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1988

Symbols of German-Russsian Ethnic Identity on the Northern Plains

Timothy J. Kloberdanz Indiana University

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Kloberdanz, Timothy J., "Symbols of German-Russsian Ethnic Identity on the Northern Plains" (1988). Great Plains Quarterly. 520. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/520

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SYMBOLS OF GERMAN .. RUSSIAN ETHNIC IDENTITY ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS

TIMOTHY J. KLOBERDANZ

During the past two decades, the subject of tage: art, music, dance, costume, , ethnicity has provoked popular interest and a festive celebrations, folk heroes, or foodways. proliferation of research. Scholars from a Although even the most careful delinea­ variety of academic backgrounds have de­ tions of "ethnicity" and "ethnic identity" tend scribed, analyzed, and reassessed the impor­ to be problematic, those definitions that take tance of ethnic identity in our modern society. into account the dynamic qualities and flexible Yet in 1980, following the long-awaited ap­ nature of ethnic phenomena seem best suited pearance of the Harvard Encyclopedia of Ameri­ to the needs of contemporary researchers. can Ethnic Groups, the basic question "What is Anthropologist Anya Peterson Royce, for ethnicity?" remained a perplexing one. The example, describes "ethnic identity" as "the volume's editors admitted that "there is as yet sum total of feelings on the part of group no consensus about the precise meaning of members about those values, symbols, and ethnicity" since the distinguishing characteris­ common histories that identify them as a tics of ethnic groups seldom can be forced into distinct group."2 neat conceptual categories. I While certain Symbols are particularly important in ethnic groups emphasize the retention of an promoting group cohesiveness, and it is wholly ancestral language or dialect as the chief means appropriate that Royce mentions them as of group identification, others opt to focus on being a vital part of ethnic identity. As quite different aspects of their cultural heri- commonly understood, a symbol can be practi­ cally anything that suggests something else; yet it is also a tangible sign of the invisible and Timothy J. Kloberdanz holds the Ph.D. in folklore inexpressible. Abner Cohen, in his insightful from Indiana University. Currently associate study Two-Dimensional Man, characterizes professor of anthropology at State symbols as those "objects, acts, concepts, or University, he has published numerous articles linguistic formations that stand ambiguously for about from Russia in the Americas. a multiplicity of disparate meanings, evoke sentiments and emotions, and impel men to [GPQ 8 (Winter 1988): 3-15] action."l For symbols to be effective, they must 3 4 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988 be somewhat ambiguous so as to transcend themselves sometimes feel they have forsaken individual, gender, generational, and other their heritage is that many tend to equate differences. Effective symbols also must have ethnicity with behavior that is esoteric and meaning not only for the particular group that rigidly traditional. They fail to recognize that displays them but for outsiders as well. 4 theirs is not a static culture but a dynamic one, Furthermore, ethnic symbols, because they the unique product of Old World influences figure so prominently in relations between and New World forces as well. A people's groups, often are designed to evoke a positive heritage, like its language, is ever-changing, image. and this is especially true of an ethnic group's Ethnic groups throughout the United symbols. States have adopted an array of symbols that range from the colorful Dala horse figurines of NORTH DAKOTA'S GERMANS Swedish- to the somber black cloth­ ing of the Old Order .s The adoption of In 1920, North Dakota's total population such symbols is not always a deliberate choice, of 647,000 residents included 70,000 German since symbols of ethnic distinctiveness are of the first and second generations.7 rarely the result of mere group consensus; they This number was more than twice as many as are the products of interaction between differ­ that for any other state, including such well­ ent groups. known areas of German-Russian settlement as The focus of this article is on the changing , , Nebraska, and Colora­ symbols of an important Great Plains ethnic do. Approximately 97% of all the German group: the German Russians of North Dakota. Russians in North Dakota were of Black Sea During the past century, these people have German (schwarzmeerdeutsche) descent in 1920. maintained a distinct identity, just as their While a majority traced their ancestry to forebears did for generations on the wheat­ German colonies in the district of the covered steppes of .6 Yet North or Bessarabia, smaller numbers of Dakota's German- clearly German Russians came to North Dakota via are not the same people that their pioneering the , the area, and the forebears were. Except for the communal South Caucasus. The first German Russians , they do not live in tightly-knit settled in what is now North Dakota in 1884, agrarian colonies. With the sole exception of taking up prairie homesteads in the south­ the Hutterites, the German Russians of the central part of the state.8 Within ten years, northern Plains are no longer readily identi­ thousands of Black Sea German settlers had fiable by their peculiar dress. And except for expanded into the western and north-central the Hutterites, they generally prefer English to areas of North Dakota. The establishment of German as a means of everyday communica­ the major German-Russian settlements in tion. However, many of North Dakota's North Dakota invariably reflected the old German Russians continue to feel that they country regional and religious affiliations of are different from their Anglo-American or the immigrants. Thus, Protestant German Norwegian-American neighbors. More impor­ Russians from Bessarabia and Catholic Ger­ tant, the state's German Russians continue to man colonists from the Kutschurgan region of be seen and treated by others as a group apart. South Russia each formed separate enclaves While a few German Russians will lament that that still are discernible today.9 they have assimilated and thus become part of During their first century in North Dakota, the American mainstream, their non-German­ the German Russians responded to a variety of Russian neighbors seldom share this percep­ symbols, but only a handful were widely tion. accepted and enthusiastically embraced. Those One reason why even German Russians symbols that proved most efficacious were GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 5

