Living on Sisu: The 1913 Union Copper Strike Tragedy - Paperback

by Deborah K. Frontiera (Author)

Revised Edition with newly restored archival quality photos

Winner of the U.P. Notable Books Classics Award (2026)

To twelve-year-old Emma Neimi, life may be hard, but it is basically good. She has finished sixth grade and is nearly a young lady. Her father pushes tram cars full of copper ore in a Calumet and Hecla Mine and has saved almost enough money to buy land for a farm. In the summer of 1913, Emma's life, and the lives of everyone in the region, will be changed forever by a violent strike against the mining companies of Houghton and Keweenaw counties of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A friend whose father is not on strike will be forbidden to talk to her. Another will die in the terrible Italian Hall tragedy on Christmas Eve. Only the character trait the Finnish people call sisu will help her and others in the region live through this terrible tragedy.

Frontiera takes those nameless faces from century-old photos and creates for us living people--young people filled with fears and hopes in the wake of events that defined the history of Michigan's Copper Country." -- James Kurtti, The Finnish American Reporter

"Emma tries to understand both sides of the controversy by journaling and through her journal entries, young readers learn about family life and culture. They also gain an understanding of how matters built up to the inevitable strike that pitted workers against the mine's owners. The main characters in the story are well-drawn, history is depicted realistically and controversial issues in the strike are treated with respect. Despite what could have been a dry recital of what happened, Frontiera's story is told with a heart for the immigrants and the unfolding of their daily lives will tug at your heartstrings, causing you to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who find joy despite their perilous journey." -- Hope Irvin Marston, author of The Walls Have Ears: A Black Spy in the Confederate White House

DEBORAH K. FRONTIERA grew up in Lake Linden with some friends whose fathers worked in the Calumet & Hecla stamp mill, others whose Finnish parents and grandparents farmed the Traprock Valley, and a father and grandfather who were in business and mining engineering. She, like her character Emma, found it difficult to sort out the multiple sides of the 1913 union strike.