The Smi are experiencing cultural and environmental threats, including: oil exploration, mining, dam building, logging, climate change, military bombing ranges, tourism and commercial development. In recent years, several archaeological finds indicate a Smi presence in southern Norway in the Middle Ages, and in southern Sweden,[39] including finds in Lesja, in Vang, in Valdres and in Hol and l in Hallingdal. That is amazing! Russia has not recognized the Smi as a minority and, as a result, recognizes no Smi parliament, even if the Smi people there have formed an unrecognised Smi Parliament of Russia. On 16 November 2005 in Helsinki, a group of experts, led by former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway Professor Carsten Smith, submitted a proposal for a Nordic Smi Convention to the annual joint meeting of the ministers responsible for Smi affairs in Finland, Norway and Sweden and the presidents of the three Smi Parliaments from the respective countries. Oil spills affect fishing and the construction of roads. Galleries such as Smi Diddaguovdd (Sami Center for Contemporary Art)[111] are being established. 2) No-one is exactly sure how many Smi people there are, but estimates range from between 50,000 - 200,000! [165] Sacred sites were destroyed, such as sieidi (stones in natural or human-built formations), lda and sivu (sacred hills), springs, caves and other natural formations where offerings were made. Many foreigners associate Finns and other Nordic people with blonde hair, fair features, and blue eyes, . One was Finnish and the remaining five were Karelian. Thus, closing the fishery to locals may have violated the test articulated by the U.N. Human Rights Committee and disregarded the Land Code, other legislative acts, and the 1992 Presidential decree. [67], The Swedish government has allowed the world's largest onshore wind farm to be built in Pite, in the Arctic region where the Eastern Kikkejaure village has its winter reindeer pastures. [50][56], As the Sea Smi settled along Norway's fjords and inland waterways, pursuing a combination of farming, cattle raising, trapping and fishing, the minority Mountain Smi continued to hunt wild reindeer. The middle world is like the Norse Midgard, it is the dwelling of humans and it is associated with the color red. They cover northern and central Norway. Recent genetic studies have indicated that the two most frequent maternal lineages of the Smi people are the haplogroups V and U5b, ancient in Europe. Residents of remote communities have neither the power nor the resources to demand enforcement of their rights. Norway has been criticized internationally for the politics of Norwegianization of and discrimination against the Smi. [44], This socioeconomic balance greatly changed when bubonic plague came to northern Norway in December 1349. Though they are an Arctic culture, Sami are fair-haired and light-skinned. The Smi ( / smi / SAH-mee; also spelled Sami or Saami) are the traditionally Smi -speaking people inhabiting the region of Spmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. In the far east of the Smi area, the Russian monk Trifon converted the Smi in the 16th century. Since 1993, Norway, Sweden and Finland have recognized 6 February as Smi National Day. [12][17] This etymology has superseded older speculations that the word might be related to fen. The first probable historical mention of the Smi, naming them Fenni, was by Tacitus, about AD98. [53][54] After many years of continuous migration, these Sea Smi became far more numerous than the reindeer-herding mountain Smi, who today only make up 10% of all Smi. The following towns and villages have a significant Smi population or host Smi institutions (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or Russian name in parentheses): In the geographical area of Spmi, the Smi are a small population. The Scandinavians discriminated against them and called them "Lapps," a term of contempt. ", "Smi | People, History, & Lifestyle | Britannica", "Smi Shamanism from a Diachronic Point of View", "Magic mushrooms & Reindeer Weird Nature BBC animals", "The Decline of the Smi People's Indigenous Religion", "Shamanism Approved as a Religion in Norway", "Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe: Table 1 Sample information", "The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saamithe Story of Genetic "Outliers" Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes", "Sweden's 'dark legacy' draws crowds to museum", "Sterilisation on eugenic grounds in Europe in the 1930s: news in 1997 but why? Lichens and mosses are two of the main forms of vegetation in the Arctic and are highly susceptible to airborne pollutants and heavy metals. [43] According to old Nordic texts, the Sea Smi and the Mountain Smi are two classes of the same people and not two different ethnic groups, as had been erroneously believed. The Sami are the descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northern Scandinavia for thousands of years. [59], Norway has also accepted international conventions, declarations and agreements applicable to the Smi as a minority and indigenous people including:[88]. Suomi and its adjectival form suomalainen must come from *sme-/sma-. Physical characteristics of Finnish people. [45] Depending on the