When I went to the Minnesota Historical Society to examine the materials that were available on the Mexican-American I said to myself I found a picture of Benito Juarez president of Mexico a record a military record of a Mexican Soldier. And I said to myself. There's great work to be done here. I was very happy and I was quite honored. Do I have had the opportunity to have directed The Mexican American history project? The Mexican Community is extremely grateful to the society. for taking into account for asking someone of their area of their background to assume some type of initiative to recognize the contributions of the Mexican-American to the history of Minnesota according to the latest calculations. the Hispanic group in this country totals approximately 20 million that's slightly less than one-tenth of the u.s. Population. The United States has a greater Hispanic population than 16 countries been 16 of the Spanish 16 out of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries of the world. Only Mexico Spain, Colombia and Argentina have more population more Hispanic population than the United States. There are there are now more Puerto Ricans for example in New York in Illinois and in New Jersey, then there are in Puerto Rico itself. The Cuban presence in Miami has brought about a linguistic and cultural impact to the area. That is phenomenal. In Union City, New Jersey, for example, the Cubans own 60% of the businesses and comprise 65% of the population within the next 15 years the Hispanic population in this country will total 30 million. That means that the Hispanic American will be the largest minority the ethnic minority in this country. Presently the Hispanic is Young is average age is 18. Therefore. They will be playing an increasingly vital role in the country's growth in the near future. Mexican Americans constitute the oldest and largest Hispanic group The Mexican Americans in this state of course, but if we look back in history, the Mexican Americans have been in Texas since 1598 and in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1610. In a real sense the Mexican Americans are not foreigners. They are not strangers. The Mexican Americans were the earliest as far as we're concerned the earliest colonies. 4 / 250 years the Southwest was part of Mexico. It wasn't until 1848 between 1845 and 1848 the Texas New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado became part of the United States. Then at the end of the Mexican war the United States acquired nearly 1 million square miles of Mexican territory and about a hundred thousand Mexican citizens who are at that time living in the land here in Minnesota, the Mexican Americans already already comprise the largest ethnic minority group and during the past 15 years the Mexican population in this state has doubled The current figure is 50,000 according to the latest Governor's report and it is predicted that it too will increase at the same rate as a national statistics. This means that they are currently about 2% of the States citizens in Minnesota. I mentioned this history and these facts only because I think many people are not aware of it. There's a little story that I like to tell you. It's a story about Jose and Maria Jose and Maria have been married for about 5 years. And they hadn't had any children and their parents as well as their friends were quite concerned and quite worried. They had a priest friend who knew other situation and he went over and he talked to Juan and Maria and he said I'm going to Mexico City and I'm going to the shrine of Guadalupe and I'm going to like the biggest candle I can find so that you can be blessed with children. Well, if yours went by and they hadn't heard or nine years went by eight or nine years when they hadn't heard from the missionary priests until one day 9 years later. He said he was in town and he stopped and he visited wanted Maria. He knocked on the door, but you answered the door after exchanging greetings. He looked about he came in you saw 8 little children running around and he says to Maria Maria. I see you've been blessed with a lot of children. But where is Jose? I don't see Jose anywhere and Maria said Jose. He's on his way to Mexico City to the to the shrine of Guadalupe to put out that damn candle. But as all of you know, looking at your own histories your own family histories the size of the family goes down as education and status and as income go up. Now I'd like to move to the Mexican American history project which has involved two summers for my staff and myself during the first summer. We gathered information on the Mexican-American in the Twin City metropolitan area and the second summer was devoted to outstate Minnesota or information fell into four categories the first during the two summers. We gathered information on 40 Mexican American associations Institutions and clubs II for the research phase of the project. We compiled over 75 citations to plant a to a pamphlet and brochures and to published and unpublished dissertations on Mexican-American topic third. We gathered hundreds of slides many photographs several films on a video tape. Last and most extensive the bibliography which is now being published by the by the society contains summarized information on 40 English language interviews conducted with first-generation Mexican Americans in a very wide sample of occupations. We also have the full tapes, of course and the type transcriptions of these forty English interviews