About the Saami people

The Saami people have lived all across the northern Scandinavia for 9000 years, see the yellow part on the map below. They call this area Sapmi. They are spread over four countries. The total number of Saami people are as few as 70.000. With the major part in Norway ( 40.000 ) and Sweden ( 20.000 ). In Finland and Russia the numbers are around 6.000 and 2.000.

The Saami people have their own language and culture which they are fighting hard to keep and protect. They make their own handicraft and they have an own traditional way of singing called "yoik". They also have an own flag which unifies all the Saami.

The main living for the Saami people have always been fishing, hunting and reindeers. Each Saami village keep all their reindeers together in a large herd, which they let move around freely in the land. A few times every year the Saami village collect the herd to make it possible for each Saami to separate his own reindeers and mark all the new reindeers with his own mark. At these occasions he also kill a few of his reindeers to have for food and material for the next seasons work.

Listen to some modern yoik from the Saami artist Mari Boine.

Click on the picture of Mari Boine to start soundclip (apx. 380 kB WAV)