Sapmi

The book offered to the reader tells about a little-known nameless work about the Nenets (Samoyeds) and Saami (Lapps), published in one of the private printing presses of St. Petersburg at the end of the XVIII century. The first part describes the process of finding the names of the publisher and authors of the text. As a result of the study, it was determined that the publication was published by the well-known translator, publisher and educator I.G. Rachmaninov. It was first established that the text is a compilation from the works of V.V. Krestinin and T.S. Malgin, participants of the academic expedition to the European North of 1768-1774 under the leadership of I.I. Lepyohin. It was found that the published text was repeatedly quoted by the authors of the historical descriptions of the Arkhangelsk province until the middle of the XIX century. In the second part, the text of the work is published, accompanied by detailed comments. The book is intended for historians, ethnologists, source and a wide range of readers.

This dissertation discusses the material heritage of the German military presence in Finnish Lapland during the Second World War (WWII), as seen through archaeological and multidisciplinary studies. The Nazi German presence as brothers-in-arms in northern Finland has been a difficult and downplayed issue on multiple levels throughout the post-war decades. This study presents the first wider, problem-oriented and theoretically informed investigation about the archaeologies, materialities and heritage of the German WWII presence. However, even this work barely scratches the surface of this multifaceted subject and sets out future research directions. The experience of WWII in Lapland was different from the war experience elsewhere in Finland. The German troops had the frontal responsibility in Lapland in 1941–1944, and at the height of their military build-up there were more German troops and their multinational prisoners in the area than local inhabitants. After Finland made a cease-fire with the Soviet Union in 1944, a Finno-German Lapland War (1944–1945) broke out between the former brothers-in-arms. Due to the long nation-level downplay of the complex German presence, also the northern Finnish and Sámi war experiences have become side-lined. Accordingly, the German material remains have been treated dismissively as “war junk” littering Lapland’s nature. However, for the locals these were well-known throughout the post-war decades, as active material agents of communal and familial memories, and as part of Lapland’s cultural landscapes. This dissertation has two main focuses. Firstly, I study the Germans’ and their prisoners’ experiences in Lapland during the war through the material remains and archaeological inquiries, and secondly, the ways in which the different stakeholders have signified the traces of war in the post-war decades. The material traces illustrate and highlight in many ways the experiential aspects of the German soldiers’ and their prisoners’ wartime existence in an unfamiliar northern environment. The post-war perceptions of the German material remains underline the social value of these as part of the local long-term heritage and lived-in cultural landscape. Many locals see themselves as custodians of their “own past”, including the WWII legacy, wish to control access and engagement with the sites in their local landscape, and often feel that the authorities neglect their heritage. Thus, the traces of German presence have become one symbol of the continuing north-south confrontations, and the marginalization of the north. These issues tie in with Lapland’s long colonial history. The vast differences in engaging with the German WWII material remains appear to derive from fundamentally different mental templates with which the people perceive the subject and its importance. The people propagating the “clearing” of “war junk” appear to approach the subject, and the landscape, with a “western” gaze, and draw a division between “nature” and “culture” which labels the locals’ historical cultural landscape as a natural wilderness. Conversely, in the northern environmental awareness it is not meaningful to separate “nature” and “culture”, and instead, the landscape and its various layers form a web of relations, which tie together the past, present and future into a cognitively controlled and embodied unity. It appears that the different stakeholders should come to recognize and accept the differing standpoints from which they engage into the discussions, before a fruitful dialogue can be instigated.

