Finns of Interior B.C., Canada - Okanagan Valley Case Study

Abstrakti

This paper will explore the Finnish ethnic community found in  the southern interiorn of British Columbia, namely in the Okanagan Valley region. While Finns did not come to settle the Okanagan Valley after the turn of the century, areas  north of the Okanagan wee settled. Historically, the Salmon Arm area along the Shuswap Lake has been an area of strong Finnish concentration, due mainly to the railway which many Finnsh helped to construct in the late 1800's. However it was not until the 1940's that Finns began to filter south to the Okanagan Valley. The Finns in various centres and other nearby areas along the valley are examined, and some aspects of early settlement history, concentrations and aspects of assimilation are studied through data collected from the area.