parish, 60 to 76 percent of northern Norwegian farms were abandoned following the plague,[46] while land-rents, another measure of population, dropped to 928% of pre-plague levels. [48] The Smi lived on fish and reindeer meat, and did not eat wheat or rye. Get uplifting news, exclusive offers, inspiring stories and activities to help you and your family explore and learn. [119], The Smi have traditionally played both card games and board games, but few Smi games have survived, because Christian missionaries and Laestadianists considered such games sinful. Increased pressure came after the Protestant Reformation, and rune drums were burned or sent to museums abroad. [170] Out of the estimated thousands of drums before this period, only about 70 are known to remain today, scattered in museums around Europe. The main organisations for Smi representation in Sweden are the siidas. Hats vary by sex, season, and region. On their journey, they used the ancient river routes of northern Russia. The Sami are ethnically and genetically distinct from other Norwegians and faced a lot of discrimination within Norway in the past. Smi people were exhibited with their traditional lavvu tents, weapons, and sleds, beside a group of reindeer at Tierpark Hagenbeck[189] and other zoos across the globe. Are you wrapped up warm and ready to go? Violations of the rights of indigenous peoples continue, and oil, gas, and mineral development and other activities, (mining, timber cutting, commercial fishing, and tourism) that bring foreign currency into the Russian economy. They often are based on syllablic improvisation. Siida, Cultural and Nature Centre of the Smi, and Sajos, the Centre of Smi Culture and Administration, are both located in the heart Inari and are just a 10-minute walk apart.. At Siida, you can get to know Smi culture and explore the wonders of Arctic nature. The Smi people shall decide the area of activity of the Norwegian Smi Parliament. [78] On 8 April 2011, recommendations from the UN Racial Discrimination Committee were delivered to Norway, addressing many issues related to the legacy of Norwegianization policies, including the need for more Smi language education, interpreters, and cultural support. Ask a parent or guardian to check it out first and remember to stay safe online. The Smi languages are relatively closely related, but not mutually intelligible; for instance, speakers of Southern Smi cannot understand Northern Smi. In August 1986, it became the Smi anthem. Borvo 2001, p. 33; Depaulis, Thierry (2001). Most Smi languages are spoken in several countries, because linguistic borders do not correspond to national borders. The logging has been under the control of the state-run forest system. Special residential schools that would assimilate the Smi into the dominant culture were established. In winter, there is the addition of a reindeer fur coat and leggings, and sometimes a poncho (luhkka) and rope/lasso. I saw a movie called Klaus and it had the Sami people. When the Finns entered Finland, beginning about ad 100, Sami settlements were probably dispersed over the whole of that country; today they are confined to its northern extremity. Rather, each of the aforementioned three countries has set up its own separate legislatures for Smi people, even though the three Smi Parliaments often work together on cross-border issues. There is no single Smi language, but a group of ten distinct Smi languages. Here and elsewhere in the circumpolar north, the failure to apply laws for the protection of indigenous peoples leads to "criminalization" of local indigenous populations who cannot survive without "poaching" resources that should be accessible to them legally.[95]. The Norwegians, who were concentrated on the outer islands and near the mouths of the fjords, had access to the major European trade routes so that, in addition to marginal farming in the Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark counties, they were able to establish commerce, trading fish for products from the south. Finnish immigrants to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries were referred to as Kvens to distinguish them from the Smi "Finns". 671/1995, U.N. Doc. Christianity was introduced by Roman Catholic missionaries as early as the 13th century. While Norwegians moved north to gradually colonise the coast of modern-day Troms og Finnmark to engage in an export-driven fisheries industry prior to the 19th century, they showed little interest in the harsh and non-arable inland populated by reindeer-herding Smi. Smi in Finland have had access to Smi language instruction in some schools since the 1970s, and language rights were established in 1992. The Smi Parliaments (Smediggi in Northern Smi, Smitigge in Inari Smi, S'mte' in Skolt Smi) founded in Finland (1973), Norway (1989) and Sweden (1993) are the representative bodies for peoples of Smi heritage. Then, access to Smi instruction as part of schooling was not available until 1988. Due to recent migration, it has also been claimed that Oslo is the municipality with the largest Smi population. [64], In Russia's Kola Peninsula, vast areas have already been destroyed by mining and smelting activities, and further development is imminent. Today in Norway and Sweden, reindeer husbandry is legally protected as