as a Finn I couldn´t care less what other europeans are thinking about us Finns. Those gayish swedes, pervert french, arrogant british, joint sucking dutch, (and I don´t have to tell you about germans, everybody knows their history) are not in the position to judge us.

instead there´s many similarities in finnish and native american cultures. Both have stuggled against much larger enemy. Original finnish religion also had spirits in the woods, water and air…and don´t forget the sweatlodge ( sauna in finnish)

so I´d be a finnindian much rather than decadent european!

http://mojakka.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Hall

http://hunts-upguide.com/keweenaw_peninsula.html

http://hunts-upguide.com/keweenaw_peninsula.htm

“Many Finns have intermarried with Ojibwa members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, creating new generations of so-called ‘Finndians’ who may have blond hair or blue eyes. It’s not such an improbable combination, considering how in these parts both groups share a closeness to the land and love of fishing, hunting and the woods. Baraga and L’Anse schools may be unique in providing enrichment classes in both Ojibwa and Finnish.”

This article on the Mesaba Co-Op Park I found at random (there’s some stuff also about Gus Hall, the legendary United States Communist Party leader and son of Finnish immigrants):

http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Visiting%20Mesaba%20Park.htm

“Faced with ethnic and political discrimination symbolized by signs that read ‘No Finns or Indians allowed’ Finnish immigrants collected money from workers’ and farmers’ organizations to buy some land.”

“The Finns quite objectively speaking had some cultural traits in common with the Native population that others did not have. Furthermore, they were among first wave settlers. This meant that there was a high percentage of successful integration. On the other hand, Finns did not belong to non-violent religious groups, like the Pennsylvania Germans.

So they were more likely to engage in violent conflict, and when the occasion warrented it, they did so. So the reality is that sometimes Finns, because they were Finns, got along better with Indians than others did, but this was far from being the whole picture. The urban legend is precisely that, an urban legend, but it has a grain of truth in it, unlike many urban legends.”

I read one story, written in that dialect about the evacuation of people of Suistamo during the WWII. Apparently the people of the receiving community didn’t like the evacuees, as the writer commented “A kui tänneh tulih ga moishet mulgokatshonnat sain ja viel päälle kysyö solkattih…” (When I arrived here I got some dirty looks and the people were asking questions…).

http://www.library.tver.ru/karel/tarasov-k.htm

http://www.library.tver.ru/karel/sana/ks041.htm

One of the sentences sounds like this:
“Kaikilla, ket kuvneldih S.V. Tarasovan runoloida, hüö miellüttih.”
(“Everyone who listened to the poems of S.V. Tarasov, liked them”; my guess of a translation.)