secular ones, despite the fact that religion Traditionally, North Dakota's Black Sea played such an important role in the lives of Germans have placed considerable emphasis the Germans from Russia. Each of the domi­ on religious affiliation even though members nant ethnic symbols occupied the scene for a of this ethnic group belong to a number of varying period of time before being replaced by different churches: Lutheran, Roman Catho­ a more appropriate one. In North Dakota, lic, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Evan­ different German-Russian symbols achieved gelical Reformed, Assembly of , and prominence during the following periods: Seventh Day Adventist. In South Russia, the 1884-1954, 1955-1970, and 1971-present. German colonists lived in villages that were While the three periods discussed are admit­ organized along strict denominational lines. tedly arbitrary, they are offered in an attempt Protestant and Roman Catholic German to understand better the changing symbols colonists seldom lived in the same Dorf and and complex nature of German-Russian ethnic thus rarely interacted.ll Nonetheless, the Ger­ identity on the northern Plains. man villagers were symbolically united, despite This article is based primarily on interviews their religious differences, by the mere fact that that I conducted in North Dakota with they were German colonists-Nemsky-kolonis­ approximately thirty-five German-Russian in­ ty-in a great sea of Russians, , dividuals between 1976 and 1986. I conducted Moldavians, , and Tatars. interviews in the twenty North Dakota com­ The was of singular munities of Alsen, Ashley, Balta, Beulah, importance in maintaining a strong Black Sea Bismarck, Dickinson, Fargo, Fort Yates, Fre­ German ethnic identity in South Russia. This donia, Hague, Hettinger, Langdon, Lehr, language-whether it took the dialect form of Linton, Mandan, Napoleon, Orrin, Solen, Schwabisch, Rhenish Franconian, or Platt­ Wishek, and Zeeland. Besides providing bio­ deutsch-was not only a unifying force but also graphical and community history data, in­ a practical necessity. German Russians ob­ formants also answered questions regarding viously spoke German not to be "ethnic" but self-perceptions of ethnic identity. Interviewees simply to be understood by each other. The were asked questions such as "Do you think German language eventually emerged as a the German Russians have a common sym­ group symbol only because it was one of the bol?" and "Are the things that make you feel key differences that stood between German 'German Russian' the same as those for your Russians and their non-Germ an-speaking parents or children?" A major limitation in neighbors. doing such field research was the fact that The earliest Germans from Russia who informants ofren were uncertain of the precise took up homesteads in North Dakota were meaning of the term "symbol," or its German­ "conservative" immigrants as opposed to "in­ language equivalents, Sinnbild and Symbol. novating" ones. 12 They came in search of free Another drawback was the fact that most land and a place to transplant their old German Russians in North Dakota still tend to country lifestyle and values. They did not view themselves simply as "Germans," despite come in search of political freedom or with the the fact that they readily perceive differences fervent desire to become full-fledged Ameri­ between themselves and "other Germans." In cans. They were searching for a special place 1982, I also studied a modern German-Russian like the one they had left behind where they high school in south-central North Dakota, could raise wheat and children and be lefr focusing on the manner in which the group's relatively alone by the outside world. Despite ethnic heritage was presented to the students. their desire to remain isolated, contact with In the course of this study, I interviewed a other cultures on the Dakota prairies was teacher of "German-Russian studies," several inevitable. Anglo-Americans quickly dubbed high school students, and local townspeople. 