Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention

Speaker: Father William Sherman

Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention
Bismarck, North Dakota, 14 July 1995

Transcription by Hope Wald
Edited by Janel Wald and Linda Haag

Leo Schatz (LS): The Bismarck chapters, heritage chapter, have done a great, great job. Before we eat let me just tell you a little bit about the program. After we’re done eating we’re going to introduce the folks of the head table, have Father William Sherman give an address, have Professor Martzoff do us the song for the convention and we’re going to be out of here. We’re running late, and we’re going to be out of here in an hour and a half from now; not anymore. And so at this time I would like to call on Reverend George Undrah to give us praise.

George Undrah (GU): Let us pray together... [Prayer is said].

LS: We’ll go right ahead and get the program started. My name’s Leo Schatz, I’m the emcee this afternoon, and I want to give a thank you to the Dakota Pioneer Chapter for allowing me to be the emcee. And the reason I wanted to tell you who I was, so that if anyone is meaning to throw eggs or tomatoes at the emcee, so that you know who you’re throwing them at. [Laughing] What I would really prefer is to bring them up and put them by my place and then I can take them home for groceries. [Laughing] At this time, just before we introduce the head table, let me make an introduction of the most important person here today. All of you have heard the saying that behind every successful man is a woman who has been the closure of the proud or something or other. Well let me tell you just the woman that is beside me here today, she’s been beside me, not behind me, beside me for the last 37 years, my wife Kathy Schatz. Stand up.
[Clapping]

LS: The rest of the head table people are people of equal importance to each other so please hold your applause until all of them are introduced. Our President, Mr. Al Feist, and his wife Dorothy, beside them is Father William Sherman, we’ll hear him speak in a bit. Then it’s George Fulman from Grand Forks, North Dakota; Willie Winger and his wife Lilly. Off to my right, your left is Mr. Armand Bauer and Elaine Bauer. Then we have Mr. George Mann, then we have Vern Mann, and at the end is Irene Fiechtner. Now, one more, Professor Martzoff, and I wanted to leave him last because I want to tell about him, but let’s give them all a hand please.

[Clapping]

LS: Did I make an error. We have Mr. George Ha, and we have Mr. Vern Mann. Those are the two that I didn’t get quite separated correctly or something, I don’t even know what I did. Alright, well we’ve got several Priests and Ministers here today; we’ve got the two that I’ve just introduced and the pastor that said the prayer, Mike Kussen, Mike Kussen, and Dick Boes is here. And there are others here so we want to be just a little bit careful about what we talk about, church things, plus I gotta tell you this one. I’m sure it was not Marcus Sherman, because Marcus would never use this kind of language, I’m sure more than likely it was Father William Sherman’s church.

This couple lived next to the rectory, and one day the guy had a flat tire. He jacks up the car to change the tire, while he was working on it the jack slipped, the car came down and he says, “I’ll be damned.” Well Father comes and hears this thing and he says, “Sir, right in front of church? You should have said, praise be God.” And what do you know, a week later the car breaks down and he’s got to jack up the car, and he climbs under it, and the jack slips, and the car comes down on him and the guy says, “Praise the Lord.” And the car rises up, and there is Father and he says, “I’ll be damned.” [Laughing]

This one here is probably more like Michael’s church when he was Pastor at the church for the UCC’s. One day he was up there preaching all about sin and he was really giving them all this stuff about sin, and after church this gray haired older lady came along and told him, “Boy, your homily was good, something of what you said defies to about everyone I know.” [Laughing]

