Finns in the United States

335 Pages·2014·4.486 MB·English

by  Auvo Kostiainen

FINNS
IN THE UNITED STATES

FINNS
IN THE UNITED STATES
A History of Settlement, Dissent, and Integration
Edited by Auvo Kostiainen
|
Michigan State University Press East Lansing
Copyright © 2014 by Michigan State University
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Michigan State University Press
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Finns in the United States : a history of settlement, dissent, and integration /
edited by Auvo Kostiainen.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61186-106-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-60917-398-2 (ebook)
1. Finnish Americans—History. I. Kostiainen, Auvo.
E184.F5F55 2014
305.894'541073—dc23
2013012249
Book design by Charlie Sharp, Sharp Des!gns, Lansing, MI
Cover design by Erin Kirk New
Cover art is of the Red Lodge, Montana, Finnish American gymnastics society, 1910,
from the photo collection of the Department of General History, University of Turku.
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Contents
preface · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · vii
Part 1. Introduction
Updating and Rethinking the Finnish American Story, Jon Saari· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 3
Interest in the History of Finnish Americans, Auvo Kostiainen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 13
Part 2. Colonial Settlement of the Swedes and Finns
Th e Delaware Colonists and Th eir Heritage, Auvo Kostiainen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 29
Part 3. Seamen, Masses, and Individual Migrants of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Migration from Finland to North America, Reino Kero · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 41
Finnish Settlements in the United States: “Nesting Places” and Finntowns, Arnold R. Alanen · · · · · · · · · 55
Ambiguous Identity: Finnish Americans and the Race Question, Peter Kivisto
and Johanna Leinonen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 75
Part 4. Finnish Communities Organized
Fighting for Temperance Ideas, Paul George Hummasti · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 91
Religious Activities of the Finns: An Examination of Finnish Religious Life in Industrialized
North America, Gary Kaunonen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 107
Politics of the Left and the Right, Auvo Kostiainen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 131
“Sooner or Later You’re a Cooperator”: Th e Finnish American Cooperative Movement,
Hannu Heinilä · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 157
Part 5. The Multitude of Cultural Life
Finnish Identity in Immigrant Culture, Keijo Virtanen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 173
Papers and Publications, Auvo Kostiainen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 205
Part 6. Finland’s Minority Emigrants
Finland-Swedes in North America, Mika Roinila · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 221
Part 7. Connected to Finland
Distant Dreams, Diff erent Realities: North American Immigrants Revisit Finland, Erik Hieta · · · · · · · · 243
Help among Nations: Th e Humanitarian Impulse in American–Finnish Relations, Erik Hieta · · · · · · · 253
Th e Return Migration of Finns from North America, Keijo Virtanen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 263
Deported Finns, Auvo Kostiainen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 273
Part 8. Acculturation and Generations
One Culture, Two Cultures? Families of Finns in the United States in the Twentieth Century,
Johanna Leinonen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 285
Th e Transnational Practices of Finnish Immigrants, Peter Kivisto · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 297
Who Is a “Real” Finn? Negotiating Finnish and Finnish American Identity in the Contemporary
United States, Johanna Leinonen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 309
Part 9. Turning to Americans
Adjustment and the Future, Mika Roinila · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 319
for further reference · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 327
contributors · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 333
index · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 335
Preface
Th e history of the Finns in North America has been a target of interest for more than 100 years. In the
1920s, the number of first- and second-generation Finns in the United States reached circa 350,000. Today
there are more than 600,000 persons in the United States who recognize their Finnish ancestry, while
in Canada their number is more than 100,000. Th e main movement of Finns to the United States was
cut down to only a few hundred per year in the 1920s by quotas in the immigration laws, while Canada
remained an important destination during the interwar years. After World War II emigration from Finland
resumed, with perhaps 50,000 new immigrants landing in North America until present day.1
Scholarly interest in the history of Finns in North America started in the early decades of the twen-
tieth century, and gained strength especially from the 1960s onward. Scholars working in both Finland
and North America researched and published extensively during the 1960s to 1990s, and the work
continues today, with rising interest in new ethnic groups and multicultural features in societies. Interest
in Finnish heritage in the United States has been sustained mainly by second- and third-generation
descendants, post–World War II immigrants, and migration scholars.
The story of the Finns and their descendants in America is worth writing. This book is only the
second comprehensive historical volume on the topic published in the English language; it follows in
the footsteps of A. William Hoglund’s Finnish Immigrants in America 1880–1920.2 Hoglund, a second-
generation Finnish American from rural upstate New York, wrote as an insider and as a professional
historian. He saw the Finnish American story as a gritty and inventive survival tale, whose final chapter
would inevitably be assimilation and integration into the larger American society. He had no use for
fileo-pietistic interpretations that emphasized ethnic pride and positive contributions to mainstream
American life. Th is current book builds upon Hoglund’s insights into the immigrant story but also adds
