| Notable Slovene Americans: 'Melania Trump' 'Željko Ivanek' 'Amy Klobuchar' 'Tom Harkin' 'Frank John Lausche' 'George Vojnović' 'Sunita Williams' 'Micky Dolenz' |
| Total population |
|---|
| Slovene 176,691 Americans
0.1% of the US population (2004) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, California, Minnesota |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Part of a series on |
| Slovenes |
|---|
| Diaspora by country |
| Argentina · Austria Australia · Canada Hungary · Italy United States |
| Culture of Slovenia |
| Literature · Music · Art Cinema · Names · Cuisine Dances · Costume · Sport |
| Religion |
| Roman Catholicism · Islam |
| Languages and dialects |
| Slovene · Prekmurian Resian dialect |
| History of Slovenia |
Slovene Americans or Slovenian Americans (Slovene: ameriški Slovenci, literally "American Slovenes") are citizens of the United States of Slovene descent.
Contents |
The first Slovenes in the United States were missionary priests.[1] Two of the earliest such missionaries were Fr. Anton Kappus and Fr. Frederick Baraga (Gobetz, 2009). In the 1730s some Slovenes settled in small farming communities in Georgia.[2] There were a few Slovene soldiers who fought in the American Revolution.[2] Slovene priests built some of the first churches and schools in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and neighboring parts of Canada.[2] Many of these early immigrants were bilingual Slovene-German speakers (Shipman, 1912). Until the 1880s there was a small number of Slovene immigrants to the United States. The largest numbers of Slovenes immigrated to America between 1880 and World War I. Most of these came between 1905 and 1913, although the exact number is impossible to determine because Slovenes were often classified as Austrians, Croats, or under other, broader labels, such as Slavonic or Slavic.[2] These later arrivals migrated to the industrial cities or to mining towns in the Upper Midwest, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Two later periods of increased immigration to the United States were the years immediately after World War I (1919–1923) and World War II (1949–1956) (Susel, 1980). Most Slovene immigrants to the United States were of the Catholic faith; however, a minority practiced the Lutheran faith (Susel, 1980).
According to the 2000 census, the five states with the largest Slovene populations were:
These five states are followed, in descending order, by Colorado, Michigan, Florida, New York, Texas, Indiana, Washington, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Utah, again according to the 2000 census. The state with the smallest Slovene American population is North Dakota (107). There is no American state without Slovene descendants among its population.
The 1910 census reported 183,431 persons of Slovene mother tongue, 123,631 "foreign-born" and 59,800 born in America. These numbers are clearly an underestimate of the actual Slovene population since descendants of earlier settlers often no longer knew Slovene. In the 2000 US Census, 176,691 Americans declared that they were of Slovene origin (of those, 738 have attained the Ph.D.). The number of reported Americans of Slovene descent undoubtedly is an underestimate. Some Slovenes coming from the Austro-Hungarian Empire avoided anti-Slavic prejudice by identifying themselves as Austrians.[2] Many others were recorded as Slav, Slavic, Slavish, or Slavonian (see above). The true number of Americans of Slovene descent is probably between 200,000 and 300,000;[3] if persons with only one-quarter or one-eighth Slovene ancestry are counted, the number could be as high as 500,000.[4]
A number of fraternal organizations were founded by Slovene immigrants to the United States.[2][5] These organizations allowed members to preserve old traditions as well as to provide insurance against illness and death.[6] This was especially important because other insurance companies at the time discriminated against immigrants or in some cases defrauded them.[7] A number of mergers and name changes took place during the 20th Century,[8] so the history of Slovene fraternalism in the United States is difficult to trace. The major extant Slovene fraternals in the United States are:
For a longer discussion of the history of Slovene fraternalism in the United States, see the following article: Fraternal Benefit Societies and Slovene Immigrants in the USA.
The Slovenian Genealogy Society, International [9] helps members to trace their Slovene roots.
|
||||||||||||||||||||