Encyclopedia
The
Sami people are the
indigenous people of
Sįpmi, which encompasses parts of northern
Sweden,
Norway,
Finland and the
Kola Peninsula of
Russia. Their ancestral lands span across an area the size of Sweden in the
Nordic countries. The Sami are one of the largest indigenous groups in
Europe. Their languages are the
Sami languages, which are classified as
Finno-Ugric.
Traditional Sami occupations are hunting, fishing,
reindeer herding and farming, though only a minority of today's Sami make a living from these activities alone, and virtually none live in a natural economy nor have a nomadic livestyle. The population is estimated at about 85,000, although it is difficult to establish the exact figure. The Norwegian state recognizes any Norwegian as Sami if they have one great-grandparent whose home language was
Sami. Roughly half of all Sami live in
Norway, but many live in
Sweden too.
Finland and
Russia are also home to smaller groups located in the far north. The Sami in
Russia were forced by the
Soviet authorities to relocate to a collective called Lovozero/Lujįvri, in the central part of the Kola peninsula.
Traditionally, the Sami had a variety of livelihoods; fishing on the coast and in the inland, trapping animals for fur, sheep herding, etc. The best known livelihood is
reindeer herding, but only a small percentage of the Sami have been mainly reindeer herders over the last centuries. Today, many Sami lead modern lives in the cities inside and outside the traditional Sami area, with modern jobs. Some 10% still practice reindeer herding, which is for traditional and cultural reasons allowed to Sami people only in some parts of Nordic countries.
Lapp or Sami?
The Sami were previously known in other languages as Lap. This name was originally used in Sweden and Finland, and from there the word was exported to all major European languages . However, this name has never been used by the Sami themselves. They have always referred to themselves as "Sįmit" or "Sįpmela" . The word "Sįmi" is conjugated into various grammatical forms.
Lapp means a patch of cloth for mending and suggests that the Sami wear patched clothes out of poverty. Lapp has also been interpreted as "uncivilized" or "dumb." Yet another etymology is the Finnish word
lape, which in this case means "periphery".
Today, all other terms than Sami are best avoided. The Sami institutions, notably the parliaments, the radio and TV stations, theatres etc. all use the term Sami, also when addressing outsiders in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or English. The term Lapp, especially if used by people considered to be well informed, is considered offensive.
It is unknown how the word Lapp came into the Norse language, but it seems to have been introduced by the Danish historian
Saxo Grammaticus to distinguish between Fish-Fennians and Lap-Fennians . It was popularized and became the standard terminology by the work of Johannes Schefferus "
Acta Lapponica" , but is also used earlier by
Olaus Magnus in his '"
Description of the Northern peoples" . There is another suggestion that it originally meant
wilds. In lack of meaning one may take the interpretation made by
Damićo de Góis in 1540, where he derives Lapland from "the dumb and lazy land", because it is lazy when no vegetables grow and therefore is dumb when it serves for no living.
History
The Sami peoples have inhabited the northern regions of
Scandinavia for thousands of years. Exactly how long is difficult to state with certainty.
Archaelogical evidence suggests that people along the southern shores of
Lake Onega and around
Lake Ladoga reached the River Utsjoki in Northern Finnish Lapland before 8100 BC . Other experts trace the Sami presence back to as recently as 2500 years ago. They are the oldest of the peoples represented in the Sami area, and are consequently considered the indigenous population of the area.
Historically, the Sami inhabited all of Northern Scandinavia, Finland, and
Eastern Karelia for a long time, though the Eastern Sami became assimilated into Finnish and Karelian populations after settlers from Häme, Savo, and
Karelia migrated into the region. Placenames, e.g.
Nuuksio on the south coast of Finland, remain as proof of former Sami settlement. However, Finnish and Scandinavian settlers drove them progressively more north. Finnish tribes even fought wars with one another and with Scandic tribes for the right to tax the Sami.
