Sámi

[[File:A Lapp family, Norway, 1890s.jpg|right|thumb|165px|A Sámi family photographed in Norway in the 1890s.]]{{race}}[[File:Sami flag.svg|right|thumb|165px|The Sámi flag.]]
The '''Sámi''' are an Uralic ethnic group indigenous to the [[Scandinavia]]n peninsula, comprising the modern-day nations of [[Finland]], [[Sweden]], [[Norway]], and a little bit of [[Russia]]. Like many other aboriginal people, the Sámi contest state land ownership, having never conceded land rights through treaties.<ref>[http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/Background_Papers/bp9798/98Bp15 Indigenous Affairs in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States of America, Norway and Sweden] </ref>

They are primarily known for being the only recognized indigenous people of Scandinavia, and for being [[Santa Claus|Santa]]'s chief competitor in the trade of reindeer herding.

==Origins==
The Sami are an Uralic ethnic group descended from two groups: the first group being Uralic migrants from the Ural Mountains in Russia, who in turn originated in East Asia, having left 2,000 years ago. The second group being indigenous European hunter-gatherers who were directly descended from the first humans to inhabit Europe, and these populations moved into Scandinavia and remained there for thousands of years. These two groups intermixed and the ancestors of the Sami appeared later on. Thus, their genetics reflect a 50/50 mix of Fennoscandian hunter-gatherers and Uralic migrants.<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08003839008580387 On the ethnogenesis of the Sami: An archaeological view] Taylor and Francis online</ref>

==Discrimination==
Undoubtedly the reason that they are even subject to an article on this website, the Sámi people have been subject to state-sanctioned [[discrimination]] and oppression for decades at the hands of countries often considered to be the international role models of [[social democracy]] and [[progressivism]]. 
====Overview====
For the most part, the Sámi people have primarily suffered through the repression of their traditions, culture, and language through campaigns of forced assimilation conducted by the countries that developed over them. Despite assimilation policies, the Sámi culture was, and still is, a target for exoticism and exploitation by the majority. During the turn of the twentieth century, there were also recorded instances of members of the Sámi being toured through continental [[Europe]] as a part of people zoos.<ref name="CTB">[https://crossingthebaltic.com/2012/09/21/the-finnification-of-the-sami-people-a-silenced-history/ "The ‘Finnification’ of The Sami People: A Silenced History". ''Crossing the Baltic'']</ref> In the same era, Sámi people were considered by the [[Racialism|pseudoanthropologists]] of the day to be of a "uraloid type" or ""Lappid race" and therefore "inferior" to "Nordid Europeans."<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20181004063042/http://humanphenotypes.net/basic/Lappid.html</ref>

During [[World War II]], many were conscripted by their respective countries' militaries along with the ethnic majority citizens (Norwegians, Swedes, Finns).<ref name="Johnson">[https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/dieda/hist/wwii.htm Ãlehtta. "The Sami and World War II". ''The University of Texas at Austin'']</ref>

Reindeer herding was introduced by the Sámi, and it is still the stereotypical Sámi occupation. As with all stereotypes, this is grossly oversimplified: not all Sámi are reindeer herders, and not all reindeer herders are Sámi. Along with the majority, Sámi people have taken up modern occupations. A large number have moved to big cities: in Finland, the city with the largest Sámi population in Finland is the capital Helsinki, despite the Sámi being a tiny minority there.<ref>http://pohjoiskarjalankarjalaisseurat.net/saamelaiskulttuuri-suomessa/</ref> Likewise, reindeer herding is also practiced by some ethnic Finns in Lapland. Only in Sweden, the occupation is legally reserved to the Sámi. The main problem with reindeer herding is uncertainty over land rights and borders. Unlike cattle, which is fully domesticated, the reindeer are semi-domesticated and are are left to roam (mostly) free. This necessitates freedom of movement regardless of land ownership. This has caused friction between reindeer herders and the state and the majority. Reindeer are often killed by natural predators such as wolves, which means that predator conservation policies are not well-liked, and also by human activity such as collisions with trains or cars.

====Norway====
About two-thirds of the total Sámi population reside in what is now [[Norway]],<ref name="Strømsnes">[http://at.yorku.ca/c/a/m/m/60.htm Strømsnes, Kristin (2004). "Multicultural Citizenship as Sámi in Norway". ''ISTR Sixth International Conference'']</ref> with an estimated population of  40,000 to 45,000, 1 percent of the Norwegian population. Rather than use a system of blood quanta, Norway considers anyone whose grandparents spoke Sámi as their first language, and recognized by the representative Sámi, as being Sámi and living within their rules.<ref>Sillanpaa, Lennard. A comparative analysis of indigenous rights in Fennoscandia. Scandinavian Political Studies, 20 (3) 1997: 197-217.</ref> They, as well as other indigenous groups in the country, were for centuries subject to the policy of Norwegianization, which was basically your standard forced cultural assimilation that included suppression of Sámi traditions and cultural practices, [[Linguistic discrimination|most notably the languages,]] which Norwegian schools banned Sámi children from using up through the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century, which is probably why half of the historical languages spoken by Sámi in the region are now extinct, with the other half being varied levels of endangered.<ref name="UNRIC">[http://www.unric.org/en/indigenous-people/27307-the-sami-of-northern-europe--one-people-four-countries "The Sámi of Northern Europe – one people, four countries". ''United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe'']</ref>

