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The Coastal Sami of Norway

By Reda (Mindy Eiermann)

Sami vs. Dáčča

Sami – one that is a Sami, the Sami language, or all things that are Sami.
Dáčča – Sami word for outsider, or all things that are “non-Sami in behavior”

Mountain Sami and Coastal Sami often use the terms Sami and Dáčča, with the respective meanings described above. The Mountain Sami of Karasjok would refer to the people of Revsbotn as Dáčča and not as Sami. Just as the Coastal Sami themselves were able to see the clear differences between their way of living and that of the Mountain Sami of Karasjok, the Mountain Sami no longer considered the Coastal Sami to be “proper Sami”. Paine recounts instances where he overheard Mountain Sami speaking Sami in Revsbotn and referring to the Sami villagers as Dáčča, as if they were Norwegians. The Revsbotn villagers, however, would never refer to themselves, when speaking Sami, as Dáčča, but would, when speaking Norwegian, refer to themselves as “we Norwegians”. According to the Mountain Sami, it was not their economy that made the Coastal Sami Dáčča, but the fact that they had adopted the “habits of speech and dress, … household etiquette and other less obvious cultural idiosyncrasies” of Dáčča people (Paine, 1957: 19).

Introduction To Coastal Sami

1.Ottar

The most definitive source on early Coastal Sami comes from Ottar in the 9th century. Ottar, a Norwegian chieftain, believed to come from Malangen in northern Norway, served in the court of King Alfred the Great. In King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius’ history of the world, we find Ottar’s description of his homeland (http://www.reisenett.no/facts/culture_science/Sami.html#2 and Paine, 1957: 20).

The country extended very far to the North from where he lived, but it is all uninhabited except that, in a few places, here and there, Lapps are encamped, hunting in winter and, in summer, fishing in the sea. He was a very rich man … at the time … he still had 600 tame beasts unsold, these animals they call ‘reindeer’ … But their wealth consists mostly of the tribute which the [Sami] pay them … of skins of animals, of birds’ down, of whalebone, and of cables which are made of whale-hide and seal-skin. Wild mountains lie to the east, parallel with and above the cultivated land. On these mountains dwell Sami (Ross, 1940: 17, 21-22 from Paine, 1957: 20).

A distinction between Mountain and Coastal Sami economy did not exist at the time of Ottar’s observations, nor was it made for several centuries afterwards. Up until the 17th century, as made clear by all observers, the culture and economy of the Sami in Finnmark were, for the most part, homogenous (Paine, 1957: 18). In fact, at this point, the distinction between “Mountain Sami” and “Coastal Sami” is merely one of ecological differences. That is, the “Coastal Sami” are those who lived along the coast, and the “Mountain Sami” are those who lived in the Mountains. Similarly, there are ecologically defined differences between the “River Sami”, the “Reindeer Sami”, and the “Forest Sami”, within the ethnographical whole of Sami (Paine, 1957: 15). Paine says that it is “reasonable to suppose that it was [the coastal groups] that this seafarer and trader [Ottar] knew best”, and so when he makes reference to “Lapps” he probably refers to at least the coastal groups, and likely, all Sami that he knew of at the time (Paine, 1957: 21).

2. Coastal Sami Colonization and Early Economy

The Sami colonization of the coast has a very long history, and they can justifiably be, according to Paine, 1957: regarded as among the first people to colonize the coast, “probably the first” (Paine, 1957: 7). Ørnulv Vorren writes, “[the Coastal Sami from the north] are descended from the peoples who lived there long before the arrival of the Norwegians; they have probably been there for as long as there is evidence in these parts of any human life” (Manker and Vorren 1962: 53). From Ottar’s writings we can gather that the economy of these Sami was tied to the land as well as to the sea. If you go far enough back in time, you can characterize all of Sapmi as a place of hunting and fishing culture. Although there did exist variation within this culture of fishing and hunting, due to location: coastal or inland, there was not yet any extensive reindeer breeding nomadism (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 52). All Sami kept domesticated reindeer for various uses (this includes the hunt of wild reindeer for meat), but did not otherwise have reindeer herds (Paine, 1957: 20). The Sami were sprinkled across the land, in small groups, and practiced a seasonal transhumance, moving from one area to another as the seasons changed (Paine, 1957: 21). Unlike the “Mountain Sami”, the Coastal Sami did not follow the reindeer in their migrations, but moved with the seasons to hunt and fish in different districts, hence the label “half-nomad” (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 55).