1O the "Rooshuns," and these 6 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988 sons and daughters of the steppe retaliated by so many other German immigrants who did calling all non-German neighbors "Englische," not come from the Black Sea region meant regardless if they were from the British Isles or that it was by no means distinctly German­ Scandinavia. The early German-Russian im­ Russian. Nonetheless, in the early years of migrants repeatedly explained to their wide­ settlement a unifying German language sym­ eyed neighbors that they were indeed from bol that was thoroughly German-Russian did Russia but their culture and language were emerge: a newspaper known as the Dakota "rein deitsch" (pure German). There was confu­ Freie Presse. This newspaper, founded in Yank­ sion in the earliest stage of culture contact ton, , in 1874, nurtured because non-German Russians naturally re­ among German Russians an intense emotional sponded to the visible symbols that the Black bond that spanned generations and continents Sea Germans presented to the outside world: (fig. 1). It truly was, as many politicians astrakhan caps, knee-high boots, embroidered claimed, the " of the German Russians." blouses, fringed babushkas, brightly flowered According to La Vern J. Rippley, the Dakota shawls, huge sheepskin coats, and apron Freie Presse "functioned like a 'central nervous pockets bulging with sunflower seeds. 13 To the system'" for the Germans from Russia. Be­ outsider, these were the symbols of peasant cause it was nondenominational and politi­ Russia, not the Kaiser's . cally neutral, it transcended even the effect of The early Black Sea Germans did not the church and school in a typical ethnic realize it was their very appearance that community. 14 created so much confusion and misunder­ Nearly thirty German language newspapers standing. In South Russia, there seldom was a were published in various parts of North problem in determining who was German, Dakota between 1882 and 1955, but none of Russian, or Ukrainian. All one had to do was these functioned as the unifying symbol for all listen to a stranger's speech before deciding to German Russians as did the Dakota Freie what group that individual belonged. The Presse. 15 Like the ever-wandering Germans situation on the northern Great Plains was from Russia themselves, the newspaper had complicated by the fact that most Americans several homes during its long existence, but already had preconceived notions as to how from 1932-1954 it was edited in Bismarck and "Germans" were supposed to look and act­ Kulm, North Dakota. The paper symbolized based on the many reichsdeutsche settlers who many things to its German-Russian readers: a had already emigrated from Germany. Rela­ sense of cultural continuity and international tions between the Germans and German community, an appreciation for their pioneer­ Russians were not always pleasant. Indeed, ing accomplishments, and pride in the Ger­ some of the Reichsdeutsche felt their Teutonic man language. Like the German Russians, the brethren from the tsar's empire were more Dakota Freie Presse was attacked and harassed "Russian" than "German." For this reason, during the First World War. Yet like its the German Russians in North Dakota were German-Russian readers, the paper weathered sometimes dubbed "Russen" or "Pruskies" by the great storm of 1918 and persisted despite their reichsdeutsche neighbors. stinging accusations of disloyalty. 16 The fact that the Dakota Freie Presse had A GERMAN LANGUAGE SYMBOL only three German Russians among its many editors and publishers during its long history The German language was clearly an never deterred the Germans from Russia from important ethnic marker among the German claiming the paper as their own. The paper Russians in South Russia, but it was not an focused on the unusual background, migra­ effective symbol on the northern Plains. The tions, and varied experiences of the Germans fact that the German language was shared by from Russia. It also carried vital information GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 7 :Dakota ~tete ~eff e :it>te:lIllILbllf)'lu r u I I t bcr. f ••

