There were 5 "official" colonial military crew members ~ all Swedes. All spoke Swedish. The rest of the passengers consisted mostly of "family groups" and we know the names of most the heads of household ~ and, best of all we know they were identified as speaking FINN, and not Swedish.
For most modern purposes FINN means "Finnish" but at that time it did not. That word denotes an individual from the Finnmark ~ that is, a Sa'ami.
As you know reindeer easily range 3000 miles. The Sa'ami followed reindeer wherever they went ~ full domestication came later, but it was common for the reindeer to range much further South in winter.
The Swedes regularly rounded up Sa'ami (and even Swedes without papers) who got too close to Stockholm. In this case they took their Sa'ami winter-time prisoners and shipped them to America ~ to what is now Delaware.
Within a few years of starting the colony there were thousands more Sa'ami present, the officers engaged the Dutch in a little war, the Dutch won, the colony then moved across the isthmus to Elkton Maryland, the officers were hired by the Dutch to run Nieuwe Amsterdam, and the Sa'ami were left on their own.
The Swedes continued to dispatch Sa'ami they caught too close to civilized spots to America, to the same place. The last shipments appear to have happened in the mid 1700s.
The Sa'ami settlements expanded. By 1700 the settlements to the North in Lancaster PA relocated to York (yoik?) PA to get away from Quaker harrassment. (All these people were nominally Lutheran ~ and in reality many still maintained older religious beliefs ~ SEE: Santa Claus, Reindeer, Dwarves, Chimneys, etc. ~ I know you know this stuff.)
By the early 1700s there were 5 Sa'ami colonies in Pennsylvania ~ and 2 Sa'ami colonies in Maryland. Best I can determine these colonies were identified with a "deer" or "elk" in their names, or in later colonies with the word "union" (for Kalmar Union).
Remember George Washington in the boat crossing the Delaware? See those guys doing the rowing? Remember the Maryland 400?
There are numerous family genealogies on the net that detail in some manner the Sa'ami experience in America.
The fellows walking barefoot at Valley Forge might well have been quite comfortable in fact.
Today there are millions of Americans of Sa'ami origin ~ some with a lot, some with not so much. I've been fairly successful in finding a remnant. Maybe we will be able to get together on a compendium of documentation someday. Maybe you'd like to help. To get started read what there is on the internet.
One more thing. Science has determined that the division between the Sa'ami and other white folk took place right at the end of the Ice Age 15,000 years ago. There've been some additions since that time ~ a handful of Yakuts with tame reindeer, some Eastern Slavs 7,000 years ago, and maybe even some folks from America back before the end of the Ice Age.
Having Sa'ami ancestors makes you almost a race apart ~ where the differences between the vast majority and your group are mediated by genes, and not just culture and language.
Great post. I had heard of the New Sweden colony along the Delaware River but never knew that the Sa’ami were part of it. And your explanation of their influence on our Christmas tradition is especially interesting.
Also of interest is a DNA study which was recently completed of the Viking influence in the British Isles and Ireland. This is not, of course, to confuse the Vikings with The Family but it is to raise the issue whether any DNA studies have been undertaken?
Thanks again.
Also of interest is a DNA study which was recently completed of the Viking influence in the British Isles and Ireland. This is not, of course, to confuse the Vikings with The Family but it is to raise the issue whether any DNA studies have been undertaken?
Thanks again.
My husband has connections to New Sweden, and at least one of his family lines there is Sa’ami, or so the research I’ve read says.
Hubby is a real mutt. Old American family with Swedish, English, German, Scots and Irish, and Welsh families on one side, on the other Slovakian and Japanese. Makes doing genealogy intersting...