Sami
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- University of California - eScholarship - The Sami People: The "White Indians" of Scandinavia (PDF)
- Academia - Education, Recognition and the Sami People of Norway (PDF)
- Joshua Project - Saami, Northern people group in all countries
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Lifestyle, Genetics, and Disease in Sami
- World History Encyclopedia - Who are the Sami?
- Ancient Origins - The Sami People: Reindeer Herding and Cultural Survival in the Far North
- CRW Flags - Flag of Sami People
- Minority Rights Group International - Sami in Finland
- The University of Texas at Austin - Sami Culture
Who are the Sami?
The Sami are an indigenous people who inhabit Sápmi, their preferred name forLapland, and adjacent areas of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia. They are speakers of theSami languages, which are endangered.
Where do the Sami come from?
The Sami who inhabit Sápmi today are the descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northernScandinavia and what is nowFinland for thousands of years.
What do the Sami do?
Reindeer herding was the traditional basis of the Sami economy, although that practice has significantly declined. The Sami people engage in fishing, farming, forestry, and mining as well as other occupations across northern Europe.
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Sami, any member of a people speaking the Sami language and inhabitingLapland andadjacent areas of northernNorway,Sweden, andFinland, as well as theKola Peninsula ofRussia, a region they callSápmi. Although a number of Sami languages exist, many Sami no longer speak their native language, and those who do are almost all bilingual. In the late 2010s and early 2020s there were more than 53,000 Sami in Norway and 11,000 in Finland, more than 1,500 in Russia, and an estimated 20,000–40,000 in Sweden.
Languages
Sami languages belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of theUralic language family. There are 11 Sami languages, 9 of which are still in use to some degree. They are divided into three subgroups: southern, western, and eastern. Southern Sami consists only of Ume Sami, spoken in Sweden and Norway. Western Sami languages, which are also spoken in Sweden and Norway, include Pite, Lule, South, and North Sami. Of these, North Sami is the most widely spoken, and it is an official language in certain areas of Norway. Eastern Samicomprises Inari Sami, which is spoken in Finland, as well as Kildin and Ter Sami, which are spoken in Russia, and Skolt Sami, which is spoken in Finland, Norway, and the Russian Federation. It also includes the Kemi and Akkala varieties of Sami. These two languages are virtually extinct, with only one person with knowledge of Akkala Sami left in the early 2020s.
Economy and lifeways
The Sami are the descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northernScandinavia for thousands of years. When the Finns entered Finland, beginning about 100bce, Sami settlements were probablydispersed over the whole of that country; today they are confined to its northern extremity. In Sweden and Norway they have similarly been pushed north. The origin of the Sami is obscure; some scholars include them among thePaleo-Siberian peoples; others maintain that they were alpine and came from centralEurope.
Reindeer herding was the basis of the Sami economy until very recently. Although the Sami hunted reindeer from the earliest times and kept them in small numbers as pack and decoy animals, full-scalenomadism with large herds began only a few centuries ago. The reindeer-herding Sami lived in tents or turf huts and migrated with their herds in units of five or six families,supplementing their diet along the way by hunting and fishing.
Nomadism, however, has virtually disappeared; the remainingherders now accompany their reindeer alone while their families reside in permanent modern housing. While the reindeer of a unit are herded communally, each animal is individually owned. Many Norwegian Sami are coastal fishermen, and those in other areas depend for their livelihoods on farming,forestry, freshwater fishing, and mining or on government, industrial, and commercial employment in cities and towns. Sami increasingly participate in the Scandinavian professional, cultural, and academic world.
Religion and culture
TheSkolt Sami of Finland (and perhaps also the Russian Sami) belong to theRussian Orthodox faith; most others areLutheran. Theshaman was important in non-Christian Sami society, and some shamanistic healing rites are still performed. There is, at least in most of the northern Samicommunities, a strong evangelical congregationalism (Laestadianism), in which local congregations are virtuallyautonomous.
The Scandinavian countries periodically tried toassimilate the Sami, and the use of the Sami languages in schools and public life was long forbidden. In the second half of the 20th century, however, attention was drawn to the problems of the Sami minority, which became moreassertive in efforts to maintain its traditional society andculture through the use of Sami in schools and the protection of reindeer pastures. In each country there are Sami political and cultural societies, and there are a few Sami newspapers and radio programs.See alsoLapland.
