Scandimerica: the Real American Vikings 

I am from Sweden and my family still have contacts with our Swedish family in Minnesota

My great grandma was a third generation American. She lived in a Norwegian enclave in North Dakota. She didn’t speak anything other than Norwegian until she started school.

Scandinavia = Norway, Sweden, Denmark. Only. When including Finland and Iceland it is called The Nordics .

Finns don't like to be too far from a lake just in case they get the urge to build a sauna and throw themselves in the water.

Swedish American here. Thank you very much for creating and posting this video! 🙂My maternal grandparents (God rest their souls) taught me Swedish when I was just a little boy and I in turn have passed the language on to my kids.

As someone who lives in Minnesota, the Scandamerican culture is still pretty strong. Many towns hold on to their culture (one town in Particular being Lindström) and in many of them you will regularly hear a north Nordic language being spoken. Many parents in the state (whether rural or not) will have their kids learn these languages as well. Growing up, many of my friend knew one and would speak them at school. While it's not like it was several centuries ago, it's still quite dominant.

I live in northern Minnesota guess where my great grand parents came from, yep sweden

The Finnish influence in Hancock, MI is remarkable. Many still speak the language, and there is a small university (Finlandia... formerly Suomi College) interwoven with Finn heritage. Those who speak the language in this area even have their own dialect they brought with them over 160yrs ago, which has since died out back in Finland.

Growing up in north western Wisconsin I was brought up with a lot of Scandinavian as well as German traditions. My grandmother who was half German and half Norwegian with maybe some Swedish in there read us stories about trolls and used the phrase Uff Dah a lot! I’ve been celebrating the traditional Saint Lucia Day since I was little and know the whole song in Swedish. I’m also a Lutheran and enjoy smoked salmon and lingonberry jams and other Scandinavian foods. I’m very proud of my heritage.

Hei! Scandimerican here! Nice video, although I think you missed a few interesting things. Scandinavian Americans, in particular Norwegians, have an extremely higher number of traditions from Scandinavia which they celebrate even at the 3rd and 4th generation levels. For example, almost everyone here in Western Minnesota makes Lefse, celebrates Syttende Mai and has a few Norwegian words and expressions which they’ve imported into English. The social code of Janteloven has also strongly persisted, although slightly changed and is now referred to as “Minnesota Nice”. This has even permeated the other white groups such as the Germans here in Minnesota to become the dominant social code. Takk for videoen!

Minnesotan here, we straight up Scandinavian up here.

I recently found out that my grandmother is half Norwegian, and that her grandparents were the ones to first come to Minnesota, near Fargo. Thank you for sharing more about this group of people!

Lots of Scandinavians settled in the Pacific Northwest region as well as Alaska. Shipping, fishing and logging were things Scandinavians were very good at. The Norwegians were especially good at floating timber and fishing.

Nordic American here (Swedish & Finnish), I’m actually able to trace a slight bit of my genealogy back to the New Sweden colony, specifically in Swedesboro, New Jersey. Kinda crazy considering eventually my family ended up down here in Georgia:)

I'm a Scandimerican. Norwegian is my first language. It makes me really happy that you made a video about us.

I’ve heard that the largest amount of Danish Americans were actually labeled as German on paper. That’s because a big part of the Danish population in the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein migrated to America after Denmark lost the areas to the Prussians in 1864.

I’m from South Dakota, and this is probably the first time I heard my State mentioned at all on RU-vid.

Interesting to see Northern Europeans (including Germans, Dutch and Polish etc) settle to up north, it does make sense considering agriculture. A Swedish farmer knows how to work the land up north and a Spanish farmer would know what to do down south.

Very proud of my Norwegian heritage

Im Scandamerican and my family came here in the 1820’s and I’m the first generation in my family not to speak Norwegian as a first language. We didn’t live in an exclusive community, just everyone in town was Norwegian so speaking it just kind of carried on.

Norwegian, Swedish, and German descendent here. I'm from southern New Jersey and there are many local place names that derive from the Swedes and Finns of the old colony on the Delaware. A few examples: Swede's Run is a small creek nearby, named for a famous Swedish man and his family who owned the land surrounding the creek. Mullica township and the Mullica River are one of only a few examples of a Finnish place name in the area.