and additional 35 interviews were conducted with Mexican citizens, who we consider Community Pioneers those who immigrated to Minnesota in the early 1900s these people describe the difficulties they encountered when first arriving in Minnesota during that. Of time, They tell of their affiliation with a church their desire to maintain their Spanish Customs their traditions, and of course the Spanish language, they came during a. A. Of political and social unrest in Mexico. It was a time when the corrupt dictator Porfirio Diaz was overthrown. It was between 1910 and 1920. When Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata for a succession of foreign financed dictators life was totally disrupted at the time in Mexico businesses folded 10% of the entire Mexican population died as a result of the revolution has found refuge in Minnesota and their stories are recorded at the society. There is much information at the society on the Mexican-American. In fact, the amount of the Minnesota Historical Society now has the most information on the Mexican-American of any institution in the state already. The materials are being used their being used by several groups k u o m for example under a program directed by Rafael Morales has a radio series program already that's being aired. The Spanish-speaking cultural Club in St. Paul has commissioned the documentary film on the Mexican-American in Minnesota and is using the materials for part of its film and I could mention several others. This then is a brief list of the materials in the collection at the society. But what do they add up to? What do they mean? What are the messages or the main message is I call it that you'll find on the tapes? the main message the message that I heard loudly and clearly from the Mexican Americans while working on a project was that we must be taken into consideration. Not only by the Historical Society. We must be taken into account. Not only by the Historical Society. They said it's good that the governor signs a proclamation every year 1 week in September designating it as Hispanic week, but this isn't enough. It's nice. It's great. And we appreciate ceremonial acknowledgement, but much more than that is needed. It can be merely lip service. They can be merely tokenism and this is not what the Mexican-American wants. They said let us be counted every day of the year in all parts of society in business on the job in the schools. They said we want a response by actions to our needs in the bilingual bicultural public educational programs in health delivery services. We want equal employment opportunity. This of course as you well know is unfair it's a it's an unfair. It's unfair to make demands without the willingness to fulfill one's duties and one's obligations and one's responsibilities. This is really unfair to ask this of the American public. However, most Mexican Americans believe that this cannot be said of them. First of all, the Mexican Americans have done more than a fair share on the battlefields more than their Fair proportions have died. On the battlefields mini returned wounded and many horrible ways more mexican-americans. For example have received the highest military honor the Congressional Medal of Honor than any other ethnic group. They said we have been willing to pay our fair share of taxes and to contribute to the development and to the growth of Minnesota our state. They said we have helped with a great amount of sweat to build this country. We have helped to maintain the farming in the street with our migrant working population who have been underpaid who have had to sacrifice adequate housing and education in order to survive in that industry. They said we do not regret having worked and sacrificed ourselves and sacrificed our lives for the state and the country. We are only asking that the doors of equal opportunity be open to us as they are to all others. We want to make this our state our country. We want to make even greater contributions to this country. We want to be able to call America really and truly the land of the free where all men and women are created equal. We want to work together with all other groups to achieve this dream. They said we believe we have many well-qualified Mexican Americans in Minnesota. We are encouraged by the fact that we are beginning to emerge in almost all areas of business science government Sports Show Business politics Health Lauren been in medicine the games up here remarkable on record when compared to the not-too-distant past when our presence was almost zero in these areas. They said Mexican Americans are not asking for handouts. Because they know that handouts limit freedom and enhance dependents. We only ask that equal opportunities be given to us as they are given two other Americans. We are not allowing. We are not allowing our differences in culture our differences in language our differences and religion to make us feel inferior to anyone else. We believe that in being different we can make contributions to this state and to this country. We want to maintain our language. We want to maintain our customs and our traditions and we don't feel that this makes us any less American than anyone else and we are not allowing the fact that we are way behind to make us give up. Ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the ideas these are some of the hopes and some of the dreams of the Mexican-American in Minnesota with whom our project Communicator. I share them with you for the first time. I believe that the study of history is not just for the researchers knowledge, but history must be disseminated. It must be disseminated to the general public and used to put just and wise public policies into action. We hope that you will have the opportunity to examine and to use these materials which are the gaseous by Uncle from a staff at the Historical Society was very sad to see that project included. And the staff gun our next speaker is Arthur for now. He is a native of Southwest Minnesota attended the Southwest State on Southwest State University. He currently has a number of interests. The leading ones are genealogy, and he is editor of the Pearl and genealogical register and is here today in his role as associate director of the southwest, Minnesota Regional Center app to Marshall, Minnesota. You're probably wondering what a genealogist is doing doing project on documenting Farmers organizations. If you realize a genealogist is part detective and they always have a habit of finding the skeleton in the closet. What's an attempt what we're attempting we've attempted to do because what happened? A number of times and in doing some research and talking to her area if you realize it Southwestern Minnesota is primarily an agricultural region. There's a lot of farmers if you were in the session this morning on archaeology, you saw picture of Lake Benton and all the Farmland around there and it's kind of flat. There's not much more there than Square Fields you rock piles and lots of farmers. Lots of small towns. What better to do in our regional History Center at Marshall witch? Is that the Southwest State University campus to record an attempt to look at the agricultural background of our area? Agricultural agricultural supports the communities it supports the college. And without agriculture, we finally if agriculture we're just to drive and blow away. We find out what kind of a situation we were in in doing that we discovered that there were a lot of farmers organizations that existed out in that area. And in many cases had a major role to play in the National organizations that they were parts. A lot of the writings that have been done on the on Farmers Farmers organizations nationally have sorted tended to leave your old, Minnesota and Southwestern, Minnesota. Somewhere in limbo and Purgatory or someplace. They're not mentioned. And in doing that we discovered that there were a number of people in our area. That were very much involved both nationally and Statewide in organizations of the organization of farm organizations. They were very much involved in the leadership. And in some cases were involved in keeping a lid on things. Our major program started sort of by accident when I was going to Southwest I had to do up a senior paper for history class and it decided not to go to the library and look up a whole bunch of stuff. Everybody else looked up again. And I discovered there was an organization called the farmers holiday Association I grew up in Southwestern Minnesota, but I was a few years after that. My grandfather was a good dyed in the wool Republican and he wouldn't do anything like that. So I decided to look into that and find out what it was all about. I started looking in newspapers and I looked in the library to see what they had on it and found it. There was very little it even mentioned Minnesota there lots of little newspapers out there that have lots of little stories in them. And then I discovered in the meantime that there were a lot of people out there that would you're still alive that were very much involved. Either was just members of the organization or as the sheriff but had to go out and sell sell a material as the auctioneer that did the sale or is it County attorney that had to call a National Guard out or contemplated calling the National Guard out? The same county attorney in some instances that had to bring about the sheriff sale. Was in the National Guard was called to Minneapolis to be the National Guard during the truckers strike at the same time. conflicts of interest all over the place Out of this also growing interest in the other Farm organizations that have been active in the area and have resulted in at least. Attempting to do something for the farmers. The Farm Bureau the Farmers Union and within the last few years of national Farm organization. We have a two-fold thing and looking at it tempting to do oral history with these various groups one is to actually go out and talk to some of the people that were involved in the organization of it how it works what kind of things they've done what they think their contribution was to the betterment of agriculture in America in rural, Minnesota. Another thing that we hope to realize from this was a fact that we hope to get in particularly for the farm farm holiday Association a number of manuscript papers the records of the organization the minutes they kept their meeting membership rolls and possible petition list, they signed and sent to the governor governor Olson. Some record of what they did other than what was in the newspaper, which was obviously very and I are very much for never did take a very much middle of the road. It was either one or the other. I rather biased reporting in the newspaper. We attempted as we went along first off when we started. We just went out and interviewed everybody we could find it was even remotely related to the farm holiday. We finally decided that we're getting a lot of