Up North Films

Between 1890 and 1920, about 320,000 Finns came to America. Although many lived in cities, they became the “most rural” of all European immigrant groups, other than the Old Order Amish. They created “havens in the woods,” cultural islands surrounded by forests where their ancestral language and customs persisted for a century. They are the largest ancestral group in the western UP. In this oral history documentary, three generations of both living and deceased, current and former residents weave attachments to people, places and events into a portrait that blends community and ethnic identity. Members of Pelkie’s second-generation and their third-generation children tell the story of Pelkie, their once thriving dairy farming and logging community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP). Although traces of Finnish ancestry remain, Pelkie is now a diverse community of Mennonites, aging folk hippies, nature-loving back-to-the-landers, urban retirees, home-based entrepreneurs, casino employees, and prison guards. Michael Loukinen, PhD, is a cultural sociologist and a filmmaker. He has been intermittently studying this community, for almost a half a century.