Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 15. No. 2 Summer 1992 Manuscripts Solicited The Journal welcomes manuscripts of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, and all aspects of the lives of Germans in/from Russia. We request that manuscripts be typed double-spaced on standard 8 1/2 by 11-inch paper. If printed on computer fan-fold paper, please remove the feed-guide edges, sep- arate and number the pages, and place them in order. If the manu- script was written on a computer, please include with the manuscript On the cover: Memorial Day flags wave over the graves of German- a copy of the article file on a 5.25" Russian settlers and Sioux Native Americans in the diskette. We can accept IBM cemetery of St. Peter's on the Standing Rock Agency, PC/XT/AT compatible files on low- Fort Yates, North Dakota, seen here circa 1910-18. One or double-density disks. finds Sioux names along with German names such as For questions of style, please Schneider or Volk. The light, board-shaped marker with consult our standard reference, The a dark inscribed cross at the far right center reads: Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed. "Joseph/Son of [ ] Edith/Treetop/Died June [ ], rev. (Chicago: University of 1899/Age 6 weeks". The large, dark stone shaft just to Chicago Press, 1982). Please indi- the left (at center right) is a memorial to five Indian cate in your cover letter whether policeman killed during an attempt in December 1890 you have photos which may be used to arrest Sitting Bull, who also was killed. The first to illustrate your article. If you wish lines read: your manuscript and disk returned "In/Memory of/Lieutenant/BULL HEAD"; the to you, please include with the remainder cannot be read from the photograph. manuscript a stamped, self- German Russians settled on the Standing Rock addressed envelope of the same size Reservation beginning in the early nineteenth century. and with the same postage as your Professor Timothy J. Kloberdanz's "In the Land of mailing envelope. Manuscripts not Inyan Woslata," beginning on page 15, examines how published in the Journal or returned the Sioux and German-Russian cultures influenced and will be added to the AHSGR learned from one another. Photograph courtesy Frank archives. Fiske Collection and State Historical Society of North Address all correspondence on Dakota. editorial matters to AHSGR, 631 D Street, Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. Published by American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 Edited by David Bagby ©Copyright 1992 by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia. All rights reserved. ISSN 0162-8283 CONTENTS WALDHEIM VILLAGE IN MOLOCHNA COLONY Solomon L. Loewen ............................................................................................................................... 1 THE TIPSY DUCKS Alexander Dupper ................................................................................................................................. 14 IN THE LAND OF INYAN WOSLATA: PLAINS INDIAN INFLUENCES ON RESERVATION WHITES Timothy J. Kloberdanz .......................................................................................................................... 15 FIVE PLANTS IS FIVE PLANTS Angela Cachay ...................................................................................................................................... 27 KRASNA VILLAGE RESEARCH REPORT Ted J. Becker ........................................................................................................................................................... 29 VILLAGE RESEARCH PROJECT AND LIST OF VILLAGE RESEARCH COORDINATORS David Bagby List by Allyn Brosz and AHSGR staff ..................................................................................................................... 33 A SUMMARY REPORT ON TEN GERMAN VILLAGES In the Regions of Dnepropetrovsk, Petrikovka, and Verkhnaya-Dneprovsk, Administrative District of Dnepropetrovsk Dr. Karl Stumpp Translated by David Bagby ...........................................,......................................................................................... 41 OUR RESPECTS TO THE BAVARIAN SUPREME COURT! . E. Holland Translated by David Bagby ..................................................................................................................................... 45 NEW ADDITIONS TO THE AHSGR LIBRARY SINCE JANUARY 1991, H-Z Michael Ronn, AHSGR Librarian ........................................................................................................... 46 MEIN GROSSMUTTER Ted J. Becker ......................................................................................................................................... 