New Iceland

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New Iceland or Nýja Ísland is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba , which got its name from settlers from Iceland . These were settled here from 1875.

history

Between around 1870 and 1914, around 17,000 people left Iceland, or around 15% of the population , to flee the economic hardship that was exacerbated by the eruption of the Askja volcano in 1875 . In 1874 a single ship brought over 350 Icelanders to Nova Scotia , Canada . Most settled in Markland, where a census was taken in 1876.

In 1875 a large group of Icelanders moved from Ontario to Manitoba . She left Kinmount on September 25, 1875 to move to Lake Winnipeg . Apparently they expected good fishing opportunities there, but the lake was not very productive, so they had to switch to other fish species. In addition, the first winter, from 1875 to 1876, was particularly hard. The Vestur-Íslendingar (Icelanders in the west) called their settlement Nýja Ísland. The part around the island of Hecla is now part of the Hecla-Grindstone Provincial Park . There are still numerous buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

At Gimli , an Icelandic reserve was created in 1875 ( reserve , analogous to Indian reserve ), but the area was never independent, even if it came to the province of Manitoba in 1880. Until then it belonged to the District of Keewatin , that is, to the Northwest Territories . In 1877 Lord Dufferin, lieutenant governor and representative of the English royal family, visited the newly founded town.

Today around 26,000 people who have Icelandic ancestry live in Manitoba, making about 2.2% of the population. Conversely, a third of Canadians of Icelandic descent live in Manitoba.

The culture of the Icelandic ancestors is still recognizable. There are festivals like Íslendingadagurinn , and a newspaper, Lögberg-Heimskringla, is published weekly in Winnipeg .

The University of Manitoba has an Icelandic department that teaches Icelandic language and literature.

literature

  • Angrímsson Guðjón: Nýja Ísland. Saga of the journey to New Iceland , Turnstone Press, 1997.
  • Arnason David: The new Icelanders. A North American community , 1994.
  • Samuel Kneeland: An American in Iceland. An Account of its Scenery, People and History, with a Description of its Millenial Celebration in August, 1874, with Notes on the Orkney, Shetland and Faroe Islands, and the Great Eruption of 1873 , Boston 1876.
  • Extracts From the Immigration Report of 1887 Pretaining to Settlement in the West , archive.org, February 20, 2012.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Danny Yee: Gunnar Karlsson: The History of Iceland , 2000, University of Minnesota Press Review 2003 .
  2. ↑ There is the Icelandic Memorial Society of Nova Scotia ( website of the society )
  3. ↑ Jón Rögnvaldsson's Survey of Icelandic Farms and Population in Mooseland (Markland) February 1878 , archive.org, February 6, 2012.
  4. ^ The Emigration from Iceland to North America, Passenger List of the SS St. Patrick, 1874 , archive.org, April 2, 2010.
  5. ↑ Statcan - Manitoba Icelandic population.
  6. ↑ Statcan - Icelandic Canadians living in Manitoba
  7. ^ Lögberg-Heimskringla .