As a descendant of Swedes, I have to say your Scandimerican flag is missing some yellow. I'm blaming the norwegians because my grandfather told me to 😜

I was born in North Dakota from a German from Russian father and a Norwegian/Danish mother. My mothers family was more liberal than my fathers side, but my fathers side had more of a deep respect for family, and you always got together for holidays no matter what silly little matter was going on.

There's actually a very simple reason why Scandinavian people settled in the northern midwest - birch trees. Many of them were carpenters and knew how to work the wood (birch is very versatile). And for the most part birch grows in flat, colder lake regions of the world, so the midwest was a feasible choice for them for economic reasons.

My little town has a large percent of population of Norwegian & Danish descent. There is even a Danish Brotherhood hall in town. They are totally assimilated. Dairy farming, lake fishing, & farming in general were the main occupations. Topography probably played a role too( right on Lake Michigan). Timber cutting was a role also, when Michigan was being logged off over 100 years ago.

As a Swede this was quite interesting to watch :)

I'm from Swedesburg Iowa, we have a cool museum

People often forget the large pockets of Swedes near Brattleboro Vermont. My relatives immigrated there in about 1890.

I had designed a flag for this cultural region, which I dubbed Nordshenia (from Norwegian for Northern Lake), which had the typical Nordic Cross design, with the background being Swedish Blue and the cross itself being white with a red border. Then in each of the quarters of the background, centered on the cross, I had one large star which doubly represented the 4 Scandinavian countries (excluding Finland), and the 4 "states" that constitute the region: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Dakota, and Upper Michigan.

Fun Story: Actor Peter Stormare said when they were in on break filming Fargo in 1995, they'd explore rural Minnesota. One time in a small town an old man practiced his limited Swedish with Stormare. Stormare told him that his accent was from Skora. The old man said "Yes...Skora...That is where my grandparents came from."

Three of my Great-Grandparents immigrated from Sweden in the 1860's. While on the ship, they met my Great-Grandmother who was from Germany and she married into the family. They first settle in Chicago and later moved Rock Island, IL where they established Augustana College. My grandmother was the Dean of Women in the 1930's-50's. A lot of Swedes still live there and on the other side of the Mississippi River in Iowa.

Scandamerican here, as well. My mother’s family came from Denmark in 1901 and also from Norway. I did one of those dna ancestry tests and it came back that I’m over 40% Scandinavian, with the heaviest concentrations in Hordaland, Norway and Ribe, Denmark. Skål!

Funny: in general they settled in the same relation to each other as they did in Europe: Finns in the Easternmost part, and by a lake, of course. Swedes West of them - in the middle (for the pleasure and inconvenience of the others). Norwegians the most Western by the fjords. Wait! Those guys had to go to the Cascadia, Alaska, and the Canadian West Coast. Icelanders close to the Norwegians, where their roots are - and in the coldest area, as Iceland apparently is colder than even Northern Norway, for the Golf stream by their coast. If the coldest isn't the Lake Superior side. Well cold lakeside for the Finns: an opportunity for some avanto fishing and swimming. Avanto is an opening in the ice. And the Danish settled the most Southerly of them. This time they decided to get rid of the others, once and for all - mingle more with the Central Euorpe, uhm, USA.

Lots of Norwegian sailers in New York City back in the days. Bay Ridge area in Brooklyn used to be Norwegian pretty much♥️🇳🇴

I'm partially Scandinavian by heritage, I'm also Irish, German and English to a lesser extent. Translation: If the sun is out for more than 15 minutes, I can expect to get a sunburn.

The Great Lakes region.

One of the oldest and largest centralized populations of Icelanders is on a small island on Lake Michigan called Washington Island too, very cool place

I live in Western Wisconsin right on the border on Minnesota and many people have the traditional Scandinavian and Icelandic sweaters.

I remember Cree elders telling me that they didn't believe that Finns were Europeans. Ojibway elders often felt the same way. "They're just like us. They have the Sweat Hut. They know how to live and hunt in the forest. They know how to tell stories the right way." Despite looking a little peculiar, the Elders insisted that the Finns must be First Nations who "got lost for a while, or something, and then came back here." The Sweat Hut = Sauna was the dealbreaker. There was seldom conflict between them, and when I was a child, I remember hearing both the tales from the Kalevala and the tales of Glooskap and Nanibozh. I know that around Thunder Bay, Ontario, and in Minnesota and Wisconsin, many families were known as "Findians," who not only intermarried, but built a distinctive fusion culture similar to the Canadian Metis, with great pride in both heritages.

