A Norwegian Minnesotan (colloquially sometimes known as a Minnewegian) is a Norwegian American in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2009, 868,361 Minnesotans claim Norwegian ancestry — equivalent to 16.5% of Minnesota's population and 18.7% of the total Norwegian American population. Settlement Many Norwegian settlers arrived and lived in various other locations in the United States before permanently settling in Minnesota. The first Norwegian emigrants to come to the United States often settled in the eastern Midwest. As more and more new immigrants came to America there was a rapid increase in population at the original Norwegian settlements (which was helped along by a high birth rate). Thus, as more and more Norwegian settlers arrived, the original Norwegian settlements would move westward where land was plentiful and less expensive and where new settlements could be created. Norwegian settlement in Minnesota increased after the American Civil War and the Dakota War of 1862, especially to the Minnesota River Valley, where land was taken through the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Following the war, the majority of the Dakota people were expelled from Minnesota and European settlement subsequently increased rapidly. Because the land of Minnesota was taken by force from the American Indians, land was cheap for European immigrants. Before long, this immigrant population grew exponentially in Minnesota. Norwegians settled all over the state, but they established the first permanent settlements in the southeast. The first Norwegian settlement in Minnesota was Norwegian Ridge, in what is now Spring Grove, Minnesota. Another such settlement was the 1851 colony in Goodhue County, Minnesota. They soon settled in Fillmore County as well. By 1860, half of Minnesota's 12,000 Norwegians resided in Goodhue, Fillmore, and Houston Counties. Ten years later, these three counties were home to nearly 25,000 of Minnesota's 50,000 Norwegian residents. By 1880, there were Norwegian settlements, beyond what has been previously listed, in the counties of Freeborn, Steele, and Waseca. Norwegians also made settlements in Blue Earth, Brown, and Watonwan (the "Linden Settlement"), Lac qui Parle County, the Park Region in west-central Minnesota, and the prairies of southwestern Minnesota. Immigrants also came to the Red River Valley in northwestern Minnesota, settling in the counties of Clay, Marshall, Norman, and Polk. During the early 1870s, the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad helped increase migration to the Red River Valley. As a result, by 1875 Norwegian immigrants made up a 30 percent of the