When the stock of wild reindeer decreased after the Middle
ages some of the families in inland siidas started to keep
reindeer herds. No siida had enough grazing land for such
big herds. The reindeer had to be moved from the inland plains
to the coast and back again every year, crossing many siidas.
This was one of the reasons for the decline of the siida
system. Pressure from other people (Norwegians, Swedes, Finns,
Russians) colonizing Sami land was another.
In the coastal areas most of the Sami never had reindeer
herds. They lived as farmers and fishermen, a traditional
combination along the Norwegian coast. In the later centuries
other groups have moved in among them, mainly Norwegians
and Kvens (immigrants from Finland).
From the 1700s pressure against Sami culture grew. In Norway
the authorities tried to "norwegianize" the Sami,
using the school, the church and the laws as means in this
policy. Social-darwinistic and nationalistic ideas played
a significant role as an ideological base. Things have changed
to the better the last twenty years.
This is only a crude sketch of the always interesting and
sometimes tragic history of the Sami people. The Net has
a lot of good information if you wish to learn more - try
for instance this website. You'll find many useful links
there.
Lapps, Finns or Sami?
In earlier times the Sami were called Lapps (as in Lapland
and Lappmarken) and Finns (as in Finnmark and Finland).
During the centuries when they were suppressed by their
majority neighbours the names 'Lapp' and 'Finn' acquired
a disparaging value (in English the word 'Finn' means an
inhabitant of Finland).
In the last decades Sami (or same in Norwegian and Swedish),
derived from their own word sámit, has replaced the
older names.
How many Sami?
Assimilation makes it difficult to give exact numbers for
the Sami population today. They are at least 30 thousand,
but they may be twice as many. The majority lives in Norway,
where population numbers are at their most uncertain. Not
only has assimilation gone very far in many areas, in addition
a lot of Sami have moved to other parts of the country.
Russia has the smallest part. There are two thousand Sami
on the Kola peninsula, fighting to survive as an ethnic group.
A life-threatening environment in only one of their enemies!
The language
The Sami language is related to - but very different from
- Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. Is it divided into many
dialects. Over the centuries each of these dialects developed
until most of them became mutually unintelligible. However,
the North Sami dialect is spoken by a majority of the population,
and is the most used dialect in literature and education.
Almost all Sami speak the official language of the state
where they live, but far from all speak Sami. However, the
Sami language is now expanding among the groups who lost
it due to assimilation and cultural suppression.
Sami names
The coastal Sami in Norway use the same naming patterns and
more or less the same names as the Norwegians, and have
done so for at least 150 years. This applies to first names
as well as surnames.
Among the inland Sami there are other names and naming traditions.
They have used hereditary family names for many generations,
for instance Hætta, Somby, Turi, Magga and so on. These
are names used in the north. Among the 'south Sami' mountain
names are often used as surnames, for instance Dunfjeld,
Kvitfjell and Kappfjell.
In all the four countries Sami naming patterns have been
influenced by the surrounding traditions. At the Kola Peninsula
you will find that most Sami have very Russian-sounding names.
However, in Norway, Sweden and Finland it's usually quite
easy to recognize a name as Sami.
What do a Sami look like?
Let me answer this way: Tall or small and every height between,
blue or brown eyes - slanted or not slanted at all, from
very fair to very dark hair, high or medium or low cheekbones.
You've got the picture?
Of course you can recognize the Sami when they wear their
traditional costumes. But again, the variation is great,
with many different costumes, dependent of what region the
Sami belong to, and also what kind of costume they are wearing.
Sami and the reindeer
The reindeer-herding Sami is a minority in their own culture,
in Norway less than 10% of the Sami population there. But
this group has always been proud keepers of the traditional
values in their culture, let it be costumes, joik (their
songs), lavvu (their tents), language or other cultural
traits.
The traditional reindeer-herding is threatened in many ways,
but the Sami culture is more vital than it was a hundred
years ago. Today you'll find well-educated and gifted Sami
in almost every imaginable occupation on all levels of the
society. They may not have a reindeer herd in the mountains,
but they are without doubt Sami and proud of it.
Sami emigration?
Yes, a group of Sami emigrated to America a hundred years
ago. Their descendants are aware of their Sami roots. However,
many emigrants from the Nordic majority peoples had Sami
ancestors, perhaps without knowing it. This is at least
true for the Norwegians. So, if your ancestors came from
Nordland, Troms or Finnmark counties in Norway, be prepared
to add a new ethnic dimension to your ancestry!
Bygdebok and the Sami
Don't expect to find any information about the Sami in a
bygdebok written by a Norwegian before 1980 or even later
than that. And if you find some Sami history there it will
in most cases be inaccurate and given far less attention
than it deserves. This reflects attitudes with roots back
in times when the Sami culture was looked upon as inferior
compared with Norwegian culture.
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