Finnish: Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee arkeologisten ja monitieteisten tutkimusten kautta saksalaisten toisen maailmansodan aikaisen sotilaallisen läsnäolon materiaalista kulttuuriperintöä Suomen Lapissa. Natsisaksan joukkojen läsnäolo aseveljinä Pohjois-Suomessa on ollut sodanjälkeisinä vuosikymmeninä vaikea ja vähätelty aihe. Tämä työ on ensimmäinen laaja-alainen, teoreettisesti suuntautunut tutkimus saksalaisjoukkojen materiaalisten jäänteiden arkeologiasta, materiaalisuudesta ja perinnöstä Suomen Lapissa. Tämäkin tutkimus kuitenkin raaputtaa vain hieman tämän monikerroksisen aiheen pintaa ja tarjoaa tulevia tutkimussuuntia. Toisen maailmansodan kokemukset Lapissa erosivat merkittävästi muusta maasta. Saksalaisjoukoilla oli rintamavastuu pohjoisessa 1941–1944 ja enimmillään alueella oli enemmän saksalaisjoukkoja ja heidän monikansallisia vankejaan kuin paikallista väestöä. Suomen tehtyä tulitauon Neuvostoliiton kanssa 1944, entisten liittolaisten välille puhkesi Lapin sota (1944–1945). Koska saksalaisten läsnäoloa on pitkään vältelty kansallisella tasolla, myös pohjoissuomalainen ja saamelainen sotakokemus on jäänyt syrjään. Vastaavasti saksalaisten materiaaliset jäänteitä on usein vähättelevästi nimetty ”sotaromuksi”, joka sotkee Lapin luonnon. Paikallisille nämä jäänteet ovat kuitenkin olleet tunnettuja ja tärkeitä läpi vuosikymmenien osana paikallista kulttuurimaisemaa sekä yhteisöllisten ja yksilöllisten muistojen aktiivisina materiaalisina ilmentyminä. Tällä työllä on kaksi päätarkoitusta. Ensinnäkin tutkin saksalaisten ja heidän vankiensa sodan aikaisia kokemuksia Lapissa materiaalisten jäänteiden ja arkeologisen tutkimuksen avulla. Toisekseen selvitän tapoja, joilla eri yhteisöt ovat merkityksellistäneet näitä jälkiä sodan jälkeen. Materiaaliset jäänteet heijastelevat monilla tavoin saksalaisten ja heidän vankiensa sotakokemuksia vieraassa pohjoisessa ympäristössä. Sodanjälkeiset näkemykset saksalaisjäänteiden merkityksestä alleviivaavat niiden sosiaalista arvoa osana paikallista pitkän aikavälin kulttuuriperintöä ja –maisemaa. Monet paikalliset näkevät itsensä ”oman menneisyytensä” vartijoina ja toivovat voivansa valvoa ulkopuolisten toimintaa sota-aikaisilla kohteilla. Lisäksi he usein kokevat, että viranomaiset ylenkatsovat heidän kulttuuriperintöänsä. Tämän johdosta saksalaisten jäljet maisemassa ovat muodostuneet myös nykyisen Pohjois- ja Etelä-Suomen vastakkainasettelun sekä pohjoisen marginalisoinnin symboleiksi. Nämä näkemykset heijastelevat myös Lapin pitkää kolonialistista historiaa. Erilaiset tavat lähestyä saksalaisten toisen maailmansodan jäänteitä vaikuttavat olevan lähtöisin perustavanlaatuisista eroista maailmankatsomuksessa ja tavassa tulkita maisemaa. ”Sotaromun puhdistamista” kannattavat henkilöt näyttävät lähestyvän aihetta ”länsimaisella” katseella, joka vetää rajan ”luonnon” ja ”kulttuurin” välille. Tämä leimaa samalla paikallisten historiallisen kulttuurimaiseman tyhjäksi, luonnolliseksi erämaaksi. Toisaalta pohjoisessa ympäristötietoisuudessa ei ole mielekästä erotella “luontoa” ja “kulttuuria”. Sen sijaan maisema ja sen eri kerrostumat muodostavat kognitiivisesti kontrolloitujen ja kehollistuneiden suhteiden kokonaisuuden, joka sitoo yhteen menneen, nykyisen ja tulevan. Eri toimijoiden tulisikin tiedostaa ja hyväksyä toistensa eroavat lähtökohdat, ennen kuin he pystyvät rakentavaan keskusteluun aiheesta.

