Outline for final project

Early immigration in Minnesota

Introduction:  The first peoples living in the region now known as Minnesota were members of diverse Native American tribes who settled in the area as long ago as 6000 B.C. The Ojibwa and Dakota, are the largest tribes living in Minnesota in the early and mid-nineteenth century, both had well-established societies based on hunting and gathering when the first French and French Canadian traders arrived to establish fur posts among them.

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1-By 1850, many settlers from New England as well as immigrants from Norway, Sweden, Ireland, and Germany had settled in Minnesota. Drawn by the lure of inexpensive farmland and a growing industrial base, diverse groups continued to migrate to Minnesota.

2- By 1896, official election instructions were being issued in nine languages: English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, French, Czech, Italian, and Polish.

3- Minnesota became a significant immigration state as a result of the wave of immigration to the United States at the turn of the century.

4- While the foreign-born population in the United States was only 15% in the 1890s, the foreign-born population for Minnesota was 40%.

5- Another wave of immigration to Minnesota, which began after the Vietnam War, marked a change in the ethnic makeup of Minnesota’s immigrant populations. This wave peaked in the 1980s when hundreds of refugees from Southeast Asia, aided by local churches, were resettled in Minnesota communities. Minnesota’s ethnic mix— originally comprised of Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrants from diverse Western European countries—was further enriched by new populations primarily from Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.

In conclusion: There are always reasons for immigrants such as war, hunger, and finding new life style.