Tro på herren, hjälp din nästa och lita inte på indianen
Formandet av ett svenskt-amerikanskt kollektivt minne i efterdyningarna av Dakotakonflikten 1862
The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the Dakota conflict in 1862 affected the Swedish immigrants in Minnesota and how the collective memory was shaped in that particular group of people. To examine the contents of the collective memory this essay uses the theories of Halbwachs on collective memory as well as Orm Øverlands theories on creating an identity and ethnic memory in USA since the concepts of collective memory and the process of creating an identity is connected on a basic level. The essay compares the collective memory created by the Swedish-Americans with the collective memories of the Dakota Indians and finds indications that both ethnic groups have a highly traumatized memory of the conflict. However the difference between the two groups is that the Indians have both positive and negative memories of the conflict while the Swedish-Americans only have negative memories. Furthermore the essay finds that the fear of Indians that was present in the Swedish-American ethnic groups can be traced back to events of the Dakota Conflict. The reports published in Hemlandet, a newspaper on Swedish, have furthermore added to the, in many cases, unmotivated fear of Indians.