page_title: Sámi people
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sámi people / History
caption_attribution_description: == Summary == العربية: عائلة سامي في النرويج حول 1900 Česky: Laponská rodina v Norsku okolo roku 1900 English: A Sami indigenous northern European family in Norway around 1900. The picture was probably taken in 1896 around the Kanstadfjord near Lødingen, Nordland. The adults on the left are Ingrid (born Sarri) and her husband Nils Andersen Inga. In front of the parents are Berit and Ole Nilsen. The lady on the right is Ellen, sister of Ingrid. In front of Ellen are the children Inger Anna and Tomas. The children of Inger Anna are reindeer herders still today. Description source. Detroit Publishing Co. Print no. 7123 Deutsch: Eine Samenfamilie (Lappen, Lappländer) in Norwegen, um 1900. Français&#160;: Une famille Laponne en Norvège aux alentours de 1900. Español: Una familia Samis en Noruega alrededor de 1900. Suomi: Saamelaisperhe Norjassa noin vuonna 1900. Tiếng Việt: Một gia đình người Sami ở Na Uy khoảng năm 1900. Kurdî: Malbateke samiyan a li Norwêcê, salên 1900'î.
context_page_description: The Sámi people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula within the Murmansk Oblast of Russia. The Sámi have historically been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders. Sámi ancestral lands are not well-defined. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. The terms "Lapp" and "Lapland" are regarded as offensive by some Sámi people, who prefer the area's name in their own language, "Sápmi".
  Traditionally, the Sámi have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sámi are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sámi people are actively involved in reindeer herding on a full-time basis in Norway. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved for only Sámi people in some regions of the Nordic countries.
context_section_description: The Sámi people of Arctic Europe have lived and worked in an area that stretches over the northern parts of the regions currently known as Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. They have inhabited the northern arctic and sub-arctic regions of Fennoscandia for 3,500 years. Before migrating to their present lands, it is believed by researchers that the ancestors of the Sámi lived in the Finno-Ugric homeland, believed to be located in modern Russia. The Sámi are counted among the Arctic peoples and are members of circumpolar groups such as the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat.
  Petroglyphs and archeological findings such as settlements dating from about 10,000 BC can be found in Lapland and Finnmark, although these have not been demonstrated to be related to the Sámi people. These hunters and gatherers of the late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic were named Komsa by the researchers. What they called themselves is unknown.
  The geographical distribution of the Sámi has evolved over the course of history. The Sámi populations most likely migrated from the Ural Mountains region, believed to be the original home of the Finno-Ugric languages, of which the Sámi languages are part. The presence in Sámi populations of Nganasan DNA up to plus or minus 25% and what is clearly the Siberian Y chromosome haplogroup supports this theory. From the Bronze Age the Sámi occupied the area along the coast of Finnmark and the Kola peninsula. This coincides with the arrival of the Siberian genome to Estonia and Finland, which probably corresponds to the introduction of the Finno-Ugric languages in the region.
caption: A Sámi family in Norway around 1900
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