Norwegian American
The
Norwegian Americans are an
ethnic group in the
United States. They are the descendants of
Norwegian immigrants who came to America primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian-Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and most live in the
Upper Midwest.
 |
Norwegian immigrants wearing their traditional outfit (bunad). |
History
Norwegians are credited with being the first
Europeans to discover North America. The
Norwegian/
Icelander Leifr Eiríksson reached America via
Norse settlements in
Greenland circa A.D.
1000, nearly five centuries before
Columbus. It is generally agreed that the
Norwegian settlers in Greenland founded the
capital settlement of
Vinland at
L'Anse aux Meadows, and that their territory encompassed the whole of the isle of
Newfoundland. Just how much they explored further past the
Canadian Maritime Provinces (known as
Skrælingeland in
Old Norse; later
Acadia and then
Nova Scotia) in North America has been a matter of debate for the past hundred years amongst
romantic and
ethnic nationalists as well as some lay historians. Some widely disputed evidence suggests that Norwegians having made many settlements much further into the North American mainland than was believed before. (See
Kensington Runestone.)
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U.S. postage stamp honoring the hundredth anniversary of the Restauration. |
Norwegian immigration to America in the post-Columbian era began in
1825, when several dozen Norwegians left
Stavanger bound for America on the
sloop Restauration (often called the "Norwegian
Mayflower") under the leadership of
Cleng Peerson. The emigrants were primarily
Quakers, though personal and economic motivations may have played a role. The ship landed in
New York City, where it was at first impounded for exceeding its passenger limit. After intervention from
President John Quincy Adams, the passengers moved on to settle in
Kendall,
New York with the help of
Andreas Stangeland, witnessing the opening of the
Erie Canal en route. Most of these immigrants moved on from Kendall, settling in
Illinois and
Wisconsin. Cleng Peerson became a traveling emissary for Norwegian immigrants and died in a Norse Settlement near
Cranfills Gap,
Texas, in
1865.
While there were about 65 Norwegian individuals who emigrated via ports in
Sweden and elsewhere in the intervening years, the next emigrant ship did not leave Norway for the New World until
1836, when the ships
Den Norske Klippe and
Norden departed. In
1837, a group of immigrants from
Tinn emigrated via Gothenburg to the Fox River Settlement, near present-day
Sheridan, Illinois. But it was the writings of Ole Rynning, who traveled to the US on the
Ægir in 1837 that energized Norwegian immigration.
To a great extent, early emigration from Norway was borne out of religious persecution, especially for
Quakers and a local religious group,
haugianere.
Norwegian immigration through the years was predominantly motivated by economic concerns. Compounded by crop failures, Norwegian agricultural resources were unable to keep up with population growth, and the
Homestead Act promised fertile, flat land. As a result, settlement trended westward with each passing year. Early Norwegian settlements were in Pennsylvania and Illinois, but moved westward into Wisconsin,
Minnesota, and the Dakotas.
Additionally, craftsmen also emigrated to a larger, more diverse market. Until recently, there was a Norwegian area in
Sunset Park, Brooklyn originally populated by Norwegian craftsmen.
Between
1825 and
1925, more than 800,000 Norwegians immigrated to America—about one-third of Norway's population. With the exception of
Ireland, no single country contributed a larger percentage of its population to America than Norway.
Today
*There are more than 4.5 million people of Norwegian
ancestry in the U.S. today. Of these, approximately 3 million claim 'Norwegian' as their sole or primary ancestry.
*A little more than 2% of
whites in the US are of Norwegian descent. In the
Upper Midwest, especially
Minnesota, eastern
Wisconsin, northern
Iowa, and the
Dakotas, more than 15% of whites are of Norwegian descent.
*55% of Norwegian Americans live in the
Midwest, although a large number (21%) live in the
Pacific states of
Washington,
Oregon, and
California.
*Norwegian Americans actively celebrate and maintain their heritage in many ways. Much of it centers on the
Lutheran-Evangelical churches they were born into, but also culinary customs (e.g.,
lutefisk and
lefse), costumes (
bunad), and Norwegian holidays (
Syttende Mai, May 17th) are popular. Certain towns in the United States, particularly in the Upper Midwest, have very strong Norwegian influences.
*Although the Norwegians were the most numerous of all the
Scandinavian immigrant groups, other Scandinavians also immigrated to America during the same time period. Today, there are 11-12 million Americans of Scandinavian ancestry. Scandinavians represent about 6% of the white population in the USA as a whole, and more than 25% of the white population of the Upper Midwest.
Norwegian Americans by state
The 10 states with the most Norwegians:#
Minnesota – 850,742#
Wisconsin – 454,831#
California – 436,128#
Washington – 367,508#
North Dakota – 193,158#
Illinois – 178,923#
Iowa – 166,667#
Oregon – 147,262#
Texas – 118,968#
South Dakota – 115,292
The 10 states with the top percentages of Norwegians:#
North Dakota – 30.1% of the state's white population is of Norwegian ancestry#
Minnesota – 17.3%#
South Dakota – 15.3%#
Montana – 10.6%#
Wisconsin – 8.5%#
Washington – 6.2%#
Iowa – 5.7%#
Oregon – 4.3%#
Wyoming – 4.3%#
Alaska – 4.2%
Listed alphabetically. Main article: List of Norwegian Americans.
*
James Cagney – action movie actor (partially, on mother's side)
*
Babe Didriksen (Zaharias) – pro golfer and Olympic athlete
*
Douglas Engelbart – a co-inventor of
mouse and of many now common aspects of computer GUIs.
