0.1 The Great Dream 

Everything was bigger in America – and not just the trees, crops, and lush prairies. Hundreds of thousands of Norwegians were enticed by the many great opportunities, and the liberal government which allowed people to do virtually as they pleased. America was a land of entrepreneurs – of dreamers. 

However, this image of America as the place where everything was larger than life did not always reflect reality. This was captured by photographer Haakon Bjornaas, the son of Norwegian American farmers. Bjørnaas used surrealism and humour in his photo montages, placing farmers alongside super-sized crops. 

0.1 Photographer: Haakon Bjornaas. “Scene from a farm near Underwood, Minnesota”. Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Moorhead, 1909. 

1.1 “America for Dummies”  

“In what general direction from Norway does America lie, and how far is it away?” How do you get there? Had the country been ruined by a plague? Were the farms empty and ready for them to move into? Were those who crossed the sea captured by pirates and sold into slavery? In Norway, the questions about America were many and the answers few. 

To help inform his ignorant countrymen, many of whom were willing to emigrate, Ole Rynning, the son of a pastor and himself a schoolteacher who had emigrated in 1837, wrote a Q&A about America. Using simple questions like those above, Rynning gave Norwegian readers a quick introduction to life in America. 

As a direct result of the publication of Rynning’s manual, two shiploads of migrants left Norway the following year. By that time, Rynning was already dead and the settlement where he had lived had collapsed. The area turned out to have been a swamp filled with malaria.  

1.1 Ole Rynning: Sandfærdig Beretning om Amerika, til Oplysning og Nytte for Bonde og Menigmand. Christiania: Guldberg og Dzwonkowski, 1839.

1.2 The Letter Which Caused the Emigration  

In the first decade of Norwegian migration to the US, from 1825 to 1835, only a handful of people made the journey and settled in upstate New York. In 1835, one of these migrants returned to Norway, bringing with him various letters which quickly attracted attention and influenced many other Norwegians to emigrate. 

Those letters by the emigrant Gjert Gregoriussen Hovland turned out to be especially influential. They were widely distributed in Norway and pushed many to emigrate. In his letters, Hovland writes about “a massive amount of land” in a place called “Ellenaaes” – Illinois. 

The transcript shown here is one of Hovland’s letters. It had been sent to relatives in Kinsarvik, and the local priest forwarded this copy to the Norwegian authorities. The sudden and great wave of migration had become a case for concern. 

1.2 Gjert Gregoriussen Hovland, letter to Torjuls Asbjeldsen Mæland, Ullensvang diocese, Kinsarvik parish, dates 22 April 1835. Transcript as attachment to report to the Ministry of Finance from parish priest Herzberg. Owner: The National Archives of Norway.

1.3-1.4 Who Owns the Land?

The United States of America was established in 1776, when several colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America declared independence and broke free from the British Empire. That became the start of a long period of overland westward conquest. Through wars and treaties and, not least, the removal of the North American Native populations, the US gradually turned into the 50 states we have today. 

In Illinois, the warrior Black Hawk refused to give up his ancestral lands. He explained it thus:  

“I considered, as myself and band had no agency in selling our country – and that as provision had been made in the treaty, for us all to remain on it as long as it belonged to the United States, that we could not be forced away. I refused, therefore, to quit my village. It was here, that I was born – and here lie the bones of many friends and relations. For this spot I felt a sacred reverence, and never could consent to leave it, without being forced therefrom.” 

Black Hawk’s uprising was quelled in 1832. In this autobiography, which was dictated, translated, and published shortly thereafter, Black Hawk presented his own and other Native Americans’ perspectives on the colonisation of the Midwest. 

The news about the Native Americans having been pacified in Illinois led directly to the establishment of the first Norwegian settlement in the interior. The settlement along the Fox River in Illinois would become the mother settlement for the great wave of immigrants who in Norway had heard the rumours of cheap land in the Midwest. 

