Swedish Space in Upper Midwestern Churches B. Marcus Cederström University of Wisconsin-Madison Abstract: This paper builds upon the intersection of ethnic identity and Swedish- $PHULFDQ VFKRODUVKLS SURGXFHG E\ *UDGpQ .O\PDV] 6FKQHOO HW DO 7KURXJK DQ DQDO\VLVRIWKHULWXDOL]HGFXOWXUHRIWKHFRPPXQLW\DQGWKHFKXUFKDVZHOODVWKURXJK an analysis of reported cultural practices and forms of folklore, this paper demon- strates that the church in the Swedish-American community of the Upper Midwest acts as a space in which Swedish ethnicity, identity, even heritage and history are created. Keywords 6ZHGLVK (PLJUDWLRQ³6ZHGLVK ,PPLJUDWLRQ³6ZHGLVK $PHULFD³6ZHG- ish-American Church—Swedish-American Folklore—Swedish-American Heritage— 6ZHGLVK$PHULFDQ,GHQWLW\³6ZHGLVK$PHULFDQ7UDGLWLRQV Traveling through the Upper Midwest, it is hard to ignore the many place names that inscribe Nordic heritage in signs, maps, and minds: Lindstrom and Finland in Minnesota; Norway and Toivola in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Stockholm and Denmark in Wisconsin. In each locale, Nordic heritage is further manifested as active community members make con- scious choices to sustain such expressive forms and practices as family names, holiday traditions, and the creation and display of material culture. What emerges is neither Danish nor Finnish nor Norwegian nor Swedish nor thoroughly American but must instead be viewed as uniquely Nordic 30 American Studies in Scandinavia, 44:1 American. Amanda Kolpin, writing about Lindstrom, Minnesota, suggests that “[c]ultural events and sites are often the locations where memory work takes place, which in turn serves to affirm the dominating themes of a shared identity apparent in a place’s narrative” (2011, 283). Just as Kolpin iden- tifies the connection between these Nordic-American cultural events and a sense of shared identity, the church in Upper Midwestern communities has served as both a tangible and intangible space of Swedish identity for many Americans of Nordic descent. Indeed for many, the church has been the fundamental institution through which they have formed and performed an ethnic identity which at once distinguishes them from their non-Nordic Upper Midwestern neighbors and connects them with their immigrant and Old Country ancestors. Swedish immigration and settlement in the Upper Midwest was ac- companied by a proliferation of churches which, through their buildings and grounds, constitute distinct spaces that also extend beyond their physical boundaries, imaginatively encompassing parishes and com- munities. Despite the subsequent decline and consolidation of Swedish- American immigrant churches in the 1900s, many continue to manifest their Swedish-American character not only through connections with both Scandinavian Lutheranism and the various theological denomina- tions but also through recurring place-making cultural practices which identify the church as a space of Swedishness. Swedish Americans con- gregate in churches not only to strengthen and preserve a sense of iden- tity with Sweden, but also to strengthen and preserve relationships with other Swedish Americans. When decisions are made to publicly display certain ethnic identity markers like folk costumes or foods, Swedish Americans are inferring the importance of those markers to the community as a whole (Gradén 2003, 12). Many of these displays of Swedishness in the Upper Midwest take place within the context of church life, and the organizations themselves then become creators and preservers of Swedish identity. Robert Klymasz claims that the process of examination, reexamination, discard, and revival is a process that helps to “perpetuate the community’s sense of ethnic loy- alty and identity” (1973, 138), while Steven Schnell points out that “[a]ll traditions are inventions, selective reworkings of the past. They are attempts to lend current practices the imprimatur of historical precedent and to pro- vide continuity with a past, whether real or invented” (2003, 8). Language and ethnic festivals allow Swedish Americans to claim and preserve an eth- SWEDISH SPACE IN UPPER MIDWESTERN CHURCHES 31 nic identity in the United States, but also to claim and preserve ties to an ethnic identity in Sweden. The inclusion of both American and Swedish aspects of ethnic identity leads to an ever-changing idea of Swedishness (Gradén 2003, 20). This process of change occurred in early Swedish immigrant churches in the Midwest, and also in the Rocky Mountain region where the church played an important role in establishing communities that displayed ties to their Swedish past (Attebery 1995, 124). Today, the process continues in rural churches in the Upper Midwest through certain displays which explain what it means to be Swedish. In this paper, I will examine Swedish-American cultural places cre- ated and sustained by Swedish-American churches—Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, Minnesota; Chisago Lake Lutheran Church of Center City, Minnesota; and Bethlehem Covenant Church of Stephenson, Michi- gan—so as to demonstrate the importance of the church in rural areas of the