FIG. 1. The masthead of the Dakota Freie Presse proudly noted that it was the oldest, most widely circulated German-Russian newspaper /lin the entire world" (see upper left hand comer). Photo courtesy North Dakota State Historical Society.

about job opportUnities, farm sales, traveling in serving the German-Russian people.18 Al­ medical specialists, and missing relatives. 17 though a significant number of the news­ More important, the Dakota Freie Presse paper's final subscribers were German-Russian served the German Russians, particularly North Dakotans, the retention of the German those living on the northern Plains, as a visible language was clearly on the decline at this expression of ethnic solidarity. Through its time. The older generation of German-Russian selective use of German-Russian poetry, hu­ pioneers who refused to speak English to their mor, historical sketches, and news reports, it grandchildren were passing from the scene. self-consciously created a sense of russ land­ Young men who returned from the Second deutsche peoplehood despite the realities of World War often brought new brides who fierce religious and regional loyalties. Perhaps were unfamiliar with the German language or the Dakota Freie Presse did not mirror German­ local dialect into their home communities on Russian life perfectly, but it helped project a the northern Plains. And for the first time, the positive image of ethnic unity and strength region's colleges and universities were attract­ that few foreign-language newspapers of simi­ ing significant numbers of German-Russian lar size could match. students. Many older German Russians in In 1920, the Dakota Freie Presse had a North Dakota agree that, in the mid-1950s, circulation of 13,800, but by 1950 it dropped to most of their young people stopped using only 1,500. When it ceased publication in German. Indeed, a few individuals mention an 1954, it had fulfilled its eighty-year-old mission "under-thirty rule" that seems strangely opera- 8 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988 tive on an unconscious level: "If you meet a fellow German Russian who is under the age of thirty, talk English, not German." Today, the use of German continues to function as a local symbol of German,Russian identity in certain parts of North Dakota, but it is no longer as widespread as it once was.

THE MAN WITH THE ACCORDION

From 1955 to 1970, the ethnic identity of the German Russians in North Dakota was symbolized by an individual who never grew weary of reminding his people that the Ameri, can Dream was possible: Lawrence Welk. His was a message that the German Russians of the northern Great Plains were hungry for, espe, cially since they found themselves torn be' tween changing old country values and American pressures to conform. This was the period of the cold war with the , when the word "Russian" was synonymous in the with atheistic Communism and distrust. Welk did not inform audiences that his parents emigrated from Russia; yet FIG. 2. Lawrence Welk as he appeared at the time he played for countless wedding dances on the northern neither did the members of his ethnic group in Plains. Photo courtesy Michael M. Miller and the North Dakota publicize any tie to Russland. The mid,1950s was not a time when it would Strasburg Schools Alumni Association. have been in the best interest of any Ameri, can-especially someone with an accent-to claim even a distant connection to the Soviet grant homesteaders (figs. 2 and 3). Union. Ironically, Welk's phenomenal success re' Lawrence Welk and his popular musical suIted only after he defied the agrarian tradi, group made their first appearance on national tion of his people by refusing to follow in his television 2 July 1955. Few German Russians father's footsteps. In exchange for a four, back in Welk's North Dakota hometown of hundred dollar accordion, the young Welk Strasburg-or elsewhere in the state-owned promised his father that he would work on the television sets at that time, but the news of his family farm until he reached the age of twenty, successful television debut quickly became one. The great maestro never forgot the day of known. Many German Russians identified his eventful departure from North Dakota, with Lawrence Welk, for here was a man who when his "years of bondage" drew to a close: looked and sounded like other German Rus, sians throughout North Dakota. Welk's Ger, On March 11, 1924, I woke up very man accent, along with his unassuming ways early in the morning. I was twenty,one and lack of a college education, endeared him years old. I got dressed ... inspected the to countless German Russians on the northern contents of my valise one more time, and Plains. He proved to all of them that anyone counted my small hoard of money. I had could achieve fame and fortune, including enough for my train fare plus three one' even the timid son of German,Russian immi, dollar bills, which I pinned in my inside GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 9

FIG. 3. During the Depression, Lawrence Welk and his -based band, the "Hotsy Totsy Boys," toured the Midwest. Photo courtesy Michael M. Miller and the Strasburg Schools Alumni Association.

