foreign-born population of North Dakota. Norway has the largest
representation, followed in order of numbers by Russia, Germany,
Canada, Sweden, and other countries, including the Netherlands,
Denmark, Hungary, Finland, Rumania, and Iceland.
Unfavorable social and economic conditions among the rural population
of Norway, coupled with harsh military regulations, prompted most of
the Norwegian emigration to the United States. North Dakota was the
natural choice of many whose families had, for generations, lived
upon the land. Norwegian stock today constitutes 30 percent of the
population of the State, and persons born in Norway make up 29.8
percent of its foreign-born population. Their settlements have been
made throughout the northern and eastern sections of the State. In
contrast with many other national groups, the Norwegians show little
tendency to localize, and while predominant in many communities they
manifest no aversion to settling where other groups are already
represented.
The hospitality of the Norwegians is their greatest distinction. The
coffeepot is always in use, and, coffee and pastries made from Old
Country recipes are served whenever anyone chances into a Norwegian
home, as well as at meals and between meals. The Norwegians have a
charming way of bidding each other "_Tak for sidst_," meaning "Thanks
for the last time I met you."
They retain to a marked degree their native tongue in its various
dialects or _bygdespraag_, widely mixed with the English language. They
are fond of music, and mountain waltz melodies, polkas, and spring
dances, played on the accordion or violin, are enjoyed by young and old
alike. The Hardanger violin, which has eight strings, is still made
and played by the older musicians. The adult Norwegian, being very
independent by nature, does not readily fit into an orchestra or large
chorus; such organizations are more common among the younger people.
The most fantastic of the Norwegian dances is the Halling Dance, still
seen on special occasions. It is reputedly the survival of a "dance
of death" from the days when the knife was the means of avenging
jealousies among the young men of Halling Valley in Norway. When a
man began the intricate acrobatic steps of the Halling Dance, the
other dancers knew he had seen an enemy or rival in the crowd, and
unobtrusively withdrew to the edge of the dance floor, leaving the
enemy, often unsuspecting, in the clear. Then, in a great whirl, the
Halling dancer would send his knife spinning through the air with its
message of death. The dance today is an acrobatic performance which
requires great skill. It includes handsprings, the _Halling-kast_--a
whirling and kicking step--and the _krukeng_, a jiglike step done in a
half-sitting posture with the dancer moving about the floor.
In many Norwegian towns, _Jule Bokke_ or Christmas Fools still make
the rounds of the homes between Christmas and New Year. They are young
people dressed in costume and masked, who call on the neighbors and are
given food and drink at each home visited.
Among the factors which keep alive the Old Country speech and manners
are the _lager_ or societies, each of which represents a district in
Norway. Members are former residents, or descendants of residents, of
the district. At their meetings, native music, dances, and costumes are
revived.
A holiday in all Norwegian communities is the Seventeenth of May,
Norway's Independence Day. The festivities usually include speeches,
picnicking, and dancing.
Norwegian influence has been felt in every phase of North Dakota life.
Among prominent figures in the State have been Paul Fjelde, sculptor;
Konrad Elias Birkbough, who discovered a cure for erysipelas; Carl
Ben Eielson, pioneer Alaskan aviator; R. A. Nestos, A. G. Sorlie, and
Ole Olson, who became Governors of the State. In the business world,
the Norwegians have influenced the rapid growth of the cooperative
movement. Skiing, a Scandinavian sport, is a popular winter
recreation. The accordion, favorite of both the Norwegian and the
German, is widely used in concert groups and dance bands. Foods which
are commonly known, although not widely prepared outside the Norwegian
home, include _lutefisk_, which is cod cured in lye; _lefse_, an
unleavened potato bread baked in great flat, rough, gray sheets on top
of an iron range; and _fattigmand_, a pastry fried in deep fat.
