Also known as: Saami, Sapmi, Same, Finner, Lapps

A people who probably originated in the Urals and have links not only with the Komi, Mordvins, Mari and Udmurts but also with the Finns and Estonians, the Sami are believed to have been the first inhabitants of the Scandinavian Far North, where they have lived since the time of Tacitus, who called them "Fenni". Found in Norway (where they total 40,000), Sweden (15,000), Finland (4,000) and Russia (2,000 in the Kola Peninsula), they are characterised by their perception of reindeer breeding as the cornerstone of their cultural, linguistic and national identity. There are three main Sami dialects, each embracing a dozen or so sub-dialects and some of the variants differ so widely that their speakers have difficulty understanding one another (in fact, the root of communication problems would seem to lie in the fact that the ancestral language has been forgotten to different degrees by different groups). Sami involved in stock rearing lead a partially nomadic lifestyle, following the reindeer herds, but the majority are settled. (Mobile schools have been set up for the nomad children.) Having been persecuted and exploited by the majority nations for centuries, they managed to assert themselves politically after the Second World War, initially in Finland and then in the other countries. A dual criterion has been established for Sami identity (given practical expression by registration on the list of Sami voters): a person must identify himself or herself as a Sami and he or she (or at least one parent or grandparent) must speak Sami in the home. In Sweden only, the fact of having a parent or grandparent registered as a Sami is acceptable in place of the language condition. The community has a parliament (the Sámiráddi), a flag and anthem, a university and many other institutions.
Traditional Sami culture – and particularly the Yoik, a sort of improvised vocal melody (comparable to the Albanian kaba) evoking or depicting a remembered object or event non-verbally – was forbidden by the church for many years on account of it shamanistic origins. There is a rich tradition of oral literature but a written literature began to develop only in the 20th century (with the first Sami novel written in 1912). The Sami language was not used in schools until the 1970s.
The Sami population gave birth to an alternative protestant church, founded in 1844 by Lars Levu Læstadius.

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