It is difficult to trace exactly why these particular Sami ended up on the coast, and not somewhere else, but it may help to look at the geography of Finnmark, which would seemingly make it a desirable place for anyone to live. Finnmark is the largest and Northernmost of Norway’s provinces, with a total area of 48,700 square kilometers. It has the coldest climate in Norway, but, because of the Gulf Stream, the temperature is quite moderate in comparison to other countries on the same latitude. Although the annual mean temperature of West Finnmark is between 1 and 2 degrees centigrade, the interior boasts an annual mean temperature of minus 3 degrees centigrade, and also the greatest annual fluctuation of temperature. Along the coast, the winter temperatures are not as extreme, and the summer temperatures are still quite cool. The western half of Finnmark is marked distinctively with a number of fjords and islands, both favorable for good fishing, and a mild sea climate, providing rich pasture land for sheep and cattle. The coastal mountain ranges, which are covered with heather and other coarse grasses during the autumn, provide shelter for the coastal fjordal communities, and also effectively cut off the coast from the interior, and thus their respective communities (Paine, 1957: 10).

Using literary sources, it is possible to establish that the economy of the Sami that Ottar described in the 9th century continued to exist up until, at least, the mid-18th century among certain groups. In the 1590’s the Coastal Sami are recorded, by an anonymous source, as people who had draught reindeer and four different homes.

In the summer, the individual groups would be at the mouth of the fjords and out on the islands: fishing, wildfowling and collecting eggs, feather and eider down. In the autumn, they would move towards the base of the fjord where they would camp near the water’s edge and continue fishing, attend to the supply of wood for the coming winter’s fuel and fell timber for the next season of boat building. In the winter, part of each group … would move inland a few kilometers and hunt, and fish through the ice in fresh-water pools. In the spring, each group would return to the side of the fjord where, besides continuing with their hunting, they would engage in repairing their boats and building new ones and begin some in-shore fishing (Paine, 1957: 21).

In the 17th century, two authors, Harøe and Knag, still provide similar references to Coastal Sami. The Coastal Sami of Seiland Island, in Western Finnmark, would move from one place to another, in search of the best wood-fuel and grazing ground for their reindeer, cattle and sheep, and the Coastal Sami of Komagfjord, opposite Seiland, had their reindeer out on Stjernøy Island (Paine, 1957: 21).

However, going into the 18th century, there is often little or no mention of reindeer when referring to the Coastal Sami. Sometime between 1650 and 1750, obvious changes began in Coastal Sami economy, changes that resulted directly from those that took place in reindeer husbandry and in the available land for hunting, as well as in the insurgence of colonizers.

Changes in Coastal Sami Economy

1. The Intrusion of the Mountain Sami

Traditionally the Coastal Sami had kept a small number of tame reindeer to provide milk for making cheese and butter, and to assist in the widespread capture of wild reindeer for meat. They would not, however, keep reindeer for the purpose of supplying meat. As the numbers of wild reindeer decreased, the interior or “Mountain Sami” kept larger numbers of tame reindeer and moved to the coastal territories, with their reindeer, during the summer, as nomads. The Coastal Sami were threatened by the intrusion of the Mountain Sami upon land that was usually exploited only by the Coastal Sami. They complained that the large herds of the Mountain Sami frightened away the wild reindeer and, in addition, ate the heather and other grasses that the Coastal Sami would need for their small herds during the winter and for their sheep and cattle throughout the year (Paine, 1957: 32).

The Mountain Sami continued to occupy areas close to the coastal communities, in summer and sometimes even in winter, making it increasingly hard for the Coastal Sami to maintain their small reindeer herds. They would have to keep their reindeer under constant supervision, to insure that they would not mix into the Mountain Sami herds. As a result, they started to pay professional nomads to keep their herds. Ultimately the Coastal Sami, who originally included reindeer husbandry as only one part of their transhumance, were overwhelmed by the reindeer-breeding nomadism of the Mountain Sami, and slowly saw the disappearance of reindeer from their economy (Paine, 1957: 35). As they began to rely more on sea-fishing and stock farming, they also began a dependence on trade, both with the Mountain Sami and through coastal trading posts (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 62).