1.3 Black Hawk, Donald Jackson (ed.): Black Hawk. An Autobiography. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990, printed by J. B. Patterson (ed.): Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk. Boston: Russell, Odiorne and Metcalf, 1834. 

1.4 Alfred M. Hoffy (ill.): Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiah (Black Hawk), printed in History of the Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney (ed.) and James Hall (author). F.W. Greenough, c. 1838. Owner: Library of Congress.  

1.5-1.7 Hero or Villain?

To the Native Americans, pioneers like Guri must have appeared as anything but the heroic figures that other settlers made them out to be. But in settler communities, the story of the brave Norwegian woman who dramatically escaped the Dakota Uprising quickly turned to legend. The story was popularised among Anglo-Americans and as well as among school children in Norway. The narrative was a good fit for the already-popular Western genre of literature which mythologised and glorified the colonisation of the Midwest. In these stories, the settlers were the victims and resistance heroes. Their brave fight against nature and violent indigenous people helped legitimate the great territorial conquest – they had, after all, fought for their country. 

1.5 Johan Hambro (ed.): “Rødhudene ved Norway Lake” in Nordmanns-Forbundets julehefte. Oslo, Grøndahl & Søn, 1962. 

1.6 Nordahl Rolfsen: Lesebok for folkeskolen. Byutgave IV. Kristiania: Jacob Dybwads forlag, 1922. (Two copies.) 

1.7 Frey W. (Wilhelm): Høvdingens Skat. Kristiania: Sophus Kriedts Forlag, 1890.

1.8 Violence on the Frontier

From Illinois, Norwegian immigrants continued moving further west. A treaty made between the government and several tribes in 1851 made Minnesota available for settlement. As compensation, the Dakota people would receive yearly payments and reservations, but the annuities never materialised. In 1862, the Dakotas rebelled. 

Norwegian immigrant Guri Olsdatter Endresen Rosseland was at the front line. Together with her husband Lars, Guri had settled in Minnesota in 1857. In the letter which Guri later wrote home to Norway, she tells the story of how she witnessed her husband and two sons being shot. She, however, managed to escape together with some of her children. Guri also saved the lives of several other settlers. Read the letter here.  

1.8 Portrait of Guri Olsdatter Rosseland in Illustrated History of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota by Victor E. Lawson and J. Emil Nelson (eds.). Willmar: Pioneer Press, 1905.

1.10 The Midwest: Norwegian America

This map shows Norwegian settlements in America at the turn of the twentieth century, following approximately 75 years of huge waves of migration from Norway. Second only to Ireland, Norway was the country in Europe which experienced the highest level of emigration relative to its population. The Norwegian colonies made up a nearly continuous string of settlement upwards from Illinois to the northwestern part of the Midwest of the United States. In due time, the settlements also spread across the Canadian border. The main attraction prompting Norwegians to migrate was the cheap, accessible land. As a result, Norwegians became the most rurally oriented immigrant group within the whole of the United States. 

1.10 Martin Ulvestad’s “Kart over De Forenede Stater” og “Norge i Amerika”, from Martin Ulvestad: Norge i Amerika med Kart. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Norge i Amerika Publishing, 1901. 

1.11 The Settlement of Minnesota and the Dakota Uprising 

This map shows the earliest White settlement in the area where the Dakota Uprising took place in 1862. The number of Scandinavian settlers is significant, as shown by the names on the map. Straight north of Solomon Lake was the home of Guri and Lars Endresen Rosseland. The settlers who were killed in the 1862 conflict are marked with crosses. After the uprising, the Dakota were outlawed in Minnesota and forced westwards to reservations within what is today the states of North and South Dakota. 

1.11 Map section in Illustrated History of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota by Victor E. Lawson and J. Emil Nelson (eds.). Willmar: Pioneer Press, 1905.

1.12 Establishing the Dakota Reservation

This map shows the Great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux people included the Dakota. The reservation, which was established in 1868, was originally greater than what is shown on this map from 1882. The explanation for this is found in the American eagerness for gold. 