people and we're not getting a very good coverage. We're just talking to a lot of people so we sat down and reevaluated what we had done and we decided it. What we had to do was sit down and make a list all the possible people we could think of but could be involved in this and all the different kinds of people from the newspaper editor in the county seat town to the county attorney to the county sheriff to the officers of the organization and then down to the regular rank-and-file so I can use that term We sat down and made a list and then we put it on a priority list. We reorganized our our list we rewrote it. We sat down and we decided okay, we have to do these first because they're the ones we have to fill the blanks in went and talked to the newspaper editor and found out he had a completely different Viewpoint of those radical Farmers Raising Cane. The County Attorney had a completely different Viewpoint the county sheriff had a different Viewpoint the tenant farmer had a completely different Viewpoint than the landowner who is losing his farm. Came up with a number of very good insights. We're still working on redoing the last and it's a very much. I'm going project. One thing we realized very quickly as we were doing. This was a fact. These are oral Reflections reminiscences personal Reflections and memories of the participants. No matter which side of the picket fence picket line. They were on And in many cases they had from 30 to 40 Years of hindsight. They tended to forget. As an example the sheriff candidate forget that they actually took his gun away from him. He says they didn't. We have five or six interviews it say I was the one that took it away. Only one person can take it away. We have a number of people that can say they can sit down and make a list of the people that were out there that came down and took the sheriff's gun away there in that party. But yet we went out and talked to some of those people who are very upstanding leading citizens of the community and they deny they were even in the county. We're not trying to find the skeleton in the closet is such that many people think that some of these radical type organizations and the farmers holiday was considered I think of that time or rather radical group, at least they were Rebel rousers. But a lot of people today really don't want to admit. But they were actually part of that and if they were fighting in a sense for their life. and their way of life So what's 30 or 40 years or more of retrospect they seem to get things mixed up. In our attempt to do a rather cross-section of of the membership in the leadership and also are attempting to find former members who left as disgruntled members. Business and Professional people on Main Street that were involved in some of the strikes withholding And anybody that happened to be involved in any way with the organization activities and other activities that they may have done? It's very hard. I think the hardest problem we have is attempting to make a list of the various people. We want to talk to. It's hard to find them. We found one recently that they we got a call and said here's the man you've got to talk to. He's a hundred and three. He's in the nursing home very sharp, and he can just answer all the questions you want to know. So we made an arrangement. We went up we talked to his son and got permission to go talk to the man. We got up there and yes indeed. The man was 103 and he was very sharp. And yes, he did Farm since 1896. And we visited with him. We had a nice visit and we taped it and that's about what it amounted to it was a nice visit. He knew nothing about the nonpartisan League. He knew nothing about the farm holiday. He knew nothing about the Farmers Union. He knew nothing about the Farm Bureau. He knew nothing about the national Farm organization because he said he was too busy farming. He didn't have time to get involved in those things and that's what I referred to it as those things. Because when he retired several years ago, he left seven Farms to Seven Suns. He retired 1930. He got tired of retirement went and bought another farm and farm for 20 more years. He didn't have time to get involved. We run into that occasionally. Are we go talk to a lady was supposed to be an organizer of the women's movement during the farm holiday and she sent we sit there and we get an hour and a half lecture on what's wrong with Rural America. But that's what happens. What are the major reasons that we want to do? This is not just a dredge up two stories and to attempt to find out just who was involved where where to find the skeletons in the closet. But a major reason is that these organizations left few records. Granted there are some national records of the Nash of the farm holiday Association. There are National records of the Farm Bureau the Farmers Union and mr. Staley. I hope is preparing to save the records of the NFL. But there are very few records that were created on the local level the county or the township or even the state or the region. They can be used for any sort of research to attempt to document what these type of organizations did for Rural America. And did they in fact have any impact? on legislation or whatever that affected agriculture newspapers have articles but newspaper articles tend to be bias two times. And in some cases the local newspapers are not there. So what we had to do was we had to decide the next best thing and instead of going out and asking people for papers