historium:Sami/Sápmi- Living in northern Scandinavia, the Sami are the northernmost European people.
historium:Sami/Sápmi- Living in northern Scandinavia, the Sami are the northernmost European people. Their homeland, Sápmi, spreads across much of Northern Scandinavia and the Russian Kola Peninsula. The Sami are possibly most famous for raising and herding reindeer, which hold a special place in Sami culture. For most of their history, the Sami had a degree of cultural autonomy, mostly due to their location away from the more inhabited regions of Sweden and Norway. This began to change in the 19th century, as the Sami were forced to adopt Nordic language, customs, and religion. From 1913 to 1920 Swedish Sami were forcibly sterilized due to belief that they were genetically inferior. The 1970s-1980s saw the rise of a Sami rights movement, leading to the protection of their language and culture, as well as the establishment of Sami parliaments which give them a degree of regional autonomy. Outside Sápmi, the largest Sami population is in the United States, where about 30,000 live, primarily in the Midwest. The most prominent Sami-American is actress Renée Zellweger -- source link
#stateless nations#history#sápmi