In 1874, an expedition led by George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills, the western area of the reservation. The ensuing gold rush led to yet another war with Native Americans. Black Hills was conquered and separated from the reservation. Both Custer, the gold miners, and the settlers broke the earlier treaty, which forbade Whites from trespassing on the reservation.  

1.12 General Land Office: “Territory of Dakota”. New York: Julius & Bien Co., 1882. Owner: David Rumsey Map Collection.

1.13 Partitioning the Dakota Reservation 

As this 1892 map shows, the Great Sioux Reservation was partitioned yet again when the territory of which it was part was split to make up the new states of North and South Dakota. This partitioning was made possible by the Dawes Act of 1887, which required that Native Americans were now to own land on an individual basis and not as tribes. Consequently, a certain size of land was offered to each household. The surplus was to be sold to settlers. 

Driven by the Homestead Act of 1862, Norwegian immigrants made their way to the Dakotas, which in time became two of the most Norwegian states of the US. In 1900, 23 per cent of the population of North Dakota were Norwegians, as were 12 per cent of the population of South Dakota. Today, slightly under a third of the population of North Dakota claims to be primarily of Norwegian descent. 

1.13 Office of Indian Affairs, Thomas Jefferson Morgan: “Map showing Indian Reservations within the Limits of the United States” (section). Washington D.C.: 1892. Owner: Library of Congress.

1.14 Little “House” on the Prairie 

The Act, which gave free land to everyone, including immigrants, stipulated that settlers had to “improve” their property and to demonstrate evidence thereof in order to be entitled to their claim. The idea had always been to encourage people to remain as independent farmers. 

The idea of “improvement” was rather vague. Many claimants built houses that were little more than shanties, only to sell their property with profit after the required five-year period of settlement. 

1.14 Foto: Ole Sigbjørnsen Leeland. “Oh gee, this is a Lonesome Town! Unexpected Visitor on the Claim”. Leeland Art Co., 1900–1910.

1.15 Revival on the Reservation 

In the 1890s, the Native American population had sunk to about 200,000, from several tens of millions before the arrival of the Europeans. This film shows the “Ghost Dance” which in the final decades of the nineteenth century spread as a millenarian revival across the Native American communities. The Dance was supposed to resurrect dead ancestors and endangered herds of bison as well as inaugurating peace among the Whites and the Natives. 

The millenarian movement was misunderstood by the American authorities and interpreted as militaristic and violent, giving government officials a reason to break up the traditional bonds of leadership within Native American tribes. At the Sioux Reservation, chief Sitting Bull was killed in 1890, while nearly 300 men, women, and children were massacred by the nearby creek of Wounded Knee. 

Several of those who had been dancing the Ghost Dance later took jobs in the Wild West show run by marksman and circus director Buffalo Bill. In the show, the Ghost Dance was demonstrated and used as entertainment, as shown in this film from 1894. The stories told by the dancers themselves were also recorded and now form an important contribution to our understanding of the peaceful nature of the Ghost Dance movement. They are also important for documenting the history of the Native Americans. 

1.15 “Sioux Ghost Dance”, performed by dancers from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the studio of Thomas A. Edison in New Jersey, 1894. Owner: Library of Congress.

2.3 On the Way to the Wild West 

The emigration, and specifically to Texas, helped Elise Tvede, a priest’s daughter, to find her way to enter the public sphere in Norway. Though few Norwegians ever went to Texas, a Norwegian newspaper editor, Johan Reinert Reiersen, had explored first-hand the various opportunities for Norwegian settlement in North America – and Texas, then an independent state, was his choice. In this manual, Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants to the United States of North America and Texas, Reiersen encouraged everyone to settle in this state. 

Elise Tvede was among those who followed Reiersen to Texas. But before she left, she had already become Norway’s first female newspaper editor – in secret.

2.3 Johan Reinert Reiersen: Veiviser for Norske Emigranter til de Forenede nordamerikanske Stater og Texas. Christiania: P.T. Malling, 1845.

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