In this paper we present ongoing geoarchaeological research of Sámi reindeer pastoralist
campsites. The discussion is based on three case study sites situated at the Lake Gilbbesjávri region (Finland) in northern Sápmi. All the sites are historical-period reindeer herder camps, likely used as temporary summer encampments by the nomadic herders in the 17th–19th centuries. The sites were prospected with systematic soil sampling and geoarchaeological analyses, which have been previously successfully applied in the study of Sámi habitation sites on both intrasite and intra-dwelling levels. The changes in the soil phosphate, pH and electric conductivity values were analysed and interpreted based on ethnographic analogies. These allow insight into the outwardly invisible taskscapes and spatialities of the herders and their animals at the campsites. The different geoarchaeological factors highlight differing aspects of the use of space at the historical Sámi reindeer pastoralist campsites, such as potential reindeer corralling areas, and provide comparative material for the analyses of prehistoric Sámi hunter-gatherer-herder sites.

This article examines the biography of a dual-heritage descendant of a Norwegian settler and indigenous Sámi on the Kola Peninsula in north-west Russia, whose parents became victims of Stalin’s terror. Analysing personal experience with oral history methods reveals that the protagonists were trying to shape actively their own and their fellows’ fates. This challenges the common script of passive victims within a totalitarian state. The narrator’s emphasis on agency as well as her humanising of state representatives are discussed as ways of giving meaning to her family’s history and strategies for coping with traumatic childhood events.

This chapter examines how the Arctic was figured as a porous sheet of ice separating the East and West Blocs during the Cold War and held a privileged position in Hollywood and Soviet filmmaking from the 1950s to the 1980s. Stenport’s case studies range from early alien invasion films such as The Thing From Another World (1951), USSR national icebreaker epics such as The Red Tent (1969), political thrillers such as Ice Station Zebra, 1968), Oscar winning ‘Real Life Adventures’ Disney documentaries such as Men Against the Arctic (1955) to television series such as The Big Picture (1951-1964). Stenport examines a wide swath of cinematic forms from the U.S., the USSR, Sweden, and Norway not previously analysed in tension with one another, showing how these are put to environmental and ideological uses.

Keywords:  Cold War, USSR, Soviet Cinema, Hollywood, The Thing from Another World, Christian Nyby, Virgil Vogel, Terror in the Midnight Sun, The Big Picture, The Red Tent, Mikhail Kalatzov, Orion’s Belt

The paper deals with the decision problem on making rules concerning two things: how to manage natural resources in Finnish Lapland and, consequently, how to strengthen Sami political rights and their autonomy in a groundbreaking way. It is to acquaint the audience with a public discourse in the field. I try to explain the public discourse on the political-ecological future of Finnish Lapland by understanding both sides and their narratives: the Finnish state and the Sami representatives\community. Some questions are put on the table: Who is the owner of the land? The Samis or the state? Who should manage natural resources? Is it possible to have two jurisdictions in Lapland, following legal pluralism and a real right to self-determination of the indigenous peoples? Is the discussion on the ILO Convention no. 169 a red herring or a result of groupism? But in fact, the clue is about simple things: historical Justice that meets Equality, the great idea of the Nordic countries. The new natural resources management in favour of the Samis is dependent on exceptional both appreciation of historical Justice and sacrificing Equality.

Although the Norwegianization was applied inside of Sápmi territory, the Sámi language has resisted heroically. This research focuses on the use of the Sámi language in Social Media by young Sámi people in Guovdageaidnu. To defend the arguments of the use of Sámi language in technological environments, the research uses data provided by NRK Sápmi in Guovdageaidnu and also contrast the information with surveys administered at the high school in Gouvdageaid- nu. Additionally, the research presents a discussion of the results and conclusion of the research regarding the use of the Sámi language by young Sámi.

