Scottish News In Minnesota
is an electronic newsletter prepared by members of the Clan MacRae for the Tartan Day Cooperative and the Scots-American community in Minnesota and the North Country including Scots, Ulster-Scots, Canadian Scotch and our Celtic kin.
New Subscribers
Are there Scots-Americans or Scots you know who should be receiving the newsletter?
Someone in the auld country?
Your Irish brother-in-law who is always harping about his heritage?
The kids who are off to college?
News & Notes for Scots Blog
The newsletter, a calendar of events and all sorts of interesting notes and comments relative to the Scots-American community is available at the “News & Notes for Scots in the North Country” Blog. Check the Blog for updates and for superfluous trivia and significa. See –
Looking for the website of a
Minnesota Scot organization?
You can find it on the blog.
If your website is not listed under the “Links” send us an email.
Calendar
Ongoing
The CLANN TARTAN
hosts Scottish Country Dances on the first and third Wednesdays and on the seconds and fourth Tuesdays of every month.
Wednesdays at the Lake Hiawatha Community Center, 2701 East 44th St., Minneapolis, 7:00-9:00PM for free;
Tuesdays at St Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Hamline Ave & Hwy 36, Roseville, with a $ 1.00 donation accepted to cover the church’s cost.
Ongoing
The CLANN TARTAN
Sponsors a Music Guild in private homes
on the fourth Monday of every month to learn songs from the 17th century.
Feb 6
7th ANNUAL
SCOTTISH ISLAND CONCERT Conducted by THE DUNQUIN
7:30PM – 7:30PM – 7:30PM
Olivet Congregational Church
1850 Iglehart, St Paul,
$12 per person
THE DUNQUIN will host
Laura Mackenzie and Audrey McClellan
Tea with Sweets will also be provided
Our Irish kin folk are raising a hullabaloo and throwing a shindig to celebrate 5 years of traditional Irish music in the Twin Cities
Sponsored by the
Center for Irish Music
Silent Auction at 6:00PM
Concert at 7:30PM
Titanic Room of Kieran’s Pub
330 2d Ave So in Mpls.
$25 per person
FFI call Kate at 612-669-3013
Feb 13
The Celtic Woman
Excel Center
Tickets available from Ticketmaster
Feb 14 – 15
THE SCOTTISH RAMBLE
Saturday 10AM to 5PM
Sunday Noon to 5PM
Landmark Center
75 West 5th Street, St Paul
The CLANN TARTAN will perform at the Ramble and demonstrate Highlands life and culture circa 1630
Minnesota Police Pipe Band will be performing at A Scottish Ramble on Saturday, February 14th at 4:30PM
Sunday, February 15th at 12:15PM
before the Kirkin’ of the Tartan.
Feb 23
RSCDS Dance Night
The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society
holds its “Bring a Friend” Night
7:30PM
Tapestry Folk Dance Center
3748 Minnehaha Ave So ,Minneapolis
Its free! Bring comfortable shoes.
April
Annual Meeting of the
DULUTH SCOTTISH
HERITAGE ASSOCIATION
Time/Date/Location TBA
April 4
TARTAN DAY in MINNESOTA
We will march on the Capitol, listen to a few speeches, take a group photo and then party down at
O’Gara’s Garage at Snelling & Selby
which I understand will be MacGara’s for the day.
Further details will follow
Tartan Day is the Scots-American holiday commemorated for two reasons: (1)
It was about time we Scots had a day
(2)
It is on or about the day on which the Scots duly declared their independence and sovereignty in the
Declaration of Arbroath (April 6)
May 9
MINNESOTA SCOTTISH FAIR & HIGHLAND GAMES
Dakota County Fairgrounds, FARMINGTON
A daylong celebration of family, friends and culture complete with clan exhibits, vendors, games, potables, edibles, displays, entertainment and a pub tent all capped off with a celidh for the grown ups in the evening.
June 27
DSHA
SUMMER DANCE COMPETITION
will be held at Fitger’s Courtyard beginning at 9AM with a Celidh to follow
July 9 – 12
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN HIGHLAND GAMES &
Gathering of the Clans at MacRae Meadows, Grandfather Mountain near Linville NC – Check their website FFI
September 20
HIGH TEA held by DSHA
Caledonian Grounds,
Forest Lawn in Duluth
check the DSHA website for FFI
“High Tea”, as contrasted with the common run of teas, is a treasured event appropriate for all ages and genders but especially suitable for the Scottish princess in your life, daughters or granddaughters, mothers or grannies, or main squeeze, all of whom enjoy the extra pampering involved in the service and consumption of finger sandwiches, dainties, muffins, marmalade, sweets and cream & tea (remember, guys, elevate the pinky)
November 22
DSHA’s KIRKIN O’ the TARTANS
5:30PM
First Presbyterian, Duluth
at following Evensong,
more info to follow
One of the greater experiences in the editors’ lives was attendance at the Kirkin’ O the Tartans at the National Cathedral in Washington, it is a beautiful and moving service which may be recommended to all
[There should be a metro Twin Cities Kirkin' in 2009. If you know of the church and date drop us a note]
Scottish-American Center
We Scots in Minnesota are privileged to have the Scottish-American Center gathering and maintaining our collective heritage for our community and for generations yet to come.