and records of the organization. We decided to go through the back door and go talk to him and tell him how important they are and then we'd ask him if they have any records. He may say he the man one man. We interviewed said he had some records when we talked to him the first time and we're setting up the interview and he would get them out when we went to visit him. And then he spent the hour-and-a-half interview denying. He had the One reason, I think he denied he had him with his hearing aid didn't work very well at day. He did send them to us though later on. He found them. These to this point are the only records that we've come up with in our search on the net on the farm holiday Association. In preparing to do any of the oral history projects we've done we found it a little difficult in some cases. To prepare because we don't really know in some cases what we're going to find. But we do a tent when we go out and do interviews is to read whatever we can find on a general history of the organization. We attempt if possible if we have access to in time enough look through local histories to see if it's mansion and you would be surprised how many county histories which have been written over the years that do not even mention the depression or the farm holiday. We forgot we attempt to look through the papers local newspapers if we can at least get some idea of what actually went on in the community. Were there strikes in the community whether it were there withholding actions. Was there any sort of organization attempt? We attempt to get a good background if possible on the person we're going to interview. Where did he fit in with your renter an owner or whatever this does help us. We haven't prepared like mr. Smee modad a list of questions because of the fact that different people were interviewing look at the thing in different ways. But we do attempt to have a general background so that we can go out at least attempt to answer for attempt to ask scuse me some intelligent questions. With the other Farm organizations are rather late comers in our project at Marshall at the History Center. We haven't as many interviews on the Farm Bureau or the Farmers Union or the NFL, but we are attempting to build up a list. A story of a priority list as we call it a people we potentially want to interview in our region. We're doing are working in approximately 19 counties, which is a little more than 12 counties in the Red River Valley. And it's a widely diverse. There are a lot of different ethnic groups in the area. The course they tend to different times to look at things differently. We're tempting to build up a listing for a compilation of materials that dealt with those things. There were a number of newspapers which were published which supported the various Farm organizations at various times were tempting by hooker by crook to at least find out what the names of the more in to find out where they're at. All the interview is that we've done with our farm organizations have been transcribed and typed and we have type scripts of all the interviews. With one or two exceptions both the tape and the transcript are available. A couple interviews we did that the tape is in such bad quality that we've decided that the tape is still there, but it is in fact restricted. We had some problems and doing some oral history interviews other than people denying that they were there. The wife may not have liked is coming down and talk to talking to her husband. And so she perceives to go out in the kitchen. And I think she was washing dishes across the room from the sink. She was throwing them at the same cat sound like And other interviews we've done the people that become very reluctant to talk. Very happy to talk before the tape recorder was turned on when the tape recorders turn down immediately clam up and then after it's turned off until some very good stories. that's just one of the occupational hazards, I guess. Most of the people that we've interviewed have been very interested in what we're doing because they see that there is some value to this. They want to tell their story is they see it and I see that is our major accomplishment. If we do nothing more with our collection, then at least to record the interviews and transcribe them is the fact that we're recording these peoples. Impressions of what they saw happen whether it was out on the picket line in the 1930s or out on the picket line in the 1960s. We're recording what they saw as they sought we've attempted at different times to talk to the leaders. The people that were involved and coming out and organizing The Outsiders that came in to do the talking. These people can add a great insight to this whole story because of the fact that we get some idea of whether they were sent in or called in and in many cases It's a combination of the two with a stronger emphasis towards the calling him side. Most of these interviews tend to provide a very positive and honest account of what the people saw that's how they saw it whether it was right or wrong. It doesn't make any difference. This is what they saw. This is their opinion of what happened whether the sheriff denies the gun was taken away from him or not is beside the point. We have found also that many of the people that were interviewing also have a tendency to minimize. their contribution to the whole movement as a whole a sort of 10 to want to push the credit off to somebody else whether it's a national leader or whatever. In