Full article available at  http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-22494-7_4
Chapter

Book: Bodies, Boundaries and Vulnerabilities,  Part of the series Crossroads of Knowledge pp 47-79

Challenging the modern ideal of human bodies as being in control both of bodies of nature and of the bodies of technology made to control nature, this chapter considers the vulnerability of large-scale hydropower dams and the intimate interdependencies between dam bodies, water bodies, and human bodies. It proposes a water-centered, rather than human-centered, reading of rivers and in particular of dammed rivers, through an understanding of hydropower dams as vulnerable bodies. Once constructed by human beings, hydropower dams take on a life of their own and become living organisms as they age, interact with land and rivers, and withstand and react to changing environmental conditions. This chapter also discusses processes of knowledge production in which different bodies of knowledge come to be perceived as embodied or disembodied and are granted status as primitive or scientific. Taking her point of departure in her own embodied history, the author seeks to retrace indigenous Sámi understandings of human cultural interconnectedness with nature. With a focus on the specific river Julevädno running through Sápmi in the north of Sweden, the chapter draws attention to the unpredictable agency of water and the porosity of human bodies, emphasizing risk and vulnerability as essential elements of their interrelation.

Coniugando joik del paesaggio e sinfonia a programma, due distinte tradizioni volte in maggiore o minor misura all’espressione di contenuti extra-musicali attraverso mezzi specificamente musicali, la Juoigansinfoniija di Seppo Baron Paakkunainen e Nils-Aslak Valkeapää apre inedite prospettive all’indagine estetico-filosofica sulle dinamiche che intercorrono tra uomo e natura sul piano musicale: un’indagine che forse ancor troppo debolmente volge l’orecchio agli esiti del sincretismo creativo innescato dall’incontro tra repertori indigeni di tradizione orale e musiche della tradizione scritta occidentale. Questa relazione documenta il caso della traduzione sinfonica di un canto joik tradizionale delle popolazioni indigene sami dell’Europa artica. La fruttuosa collaborazione tra un compositore finlandese e un artista sami ha portato alla genesi di una composizione musicale multilivello, la cui completa decodificazione non può prescindere dalla conoscenza di norme estetiche idiosincraticamente indigene. All’orecchio sami, il vento, effettivo oggetto dello joik orchestrato, appare immediatamente riconoscibile e decifrabile in quanto tale e non in quanto sua rappresentazione. Ciò avviene in funzione del peculiare potere evocativo degli joik, nella cui performance è codificato un ampio insieme di percezioni, saperi e valori articolato dai sami a partire dall’esperienza sensibile del mondo abitato, costruito e attraversato. L’indagine è stata condotta attraverso lo studio di fonti orali e manoscritte, nonché interviste semistrutturate e conversazioni svolte in collaborazione con diversi musicisti sami, sul campo e a distanza.

Environmentally transformative human use of land accelerated with the emergence of agriculture, but the extent, trajectory, and implications of these early changes are not well understood. An empirical global assessment of land use from 10,000 years before the present (yr B.P.) to 1850 CE reveals a planet largely transformed by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists by 3000 years ago, considerably earlier than the dates in the land-use reconstructions commonly used by Earth scientists. Synthesis of knowledge contributed by more than 250 archaeologists highlighted gaps in archaeological expertise and data quality, which peaked for 2000 yr B.P. and in traditionally studied and wealthier regions. Archaeological reconstruction of global land-use history illuminates the deep roots of Earth’s transformation and challenges the emerging Anthropocene paradigm that large-scale anthropogenic global environmental change is mostly a recent phenomenon.

