About the Sami people

The Sami 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 Sami 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 Sami 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 Sami.

The main living for the Sami people have always been fishing, hunting and reindeers. Each Sami 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 Sami village collect the herd to make it possible for each Sami 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 Sami artists Mari Boine and Wimme.

Click on a picture to start soundclip.

Mari Boine (apx. 380 kB WAV)

Wimme       (apx. 250 kB WAV)