My maternal grandparents escaped from Ukraine, then part of Czarist Russia, in 1905. At some point after arrival they, along with many other Jewish families, applied for a land grant under the provisions of the homestead act of 1862. The Bureau of Land Management records show that Harry Weisman was granted a 160 acre farm in North Dakota. He paid $10 for registration, and would receive title to the land after 10 years. During that time he had to make some improvement to the site. This usually meant building a house.
The actual location was listed as the NW quarter of section 10 McIntosh county, ND. Most of my aunts were born on the farm. That included my mother.
Another interesting thing about the location of the farm was that it was very near the Sioux Indian Reservation. When my grandfather finally sold the farm and used the money to open a small general store the children all helped. My grandparents always spoke Yiddish between them, but the Indians only spoke a little English and the Sioux language known as Lakota. In order to make change and inform the customers about prices the children learned some Lakota.
My parents never taught me much Yiddish, but I did learn to count to ten. My children grew up in Israel. We always spoke to them in English. We weren’t worried about them learning Hebrew. The environment is supposes to be trilingual (Hebrew, English, Arabic) and there are significant minorities speaking Russian, French, Rumanian, and other languages. Just being exposed to this is a big help in learning other languages. But English was and is still the most important.
I, personally, also learned to count to ten in Lakota; Wanji, Nonpa, Yamni, Topa, Zapta, Shakpe, Shakowin, Shagalogan,Napciyunka, Wikcemna.
I taught my children those numbers. I sometimes wonder how many generations they will continue to be passed on.
Wetherhorn 