2. Loss of Land for Transhumance

As the Coastal Sami depended on such a large ecological range for the subsistence economy, they presumably could have continued with their seasonal transhumance quite successfully, had the only problem facing them been the increase in number of Mountain Sami reindeer herders in the coastal area. They had traditionally hunted large prey, whaled, harpooned seal and walrus, fished, and used the timber in the forest areas for wood-fuel and timber to build boats. In the summer, they moved out to the islands for whaling, sealing and wildfowling; in the autumn, as well as in the winter, they moved into the mountains to hunt large prey, including the reindeer.

As late as the mid 1700’s there is record of the Coastal Sami using an area of land stretching from the islands off the coast to 20 kilometers inland from the base of the fjords. From this, it would seem that the Coastal Sami were organized in small, detached groups, with little pressure from outside populations. They had no concept of land ownership, but would own several turf-and-wooden huts in each seasonal location (Paine, 1957: 25). The increase of Mountain Sami in the vicinity brought higher competition in the hunt and less interest in the hills behind the fjords. The decrease in number of whales and seals off the coast of Finnmark, as well as the presence of colonizers, caused less movement to the islands (Paine, 1957: 36-37).

Coastal Sami Contact With the Outside World

1. Early Contact With Norwegians

Norwegians had begun to settle on the Norwegian coast as early as 350 A.D., but the Coastal Sami lived so far away from each other and from the colonists, that there was little disturbance in their transhumant cycle. Not until the 13th century is there evidence of a permanent Norwegian settlement in Finnmark, shortly followed by the first church, built in Vardø in 1307. The early settlers of Norwegian fishermen lived in larger groups than the Sami, crowded together, on the outer coast and on the islands, but never in the interior.

Serious efforts at colonization began in the 1600’s and 1700’s, with settlers concentrating mostly on agriculture in the Northern coastal areas, a large contrast to traditional Sami livelihood (http://www.reisenett.no/facts/culture_science/Sami.html#2). Despite the issues of land and water rights that were raised with the influx of many new settlers, the rights and the culture of the Coastal Sami do not seem to have been threatened from the start. Paine points out that, because there are other explanations, such as the encroachment of Mountain Sami and the decline of whales and seals on the coast, as stated before, for the reduced movement of the Coastal Sami, it is reasonable to conclude that the Norwegian settlements caused very little change in the Sami community at this early point in time (Paine, 1957: 37).

Norwegians sometimes settled in areas that were previously inhabited by Sami, as did the Sami, at times, re-colonize areas that were inhabited by Norwegians. Peder Harboe observed that the Coastal Sami were not interested in being near the Norwegians, and so avoided areas where they would settle. The Norwegians themselves lived out on the islands, or on the fjords that did not have a Sami population (Paine, 1957: 40). Prior to the 19th century there was not much substantial contact between the Sami and the Norwegians, beyond that of officials and merchants, and so the two groups remained culturally distinct (Paine, 1957: 42).

2. Christian Missionaries

The earliest missionary work in Sapmi was done by Norwegians in the 13th century. However, it was not until the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century that Christianity secured roots within the Sami world. The earliest serious attempt to introduce Christianity to the Sami in Norway was made by King Christian IV. In 1609, after a visit to Finnmark, he issued a decree of capital punishment to any Sami who would not abandon their old religion and become a Christian. Not surprisingly, this had much more of a negative effect than a positive one (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 128-129).

It was in the first half of the 18th century that Thomas von Westen, referred to as the “[Sami]’s own apostle”, began his missionary work in Finnmark, and “organized missionary work with much greater energy and efficiency than anyone else” before him (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 129). He collected over a hundred Sami shaman drums and appointed two missionaries in Finnmark (Manker and Vorren, 1962: 129 and Paine, 1957: 47).

3.Taxation and Trade

Going back to Ottar’s account of Sapmi in the 9th century, it is clear that most of his wealth was collected from the Sami in the form of taxes:

He was a very rich man … at the time … he still had 600 tame beasts unsold, these animals they call ‘reindeer’ … But their wealth consists mostly of the tribute which the Sami pay them … of skins of animals, of birds’ down, of whalebone, and of cables which are made of whale-hide and seal-skin …

The taxes that Ottar collected were not surrendered to an earl or a king, but were kept to himself, as private income.

