By definition, you'd have to be born here.

The correct pronouciation of "sauna" - it's still hard for me to remember "sow" instead of "saw"!

There is, of course, a Facebook Group dedicated to preserving the memory of the HOD.  They even have pictures posted.  Ain't the internet a wonderful place?

And, again, to be a native you have to be born there.

Know the difference between West Duluth and the West End.

Where is Cascade Park?

You worked at Jeno's.

You drove to Superior on the wooden bridge before the Bong Bridge. 

You know who Bong was.

You have eaten at the Flame and know where it was located. 

You recall the strip clubs downtown.

You recall Canal Park as a scrap yard and a area full of rubber tires.

I recall Canal Park as a scrap yard, but I lived in St. Paul in those days.

A person saying they saw Buddy Holley at the Armory would top everybody I think. That would be top dog in my mind.

Tamara, 
the Scandinavians who dominate this area like so many Whitetail sprinting down Central Ave are strange and mythical beasts. Sightings from outsiders are rare. Do not try to root him out of his den or he may spring like a cornered Badger.  Offer him free food and beer shy of an eleven year 'getting to know' phase, he might suspect you of trying to poison him. Offer him coffee, he may accuse you of peddling drugs. Invite him into your home, he'll foresee ambush.  The best way to become local is to perish while trying to belong here.  Once you are firmly established in the local cemetery, there is no way he can deny you residence, but this still might take a few more years to gel in his Viking brain. Taking a hockey puck on the forehead. Choking on some Lutefisk. Drowning in the lake.  All these are good ways to prove that your intentions of belonging to the community were sincere. And now that you are gone for good, he won't feel that you are encroaching on his territory.

Don't leave town for 3 years. Not even to Superior or Hermantown. Then leave for two months, return forever. Gold. Solid gold. Welcome.

OK, so I've lived here for 2.75 years now, and I could answer most of the local trivia questions, not all, but most.  Having lived in West Duluth, and recently located a bit further east (I'd technically be a "cake eater") it's been pretty easy to pick up on a few park names and I've even been in Cascade Park.  

But most of the other "requirements" put up for citizenship just require being old.  

How about a more general set of requirements, like being able to accurately give someone directions from one place to another while you are both at a third unrelated location.  Or, what are the best restaurants in each available food genre?  Or, how has the latest political change helped or hurt the community and why? 

If you pay attention and listen to natives, you can naturalize yourself to any community pretty quickly.

But, the ultimate indicator for me would be if a "native" thought I should run for school board, city council or mayor.  If that ever happens, I'd consider myself an honorary native.

Claire, I believe if it's in a hotel, it IS a sonna. It's a SOW-na if it has a wood stove. That's how some Finns from the UP explained it to me, anyway. Electric powered, in the Holiday Inn: sonna. Wood-heated and out in the woods: sauna. They gave me this pronunciation aid: "How now brown sauna."

As was pointed out, only being born in Duluth can make you a native. Any questions could be answered by the majority of people from Souptown just as easy as the majority of Duluthians. Of course just being born in Duluth also qualifies the majority of people who have always lived in Souptown as well, so that makes it not such a great litmus test either. I also agree a lot of the things mentioned above are age related and would keep many Native Duluthians from rightfully claiming that title. Perhaps the solution lies not in a test to see who is a Native Duluthian, but a TRUE Duluthian. Examples would be having a MN state I.D. (keeps Superiorites honest), perhaps a mix of both time spent living in the city and questions you can pick about certian subjects pertaining to the city (because everyone has different interests so you can't expect everyone to have knowledge of just things the tester is intersested in.) Just some thoughts on the subject.

Native Duluthians do not use the term "northland."

Watching Jimmy Carter cruise down Second Avenue West in 1975 in his big black limo. Right in front of our house. Or watching the bicentennial fireworks and noticing that one of the parachutists had his chute hung up on a spire of the Depot. 

Not conclusive citizenship, just good memories.

When you're driving on London Road in the direction of Canada, you think you're going east instead of north.