"Jag ses nästa gång" translates to "I'm seen the next time". I'm gonna go ahead and guess you wanted to say "I'll see you next time" which would be said more like "Vi ses igen nästa gång" meaning "we'll see each other again next time".

As somone with finnish blood in the upper peninsula of michigan i will say that finnish culture is much more ingrained here then you may think

My Finnish-American grandfather grew up in Hancock, Michigan, having been born nearby south of the Houghton Canal.

I literally chuckle for the entirety of the first 2 mins. Really enjoy your writing style and wit dude. Having lived in Minnesota for a few years, this video is gospel to my ears. Thanks!

There's a large population of Scandinavians and Finnish in Seattle, I'm one of em.

My great grandfather was sponsored by a family to work a farm just outside of Buxton, ND. He made 12 Americans with his wife before passing at 54. He first went to Canada and back to Norway before getting to the States. They were an awesome generation. That was a cool video. Thanks for making that video.

I’m Danish/German/Cherokee. I still speak some Danish. I went to a German Lutheran School when I was young. But I like to primarily identify as American with all my ethnicities included.

Very interesting video. I'm myself a Finn and it's always nice to know about the history. I hope to visit the Finnish American regions one day.

My great grandfather came over from Norway in the early 1900s worked in the timber forest to pay for his trip and then built a house in north Minneapolis

Very cool video. My father arrived from Stavanger, Norway in 1925, thru Ellis Island at ten years old. Settled in the heavily populated Norwegian area of Bayridge, Brooklyn and Sunset Park Brooklyn, NY. Now there are not that many Norwegians left in the area, but there are enough to have the May 17th Norwegian Independence Day and parade thru Leif Erickson Park every year still. Our family now lives on Long Island, New York, where there are a few Sons of Norway organizations left, as well as a Norwegian Seaman’s Church in Manhattan, NY (Sjømannskirken New York).

10:18 that actually a cool design of the America flag best one I seen so far in my opinion

Scandinavia's oldest ethnic group is the Saami? No, that is not true. The Norwegian culture goes back at least 10 000 years in archaeology. The Saami showed up 2000 years ago. Lots of people get this wrong, and it's understandable in many ways. They came from Finland, and The Finns had migrated from West Siberia to Finland. The Saami do have 'Indigenous' status, but that is actually based on their lifestyle which is nomadic reindeer herding, much the same as in the Stone Age, but now with snowmobiles and mobile phones and drones. And most Saami live like regular Norwegians and have jobs and houses and mortgages. Saami seem to have 50 % Norse Y chr so they are mixed with the coastal Norse population since they arrived in Norway 2000 years ago. But it seems no Norse women married a Saami, because the mtDNA is completely Finnish still.

To be honest, the flag of Scandamerica is the coolest ypu have created so far!! Keep the good work Masaman

The color map of the different Scandinavian groups was bang on,I could even recogize some counties where my Scandinavian relatives were from, from the Danes to the swedes, my grandfather was swedish in a heavily Danish area in that northeast corner of Nebraska, but his father and mother came down from the corner of North Dakota that bordered Minnesota and canada borders that was heavily swedish.

I just moved to the black hills of South Dakota and really identify with the people here and it has been fun embracing scandanavian heritage

Great video and it reflected a lot of what I saw when visiting Thunder Bay and it's Finnish community.

The Vikings mascot is offensive to my people as we never wore horned helmets, girly braids, or porn staches. Also, personally I am not a fan of the color purple.

The interesting part is when you mention the age of those who speak their ancestors language at being in their 60s. I noticed on my trip to Scotland that the scottish people who still use norse-influenced words in their vocab generally were around that age as well, and younger generations are phasing it out to just a general scottish accent. Seems like the last "generation" in the western world to speak something of an older language is a dying one. And that's a shame honestly, it's wicked cool to hear completely different cultures having the same or strong influences of a bygone era.