attempting to do this, we find it several people are responsible for the same thing or several people will not admit that they were part of the thing. I feel it in our total program of of recording Farm organizations. That what's going to happen if somebody is going to be able to come in someday and use the resources. We've been able to gather both oral history. a manuscript documents and they are going to be able to put together some sort of a in depth contribution to what agriculture played a non-american seen particularly in rural, Minnesota As you all know Marshall has just gotten a new president who is agriculturally oriented. And I think this is going to play into that overall scheme that is being talked about at Marshall of providing a real study center or an area of real studies and how else can you study Rural America without looking at agriculture? We feel that our project still has many more years to go. We've only been working on it. Approximately three years not full time are major problem is the same that that many other people have the money doesn't quite go far enough. There's just not quite enough people around and there's a lot of miles between those towns and it takes time. It takes time to type the type the transcripts up and so you're always behind and it seems like you're never going to get done and the list each year keeps getting a little bit longer and each year. You have to go back and scratch a few more names off because you didn't get there quite fast enough or you go there and you've missed it by a day or two. But we hope that someday we're going to be able to. In some sense sort of complete the picture and provide of a very valuable. Contribution to Rural America, so that's that's a little bit about what our program is all about. Our first speaker will be kind of SEMO. He is speaking in his role as director of the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center at Morehead State University. In addition to that. He is a professor at the University and the department of history and also director of Scandinavian studies program at Morehead State University. DUI twins idioms. I know those frozen prairies of the Northwest are the state's Outback and perhaps understandably. So it lies far to the North of course from here. It was the last section of the state to be populated. It's settled history is now just barely a century-old but Generations have come and gone by now and the time is more than I to begin to gather the oral as well as the written records of the region we felt The problem has been how when you're starting to attack a mountain with a spoon what should approach should one take and how should one begin to build on a set of collection that have some relatively immediate usefulness for historical understanding. That's problem. Number one secondly on the level of absolute practicality. We've had to take into account the extent of funds at our disposal and of course, there's never enough of those the availability of personnel who have the necessary motivation who have the historical background to have some expertise and perhaps most importantly have the personality required for a truly successful in-depth interview in the nature of things also had an educational institution of the staff has constantly changed over the years. We've used graduate assistants in history and still do we have paid both undergraduate and graduate? We have you students earning history credit by receiving training and experience in interviewing review students on work-study programs and reviews full-time assistance with history background who are serving as interns or have served as interns under the federal Ceta program. Therefore quality control obviously regarding the finished product is an ongoing concern and problem two on the whole though. I must say that I think all of us who ever worked with the center. I've been very pleased and very satisfied and very gratified by the dedication and by the abilities and the results that have been produced by some 50-60 different individuals. Mostly young people will work with the center over these years in one capacity or another So what is it that we have sought to do our chief strategy in trying to build usable collections of oral history has been thematic Gathering that is identifying selecting and interviewing a representative group of area residents having had living experience with some common theme or any rock or an event. This is awesome. And of course older people necessarily People from different walks of life. However, people with different educational backgrounds from various social economic levels and from different social settings urban and rural Big Town small town all relating to a past era or an aspect of society from their own Vantage points and from their own experiences with it. Of the several hundred tape interviews. We now have an AR archive most are grouped around some major theme in Red River Valley history. The choice of these themes has been largely subjective, of course, but dictated to some degree by first of all the the impact of that theme Upon Our region the availability of subjects the relation also of that theme to some larger national movement or event or interpretational question as far as the whole of American History is concerned. Princeton's a couple of years ago we concentrated for about a year on Gathering representative and hopefully as wide a variety is possible of Impressions and experiences with the era of the Great Depression