In the first two decades of the nineteenth century there occurred
a German migration into Russia which was to be felt later in North
Dakota. Free lands offered by the Russian Government (desirous of
having its people learn German farming methods) drew many Prussians
eager to escape the heavy taxation of their homeland. Throughout
the Black Sea area German colonies grew up; in later years these
contributed heavily to the stream of emigration to America. Today
Russo-Germans dominate the Russian element, which forms 12.8 percent of
the total population of this State.
Because of this Russo-German constituency, the Russian and German
racial groups in the State often overlap. Native Germans form 1.5
percent, and persons of German stock 8 percent, of the population. The
Russo-Germans first came to this State about 1889, settling in the
south-central section, in McIntosh and Emmons Counties. Other Russian
and Russo-German settlements are in the Missouri Slope and in the
central area of the State. German groups are found in the southeastern
part of the State, in Ward County in the northwestern area, and in
Morton in the Slope region. Among outstanding Germans who have taken
part in the development of the State are two Governors, George F.
Shafer and William Langer.
In its residence in Russia, the Russo-German group acquired many
customs which now distinguish them from their German cousins, but
the two groups have much in common. They cling tenaciously to their
native tongue in their homes and churches; the Russo-Germans, however,
speak a dialect which is a result of their Russian residence. Both
groups retain Old Country customs of dress, most noticeable of which
is the use of the _tuch_ or shawl worn by the women in place of a hat.
On Sundays and holidays some of the older women appear in beautiful
handworked _tuecher_ and full-skirted dresses typical of peasant
Europe. White stockings are often worn by the older women on holidays.
The occasional appearance of a fez-like astrakhan cap during the winter
bespeaks the Russian influence.
Although the dress of the older Russo-Germans is rather somber,
their homes are quite the opposite. Floors throughout the house are
invariably painted bright orange, this color scheme often extending to
the back and front porch and steps. The exteriors of the house and
other buildings are likewise sometimes painted in bright colors, with
contrasting trimming. A not uncommon decorative scheme consists of two
or three brilliant hues alternating in diagonal stripes across the
sliding doors of garages, granaries, and barns. The interior of the
summer kitchen (which is to be found back of most farmhouses and many
town homes) is often painted in contrasting bright colors, one shade
being used for a wainscoting effect, another for the top half of the
walls and the ceiling, and a third forming a dividing border. Because
of American influences, the penchant for these bright colors has become
more subdued in recent years.
A popular note in home decoration is the use of bright-colored
artificial flowers, which often adorn curtains, picture frames, and the
organ or piano in the Russo-German home.
A typically Russian note is the common use of glass tumblers instead
of cups for serving hot drinks. Another practice is the use of chicory
as a substitute for coffee. A favorite delicacy of the Russo-Germans,
also typically Russian, is the sunflower seed, known as the "Russian
peanut." They eat these much as Americans eat peanuts. The sunflower
seed is becoming popular as a confection throughout the State, and is
now roasted and packaged for sale, in contrast with the old method of
drying the ripe sunflower in the sun until the seeds could be brushed
from the plant.
One of the most beautiful customs retained by the modern generation
of Catholic Germans and Russo-Germans is the visit of the "Christmas
Angels." Three young girls, trained as a rule by nuns, go dressed as
angels from home to home in the community on Christmas Eve. They knock
for admission, and when this is granted they enter the home, bless it,
and sing one or two Christmas carols. For this service they are given a
small amount of money. Another custom is the observance of "Name Day,"
when, on the day of the saint for whom he is named, each person must
hold open house for his friends. Callers greet the host or hostess with
"Happy Name Day." Birthdays, on the other hand, if they occur on a day
other than the Name Day, are disregarded almost altogether.
Many German families observe December 31 as "Sylvester's Day." On
this day the last person arising is "Sylvester" or the lazy member of
the family for the coming year. Of course everyone in an industrious
German family tries to avoid this stigma. Another New Year's custom
is for all members of the family to leave through a rear door of the
home at midnight and reenter through a front door. The first person to
enter the home after midnight is a herald of the coming year: if he is
fair, the new year will bring good luck; but if he is dark, he augurs
misfortune.
