Sámi history

The area traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people.

The area traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people is known in Northern Sámi as Sápmi, and typically includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia. Previously, the Sámi have probably inhabited areas further south in Fennoscandia.[1] A few Stone Age cultures in the area had been speculated, especially in the 18th and early 19th centuries, to be associated with the ancestors of the Sámi, though this has been dismissed by modern scholars and extensive DNA testing.

The genetic origin of the Sámi is still unknown, though recent genetic research may be providing some clues.

Lamnidis et al. 2018 discovered the earliest recorded introgression of Nganasan related Siberian ancestry and Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup N1c into northeastern Europe. Saami people's Siberian ancestry varies between 20%-25%, while the bronze age individuals from Bolshoy Oleny Island by the Kola peninsula had around 40% of similar ancestry, accompanied with roughly 50% Mesolithic Eastern Hunter-Gatherer ancestry. This admixture event was estimated to have occurred around 2000 BCE by ALDER dating.[6] Sarkissian et al. 2013 reporting on a larger array of individuals from Bolshoy Oleny Island showed the prevalence of the mtDNA haplogroup U5a1 and other subclades of U and C typical to the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the time, but also atypical D, T and Z.[7]

Archeological evidence suggests that people along the southern shores of Lake Onega and around Lake Ladoga reached the River Utsjoki in Northern Finnish Lapland before 8100 BC.[8] However, it is not likely that Sami languages are so old. According to the comparative linguist Ante Aikio, the Sami proto-language developed in South Finland or in Karelia around 2000–2500 years ago, spreading then to northern Fennoscandia.[9]

The genetic lineage of the Sami is unique, and may reflect an early history of geographic isolation, genetic drift, and genetic bottle-necking. The uniqueness of the Sami gene pool has made it one of the most extensively studied genetic populations in the world. The most frequent Sami MtDNA (female) haplotype is U5b1b1 comprising nearly half of all haplotypes, with type V in around the same quantities, with some minor D, H and Z.[10]

Historically, the Sámi inhabited all of Finland and Eastern Karelia for a long time, though the Eastern Sámi became assimilated into the Finnish and Karelian populations after settlers from Häme, Savo, and Karelia migrated into the region. Place names, such as Nuuksio on the south coast of Finland, have been claimed to prove former Sámi settlement.[11] However, the Sámi people increasingly mixed with Finnish and Scandinavian settlers, losing their culture and language.[12] Placename evidence suggesting a former Sámi presence in northwestern Russia (Arkhangelsk Region and the Vologda Region) has also been identified.[13] However, this may alternatively indicate a former population speaking a language related to but distinct from Sami proper.[14]

How far south the area of Sámi population in Norway extended in the past is an uncertain topic, and is currently debated among historians and archeologists. The Norwegian historian Yngvar Nielsen was commissioned by the Norwegian government in 1889 to determine this question in order to settle the contemporary question of Sámi land rights. He concluded that the Sámi had lived no further south than Lierne in Nord-Trøndelag county until around 1500, when they had started moving south, reaching the area around Lake Femunden in the 18th century.[15] This hypothesis is still accepted among many historians, but has been the subject of scholarly debate in the 21st century. In favour of Nielsen's view, it is pointed out that no Sámi settlement to the south of Lierne in medieval times has left any traces in written sources. This argument is countered by pointing out that the Sámi culture was nomadic and non-literary, and as such would not be expected to leave written sources.[16] In recent years, the number of archaeological finds that are interpreted as indicating a Sámi presence in Southern Norway in the Middle Ages has increased. These include foundations in Lesja, in Vang in Valdres and in Hol and Ål in Hallingdal.[16] Proponents of the Sámi interpretations of these finds assume a mixed population of Norse and Sámi people in the mountainous areas of Southern Norway in the Middle Ages.[17]

Up to around 1500 the Sámi were mainly fishermen and trappers, usually in a combination, leading a nomadic lifestyle decided by the migrations of the reindeer. Around 1500, due to excessive hunting, again provoked by the Sámi needing to pay taxes to Norway, Sweden and Russia, the number of reindeer started to decrease. Most Sámi then settled along the fjords, on the coast and along the inland waterways to pursue a combination of cattle raising, trapping and fishing. A small minority of the Sámi then started to tame the reindeer, becoming the well-known reindeer nomads, who, although often portrayed by outsiders as following the archetypical Sami lifestyle, only represent around 10% of the Sami people.