I found your channel through the German American video so I naturally enjoyed this one a lot as well. Keep up the great work :)

Minnesotan here, my heritage is mostly from latin america, but i would always love to visit Finland, ive always considered it the minnesota of Europe

My paternal great-grandma was the daughter of Danish immigrants. She died two years before I was born. I was told that she used to leave candy out for the fairies. Other than leaving out candy, she would make little outfits and little houses for them too.

Great job, Great coverage of the distinct Nordic history in America! Did you know the Swedes proposed the unification of the five Nordic countries into one nation during the 1800’s. Unfortunately the majority didn’t think it was a good idea.

Speaking as a Norwegian from North Dakota, I think what we share best with our counterparts in the Old World, is our talent for making the best for what little we have and for finding happiness in our families and communities.

Can you do a video on the Celtic groups in America? Or maybe the Portuguese speaking peoples of America?

Having grown up in sw Minnesota where integration meant getting the Norwegians, Germans, and Swedes to agree on things, I appreciate the background info you bring Masaman.

Thanks Masaman. I grew up near Bergen, Minnesota named after Bergen, Norway. Integration back then meant getting the Swedes, Norwegians, and Germans to work together. There was some discrimination I was aware of also.

My maternal heritage is Norwegian from Minnesota. My mom (a beautiful blue eyed, blonde) grew up in a small town of 200 people on the Minnesota prairie. Her Great Grand father, was born in 1837 in Norway; came to Minnesota in the early 1870's with some children (including her grandfather other children were born in the US.) Her Great Grand father lived to be 104yo and lived three houses up from her. She remembers him as a child. This family history is documented and bound in a book (of which I have a copy) full of photos and fascinating stories. One of which tells of their motivation to come to America - it was the abolition of slavery and the liberty that it represented that inspired them.

I'm from a mix of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, and Transylvanian Saxon ancestors and from Minnesota. Scandinavian culture has influenced our state a great deal, especially Norwegians who make up about half the Scandinavian descended population. Good video, agree with most of it, except the "middle of nowhere" comment at the beginning, Minnesota has a population of almost 6 million and a little more than half of that lives in metro areas and is near Wisconsin and Michigan which have even higher populations. Maybe he meant it was the middle of nowhere over 120 years ago when our ancestors started coming here en mass, that would be true enough. The stuff about religion is true, but I would point out that Lutherans of Scandinavian decent tend to be a bit more mellow and often borderline agnostic, event the ones who go to church regularly, a very different vibe than the religious people of the deep south, although some German Lutherans can be "hardcore" about it. More or less correct about the politics, but in Minnesota there is a tendency to be left leaning in terms of national politics but more moderate in local politics. Minnesota has cast its electoral votes for the Democrat candidate every election for over 40 years including this last election, although in the last election all of our surrounding States voted Republican

Great work on the video. I am a Norwegian living in North Dakota, so this one is very intriguing to me. I love the research you do and I was so happy to stumble across your channel. Thank you!

I'm Minnesotan of Norwegian decent. It's not always cold here. Our summers get pretty hot and very humid.

I spent most of my childhood summers in Northern Wisconsin near the Michigan Upper Peninsula border and I can attest that they are quite proud of their Scandinavian background. Strange thing is how a majority of Norwegians moved to Minnesota, Swedes to Wisconsin and Finns to the upper peninsula, in a very similar fashion to their homelands.

I guess the word "Scandinavia" have a different meaning in the US and in english speaking countries... here (in Scandinavia) we often refer only to the 3 monarchies: Sweden, Denmark and Norway as "Scandinavia". Most of the time we use the broader term "the Nordic coutries" (Norden) its easier and more including.. Sorry for all horribel spelling

I’m from Norway, I don’t have contact with the distant relatives in America, but I know I have some in Alaska. I remember my grandma used to say there was a street called after on of them.

_"jag ses nästa gång"_ Admit it, Masaman, that was google translate :D

I remember being young and meeting the old Swedes in my family. It's funny now, my parents moved to the South for work and I look so ethnically different from the Scotts-Irish etc here, foreigners often ask me if I'm from Europe/Nordic.

Can you do one on Slavic America? It can be like an ongoing series or something, Arab America, Italian America, Vietnamese America, etc.