The German people are fond of community music, and numerous bands and
choruses have organized almost spontaneously under leaders. They are
especially fond of song, and when a group of older people gathers for a
social evening their chief pastime is often hymn singing. Much of the
social life centers about the church, although in some communities the
_verein_, or society, has many members and serves to keep alive the
speech and customs of the Old Country, much as does the Norwegian _lag_.
Two interesting German religious sects are the Moravians, represented
in the area near Fargo, and the Dunkards or, as they are now known,
Dunkers, who have a settlement near Cando. One of the beautiful customs
of the Moravians is the "love feast," a survival of an early Christian
custom of breaking bread as an indication of brotherly love. The feast
today generally consists of coffee and doughnuts, but the spirit is
unchanged.
The Dunkers, or German Baptist Brethren, follow their early sectarian
precepts of plain dress and plain living. While few of the women still
wear the "dropped bonnet"--a small grey or black sunbonnet--the prayer
covering or small lace cap is still worn during attendance at church
services. Older members of the colony hold to the early rulings of the
church in carrying no form of insurance. In early October of each year
a harvest festival is held in the form of a religious observance.
From both the Germanic and the Norwegian groups is derived the most
prominent foreign contribution to the language of the State: the
universal use of _ja_ ("yah") for _yes_.
Few group characteristics attach to the Canadians, who constitute
1.5 percent of North Dakota's foreign-born population, and are found
in the northeast counties and the Red River Valley. Many of them are
descendants of the Selkirk colonists who settled from Fort Garry
to Fort Pembina early in the nineteenth century. It is from these
colonists that most of the Scottish people in this State trace their
descent.
For the French-Canadians the most important festival of the year is St.
Ann's Day, July 26. A shrine to St. Ann has been built by French and
Indians at Belcourt on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, and here on
the saint's day come the lame, the halt, and the blind, to walk or be
carried in the processional. Many miracles have been claimed.
In French-Canadian communities in the Red River Valley, the colorful
Old Country wedding customs are still observed. As the wedding march is
played the bridal pair and their attendants enter, followed by young
men dressed in highly padded French costumes, and wearing grotesque
masks. They are in both male and female attire, and dance and cavort to
the delight of the guests.
Like their Norwegian neighbors, the Swedes who have come to America
are predominantly a rural people. In North Dakota they constitute 1.2
percent of the total population, and are found in the eastern part of
the State, mainly in Cass County, and in the central section east of
the Missouri in Burleigh and McLean Counties.
Smaller racial groups in the State include Hollanders, in Emmons County
near the south-central border; Danes, in the east-central counties of
Cass, Barnes, and Stutsman; Poles and Icelanders, in the northeast
section; Hungarians, in the Slope area; Czechs, in Richland and Walsh
Counties in the Red River Valley and in Stark County in the Slope area;
and many others, all showing a distinct tendency to localize.
Through their national societies, the Ukrainians in Burleigh, McLean,
and Billings Counties in the western half of the State have retained
much of the music, dances, and costumes of their native land. These are
in evidence at their club meetings and also on holidays. The costumes
are colorful and elaborate, and testify to the embroidering skill of
the girls.
The Bohemians in Richland and Walsh Counties likewise are noted for
their musical organizations, but they do not retain their native
costumes or dances. The _sokol_ or physical culture group is found in
many of the Bohemian communities.
The _sauna_ or steam bathhouse is a characteristic feature of the
Finnish settlements in the southern and western sections of the State.
Water sprinkled on a large brick stove or on heated rocks provides
the steam for these baths, which are stifling on first trial but
soon become a pleasing habit. The Finns, like the Norwegians, serve
coffee to all guests who come to their homes, no matter what the hour.
