WEEK 8: MICHIGAN
Finland, Copper, and Reindeer: Tracing Michigan’s Historical Roots to the Arctic on Two Continents
By James N. Kurtti, Honorary Finnish Consul for Upper Michigan & Director of the Finnish American Heritage Center at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan
In his three-volume history of Finns in the United States, Amerikan Suomalaisten Historia, Pastor Salomon Ilmonen recounted the stories of the first permanent Finnish settlers who came to Hancock, located in northern Michigan’s Copper Country, in 1865. These immigrants — who had been recruited by the copper mining companies of the Upper Peninsula— arrived after a long journey from their homes in the Arctic on “Midsummer Eve” (the day before the summer solstice and a religious holiday in Scandinavia):
“It was Midsummer’s Eve, when our countrymen arrived on the shores of Hancock. There were not many people on the pier of this small and rather unspectacular mining town. Fewer still was there anyone waiting for these Finns. After sometime of standing and sitting, the Finns began to wonder where they would go and where they would be able to find lodging. These thirty-some immigrants began to attract attention and townsfolk gathered at the docks. Among them were some Norwegians, and with their help the Finns were finally ushered to a Norwegian inn.”
Thanks to these early settlers from the Scandinavian Arctic, the Finnish spirit remains strong in Hancock, as well as other cities in northern Michigan, where communities maintain deep and strong ties to the culture of their Arctic forebears.
Finland is one of the eight member countries of the Arctic Council, approximately 1/3 of its land lies above the Arctic Circle, and it’s located at the same latitude as Alaska, sharing a similar climate to our own Arctic state.
To understand what brought a group of Finns all the way from the cold lands far above the Arctic Circle to a small mining town in northern Michigan, we have to look back into Finnish history, which, like the Finn’s arrival in Hancock, is inextricably tied with Norway.
The first wave of Finnish immigrants who came to America did not migrate from the Republic of Finland (which was only founded in 1917 after the Finns declared themselves independent from Russia), but rather from Norway’s most extreme northeastern province, Finnmark, which today shares a border with northern Finland. Finnmark is the home of the indigenous reindeerh-herding Sami (once called Lapps), as well as the Finnish Kvens and ethnic Norwegians. (The Finnish speakers were called Kvens by the Norwegians, a term probably was derived from a nomadic Finnish tribe, the kainulaiset — people of the waterways — and referring to Finland’s 100,000 lakes).
Finnish presence in Finnmark is first known to have existed already in the early 1700s, although much of their earliest activities were seasonal in nature, with some similarities to the Sami’s migration routes.
But what took these first Finnish immigrants to Norway, then on to America?
LEAVING THE FORESTS OF FINLAND
The 1860s were particularly difficult years for the Finns, when succeeding years of crop failures caused widespread famine in northern Finland. As is common with many economic migrants who eventually find their way to America, the Finns were feeling the pressures to leave home. Whether it was the fear of starvation, lack of prospects or a scrape with the law, many Finns followed the axiom, “Mene Lappiin!” (Go to Lapland!), an idiomatic phrase used for years after in Northern Finland, as many believed that the “only way out” of a tough situation was to head further north.
During these hard years, Finns resorted to living off of pettuleipä, bread made from the bark of pine trees. Ironically, in times of trouble these Finns headed yet further north where “everyone along the Arctic coast lived well, are fat fish and carried money that jingled in their pockets.”
Farming Finnmark’s poor, rocky soil, coupled with icy blasts from the sea, proved to be nearly impossible. Fishing the rough and unpredictable seas of the Arctic Ocean wasn’t much better. The common saying among the residents was, “Few of the poor fishermen end their days in bed.” The alternative was to work in the copper and silver mines of Finnmark, which the newly arrived Finns did.
COPPER CONNECTIONS
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in America, copper had already been discovered in 1841 on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula — the northernmost spit of land jutting out into Lake Superior. State geologist Douglass Houghton reported huge deposits of copper in this region and fledging operations began along the coastal areas of what was, at the time, a very remote region.
Two decades later, the American Civil War began, which played a pivotal role in bringing the first Finns to the copper regions of Michigan. There were two reasons for this: firstly was that the war created a labor shortage, which particularly affected the mining operations in the Keweenaw; secondly was the Homestead Act, which attracted men to enlist by promising free tracks of land to veterans — citizens and foreign-born alike. The Homestead Act was translated and printed in the Norwegian and Swedish press.
As mining interests in Finnmark diminished, the experienced miners of Finnmark found new opportunities in Michigan’s quickly developing copper industry.
CAPITALIZING ON ARCTIC RESOURCES: REINDEER AND GOLD
In the late 1800s, one of Hancock’s most prominent Finnish businessmen was J.H. Jasberg, who immigrated to Upper Michigan at age 18. A quintessential American success story, Jasberg became a successful business man, real estate agent, Finnish church leader, and publisher. He was involved in the Finnish Mining Co., with interests in Alaska’s Gold Rush. Relative to his mining contacts, Jasberg became an agent for the U.S. Department of Education and its introduction of reindeer to Alaska.
