Sameland

Sameland

Sameland, or Sápmi in sami language, is a cultural region were the samic culture and the sami people are living. This region is stretching in four countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. The sami lanugage is a finnic-urgic language, closely related to finnish, but also estonian and karelian. The sami culture is fameous for herding reindeers in the mountains, wich have been their way of life for centuries. When Sweden expanded northwards, many samis were forced to leave their lands to the state, and forced to speak swedish. The swedification wasnt so good as the rulers hoped, and the sami language is still spoken with 30 000 speakers, but it is to few and the lanugage is threatened.

In three countries, Sweden, Finland and Norway there is a parliament for the sami were they can have elections each four years, an exeption is Russia were this kind of institution doesnt exist, and its in Russia were the culture is mostly threatened. The Sami flag is also only in work in Sweden, Finland and Norway. In many places in the northern Scandinavia its very common to see this flag standing next to the national flag outside shops and other institutions.

The regions marked on the map is to show the different dialects the sami people are speaking.

1) South sami

2) Ume sami

3) Pite sami

4) Lule sami

5) North sami

6) Skolt sami

7) Enare sami

8) Kildin sami

9) Ters-sami