Coffee is drunk from the saucer, through a lump of sugar held in the
cheek. Two holidays which are still celebrated in Old Country style
are Midsummer's Day and New Year's. Midsummer's Day, June 24, is an
occasion of picnicking, church services, confirmation of scholars,
settling arguments or quarrels, and pitching horseshoes. On New Year's
Eve, fortunes are told by dropping bits of melted soldering metal into
cold water. One piece, melted and hardened before midnight, is a symbol
of the old year; and the process is repeated with another piece after
the stroke of midnight, to foretell the fortunes of the new year.
Both the Irish and the Icelanders continue to hand down their legends
which have been brought from Europe. Icelandic children usually are
well posted on the national sagas, including the _alfa sorgur_, which
tell of the _huldu_ folk or elves; and no Irish child is so poor as to
be deprived of the ghosts, the banshees, the leprechauns, and other
weird creatures of the Emerald Isle.
At Ross, in northwestern North Dakota, is a small colony of Syrians,
most of whom are Ahmadiyya Moslems. They have their own place of
worship, and conduct services each Friday as well as on other holy
days. They retain many food customs of the Near East, one of the most
interesting being the use of a meal made by crushing durum wheat which
has been boiled and dried in the sun. The meal is then stewed with
meats or vegetables or sweet oils.
The sugar beet industry of the Red River Valley has resulted in the
importation of Mexican workers, who provide cheap and skilled labor for
cultivation of the beet fields. The Mexican population is not large,
however, having decreased greatly from the 1930 figure of 600, and
has left no permanent imprint of its folklore or customs. The Negro
population, never large, is also rapidly decreasing. The 1930 census
showed 377 Negroes in the State.
Although not foreign-born, the Indian population constitutes a distinct
racial group. Sioux and Rolette Counties, containing the Standing
Rock and Turtle Mountain groups, have the greater part of the Indian
population and consequently register the highest illiteracy in the
State, from 7 to 8 percent. Other counties usually have an illiteracy
rate of less than 1 percent, and sometimes less than half of 1 percent.
The Indians retain many racial customs and legends despite the
encroachment of the white man's civilization. The metis, of French and
Chippewa blood, were famous as hunters and trappers. Many of them were
found in the upper Red River Valley and adjoining territory about 1850.
Their descendants now live in small clay-plastered log houses, with
much of their household equipment and bedding kept in the yard.
Many of North Dakota's characteristic folkways represent foreign
cultures rather than anything intrinsically American. There is no
lack, however, of native customs which are gradually absorbing and
supplanting the Old World ways.
Because North Dakota is a farm State, many of its customs hinge on
certain matters of rural importance such as the weather and the crops.
Whether or not the farm people are able or inclined to attend is
the greatest factor in the success of most social and civic events.
Saturday night is the farmer's night in town, a welcome holiday after
his week of isolation and work. Shops and garages become social as
well as commercial centers, as friends stop to exchange news, gossip,
and recipes. In many communities, Saturday night dances are held,
and during the summer months a vacant lot will often be the scene of
open-air motion pictures, with the spectators seated in their parked
cars and blowing the horns in lieu of applause when the pictures meet
with approval.
In addition to such general holiday celebrations as Christmas, New
Year, and Memorial Day, in the Norwegian sections of the State,
Norwegian Independence Day, May 17, is also marked by festivity. Among
the Russo-Germans, Ascension Day is an unusually solemn holiday. At
Christmas time, holiday decoration of homes is common, and groups
of young people stroll about the streets or ride in sleighs singing
carols. New Year's Eve brings about the usual noisy gayety, and in many
towns it is customary to fire guns in a salute as the new year comes
in. Watch parties are held in the churches for the more serious-minded.
The Fourth of July is an important holiday, not so much for its
historic meaning as for its local interpretation. For days previously,
the skies are anxiously scanned for signs of inclement weather. As the
Glorious Fourth dawns a salute is fired, usually by ex-servicemen, and
soon in the early morning air the sound of hammers is heard, as booths
and "concessions" rapidly go up to be draped with bunting. Flags appear
on the buildings and homes. Cars begin to pour into town, parking
near Main Street, which has been roped off for the races. The square
is soon filled with a milling crowd, all in their best clothes, the
children clutching their long-hoarded pennies and nickels which they
will exchange for soda pop, ice cream, and firecrackers. The program of
the day includes patriotic speeches, airplane and parachute exhibits,
races, and bowery dances, and in the evening the climax of the exciting
day--a fireworks display.