an exclusive Smi livelihood, such that only persons of Smi descent with a linkage to a reindeer herding family can own, and hence make a living off, reindeer. [b] One problem when attempting to count the population of the Smi is that there are few common criteria of what "being a Smi" constitutes. According to the Swedish Smi Parliament, estimates of the size of the Smi population of Sweden ranges from 20,000 to 40,000. [91], In 2010, after 15 years of negotiation, Laponiatjuottjudus, an association with Smi majority control, will govern the UNESCO World Heritage Site Laponia. There is no official geographic definition for the boundaries of Spmi. In 2010, Sweden was criticized for its relations with the Smi in the Universal Periodic Review conducted by the Working Group of the Human Rights Council. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [8] Among the Smi people, Spmi is strictly used and acceptable. The same gene, named EDAR (short for Ectodysplasin receptor EDARV370A), it turns out, also confers more sweat glands and distinctive teeth and is found in the majority of East Asian people. Reindeer have major cultural and economic significance for indigenous peoples of the North. The controversy over the construction of the hydro-electric power station in Alta in 1979 brought Smi rights onto the political agenda. Spmi, the Smi traditional lands, cross four national borders. The flag has the Smi colours, red, green, yellow and blue, and the circle represents the sun (red) and the moon (blue). [57] Between 1635 and 1659, the Swedish crown forced Swedish conscripts and Smi cart drivers to work in the Nasa silver mine, causing many Smis to emigrate from the area to avoid forced labour. The Smi and Norwegian languages have equal standing in Norway (section 15; Chapter 3 contains details with regards to the use of the Smi language). The indigenous languages of the North: A report on their present state. They cover northern and central Sweden. This caused the dislocation of Smi people in the 1920s, which increased the gap between local Smi groups (something still present today) that sometimes has the character of an internal Smi ethnic conflict. [151] There is a long history of Smi in Alaska. There are an estimated 30,000 people living in North America who are either Smi, or descendants of Smi. Facts about the Smi people 1) The Smi are a group of indigenous people that come from the region of Spmi, which stretches across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula in Russia. [95] Finland has denied any aboriginal rights or land rights to the Smi people;[96] in Finland, non-Smi can herd reindeer. [112], The Smi modern dance company Kompani Nomad looked to old descriptions of shamanistic rituals and behaviors to identify "lost" Smi dances and reimagine them through contemporary dance. This is so cool! The Saami people are one of the most ancient peoples of Europe and Scandinavia and are NOT as believed in popular myth of Asian origin, but are descendants of a narrow, distinctive subset of Europeans. Kemi Smi language became extinct in the 19th century. ", "Multiculturalism Policies in Contemporary Democracies: Finland", "Siida and traditional Sami reindeer herding knowledge", "See review and summary in "Indian Country Today" January 26, 2023", "Mental health problems among the Swedish reindeer-herding Sami population", "Saamelaiskrjt vaatii Ylelle lis saamenkielist tarjontaa", "The Saami: An ancient population on the northern edge of Europe", "UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger", "Language Proficiency and Ethnicity: The Sami Case by Hkan Rydving. In Norway, however, Smi were still called Finns at least until the modern era (reflected in toponyms like Finnmark, Finnsnes, Finnfjord and Finny), and some northern Norwegians will still occasionally use Finn to refer to Smi people, although the Smi themselves now consider this to be an inappropriate term. These cookies allow us to target other information on our website, like advertising, towards your interests. WOWSERSSS thanks for the info I'm getting graded on the Sami people, [] Fascinating facts about the Smi people [], I liked that however I need to watch frozen 2 WOW, I am so so happy to see this beautiful quiz. [76] They have never been a single community in a single region of Spmi, which until recently was considered only a cultural region.[77]. Extreme Heights The average height of Basque people tends to be an inch or two more than the people they live around, namely the Spanish and the French. [165][166] Some practices within the Smi religion include natural sacred sites such as mountains, springs, land formations, Sieidi, as well as man-made ones such as petroglyphs and labyrinths. [161] Most Smi today belong to the state-run Lutheran churches of Norway, Sweden and Finland. In addition, the Smi have special rights to reindeer husbandry. You're leaving our kids' pages to visit a page for grown-ups! Smi herders migrate with their reindeer during the seasons, heading to the mountains for winter and coming back together with the community in the summer. Generally, he claims to have filtered out the Norse influence and derived common elements between the South, North, and Eastern Smi groups. [144] The bulk of the Smi live in Finnmark and Northern Troms, but there are also Smi populations in Southern Troms, Nordland and Trndelag. As a result, the population of Pite- and Lule-speaking Smi decreased greatly.