Ritzville - Rich in German/Russian Heritage: German flavor

» biogardener - German flavor

I am quite aware of the strong influence of the people of German heritage in Oregon, so I am not surprised that it has spilled over into Washington. Actually, it goes all the way north into Northern British Columbia and south into California.

In Canada, I have found pronounced pockets of German settlements in the Niagara peninsula of Ontario, in rural Saskatchewan, and all over British Columbia. The most pronounced, however, is found in southern Manitoba where the German ethnic population is equally divided into Mennonites from Russia and Germans from Germany. The southern Manitoba towns even bear German names. The reason for this concentration of German Mennonites is the promise which the Manitoba government made to the Mennonites, luring them to the province from overseas by assuring them that they would be allowed to continue educating their children in a completely German school system. That promise, of course, was made soon to be broken.

I have written about a couple of those towns in the article, "Roadside Icons of Manitoba, II."

-- posted by biogardener