Lapponia , written by the
rhetorician Johannes Schefferus, is the oldest source of detailed information on Sami culture. It was written due to "ill-natured" foreign propaganda claiming that Sweden had won victories on the battlefield by means of 'Sami magic'. In attempts to correct the picture of Sami culture amongst the Europeans,
Magnus de la Gardie started an early 'ethnological' research project to document Sami groups, conducted by Schefferus. The book was published in late 1673 and quickly translated to
French,
German,
English, and other languages . However, an adapted and abridged version was quickly published in the
Netherlands and
Germany, where chapters on their difficult living conditions, topography, and the environment had been replaced by made-up stories of magic, sorcery,
drums and heathenry. But there was also criticism against the ethnography, claiming Sami to be more warlike in character, rather than the image Schefferus presented.
Up to around 1500 the Sami were mainly fishermen and trappers, usually in a combination, leading a nomadic lifestyle decided by the migrations of the
reindeer. Around 1500, due to excessive hunting, again provoked by the fact that the Sami had to pay taxes to
Norway,
Sweden and
Russia, the number of reindeer started to decrease. Most Sami then settled along the
fjords, on the coast and along the inland waterways to pursue a combination of cattle raising, trapping and fishing. A small minority of the Sami then started to tame the reindeer, becoming the well-known reindeer nomads, who, although often portrayed by outsiders as following the archetypical Sami lifestyle, only represent around 10% of the Sami people.
The Sami crossed the borders freely until 1826, when the Norwegian/Finnish/Russian border was closed. Sami were still free to cross the border between Sweden and Norway according to inherited rights laid down in the Lapp Codicil of 1751 until 1940, when the border was closed due to Germany's occupation of Norway. After WWII, they were not allowed to return. Their summer pasturages are today used by Sami originating in Kautokeino.
For long periods of time, the Sami lifestyle reigned supreme in the north because of its unique adaptation to the
Arctic environment, enabling Sami culture to resist cultural influences from the South. Indeed, throughout the 18th century, as Norwegians of Northern Norway suffered from low fish prices and consequent depopulation, the Sami cultural element was strengthened, since the Sami were independent of supplies from Southern Norway.
However, in the 19th century Norwegian authorities put the Sami culture under pressure in order to make the Norwegian language and culture universal. A strong economical development of the north also took place, giving Norwegian culture and language status. On the Swedish and Finnish side, the authorities were much less militant in their efforts, however, a strong economical development of the north led to a weakening of status and economy for the Sami.
The strongest pressure took place from around 1900 to 1940, when Norway invested considerable money and effort to wipe out Sami culture. Notably, anyone who wanted to buy or lease state lands for agriculture in
Finnmark, had to prove knowledge of Norwegian language. This also ultimately caused the dislocation in the 1920s, that strengthed the gap between local Sami groups, something still present today, and sometimes bears the character of an internal Sami ethnic conflict. Another factor was the heavy war destructions in Northern Finland and Northern Norway in 1944-45, destroying all existing houses and visible traces of Sami culture. After
World War II, the pressure was relaxed somewhat.
The construction of the hydro-electric power station in
Alta in 1979 brought Sami rights onto the political agenda. In August of 1986, the national anthem and flag of the Sami people was created. In 1989, the first Sami parliament in Norway was elected. In 2005, the Finnmark Law was passed in the Norwegian parliament. This law gives the Sami parliament and the Finnmark Provincial council a joint responsibility of administering the land areas previously considered state property. These areas, 98% of the provincial area, that have always been used primarily by the Sami, now belong officially to the people of the province, Sami or Norwegian, and not the Norwegian state.
Organization
Sweden, Norway and Finland all have a Sami Parliament. The Sami Parliaments are democratically elected parliaments and acts as governmental authorities. In each country, sami inhabitants have a vote, in addition to the regular elections in each country, to elect representatives to their Sami Parliament if:
- s/he considers himself/herself to be culturally or ethnically Sami, and
- s/he speaks a Sami language, or
- s/he had or has a parent, or grandparent, that speaks or spoke a Sami language
The main organisations for Sami representation in Sweden are the "siidas". They cover northern and middle Sweden.
Religion
The term
Sami religion is usually referring to the pre-Christian religion, practiced until approximately the
18th century.
Christianity was being spread by Catholic missionaries already in the 13th century. Increased pressure came after the
Lutheran reformation, and rune drums were burned or sent to museums abroad. In this period, many Sami practiced their traditional religion at home, while turning up in church on Sunday. Since the Sami were considered to possess witchcraft powers, they were often accused of sorcery during the 17th century.