It is believed that since the Viking Age, Sámi culture has been driven further and further north, perhaps mostly by assimilation since no findings yet support battles. However, there is some folklore called stalo or 'tales', about non-trading relations with a cruel warrior people, interpreted by Læstadius to be histories of Vikings interactions. Besides these considerations, there were also foreign trading relations. Animal hides and furs were the most common commodities and exchanged with salt, metal blades and different kinds of coins. (The latter were used as ornaments).

Along the Northern Norwegian coast, the Sámi culture came under pressure during the Iron Age by expanding Norse settlements and taxation from powerful Norse chieftains. The nature of the Norse-Sami relationship along the North-Norwegian coast in the Iron Age is still hotly debated, but possibly the Sámi were quite happy to ally themselves with the Norse chieftains, as they could provide protection against Finno-Ugric enemies from the area around the White Sea.

However, in the early Middle Ages, this is partly reversed, as the power of the chieftains is broken by the centralized Norwegian state. Another wave of Norse settlement along the coast of Finnmark province is triggered by the fish trade in the 14th century. However, these highly specialized fishing communities made little impact on the Sámi lifestyle, and in the late Middle Ages, the two communities could exist alongside each other with little contact except occasional trading.

Southern Sámi braid design

Traditionally, Sámi art has been distinguished by its combination of functional appropriateness and vibrant, decorative beauty. Both qualities grew out of a deep respect for nature, embodied in the Sámi's animism. Sámi religion found its most complete expression in Shamanism, evident in their worship of the seite, an unusually shaped rock or tree stump that was assumed to be the home of a deity. Pictorial and sculptural art in the Western sense is a 20th-century innovation in Sámi culture used to preserve and develop key aspects of a pantheistic culture, dependent on the rhythms of the seasons.[18]

From the 15th century on, the Sámi came under increased pressure. The surrounding states, Denmark-Norway, Sweden and Russia showed increased interest in the Sámi areas. Sweden, at the time blocked from the North Sea by Dano-Norwegian territory, was interested in a port at the Atlantic coast, and Russian expansion also reached the coasts of the Barents Sea. All claimed the right to tax the Sámi people, and Finnish-speaking tax collectors from the northern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia reached the northern coasts, their Russian colleagues collected taxes as far west as the Harstad area of Norway and the Norwegian tax collectors collected riches from the inland of the Kola peninsula.

Hence the hunting intensified, and the number of wild reindeer declined. The Sámi were forced to do something else. Reindeer husbandry started in a limited way. These tamed reindeer were trained to divert wild reindeer over a cliff or into hunting ditches. Reindeer husbandry intensified.

The majority of Sámi settled along the inland rivers, fjords or coast. They started augmenting their diet and income by fishing, either sea or freshwater, hunting other game and keeping cows, sheep and goats.

Reindeer and other animals play a central part in Sami culture, though today reindeer husbandry is of dwindling economic relevance for the Sámi people. There is currently (2004) no clear indication when reindeer-raising started, perhaps about 500 AD, but tax tributes were raised in the 16th century. Since the 16th century, Samis have always paid taxes in monetary currency, and some historians have proposed that large scale husbandry is not older than from this period.

Lapponia (1673), written by the rhetorician Johannes Schefferus, is the oldest source of detailed information on Sámi culture. It was written due to "ill-natured" foreign propaganda (in particular from Germany) claiming that Sweden had won victories on the battlefield by means of Sámi magic. In attempts to correct the picture of Sámi culture amongst the Europeans, Magnus de la Gardie started an early 'ethnological' research project to document Sámi groups, conducted by Schefferus. The book was published in late 1673 and quickly translated to French, German, English, and other languages (though not to Swedish until 1956). However, an adapted and abridged version was quickly published in the Netherlands and Germany, where chapters on their difficult living conditions, topography, and the environment had been replaced by made-up stories of magic, sorcery, drums and heathenry. But there was also criticism against the ethnography, claiming Sámi to be more warlike in character, rather than the image Schefferus presented.