We have a bunch more introductions to do. Let me get to the right page here, and would you folks please stand as I call your name, so that we all know who you are. And then when I get done with the first part we’ll put all of you together. Mr. Clarence Bauman, would you please stand. Would you please have the lady beside you stand also? Thanks. Ann Brockin, Ann Brockin, where are you at? Are you standing? No? James Coomer. He comes tomorrow so he can’t stand today. [Laughing] Roger Image, Erige, Roger Erige. There, there he’s standing over there in the blue shirt. Arthur Pryer, Art Pryer, there we go. Mr. Jade Gauge, Jade Gauge. Ok over there in the far corner. You’re supposed to all stay standing you know that? [Laughing] Sheldon Green, where’s Sheldon Green? He comes tomorrow so he’s probably standing at home today. Margie Jagettstout, there she goes, ok stay standing. Ruth Pratzle, please stand. Betty Lang, Betty Lang. Ah good ok. Selma Lock. These folks are all workshop presenters and speakers, that’s why we need to know their name and who they are. Professor Arnold Martzoff you know who he is. Gwen Mertzcow, Gwen. Eldeara Ryer, where’s Eldeara? Ingrid Rydinger. Dr. Lavern Revney - coming tomorrow. Ok Ralph Rumpt. Cornelian Sherman, would you please stand? Mr. Dale Lee Wall, Dale Wall. Judy Walker, Judith Walker. And Tiger Wood, is Mr. Wood here? Tomorrow. Ok let’s give these fine folks a hand for all the work they’re doing. [Clapping]

Now you also have a big long list of convention officials and committees and we are not even going to read them all. Please open your booklet to page 15, and then everybody that’s listed on page 15 please stand up. [Laughing] Hey we got more than that on page 15, please stand. These are the workers, the people that are putting their time and effort, their volunteer time, into making this a successful convention. Let’s give them a hand. [Clapping] To celebrate our anniversary, Professor Martzoff will give us the song. Thank you Professor.

PM: Thank you Leo. First I don’t want you to think this is part of my attire. I got cold up here and this is the only coat that I had in my car. Also when we sing this second stanza, we had a word there I’m not sure you remember. Five, some five and twenty years ago a mid refined [88-89; demeatmisky pupobla demeatmisky) can we say (demeatmisky)?
Everyone: Demeatmisky.

PM: Yes, it means good fellowship. Alright we’re going to sing this all three stanzas, three. And I think we can stand, unless you’re eating. You sing better when you stand and turn to the last page of your books.

[94-113 Song is played and sung, (Same tune as “Oh Christmas Tree”]

PM: Thanks for singing so nicely. [Clapping]

LS: Thank you very much for singing so good. That was really good from up here I tell you what, they were good. Let’s give them a hand for that. [Clapping] Let me just make a couple of quick announcements, the lost and found department Mr. James Springer has lost his billfold and we haven’t found it yet. Where is Jim Springer at? He’s over there, over there. We haven’t found your billfold yet, but whenever we find it we’ll have them bring the money to me and the billfold to you, ok? [Laughing] Ok. Mr. Charles Liaszer from Wisconsin, you probably lost your nametag because we found it. [Laughing] Somebody, this must be a lady, because there’s a housekeeping magazine and some orange juice. [Laughing] If you lost that, I’ll put it underneath here so you can get it after were done.

Mr. Liaszer you tag is here, Jim Springer your money won’t come but your billfold might. Here is one announcement. Wait, we’ll wait with the announcement, and we’ll come up with our speaker, and I can tell you that you probably know this because I sometimes get a little forgetful already and that’s a sign of old age. The three first signs of old age when you become forgetful, first you forget people’s names, then you forget to close your fly, and then you forget to open it. [Laughing] At this time I would like to call on Mr. Armand Bauer to introduce our main speaker.

AB: I have the privilege and honor to introduce Father William Sherman who is not a stranger to me. We first met Father William Sherman when he was at the Newman Center in Fargo. We’ve had a very happy relationship over the years with some very friendly [143]. I always say that Father Sherman is the biggest manager in the Russian booster that we have and he has been that way ever since I’ve known him. With that, Father Sherman, you have the way. [Clapping]

FS: Thank you very much. It’s so wonderful to see so many of my friends all around the place; I would love to mention you all. And of course it goes a sort of sadness too because there’s so many who have left us, some of the most wonderful people. But nonetheless I am indeed not of German from Russian background. So in the sense I’d like to talk a little bit about how Germans are seen by other people. And I have an advantage of that here when we had the first organizational meeting and before that I was excited about the German from Russia people and their experience and so I have been to so many dozens and dozens of meetings, interviews, talked to hundreds and hundreds of people. So I have some kind of a sense of what Germans from Russia think. But also I’ve got my feet in the other world so the Norwegians and the Irish and the Poles and so on. In fact I try and remember at this organization and I try and remember of an organization I can think of, but most of all I must confess a number of a lot of different groups, the Red River [162] of all things, the British Isles Association, and even the Sons of Norway.