Röda Stens konsthall 26 februari 2020 Jag har gett denna föredragande visning titeln "Att söka efter det förlorade: gränser och identiteter i Carola Grahns konst" av olika skäl. Titeln till utställningen I Have Scrutinized Every Stone and Log on the Southwest Side of the Mountain anspelar på vad jag menar skapar en röd tråd i vad vi får se och kan utforska från början till slutet eller tvärtom, vilket jag strax skall återkomma till. Att söka efter det förlorade är ett allmänmänskligt begär, för många intimt förknippade med den nostalgiska tillbakablicken, melankolin över det förflutna eller strävandet efter sanningen, den del av symbolen som saknas för att återförena den till sin helhet. Under antiken myntade historiken Hesiodus guldåldersmyten, den om att det fanns en tid då människorna levde i harmoniska, fridfulla, gyllene tider utan sorg. Sedan dess har det gått nedför. Själva namnet för vår kontinent baseras på den bortrövade prinsessan Europa som Zeus-förvandlad till en tjur-skall ha tagit till Cypern eller något obestämt land österut. Europas bror Kadmos ger sig iväg för att hitta henne, men förgäves, han lyckas inte med det-dock återvänder han istället med åkerbruk och alfabet. Att söka efter det förlorade har också en helig innebörd: Salomos tempel förstörs, judarna skickas till Babylon, de återvänder och återupprättar templet som återigen förstörs under romarna. Kommer det någonsin resas igen? För de kristna är Jesus det nya templet och ett nytt Jerusalem väntar bortom denna värld. Motivet om det förlorade som samlas ihop igen finns i myten: Isis make Osiris kastas i en kista och driver upp för Nilen och fastnar så småningom under ett cederträd i det som är Libanon idag. Osiris bror Set styckar sedan Osiris i tretton bitar och Isis får samla in dem igen för att återskapa Osiris. Nästan samma motiv förekommer i Kalevala: hjälten Lemminkäinen styckas och hans mor lyckas sätta ihop honom igen. Liv blir så till död och liv igen. Allt detta vibrerar i den utställning vi nu skall fördjupa oss i delar av. Det som är myten i det förmoderna blir till psykologin i moderniteten. Innan vi skall öppna den första luckan skall jag därför säga något kort om psykologen Sigmund Freuds tankar om det som finns bortom lustprincipen.

The paper deals with the decision problem on making rules concerning two things: how to manage natural resources in Finnish Lapland and, consequently, how to strengthen Sami political rights and their autonomy in a groundbreaking way. It is to acquaint the audience with a public discourse in the field. I try to explain the public discourse on the political-ecological future of Finnish Lapland by understanding both sides and their narratives: the Finnish state and the Sami representatives\community. Some questions are put on the table: Who is the owner of the land? The Samis or the state? Who should manage natural resources? Is it possible to have two jurisdictions in Lapland, following legal pluralism and a real right to self-determination of the indigenous peoples? Is the discussion on the ILO Convention no. 169 a red herring or a result of groupism? But in fact, the clue is about simple things: historical Justice that meets Equality, the great idea of the Nordic countries. The new natural resources management in favour of the Samis is dependent on exceptional both appreciation of historical Justice and sacrificing Equality.

MA thesis in Ethnomusicology (Music and Theatre Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, July 2021)

"Sounds like Sápmi. Ecological perspectives in the musical narration of the landscape"