Since the 15th century, the Sámi people have traditionally been subjects of Sweden, Norway, Russia and for some time Denmark. In the 16th century Gustav I of Sweden officially claimed that all Sámi should be under Swedish realm. However, the area was shared between the countries (i.e. only Sweden and Norway—at that time the Baltic-Finnic tribes of the region that is now Finland were also subjects of Sweden) and the border was set up to be the water flux line in Fennoscandia. After this "unification", the society, a structure with a few ruling and wealthy citizens called birkarls, ceased to exist, especially with the new king Charles IX who swore by his crown to be the "... Lappers j Nordlanden, the Caijaners" king 1607.[19] During the enforced Christianization of the Sámi people, yoiking, drumming and sacrifices were now abandoned and seen as (juridical terms) "magic" or "sorcery", something that was probably aimed at removing opposition against the crown. The hard custody of Sámi peoples resulted in a great loss of Sámi culture.

In the 1630s Swedish authorities imposed a corveé system on Sámi communities near the Nasa silver mine.[20][21] Mining at the Nasa silver mine proved unprofitable and ended in 1659 it nevertheless caused many Sámi to move to Torne lappmark in the 1640s and 1650s to avoid forced labour.[21] There are reports of Sámi who served in the mining activities becoming extremely impoverished, becoming beggars in consequence.[21]

The boundary agreement between Sweden and Norway (Stromstad Treaty of 1751) had an annex, frequently called Lapp Codicil of 1751, Lappkodicillen or "Sami Magna Carta". It has the same meaning for Sámi even today (or at least till 2005), but is only a convention between Sweden and Norway and does not include Finland and Russia. It regulates how the land is shared by Sámi peoples between the border of Sweden and Norway.

After the 17th century, many Sámi families lost the right to use Swedish land since they were poor and could not pay tribute for it like other subjects. The state also took the Sámi area in tighter control with specific Lappmark Regulations, enforcing non-Sámi settlements on the area. This fostered opposition among Sámi groups that wanted hunting, fishing, and pastoralistic areas back. Instead other groups often took over to put more use to the land. It was also at this time the county of Lappland was established in Sweden.

In the 16th century, as part of a general expansion period for the Russian empire, missionaries were sent to the far reaches of the empire, and several Russian Orthodox chapels were built on the Kola Peninsula. The westernmost advance was St. George's chapel in Neiden/Njavdam near Kirkenes in the Norwegian/Russian borderlands.

On the Norwegian side, the Sámi were converted to the Lutheran faith around 1720. Thomas von Westen was the leading man of the missionary effort, and his methods included the burning of shamanic drums. However, economically the Sámi were not that badly off, compared to the Norwegian population. They were free to trade with whom they wanted, and entertained trade links with Norwegians and Russians alike. However, the crumbling economy of the Norwegian communities along the outer coast led to increased pressure on the land and conflicts between the two communities.

Sámi people, c. 1875

Three Sámi women circa 1890s

The 19th century led to increased interest in the far north.

Sámi camp in Norway, c. 1900, painted by Wilhelm Peters

Sámi people in Norway

In the 20th century, Norwegian authorities put the Sámi culture under pressure in order to make the Norwegian language and culture universal. A strong economical development of the north also took place, giving Norwegian culture and language status. On the Swedish and Finnish side, the authorities were much less militant in their efforts; however, strong economic development in the north led to a weakening of status and economy for the Sámi.

The strongest pressure took place from around 1900 to 1940, when Norway invested considerable money and effort to wipe out Sámi culture. Notably, anyone who wanted to buy or lease state lands for agriculture in Finnmark, had to prove knowledge of the Norwegian language. This also ultimately caused the dislocation in the 1920s, that increased the gap between local Sámi groups, something still present today, and sometimes bears the character of an internal Sámi ethnic conflict.

