Most of the people who made themselves a home there are members of the Somali community. Together with the Hmong community, it is the biggest refugee group in Minneapolis and the whole country.

In 1991, when the somalian civil war broke out, many Somalis had to escape from fightings and prosecution and fled to the neighboring countries in order to survive. Since then, the war in Somalia is on and off. After they permantly lived in refugee camps in Ethopia or Kenya for years, many refugees got the chance to resettle in the United States for safety, economic and educational opportunities. The 2000 Census counted 36 000 Somalis in the U.S., 11 000 in Minnesota. In 2004, the number already more than doubled. 25 000 Somalis lived in Minnesota. The numbers increased over time and do not only refer to refugees anymore. Little Mogadishu, as well as the other somali settlements, consists of primary and secondary migrants, of non-refugee Somalis from Somalia, but also from neighboring countries like Djibouti, Northern Kenya and Ethopia (where the ethnic group of Somalis is also rooted), mostly to better their economic status. Many of those migrants are also illegal.

Those who suffered directly from the civil war and were resettled as refugees often experienced traumatic events before, during and after their escape. A huge number was even tortured.Those people need a special treatment in order to deal with their syndroms.

Mille Lacs

The area is a touristic center especially for weekend tourism from the urban region of the Twin Cities St. Paul and Minneapolis. In 1855 the American Indian Reservation of Mille Lacs was established to give home to the Band of Ojibwe. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is a tribe of American Indians who originally lived in the East, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. According to oral traditions, the tribe migrated west 500 years ago, settling in the Mille Lacs region around 1700. In the 1800s the Ojibwe faced problems as more and more Europeans settled in what is today the state of Minnesota. Violence and suppression were the result, by the end of the 19th century only a few hundred members of the Ojibwe tribe still lived in the Mille Lacs area. The first half of the 20th century was marked by poverty and despair, but also by a new volition within the tribe. An autonomous government was installed together with a Tibal Court and a Tribal School System.

The Band of Ojibwe cares very much about their cultural traditions, preservation of the language and oral history. The opening of a Tribal Casino in the early 1990s became a huge success for the tribe. Today many tourists come to visit the Reservation but also the Casino. The thus earned money is shared in a very idealistic way. Every acknowledged member of the Band of Ojibwe, regardless of the place of residence, gets a monthly benefit of about $ 700. Still, the main part of the Casino’s asset goes into the infrastructure of the Reservation. Modern schools, hospitals and streets but also a very modern tourism center is paid by the new wealth of the Ojibwe.

Professor Keil and Travis Zimmerman of the Mille Lacs Indian Museum

We had the chance to get an exclusive guidance through the exhibition in Mille Lacs Indian Museum by Travis Zimmermann. He explained the traditional life of the Ojibwe Tribe linked to the season. 3.000 tribe members moved in a range of 10 to 20 miles within the year. In the spring time the Ojibwe produced sugar and sirup a few miles away from the lake. At summer the tribe moved directly to the lakeside to fish. They lived in stable houses because of the strong winds at the lake sides. At fall they moved to a different lake where they were able to grow rice. When the cold winter arrived they moved into the forests where they were protected from bad weather. In the forest they would trap animals or go icefishing to survive. Also in the winter time the tradition of storytelling became of immense importance as the Ojibwe Indians had no written history. The story telling was therefore the closest way for children to a former education.

Wintertime in the traditional life of Ojibwe Indians

Today there are three districts within the Mille Lacs Reservation. We visited District 1 which houses approximately 1.000 people and gives room to the Grand Casino Mille Lacs. The Reservation plays a major role in Minnesota’s tourism industry since the 1920s. In the 1970s the first tourism complex was built and became an economical success. In 1996 the first Ojibwe American Indian Bank opened and has since then become a major income for the tribe in the recent years.

http://www.millelacsojibwe.org/

http://www.millelacs.com/

Christiane Vogel

It was a bit weird to have a busy city with skyscrapers to your left and a beach with volleyball players to your right, all very close together.

