Encounter on the Great Plains

Finnish Settler Colonialism in North America: Rethinking Finnish Experiences in Transnational Spaces

“…Rauanheimo's works held a significant role in positioning Finns in North America and popularizing the continent to Finnish audiences. 4 Secondly, I examine maps that were produced in the early 1900s to showcase Finnish presence in the colony of New Sweden, established by the Swedish crown in 1638 on the banks of the Delaware River in the homelands of the Indigenous Lenapes. The maps of the Delaware colony were released to public circulation in books, magazines, and newspapers for the 1938 tercentenary celebrations of the New Sweden colony, and they served to legitimize and depict the Finnish past on the continent.…”

“…18 Järnefelt,Suomalaiset Amerikassa,7. 19 For a summary of how the definition and application of the doctrine has evolved from the 5th century, see Miller et al,Discovering Indigenous Lands,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]Suomalaiset Amerikassa,Suomalaiset Amerikassa,146. 22 Järnefelt,Suomalaiset Amerikassa,149.…”

“…Although many Nativeborn white Americans believed that Finnish immigrants were racially inferior and suited for a lower-class, laboring existence in the United States, Finnish Americans themselves held a variety of visions of what their purpose in America should be, or what I call their own notions of "Finnish Americanism. " 4 Some Finns believed that their people possessed unique characteristics that gave them an exceptional role to play in American progress. Among the Finns migrating to Sugar Island, there was the belief that they would prove their compatibility as white Americans and contribute to American progress by converting a wilderness into a developed settlement.…”

“…Americans congregated in Havana and other commercial centers, but they also began to establish their own settlements and towns in rural Cuba, especially in the two easternmost provinces (Oriente and Camagüey) and the Isle of Pines. 4 Eero Erkko's idea of a Finnish colony in Cuba emerged in this context of expanding US imperialism in the Caribbean, and its practical realization was entirely dependent on American capital. Yet the story of Erkko's attempt to build a Finnish colony in Cuba also illustrates the diversity the actors who built "American" imperial presence in the Caribbean-as well as the diversity of interests that these actors possessed.…”

“…Ipsen and Fur quickly remarked that history had proven that the "slate" was far from clean, as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden had been deeply involved in European expansion and colonialism. 4 The above example of Aaltonen and Erkko suggests the same for Finns: revealing active Finnish engagement in the colonization of American spaces, of Finns embedded in the capture of other people's lands and coveting an active role in the extension of US settler colonial empire on the continent and overseas. It puts Finnish presence in North America in a fresh perspective, as settlers, not just as immigrants.…”