The MA thesis aims at the understanding of the storytelling dynamics between Sami music and Sápmi landscape. Since time immemorial, this region has been subjected to symbolic interpretations that were orally transmitted by the indigenous peoples inhabiting it. The focus is on how contemporary joik recordings have benefited the transmission of sense of places and consolidated not only individual experiences and shared feelings of belonging, but also ecologically active relations with the surrounding environment. Drawing from face-to-face and online interviews, as well as from the extensive analysis of indigenous literature and multimedia sources, the focus is on the musical narration and virtualization of the landscape. In the echo of international indigenism, the joik has undergone creative processes of resistance and politicization, which determined a vibrant continuity on local and unprecedented global arenas. In the vast panorama of modern joik, many Sami artists have introduced Sápmi soundscapes into their recordings. Sampling environmental sounds, sided by the former evocativeness of luođit and techniques of sonic spatialization became crucial tools for the transmission of indigeneity in relation to the perception of the sense of places. Creative ways of reformulating traditional acoustemologies are investigated alongside the musical recontextualization of technophonies, which presents Sámi artists as real narrators and interpreters of the ecological crisis.
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Oggetto della tesi è la comprensione delle dinamiche esistenti sul piano narrativo-musicale tra i Sami e il paesaggio del Sápmi. Quest’area dell’Europa artica è da tempo immemore oggetto di interpretazione simbolica trasmessa oralmente dalle comunità indigene che la abitano. Si indagherà come la pratica vocale dello joik abbia contribuito a tramandare percezioni indigene del senso dei luoghi, consolidando non solo esperienze individuali e condivisi sentimenti di appartenenza e abitazione, ma anche legami ecologicamente attivi nei confronti dell’ambiente circostante, animato e non.
A partire da interviste e comunicazioni raccolte digitalmente e nel corso di precedenti periodi sul campo, nonché dall’estesa analisi di letteratura e fonti musicali e multimediali indigene, l’attenzione è rivolta verso lo studio delle acustemologie Sami, il loro sviluppo e la loro trasmissione.
Nell’eco dell’indigenismo internazionale, lo joik è andato incontro a creativi processi di resistenza e politicizzazione, che ne hanno determinato una vitale continuità locale parallelamente a una prima diffusione globale. Nel vasto panorama del modern joik, molti artisti Sami hanno introdotto soundscapes del Sápmi nelle proprie incisioni. I samples del mondo naturale, l’evocatività dello joik e le tecniche di spazializzazione del suono sono diventati cruciali strumenti per la trasmissione dell’indigeneity in relazione all’intima percezione del senso dei luoghi.
In conclusione, vengono indagate le modalità di riformulazione delle acustemologie tradizionali in relazione al presente, ma anche come l’introduzione di tecnofonie, raccolte in Sápmi e ricontestualizzate musicalmente, faccia dell’artista un vero e proprio narratore e interprete della crisi ecologica in atto e delle inadeguatezze delle politiche ambientali locali e globali.

Nomadisch – ekstatisch – magisch: Diese Schlagworte lassen sich als Faszinationskerne der Auseinandersetzung mit der Arktis verstehen, die einen konstitutiven Bestandteil der skandinavischen Moderne ausmacht.
Hanna Eglinger untersucht die Ausprägungen eines Arktisprimitivismus in Skandinavien um 1900, indem sie kulturwissenschaftliche und ästhetische Fragestellungen verbindet. Ausgehend von einem in Zentraleuropa um 1900 gängigen Diskurs des Primitiven, den die anthropologischen Wissenschaften maßgeblich prägten, und der sich in der bildenden Kunst, aber auch in literarischen und medienreflexiven Kontexten zu einer impulsgebenden ästhetischen Formation herausbildete, legt sie den Fokus auf die spezifisch skandinavische Figuration des Primitiven der Arktis und ihre literarische, bildnerische und filmische Reflexion.

The use of expressive, aesthetically stunning art to protest extraction, pipelines, mining, land-grabbing, and exploitation of indigenous homelands in a time of rapid climate and environmental change, creates powerful, emotional forms of resistance. What is known as "artivism" can showcase the emancipatory potential of art that challenges state/corporate infrastructure developments that impact local environmental and social practices. I am interested in how indigenous art collectives share traditional knowledge and illustrate indigenous resilience by creating and sharing art in many parts of the world. I see my role as an ally, a non-indigenous scholar, writer and teacher, sharing and exploring the ways in which alliances are formed for environmental and social justice. This Blog post examines (artivist) collective known as Suohpanterror that protest extraction and settler-colonialism in Sámi areas, and also looks at the Amapolay, (a name distilled from "autonomous manufacturers") a graphic arts collective founded by Fernando Castro and Carol Fernandez-Tinoco, based in Lima, Peru.