51 AHSGR Journal/Summer 1992 WALDHEIM VILLAGE IN MOLOCHNA COLONY Solomon L. Loewen The first group of Mennonites to migrate from West that settled in Waldheim. They were among the last Prussia to South Russia left in 1788 and arrived in 1789 at foreigners to settle in the Molochna colony. This was a the Khortitsa River where it enters the Dnieper. These 228 rather closely knit group that had developed their own families founded the Khortitsa Colony. Soon other families particular dialect of Low German, which came to be known followed, and before long there were 367 families making as the Waldheim Plautdietsch. Waldheim grew rapidly like their home in what came to be known as the "Old Colony." other villages in the colony, partly because additional In 1803, 162 families arrived from Prussia and families settled there, but more especially because of the overwintered with their compatriots in Khortitsa, then many children born into the families. moved on in spring to a new area about 110 miles to the Land for the village was provided by Johann Cornies, a southeast, just beyond the Molochnaya River. The Russian great entrepreneur from Ohrloff, who had leased the land at government had directed them here to an open and quite the eastern end of the Begim-Chokrak river.4 He named the level steppe of 81,500 acres of more productive land than village Waldheim, meaning "Home in the Woods", because what they had at the Old Colony.1 Eventually some 1200 the place in Volhynia from whence these immigrants had families settled in 58 flourishing villages, forming the come was wooded. The banks of the river had been diked to "New Colony," called Molochna. prevent flooding during heavy rains. The stream bed was Waldheim was the 44th village formed in this New without running water during the dry season. The average Colony. It was settled in 1836 by eight families who had annual rainfall was about 17 inches. The village was laid left their homes in Przechowka, Volhynia, in 1835. In his out along the banks of the river in an east-west direction, as Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten (The Molochna were most of the Molochna villages. The size of the village Mennonites), Isaac says that 68 families left Poland in 1835 was determined largely by the amount of land available for and settled in the village of Waldheim in 1836.3 I suspect farming. Villages usually had one street with homes on that the 68 were individuals, not families. Two years after either side of the street. Waldheim had two streets; it was the first group arrived, another 12 families came, and in destined to become the largest village in all Molochna. 1840 an additional 20 families arrived, which made a total of 40 families Dr. Solomon L. Loewen's grandparents lived in Waldheim for 25 years after their marriage in 1842, and his father Jacob Loewen THE EARLIEST MAP attended school in Waldheim in the 1860s. Jacob immigrated in 1874 to Marion County, Kansas, where Solomon was born in 1898. For the first Waldheim map we are indebted to Darrel A. After graduate study in parasitology and entomology. Dr. Loewen Nickels. His great-uncle Franz Zielke drew it as he had taught biological sciences for over 50 years. In his retirement(!) Dr. Loewen has written or co-authored 5 family genealogies and gotten it orally from his father, Kornelius Zielke. Franz numerous scientific, genealogical, and Mennonite historical articles, Zielke acknowledged that the spelling of the names might some of which have appeared previously in the Journal. be incorrect, for he had written them as they had sounded in Low German. A correction of the AHSGR Journal /Summer 1992 2 WALDHEIM names is suggested in parentheses. For the year 1861, names from Zielke's map have been placed on the Zielke lists 24 families on the map as follows: expanded map in the same order and relative areas he had Pankratz placed them on his map, but should not be considered Pankratz, A. definite. The residences of the others have not been Pauls, John determined. Andres Ratief (Ratzlaff?) Waldheim, like other villages, elected a Schultze, or Berhman (Bergman?) Ratzlaf (Ratzlaff) mayor for the village. The first one was Kornelius Wedel, Buller Richard, Jake (Richert?) leader of the group which first came from Volhynia. Ten 8 Byers 1 (Weier?) Richards, K. (Richert?) years later, in 1847, Christian Schlabbach was elected. The Byers 2 (Weier?) Sperling village had its own church services, although Zielke's map Derksen (Doerksen?) Tafes of 1861 does not show a location for a church. They Ediger, Johann (Toews?) probably first met in private homes. Peter Schmidt was the Fast, Peter Wadel (Wedel?) first elder. Just when a church was built is unknown, but it Hebert (Huebert, Warkentine is unlikely that the village