What states do Chicagoans consider the Midwest? (Kansas, Dakota: gated, statistics)

[bahiabrazil]

IMO Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, ohio, Michigan are the real Midwest(all touching a lake).. the others are just extra to me.

[linicx]

My prospective is different. The Midwest feeds the nation and a large part of the world. Iowa and Illnois, as an example, are the #1 and #2 producers of corn and beans. The Midwest is known for ia few other things such as great plains, great rivers, great lakes, great forests, great parks, great architecture, great medical care, high cliffs, rolling twisting hills, awesome scenery, good food, family entertainment, and generally friendly folks. Door County, Wi. the Illinois River Valley, and Oklahoma's Green Country in OK are noted for heavy forests, high rolling hills, and and large bodies of water that are not part of The Great Lakes, although other parts of it may have also been formed during that time.

IL and OK have a strong connection through Native American history. IL also has a srong connection to the Mound Dwellers in Ohio. In the Midwest Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and OSF in Peoria have Gold awards from News Week. The others are on the East and West coasts.

One cannot compare Chicago to any except a city of comparable size. There isn't any in the Midwest. However there are more than one similarity between Peoria and Chicago. Both sprawl for miles along the shore of a large body of water. The largest and second largest Jewish communities in Illinois are in both. And both have very diverse religious communities, large parks, and culturally diverse population. Tulsa has much the same as it sprawls along the Illinois River in Oklahoma, but it does not have the vast religious diversity Illinois does. However, Oklahoma is home to the largest number of federally recognized native tribes in America.

Genealogy research provides a very different picture of the United States and particularly in the Midwest. Many are Scandanavian and European.My maternal ancestors and their descendants lived in NY. NJ, PA. OH, IN, and IL..Some of the uncles lived in Ohio trekked to KS, ND, and OK between 1663 and 1925. My paternal aunt married a man whose ancestors were from Sweden. They settled in Minnesota. My paternal ancestors were in VA, NC, GA, and TN before settling in Illinois. The first black slave that was kidnapped in Africa was deposited in the New World before 1600. S/he learned their language of their new family which was very often Dutch. .

Politics aside, outside of St. Louis County, Mo is southern, and outside of Tulsa Ok is southern and western due to the TX, AR, and NM influence. . I think there is much to learn before we make a blanket statement that X and Y should be excluded from Midwest as we really do have some deep ancient roots in those states. .

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by bahiabrazil

IMO Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, ohio, Michigan are the real Midwest(all touching a lake).. the others are just extra to me.

New York touches Lake Ontario and Buffalo has more in common with Chicago than it does with Rapid City, SD. Is NY State the Midwest?

[rzzzz]

In the book "11 Nations of America" the author does indeed put all the cities touching the great lakes into the same category of "Yankeedom."

Forget The 50 States; The U.S. Is Really 11 Nations, Author Says : NPR

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by rzzzz

In the book "11 Nations of America" the author does indeed put all the cities touching the great lakes into the same category of "Yankeedom."

Forget The 50 States; The U.S. Is Really 11 Nations, Author Says : NPR

Interesting he calls New York City by New Netherland when every Dutch American knows that true New Netherland is West Michigan. Dutch isn't even a very large ancestry group in New York City. I pass on that map as it makes not much sense. I get that at one point it was New Netherland, but that ship has sailed and landed on the Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan.

[rzzzz]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Interesting he calls New York City by New Netherland when every Dutch American knows that true New Netherland is West Michigan. Dutch isn't even a very large ancestry group in New York City. I pass on that map as it makes not much sense. I get that at one point it was New Netherland, but that ship has sailed and landed on the Eastern Shore of Lake Michigan.

Russell Shorto has a decent book about the Dutch influence on NYC.

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America: Russell Shorto: 9781400078677: Amazon.com: Books

His other book about Amsterdam itself is pretty good too.

I'd rate both of them around 3.8/5.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by rzzzz

Russell Shorto has a decent book about the Dutch influence on NYC.

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America: Russell Shorto: 9781400078677: Amazon.com: Books

His other book about Amsterdam itself is pretty good too.

I'd rate both of them around 3.8/5.

I know full well of the Dutch influence in New York City. It ain't there anymore, the only exception is still in their regional dialect which is very Dutch sounding. The New York accent has many Dutch-isms to this day. Kind of like the Southwest has influences of Spain yet this 11 region map doesn't call the SW New Spain.

However, other than dialect and placenames, the Dutch in NYC are practically non-existent. Dutch culture certainly isn't there. When people think culture of New York they think Jews, Italians, Irish, Puerto Rican, and West Indian. They don't think Dutch. I guess the most thing left would be immigrants from the Dutch West Indies. If you look at ethnic maps charting Dutch ancestry in the US, the heaviest areas are Western Michigan and Northwest Iowa. New York City isn't even significant by any means.

Calling New York City Dutch is like calling Los Angeles Spaniard. At one point NYC was the hub of the Dutch in America just like LA was to Spaniards. Nowadays that is gone just like Spaniards in the Southwest became a minority (pure Spaniards I mean, not people with Spaniard blood which is a lot of people in the SW) and assimilated into the Southwestern culture. However, the Dutch culture is alive and well in West Michigan and Northwest Iowa.

[rzzzz]

I just thought they were interesting books.

[MassVt]

Philadelphia is not a whole lot like Portland, ME, but they're still both in the Northeast..

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by bahiabrazil

IMO Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, ohio, Michigan are the real Midwest(all touching a lake)..

That makes them "the real Great Lakes Area," not "the real Midwest." You have your definitions confused.

Minnesota also borders the Great Lakes, by the way, as do New York and Pennsylvania.