The Sami--Northern Scandinavia's Aboriginal People

Having grown up with Scandinavian stories of both trolls and 'Lapps' as the Sami were called then, it follows that these topics would be close to my heart. While the troll stories are still rather silly and at times funny in a predictable sort of way, exploring traditional and current lives of the Sami population has proven quite an interesting and rich subject-matter.

Photo taken at the Tromso University Museum

The University of Tromso's anthropological museum devotes two exhibits to the Sami; one from the early 1970's showcasing traditional life-styles of mostly reindeer Sami as romanticized in so many stories and seemingly unchanging and another one from 2000 displaying the people's struggle for autonomy and greater political clout in the Norwegian parliament creating an area named 'Sapmi' encompassing Sami land and nation.

In principle one can differentiate between three basic Sami lifestyles, 1) those living  at the coasts engaging primarily in fishing and other such activities, 2) those living inland who are primarily farmers with cattle holds and then 3) those that are the traditional semi-nomadic reindeer herders who  follow the needs of their reindeer. And reindeer have special needs--who would have thought that they need to avoid the great inland mosquito-swarms because their bites would make them anemic? Who would have thought that they prefer to eat ice to drinking water? And who would have thought that their annual rite of losing and re-growing their horns would cease to happen once the bulls are castrated?

Photo: Tromso University Museum

The range of the Sami stretches across four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Of these countries, the Norwegian laws have been the most favorable to the Sami (information from a Sami).

As a whole, the Sami people went through several stages to arrive at their current status—as an officially recognized nation within a nation. Along the way many Sami turned their back onto their own culture because it appeared that ‘Sami’ and ‘poverty’ were synonymous. At the end of the 19^th century the king of Norway ordered the Sami Norwegianization with assimilation as its final goal. Norwegianization was helped along by the German evacuation and torching of northern Troms and Finnmak in 1944 which left many Sami without important material possessions—no homes, boats, tools and household goods. As a consequence the Norwegian government launched an all-encompassing reconstruction scheme; here it was helpful to fill out applications in Norwegian, a language that many Sami had not learned.

Photo taken at the Tromso University Museum

Houses based on standard government plans were developed complete with barns for 2-3 cows and children were sent to schools, often boarding schools. Neither the houses nor the schools left room for the Sami culture to flourish—the houses did not consider Sami culture, the primary language in the schools was Norwegian It actually was the school teachers that started the long path back to Saminess since many of them thought that educating children though their native language was a human right. Starting in 1959 the Sami language could be used in schools, only there were hardly any Sami-speaking teachers nor books in Sami and the curriculum remained Norwegian as well. In general, prosperity went hand-in-hand with leaving the Sami culture behind; Sami were either romanticized as reindeer herders or seen as the ‘stupid, drunken Sami’; another incentive to leave that part of history behind.

Sami political awareness arose with the building of the Alta dam which brought electricity to the northernmost edge of the country and with it some industries but which was very much against many Sami wishes. The resultant protests made Sami agendas internationally public and ultimately caused the recognition of the nation within a nation in 1989. There is Sami presence in Parliament these days.

Many of the Sami have rediscovered their roots and proudly showcase them these days--often in connection with tourism. Reindeer sledding and Sami farm visits are offered for tourists in the winter months; a 3-4 stay with a Sami family is offered in the summer.