One time I was giving a talk to one of their groups and I noticed the lunch afterwards. So I said to the lady, “Do you eat like this all the time?” “Oh yes, yes we do.” Well I said, “How do you join this stuff then?” And she said, “Well are you Norwegian?” I said, “No, but I [167] for twenty-five years.” And she said, “Sign here.” [Laughter] Those of you of Norwegian background I get my little Viking magazine every month, but anyway I bought all of those because you should know as a bachelor food is very important. Married men don’t realize that, some of us do, and so what you do is you go where the food is. But anyway, that has kind of given me a chance to look at both sides of the question.

Just one comment, I was looking at all of the wonderful books in there, and George Bowmen told me that seventeen years ago when he brought in the first collection of books for a convention he could carry them in his arms. Now look at him. You know, we have thousands of movies and books and so on based on the American Frontier. Those cowboys and covered wagons and cattle drive and so on; and ten thousand other short stories and so on. The Germans from Russia are pioneers from two frontiers. That entire long trek over there into Russia, even the Volga, and the Black Sea and so on are all the sadness of it all.

They had another frontier; doing it again, over here in the states, and in fact in some ways a third frontier. And all the stories are coming out of what’s happened back in Siberia and the tragedy of it all. Pioneers of three frontiers, you can imagine when this material that you are gathering is discovered what’s possible in terms of movies and dramas and stories and legends and epics and so on; and great heroes. So whatever you are putting together, it may be official concern right now, but there’s obedience there. If one American front frontier can produce Twenty-five, fifty, one-hundred years from now, what can three frontiers? So I say indeed keep it up.

But let me talk about the thing that has always interested me. Associating with all these different groups I’ve heard them say many things about Germans from Russia. So let me go through some of those things. Accusations in many ways, hush things, critical things. For example they would say the Germans from Russia lived in dirt houses, earthen houses. And indeed some folks still live in them today, 80 years old, 90 years old and so on; adobe houses. Well, it’s true; that’s what they built in the old country; they built it over here. What else would you build? No money, no trees, no lumber, can’t remember a world in which that was the housing of today. They said they lived in houses that had the barn hooked right on the house, and it’s true. But, in epic we say they took manure and burned it, and put it into their bake ovens and then they’d rake out the coals and stick the bread in there and so on.

Well that’s true, but let’s look at it a little more carefully. Everybody burned manure on the prairies, if we want to start with that. What else would you have? They said the wagon trains came out on the prairies and those fancy ladies from out east; it took those about 24 hours to figure out to have enough wood. Fire, you better pick up the buffalo chips. And others did it, the French all over the prairies used to pick it up, they that a beautiful name for it, instead of (morsch) or the (morsch posts) they called it pon de po pore re. [Laughter] The old soldiers out here as they’d come back to the camp at night they’d put on their [213] buffalo chips as they go along like a big shish cabob. Then you spit it all into the crooks pile there… what a marvelous sort of thing.

[214-215; and the earthen house, of course the earthen house]. I’ve showed slides of those houses to architects, and some of these young folks and they think it’s so environmentally sound, and so appropriate. And wait till those oil cartels get a hold of that oil and we’ve got them under control. Everybody’s going to be building urban houses. So as I say, look at it into perspective, the barn that can be connected to the house, well you know that it was kind of peppy ordinary, there you have the hay and stuff like that. And then the next would be the horses, and down the way the cows. Chickens were always the last. But I remember one time we were photographing the house and we had perched it as his attached garage. And I stopped to think about it, now why would a person criticize this? You and I put two and three smoking oil dripping vehicles right in next to our house, and there’s some nice little horses over there. What’s wrong with that? And throughout Europe of course that’s the way they do it. Well most of the things that they would say about the Germans from Russia.

But let me talk about some of the others. They would say for example that Germans from Russia did not support the United States government during our wars. WWII, the guys flunked out, disappeared, got sick and so on, and it’s true. They didn’t go enthusiastically until WWII in which four volumes of North Dakota veterans from WWI. And you’d have to look a long ways to find a German Russian boy that was enlisted. They were going but they were drafted. And it is true that they were half hearted towards the war.

