Czech South Dakotan

Czech South Dakotans are residents of the state of South Dakota who are of Czech ancestry. The Czech language is the seventh most common language spoken in South Dakota, with 645 speakers.^[1]

History

The first Czech immigrants started arriving in Dakota Territory in 1868, and settled west of Yankton. These poor people from Bohemia came to America with hope of improving their living conditions and attaining a better future. The majority of Czechs settled around Tabor. Being mostly of the Catholic faith, their first concern was to organize a religious community. Church services first started taking place in 1871 at the log home of Vaclav Janda, one mile south of Tabor. The town site of Tabor was purchased from Johanna Kocer on April 14, 1872. In that same year, work began at the north end of the site for the first church of the St. Wenceslaus parish. The church was completed in 1874, and was constructed of chalk rock cut near the Missouri River south of Tabor. The chalk rock church was quickly outgrown, and a new 42 X 132 red brick church was built in 1898. The brick church still serves as the House of the Lord for today's parishioners. Since St. Wenceslaus Church is the only church in a town of 400 people, parish activities and functions are social highlights for the community.

References

↑ "Czech language" (PDF). U.S. English. Retrieved 2013-07-09.

External links

European Americans

Central Europe	Austrian^1, Czech Frisian German^1, Amish German Texan Pennsylvania Dutch German Mennonites from Russia Hungarian Hungarian Ohioans Kashubian Liechtensteiner Luxembourgian Polish^1, Silesian Slovak Slovene Sorbian Swiss

Eastern Europe	Azerbaijani⁵ Belarusian Chechen Georgian⁵ Kalmyk Kazakh⁶ Russian^1, ² Cossack Rusyn Ukrainian Cossack

Northern Europe	Danish Estonian Faroese Finnish Icelandic Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Norwegian Dakotan Norwegian Minnesotan Sami Swedish

Southeast Europe³	Albanian Bosnian Bulgarian Cypriot Croatian Greek Macedonian Moldovan Montenegrin Romanian Serbian Turkish⁴

Southern Europe	Asturian Basque Catalan Galician Italian Sicilian Maltese Monacan Portuguese Sanmarinese Spanish Canarian Hispano

Western Europe	Basque Belgian Flemish Breton Corsican British Cornish English Manx Scots-Irish/Ulster Scots Scottish Welsh Dutch French Cajun Irish

Other Europeans	Non-Hispanic whites Métis Roma Hungarian Slovak Romanies⁷ Louisiana Creole Cajun Isleños

¹ Poles came to the United States legally as Austrians, Germans, Prussians or Russians throughout the 19th century, because from 1772-1795 till 1918, all Polish lands had been partitioned between imperial Austria, Prussia (a protoplast of Germany) and Russia until Poland regained its sovereignty in the wake of World War I. ² Russia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The vast majority of its population (80%) lives in European Russia, therefore Russia as a whole is included as a European country here. ³ Yugoslav Americans are the American people from the former Yugoslavia. ⁴ Turkey is a transcontinental country in the Middle East and Southeast Europe. Has a small part of its territory (3%) in Southeast Europe called Turkish Thrace. ⁵ Azerbaijan and Georgia are transcontinental countries. They have a small part of their territories in the European part of the Caucasus. ⁶ Kazakhstan is technically a bicontinental country, having a small portion in European hands. ⁷ Disputed; Roma have recognized origins and historic ties to Asia (specifically to Northern India), but they experienced at least some distinctive identity development while in diaspora among Europeans.

Czech Americans by location

Maryland (Baltimore) Nebraska (Omaha) South Dakota Texas

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