Return to the Mikko Ranta (Jokela I) Family
(This section by Kari Yli-Kuha)
(being revised - last edited 96/05/19)
2.3.1 Who they are
The Sami people are one of the aboriginal peoples of the Fennoscandian area,
(meaning here: Scandinavia, Finland, eastern Karelia and Kola peninsula) and
for long they lived more or less disconnected from the European
civilization.
They are often referred to as Lapps but they themselves prefer to be called
Sami (Saamelaiset/Samerna) because Sápmi is the name they use of themselves
and their country. I use the terms Lapp/Sami interchangeably without any
intention to hurt the Sami's feelings.
The Sami languages (there are several of them) are Finno-Ugric languages and
the closest relatives to the Baltic-Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian).
Sami people live nowadays in an area which spreads from Jämtlands Län in
Sweden through northern Norway and Finland to the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
Inserted by the editor: click here for a map of the region above.
2.3.2 Sami history
The origins of Sami people have been researched for long but no certain
answer has yet been found. Anthropologically there are two types of Sami
people, the eastern type which resembles northern Asian peoples, and the
western which is closer to Europids. Blood survey, especially in this
century, indicates western rather than eastern heritage. The long isolation
from other cultures may explain that some rare features in genetic
inheritance have accumulated and that Sami are very original people, not
only compared to other cultures but also internally.
It is believed that the original Sami people came to areas now known as
Finland and eastern Karelia during and after the last ice age, following
herds of reindeer. Prehistoric (some 4000 years old) ski findings by the
Arctic Sea show that there was some sort of Sami culture living there
already at that time. Some 1500 rock paintings have been found in the areas
where they lived, e.g. by lake Onega and in Kola peninsula; the easternmost
of them are 3000 years old.
Some archeologists have linked the oldest known Scandinavian stone age
culture, so-called Komsa culture by the Arctic Sea, to the ancestors of the
Sami. Historians also now note that Ghengis Khan had written that the Sámi
(or, Fenner as they were then called), were the one nation he would never
try to fight again. The Sámi were not warriors in the conventional sense.
They simply didn't believe in war and so they 'disappeared' in times of
conflict. The Sámi remain one culture that has never been to war but are
known as "peaceful retreaters" adapting to changing living conditions,
whether they were caused by nature or by other people.
Anyway, it is known that the Sami people are the original people in the
Fennoscandia area. Many names even in southern Finland and central Sweden
are of Sami origin. There was Sami population in those areas as late as the
sixteenth century. The Sami are known to have fished and hunted seals on the
west coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, but in the late Middle Ages the Swedish
agricultural population "invaded" the coastal area, pushing the Sami further
north. The same thing happened in Finland so that now the original Sami
people can only be found north of Arctic Circle.
2.3.3 Sami cultures
Sami people have always settled thinly in a large area, making their living
mostly hunting and fishing, families having large hunting areas around them.
Connections to other people were rare although they had a strong sense of
community thinking when it came to dividing hunting/fishing areas between
families, and, of course, the marriages were made between people in nearby
regions. This seems to be the major reason why there is no one Sami culture
and language, but several Sami cultures and languages. The cultures have
been formed both by different surroundings and living conditions and varying
contacts with other cultures; in Sweden and Norway the Germanic culture, in
Finland the Finnish culture and in Kola peninsula the Russian and Karelian
cultures.
Forest Sami
Sami people living in coniferous forests lived mainly by fishing, but
hunting was also very important. Most of the Finnish and Swedish Sami people
belong to this group. Families formed Lappish villages ('siida') normally by
some large river. The size of the siida varied from just a couple of
families up to 20 or 30, totaling some hundred individuals. Watersheds were
natural borders between these villages. It was also common to have some
reindeer for transportation and for the furs, which were an important
material for clothing.
A special group of forest Sami are the Sami north of Lake Inari because
their language differs from the rest of forest Sami - it's the western most
dialect of eastern Sami languages.
