So why hasn’t Leif Erikson Day become as universally known as Columbus Day?
By 1956, seven states, mostly in the Midwest, hosted some sort observance for the explorer.
1940 suggesting Americans read up on Leif Erikson on Oct. As the vice president of the Minnesota Leif Erikson Monument Association said in 1934, “There is ample room for honoring both of these men.” In fact, during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937, and he issued a statement in Sep. For a while, the choice of which explorer to applaud was a controversial political issue, but eventually boosters for both decided they could live in harmony. State to recognize Leif Erikson Day, in 1929. “There was a recognition of the Scandinavians having somehow behaved well in the U.S., being viewed as people good at assimilating, so that allowed for these kinds of celebrations.” Senate hearing that honoring Christopher Columbus “would be to publicly sanction the claims of the Church of Rome to this land, and virtually to invite the pope to come and take possession of it.” (One irony of that belief, Mancini has pointed out, is that there were Vikings who followed the Church of Rome too.) Some of Columbus’ defenders at the time tried to push back by pointing out that he was from Genoa in northern Italy, where many residents have boasted Nordic roots, so “he could be ‘forgiven’ for being Italian,” according to Brøndal.įor some Scandinavian immigrants, the Leif Erikson and Viking history-awareness campaigns were an effort to solidify their group’s place at the top of the “ethnoracial hierarchies in the U.S.,” adds Brøndal. In fact, Marie Brown, author of a book called The Icelandic Discoverers of America O r, Honour to Whom Honour Is Due, testified in a 1887 U.S. Catholics were also mistrusted by many, which left Columbus with two strikes against him. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.Įxperts say the drive for a Leif Erikson Day during that period was also part of a wave of concern among many Americans over an influx of southern and eastern European immigrants who were not considered fully white - a group that included Italians. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. was so lavishly staged by the Norwegian Society of Brooklyn that six of her crew, including Captain Magnus Anderssen, ended up in Brooklyn’s Butler Street police court charged with being drunk and disorderly,” as TIME later recapped the event in 1950.įor your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered.
He ginned up this story to make it seem as if the Vikings had been the victims of Native American violence, argues JoAnne Mancini, author of the 2002 journal article “Discovering Viking America.” This alternate discovery narrative could serve as “a salve to Americans’ and particularly New Englanders’ increasingly guilty conscience about the treatment of Native Americans” in the late 19th century, and a way for “Scandinavian newcomers to the West” to feel better about their own personal “complicity in the brutal conquest of Indian lands.”Īnderson’s book initially wasn’t well-known outside of academia, but would become better known to a mass audience when he was one of the passengers aboard a replica of a Viking ship that sailed from Norway to Chicago in a publicity stunt at the 1893 World’s Fair - also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition - in a stunt meant to distract attention from the festivities marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival.
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