S. but their traditional family heritage.

Even though Scandinavians came to the U.S. to find and establish a life that they can have freedom and right to produce their own living standards that they want for the family, they were able to leave a mark in history that shows people their reason to produce cultural impact in the United States.

References:
Blanck, Dag. "Swedish Immigration to North America." Swedish Immigration to North America. Augustana College, 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. <http://www.augustana.edu/general-information/swenson-center-/swedish-american-immigration-history>.
"Center News." Artificial Organs 13.2 (1989): 177. Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center. Augustana College. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://www.augustana.edu/Documents/swenson/newsletter/SCN1991_OCR.pdf>.
Dibble, Arnold. "Ethnics in America:The Scandinavians- Children of the Vikings Raise  Powerful Voices in the Midwest." Google Newspaper. Wilmington Star-News, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19761003&id=irksAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IxMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1134,644096>.
"Digital History." Homestead Act. Digital History, 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3978>.

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<http://wp.stolaf.edu/history/people/todd-nichol/>.

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Studies. St. Olaf, 2000. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://www.naha.stolaf.edu /pubs/nas/volume01/vol1_04.htm>.

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<http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ageofirony/aoizine/Karin's%20article_files/image002.jpg>.

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