The Sami are the indigenous people of Sapmi, the region spanning northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia's Kola Peninsula, traditionally associated with semi-nomadic reindeer husbandry, though historically and today only a minority of Sami practice reindeer herding directly, with coastal, forest and river Sami communities pursuing fishing and other livelihoods. Sami communities were subject to extensive, well-documented state assimilation policies (including Norwegianization and Swedification programs and forced boarding-school education) from the nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century, and each of Norway, Sweden and Finland has since established a Sami Parliament with defined, though limited, self-governing authority over cultural and, in Norway and Sweden, certain land-use matters. Sami reindeer-herding rights and land use remain an active and documented subject of legal and political dispute with state and commercial interests, including wind-energy and mining development, in the Nordic countries today. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own accountIndigenous ethnic group 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNorthern Europe (Sápmi region spanning northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia's Kola Peninsula) 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own accountSami languages (Northern, Southern, Lule, Inari, Skolt and other varieties, several severely endangered) 1 Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically reindeer husbandry (a legally protected and exclusive Sami livelihood right in parts of Norway and Sweden today), alongside fishing and, in some regions, coastal and river subsistence economies. 1 Disputed
Population Estimateestimated 80,000 to 100,000 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountNo Nordic state maintains an official ethnic register of Sami identity as a matter of policy (to avoid the misuse such registers suffered under earlier state assimilation programs), so totals rely on self-identification surveys and language-speaker counts. Connections
Associated With
Traditional Sami religion centered on the noaidi, a shamanic ritual specialist who used trance, drumming and a spirit-helper journey to mediate with the spirit world.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Sami
WikipediaIntroductionQuote, Introduction
The Sámi are the traditionally Sámi-speaking indigenous people inhabiting the region of Sápmi.
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