Fjeld Sami
[About the word "fjeld": The ice age has shaped the Scandinavian mountains,
especially in Lapland, so that the top of them is round, and mostly bare. In
some Nordic languages there is a special word for them (fjell /fjäll
/tunturi) to separate them from other mountains. There is also a rarely used
English word "fjeld" for the same purpose. The word "fjeld" means here a
(tree-less) mountain in Lapland.]
The fjeld Sami are also known as "reindeer Sami" because the reindeer is by
far the most important part of their economy. They live on the fjelds
between Sweden and Norway and on the highlands north of it tending their
herds. This kind of nomad culture is unique in Europe and as such it has
been the subject of a lot of interest. It has been seen as the most typical
form of Sami culture although as such it's only a few hundred years old.
It's not nearly as common as the half-nomad forest Sami culture. The fjeld
Sami do also some fishing and willow grouse (am. willow ptarmigan) trapping.
The importance of reindeer in the Sami culture can be seen in the fact that
in Sami languages there are about 400 names for reindeer according to
gender, age, color, shape etc.
One special group are the River Sami living around river Tana (Tenojoki) and
its tributaries. They live mainly fishing salmon but they also have some
agriculture and more permanent settlements than the fjeld Sami.
Sea Sami
The first written remark of the sea Sami living in northern Norway by the
Arctic Sea was made in year 892 by a Norwegian tribal chief Ottar. The
remark described that "up in the north there are people who hunt in the
winter and fish on the sea in the summer". This half-nomad culture is
strongly affected by both Norwegian and Finnish inhabitants. They live in
two different areas. The Norwegians call the northern people "sjřfinner" and
the southern "bufinner".
Kola Peninsula Sami
The Lapps living in the Kola peninsula are the original population in that
area. The number of Lapps there has remained pretty much the same throughout
the years, slightly below 2000 people. They live mostly off fishing and
reindeering.
2.3.4 Sami religion
Living of the nature has formed the original religious views among Lapps;
the religion was animistic by nature, with shamanistic features. They
believed that all objects in the nature had a soul. Therefore, everybody was
expected to move quietly in the wilderness; shouting and making disturbance
was not allowed. This beautiful concept still prevails among Lapps.
The Lapps believed that alongside with the material world there was a
spiritual world, called saivo, where everything was more whole than in the
material world and where the dead continued their lives. Important places
had their divinities. Every force of nature had its god and sources of
livelihood were guarded by beings in spiritual world which could be
persuaded to be more favourable.
Not all beings in the spiritual world were benevolent; the most famous of
the malicious gnomes known in all Sami cultures was stallu (taalo in
Finnish). Stallu was a large and strong but simple human-like being living
in the forest, always traveling with a dog, ráhkka, and he could some times
steal a young Sami girl to become his wife.
The Sami had no priests but the head of the family was responsible for the
contact with gods with a "magic drum". A person with this special gift could
be 'called' and accepted by the community as a noaide (shaman). A noaide was
capable of visiting the saivo and people from far away would come to him/her
for advice.
In the forest you could find trees which resembled a human body, or you
could make one. These were called sieidde (in Finnish seita) and they were
worshiped. Also a strangely shaped stone or rock could be a sieidde.
Christian missionaries and priests normally didn't understand the religious
concepts of the Lapps, partly because of language problems. Sami people were
converted to Christianity by force and shamanic practices were forbidden. In
addition, the disintegration of the hunter/gatherer culture and the
transition to other forms of occupation meant that the old religion had less
meaning for the Sami. The "Sami apostle", Norwegian Thomas von Westen
(1682-1727) started public education among the Sea Sami in Sami language.
>From 1773 on Sami language teaching was forbidden and all teaching had to
be in Danish until nineteenth century.
Lars Levi Lćstadius (1800-1861) has had the strongest religious influence on
Sami people and his thoughts spread all over Sami region although there is
evidence that elements of the original religion of the Sami was practiced as
late as the 1940's. Characteristic to Lćstadius' ideas is the central
significance of parish. This has helped in preserving Sami culture.
