The Sámi People: History

The Sámi People: History

History of the Sámi

Early Records of the Sámi

• Tacit’s Germania 98 CE: Refers to them as the “Fenni” people who lived in the farthest north, had no possessions, and neither horses nor houses, were clad in skins, did not cultivate the land, but ate only what they could find growing wild, their beds were bare ground, they made primitive huts from twigs, had no iron, but tipped their arrows with bone, and women hunted with men

Early Records of the Sámi, cont’d.

• Ptolemy’s Geographia (2nd c CE) mentions the Sámi as a distinct “Finnish” group

• Greek historian Prokopios (approx 550 CE) mentions the “Skrithiphinoi” (< skrithi ON ‘skis’)

• Paulus Diaconus (approx 750) “Skridfinns”, a wild people who run over the snowy wastes on curved pieces of wood in pursuit of wild beasts, in a land where the sun shone through the night in summer but the darkness of night continued through the day in winter

Early Records of the Sámi, cont’d.

• Report of Ottar from Haalogaland appears in a 9th c English manuscript, describing reindeer hunting and herding

• Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (approx 1200) names their land “Lappia”, and also describes use of skis, transportation of huts, and use of sorcery

• 1673 Johannes Scheffer published Lapponia, detailed description of Sámi lifestyle

Sámi written language

• The oldest written material in Sámi is a list of 95 words and expressions which were written down in 1557 on the Kola peninsula by an English sea captain named Stephen Borroughs, after he had gotten shipwrecked and was forced to spend a couple of months staying with the Kola Sámi.

Artistic parallels suggest historical depth

• Petroglyphs found in Alta (Northern Norway) date to the period between 8,000 BC and 1,000 BC – these were recently “discovered” in 1973

• Sámi noaidi drums are inscribed with pictographs; only 70 Sámi drums are still in existence, the oldest dates to about 1,000 BC

• Similarities between the petroglyphs and the pictographs are striking, and both use red color

Alta petroglyphs (left) and Sámi drum pictographs (right)

Bear


Reindeer


Aquatic bird


Man with drum


Man on skis


Man with bow & arrow

A traditional model for sustainable land management

• Forest Sámi had the siida or Sámi Village system– Siida owned an area with well-defined borders– Communal lands and waters divided into exclusive

usage areas for kin groups or families– Goahti assemblies manages usage rights and

administration, based on hunting, fishing, and migration needs

– All siida members had voting rights, all returned to siida in mid-winter, along with merchants

Evolution of reindeer herding

• Before the 1600s, only a few tame reindeer were kept as draught animals and as lures for reindeer hunting

• Numbers of wild reindeer decreased and herds increased, and gradually lifestyle became more nomadic, and siida evolved to be territories 100s of km long

1700s -- Collapse of siida system

• Through the 1600s governments recognized the Sámi siida

• 1700s agricultural colonization and subsequent imposition of national borders in 1800s destroyed siida system

• Border closings cut Sámi off from traditional migration routes

Christian missions 1600s-1700s

• Rejected shamanistic practices of noaidi• Collected and destroyed noaidi drums• Rejected tradition of the yoik

1852 Kautokeino uprising

• Nov 8 Sámi religious fanatics killed a liquor merchant, a policeman, and beat a preacher nearly to death.

• 22 went to prison, 2 were executed and their skulls were sent to Oslo for study of anatomical characteristics of primitive people – these were returned and buried in 1990s

Norwegianization

• 1851 Sámi language schools were ordered to function in Norwegian

• 1864 Property ownership based on Norwegian language competence

• 1871 Arctic Ocean fishing only for Norwegian speakers

• 1879 State lands in Sápmi designated as Norwegian settlement areas

Norwegianization, cont’d.

• 1880 Decree concerning use of Norwegian only in schools and boarding houses

• 1895 Norwegian citizenship only for Norwegian speakers

• 1897 Sámi forced into military service• 1898 Law forbid use of Sámi in schools• 1902 Property law confirmed, requires Norwegian

place names; use of interpreters banned• 1905 Teaching and use of Sámi forbidden

History of the Sámi in the 20th c

Early Sámi Organizations

• Local Sámi Organizations were founded in 1906-1920

• 1906 Isak Saba writes Sámi national anthem and is voted into Norwegian Parliament

• 1917 First general meeting of Sámi in Trondheim brings together Sámi from Norway & Sweden – this day (Feb 6) now celebrated as Sámi national day

WWII

• Sámi for the first time fought alongside majority populations

• This meant that sometimes Sámi were on both sides of a front (Finnish-Soviet War), and Sámi also participated in anti-German resistance, which was particularly fierce in Norway

Consequences of WWII• Evacuation of Sámi brought them in contact with

other populations• The Sámi suffered disproportionately from the

scorched-earth policy of German evacuation in Troms and Finnmark, where 3/4 of Sámi lived

• Retreating Germans burnt all buildings (homes, barns, hospitals, churches, fish processing plants, schools, factories, stores, turf huts), plus bridges, roads, boats, quays, and telephone lines

• Norway began to rebuild in 1945, but according to national standards, with uniform housing, etc.

