Danish American
Dansk-Amerikansk |
   |
Scarlett Johansson, Viggo Mortensen, William Petersen
  |
| Total population |
|
Danish
1,430,897 Americans
[1] 0.5% of the US population
|
| Regions with significant populations |
| Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin |
| Languages |
| English language, Danish |
| Religion |
| Christianity (Protestantism, Catholicism), Mormonism |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Danes, Scandinavian Americans, European Americans |
Danish Americans (Danish: Dansk-Amerikansk) are people born in the United States with Danish ancestry. There are approximately 1,500,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent.
Population
According to the United States Census of 2000, the states with the largest populations of Danish Americans are as follows:
The states with the smallest populations of Danish Americans are as follows:
If it were a state, Washington, D.C., would have the smallest Danish American population, with 1,047 counted in 2000.[2]
Culture
The Library of Congress has noted that Danish Americans, more so than other Scandinavian Americans, "spread nationwide and comparatively quickly disappeared into the melting pot....the Danes were the least cohesive group and the first to lose consciousness of their origins."[3] Historians have pointed to the higher rate of English use among Danes, their willingless to marry non-Danes, and their eagerness to become naturalized citizens as factors that contributed to their rapid assimilation, as well as their interactions with the already more assimilated German American community.[4]
As the Danes came to America, they brought with them their traditional foods. Popular Danish foods include kringle, æbleskiver, frikadeller (Danish meatballs), and risengrød.
In 1872, Danish Americans in Omaha, Nebraska, founded the Danish Pioneer, an English-Danish newspaper. Now published in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, it is the oldest Danish American newspaper in publication.[5]
Education
Like many other immigrant groups, Danish Americans also founded schools to educate their youth. Traditional Danish "folk schools," which focused more on learning outcomes than grades or diplomas, were operated primarily between the 1870s and 1930s in heavily Danish communities such as Elk Horn, Iowa; Ashland, Michigan; West Denmark, Wisconsin; Nysted, Nebraska; Tyler, Minnesota; Kenmare, North Dakota; and Solvang, California.[6]
The two major still-operating historically Danish American colleges are Dana College in Blair, Nebraska, and Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, both of which are home to large collections of Danish American archives.
Religious life
Like other groups of Americans of Scandinavian descent, many of them are Lutherans. The oldest Danish-Lutheran congregation is Emmaus Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, founded August 22, 1851. Nearby Kenosha is home to the second oldest Danish-Lutheran congregation, St. Mary's Lutheran Church, which is the largest congregation in the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
In addition, a large number of Danish Americans belong to the Mormon church. Between 1849 and 1904, some 17,000 Danish Mormons and their children made the journey to the Mormon Zion in Utah, making Danes second only to the British in number of foreigners recruited by the church to the state.
Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin have the largest concentrations of non-Mormon Danish Americans. The states with the largest Mormon Danish American populations are Utah and Idaho, particularly the southeastern part of the state.
Smaller but significant numbers of Danish Americans have also become Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Seventh-day Adventists.[7]
Danish American communities
Two cities, Chicago and Racine, Wisconsin, claims to be the home to the largest group of Danish Americans in the United States. A number of other communities were founded by Danish Americans or have a large Danish American community:
- Ames, Iowa
- Askov, Minnesota
- Blair, Nebraska
- Dagmar, Montana
- Danevang, Texas
- Dannebrog, Nebraska
- Denmark, Wisconsin
- Duluth, Minnesota
- Elk Horn, Iowa
- Elsinore, Utah
- Greenville, Michigan
- Kenmare, North Dakota
- Kenosha, Wisconsin
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Manti, Utah
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Payson, Utah
- Solvang, California
- Tyler, Minnesota
- Viborg, South Dakota
- Washington Island, Wisconsin
Additionally, Danish Americans helped settle three US counties: Montcalm, Michigan; Saint Louis, Minnesota; and Sanpete, Utah.
Famous Danish Americans
- In Art, sculptor Gutzon Borglum provided a staple of modern Americana when he chiseled Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. His brother, sculptor Solon Borglum, also gained fame for his representations of the American frontier.
- In Science, Jens Clausen revolutionized the study of evolutionary genetics in botany, while Erik Erikson revolutionized developmental psychology with his theory on social development.
- In Sports, Morten Andersen holds the distinction of being the all-time leading scorer in NFL history and the all-time leading scorer for two different teams.
- In Music, Lars Ulrich founded Metallica, of one of the world's most successful heavy metal bands.
- In Entertainment, Victor Borge, known as the Great Dane and Clown Prince of Denmark, gained fame for his offbeat comedy and music routines.
- In Journalism, Jacob Riis, a prominent muckraker journalist and photographer, used his affluence to help the less fortunate of New York City with is implementation of "model tenements." As one of the first photographers to use flash, he is considered also considered a pioneer in photography.
References
External links
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