research and perspectives that extend beyond Hoglund’s chosen timeline, 1880–1920. It enriches the
story of the second and third generations, and documents Finnish American dissent from, as well as
integration into, mainstream American society and politics.
Th is volume is not a narrative history of Finnish immigration with a single voice, nor is it an encyclo-
pedic compendium of all things Finnish American. It explores from a variety of perspectives the
vii
viii PREFACE
collective experience of one specific ethnic group in the United States. It consists of nine parts and
twenty chapters, each one reflecting aspects of the specific experiences of Finnish Americans. The
book is organized in approximate chronological order, with thematic parts and chapters. Th e authors
of this volume have been influenced by the vast body of work produced by social historians from the
1960s forward, with its emphasis on history from the bottom up and attention to class, race, and gender.
Relatedly, they have been influenced by recent developments in history and the social sciences such as
multiculturalism, transnationalism, and whiteness studies. Consequently, this volume off ers a fresh and
up-to-date analysis of the history of Finnish Americans, one that will permit comparisons with other
ethnic experiences in the United States.
Th e Finns were late-arriving immigrants during the Great Migration (ca. 1880–1924), although there
had been a prelude in the colonial era of the 1600s. Th ey are, comparatively speaking, a small immigrant
group. Nevertheless, because of their geographic concentration in regions such as the upper Midwest,
their local and regional impact was pronounced. Th ey diff ered from many other new immigrant groups
from Europe in a number of ways, including the fact that their language was not Indo-European, and
many Old Country cultural and social features reflected their geographic location on the northern
borderlands of Europe.
Th e book begins with an introductory section that off ers historiographical analyses of the study of
the Finnish American history, followed by a compact overview of the overall composition and settle-
ment patterns of these newcomers. Major topics in the book include explorations of the particularly
vivid ethnic organizations Finns created, as well as the cultural life they sought to preserve and enhance
while also fitting into their new homeland. One part examines the special significance of political dis-
sent, in particular widespread participation in the full range of leftist organizations (except anarchism)
and cooperative activities. At the same time, many Finns were religious, some perhaps seeing im-
migration as, to borrow from Timothy Smith, a “theologizing experience.” Th e institutional life of these
“Church Finns” will be counterposed to that of their “Red Finn” counterparts.3
Th e Red (left)/White (conservative) divide had major implications for the various forms of political
engagement and immigrant culture that arose, the legacy of which impacted the entire ethnic group and
its identity for decades. As significant as the internal division were various manifestations of transna-
tionalism as immigrants sought to remain connected to the Old World. Noteworthy here was the exodus
of many North American radical leftists to Soviet Karelia in the 1930s, and right after that the homeland
politics that mobilized the larger Finnish American community to support Finland during the Winter
War (1939–40) and Continuation War (1941–44). One chapter, influenced by whiteness studies scholars,
also discusses the question of whether Finns belonged to the Mongol race; this question had a surpris-
ingly long-lasting and vexing impact on the ethnic community.
The Canadian experience of Finnish immigration is not of special interest in this volume. There
are a few reasons for this: Finnish American history in the United States is an older phenomenon and
therefore more thoroughly analyzed, while many features of the Finnish experience in Canada still await
researchers. And even though Canada and the United States are in many respects similar and cross-
border contacts were frequent, the two histories of immigration are hardly identical. It was decided that
this volume should concentrate on the history of Finnish immigration in the United States. Canadian
Finns are noted in certain sections of the volume for comparative analysis. Finnish Canadian experi-
ences are worthy of a volume of their own.
PREFACE ix
Th e idea of writing this book as a joint eff ort was actually born during the scholarly and lay gather-
ings at FinnForums and FinnFests of the late 2000s. These meetings brought together people with a
general interest in Finnish American history. More concrete discussions took place at the FinnForum in
Eskilstuna, Sweden, in 2007; the project was given a push at the FinnFest of Duluth, Minnesota, in 2008;
and finally materialized at the conference called “Finnish-American Immigrants in Transition” in Turku,
Finland, in June 2009. Th e authors of the present volume are all active researchers in the history and
society of Finns in North America and in Finland and represent diff erent disciplines.
Special thanks go to each writer for great patience and spirited teamwork. Several individuals in Fin-
land helped along the way, such as students and researchers at the University of Turku—Rauli Elenius,
Johannes Huhtinen, Jaakko Mäntylä and Aleksi Huhta. Th eir eff orts were covered by the FiDiPro project
of the University of Turku and the Academy of Finland entitled “Multiculturalism as a New Pathway to
Incorporation,” with Peter Kivisto as the lead scholar. Th e language editing and commentaries by Helena
Halmari were very useful. Finally, our volume in hand also contributed in the founding process of the
John Morton Center for North American Studies at the University of Turku.
NOTES
1. Quite speculative estimates counting all possible 2. A. William Hoglund, Finnish Immigrants in
descendants with “Finnish blood” arrive even to America (1960; repr. Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1992).
millions of Finns in North America. Cf. S. C. Olin, 3. Timothy L. Smith, “Religion and Ethnicity in
Finlandia: Th e Racial Composition, the Language, America,” Th e American Historical Review 83, no. 5
and a Brief History of the Finnish People (Hancock, (1978): 1175.
Mich.: Book Concern, 1957), 153.