Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-14
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
ROu THE p

ABOUT THE
A Lapp Ambassador" from the
J Swedish north country who recently
| visited the King of Sweden to com-
| plain that Swedish frontiersmen
threaten the existence of his people
by interfering with %pasturage for
their reindeer, r~eintroduces these
rovers of the Arctic to a world that
had almost forgotten them. A Dull
letin from the Washington, D.. ca
headquarters of the National Geo
graphic Society tells something of
what it terms these queer little
folk who live under the rays of the
midnight un-and the darkness Of
the winter midday"
'The Lapps are observation-disclosures
internationalists," says the bulletlE.
"Lik the Papago Indians of Ari-
IONA and Mexico and the forest
jewellers along the Brazilian-Peru-
Wan line, they have a lofty disre-
gard for political boundaries; they
not only cross as they see fit, but
take great herds of reindeer with
them, pasturing them today in
Sweden and tomorrow in Norway
with scant ceremony.
Nomadism Must be Served
THE Lappland of maps spreads
into four distinct countries: Nor
aSt DIV CdSlA a e1lAo 49,
Once the Lapps paid no attention
whatever to any of the boundary
lines in their region. But Rus
sian and Finnish boundaries were
eventually closed officially against
Norway and Sweden; and while
some struggling still takes place, the
larger movements were stopped.
Norway and Sweden, however, take
official cognizance of the needs OF
their nomadic ioint-citizens and
have a treaty agreement whereby
Lapps may cross from Sweden in
| summer and move to Norway $
! northwest coast, and in the win
ter may cross from Norway to in
land Sweden.
aside from the real dwarf peo-
pies, such as the pygmies of CEN
trail Africa, the Laps are the small
est people in the Eastern Hemis-
phere Their average height is in
the neighborhood of four feet, seve1
inches-a physical condition as
cribed to the age-long wanderings
of their ancestors in the frozen,
cherries region of the north. 1t has
| even been suggested hat the Laps
We're the first inhabitants of the
frozen zone after the great glacial
sheet of the Ice Age receded and
made Nothern Europe habitable.
Many centuries ago they are sup
POSED to have lived through the
Scandinavian peninsula, but with
the arrival of other peoples they
were forced farther north .
Life Conferred About Reindeer
THE reindeer is the typical ami
NAL of Lappland and about it their
life has conferred for ages. 1t carries
them upon its back and draws their
1aaI1 -tra- Nh a., ,,i11- nAl nhnnCl
and meat for food, clothes them
with its skins, and furnishes mate
rails for implements and utensils
from its bones. The typical life of a
Lapplander has ever been hat of a
pomadic herder, living in tents and
following his herds to new locations
when seasonal changes and pastur-
age necessities dictated.
THE LappS have been decreasing
in numbers in late years, and Lapp-
land is now far from beng a land
peopled predominantly BY Lapps,
and still less by Lapp nomads. IN
Swedish Lappland, for example,
only about seven per cent of the
inhabitants are Lapps. 1t is the
pushing in of more settled people
that has made life so hard for the
rowing aborigines. And there has
been a %desertion of nomadism by
some Laps. Where on Lapp' and
reindeer herdsmen' were synony-
mouI, there are now numerous set
tied. agricultural Lapps; and others
who fish for a living. Some have
turned miner in the rich iron fields
of Swedish Lappland.
Lapps Help Establish Great Amer
lean Industry
Christianity was taken to the
Laps only in the last few centuries
and there are observers who still
question whether their somewhat
confused religious ideas are no e
strongly marked by Christian or
pagan practices. The Russian
Lapps especially seem to insist on
thoroughgoing pragmatism in Their
religion. 1t is told of those along
the Arctic coast hat they make
offerings at the shrine of Boris
Gloh when starting on a fishing ex-
pedition, and that if they are I'M
successful they st~raightway retrieve
their offerings! These same Rus
sian Lapps, up to a few decades agD,
preferred TO steal their brides from
an enemy or a stranger rather than
to obtain her by purchase or per-
suasion.
THE United States is largely in
debtcd to Lapps for an important
and rapidly growing industry. The
first efforts to introduce reindeer
into Alaska were not very success
full because of a lack of expert
knowledge in breeding. and herd
management Several score LappS
w re induced to go to Alaska to
take charge of the enterprise in
1898, and their skill gave reindeer
raising there a great boost. The
natives learned from the Laps, and
now hundreds OF thousands of
reindeer in Alaska are turning 9TH
erwise useless moss into food and
clothing materials for the Terri
DRY and the States as WELL"