I ett arkeologiskt perspektiv finns det fortfarande mycket oklarheter när det kommer till förhistorien och historien om den nordskandinaviska befolkningen. Med hjälp av stabila isotoper såsom kol, kväve och svavel kommer vi närmare individernas matkultur som i sin tur bidrar till kunskapen om sociala, ekonomiska och politiska förutsättningar.
I ett forskningsprojekt som leds av Thomas Wallerström och Kerstin Lidén har ett större antal individer som grävdes upp i början på 1900-talet av arkeologen Eskil Olsson varit föremål för en sådan studie. Materialet består av 17 stycken individer från en ödekyrkogård i Rounala från Karesuando socken i Lappland. Ett av syftena med studien har varit att kolla närmare på matkulturen (diet och mobilitetsmönster) hos samtliga individer, både som enskilda individer och i grupp. Men vad har egentligen diet och mobilitet att berätta för oss om de som gravlagts på platsen? Och hur förhåller vi oss till resultaten från isotopanalyserna och 14C-dateringarna?
Det som isotopvärdena visar på när det kommer till dessa individer är att de har haft ett blandat födointag. Utan att avslöja för mycket har det med andra ord bestått av en väl diversifierad kost av både marint och terrestriskt ursprung. Enligt 14C-dateringar på individerna som gravlagts på kyrkogården visar det att den varit i bruk mellan 1300 till 1720 och därmed finns både en katolsk och protestantisk inverkan. 
I dagens läge finns det en nödvändighet att studera materialet vidare, speciellt när det kommer till det animala arkeologiska benmaterialet. Med ett bredare urval av animala ben får vi även en bredare och mer precis begränsning för komma närmare individers diet och mobilitet. Vilket också skulle bidra till kunskapen om den sociala strukturen för nordskandinaviska grupper.

Sami es el nombre del pueblo Sami para su territorio tradicional. El
pueblo Sami es el pueblo indígena de la parte norte de la Península
Escandinava y grandes partes de la Península de Kola y viven en
Suecia, Noruega, Finlandia y Rusia. No hay información fiable sobre
la población del pueblo Sami; sin embargo, se estima que son
entre 50.000 y 100.000.
Alrededor de 20.000 viven en Suecia, que es aproximadamente
el 0,22% de la población total de Suecia de alrededor de
nueve millones. La parte noroccidental del territorio sueco es el
territorio tradicional del pueblo Sami. Los pastores de renos samis,
pequeños granjeros, caza-dores, recolectores y pescadores
utilizan tradicionalmente estas tierras. Alrededor de 50-65.000
viven en Noruega, entre el 1,06% y el 1,38% del total de la población
noruega de aproximada-mente 4,7 millones. Alrededor de 8.000
viven en Finlandia, que es aproximadamente el 0,16% de la población
total finlandesa de alrededor de 5 millones. Aproximadamente
2.000 viven en Rusia, que es una proporción muy pequeña de la
población total de Rusia.
Políticamente, el pueblo Sami está representado por tres parlamentos
Sami, uno en Suecia, otro en Noruega y otro en Finlandia,
mientras que en el lado ruso están organizados en ONG. En 2000,
los tres parlamentos Sami establecieron un consejo conjunto de
representantes llamado Consejo Parlamentario Sami. El Consejo
Parlamentario Sami no debe confundirse con el Consejo Sami, que
es una ONG Sami central que representa a grandes asociaciones
nacionales Sami (ONG) en los cuatro países. También hay otras
importantes instituciones Sami, tanto regio-nales como locales,
entre ellas la Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas de los Samis, que
es una institución de investigación y educación superior dedicada
a las necesidades de la sociedad Sami y en la que el idioma Sami
se utiliza principalmente en todo el sistema académico. Suecia,
No-ruega y Finlandia votaron a favor de la Declaración de las Naciones
Unidas sobre los derechos de los pueblos indígenas en septiembre
de 2007, mientras que Rusia se abstuvo.

The silver mine in Nasafjäll and the site of Silbojokk with its silver smeltery, lodging houses, bakery, church and churchyard has a long and quite complicated history. The site is situated in northern Sweden within the landscape of Lapland/Sápmi (fig.1.). It has known several phases of use being interrupted amongst others by warfare, buildings being burnt down, diseases, etc. The mine was established in 1635, but was burnt down by Norwegian soldiers in 1659. Miners, foresters and other specialists as well as local Sámi with their reindeer were employed in order to help work the mine. This places Silbojokk in a multi-cultural sphere where people met and changed ideas and learned from each other.