Spread out few and far between and poorly organized as a group, the Sami were easy prey for aggressive tradesmen. The tax collectors and tradesmen were after animal skins, down, meat, and, especially on the coast, seal, whale and walrus products (Nesheim, 1964: 26-27). The Russians, Norwegians and the Swedish all sought the Coastal Sami out for taxation. A 1591 Swedish census lists 298 Coastal Sami, living off the north Norwegian coast, as having to pay taxes to the Swedish, Danish and Russians. However, in 1595 Russia gave over her right to tax the Coastal Sami to Sweden in the treaty of Teusina, and shortly after, in the treaty of Knærød, Sweden gave all rights of taxation to Denmark-Norway. Taxation of the Coastal Sami was a result of the battle between the northern states over territorial claim, however, other than the actual taxation, this battle, as well as the fact that the Coastal Sami were regarded as Norwegian citizens as of 1593, had little affect on the Sami (Paine 29-30). Norwegian taxation of Sami has, of course, continued to this day.

4. Markets, Concourses and Shops

The Markets of Finnmark were always treated very seriously as a place where northern wealth could be collected and extracted. It is known that Russians, Swedes, Norwegians, as well as Norwegian, Russian and Swedish Sami all visited the Varanger, Alta and Lyngen markets in the 16th century. The official markets were not held very often, but were always important events. It is likely that, because of the infrequency of the official markets, there were many cases of illegitimate trading with foreigners. For the Coastal Sami, this trade was an important part of maintaining their subsistence economy, trading the goods that they could produce within their communities with goods from other communities as well as abroad, particularly after they participated in only a limited transhumance within the fjords (Paine, 1957: 49).

Eventually, the infrequent markets turned into more frequent concourses, where foreign traders would always be present, and then shops, at major focal points in the area, especially near chapels. Markets associated with religious activities continued up until the period between the two world wars and were not continued after World War II (Paine, 1957: 49).

It is important to note that before the changes in the Coastal Sami economy took place, they were completely self-sufficient. That is, unlike the Norwegian settlers that came to occupy the same areas, they did not rely on the state or on trade for anything.

The societies [were] also adapted to the prerequisites for production in specific ecological niches, and they [were] marked by strong integration between production, culture and family. Earlier, they lived off a primary industry based on self-sustenance and a family's own work. Production was generally oriented toward sustaining life rather than making money. This form of organizing labor required that all – women, men and children–performed necessary functions and they were perceived as vital resources for the family and society (http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005- 990463/index-dok000-b-f-a.html).

5. Russian Contact

Russian activity had existed off the coast of Finnmark for quite some time, but between the 1740’s and 1780’s Russian fishing in Norwegian waters greatly increased, with 204 fishing vessels, 81 mother ships and a total of 1300 men operating in 1744. The Sami as well as the Norwegians disliked the behavior of the Russians during this time, and complained that, “the Russians took eggs and down, shot seal and wildfowl, [and] fished near to the shore and on the best local grounds” (Paine, 1957: 39). There are still a number of popular legends connected to the Russians, and place names that relate to the contact with the Russians on the coast today. Just around Revsbotn you can find “Russian river”, “Russian beach”, and “Russian falls” (Paine, 1957: 39).

Unlike the complaints about their fishing, the population of Finnmark had always enjoyed trading with Russia. The Pomor (“by the sea”) trade, dating back to the 15th or 16th century, reached it’s peak at the start of the 18th century, with trade between Norwegians living on the coast, the Coastal Sami and Russians from the coastal regions of the White sea, and ended at the start of the Russian Revolution (http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/nost202/-pomore.html). Despite the complaints of the Bergen Monopoly Traders, by 1775, Finnmark was absolutely dependent upon this trade, especially the Coastal Sami. The Pomors moved grain and flour to Norway, and returned to Russia with an assortment of fish. The provincial governor, Fjeldsted, wrote at that time that “the Russian Trade was ‘important and … necessary’; it was through the supply of Russian meal and corn that starvation was avoided when, 3 or 4 years earlier, the Bergen corn was in particularly insufficient supply” (Paine, 1957: 50). In times of war and crop failure the Pomor trade was especially important.

The Russians were originally allowed to trade in Finnmark from July 15 to August 15 and the later, in 1874, from June 15 to September 30. Sometimes Russians would stay beyond these periods, and even build homes out on the islands. The fishermen would trade their goods, fish, beef and mutton for birch bark, hemp, linen, nails, fishing tackle, sail cloth, tar and copper, among other things. Russian Trade can also be held responsible for the Coastal Sami move from reindeer herding, because they were able to survive on another pastoralism, that of cattle and sheep, as well as fishing (Paine, 1957: 54). The Russians were most interested in halibut, which fishermen could then trade for its weight in meal. Money was initially never exchanged, only goods. By 1890 Russia had started to exchange in money, and by 1914 the exchange of goods had ended, followed by the cease of trade, challenging the subsistent economy of the Sami to quickly modify (Paine, 1957: 51).