in the Red River Valley. We have some 30 hours of these now and continue to add to them. Of course when we come across an ideal subject with experiences that we are still lacking. We have talked with stand and gained their own experiences and insights about the depression from Farmers and from Grocers and auto dealers and people who I worked on WPA are served and CCC or we're gasoline dealers during the rationing times World War II and and so forth. This past summer. We began collect a building a collection of personal Memoirs. I'm sorry. The gasoline dealers is out of the World War II collection home front in the Red River Valley with all the pervasive ways then in which that war and the American so-called war effort affected every resident there at the time including put it in that we have a subcollection relating to a German p o w Camp which existed in Morehead for some years. Our largest and most ambitious thematic project to date is the collection devoted to the Scandinavian Heritage and ethnic retention in the Red River Valley area. Are we now are to the point where we have over 70 interviews dealing with this some 60 rather solid tape towers with indexes to the subtopics discussed on each tape available. Maybe you're wondering why concentrate on the Scandinavians and yet I would call her and say in the Red River Valley, right? It was and certainly still is about originally was most heavily settled by Scandinavians with Norwegians and the greatest proportion so that proportionately most of our reminiscences an intern deal with Norwegians, but there were also many swedes of course was settled there. They also came and goodly number and we've interviewed a good many swedes on their ancestry and the various points that I'll mention in a moment. We have interviewed people of Danish and Icelandic and Finnish ancestry as well trying to deal with all of the various subspecies of the group called Scandinavians. We're still searching for an immigrant faroese. Or a lap or a greenlander or their descendants in the Red River Valley. We haven't found one yet if you know of any good appreciate hearing about it. That's the first reason why we chose that theme. Secondly, since we have a relatively flourishing Scandinavian studies program at Morehead State these days the tie in there for sources and for prospects as well as future scholarly usefulness makes this project particularly valuable for us as well as popularly visible through the media meaning that we have coarse cotton good media coverage, which in turn has led to a good deal of voluntary voluntary information coming our way by telephone by mail by various means information about leads and people and Prospects and you know, you really ought to talk to Olean Johnson because she's a hundred and three and that's been very useful in finding the right kinds of people that we have been looking for. Thirdly a good deal of documentary Source material does exist on the various Nordic groups in this country. Particularly. The Norwegians have been very well-studied and the Gathering of written records on them in this country is is vast but next to nothing that ever been done in the way of oral reminiscences regarding migration assimilation ethnic retention and so forth in the valley was settled so relatively late a good many of the most recent of the immigrating Scandinavian masses came directly to the park region around Fergus Falls and to the Red River Valley itself, and we still have quite a number of the immigration immigrant generation still living in the Valley area and the second generation of course is very abundant and that's the generation from which one can really measure the assimilation or the lack of it and the retention or the lack of it. of ethnic traits as I've indicated we have sought to select as wide a representation of individuals as possible with differing experiences and differing backgrounds for a well-rounded collection. The furthermore we have sought to build a body of data that is most susceptible to cross-sectional analysis. We developed for each project a set of General common questions for the interviewer to use they need to be altered somewhat and the tailored 252 individual subject of course and his or her experience, but they've been an aid in building a large set of interviews then the deal with or seek to elicit responses to the same set of questions. I have a few copies of that outline with me if any of you should be interested in seeing it. It is a general guide for an interviewer. Nobody. We have one for the World War two interviews to about this one is on the Scandinavian Heritage interview and Beyond the family background in the family history of the individual who wear their ancestor came from and why and all of that we have sought to be listed from them the degree to which scandinavianism of their sort. I was retained in their home the language retained in their Church, they social and religious connections and Circles of their of their parents and newspapers and in foreign languages maintain and for how long and questions like that, Regarding the Scandinavians then we have sought to gather and to measure and to ask at least two kinds of questions that hopefully would elicit some responses regarding the the ethnic retention. Encouraging of course anecdotes and personal Impressions and unique experiences as they may fall and as the person being interviewed has them in their background and are willing to tell about them. As yet we have had no