The Buchanan Amish affiliation is a subgroup of Amish that was formed in 1914 in Buchanan County, Iowa. It is among the most conservative in the entire Amish world. It is the fourth largest of all Amish affiliation, having almost as many church districts as the Holmes Old Order Amish affiliation. Geographically it is more dispersed than any other Amish affiliation. Indiana Amish schoolchildren have low rates of asthma and allergies, which is thought to be due to a protective environment according to studies of their household dust and their innate immune system.
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History
The Buchanan Amish affiliation emerged in 1914 when seven families from the Kalona Amish settlement, also in Iowa, moved to Buchanan County, seeking a more conservative church discipline. Later they were joined by families from Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana and other places.
Part of the conflict about compulsory education past 8th grade — which was settled by the Wisconsin v. Yoder case of the United States Supreme Court — took place among the Buchanan affiliation in Buchanan County. The famous photo of November 1965, showing Amish school children running into a corn field to flee the police, was taken in Buchanan County.
Customs and belief
There is a very limited use of technology among the Buchanan affiliation, quite similar to the Swartzentruber Amish and the Swiss Amish of Adams County, Indiana. The Buchanan Amish affiliation was known in the 1980s for its conservatism and slowness to change their customs. Bicycles and scooters are not allowed. For more details, see below:
* Natural gas allowed
Settlements and districts
In 2011 the Buchanan affiliation was present in 19 states in 67 settlements with 140 church districts. It represents about 7 percent of the Old Order Amish population, that is about 20,000 people out of about 300,000 in 2015. It is present in more states than any other Amish affiliation and with 67 settlements it has the most settlements of all Amish affiliations.
Health
The prevalence of asthma in the Amish of Indiana was low at 5.2% as compared to 21.3% in Hutterite schoolchildren of South Dakota; likewise the prevalence of allergic sensitization was 7.2% versus 33.3%. The lifestyles of the two groups are similar except for farming practices, where Hutterites use industrialized farming whereas Amish do not. In a study from 2016, important differences in the children's innate immune cells and in the allergy inducing nature of the dust in their homes were found, leading to the conclusion that the Amish environment had protected against asthma by shaping the innate immune response.