Sami People - of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark

Meet Europes only Indigenous people, The Sami | Slow Tours

Who they are:  The Sammi people are also called Lapp.  They are a group of indigenous peoples who come from the Lapland and adjacent areas of northern Norway,  Sweden and Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia.

Their language:  There are three Sami languages which are mutually unintelligible and sometimes considered different dialects of the same language.    Almost all Sami people are now bilingual and speak not only their original Sami language but also the language of the country they reside in (Norwegian,  Swedish,  Finish).  

Their culture:  The Sami people are descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northern Scandinavia for thousands of year.   Reindeer herding was the basis of their economy until very recently.   The reindeer herding Sami lived in tents or turf huts and migrated with their herds with units of five or six families.   

My experience with Sami people:   I met people from Sami at the Artic Winter Games in Greenland.  Although there were no athletes from Sami in my discipline which is snowboarding,  they are very strong athletes in the cross country skiing discipline.     



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