The Saami People of Northern Scandinavia, Finland and Russia

The Sami or Saami (Lapp) people have inhabited the northern portions of Scandinavia, Finland and eastward over the Russian Kola Peninsula since ancient times. Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden claim territories in what is now regarded as Sapmi (Lapland). The term Lapp is now considered offensive as it is thought to mean a patch for mending cloth, and the preferred name is now Sami or Saami. In Lapland now referred to as Sápmi, the Saami tended herds of domesticated reindeer, harvested marine resources along the coast, caught fish in the rivers and lakes, and hunted wild reindeer as well as small game. Although some Saami living along the coast were relatively sedentary, inland communities tended to move annually from semi permanent winter villages to spring, summer and autumn camps. Today, roughly 10% of the Saami are associated with reindeer herding and 2,800 are actively occupied in herding on a full-time basis.
The Saami is thought to have followed the glaciers northward as they receded at the end of the last ice age with first written accounts of their existence documented by the Romans in 98 AD. The Romans described them as inadequate and lacking weapons, houses or horses. A number of archeological sites in northern Norway, have dates back to over 10,000 years ago, and are thought to demonstrate evidence of the continuous habitation of Sapmi lands since that time. It is not known if the Saami have occupied these lands since the last glacial period but it is believed that they are the descendants of the original post glacial inhabitants. Like all most northern indigenous peoples of this time, the Sami survived by hunting and gathering. Due to this long history in the arctic, they have created complex social and cultu...

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...end government Sami schools or regular municipal nine-year schools where they can also receive instruction in Sami.
However, despite the fact that decade’s worth of progress in rights and attitudes towards the Sáami have occurred, today’s youth still feel pressure to assimilate and face torment from others. Recently it has been observed as with Alaska Native youth that Sámi young has been committing suicide at alarming rates. In regards to this trend the head of the Sáami’s youth council, Paulus Kuoljok, said, “We Sámi often face stereotypes and have to defend ourselves all the time,” he added that, “There are few employees at my own work place Sáami background. I often hear things like ‘damn Lapp’ and that we Sámi have things so good because we can fish and hunt where we want to and we always get welfare payments” much like the whites confer on natives in America.