Sami, Like Reindeer, See Threat to Lifestyle
KIRUNA, Sweden — Squinting in the horizontal rays from the barely rising winter sun, Hans-Goeran Partapuoli scans knee-deep snow for prints from lynx or wolverine, traditional enemies of his reindeer.
It's mostly out of habit. Nowadays, the greatest dangers to his 1,500 reindeer are cars, trains and snowmobiles crisscrossing the frozen wilderness near Kiruna, a mining town 93 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
"The worst predator is the Swede," the 45-year-old herdsman said, watching a dozen reindeer poke their furry muzzles into glistening snow.
His words reflect deeply rooted feelings of mistrust among the Sami, a once-nomadic people scattered across Lapland -- or Sapmi, as they call it -- a region that spans the far north of Sweden, Norway and Finland and the northwestern corner of Russia.
The Sami, previously known as Lapps, have preserved their own language and traditions despite efforts by governments of the Nordic nations to assimilate them. They have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle and wear their brightly colored garb and plumed hats mostly on special occasions, but they have their own flag and national anthem, both created in 1986.
Although awareness and respect for Sami culture have grown in recent decades, disputes over land ownership, and hunting and fishing rights still fray Sami relations with descendants of Norse and Finnish settlers.
"The problem is that Sweden hasn't come to terms with its colonial past," said Lars-Anders Baer, a member of Sweden's semiautonomous Sami Parliament. The assembly decides on issues affecting Sami language and culture, but is subordinate to the central government in Stockholm.
Baer compares the situation of the 80,000 Sami, most of whom live in Norway and Sweden, to that of American Indians -- both pushed off their lands by European settlers and often oppressed by colonizers.
Rather than establish reservations for Sami, the Nordic governments sought to absorb them. Norway discouraged reindeer herding and banned the Sami language in schools until the 1960s. Today, only about 10% of the Sami herd reindeer.
The Nordic governments now embrace Sami culture as part of their own heritage.
Sweden formally apologized in 1998 for wrongs committed against the Sami and recognized Sami as a minority language the following year.
