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The Saami are northern Scandinavia's indigenous people. When Sápmi, or Saamiland was colonized many of the old reindeer grazing areas disappeared and with them some of the history forming the Saami cultural inheritance was also lost. The damages from taxation, racism, and ruthless exploitation need time to heal. Therefore, it is important from the Swedish perspective, to remember another history that is not focused on the Vikings or heroic kings.

A hunting and gathering people become reindeer herders

10,000 years ago the forefathers of the Saami hunted moose and game and carved pictures of these animals in the rocks of northern Norway. A century after the birth of Christ, the Roman author Tacitus described the people called "fenni" who dressed in animal skins and slept on the ground. They are also mentioned in texts from the 700s where they it is described how they hunted game over the snow with curved pieces of wood strapped to their feet. The hunting of wild reindeer declined during the 1500s however, and this hunting people adapted their survival strategy to become herders of semi-domesticated reindeer. Along the coast, many Saami became dedicated fishermen.

 

Reindeer
Boat

Colonialism

During this period much of the reindeer grazing land was colonized by settlers and the state required taxes from the nomadic Saami. In the 1600s, silver ore was discovered near the Norrbotten area of Nasafjäll. The Saami were pressed into ore transport using their reindeer as draft animals. Those who refused to cooperate were keel-hauled under the ice. That was the beginning of the Swedish state's claim to the forests, water power and mineral resources in the region where the Saami had lived so long before.

 

 

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Last updated
08/15/2001

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