The Sami People 1

The Northern part of the Lapland Region, belongs to the subarctic climate zone. The number of fells is highest in the Inari-Utsjoki area and in Enontekiö. The majority of fells are low and smooth in profile, but the elevated terrain of the Enontekiö area in the northwestern arm of Finland features many great fells higher than 1,000 meters from the sea level. Mountain birch is the most common tree species, while pine forests are only found in the river valleys. There are large bare, treeless highland areas. There are large barren lakes, and there are also innumerable smaller lakes and ponds. Wetlands are relatively rare, and the scenery is characterized by large rivers and fells.

The Sami people are the only indigenous people in the European Union area. The Sami homeland Sapmi spans national borders and includes areas in Norway, Sweeden, Finland, and Russia. In Finland, Sapmi includes the northern Lapland municipalities Utsjoki, Enontekiö and Inari, as well as the Lapland reindeer herding cooperative area in the Sodankyla municipality, effectively the area of the Vuotso village. More than 50 percent of the approximately 10,000 Sami people in Finland live outside Sapmi.

The Sami people do not have a nation state of their own. They have their own forms of governance to administer the affairs of the Sami community. In Finland, the autonomous Sami governing body is called the Sami Parliament.

The Sami have their own history, world view, languages, distinctive music and crafts tradition, and traditional sources of livelihood. The most important and oldest of which is reindeer herding.

The Sami culture, customs, and sources of livelihood change as time passes. The traditional joik singing and its influence can still be heard in contemporary Sami music, and Sami crafts, duodji, incorporate both traditional and contemporary influences. A person who is familiar with the culture can tell by the Sami dress, gakti, its wearer’s home area and the family they belong to. The Sami culture is not homogeneous but rather diverse, rich, and with lots of regional and local variations.

Information panels of the Arcticum Museum Rovaniemi.