coat pocket, and a little loose change. I Midwest did. Welk's surname and distinctive smoothed the patchwork quilt, which my accent were dead giveaways to German Rus­ mother had made, over my bed for the last sians in North Dakota who readily identified time, and then looked around the room him as one of their own. The German where I had spent so many hours with my Russians of Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado brothers. I felt no unhappiness, only a great also enjoyed the music that Lawrence Welk eagerness to begin my great adventure .... played, but they rarely perceived him as an "So you're going," [my father] said with ethnic kinsman. Most German Russians of the that level look of his. "Well, you'll be back central Plains traced their ancestry to the as soon as you get hungry. He'll be back in Lower region of Russia, where a six weeks," he added, turning to the rest of distinctively different style of music predomi­ the family, "looking for a good meal!" [The nated. Volga German folk music was charac­ members of my family] all laughed and I did terized by a strong reliance on the Hackbrett (a too, but I knew I would never return for hammered dulcimer) and a rigorous foot help ... it was up to me to prove that my stomping dance routine that became popularly dreams were more than dreams. 19 known in the post-World War II era as the "Dutch Hop." Although few Americans realized that the While Welk did not publicize his Old television celebrity Lawrence Welk was a World ancestry, he could not hide its influence German Russian, his people back in the upper either, for it was obvious to everyone each 10 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988 time he greeted his national television audi­ newly formed American Historical Society of ence. At the same time that Lawrence Welk Germans from Russia, he politely declined and enjoyed unprecedented popularity, the Ger­ commented to one of the society's founders: man Russians in North Dakota kept their "My father taught us to forget the old country memories of the early day Welk alive in and become Americans. "20 countless family stories and personal narra­ tives. German Russians on the northern Plains A MODERN SYMBOL EMERGES exchanged vivid recollections about their new culture hero and source of pride. Stories were By 1971, the German Russians of North told of how the young Welk had carried his Dakota were in need of a new symbol that accordion in a gunny sack tied behind his could effectively unite both old and young. saddle whenever he rode out to the various This was a critical time in America, when wedding celebrations that were held near many spoke of a widening "generation gap" Temvik, Ipswich, and Napoleon. Other stories that could not be bridged. On 9 January 1971, emphasized the fact that Welk had worked the North Dakota Historical Society of Ger­ hard and even endured physical suffering to mans from Russia was founded in Bismarck. become a successful musician. Many German The intention of the founders of this organiza­ Russians recalled how Welk often had to tie a tion (later known as the Germans from Russia handkerchief around his left wrist to stop the Heritage Society) was not to develop a new bleeding that was caused by playing his heavy symbol, but simply to make known the story of accordion at wedding dances that lasted the Germans from Russia and to "document several hours. the achievements of these people."2l One of the things about Lawrence Welk Despite its primary aim of disseminating that German Russians most appreciated was information, the Germans from Russia Heri­ the fact that he had become a success by tage Society made use of a variety of symbols playing the traditional waltzes, polkas, and during its existence. In June 1973, during the schottisches that were enjoyed by generations centennial celebration of Germans from Russia of Black Sea Germans before him. This in Dakota Territory, there were many symbols fondness for the familiar tunes of the old in evidence: wheat, sod houses, windmills, country, however, eventually led to his demise barbed wire fences, and the breaking plow. In as a unifying ethnic symbol that encompassed fact, all of these symbols, along with the both old and young German-Russian Ameri­ profiles of a German-Russian immigrant cou­ cans. By the late 1960s, Welk had become a ple, were incorporated in a special centennial symbol to many Americans of old-fashioned emblem along with the bold legends "IN values, patriotism, and morality. In 1970, his AMERIKA DURCH GOTTES GNADE-In special Thanksgiving broadcast, "Thank You America Through God's Grace," and "AR­ America," delighted scores of viewers who BElT MACHT DAS LEBEN SUSS-Work were tired of hearing about social injustice in Makes Life Sweet" (fig. 4). While these were the United States and protests against the war symbols and sentiments that German Russians in Southeast Asia. Yet this broadcast, and readily identified with, none were distinctly others like it, alienated younger viewers who German-Russian. For example, all of these interpreted Welk's homespun patriotism and symbols were equally meaningful to the de­ fervent optimism as naive and disconcerting. scendants of those immigrants who came Partly because Welk became a mainstream directly from Germany and settled in Dakota American symbol rather than a distinctly Territory. In retrospect, one wonders why a German-Russian one, he ceased to unify all the clay-brick house or wrought-iron cemetery members of his ethnic group. In 1968, when cross or Rutsch-style stoneboat was not used in Welk was asked to become a member of the the Dakota Territory symbolism honoring the GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 11