2.3.5 Sami languages
As there are several Sami cultures there are also several Sami languages and
dialects. It is not known what kind of language the Sami originally spoke,
before any Finno-Ugric contacts. Now the common theory is that the Sami
languages developed through language exchange with early basic Finnish so
that there was some sort of basic Sami language somewhere 1000 BC - 700 AD
which then developed to various languages and dialects as we know them now.
Now Sami languages are regarded as Finno-Ugric languages and their closest
relatives are the Baltic-Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian).
It's often hard to decide whether two related forms of speech are in fact
different languages or merely dialects of a single language, especially when
there are transition areas between them. Commonly the Sami languages are
divided into nine main dialectal areas.
The numbers in brackets represent the approximate number of speakers of the
language according to the Geographical distribution of the Uralic languages
made by the Finno-Ugric Society in 1993.
1. South Sami - in central Scandinavia [500]
2. Ume language [very few]
3. Pite language [very few]
4. Lule language [2 000]
5. Northern languages (Norwegian Sami, fjeld language) [30 000]
6. Enare language - north of lake Inari [400]
7. Skolt language - in Pechenga [500]
8. Kildin language - in central Kola peninsula [1 000]
9. Ter (Turja) language - in eastern Kola peninsula [500]
As there are several languages, there are also several grammars and
orthographies for them. The areas 2 - 5 have more or less the same written
language but several orthographies. Language 6 has its own orthography
whereas areas 7 - 9 use mainly Kildin language in publications.
The following description about the history of written Sami concerns mainly
the languages spoken in Sweden.
The first Sami books were religious literature, used for converting the Sami
people to Christianity during Gustav II Adolf's reign in the 17th century.
The first books (ABC book and mass book) were made by priest Nicolaus
Andreae in Piteĺ 1619, but they were in a very clumsy language. The first
written grammar was again made in Sweden by the priest Petrus Fiellström in
Lycksele 1738.
For a long time the written texts in Sami languages were solely for
religious purposes. Poetry and other literature in Sami languages is rather
recent. In 1906 a Sami teacher Isak Saba (1875-1921) published a poem Same
soga lavla (the Song of Sami Family) which is known as the national anthem
of the Lapps. Four years later Johan Turi's (1854-1936) Muittalus samid
birra (A Story about Lapps) was published in Sweden. This is probably the
most famous volume written in Sami language. Just as an example what Sami
language looks like here's the first verse of Same soga lavla in the
orthographic form proposed by Sami Language Board in 1978 (c´ and s´ denote
c and s with apostrophe):
Sámi soga lávlla Song of Sami Family
Guhkkin davvin Dávggáid vuolde Far in the north under the Plough
sabmá suolggai Sámieatnan: looms quietly the land of Lapps:
duottar laebbá duoddar duohkin, a fjeld lies behind a fjeld,
jávri seabbá jávrri lahka, a lake spreads near a lake,
c´ohkat c´ilggiin, c´orut c´earuin peaks on ridges, tops on bare fjelds
allánaddet almmi vuostá; rise against the sky;
s´ávvet jogat, s´uvvet vuovddit, rushing rivers, wuthering forests,
cáhket ceakko stállinjárggat steep steel capes stick
máraideaddji mearaide. into roaring seas
2.3.6 The Sami as citizens
Before 1600s the Lapps lived their own life more or less undisturbed. They
were gradually pushed further north by new inhabitants but it happened
peacefully. It is believed that the Lapps were mainly following reindeers
and other wild animals which were also retreating further north.
In the 1600s, and later, there were some "colonialistic" features in the way
the Sami were treated by the kingdoms ruling over their lands. It was
considered "natural" to subjugate cultures that were regarded as
"undeveloped" and "primitive". At that time the government of Sweden-Finland
had a political goal to have permanent agricultural settlements in the
Swedish Lapland instead of sparse nomad inhabitation; it was thought that
keeping the area within the state would be easier that way. This is why many
Finns were also encouraged to move there. Although the same basic European
colonialistic thinking was also common in Scandinavia, it has to be noted
that the attitude towards the original people has never been as inhuman as
it was in many colonies elsewhere in the world.