A recent issue revolves around the Alta controversy, in which the Norwegian government actually legitimately considered the prospect of building a hydraulic dam that would have turned the Sámi village of Máze into a lake.<ref name="WikiAlta">{{wpa|Alta controversy|Alta controversy}}</ref> The incident inspired a number of fictional works both in Norway and elsewhere, most famously the subplot of the 2019 [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] animated musical ''[[Frozen#The lost and dam(n)ed|Frozen II]]'', where Elsa and Anna are depicted as of partial Northuldran descent from their mother's side,{{efn|Kristoff is confirmed by the film's producers as of Sámi descent, which raises some confusion.<ref>Lee, Jennifer (September 23, 2013). "Frozen Final Shooting Draft", page 1. </ref>}} and their grandfather King Ruenard built the dam under the false pretence of a gift to the Northuldra — a tribe based on the real-life Sámi — only for it to be actually a way to further subjugate the tribe, who was viewed by Ruenard as [[pagan]] [[heathen]]s.<ref name="altafrozen">{{Cite journal |last1=Kvidal-Røvik |first1=Trine |last2=Cordes |first2=Ashley |date=2020-12-02 |title=Into the unknown [Amas Mu Vuordá]? Listening to Indigenous voices on the meanings of Disney's Frozen 2 [Jikŋon 2] |journal=Journal of International and Intercultural Communication |volume=15 |pages=17–35 |doi=10.1080/17513057.2020.1849774 |issn=1751-3057|doi-access=free |hdl=10037/29263 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Utsi">{{Cite web |date=4 March 2020 |title=FilmQuest - The Northuldra of Scandinavia |url=https://www.filmquest.co/stories/the-northuldra-of-scandinavia/ |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=www.filmquest.co |language=en}}</ref> In honour of this, Disney went on to commission a special Sámi dub of the film under the localised name ''Jikŋon 2'', in collaboration with the Sami Parliament on the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish sides and the Saami Council.<ref name="samidub">{{Cite web |title=Frozen II in Sami (Jikŋon II) |url=https://en.iyil2019.org/events/frozen-ii-in-sami-jiknon-ii-5-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2/ |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=2019 - International Year of Indigenous Language}}</ref><ref name="Niskanen">{{Cite book |last=Niskanen |first=Niina |url=https://www.google.com.ph/books/edition/Mythology_Of_The_S%25C3%25A1mi/s0DZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=kristoff+S%25C3%25A1mi&pg=PT78&printsec=frontcover |title=Mythology Of The Sámi |date=2023-09-26 |publisher=Niina Niskanen |language=en}}</ref>

====Finland====
The Sámi of [[Finland]] reside in the northernmost regions of the country, called Lapland, which has earned them the English moniker "Laplanders". Despite being closely related to Finns (as Uralic peoples mixed with indigenous Scandinavians), the  Sámi experienced basically the same sort of assimilative policies present in other countries, largely as a result of post-[[World War II]] [[Nationalism|nationalistic]] sentiment within the country.<ref name="CTB"></ref> Contemporarily, they encounter marginalization through being considered a linguistic minority rather than an ethnic group.<ref name="UNRIC"></ref> Their treatment as a  linguistic minority is based on the belief that {{wpl|Sámi languages}} have a nearest common linguistic ancestor with Finnish languages, but this is not a consensus view in linguistics.<ref>T. Salminen: Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies. — Лингвистический беспредел: сборник статей к 70-летию А. И. Кузнецовой. Москва: Издательство Московского университета, 2002. 44–55.</ref>

====Sweden====
The Sámi are estimated to number 17,000 people or 0.2 percent of the [[Sweden|Swedish]] population. The budget allotted by the Swedish government for the Sámi Parliament from July 1995 to December 1996 was approximately KrS15m (0.0009 per cent of GDP).<ref>Figures obtained from the Sámi Parliament's homepage at: http://www.sametinget.se (March 1998).</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[Frozen]]'', a [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] animated feature where the Sámi are portrayed and/or alluded to, even more so in the second film (represented by a fictional tribe called the Northuldra).

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140213173205/http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/sami/an/i2/i2.html Sami in Sweden], Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Finland]]
[[Category:Norway]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Sweden]]

Categories: Ethnic groups, Finland, Norway, Racism, Sweden