college students who inundated the small German~Russian community of Zap, North Dakota, in the western part of the state. This was a time of nationwide student unrest and North Dakota-which had been chosen as the site of the first sentinel anti~ballistic missile system-was not immune to such turmoil. 22 The "Zip to Zap" incident received exten~ sive media coverage, including spots on na~ tional television. People throughout the country watched huge crowds of beer~drinking college students romping through the once quiet streets of Zap. However, what sparked added interest on the part of many television viewers was the unusual ethnic food that the students feasted on and obviously took such a liking to during their stay in Zap. Pictures appeared showing the hungry students munch~ ing on German~Russian Fleischkiechla or "Zap Burgers," as they were called by amused commentators.23 FIG. 4. Centennial emblem honoring Gennans The students who zipped to Zap in 1969 from Russia in Dakota Territory, 1973. Photo courtesy were not the first non~German Russians to Germans from Russia Heritage Society. discover Fleischkiechla and consider them a delicacy. Eddy, a connoisseur of fine cuisine, visited German~Russian kitchens on the northern Great Plains in 1950 and pub~ first Germans from Russia. lished an article in The American Magazine Unifying symbols of ethnic identity are not about the strange~looking but tasty foods he as easy to latch onto and cultivate as one found there. "Grandma Straub" (Mrs. Albina might imagine. They usually emerge out of a Straub) first introduced Eddy to Fleischkiechla natural process; members of an ethnic minori~ and the gourmet's elation rivaled that of ty do not consciously select and manipulate Custer's upon finding gold in the Black Hills: symbols to their best advantage. The accep~ tance of truly effective symbols is dependent If you're looking for something different in not so much on what an ethnic group wants to the way of a main meat course, look no adopt as what emerges as a result of interaction farther. This is it. with outsiders. I sat in Grandma Straub's kitchen and Two years prior to the founding of the watched her make Fleischkeichla [sic], try~ Germans from Russia Heritage Society, an ing to write down the recipe by following event occurred in North Dakota that affected her flying hands .... perceptions of German~Russian ethnicity in She told me about the early days ... the state. In , approximately 3,000 About Mr. Meidinger, who started for a college students from throughout North Dako~ neighbor's home after a heavy snowfall, and ta and other areas of the upper Midwest had to slide down the chimney to get inside. participated in a "Zip to Zap" excursion. What And all the time [while Grandma Straub started out as an idea for a modest campus talked], the fleischkeichla were taking form. outing turned into an unexpected influx of Finally she sizzled me some in a Dutch oven 12 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988

filled with boiling grease. For fleischkeichla, German name literally translates as "little my friend, I would even slide down a meat cakes" or "meat cookies," yet this food is chimney. hardly German in origin. In South Russia, The seasoning of the meat may be one Fleischkiechla were popular primarily among of the secrets; I'm not sure. Another secret, the German colonists who settled in the certainly, is the seasoning of the blankets. Crimea. The Crimean Germans were in­ Fundamentally, they are a roll of meat fluenced in many ways by the native Tatar wrapped up and sealed tightly into a inhabitants and Fleischkiechla were one result blanket of special dough, and fried in deep of Tatar diffusion. According to German­ fat ... until golden brown. Grandma Russian scholar Armand Bauer, who traces his Straub put mine on a plate and handed it to ancestry to North Dakota's early Crimean me. "Take them in your fingers," she German settlers, Fleischkiechla originally were instructed; "always in your fingers, never made with mutton (instead of beef or pork) with a knife and fork. "24 since the raised sheep.26 Fleischkiechla have become so popular in The appreciation of Fleischkiechla by non-Ger­ modern German-Russian commUnIties man Russians on the northern Plains is now throughout North Dakota that one would legendary. Yet one must wonder why this assume this dish has been part of their particular dish emerged as a common symbol traditional foodways for many generations. when there were so many other German­ Actually, Fleischkiechla were common only Russian foods from which to choose. Consid­ among the Crimean German settlers. Not er, for example, these other gastronomic surprisingly, one finds a marked emphasis on possibilities: Borscht (vegetable soup), Halupsy the making of Fleischkiechla in those areas of (cabbage-wrapped meat balls), Halvah (a the state that were settled originally by Ger­ crushed sesame seed and honey concoction), man Russians from the Crimean Peninsula: and Platchinta (spiced pumpkin turnovers). All portions of Mclntosh and Emmons counties in of these are well-known to Black Sea Germans, south-central North Dakota, and Mercer but they are not distinctly German-Russian County in the western part of the state. For since they are shared by a number of other many years, Fleischkiechla were featured at ethnic groups who trace their ancestry to community celebrations and could be found South Russia and eastern . Or what on the menus of cafes throughout Mercer about these German-Russian favorites: Brat­ County. The town of Zap, where huge quanti­ wurst (fried pork sausage), Dampfnudla (bread ties of Fleischkiechla were consumed by fam­ dumplings), Kraut Knepfla (dumplings and ished college students, also lies in Mercer sauerkraut), Riwelsupp (dough ball soup), County. Schlitzkiechla (doughnut twists), and Peffernusse Since 1971, the symbolic value of Fleisch­ (spice cookies)? These foods also are common kiechla as an expression of German-Russian among the Black Sea Germans, but again they ethnic identity has steadily grown. Not only is are hardly distinctive, as they are shared by this particular dish appreciated by many countless other German groups. There are still outsiders on the northern Plains, but also by a few other possibilities: Goladetz (jellied pork German-Russian Americans of all ages (fig. 5). hocks), fried chicken feet, and Schwartemage Fleischkiechla are the closest Black Sea German (stomach sausage), but the problem here is that counterpart to American-style hamburgers, non-German Russians seldom crave such which may partly explain their acceptance by exotic foods. 25 non-German Russians. Among Volga Ger­ Of all the German-Russian ethnic dishes, mans in the central plains states, the populari­ Fleischkiechla remain both the most distinctive ty of Bierocks or Ranzas (dough-wrapped and the most appetizing to outsiders. The ground beef and cabbage pockets that are GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 13