Just as every portion of the European continent, the circumpolar lands of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Soviet Union were not spared the wrath of World War II. For the Sámi, who had no concept of national sovereignty, the concept of nations fighting over land was alien. Nevertheless, the Sámi would become entrapped in the conflict from all sides. Another factor was the heavy war destruction in northern Finland and northern Norway in 1944–45, destroying all existing houses and visible traces of Sámi culture. After World War II, the pressure was relaxed somewhat.

News in Sámi on national radio in Norway started in 1946. At about the same time, experiments were being done with bilingual teachings of the alphabet in the first and second grade, to ease the learning process. However, the presence of a Sámi minority in Norway was largely ignored. Education, communication, industrialization, all contributed to integrating Sámi communities into Norwegian society at the point of losing identity.

The conflicts between Sámi and the Nordic governments continued into the mid 20th century. The proposed construction of the hydro power dam in the 1960s and 1970s contained controversial propositions such as putting a village (Máze) and a cemetery under water.

Only a minor part is today working with reindeer husbandry. There are also minor groups working as fishermen, producing Sámi arts and serving tourism. Besides having a voting length in the Sámi parliaments (with differing levels of authority and autonomy in various countries) or influence in any Sámi language, the rest are ordinary citizens, adhering to the Scandinavian culture. In Sweden, major parts of Norrland (and not only Sámi villages) are also experiencing major emigration to larger towns.

With the creation of the Republic of Finland in the first half of the 20th century, the Sámi inhabiting this area were no longer under the rule of the Russian Empire, but instead citizens of the newly created state of Finland. The Sámi Parliament of Finland was created in 1973. One recent issue concerning Sámi rights in Finland is the foresting of traditional Sámi land by state-owned Finnish companies.

Since 1992, the Sámi have had their own national day; the February 6.

In 1898 and 1907/08 some Sámi emigrated to Alaska and Newfoundland, respectively, due to requests from the American government. Their mission was to teach reindeer herding to Native Americans.

Map showing area of Scandinavian settlement in

  eighth century

  ninth century

  tenth century

  eleventh century

  denotes areas subjected to frequent Viking raids but with little or no Scandinavian settlement

Kainuu Sámi was spoken in Kainuu, but became extinct in the 1700s. Kainuu Sámi belonged to the Eastern Sámi language group. It died out when the Kainuu Sámi assimilated and was replaced by Finnish.

The original inhabitants of Kainuu were Sámi hunter-fisherers. In the 17th century, the Governor General of Finland Per Brahe fostered the population growth of Kainuu by giving a ten-year tax exemption to settlers. It was necessary to populate Kainuu with Finnish farmers because the area was threatened from the east by the Russians.

There are only 14,600 Sámi living in Sweden today.[26]

Already the ancient Romans knew about the Phinnoi, the people that hunted with arrowheads made from bone. The Scandinavian historical sources from the Middle Ages praise the archery skills of the Sámi as well as their strong bows which a Norwegian “could not string”. The North Sámi called this bow juoksa. A boy turned into a man when he was able to string the bow. At that point, he also had to start paying taxes.

— "Juoksa – The Sámi Bow", Siida, 2010[27]

• Christianization of Scandinavia
• Environmental racism in Europe

• Historiska nyheter No. 62
• A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1
• Sámi Emigration to America
• Sámi Genetic Information
• The Saami Culture, University of Texas
• Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths, Mundal
• Ohthere's Voyage (890 AD) original text with English translation
• The Origin and Deeds of the Goths by Jordanes (551 AD)
• Germania by Tacitus (98 AD)
• The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami—the Story of Genetic "Outliers" Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes, Tambets 2004
• Saami Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Deep Maternal Lineage Clusters, Delghandi 1998
• Saami and Berbers—An Unexpected Mitochondrial DNA Link, Achilli 2005
• Documentary: The Only Image of My Father. The adult daughter of a Sami man, whom she has never met, and who is depicted on a postage stamp, visits present day surviving Sami people looking for her father.