Sami, << SAH mee, >> are the native people of northernmost Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. They were formerly known, to outsiders, as Lapps, but they prefer the name Sami. Experts estimate that there are between 80,000 and 100,000 Sami. More than half the Sami population lives in Norway, and about one-fourth lives in Sweden. A few thousand live in Finland and Russia. In the 1900’s, the Sami began to establish a common cultural identity and to gain political power.
Traditionally, the Sami pursued a nomadic lifestyle, by reindeer herding or by hunting, fishing, and trapping. Some Sami still travel with reindeer as the herds migrate between summer pastures and winter pastures. However, fewer Sami make their living in the traditional ways, and those who do use such modern equipment as snowmobiles and helicopters. Today, most Sami live in towns and villages. Some live and work in cities.
Anthropologists have distinguished four main groups of Sami, based on traditional economic activities. These groups are the Coastal Sami, the Mountain Sami, the Forest Sami, and the Eastern Sami. Coastal Sami traditionally fished along the western and northern coastal areas of Norway. Mountain Sami herded reindeer in the mountain range that joins Norway and Sweden. Forest Sami lived in northeast Sweden and northern Finland. They depended more on hunting and trapping than on reindeer herding. Eastern Sami include two groups, the Skolt Sami and the Kola Sami. In winter, the Eastern Sami established a home that served as a base for short-distance fishing trips. During the other seasons, the Eastern Sami migrated while herding reindeer and sheep.
Language and culture.
The languages of the Sami are related to Finnish and Estonian. Around 10 Sami dialects are known, though some of them are no longer spoken. The most widely spoken dialect is North Sami, which is spoken by about 30,000 people in Norway.
The governments and the other peoples in the countries where the Sami live sometimes regarded Sami customs as backward and pagan. Such attitudes began to change in the mid-1900’s. Traditional Sami clothing and the traditional song form, the joik, have become sources of Sami pride. Many people admire the traditional Sami respect for land and the environment.
Religion.
Ancient Sami religion involved a kind of animism—that is, belief in an extensive world of spirits. In a ritual performed when a bear was killed, for example, the hunters and others in their community welcomed the dead bear and asked for forgiveness for taking its life. The Sami also believed that illness, a lack of animals to hunt, and other problems in the human world might originate in the spirit world. Sami religious leaders called shamans were believed to have contact with the spirit world. Shamans would sometimes beat drums to foretell the future.
In the 1500’s, the governments of the countries where the Sami lived began to convert them to Christianity. The Sami in the east joined the Russian Orthodox faith. The Sami in the west became members of the state Lutheran churches. However, some elements of traditional Sami religion lasted through the 1700’s, most notably the use of the shaman drum.
Land and climate.
The Sami call their land Sapmi (also written as Sápmi). It extends across the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The southern boundary of east and central Sapmi lies roughly along the Arctic Circle. Western Sapmi extends southward through the mountains of Norway and Sweden to about 62° north latitude. The part of Sapmi that lies above the Arctic Circle is sometimes known as Lapland.
Winters last from October to May. In December, there is almost no daylight. The short summer, however, can be warm, and the days become extremely long. Sapmi has many mountains, but there are also dense forests of pine, willow, and fir, dotted with lakes and cut through by rivers.
History.
Scholars believe that the ancestors of the Sami and the Finns came to the region more than 5,000 years ago. They lived by hunting and gathering food. The ancestors of the Sami, who lived in the inland and northern areas, remained hunters and gatherers. The ancestors of the Finns, living in the coastal regions, adopted agriculture and the raising of animals. The Sami once occupied much of Finland and Scandinavia, far south of the current borders of Sapmi.
During the Viking Age (the late 700’s to about 1100), Scandinavians from the south began to trade with the Sami and to take tribute (money paid for peace) from them. The Sami gradually retreated farther north, but they were still subjected to taxation.
Beginning in the 1500’s, the increased northward expansion of Norway (then a part of Denmark), Sweden, and Russia led to conflict with the Sami. The Scandinavians and Russians treated the Sami as inferior people, and they claimed dominion over Sami lands. The Stromstad Treaty of 1751, which defined the Norwegian-Swedish border, granted the Sami the right to cross national borders freely for the purpose of reindeer herding. But non-Sami settlement in the northern lands continued.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Scandinavian and Russian governments attempted to suppress Sami culture and to integrate the Sami into their societies. For example, Sami children were required to attend state-run schools in which the use of Sami languages was forbidden. In reaction, the Sami began organizing to defend their way of life.
By the mid-1900’s, the governments of Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden had abandoned policies that suppressed Sami culture. However, they still did not recognize Sami land rights. In 1979, for example, Norway began building a dam at Alta, in the north, that would flood land used by the Sami for reindeer herding. The Sami and others protested vigorously, but the government built the dam despite the protests.
In the late 1900’s, the Sami declared themselves a single people who live within four political nation-states. They created a Sami flag and anthem. Finland, Norway, and Sweden established Sami parliaments with the intention of giving the Sami a greater say in matters affecting their economic and cultural affairs.