If you haven’t visited, do so, you can find them at
151 Silver Lake Road NW
Suite 13 (Lower Level)
New Brighton MN
The Center is staffed by volunteers on Wednesdays & Thursdays 6-8PM
Saturdays 1-4PM
Volunteer to take a shift now and then by calling Tom King at 651-776-4316
Donate a spare bob or two,
US dollars or Scottish pounds
are both appreciated
Check the website
Tell them Bubba MacRae sent you
Winter Dance Competition
The Duluth Winter Jig Competition was held on Jan 17.
The Judge was Anne Donlan, Saratoga Springs, NY, Vice President of Fusta. The winners are posted on the
Who Discovered America?
Why a Scot, Of Course
Christopher Columbus is usually accorded the honor as the first person from the Eastern Hemisphere to have arrived in the Americas. Norwegians, Basques, Irish, Welsh and the Chinese have contested this achievement however.
But if one really searches the documentary history in the archives of the Auld Country one finds that it was REALLY a Scot who arrived in the Americas before Columbus. Henry Sinclair, Prince of the Orkneys & the Shetlands, had made voyages to Iceland and Greenland where he learned that there was a land farther west. Setting sail in 1399, Sinclair’s flotilla reached the shores of Nova Scotia which was then named
Escociland – land of the Scots.
Planning to return in the future, Sinclair sailed back to the Orkneys only to be assaulted by Henry IV of England. The Prince died soon after in battle against the bloody English.
Proof, besides Sinclair’s own documents and the diary of a Venetian sailing with him, was found in 1849 when a 14th century cannon was dredged up in the harbor of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island.
Blog Project
We would like to assemble a Directory of Blogs maintained by Scots in Minnesota and throughout the U.S. on behalf of clans or as individuals. If you know of one send its address along to the editor lawrencewinans@yahoo.com
Technical Matters
Although I am sure most would be uninterested in the technical details of
newsletter production, I know I’d be uninterested if not involved, we thought it would be a good idea to update all on the just what we’re doing. The previous newsletter server-host was not working, so we transferred the newsletter to YahooGroups. Yahoo is easy to use and costs nothing so it appears to be a good fit.
We loaded 300 members from our newsletter list to Yahoo in time to send out the Mid-January Special Burns issue. The Yahoo protocols dictated that we could not add more than 10 members daily thereafter. So we sent the newsletter to remaining members via regular e-mail. We have since been adding 10 members daily and most of you will get this newsletter via the YahooGroups. Some will still have to be sent via my e-mail account.
And that’s probably way more than anyone wants to know.
Policies & Procedures
To assure inclusion, put “SNIM” in the subject line of your email. This will help us sort through the email received and identify SNIM items.
DO NOT send notices to the SNIM email listed on the Tartan Day Cooperative website, the SNIM editors DO NOT have access to this site and receive no emails therefrom.
If you don’t send a notice, it is unlikely your event will be listed.
Do not assume that annual event
“known by everybody”
will be known by the editors.
The editors will NO LONGER send out notices and announcements independent of the regular distribution of the SNIM.
Please DO NOT send us an emergency order to send this or that notice to the SNIM mailing list apart from newsletter distribution.
It may always have been done a certain way, we don’t know, but this is the way we’re doing it now.
News and notices sent no later than the 25th of the month should be published in the newsletter issued on or about the 1st of the next month.
The Blog at
scottishnewsinminnesota.wordpress.com which complements this newsletter can be updated with minimal inconvenience and time, therefore, any notices not submitted in time for the newsletter may be placed on the Blog.
ALL SNIM communications will be sent via the Newsletter. If anyone purports to represent SNIM and the return address is NOT the
please contact the editors immediately.
The emails of all SNIM subscribers will be kept private.
7th ANNUAL
SCOTTISH ISLAND CONCERT conducted by THE DUNQUIN
Olivet Congregational Church
1850 Iglehart, St Paul
THE DUNQUIN will host
Laura Mackenzie and Audrey McClellan
Posted by scottishnewsinminnesota 
Posted by scottishnewsinminnesota 