*
Gilbert N. Haugen -- U. S. Representative from Iowa, 1899-1933, co-author of the McNary-Haugen farm relief bill
*
Conrad Hilton – founder and developer of the
Hilton Hotel chain; great-grandfather of
Paris Hilton (partially of Norwegian descent; also of German descent)
*
Hubert Humphrey – served as
Vice President under
Lyndon Johnson, and was the 1968
Democratic candidate for President
*
Garrison Keillor – media personality
*
Walter Mondale – served as Vice President, ran for President in
1984*
Marilyn Monroe – actress (born Norma Jeane Mortensen)
*
Eliot Ness –
Prohibition-era American icon
*
Ted Nelson – a co-inventor of
hypertext and the leader of the
Project Xanadu.
*
Priscilla Presley –
actress and the only
wife of
singer Elvis Presley*
Knut Rockne – famous
football coach at
University of Notre Dame*
Ole Edvart Rølvaag (spelled "Rolvaag" in the United States) – novelist
*
Karl Rove – chief political advisor to
George W. Bush *
Jan Stenerud – football place kicker (Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings)
*
Earl Warren – governor of
California,
Chief Justice of the United States from
1953 –
1969*
Bernt Balchen –
Norwegian-born
aviator*
Gill Holland – film producer
*
Renée Zellweger – actress
*
Sondre Norheim – skier, called "the father of modern skiing"
Use of the
Norwegian language in America was at its peak between
1900 and
World War I, then:
*Over one million Americans spoke Norwegian as their primary language.
*There were dozens of Norwegian-language newspapers across the Upper Midwest.
*
Decorah Posten was one such newspaper.
**Over 600,000 homes received at least one Norwegian newspaper in
1910.
*More than 3,000
Lutheran churches in the Upper Midwest used Norwegian as their sole language.
Use of the Norwegian language declined in the
1920s and
1930s due in large part to the rise of nationalism among the American population during and after World War I. During this period, readership of Norwegian-language publications fell, Norwegian Lutheran churches began to hold their services in English, and the younger generation of Norwegian-Americans was encouraged to speak English rather than Norwegian. When Norway itself was liberated from the
Nazis in
1945, relatively few Norwegian-Americans under the age of 40 still spoke Norwegian as their primary language (although many still understood the language). As such, they were not passing the language on to their children, the next generation of Norwegian-Americans.
Today there are 81,000 Americans who speak Norwegian as their primary language.
Many Lutheran colleges that were established by immigrants and people of Norwegian background, such as Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, continue to offer Norwegian majors in their undergraduate programs. Many major American universities, such as the University of Washington, University of Oregon, and the University of Wisconsin offer Norwegian as a language within their Germanic language studies programs.
*
Norge, a small town with historic district near
Williamsburg in
James City County,
Virginia. Settled by Norwegian-American people and named for their homeland.
*
Poulsbo, a city in Washington founded by a Norwegian immigrant that maintains a strong Norwegian culture.
*
Norsk Høstfest (
lit. "Norwegian Autumn Festival") is an annual festival held in October in
Minot, North Dakota.
*
Demographics of the United States for comparative population.
*
Ole and Lena, protagonists of numerous Norwegian-American jokes
*
Uff da, a typically Norwegian-American exclamation
*
Starbuck, Minnesota, a small western town that produces the largest lefse in the world.
*
Norwegian-Canadians - whose history is interlinked with that of Norwegian Americans.
# Incidentally, the number of Americans of Norwegian descent living in the U.S. today (4.5 million) is roughly equal to the
current population of Norway.
Secondary sources
* Kenneth Bjork,
West of the Great Divide: Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847-1893 (
Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield, Minn., 1958)
* Theodore C. Blegen,
Norwegian Migration to the United States (2 vols., Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield, Minn., 1931-40), standard history
* Theodore C. Blegen, "Cleng Peerson and Norwegian Immigration,"
Mississippi Valley Historical Review 7 (March 1921): 303-21, story of a leading promoter and his American careerl in JSTOR
* Gjerde, Jon.
The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917 (1997)
* Gjerde, Jon.
From Peasants to Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle West (1985)
*
Jacobs, Henry Eyster.
A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States (1893),
* Munch, Peter A. "Authority and Freedom: Controversy in Norwegian-American Congregations," Norwegian-American Studies 28 (1979)
* Nelson, E. Clifford and Eugene L. Fevold,
The Lutheran Church among Norwegian Americans: A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2 vols. (1960)
* Qualey, Carlton C.
Norwegian Settlement in the United States (Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1938).
Primary sources
* Theodore C. Blegen, ed.,
Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads (Minneapolis, 1936)
* Gulliksen, Øyvind T. "Letters to Immigrants in the Midwest from the Telemark Region of Norway," Norwegian-American Studies 32 [1989]
* Nilsson, Svein.
A Chronicler of Immigrant Life: Svein Nilsson's Articles in Billed-Magazin, 1868-1870, trans. and ed. C. A. Clausen [Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1982]
* Ræder, Ole Munch.
America in the Forties: The Letters of Ole Munch Ræder, ed. and trans. Gunnar J. Malmin (Minneapolis: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1929)
*
Norway's official website in the United States - Information about Norway and current news and events of interest to Americans (Norwegian Embassy website)
*
Norwegian American Historical Association*
Norwegian population data from the
U.S. Census Bureau*
Norwegian population by state*
U.S. Census data on number of language speakers, including Norwegian*
Friends of Norway Caucus - A
Congressional Caucus promoting Norwegian-American relations, founded by Norwegian-American congressmen
*
Norwegian-American homepage*
Sons of Norway - An organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Norwegian heritage and culture, especially in America
*
Norwegian-American Foundation*
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum*
Norwegians in the Civil War*
Nordmannsforbundet (The Norse Federation) - A non-profit organization founded in
1907 that seeks to strengthen cultural and personal ties between Norway and Norwegians abroad
