July 22, 2008

Minnesota's Finndians

Finnish pioneers, Ojibwe found common groundOne culture had the sauna, the other had the sweat lodge.

One group found multiple uses for cedar, the other used birch. In the late 1800s, both the immigrant Finnish population and the resident Ojibwe people of northern Minnesota had strong storytelling traditions, and both put great stock in communal living. Both cultures also faced persecution and degradation.

So perhaps it was inevitable that the two groups would mingle, creating a new population of “Finndians.”
Comment:  For more on the Finn-Ojibwe connection, see Hiawatha Inspired by Finnish Epic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting, thank you.