Post-war welfare state

• Continued the policy of Norwegianization under the guise of creating a state of equality, where everyone is Norwegian, and there are no differences among people

• Large boarding schools were built for Sámi children, but taught only about Norwegian history and culture

Sámi self-image post-war

• Though standards of living rose after reconstruction, they did not rise evenly and were often lower in Sámi areas

• There was an association of the Sámi with poverty, and people were ashamed of Sámi heritage

• Despite Norwegianization policies since 1850s, in 1930 census 44% of Kvaenangen municipality identified themselves as Sámi, but by 1950 this figure was 0%.

The beginnings of Sámi pride

• 1955 Director of NRK wrote to Ministry of Church and Education to ask for policy statement on Sámi culture, Sámi Committee created in 1956; Sámi broadcasts began in 1959

• 1959 Sámi Committee proposed break with Norwegianization and stated “It is a human right of every child to have his or her initial education in his or her first language.”

The Sámi get organized

• King Harald V and Ole Henrik Magga, first President of the Sámediggi (Sámi Parliament in Norway)

The Sámi get organized

• Former Sámi organizations declined after 1920• 1956 Nordic Sámi Council• 1968 National Association of Norwegian Sámi

(NSR), mission: “to put the case for Sámi rights to Norwegian authorities and the public

• 1970s NSR opposed projects (e.g. damming of Alta-Kautokeino river system) that would affect Sámi environment

• 1979 more moderate Norwegian Sámi Union (SLF)

ČSV: A new way of being Sámi

ČSV - “Show Sámi Spirit!”

• Sámi pride movement in 1970s-1980s seeks to reclaim lost cultural expressions in place names, traditional dress (gákti) and crafts (duodji)

• Cultural awakening evident in visual arts, media, literature, theater, and music

• 1976 Sámi publishing company -- now enough Sámi were literate in their own language to write and read literature

Getting Sámi back on the maps

• Until the 1960s all maps showed exclusively Norwegian names, even in places like Finnmark plateau where Nowergian place names never existed; this made Sámi officially invisible

• 1990 Place Name Act requires that maps and road signs list the Sámi (and Finnish) place names used by the local population alongside Norwegian names

• Some municipalities took up petitions against use of Sámi place names

The Alta Affair

An environmental issue becomes an indigenous people issue

The Sámi position

• Norway lacked a policy on minority rights• 1970s Sámi involved in establishment of

World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP)

• Substantial reindeer herding communities were in the area of the dam, and Sámi were being denied the right to shape their culture and future

The Sámi challenge authorities

• 1979 Sámi set up a hunger strike in front of the Norwegian parliament building in Oslo

• 1981 Sámi set up dwellings and staged a protest at Alta, Norway sent in the largest contingent of its police force ever present in a single place -- one tenth of all Norwegian policemen took part

The dam and power plant opened in 1987, but:

• 1988 Amendment to Norwegian Constitution: “It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sámi people to preserve and develop its language, culture, and way of life:

• 1989 establishment of Sámediggi (Sámi Parliament)

• 1990 Sámi Language Act (6 municipalities in N. Troms & Finnmark)

Political organization

• The Nordic Sámi Conference consisting of delegates from all four countries where Sámi people live, meets every four years. It elects the Sámi Council and the Sámi Institute

• This is the highest decision-making body of the Sámi

Political organization, cont’d.

• Sámi Council (since 1956)– Declares unity of Sámi people across borders of nation-

states– Promotes democratic cooperation of Norway, Sweden,

Finland and Sámi, through the creation of Sámi parliaments in all three countries, and has included Russia since fall of USSR

– Demands official status for Sámi language, and that it be protected and developed as a living language


• Sámi Language Board– Established by the Sámi Council– Consists of 12 members, one for each language

and country– Helped establish modern terminology for Sámi– Lobbied for common orthography for Northern

Sámi accessible to speakers in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and for common orthography for Lule Sámi in both Norway and Sweden


• Sámi Institute– Funded by Nordic Council of Ministers– Headed by 12-member executive committee (5

nominated by govts of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland; 7 appointed by Nordic Sámi Conference)

– Research projects on legal issues, reindeer herding, Sámi youth, linguistic research


• Sámi Parliaments established– 1972 Finland, 1989 Norway, 1993 Sweden– 2005 all Sámi Parliaments began to work together– All are advisory to national parliaments and strengthen

the status of Sámi in public affairs– Oversee enforcement of Language Act– Greatest challenge is to motivate people to take the fate

of their culture and language into their own hands

Documents

The Sámi People: History