In Norway, a major effort to convert the Sami was made around 1720, when the "Apostle of the Sami" - Thomas von Westen, burned drums and converted people by force. The Swedish Sami vicar,
Lars Levi Lęstadius initiated a puritan, Lutheran movement among the Sami around 1840. This movement is still very dominant in Sami speaking areas. Sami on the
Kola peninsula and in North-Eastern Finland, as well as a handful in Norway are members of the
Russian Orthodox Church. The old religion is long gone, but elements of it have been revived by neo-paganist groups.
Sami religion shared some elements with the
Norse mythology, possibly from early contacts with trading Vikings. Through a mainly French initiative, from J.P. Gaimard,
Lars Levi Lęstadius began researching the Sami mythology. His work resulted in four bands or
fragments, since by his own admission they contained only a small percentage of what had existed. The fragments were termed
Theory of Gods,
Theory of Sacrifice,
Theory of Prophecy, or short reports about rumorous Sami magic and
Sami sagas. Generally, he filtered out the Norse influence and derived common elements between the South, North, and Eastern Sami groups. The mythology has common elements with other Circumpolar religions as well -- such as those in
Siberia and
North America.
Language
There is no single Sami language, but a group of ten distinct
Sami languages. Six of these languages have their own written standards. The Sami languages are relatively closely related, but not mutually intelligible; for instance, speakers of Southern Sami cannot understand Northern Sami. Especially earlier these distinct languages were referred to as "dialects", but today this is considered misleading due to the deep differences between the varieties.
Most Sami languages are spoken in several countries, because linguistic borders do not correspond to national borders. The Sami language is part of the
Finno-Ugric family, related to
Finnish, Estonian, and
Hungarian but not to Norwegian and kin. Due to prolonged contact with the Scandinavians, however, there are a large number of
Germanic words in Sami. The majority of the Sami now speak the majority languages of the countries they live in, i.e. Swedish, Russian, Finnish and Norwegian. Efforts are being made to further the use of Sami language among Sami and persons of Sami origin.
Music
One very interesting Sami tradition is the singing of
joik . Joiks are traditionally sung
a capella, usually sung slowly and deep in the throat with apparent emotional content of sorrow or anger. Joiks can be dedicated to animals and birds in nature, to special people or special occasions, and they can be joyous, sad or melancholic.
Christian missionaries and priests regarded these as "songs of the Devil". In recent years, musical instruments frequently accompany joiks. The Sami singer
Mari Boine introduced joiks to the world audience when she blended it with rhythmic music such as jazz and rock on several award-winning albums in the '80s and '90s. This has been heavily sampled in recent times by the likes of hip-hop artists
Xzibit and
Vanilla Ice.
Cultural revival
To make up for past suppression, the authorities of Norway, Sweden and Finland now make an effort to build up Sami cultural institutions and promote Sami culture and language. All recognize February 6 as Sami National Day, which was first recognized in 1993.
- There are daily news bulletins in Sami on national TV in all three countries. Children's programs in Sami are also frequently made. There is also radio in Sami.
- A weekly newspaper in Sami, Min Aigi is published, along with a few magazines.
- There is a Sami theatre in Kautokeino on the Norwegian side, as well as in Kiruna on the Swedish side. Both tour the entire Sami area with drama written by Sami authors or international translations.
- A number of novels and poetry collections are published every year in Sami, occasionally also in other dialects than Northern Sami.
- Education with Sami as the first language is available in all three countries, also outside the Sami area.
- Sąmi Allaskuvla, a Sami college, is located in Kautokeino. Sami language is studied in several universities in all countries, most notably the University of Tromsų, which considers Sami a mother tongue, not a foreign language.
- Numerous festivals throughout the Sami area celebrate different aspects of the Sami culture. The best known on the Norwegian side is Riddu Riddu, a music festival in Olmmaivaggi/Manndalen. Among the most festive are the easter festivals taking place in Kautokeino and Karasjok prior to the springtime migration to the coast. These festivals combine traditional culture with modern phenomena such as snowmobile races.
See also
...
- Inuit, indigenous Arctic peoples of North American
References
External links