Upper Midwest as a place of Swedish identity. In the course of my field work, two central elements in creating and maintaining this identity have emerged—language and festivals.1 Before examining the way in which the interrelated phenomena of language and festivals contribute to such pro- cesses, it is necessary to sketch Swedish-American immigration history as it bears upon the churches under study. Swedish Immigration and Swedish-American Churches Between 1851 and 1930, approximately 1.25 million Swedes immigrated to the United States with numbers peaking between 1880 and 1900 (Ljung- mark 1996, 10-11). The motives for leaving Sweden were as varied as the people themselves. In the 1800s, some left for economic reasons. A popu- lation boom resulting in a shortage of available land, coupled with crop failures, provided enough of a push for many Swedes to leave for the United States (Ljungmark 1996, 29-31). Several other reasons, such as required military service in Sweden, Swedish class structure, a lack of political free- dom, labor unrest, and even religious dissent, played a secondary (or even tertiary) role in emigration; one of the most notable of these secondary mo- 1 Please see my article “Folkloristic Koinés and the Emergence of Swedish-American Ethnicity” in ARV: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 68 (2012): 121-150 for further use of quotations and documents from my fieldwork in the Upper Midwest in an examination of Swedish-American ethnicity. 32 American Studies in Scandinavia, 44:1 tivations was the pietist movement within the Lutheran church (Ljungmark 1996, 29-31, 35-43). Due to this type of religious emigration, several Swedish-American de- nominations were formed in the United States. The largest was the Augustana Synod, which had a membership of 250,000 people across the United States at its peak in 1930 (Ljungmark 1996, 116-117). Today, the Augustana Synod is known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), and in 2010, it had over four million baptized members despite a negative trend in member- ship over the last decade (ELCA Membership from 1988-2010 2011). The second largest Swedish-American denomination in the United States was the Evangelical Covenant Church (Ljungmark 1996, 117). The Cov- enant Church traces its roots back to the Lutheran Church in Sweden and the pietist movement of the 1800s. Many of the first members of the Cov- enant Church had originally been a part of the Augustana Synod but left to form separate congregations. In 1885, the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America was established, and by 1930 the Covenant Church had 30,000 members (Ljungmark 1996, 117-118). Even today, this denomi- nation continues to play an important role in the Swedish-American com- munities of the Upper Midwest. Swedish-American Churches and Communities in the Upper Midwest Drawing on examples of three different churches from these two broad de- nominations, this paper will focus on the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, Minnesota, and the Chisago Lake Lutheran Church of Center City, Minnesota, as well as the Bethlehem Covenant Church of Stephenson, Michigan. Immanuel Lutheran and Chisago Lake Lutheran are both con- gregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and both have strong ties to the Swedish-American community in the Chisago County area. The Chisago County area is sometimes referred to as “Swedeland,” because of the Swedish immigrants who began arriving in the area in the 1850s, or “Mobergland,” because of the immigrant novels written by the Swede, Vilhelm Moberg, which were set in that area. This area is comprised of several towns heavily influenced by Swedish immigration and includes Chisago City and Lindstrom, as well as Almelund and Center City.2 2 For an extensive study of the area, in particular Lindstrom, Minnesota, see Kolpin 2011, pp. 4-10. SWEDISH SPACE IN UPPER MIDWESTERN CHURCHES 33 In Center City, Minnesota, the Chisago Lake Lutheran Church was founded on May 12, 1854, by the Reverend Erland Carlsson from Chi- cago with a congregation of approximately 100 members. In 1856, a frame church was built, which was eventually replaced by a brick church in 1882. In 1889, a new church was built after a fire destroyed the previous building, and this most recent construction still stands today (Chisago Lake Lutheran Church History n.d.). In nearby Almelund, the idea for the Immanuel Lu- theran Church began in the home of Carl Gustaf Schander, an immigrant from Furuby, Sweden, at a meeting on January 31, 1887, and by the sum- mer of that same year the church was open to the congregation (Immanuel Lutheran Church: 120 Years in 2007 n.d.). Over the years, 529 other Swed- ish-born immigrants became members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Almelund, most having immigrated to the Upper Midwest in the late 1800s (Bjorklund and Leaf 2001).3 These churches were physical spaces of Swedishness for Swedish immigrants to the Upper Midwest. Today, these churches are still physical spaces of Swedishness, although their role within the community has evolved.