Even in WWII, I remember some physician pointing his finger at the Germans from Russia. I would say half the guys in this room are WWII veterans. This is unfair. But he said my job was to go around to draft boards and to check to see whether they’re letting these guys off the hook, and to frame them. So he says I was on this German Russian territory, and here I noticed this deferred fellow, and he was deferred because he was illiterate. And then I looked down here and it says: occupation schoolteacher. [Laughter] But let’s look a little closer now. You know that one of the reasons they left Germany was to get over there to avoid the draft and that original manifesto, “You will not be drafted in the Russian army.” Then 67 years later the Russians revoke it and take the poor little fellas and stick them in the Russian army for 6 and 8 years, and send them up to Siberia where they are going to be fighting the Japanese. The Germans thought this was stupid. And I think they’re correct.

Lots of folks should look at the family history, remember? They snuck out, they bribed their way across the border, they were draft age, and got to the states. Very early in the game it wasn’t that they were pacifistal or Mennonites, but nonetheless I think they were more or less just being dumb. So here they come to America and they get into a war with Germany. So, when it’s all said and done, I think they were right. It is a dumb thing. Look back over history; have you ever looked back over history? They all seem to be kind of foolish, those boys. The Germans knew that long before us. And some will say that they were pro Kaiser, or pro German. Well frankly the Germans from Russia went to Germany before there was a Germany. Some had never even heard of the Kaiser. And as I say, look at us, half of the guys my age, I’m sorry, have been through wars, and congress, and indeed loyal Americans, so it’s unfair.

They will say that the Germans from Russia treated their women badly. The man was the boss and he was the authoritarian. You knocked him around, well there might be a certain truth to some of that because remember, they were in Russia; they weren’t affected by all the sort of frenzy of sensitivity and so on. And the [267; anintisno] that was going on in Germany, when they went to Russia, they cut the tap. Their intellectuals didn’t go with them.

Germany and Europe go through all sorts of nationalism and all sorts of movements. Their family was patriarchal and that’s universal for everybody. 200 years ago the strong father who was always supposed to know what he was doing and the woman served in the background. Now for some reason it didn’t take me long to figure out that somebody that would ever say that the German Russian woman was taken an inferior. It didn’t take me long to figure that out.

Here’s the guy, he’s up front doing all the talking and so on, with all the neighbors and so on. But nonetheless he’s looking over his shoulder to see if that’s ok. [Laughter] It’s like somebody driving a car. The guys in the front seat, the gals in the back seat. And the gal is saying turn here, go there and so on- or else. Now there were some, of course, of those men who were kind of nuts. But you know tyrannical that [284] apparitions. I mean we’ve got venomous salt houses all over America, so we’ve still got some of our nutty guys. It just depended on how you shared that responsibility, the guy was more visible. But I’m not so sure that the gal was the more powerful one. You gals...who’s running your family? And your kids will too. So they have all sorts of things they would say like that.

They said, “Germans from Russia avoided education.” Get grade school, finish grade school and that’s it, seldom to go finish high school, and rarely ever to go to college. It’s true. The Germans from Russia came from a situation where they had to survive, work sorts of things, the practical sorts of things. Wasn’t that they didn’t believe in education but they didn’t believe in that kind of education where you had to study Shakespeare and Chaucer and all those people. Also they were learning their traits at home, some reading and writing and arithmetic and all those basic things.

But it doesn’t mean the Germans from Russia are any dumber, or a lower IQ. Professor Thorson and I spent a long time studying some 15 years ago. We were able to get a little town that was half Norwegian and half Germans from Russia. We got all the records going back to when the school was organized, 1915 or so. Every kid, every class, every subject, every teacher and so on put it on a computer and spit it out. And what we found was that these German boys and girls who often had to work in the fall, and often took some time off in the spring, did just as well as the Norwegian kids. So in other words there is no evidence that they were second-rate intellectuals. What we also found is that in about 1955 or 50, someplace in there, once the German began to realize they couldn’t put their kids on the farm, the land value was going up. There was such a thing as G.I. Joe and so on. Then they said ok.