[57]. ILO Convention No. The migration of Germanic-speaking peoples to Southern Scandinavia happened independently and separate from the later Smi migrations into the northern regions. "[95][99] For the first time in Russia, the rights of indigenous minorities were established in the 1993 Constitution. There is a gas pipeline that stretches across the Kola Peninsula, and power lines cut off access to reindeer calving grounds and sacred sites. The culturally related . The word siida is used to describe both the reindeer herding area and the team of people who look after the herd. These groups depend upon different types of environment at differing times of the year, rather than upon exploiting a single commodity to exhaustion. Many Smi people continued to practice their religion up until the 18th century. Duodji, the Smi handicraft, originates from the time when the Smis were self-supporting nomads, believing therefore that an object should first and foremost serve a purpose rather than being primarily decorative. Thankfully, the word reindeer is the same for all Smi people, meaning they can communicate with each other about reindeer, no matter what language theyre speaking! In addition, there is Horagalles, a god of thunder and fire, the sun goddess Beive, and a moon goddess called Manno. [146] As of 2021, 9,226 people were registered to vote in elections to the Swedish Smi Parliament. Lapland, the conventional name for the region, is derived from Lapp . [59], Spmi is rich in precious metals, oil, and natural gas. In this period, many Smi practiced their traditional religion at home, while going to church on Sunday. A traditional board game, rarely played anymore, is tablo and involves one character playing the wolf or the fox and the other a hunter. [62] In Kallak (Smi: Gllok) a group of indigenous and non-indigenous activists protested against the UK-based mining company Beowulf which operated a drilling program in lands used for grazing reindeer during the winter. Note: There are many ways to spell Sami. These cookies are required to make our website work! Outsiders may find it hard to distinguish the physical traits of Sami from the physical traits of other Norwegians. "Samis" redirects here. 'Song of the Smi Family') was originally a poem written by Isak Saba that was published in the newspaper Saai Muittalgje for the first time on 1 April 1906. [citation needed], On the Swedish and Finnish sides, the authorities were less militant, although the Smi language was forbidden in schools and strong economic development in the north led to weakened cultural and economic status for the Smi. There were also several Smi families that were brought to North America with herds of reindeer by the U.S. and Canadian governments as part of the "Reindeer Project" designed to teach the Inuit about reindeer herding. Essentially, the Sami are amiable people, and they invite tourists to witness their way of living with great pleasure. The colours, patterns and the jewellery of the gkti indicate where a person is from, if a person is single or married, and sometimes can even be specific to their family. [32] This coincides with the arrival of the Siberian genome to Estonia and Finland, which may correspond with the introduction of the Finno-Ugric languages in the region.[32][33]. [29] The speakers of Finnic and Smi languages have their roots in the middle and upper Volga region in the Corded Ware culture. Strong economic development of the north also ensued, giving Norwegian culture and language higher status. [36][37], How far south the Smi extended in the past has been debated among historians and archeologists for many years. [147], According to the Finnish Population Registry Center and the Finnish Smi Parliament, the Smi population living in Finland was 10,753 in 2019. This can be confusing for foreign visitors because of the similar lives Finns and Smi people live today in Lapland. [158] During the 1980s and 1990s, a Smi flag was created, a Smi anthem was written, and the date of a national day was established. In 2005, the Finnmark Act was passed in the Norwegian parliament giving the Smi parliament and the Finnmark Provincial council a joint responsibility of administering the land areas previously considered state property. In Norway, the name of the language is samisk, and the name of the people is Same; in Finland, the name of the language is spelled saame and the name of the people saamelainen. [122] Dablot Prejjesne is a game related to alquerque which differs from most such games (e.g. Men mostly use wood, bone, and antlers to make items such as antler-handled scrimshawed Smi knives, drums, and guksi (burl cups). The Russian Duma (parliament) has adopted partial measures to implement it. And the only thing that is required from you is your curiosity. Now, I don't know that much about the different types of snow (though I probably know more than you since, you know, I live in Norway), but I'm guessing they do, so it makes perfect sense to give them different names. ", "The Early Period of Smi History, from the Beginnings to the 16th Century", "Saamen kielten leviminen Suomeen ja