As a general observation it can be said that as the Nordic countries divided
the Sami territories between states they failed to take into account the
Sami colonies and to let them develop naturally. Instead the Sami people
were forced to adapt to the cultural system of each country.
The Swedish king Gustav Vasa declared that "all permanently uninhabited land
belongs to God, Us and the Swedish crown". This declaration concerned also
the territories where Lapps lived. Because of their nomad way of living they
were not seen as "permanent inhabitants". Later the Sami's right for land
was stabilized as certain "family areas". In 1867 in Sweden a new
administrational "cultivation border" was formed. It goes several tens of
kilometers from the Norwegian border all the way from Karesuando to
Jämtlands Län. All land in the Swedish territory was given to the Sami and
only Sami people were allowed to live there without a separate permission.
All activities that are done there need a permission and the money goes to
"Lapland fund". The money of this fund is used for reindeering, building
bridges, etc. in that area. All this is done by the state and the Sami
people have very little to say about how the money is to be used.
There have been discussions about the Sami's right for the natural resources
in their areas between the Nordic Council and the Nordic Sami Council but so
far there has been little progress in this issue.
There have been several agreements between the Nordic countries and the Sami
people but they are beyond the scope of this document.
All in all, the Nordic countries have not been indifferent about Sami but
due to lack of ethnosociological knowledge the Sami have been treated as
"children who don't know what's best for them".
Because arctic occupations favour the individual mind, and the Sami
population is sparse, their own activities as Nordic citizens have developed
very slowly. Also, belonging to four different countries doesn't make it
easier - on the other hand crossing borders between the Nordic countries has
never been a problem. This belonging to different countries has been one
factor which has increased the common sense of ethnicity among the Sami
people during this century. Only a few decades ago it was not desirable that
Lapp children spoke Sami with each other in school whereas now, in
principle, it's possible to complete university degrees in Sami language.
How many Sami are there, then? Well, that depends on who is counted as a
Sami and who isn't, as there has been much assimilation and mixing with the
rest of the population. Some figures were presented in the chapter
concerning Sami languages. Another often presented statistic tells that
there are 25000 Sami in Norway, 17000 in Sweden, 4000 in Finland and 2000 in
Russia. Yet another statistic which only counts people who speak Sami
languages as their mother tongue says: 10000 in Norway, 5000 in Sweden, 3000
in Finland and 1000 in Russia.
2.3.7 The Sami Today
For centuries the majority population has had a patronizing attitude towards
the Sami, which has affected cultural policy and politics. This policy was
abandoned after World War II. This phase was signaled in 1948 in Norway by
the official "Proposals for Sami School and Educational Affairs" from the
Coordinating Commission for the School System. A definitive change did not
come before 1963, however, when the Norwegian parliament discussed the
recommendations of the Sami Committee of 1956. The official policy then
adopted is expressed in the Parliamentary Records for 1962-1963 as follows:
"The policy of the national state must be to give the
Sami-speaking population the opportunity to preserve its language
and other cultural customs on terms that accord with the expressed
wishes of the Sami themselves."
Later in 1980 the Norwegian government appointed two new commissions with
very extensive mandates: the Sami Rights Committee and the Sami Cultural
Committee. At the moment demands for clarification and legalization of local
rights in areas traditionally used by the Sami are under consideration by
the Sami Rights Committee. Since much of this area has diversified use by
different Sami and non-Sami groups, it has been difficult to arrive at a
just and nationwide solution.
The Nordic Sami Council was established in 1956 to promote cooperation among
the Sami in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Council has 12 members, 4 from
each country. Both state authorities and the Nordic Council have recognized
the Sami Council as a legitimate spokesman for the Sami and have met many of
its demands.
The Sami have their own flag which was officially acknowledged in the 13th
Nordic Sami Conference in 1986. The flag is designed by Astrid Bĺhl from
Skibotn in Troms, Norway. The basic idea in the flag is a symbol from a
drum. The circle is a symbol of sun and moon - the sun ring is red and the
moon ring blue. The colours are also the colours used in Sami costumes.
