Sámi

Proven Enduring

“The Sámi are the only indigenous people of the European Union. The Sámi are descendants of the people who first inhabited the northern regions of Fennoscandia shortly after the end of the the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago. Ethnically, the Sámi people was formed when the Sámi language and Finnish became two distinct languages around 2000 BC due to differences in livelihoods and culture. The traditional Sámi livelihoods are fishing, gathering, handicrafts, hunting and reindeer herding and the modern ways of practising them. The status of the Sámi was written into the Finnish constitution in 1995. The Sámi have, as an indigenous people, the right to maintain and develop their own language, culture and traditional livelihoods.“

*Taken directly from the Sámi website

What are the beliefs and practices of my people regarding how a human being is meant to exist in relationship with a living earth?

Explore questions for each quote below by clicking the image.

Peoples Blog

“The roots are where it starts… Sun, moon, land, animals are important… I am not the main thing here, the human.”

Ursula Länsman (oor-soo-lah lahnz-man), Inari Sami reindeer herder

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Life was fond of us. The sun in heaven’s space and the earth sought in its arms gifts. The reindeer roamed, the salmon climbed.”

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (neels-ah-slock fahl-kay-ah-pah), Sami poet

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“The river cannot be separated from the families, and the families cannot be separated from the salmon.”

Pauliina Feodoroff (pow-leen-nah fee-oh-door-off), President of the Skolt Sámi Nation Council

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“My grandfather knew the soul of salmon.”

Vladimir Feodoroff (vlad-ee-meer fee-oh-door-off), Skolt Sami fisherman

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Proven Resilient

“From the 16th century onwards, the Sámi society was increasingly caught up in drastic changes caused by outsiders. The Nordic countries started to take control of the land of the Sámi by religious converting, supporting settlement and replacing the Sámi way of administration with a Nordic administrative system. Along with the establishment of present state boundaries, the Sámi area was gradually divided up. When settlement increased in the 19th century, the Nordic states launched a conscious assimilation policy which favoured the interests of the dominant population. The Sámi started to lose their own language and culture. Since the ethnic awakening in the 1960s, a variety of measures have been taken to preserve the Sámi languages. The Sámi Language Act of 1992 made Sámi an official language.”

*Taken directly from the Sámi website