FIG. 5. A German-Russian student in south-central North Dakota helps prepare Fleischkiechla for an ethnic dinner at her high school, spring 1982. Photo courtesy Timothy]. Kloberdanz and the American Folklife Center.

baked) represents a similar phenomenon. At Dakota's German Russians will forget that the present time, drive~in restaurants that Fleischkiechla were shared at one time only by serve this ethnic food dot the prairies of those German immigrants who came from the southeastern Nebraska and are expanding Crimean Peninsula. In the Crimea, the adop~ westward into Colorado and other areas. tion of the Tatars' "little meat cakes" mirrored Although Bierocks are the current Volga the true extent of outside influence on the German symbol par excellence, their origin is xenophobic German colonists. Ironically, on unquestionably Russian. The Volga German the northern Great Plains, the ethnic glorifica~ name, Bierock, for example, appears to be a tion of Fleischkiechla symbolically expresses corruption of pirog, the Russian term for a how true to their rein deitsch traditions modern meat~filled turnover. German Russians remain. With the rise and continuing expansion of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, CONCLUSION local chapters of the organization-especially those in the more densely populated areas of Symbols of group identification abound in North Dakota-invariably feature Fleischkiech~ ethnic settings and, as demonstrated in this la as a prime example of German~Russian " paper, they sometimes assume new and unex~ food."27 In the not too distant future, North pected forms within the context of dynamic, 14 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1988 intercultural relations. For the German Rus­ 6. For background information on the Germans sians of the northern Great Plains, such from Russia, see , The German-Russians: seemingly disparate phenomena as a foreign­ Two Centuries of Pioneering, trans. Joseph S. Height (Bonn: Atlantic Forum, 1967), and Adam Giesing­ language newspaper, a famous musician, and er, From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of even ethnic food emerged as unifying symbols Russia's Germans (Battleford, : Marian during different periods of ethnic adjustment, Press, 1974). acculturation, and Americanization. There are 7. Richard Sallet, Russian-German Settlements in numerous other symbols that the German the United States, trans. LaVern ]. Rippley and Armand Bauer (Fargo: North Dakota Institute for Russians of the upper Midwest have responded Regional Studies, 1974), p. 112. The history and to, but only a few key symbols succeeded in experiences of North Dakota's German Russians are transcending individual, regional, and reli­ discussed in George Rath, The Black Sea Germans in gious differences. By delineating an ethnic (Freeman, South Dakota: Pine Hill group's dominant symbols and explaining how Press, 1977). 8. Sallet, Russian-German Settlements, pp. 112, these symbols emerged as they did, one is 26. perhaps better able to understand the enigmat­ 9. William C. Sherman, Prairie Mosaic: An ic forces that shape and sustain ethnic identity. Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota (Fargo: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, 1983), pp. 48- 51. NOTES 10. My study of a German-Russian high school in North Dakota was made possible by a special The author gratefully acknowledges the support ethnic heritage schools grant from the American and varied contributions of the American Folklife Folklife Center, Library of Congress, , Center, the American Historical Society of Ger­ D.C. mans from Russia, the Germans from Russia 11. Stumpp, The German-Russians, p. 15. Heritage Society, Armand Bauer, Adam Giesinger, 12. The distinction between these two groups of Rosalinda A. Kloberdanz, Les Kramer, LaVern ]. immigrants was first made by William Petersen. See Rippley, Todd Strand, and a host of cooperative Charles Price, "The Study of Assimilation," in]. A. German-Russian informants. Jackson, ed., Migration (Cambridge: Cambridge 1. Stephan Thernstrom, Ann Orlov, and Oscar University Press, 1969), pp. 194-95. Handlin, eds., Harvard Encyclopedia of American 13. See, for example, photographs of newly Ethnic Groups (Cambridge: Harvard University arrived Black Sea German immigrants in Sallet, Press, 1980), p. v-vi. Although the editors admit that Russian-German Settlements, illustrated section be­ a comprehensive definition of "ethnicity" remains tween pp. 20-21. elusive, several of the essays in the encyclopedia 14. LaVern]. Rippley, "A History of the Dakota provide unusually rich insights. See especially Philip Freie Presse," Heritage Review 7 (Dec. 1973): 9. Gleason's "American Identity and Americaniza­ 15. Anton H. Richter, " 'Gebt ihr den Vorzug': tion," pp. 31-58, and William Petersen's "Concepts The German-Language Press of North and South of Ethnicity," pp. 232-42. Of particular relevance to Dakota," South Dakota History 10 (Summer 1980): this article is LaVern]. Rippley's entry, "Germans 189-209. from Russia," pp. 425-30. 16. LaVern]. Rippley, "The Dakota Freie Presse: 2. Anya Peterson Royce, Ethnic Identity: Strate­ Its Brightest and Its Darkest Hour," Heritage Review gies of Diversity (Bloomington: Indiana University 9 (1974): 15-20. Press, 1982), p. 18. 17. Rippley, "A History of the Dakota Freie 3. Abner Cohen, Two-Dimensional Man: An Presse," p. 16. Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in 18. Ibid, p. 17. Complex Society (Berkeley: University of 19. Lawrence Welk and Bernice McGeehan, Press, 1974), p. ix. Wunnerful, Wunnerful!: The Autobiography of Law­ 4. Royce, Ethnic Identity, p. 148. rence Welk (Englewood Cliffs, : Prentice 5. Comparable symbols of ethnicity are dis­ Hall, 1971), pp. 43-44. cussed in Larry Danielson, ed., Studies in Folklore 20. David]. Miller, "One of Many," American and Ethnicity (: California Folklore Historical Society of Germans from Russia Work Paper Society, 1977). See particularly the essay by Yvonne 21 (Fall 1976), p. 17. R. Lockwood, "The Sauna: An Expression of 21. See the North Dakota Historical Society of Finnish-American Identity," pp. 71-84. Germans from Russia Work Paper 1 (April 1971), p. 7. GERMAN-RUSSIAN SYMBOLS 15