Skandinaviaan", "Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe", "The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers further East", Report on indigenous fishing rights in the seas with case studies from Australia and Norway, Report of UNPFII Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, "Christianity and the Emerging Nation States", "Siida and traditional Smi reindeer herding knowledge", "Dossier: mining the Arctic Geographical Magazine", "Blackstone to Mine Reindeer Pastures, Sweden", "Mining prospects in arctic Norway also causing controversy", "Sweden: Ongoing Road Blockade Against Mining in Saami Territory", "Shtokman Natural Gas Project, Barents Sea, Russia", "Campaign for Northern Forests by Indigenous Sami Ended Successfully in Finland", "Sami parliament wants veto on mineral issues", "New bombing ranges and their impact on Saami traditions", "Protests against the exploitation of Smi culture", "The Sami of Northern Europe: one people, four countries", United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe, "Assimilation of the Sami: Implementation and Consequences", Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, "Sweden's Sami People to Set up Commission on Discrimination", "Church of Sweden apologizes, embarks on reconciliation with Indigenous Smi people", "The foundation for Norwegian Smi policy", "Sameloven: LOV 1987-06-12 nr 56: Lov om Sametinget og andre samiske rettsforhold", Norwegian Government Security and Service Organisation, "General Assembly adopts declaration on rights of indigenous peoples", "Svensk frfattningssamling: SFS 2009:600", "Swedish Sami National Association (SSR)", "Jouni E. Lnsman et al. [175] Y-chromosome haplogroup N-VL29 makes up 20%, came from Siberia 3500 years ago. [34] These hunter-gatherers of the late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic were named Komsa by the researchers. Anyone who wanted to buy or lease state lands for agriculture in Finnmark had to prove knowledge of the Norwegian language and had to register with a Norwegian name. Today's "borders" originate from the 14th to 16th centuries when land-owning conflicts occurred. Citation: Maki-Torkko, Elina, Aikio, Pekka, Sorri, Martti, Huentelman, Matthew J, & Camp, Guy Van (2010). The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster caused nuclear fallout in the sensitive Arctic ecosystems and poisoned fish, meat[73] and berries. This tallies with archeological evidence suggesting that several different cultural groups made their way to the core area of Smi from 8000 to 6000BC,[176] presumably including some of the ancestors of present-day Smi. Although the Smi have considered themselves to be one people throughout history,[157] the idea of Spmi, a Smi nation, first gained acceptance among the Smi in the 1970s, and even later among the majority population. As of 2021, 20,545 people were registered to vote in the election for the Smi Parliament in Norway. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (1966). The western Uralic languages are believed to spread from the region along the Volga, which is the longest river in Europe. Since many do not have roots, they absorb nutrients, and toxic compounds, through their leaves. [170] Many contemporary practitioners are compared to practitioners of neo-paganism, as a number of neopagan religions likewise combine elements of ancient pagan religions with more recent revisions or innovations, but others feel they are attempting to revive or reconstruct indigenous Smi religions as found in historic, folkloric sources and oral traditions. The Smi Domicile Area in Finland consists of the municipalities of Enonteki, Utsjoki and Inari as well as a part of the municipality of Sodankyl. There are three Smi languages spoken in Finland: North Smi, Skolt Smi and Inari Smi. The Sami people may be best-known for their for reindeer herding, their colourful nation dress - the Gakti - and their distinctive language (s), but some have managed to carve out other, more high profile ways of making a living and, thus, achieved some fame. This convention recognizes the Smi as one indigenous people residing across national borders in all three countries. A division often used in Northern Smi is based on occupation and the area of living. There has been a discovery of a "Smi motif," which is a group of three specific mutations found in 1/3 of the Smi people. "Population continuity between the PWC and modern Saami can be rejected under all assumed ancestral population size combinations. Sami men often worked far from [121] Shkku differs from these games in several respects, most notably the addition of a piece "the king" that changes gameplay radically. The law does not recognize development rights, some proprietary rights including compensation for damage to the property, and limited exclusionary rights. The two groups that came to Scandinavia were originally genetically quite different, and displayed distinct physical appearances. Physically she belongs to what one observer has called "the fair-skinned, fair-haired, gray-to-blue-eyed, long-limbed, relatively narrow-faced individuals that constitute a substantial portion of the population of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, western Finland." That is, the Nordic type.
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