The German Russian boys and girls hit the colleges, within a matter of two years they were at Harvard and went all the way through. We took some Norwegian towns and compared to German Russian towns, and the kids were going to get advanced education more efficiently than the Norwegian towns. So in other words it wasn’t the question of IQ, it was the question that certain kinds of practical things, that kind of education is important, not that more academic sort of thing.

So there are lots of other things they would say, that the German Russians for example did not assume leadership. You know, in the state. And it’s true; 25% of the state has always been German Russian, maybe 30%, 35. In fact in North Dakota there’s only, of all the 120 men and woman we’ve ever sent to Washington are the gentleman from New Rockford or someplace. What was that name? [crowd shouts out name] There we go. Now, proportionately, we should have 30 or 40 of them up there. Of all the governors, of all the people that are in state house and so on. In the past, well especially in the past, rarely Germans from Russia. Ok, fine.

Well what does that mean? Now they’re not the only group in North Dakota that didn’t push people into regional politics. I remember the priest up there in Warsaw, North Dakota [332], and they didn’t go to college. Only a couple of 20 years ago he stood up and confessed to thousands of individuals; he says he only knew five that ever went to college in that whole community. But I remember this one guy, he said, “When I got of voting age, my father said take a look at this list. Never [338; vote for a ski].” [339; That’s so foolish! “Always vote for the sun or the sand.”] One of these Norwegian types. So a lot avoided that, but what else would you expect? Here they were in Russia, the whole world was Russian. And so in a sense it wasn’t their business, and if they did get involved in the regional politics they were all crooked anyway. They didn’t want their sons or daughters messing around in that sort of business. So they came over here and they continued them. Now that’s not true today. Now the German Russian boys and girls are indeed running for politics.

So, so many unfair statements like that. For example they would say the Germans from Russia produce little in terms of art forms. You know the houses are very simple, very unadorned, and very practical. Well if you defined art form in terms of [352; gross volume] I suppose. Or widdling out all sorts of fancy hutches and tables and all that stuff, fine. But who’s to say that Germans didn’t produce an art form. Some obvious ones, and we’re going to have a presentation on some of their textiles and [357] that are documented very well, and others, those iron crosses. But there are different kinds of art forms. What do you think about music, see? Where do you find a Norwegian that can compare to Lawrence Welk? That’s German Russian music. [Clapping] [363] …as sophisticated then the blue room down in Strasburg, but it’s the same dog gone thing.

And another art form is folk tales, is storytelling. I’ve never been to a Germans from Russia group yet that somebody hasn’t emerged who can go on and on about everybody like a broad Ville show, but all in front of the story. Remember Heart Little? My gosh, nobody can beat that. It depends upon how you define art forms. Of course the Germans had their forms.

It was whining that would say the Germans from Russia could never get their act together. In other words they were frightened. They never operate as a sort of a united force. They never were very visible. It was only 25 years ago this organization started and so on. Well, that’s probably true, but that’s true of all Germans in America. They’ve never been united. We have the united Jewish front, there’s no question about that. The Irish are always up there in front telling us about how wonderful they are. The Sons of Norway are always telling us and so on. And they were a physical, political force right from the beginning.

Many people have said that [Germans, 389] is actually the largest nationality in America today by all our senses thinking. But the trouble is they’re so frightened by who’s going to speak for the Germans, the German Germans, the Hungarian Germans, the Burdock Germans, the [395; Germans], the [395; Selisius?] Germans, the Volga Germans, the Black Sea Germans? On and on it goes. That’s the name of the game, different dialects, different immediate causticities, and different perspectives on life. What does that say to you? What else could have been done? Well, I could give you a long list of things.

Germans from Russia were anti-semetic, and that Jewish trait runs through us. Remember Dr. Cobadeas was saying that he wanted to hear the WPA reports [403] in the 1920’s or 30’s writing up their histories, geez there’s a lot of anti-Jewish… [406] that are impossible, I never ran into them at all. As a matter of fact we were just talking about it. In Hebron there was the newspaper [409] Missouri, I think I pronounced that correctly or however you say it, which took about two or three thirds page of an ad [410] in the German from Russia newspapers. And in every issue from 1910 to 1920+, there were the big two thirds of a page ad. All in German, everything was in German, and the whole thing was in German. In the biggest letters on the page, an inch high it says [416; Defilicade udensdore] [Jew Store, the economical Jewish Store] for my composite I had to photograph this, I had to photograph that page. And, but all my conversations indeed German, Slavic, [421], suffer from Jew. But if you notice every single German settlement in North Dakota had a little Jewish merchant there. It could be something like [Ganzi; 423] Some of those little places, Jewish ridges, do they know where [425] was?