The Russo-Germans know the holiday simply as "the July," and in a good
year it is an occasion for new clothes for the entire family, commonly
designated "July dresses" and "July suits."
Conviviality often joins with practical necessity to provide social
occasions for North Dakotans. Butchering, sausage making, soap making,
quilting, threshing, burials, illness, all furnish opportunity for
friends to meet and visit while performing some deed of necessity or
kindness. The farmer who is ill during sowing time will often have his
crop put in by his neighbors, and he may be called on in the fall to
help harvest for the recently bereaved widow of one of his friends. The
neighbor who has lost his home by fire or has had some other misfortune
will probably be given a "make-glad" party, at which he will receive
gifts in kind and perhaps in money. After harvest, when there is straw
to be burned, the young people of the locality will hold strawstack
parties, roasting wieners and marshmallows as the burning stacks light
the autumn night with their red gleam.
Sometimes, with the coming of dusk on winter evenings, bobsleighs slide
away from darkened country homes, filled with all the members of the
family, from grandparents down to babies. Often the sleigh will pick up
additional passengers at a nearby homestead, and sometimes it becomes
so crowded that there is scarcely room for the boxes of sandwiches,
carefully wrapped cakes, and jars of pickles among the shuffling feet
and heated rocks and bricks in the bottom of the sleigh. The singing
creak of the sleigh runners accompanies songs that boom out on the
night air. Presently a number of sleighs reach an appointed home, but
they do not pause long. Across the fields the light of a farmhouse
window offers a prelude to their welcome. They become studiously quiet
until they reach the door, then burst in with shouts of "Surprise!"
There follows a confusion of greetings and commands:
"Get a lantern."
"Put your horses in the east stall. John, show Henry where to put
his horses, and--hey, John, turn Jip and Molly out to make room for
Millers' team."
"Bring in them sandwiches I brought, Helen."
"Oh, heavens, you knew all about it--you're all dressed up and ready
for us. With the country line it ain't possible to surprise anyone."
(Even where there is no country telephone line, it is considered
something of a feat to catch the unsuspecting host or hostess napping.
Yet all North Dakotans like surprise parties, and have them on
birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and every other plausible occasion.)
The farmhouse is converted into a dual-purpose hall. The accordion is
placed near the stove to "thaw out," wraps are deposited in corners, on
chairs, and on beds, except the one reserved for the babies. Tables,
the drophead sewing machine, and everything else that will serve the
purpose are arranged for card playing. One room is cleared for dancing.
After the first spurt of conversation lags, the musician takes his
instrument on his knee, the floor is sprinkled with corn meal or grated
paraffin, and soon the house is shaking from studding to rafter.
Someone suggests a quadrille, or square dance, and the room resounds
with the calls:
"First two gents cross over
And leave your lady stand,
Side two gents cross over,
And take her by the hand.
Salute your corner lady,
Salute your partners all,
Swing the corner lady,
And promenade round the hall."
"First couple to the right,
Birdie in the center and three hands round,
Birdie fly out and hunter step in.
Three hands round."
At midnight, after three or four hours of dancing and card playing,
"the ladies" serve lunch. The hat is passed for contributions to the
musician, but he does not take the money until he is through playing,
which is usually about 3 o'clock in the morning. Then, after a general
bedlam of looking for mislaid coats, the babies are carefully wrapped,
the younger children are wakened and rub their eyes sleepily as they
climb into the sleighs, the empty cake plates and pickle jars are
collected, farewells are called, and horses, anxious to return to their
own stalls, speed the drowsy parties home through the cold night.