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A brief Saami
history |
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.It is believed that the Saami arrived on the
Fenno-Scandinavian peninsula just over 10,000 bpe. They are
considered the first residents of this area.
The Saami followed their food sources that moved northward behind
the retreating glaciers. They eventually inhabited all of
present-day Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula
southward almost to present-day Tallinn, Estonia. (Important Years
in Saami History, 1996) |
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As the Saami inhabited the
different ecosystems they adapted to the conditions. On the
coastal fjords and bays of Norway, they utilized the resources of
the sea. In the mountains and forests farther inland, hunting and
gathering became the norm. The inland lakes of Finland and
Northwestern Russia were used for their abundant pike, trout and
other freshwater fish. For some of the Saami away from major
fishing areas, reindeer became the major food source. (Baer, 1994,
51)
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With time, the people who
make up the dominant ethnic groups of present-day Norway, Sweden,
and Finland moved into the homeland of the Saami due to pressure
from competing tribes in the south. The first documented contact
between these two groups came in the ninth century, when Ottar of
the Norwegian Vikings traveled far to the north and east (Kola
Peninsula).
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Eventually,
the rulers of Fenno-Scandia realized the wealth of resources
available in the North. They tried to cement their land claims in
Sapmi through settlement and taxation. [2]
By taxing the locals, each country proved their sovereignty. At
one point, three different monarchs held claim to Northern
Fenno-Scandia and simultaneously levied taxes on the same Saami to
prove it.
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Eventually the three nations worked out their
land-claim issues in the mid-eighteenth century. (Dellenbrant,
1997, 163) Norway’s Finnmark borders became very similar to what
they are today. Sweden and Russia split up the land that would
later become Finland. |
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In the nineteenth century Saami were viewed to be
at a lower social evolutionary level than other Scandinavians. As
Social Darwinism advanced it became the national desire to lift
the Saami from their wretched circumstances and help them progress
to modernity through education. It was also seen as a form of
equality to educate the Saami as other Scandinavians. The
government policy was to educate the Saami children. In Norway it
was called Norweganization. This policy allowed the Saami to ‘catch up’
with the Nordic ethnic majority in formal education. Saami
language and culture was ‘harmful’ and Norwegian or Swedish
language and culture was ‘progressive’. |
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