I am impressed with this all! Thanks for this great video!

The upper peninsula is overwhelmingly Finnish, as someone who lived there its wierd that an Irishman can stick out in America

Loved seeing the Northwood Equity Elevator Company grain elevator at 9:09! My paternal grandfather was born there and all of his kin descended from homesteaders around that area down to Great Falls and over to Fargo. Tusen tak!

You skipped the Pacific NW, which to this day has a strong scan influence. You still find Lutafisk in the grocery store at xmas in Astoria.

It's why we have an NFL team called the Minnesota Vikings based in Minneapolis, Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium and even before that the Metrodome and Bloomington Stadium.

Where I live in South Dakota, it’s a predominantly German background, especially with the Hutterite colonies dotted about, but I’d say Scandinavian lineage is the 2nd leading group. In fact, I even have both ancestries myself, both on my dad’s side, but the Norwegian on his dad’s side and the Hutterite German (mixed with some Russian, since the religious group did live there before coming to America) on his mom’s side

I must say this is the only channel I'm addicted for over two years and have never got tired of watching every time 😳. I wonder what this means

Many of those that left the Nordic countries for America left for religious reasons. Sweden lacked freedom of speech and religion, having a strong and very enforced national church. Many left very poor, rural and conservative areas of the country, especially in Sweden, and they never really got to enjoy our new way of life. The social democrats came to power in the 1920s, after the large wave of emigration had surpassed. They can be compared to the puritans of England or the Anabatists of Germany, being "extremists" and rejected from mainstream society. So the chance for them to bring with them Nordic "socialism" (How Americans see it atleast) is as large as for 1800th century Germans bringing with them nazism.

My great etc. grandparents and siblings/in-laws arrived around 1860 and settled in Chicago. Some headed toward Wisconsin while my line left Chicago in the late 1980’s. We call other Swedes Scandihoovians!

Minnesotan, Scandinavian, and Lutheran here. Great video! Would have been great to showcase Lindström though, probably the most scandinavian town outside of Europe. Even in my mom's town of Starbuck they still fly Norwegian flags in the city center. Dala horses and viking statues are all over the place. And when Christmas comes around we love to make Lutefisk and lefse 😋

This is a help to end the discussion of what is Scandinavia and Nordic Countries (from Wikipedia): Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Nordic countries, or the Nordics, are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, where they are most commonly known as Norden (literally "the North"). The term includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, as well as Greenland and the Faroe Islands-which are both part of the Kingdom of Denmark-and the Åland Islands and Svalbard archipelagos that belong to Finland and Norway respectively, whereas the Norwegian Antarctic territories are often not considered a part of the Nordic countries, due to their geographical location.

Masaman, are you still doing research for your video on the Hui people? Please let me know.

Lots of Scandinavian ancestors in upstate NY. Grew up in Copenhagen, NY which was a Danish settlement.

I love the picture of the church at Grytviken, South Georgia you used. I had no idea it was a Norwegian Lutheran Church. Great video Masaman.

My mother is from Iceland and came here and had me in north Carolina

I’m danish, and i actually have some relatives in South Dakota.

I'm not Scandiamerican but I'm glad they still hold onto their culture, I'm German/Irish American and I wish I could speak German or retain some German culture

If you’re including Finland, then technically you should be referring to them as the Nordic countries. Finland is not part of Scandinavia. Other than that, great video! Proud to be a descendant of those that settled on this part of the map!

My 26th great grandfather came to this country in 1000-1001 and made a settlement in Minnesota. Came through the great lake waterways. His name was magnus mathison same as my grandfather's. You are people. Sköl

Largest somali community in NA is in the most Swedish state swedes really like somalis don't they

I have Finnish cousins from Michigan, so stories about them are the most fascinating. Nice video.

There was little to no opposition to Scandinavians immigrating in large numbers to the upper Midwest. The were protestant Northern Europeans who very quickly assimilated into Anglo society.

I live in Minnesota and I’m Scandinavian

Swedes love Somalis so much they must also have them in Minnesota. Interesting.

There's always some part that drags and I want to click off, but if I wait it out you bring me back in and I always learn something. Thanks for your hard work, I really do appreciate it.