The organization's first president, Ray R. Friedrich, indicated in a public letter to members (21 April 1971) that the North Dakota group had "affiliated" with its "parent organization," the American His­ torical Society of Germans from Russia. Eventually, however, the two German-Russian societies diver­ ged and remain separate entities today. 22. North Dakota State University Spectrum, 15 May 1969, pp. 1, 4. 23. Beata Mertz, comp., Food 'N Folklore (Bis­ marck: North Dakota Historical Society of Ger­ mans from Russia, n.d.), p. 47. 24. Don Eddy, "Hot Off the Stove," The American Magazine (October 1950): 114-15. 25. For a list of German-Russian dishes, as well as their Russian and American variations, see Paul Reeb, "Cultural Dynamics in German-Russian Cookery," Heritage Review 14 (September 1984): 25- 29. 26. Mertz, Food 'N Folklore, p. 47. Also see the translation by Armand and Elaine Bauer of Theo­ dore Eisenbraun's "Deutsche Bauern in der Krim im Zeitraum 1806-1941," Heritage Review 17 (April 1977): 16; and Placid Gross, "Schislik and Chuba­ racka," Heritage Review 14 (Feb. 1984): 10-11. 27. For comparative studies that treat food as symbols of identity, see Roger L. Welsch, " 'We Are What We Eat': Omaha Food as Symbol," Keystone Folklore Quarterly 16 (1971): 165-70; "Foodways and Eating Habits," Western Folklore 40 (1981): vii-137; Robert A. Georges, "You Often Eat What Others Think You Are: Food as an Index of Others' Conceptions of Who One Is," Western Folklore 43 (1984): 249-56; and Linda Keller Braun and Kay Mussell, eds., Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984).