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German Immigration And Its Ties To Landscape Change In Nebraska, Lindsey Labrie

Honors Theses

This thesis uses a multidimensional approach to frame the different waves of German immigration within the context of land use change in Nebraska. By recounting the historical challenges and struggles Germans faced in their homelands, this thesis provides similarities between historical immigration patterns throughout the state. Observing the timing of these movements of people paints a clearer picture of how these immigrants might have helped change the farming and cultural landscapes of Nebraska. Knowing and recognizing historical immigration in Nebraska cultivates a deeper appreciation for the current relations between immigrants and Nebraska’s physical landscape.

Ethnic Migration And Cultural Maintenance In Eastern European Ethnic Enclaves In Nebraska: The Poles In Omaha, Germans From Russia In Lincoln, And Czechs In Wilber From 1860-1920, Paige Mccoy

Honors Theses

This thesis examines whether three Eastern European ethnic enclaves within Nebraska assisted in cultural maintenance and stalled assimilation, looking specifically at enclaves of the Germans from Russia in Lincoln, the Poles in Omaha, and the Czechs in Wilber. These groups were selected due to differences in their location, with a larger city (Omaha), the capital city (Lincoln), and a small rural town (Wilber). In order to narrow down the time frame, this thesis focuses on the years from 1860-1920 in these enclaves. First, I determined that these clusters of immigrants were indeed ethnic enclaves, by using a primary source base …

Czech Immigrants In Nebraska: A Question Of Identity And Assimilation, Katharine Meegan

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the dynamics of cultural and social assimilation through the experiences of Czech immigrants into Nebraska. The Czechs' long struggle to maintain their ethnic identity has shaped their experiences with assimilation. After a review of assimilation theory, I conclude that the Czech experience with assimilation follows a “straight-line” assimilation model, a progression of assimilation that is complete by the third generation. Their relatively small size, settlement in rural areas, and a strong desire to maintain ethnic identity, as reflected in the formation of Czech language benevolent associations, gymnastic societies, and Czech language newspapers, led to “social” and “structural” …

Ligia Grischa: A Successful Swiss Colony On The Dakota Territory Frontier, Todd Quinn, Karl Benedict, Jeff Dickey

Great Plains Quarterly

In 1877 a small group of Swiss immigrants from the Graubunden canton formed a cooperative with another Swiss group in Stillwater, Minnesota, to begin a colony in eastern South Dakota. These settlers founded the Badus Swiss colony on the open prairie in Lake County, Dakota Territory {later South Dakota}, based on cooperative rules written in Switzerland in 1424. This settlement was one of the last Swiss colonies created in the United States during the great nineteenth-century European migration, and one of the westernmost Swiss settlements in the United States.

There were two major factors that contributed to the Badus Swiss …

Empire Of The Young: Missionary Children In Hawai'i And The Birth Of U.S. Colonialism In The Pacific, 1820-1898, Joy Schulz

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Hawaiian by birth, white by race, and American by parental and educational design, the children of nineteenth-century American missionaries in Hawai‘i occupied an ambiguous place in Hawaiian culture. More tenuous was the relationship between these children and the United States where many attended college before returning to the Hawaiian Islands. The supposed acculturation of white missionary children in Hawai‘i to American cultural, political and religious institutions was never complete, nor was their membership in Hawaiian society uncontested. The tenuous roles these children played in both societies influenced the trajectories of each nation in surprising ways. Similarly, the children’s cultural experiences …