scholarly cross-sectional study done yet with this mounting mass of material but it is pretty ripe now and ready for that kind of use. We've we have had materials extracted for a variety of purposes already and students at Morehead State have done some research and some paper writing from these various tapes. The data we've gathered thus far though. It does seem to substantiate at least these previously theorized assumptions about Scandinavians in America, even though we are only doing a cross-section of course of Scandinavians in the Red River Valley. The general impression from these 70 people now that have been probed and in some depth of these various strains that is the various subgroups within the sky shows that there seems to definitely have been a varying rate of assimilation among the different Nordic peoples here. you have to allow course for the city rural differences, but even taking them into account in each case the Danes and the swedes seemingly assimilated much more quickly and the fins in the icelanders the least with the Norwegians kind of half between the day that we have gathered on these tapes shows also that there was a good deal of animosity between and among the various Scandinavian peoples ranging from open hostility to Friendly rivalry with the Norwegians and swedes. I suppose a demonstrating the most of that between each other with ethnic differences and religious differences showing very clearly. We've picked up an apocryphal story. We're trying to check out and try to find documentation for it. I'll Stand Sibley the narrator I insist that is true that in Northern Clay County in the 1880s a group of Norwegian Lutheran starting or organizing a Lutheran congregation did indeed write and pass on and sign a covenant a resolution creating the congregation starting that resolution with these words on this day. So I'm so date. 66 Christians and once we'd I did indeed gather together to farm a congregation. We have extensive verbal documentation certainly of the absolutely devastating effect on ethnicity and on ethnic pride and on ethnic retention that the World War 1. And the World War 1 anti - ISM 100% americanism hysteria and Crusade caused and the pressures of that. I'll certainly diminished greatly the extent of Scandinavian retention in the Red River Valley has asserted Edmond Germans to enforce and others but most everyone we interviewed who lived across that. And tell us something and has told us various things about how they felt or were forced to be or chose to be whichever certainly less Scandinavian by the 1920s, then they had felt or acted or behaved as prior to World War 1 We've also learned that seemingly there were many more swedes who settled in the Red River Valley then had been heretofore assumed but then you know, it's the lights off in the winter to write history and it's the majority of that determines the extent of the minorities and the Norwegians have always felt themselves to be almost solely alone in the valley except for a few Native Americans and we have found all that the rent off a lot of sweets there as well. For future historical scholarship. Anyway, we hope that a collection of this sort can serve as an as an enriching additive and even a corrective to studies that are based on traditional records and manuscript sources since they are after all so much more personal and human than the mayor written record and most of what we have on tape, but I don't think it would ever have been written are preserved in any other way if we couldn't have elicited it from them orally. Even now and of course when you're dealing with with people up in age. I know that we started this project two years ago and all those 70 some who have been interviewed. I'm sure about 15 passed away already since the interview was done. So they and of course their families whom we offer a copy of the tape too. If they wish to have it the most do very thankful for the fact that someone you know interview grandma in this way before she went We also hope though that somatic collection such as these can be useful as Source material for educational purposes other than just scholarship and indeed just now. We are going to start finding out how possibly useful this body of Scandinavian materials. Anyway can be largely on the basis of the Scandinavian Heritage collection that we have our Center in cooperation with our Scandinavian studies staff has been given a sizable Federal grant for the purpose of drawing from it to create curricular teaching AIDS and materials primarily audio-visual for use in secondary schools and colleges and for adult education in the teaching of Scandinavian Heritage in Scandinavian studies materials. This will be a year-long project my associate. Dr. Gerald Anderson, who did the Lion's Share of these Scandinavian interviews, and who by the way is a marvelous flare for Getting these sometimes reticent all Scandinavians to really open up and to relive their pasts. He has already begun to calm the collection for parts of interviews that will collectively tell the Immigrant stories in their own words and with their own voices. Some of them are absolutely Priceless living witness. For example, they speaking on tape Very Old Man obviously, but very vigorous of a voice describing how he felt in his memories of being processed at Ellis Island and telling it in his own building which adds another dimension certainly for Meaningful learning that's words on the printed page can't ever quite emulate.