The Pomor trade was the main source of income for many Coastal Sami and Norwegians. The trade stopped in 1916, as a result of the Russian Revolution, creating and economic disaster for many. The end of the Pomor trade also marked the end of the coastal Sami people’s economic independence from Danish, Norwegian and Western European trade systems. Suddenly, in 1916, they became dependant on internal commerce (http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/nost202/pomore.htm).

Assimilation, “Norwegianization” and the 20th century

Assimilation and preservation have long been two contradictory arguments for the Norwegian treatment of Sami. Starting around the Middle Ages, Norwegians began to settle along the coastal fjords and islands. At this point, the settlers were interested in farming and fishing, but as they settled, the areas that they occupied came under the control of the Norwegian state, and so the question of whether the Sami that presently and previously occupied the same areas should be absorbed by the Norwegian population or whether their culture should be preserved arose (http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005-990463/index-dok000-b-fa. html).

We have seen already that the initial presence of Norwegian settlements actually did very little to disturb Coastal Sami culture in ways that were not already happening independently of Norwegian influence. These ideas are treated with more detail in other sections of this site, but following are brief descriptions of some of the later problems that have challenged Coastal Sami culture and, in some cases, Sami culture as a whole.

1. Education

From 1851 the state educational authorities in Norway stated that they held no responsibility to provide educational facilities for Sami children that were any different than those provided for Norwegians. That is, they were under no obligation to provide schools with classes taught in the Sami language. By 1880 there were no officially recognized pure Sami districts in all of Norway (Paine 73). Boarding schools were primarily a 19th century phenomenon, but carried on into the 20th century as well. Sami children would be taken from their homes and placed in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar setting, where they were not even allowed to speak their own language. Literary descriptions of the racism and other mistreatment that the Coastal Sami children were faced with, either for not being a “real” Sami, or for not being Norwegian, are evident in Ellen Marie Vars “Boarding Schools”:

Kátjá quickly learned what it was like to live at a boarding school and attend classes. She didn’t understand why nobody was supposed to talk about their parents or home, but that was the message she got on the very first evening, when she explained where she was from. The two girls that came over to her looked friendly.
“What’s your name and where are you from?” they asked. Kátjá was eager to answer. She told them about her family back home and about her grandmother.
“Do you have reindeer?” asked the girls.
“No, we don’t. We have cows and sheep,” Kátjá answered quietly.
The girls sneered. Then one of them kicked her and said, “Then how come you walk around in a gákti? You’re not Sami if you don’t have reindeer. You can’t live at this boarding school, only Sami kids get to live here!”
… she met some children on bicycles. They weren’t wearing gáktis. One of them pointed at her and yelled something insulting, but [she] didn’t understand because it was in Norwegian.
The others laughed and mimicked the way that Sami speak Norwegian (Gaski, 1997: 219).

Similar descriptions can be found in The Salt Bin, when Petter is sent off to school. When he decides not to sing on demand, Ulf, a Norwegian, is greatly angered and responds with, “Fucking idiot-Fjord-Lapp, I’m gonna show you how we make a Tysfjord Lapp listen.” (Jenssen, 1981: 190).

2. Læstadianism

Læstadianism is an “evangelical and fundamental” movement inside the Lutheran Church, with origins in Northern Fennoscandia. It was founded by Lars Levi Læstadius (1800-1861), a priest from Northern Sweden, who was also part Sami, in 1844. It found its way into Northern Norway and to the Sami, especially the Coastal Sami, in the late 1840s, via the reindeer nomads, who had summer pastures in Norway and winter pastures in Sweden. The nomads came into contact with Læstadius, who could speak Sami, in Sweden and were converted before returning to Norway (Steinlien).