Of course they were different from the Jewish person. But you wouldn’t put letters that high that said the Jewish store. I said that one time to a Jewish scholar out east who was studying anti-Semitism and [429]. He wrote back and said, “Never seen that in all over America.” Which we’d be now, there was a fake local image of the Jew. Maybe it was the old that demonstrated that they were just, and they were honest. Maybe they just liked to do the bargaining and they went with it. You know, a little haggling. They missed the fact that there were Jewish...a little something for the boys and the girls, a little piece of candy for you, whatever it was, it was favorable. And that anti-Semitism, I’m convinced, came in with the rise of Hitler. At that time Dr. Ripley [439].... Then a couple of those German languages were pushing that Nazi sort of bologna, not all of them. I’m convinced that some of them [442]; not the original people. So there are all sorts of things they say.

Now, let me tell you just some of the things they don’t say about the Germans form Russia. Nobody ever said that they were lazy. I can mention some nationalities where everyone says their lazy. Not the Germans from Russia. They know how to work. And nobody for example ever said that they were irreligious. I can name some nationalities where they have two centers of their vocal points, their national experience. One was a church, but one was a lodge, which hated the church. Bohemians, [454], Icelanders, the German Prorine, they didn’t like [455] Not the Germans from Russia. Their church was centered, and the pastors here will say that in their devout nations, and I say as a Catholic, were messed up, were far above their proportions, went on to become privileged people. So nobody ever said that they were irreligious. Nobody ever said they were a [462] element in our state.

I remember studying the figures something like 30 years ago and so on. It’s the German Russia voice that brings the [464] in us because it’s truancy. That made it work. But the one thing they will never say is that the Germans from Russia were big time bootleggers. Sure, here and there they have little stills along the way you know, from private use and your neighbors. The old sheriffs usually know where the guys are that have stills and they go by wave at you and all [474] The Germans from Minnesota produced some myths about bootlegging. Do any of you remember that old Minnesota 13? They still talk about it [478].

For example, they would never say that the Germans from Russia were disloyal to North Dakota, and I said that they were Nazi Germany or Kaiser or [483], but never North Dakota. In the 1930’s, the tough years, the dry years, and so on, or did anybody else say stay in North Dakota; and their still staying there. I don’t know what to figures are but I’ll bet census after census people will answer what nationality more and more German from Russia. Our land is great.

They will never for example say watch out for them they carry knives. I can mention a couple nationalities where they say, “Watch out, they’ve got knives.” Never, indeed the Germans from Russia would fight, during wedding dances. They would go out in the parking lot and take a swing or two, go back in, get into a fistfight and so on, but never really to hurt somebody. I remember in fact the guy who was an outsider, one of the rare Yankee types, but anyway the area was half Finlander and half Germans from Russia. So I said to him, “What’s the difference between Finlanders and Germans from Russia?” Well he scratched his head and said, “Well when Germans form Russia go to a wedding dance they have a good time and then they fight. Finlanders go to a wedding dance they fight and then have a good time.” [Laughing] But any of them, never to hurt somebody. There were certain rules of the game dust each other off, slap each other on the back, and then go back in and do some dancing. So really they never said the Germans from Russia were dull people, gloomy people, never.