We passed parks, tennis courts, and harbors with small yachts. After a long ride we passed by a Hispanic soccer tournament, accompanied by enthusiastic Spanish-speaking commentators and music over a PA system, food stands, and many families having a good time watching the players. On our way back south we got soaked by an outbreak of pouring rain and we had to take cover under a bridge with our bikes. When the rain stopped, we continued and rode a bit further south past the Chicago Aquarium.

All in all it was great fun to explore a part of the city by bike. Being used to riding my bike almost every day, I immediately felt a little bit more at home in Chicago as soon as I got one into my hands there. I would recommend to everybody to try a bike tour to get a feel for a new city. For those of us who tried it in Chicago, it was really something to remember.

Benedikt Schäfer

Elaine Tyler May

As we found out, University of Minneapolis boasts one of the oldest departments of American Studies. In the beginning, in late 1940s and early 1950s, it was not a single university division, but rather an interdisciplinary programme stemming from two departments – English and History. Although early days of the institution were difficult – academics working in the Department were not treated seriously, and had to earn trust and respect of their colleagues – lack of theoretical basis for American Studies Department resulted in a fresh, open-minded and experimental approach to the subject of American Culture. Gradually, the Department evolved into a more unified, but still diverse institution, embracing e.g. gender studies or racial issues. Nowadays, there are about 50/60 undergraduates and 6 to 10 graduate students every year. The number is not impressive, but the small size of the Department allows for enhanced quality of instruction. Some examples of research conducted by the Department include topics such as “The cultural life of the death penalty”, or “Korean orphans – cultural cross-national problem”. This openness to variety of subjects and interest in migration allowed for changing profile of students, from predominantly white students coming from educated families to first generation students of colour (increasing number of Somali and Asian students). An interesting point to make, as professor May rightly observed, is that students deriving from a specific ethnic background are not necessarily interested in their own migrant group, but rather engage in studies of other ethnicities.

Overall, the visit provided us with a chance to discover how other universities perceive and approach American Studies and explore the beginnings of the discipline in the US.

Aska Borkowska

Be that as it may, our group went for a beer after a long drive up from Madison/Wisconsin and after checking into the Days Hotel. We hit upon what seemed to be a nice beer place, with a deck in back so that we could even sit outside on that Saturday evening, the temperature still allowing for it. Then came the waitress, and while the students were used to proving their drinking age, I also was asked to produce proof of my age. Now everyone who knows me will agree that I don’t quite look like I might be confused with a youngster below the age of 21. But this was not the issue. When I reluctantly showed first my driver’s license and then my German identity card which both had my birth date on them, I was told that these official documents would not be recognized and that I had to show them my passport – which I had left in my hotel room. I was told the barkeeper would not accept anything else. So I went inside to talk to him, but of no avail. Even my protestations that I was being discriminated against did not move him. Then it finally dawned upon me that I happened to be the scapegoat of the new initiative by the State of Minnesota to ban drinking for seniors. I suspect there was an ethnic element involved in this matter as well: apparently the Scandinavians had never forgiven the Germans that – against all stereotypical notions about Minnesota – the latter were the larger immigrant group in that state. Apparently the Scandinavians had finally prevailed and helped pass the new ordinance, based upon a much more puritanical version of Lutheran belief, which is not unknown in Scandinavia even today.

The story ends, however, with a gesture of solidarity that I found very impressive. When I came back from talking to the barkeeper and told my students the result, they did not say a word but got up and together we left the inhospitable place.

PS: I had no problem being served upon in the bar next door.
H. Keil

Most startling might have been the story about the Hmong refugee and their role as Secret Army that supported the US in their fight against communist forces in Laos and Vietnam during the 60s until the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Erica Lee showed us a slideshow with photos of the New York Times.

The Hmong was a minority in Laos that was known for its anti-communist feelings. They were convinced that their slash and burn agriculture would not be supported by the communists and feared reprisals from North Vietnam.  Most importantly their land was surrounded by one of the  regions that was very often a theater of war. The US promised them to care for them in case the war would not end victorious. Therefore there had never been this kind of stigma concerning welfare when they later arrived in the US.