By converting to Læstadianism, the Sami walked away from their traditional shamanistic beliefs and entered the community of Christianity, bringing them closer in conformity to their Norwegian neighbors. They could no longer worship whenever they chose in the outdoors, but had to travel, sometimes hundreds of miles, to the nearest church. Many were compelled to live in more settled communities in order to be near a congregation. Frank A. Jenssen writes about a 20th century Coastal Sami family, living in Tysfjord, in The Salt Bin:

There are no pictures on the walls, no potted plants in the windows, no curtains. [They] are Læstadians like most of the other Sami in Tysfjord, and for the Læstadians, ornamentals are sinful … and since Lars Levi Læstadius has said that even a little potted plant can become an idol, all they can do is obey … But Læstadius’ teachings have meant a lot to the Sami … no one can deny that. Their beliefs have welded them together and provided them with a secure base to stand on, against the rest of the world … Læstadius has made it seem easier for the suppressed … almost made injustice seem just. He has told the people not to strike back, but accept being oppressed; then they will get to heaven anyway (Jenssen, 1981: 49).

It seems clear from this passage that Læstadianism would have encouraged the Sami people to let themselves be oppressed and assimilated, and to avoid conflict.

3. The German Occupation and After

Following the German-Norwegian war of 1940, in which the Coastal Sami were actively involved, a four-year German occupation of Northern Norway began. This occupation was responsible for bringing the Coastal Sami closer to Norwegians in a number of ways.

During the occupation coastal families fled to the South to find refuge, as well as work, in the bigger cities and amongst the larger population of Norwegians. Away from their own land, the Coastal Sami were forced to adapt to a new way of living. Already by 1940, having gone through various intentional or unintentional assimilation processes, many distinctively [Coastal Sami] traits had disappeared. This, although just another blow to Coastal Sami culture, was a way of unifying the majority and the minority: for the first time the Sami and the Norwegians, were in the same boat, both controlled by the Germans (Paine 160).

The occupation brought industrialization and the machine-age into the Costal community, based on a huge, newly built, infrastructure. So, when they Costal Sami returned to the land they had left, they were not only faced with the fact that the Germans had destroyed their homes in a scorched earth retreat, but also a completely changed economic situation. John Gustaven writes in “The War is Over!”:

Elias Ravna sat on the beach, sucking his pipe. The Germans had burned down peoples houses … they may have felt that people couldn’t live in such things, anyway. Elias was thinking about all they had to do when they got back. But they did have something to fall back on, didn’t they? They lakes and the streams would be full of fish; besides, they could catch hares and ptarmigans. They had the sea, too, the blessed Lafjorden. They knew every bump of the fjord bottom, and every shallow area (Gaski, 1997: 205).

There were new roads and machines to “modernize” fishing and farming; family farms and fishing were no longer profitable. In addition, Coastal Sami were actually housed with Norwegian families until they could rebuild their own homes, leaving an inevitable cultural effect. The Coastal Sami lost just about everything because of the Germans, and when they rebuilt it was all in the Norwegian style.

The Sami search for work seemed to be hopeless at times, as is illustrated by Agnar in The Salt Bin. He tried in factories and in the mines, all run by Norwegians, and all, if offering, offering work with a certain degree of discrimination for being a Sami. Fellow employees mocked his language, and the employer did not think that he deserved the same wages. The same struggle was the case with many Coastal Sami, leading to much depression and even alcoholism.

Conclusion

In the latter half of the 20th century there emerged a group of Sami people, fighting for their own rights as an indigenous group and, primarily, as a people. The Coastal Sami, who were, perhaps, affected the most by stigmatization and assimilation, began to see the variants on living a modern life as a Sami. There cultural competence as Sami, in the view of many (especially the Mountain Sami), was slim and many of them could not speak Sami. They had adapted many Norwegian traits, and were not all very familiar with reindeer, but they were, nonetheless, Sami, and not Dáčča.

Sources

Gaski, Harald. In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun. University of Washington Press,
Seattle, 1997.

Gaski, Harald. Sami Culture in a New Era. University of Washington Press, Seattle,
1997.

Jenssen, Frank A. The Salt Bin, 1981.

Manker, Ernst and Ørnulv Vorren. Lapp Life and Customs. Oxford University Press,
London, 1962.

Nesheim, Asbjørn. Introducing the Lapps. Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, 1964.

Paine, 1957: Robert. Coast Lapp Society. Tromsø Museum, Norway, 1957.

Steinlien, Øystein. "Kulturell endring og etnisk kontinuitet – Læstadianisme som politisk samlingsverdi i en samisk kystbygd." Publication series no. 6, Centre for Sámi
Studies, University of Tromsø, Norway: 1999.

http://www.reisenett.no/facts/culture_science/Sami.html#2

http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005-990463/index-dok000-b-f-a.html

http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/nost202/pomore.htm