Perhaps native is the wrong term here.  "Local" might be more accurate.  I've lived in Duluth my entire adult life -- longer than I've lived anywhere else.  I bought my first home here, was married here, my children were born here, and I'll probably die here.  Despite all that, when native Duluthians find out that I did not graduate high school here, it's game over.  I'm convinced I could live here 80 years and still not be considered a local by some.  To be fair, I will never intuitively understand why what school someone went to as a teenager is so important.  I'm not bitter, just a bit mystified.  Ah, Duluth.  Let me count the ways.

We are all 'immigrants' here, even if Great Grandma Berta came by ship or rail and settled on St Croix Avenue and settled in at  "Herring Bone Flats'; a collaborative residence now called an apartment?

We are all immigrants you could say, arriving at varied time-lines from before the beginning of the 20th century or if one just arrived off the freeway.

So maybe we should be holding Blue Cards; Duluth I.D. cards; blue like in the great lake itself...in tandem with the Green Card phenomena, I.D.s required of others in our society?

Do you have a copy of your great grandmother's citizenship papers?... who knows how many of us assume Gramma Berta did the right thing or slipped over the border from Canada and just squatted, and beget your elders and eventually, you, down the lineage time-line?

Might be an interesting experiment or experience, knowing one's elders status, origins; legal or illegal heritage?

Think if we all had to register for a Blue Card; quirky idea, yes, but worth playing with always-an-immigrant-never-a-native perspective in seeking to determine what qualifies as 'native'...may at least be revealing in the searching...or even thinking about the idea in the musing?...Happy New Year, hey...

Started Kindergarten at Ensign Elementary.

Bret - the cardinal direction overhaul in Duluth continues to bring me joy to this day. 

You know you are from Duluth when you can explain all cardinal directions in relation to the lake. Driving up hill makes it north. Plus, being able to easily convert this logic when directing people outside of the city (Mini-apple, Souptown, etc.) is a local skill.

Jolly Fisher of course...sheesh. Missed two of them!

The north shore is northeast, so, one is going both north and east at the same time.

When you remember your phone number starting with two letters...

1. You know who Larry Race is
2. You have a Herb Bergson anecdote or two
3. You remember the Benzene spill and ensuing toxic cloud
4. You have eaten or drank at the Buena Vista
5. You know what the RPM show is

I meant the House of Donuts location, duh.

@jessige
 1857, I believe.

Born, raised, and never left here in 33 years, but I've never been able to remember the difference between West Duluth and the West End. I'm pretty sure I know the boundary line (not spoiling that for the non-locals), but ... er ... no clue. Obviously an east ender, here (never lived west of 34th Ave. E.).

How about if you remember which 'old guys' bar downtown was the hotspot before the Mirror Lounge?
  
Obviously, a 2-parter.

Jessige:

Good idea. I'm ipicturing thousands under Enger Tower, hand raised:

"I, state your name."
Reply: "I, state your name."
Hereby renounce ... and embrace ...
T shirts and a concert afterwards. PDD banners everywhere.
Imagine all the people ...

I saw the Benzene spill mentioned and would like to point out that happened even outside of Superior, in Wisconsin. The train wreck was in the Nemadji river. Despite what the news had to say (yes coverage was saying the Nemadji is in Duluth), Superiorites have more claim to the Benzene spill than Duluthians do any day. All of Superior was evacuated and shut down. Benzene needs to go in my humble opinion.

Native,Transplant?

I more readily identify with prairie chickens and prairie dogs and the swish of prairie grass.

You could say prairie is my root culture; my 'native' sense of place...where I do occasionally rest my mind among the sweet-earthy smell of a remembered bed of clover.

I note the bee and the meadowlark too; all tangible yet real reflections, like lost friends making their quiet sounds; almost silent in their breathing.

Yet Now is another time and what I view out my window is landscape of the big lake...and its is indeed Superior but not necessarily superior to prairie - yet the two 'place settings', they share the same power over me...as this land has cast its spell over a diversity of souls, native and transplant.

My land now is a strip of sand; an index finger pointing into the big lake even as it links its disconnected beaches to the city by the historical Aerial bridge.

I recognize I am a guest in this land. A temporary resident and yet inherently a part of the soil and sand that surrounds me in this place.

Maybe its not necessarily important if one be declared a 'native' or otherwise but how one respects this dwelling space in all its rare beauty; all its human diversity and for that indeed...celebrate,eh?