In the late 1800s, a U.S. government program brought reindeer — a species integral to cultures and diets of many Arctic peoples — from Siberia to Alaska to alleviate starvation and promote economic development among the Iñupiat, the indigenous people of northern Alaska. Reindeer herding families, including Sami, who had been recruited directly from Scandinavia arrived in Alaska, followed by reindeer.
A decade after the program started, Jasberg offered to recruit reindeer herders from among the newly arrived immigrants to Michigan’s Copper Country, rather than make another long trip to Finnmark. (Among the recruits was this author’s grandfather Janne (John) Kurtti, who smitten by a recent immigrant lass from his home parish, backed out just prior to the expedition). Eleven Finnish men from the region left for Alaska to partake in the project. Although relations with the government waxed and waned, the indigenous Iñupiat, Samis and Finns lived in relative harmony during the reindeer herding period, with intermarriage occurring within the first years.
Interestingly, in another connection between Michigan and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, the Dennos Museum Center of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan, is said to have one of the finest collections of (mostly Canadian) Inuit art in North America.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF FINNISH LIFE IN MICHIGAN
Copper remained king on the Keweenaw Peninsula and thousands more Finns, as well as many other nationalities, came to the region to work the mines. The influx of Finns to northern Michigan of course led to a need for services tailored to the Finnish community. In 1877, Hancock resident Antti Muikku established the first Finnish newspaper in the United States, Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti (The American Finnish Journal). The country’s second Finnish newspaper, Sven Tuuva, was also founded in Hancock. Numerous other Finnish newspapers, many short-lived, were also produced in the Copper Country. Of the two remaining newspapers serving Finns in the U.S., the Finnish American Reporter (Hancock) is the most widely circulated with readers in all 50 states, most Canadian provinces and seven other countries.
In 1867 the local Finns, Kvens, Sami, Swedes, and Norwegians formed the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Quincy, commonly called Holy Trinity, making a tongue-in-cheek reference of Finns, Swedes and Norwegians worshiping under one roof. By 1871 the congregation received its second pastor, H. G. Roernaes, of Lyngen, Norway, who unlike the first pastor also spoke Finnish and Sami. Interestingly, although there were no Danes reported among the early settlers, the first minute book of the congregation was written in Danish.
The Finns also founded Suomi Opisto (Suomi College; now Finlandia University) in Hancock in 1896, which was also the seminary for Finnish-speaking Lutherans until 1963. Finlandia University, the only existing school of higher learning founded by Finns, established the Finnish-American Historical Archive in 1932 and in 1990 opened the Finnish American Heritage Center, where the archive is presently housed.
MODERN CULTURAL TIES TO THE ARCTIC
After 150 years of Finns coming to the Amerikan Lappi (American Lapland), as Hancock is known, Finnish Americans have greatly assimilated, and yet Finnish culture is alive and well. The Finnish American Heritage Center’s children’s Finnish folk dance group has made two trips in Finland in recent years and cultural programming is ongoing. Even Hancock’s street signs are bilingual.
Midsummer is Finland’s main national holiday — a day of festivity, friends, and fun that continues into the evening under the Midnight Sun. The first group of Finns who arrived in Hancock on the eve of Midsummer were caught by surprise at having to work the next day, having expected that in America, it would also be treated as a day ordained by God, and consequently, not a day for toil. They would be pleased to know that these days, Midsummer is indeed celebrated in northern Michigan, including with traditional Finnish juhannus kokko, or Midsummer bonfires and a birch bough-decorated Midsummer pole next to the Finnish American Heritage Center.
In 1873, more than 1,000 Finns had settled in Michigan’s Copper Country. Today, more Finns live in northern Michigan than anywhere else in the United States. In the five north westernmost counties of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are the only counties in the United States in which Finns are the largest ethnic group, with approximately 35 percent of the residents claiming Finnish heritage in the most recent national census
In June this year, a visiting Finnish cellist remarked, “I arrived in Hancock on the 4th of July. The town was empty [Hancock has no Independence Day celebration]. There were Finnish flags everywhere and the street signs were in Finnish. I thought, what kind of alternative universe am I in?” Ironically, though the city doesn’t host an American Independence Day celebration, there has been a Finnish Independence Day celebration every year since 1917 when the Republic of Finland was founded.
About the author:
James N. Kurtti is the honorary consul of Finland for Upper Michigan’s 15 counties and the director of Finlandia University’s Finnish American Heritage Center and Historical Archives. He is also the editor of The Finnish American Reporter, the largest circulated newspaper for Finns in North America. Kurtti’s immigrant grandparents, who were among the thousands who cast their lot in the copper mines of the New World, were from reindeer herding families of Kuusamo, Finland.