Nonetheless it was only a few thousand of them to be airlifted after the lost war in 1975. Entire Hmong villages fled into the jungles and lived there for months or spent years in refugee camps in Thailand.  Until the late 1980s about 60 000 Hmong resettled in the US  –  a number that is almost similar to the number of Hmong living in the Twin Cities today. As the US refugee policy intended to spread them like a layer of butter across the states in order to minimize financial burdens on the different communities they were brought to different parts of the country at first. However nobody thought about the stress and trauma refugees like them suffered from and which made it hard for them to deal with the obstacles of daily life. The result was a second wave of migration that brought another 10 000 to 15 000 to Minneapolis and St. Paul. In St. Paul alone lives about 60 to 75% of the Hmong minority, whereby they also revitalized a part of the city that was formerly not very strong economically.

Their most prominent way in order to help them assimilate is the Hip Hop culture – which is not astonishing as Erica Lee tells us because their culture traditionally is involved in oral and singing storytelling. Their language exists in the written way only for 50 years by now. They have to face kind of the same hostility as Chinese immigrants had during the 19^th century. Next to that women tend to assimilate more easily while a lot of men find it hard to find a job as they have never been anything else but farmers and soldiers. Posttraumatic stress disorder is a wide spread problem among the Hmong. Gangs are common.

During our tour we reflected on many immigrant groups, groups that came to the States voluntarily, searching for work and the American Dream.  The Hmong however are the newer immigrants the United States have to deal with, immigrants that are strikingly different to those Europeans that arrived in the beginning of the 20^th century. They are refugees, coming to the States in lack of better alternatives and that bring burdens with them which complicate their struggle to blend in more than a lot of Americans might imagine.

Tina Neundorf

The office building of the Chicago Defender

executive editor Lou Ransom at the Chicago Defender

When we entered the hallway of the office building we were given a warm welcome by the president Michael A. House as well as the Defender’s Intellectual Property Manager Sandra Enimil and Lou Ransom, the paper’s executive editor. They gave us a tour through their new offices which moved from the downtown center back to the southside of Chicago where most of the African American community lives. The corridors were decorated with famous African American politicians, activists and businessmen mostly from the Chicago area, including famous names like Oprah Winfrey or Rev. Jesse Jackson, and many others such as Edith Sampson, the first African American to be appointed to the United Nations or the first Black American McDonalds franchise owner.

Sandra Enimil and Michael A. House discussing the work of the Chicago Defender with students

In the middle of the entrance hall, a huge award with the inscription “America’s Best Black Newspaper” was displayed. In 2008, the Defender was honored with the John B. Russwurm award as one of the most influential Black newspapers in the country. Mr. House proudly presented it to us and emphasized the Defender’s historical and today’s significance for African Americans all over the country.

America’s Best Black Newspaper, the “John B. Russwurm” Award

It certainly is also one of the oldest Black papers in the country. It was officially founded on May 5, 1905 by Robert S. Abbott, with the first copies being printed on his landlady’s kitchentable. It was his concern to show different aspects of the African American life, not only to cover the bad side, as in the mainstream papers at that time, Mrs. Enimil explained to us. Since then, the Defender has played a leading role in covering the most significant events to the Black community and its empowerment. For instance, The Great Migration at the beginning of the 20^th century when thousands of African Americans from the south moved to the north in order to find a job and escape racial harassment or the story of Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy from Chicago who visited his relatives in the south and was brutally beaten to death for whistling after a white women, an incident often described as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

The cover story on the Emmett Till murder case

Still today, the Chicago Defender is a niche paper, focusing strictly on the African American community. By delivering only this demography, we can still do so well, Mr. House explains when we asked him about the declining newspaper market in the country. For 1,5 years now, the paper is published on a weekly basis with a readership of 120 000 up to 150 000 each week. They all agree that the biggest challenge is to reach their people, especially the younger generation. Lou Ransom again stressed the importance of moving back into the community: We are their voice, we have to listen to them. Now the people can come and talk to us.

The Defender also has an online version and is present on facebook. Expectations are high that they can maintain their paper. We’ ll keep our fingers crossed.

Stefanie Kölling