I can think of some nationalities where they say that, grim, never the Germans from Russia. You get to a party, get to a gathering, get to a dance, get to a wedding, hell it was three days of festivities back in the old days; never gloomy people. So, as I say and I can go on and on, but nonetheless there are a lot of things that they said about the Germans from Russia which truly are unfair. There are a lot of things that they’ve never said about the Germans from Russia, and that in a sense is a kind of a backhanded compliment. So thank you for listening and I hope that I haven’t taken too long. [Clapping]

LS: We’ve learned a lot of new stuff today, and while we were sitting here and listening to the thing, I thought about the fact that we never thanked the cooks and waiters for bringing us some good food today, let’s give them a hand. [Clapping] I kind of like this hotel we’re staying at on the third floor. We’ve got a nice room that reminded me of Ole and Lena, this hotel reminds me much of a Holiday Inn, and it reminded me much of Ole and Lena and they were packing up to leave when they were staying at the Holiday Inn, and the Ole says, “I just don’t like them Holiday Inns,” and Lena says, “Ya, well, why not?” and Ole says, “The towels are too thick, you just can’t get the suitcase closed.” [Laughing]

I have a couple of announcements here, there’ll be following this evening’s dinner, there’ll be a strategy meeting for Cheyenne room, concerning the Black Sea German records at Saracow, Russia and Odessa, Ukraine. If you have questions or you want to know anything further about that contact Kyle Rother and Duane Stackler. Another one here is that if you want to be in tomorrow, in Sunday’s church choir you have a chance. There’d be choir practice for the Sunday church service after this afternoon’s sing along, wherever there’s a piano; probably at the place of the sing along. As Clarence Bowmen mentioned this morning, the Germans from Russia received a letter from Senator Daschle and from Governor Janklow from South Dakota and Clarence asked me if I would read these, so I’ll just go through that real fast.
From the United States Senate Office of Washington D.C., and this is addresses to Mr. Mervin Huber; Freeman South Dakota. Dear Mr. Huber: Thanks for your letter of invitation from the Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention in Bismarck on July 12th at sixteen. I also appreciated the cartoon, I’m glad you’ve kept the sense of humor despite the tremendous amount of rainfall we received this spring. And he says, unfortunately I will be unable to join you in Bismarck for the convention; I hope you will relay my congratulations. [End of side one]

LS: ...Senator Daschle folk’s go to my church in Aberdeen and they are Germans from Russia. The mother was raised in Roscoe, and the father, someplace around the area down there. So we appreciate that letter. Now we will tell Governor Janklow, all of you South Dakotans and maybe most of you North Dakotans know he is much windier, because it gets a lot longer so I’ll have to take a little bit more time here but it’s a good letter. And he says, dear Mr. Huber: Thank you for stopping at my office in Pierre. I wish I had been able to greet you personally, knowing the strong family and community commitments and work ethics of the many German Russian people who settled in this course. I am very pleased to recognize the 25th anniversary of the international convention of the German from Russia Heritage Society. I congratulate you for all your commitment, to preserving your proud heritage, and for your family’s cultural additions to so many communities across the country. As we work to reach our own goals and move forward in our communities, we do not want to forget those courageous and steadfast folks who took such tremendous risks coming to a new country, separated from the ones they loved. They worked under the hardships of pioneer life to establish our farms, businesses and professions.

These are the grandfathers and grandmothers, and great grandfathers, and great grandmothers who left the legacy of determination, pride in the past and the motion to succeeding. They built a better life for themselves and for their generations ahead, without knowing that they created a unique land of spirit and family orientation that has probably maintained the values and traditions of the past while incorporating the independence and innovation of the new land. Life never stands still. It is often hard, even from parents to children, to instill the normal, the moral and ethical values, the family traditions and the pride in our heritage had we valued; yet we all know that if we don’t understand where we come from and who we are, we will never understand where we are going or who we can become. I congratulate the members of the Corp Pioneer Chapter and all members of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, for pressuring and preserving their heritage. Your cultural heritage has undoubtedly enriched not only our lives but the many, many lives you have touched. Sincerely, Governor William J. Janklow. Let’s give him a hand. [Clapping]

Ok, I’d like to call on Wilma Spice, she has an announcement, and she is one of the people who helped unveil the church this morning, Wilma.

WS: It was suggested to me after the unveiling that it would be a nice gesture for us to send our signatures as a thank you to the family who has contributed to this church and the map and the painting. And I thought it was such a nice idea, I would like to make arrangements for that. We are getting some GRHS stationary and we will have it out in the hall where the things are for sale out there. It will be there tomorrow morning and we would like to ask all of you to stop by, sign your names as a thank you to Rosa Coshull. So please remember that tomorrow. Thank you.

[End of tape]