The Cultural Heritage Act, passed in 1978 in Norway, states that everything
which is more than 100 years old and related to the cultural heritage of the
Sami, is automatically protected by law - this is to protect historic sites
and monuments.
Sami as an elective language is taught in primary schools in several places
in Lapland. Special Sami high schools are located in
Kautokeino/Guovdageaidnu and Karasjok/Karasjohka. Sami language and culture
courses are taught at several universities in the Nordic countries.
Modern Sami applied art has largely extended the development of traditional
Sami handicrafts such as horn- and wood-carving, basketry, leather work,
etc. Sami art appears at present to be undergoing an important period of
creativity - this applies to music as well. The traditional Sami folk song,
the 'joik', has won increasing recognition and interest. The Norwegian Sami
Singer Mari Boine Persen has won international fame among world music fans,
while in Finland e.g Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (who sang joik in the opening
ceremonies of Lillehammer Olympics), Wimme Saari (who mixes joik with
ambient techno backgrounds) and the band Angelin Tytöt have gained acclaim.
There are five Sami newspapers, or newspapers intended for Sami readers, in
the three Nordic countries but the circulation figures for them are small.
The newspapers and magazines are dependent on state funds for their
existence. Radio programs are broadcast in all three countries, in
Karasjok/Karasjohka (Norway), Kiruna (Sweden) and Inari/Enare (Finland).
Plans exist for the establishment of a Nordic-Sami production center for
radio and television programs, but the extent and form of cooperation have
not yet been agreed upon.
Because of growing Sami cultural consciousness and sympathetic official
minority policies, there is good cause for believing that the Sami will
survive as a viable ethnic and cultural group in Scandinavia. The meaning of
"Sami" will change as the way of life itself changes. The Sami's own actions
and self-conception will be decisive in forming the future meaning of the
term - or, as one Sámi scholar put it when asked about the Sámi tradition:
"Tradition? As of when? Fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, or a
thousand years ago? We adapt our ways to fit the times."
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Acknowledgments:
I would like to thank Jari Oksanen <jari@ibg.uit.no> of Tromsř University
and John Blood <guovtta@winternet.com> of Sami Association of North America
for their help, opinions and references.
References:
Karl Nickul: Saamelaiset kansana ja kansalaisina, 1970
Mikko Korhonen: Johdatus lapin kielen historiaan, 1981 ISBN 951-717-248-6
Bjřrn Aarseth: The Sami Past and Present, Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo 1993 ISBN
82-90036-32-9
Johan Turi: Kertomus saamelaisista, 1979 ISBN 951-0-08410-7 (based on
Muittalus samid birra, 1910)
SANA Sami Association of North America
ODIN (Offentlig dokumentasjon og informasjon i Norge)
2.3.8 SANA - The Saami Association of North America
(from: Ruth M. Sylte)
SANA was formed on 10 April 1994 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
The purpose of SANA is to create a strong Saami presence and an
understanding of the Saami people and Saami culture in North America.
Membership includes a subscription to the North American Saami Journal,
which will continue to function as the official organ of communication for
the group.
SANA encompasses both the United States and Canada. It has recently been
given permanent observer status at the Saami Governing Council.
For more information, contact:
Susan Gunness Myers, SANA USA
10010 Monticello Lane North
Maple Grove, MN 55369 USA
E-mail: <smyers@nh.cc.mn.us>
Faith Fjeld, Editor
BAIKI
3548 14th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407 USA
2.3.9 The Saami in Internet
(I'd hate to say this, but... this chapter is still very much under
construction...)
Saami links:
* The Saami of Norway by Elina Helander, ODIN
* The Saami "Parliament" of Sweden
* The Saami in Finland University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
* Links to Saami resources
* Sami Lappland Culture Page by the s.c.n. contributor Glenn Jörstad
Jakobsen
* Sámi Association of North America - the homepage of SANA
* Martin Rippert's Sápmi page
* Karasjok Opplevelser's hovedside
* Bures boahtin Sápmái - Welcome to the Sami nation
...and of course, there is always:
...and of course, there is always:
[Yahoo! - SaamiCulture?]
