Talkoot: The Finnish Tradition of Community Work
The beams are too heavy for one family to lift. The roof cannot be finished before winter comes. Livestock will need shelter before the snow arrives. Waiting until enough money has been saved to hire workers means it might never be finished.
Clearing the Bush
Central Alberta’s wooded parkland around Sylvan Lake, Eckville and Hoadley lies largely within Treaty 6 territory, while Red Deer stands near the meeting of Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 lands. The region is also Métis homeland and was travelled, occupied and used by Cree, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota, Dene and Métis communities long before homestead lands were surveyed.
Why Every Finnish Farm Had a Sauna
Drive through the older farming districts of central Alberta and you may notice small log buildings that seem out of place. They are too small to be barns and too substantial to be sheds. At first glance, they might look like old root cellars. Sometimes they are. But if the farm once belonged to a Finnish family, there is a good chance you are looking at a sauna.
The History of Scandinavian Migration to the Canadian Prairies
Nearly five centuries before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, another group of Europeans had already reached North America.
Around the year 1000 CE, Norse sailors from Greenland steered their longships west across the North Atlantic and landed on the northern tip of what is now Newfoundland. Led by Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, they established a small settlement that modern archaeology identifies as L'Anse aux Meadows.