In the extreme north of Europe, old sounds, distinct craftwork practices, and a unique language coexist with contemporary technology. Laiti and Frangou (2019) state that the Sámi are a Finno-Ugric people that arrived in Europe and northern Eurasia approximately forty thousand years ago. The Sámi reside in territories that extend north from middle Norway and central Sweden, across northern regions of Finland, to Russia’s Kola Peninsula (Laiti & Frangou, 2019). Moreover, they are acknowledged as indigenous people under Finland’s Constitution, and they are permitted and encouraged to develop their culture and way of life. According to Bailey (2018), Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote about the Sámi in the first century AD. Tacitus called them the Fenni, describing these people as savages without weapons or horses who slept on the ground (Bailey, 2018). According to Abir Space (2022), the Sámi have historically been referred to in English as Lapps or Laplanders. Nonetheless, these words are considered derogatory by some Sámi, who favor the area’s name in their languages, such as Northern Sami Sápmi.
The Sámi culture is the oldest in broad portions of Northern Norway. Additionally, it is presently undergoing a dramatic revival (The Sami, n.d.). Essentially, the Sámi are indigenous people of the globe and one of Sweden’s designated national minorities (Sami in Sweden, 2022). Minority status implies that they have certain rights and that their culture, customs, and languages are constitutionally recognized.
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia are places of residence for the Sámi people. The overall population of these four nations is believed to be about 80,000 people, with Norway accounting for around half of them (The Sami, n.d.). Sámi is spoken by slightly less than half of these individuals. Across Norway, the Sámi people dwell in all of Northern Norway and the country’s south in Trndelag and Femundsmarka in Hedmark (The Sami, n.d.). The Sámi languages are their traditional languages, and they are categorized as a branch of the Uralic language family (International Saami Day Celebrated, 2018). The Sámi area is home to nine distinct but strongly connected Sámi languages. Three of these languages are now used in Northern Norway (The Sami, n.d.). Moreover, Sámi people in Northern Norway’s south can easily speak with their nearest Sámi neighbors in Sweden, but not with Sámi people in the extreme north. Nevertheless, because most Sámi languages are spoken in numerous countries, dialect boundaries do not follow national borders.
Many Sámi people live contemporary lifestyles while remaining committed to their Sámi origin, culture, and customs. Reindeer herding is a lifestyle and a source of income for many Sámi, with over 5,000 reindeer owners, including some who own only one animal (Visit Sweden, 2022). Historically, most Sámi people have lived by fishing, raising cattle, and hunting near the coast, in fjords, and along major rivers (The Sami, n.d.). Nowadays, the majority of the Sámi population lives outside the traditional Sámi territories, in municipalities in Northern Norway or the Oslo region (The Sami, n.d.). Furthermore, they continue to live in conventional Sámi settlement locations while earning a living in the current service, manufacturing, tourism, and government sectors. Sámi culture interacts with the modern world in a completely new way in the twenty-first century. No Sámi people live a genuinely traditional existence today, and many of these indigenous people appear to live extremely contemporary lifestyles.
References
Abir Space (2022). In fresh cultural repatriation news, here’s a ‘homecoming’ of art to the Sami people of Finland. Web.
Bailey, K. M. (2018). Fishing lessons: Artisanal fisheries and the future of our oceans. University of Chicago Press.
International Saami Day Celebrated (2018). Euronews. Web.
Laiti, O. K., & Frangou, S. M. (2019). Social aspects of learning: Sámi people in the circumpolar north. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 21(1), 5-21. Web.
Sami in Sweden (2022). Sweden.se. Web.
The Sami (n.d.). Northern Norway. Web.
Visit Sweden. (2022). Discover Sweden’s traditional Sámi culture and way of life. Web.