An introduction to the Sami people
“We’re glad that you’ve found your way to this website. This is not one official website, but only a general presentation which was made many years ago when there wasnt any presentation of us the Sami people on the Internet.
It used to have one official status however. So if you are a webmaster or maintainer of any kind of online information and have this site linked with a text referring to any kind of “officialhood” for this website, please make appropriate changes.
(find the official page here)
….
Saemieh, the reindeer people.
The Sami’s language, traditional clothing, handicraft, and music, are distinctively different from other ethnic groups in Scandinavia.
In Sweden there is 44 native communitys where the familys derives most of the income from their reindeers, an economy that in most cases is combined with fishing, hunting and crafts.
A majority of the Sami population pursue other careers however, since there isn’t enough space for everyone in a habitat that is constantly shrinking due to mining operations, clean-cutting of the forests and the construction of hydroelectric powerplants.
The “Reindeer Husbandry Law” of 1971, allows the Sami some freedom for the economical life within the native communitys. The present law, like its predecessors, does however only regulate the rights of Sami’s involved in the reindeerhusbandry. So only those Sami’s who carry out reindeer herding have any native land and water rights in the Sami nation. The land and water rights of Sami fishermen and hunters or other Sami’s have never been covered by law.”
