[R-G] Saami [Lapp]

[Hunter Gray]

This is one of the earlier pieces on our Hunterbear website -- and my reposting it today stems from a couple of posts I made yesterday eve on the RBB list. The Saami are Fourth World tribal peoples, facing many of the same challenges as Native Americans, and also surviving socially and culturally through commitment and tenacity. 

The Saami origin lies in Northeastern Asia and, while the people now known as Native Americans moved -- over a long period of time into the Western Hemisphere via the Bering Straits -- the Saami people moved northward into the Arctic over a long period of time as well and eventually into extreme northern Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden.

Two people -- individual products, respectively, of each, Native and Saami -- happened to meet at Superior, Wisconsin in 1961, married, went South and far beyond, and produced four great offspring, and thus many grandchildren. [Their good friend, Joan Mulholland, a true world traveler who also keeps up with good bookstores, occasionally sends them welcome books on the Saami.]

Saami Issues [People of the Arctic] 

[Hunter Gray]

March 18, 2001

We very much appreciate Louis' posting of the New York Times piece, "I am a
Sami." [The NYT is not exactly a best seller anywhere here in Idaho.] The
article is certainly well meaning but we do feel obliged to round things out
just a bit -- and give a little sharper perspective. My wife, Eldri, is of
considerable Saami [another spelling] descent -- Norwegian and Finnish --
and while she is quite capable of speaking for herself et al., she's
delegated this one to me since I'm quite at home on our Marxism list.

The article indicates general ambiguity about the origins of the Saami,
quotes an anthropologist who feels they have no Far Eastern origin, and
gives the impression that they are light-skinned and blond. Vigorous
dissents from this corner [and we are sure there will be from many others.]
My wife and her people are rather dark, with conspicuously slanted dark
brown or almost-black eyes, and often with broad faces [the children on her
side have sometimes been mistaken for "nice little Koreans.''] This is
essentially true of many, many Saami; and lends considerable credence to
the most widely accepted account -- by a great many Saami [and by several
anthros] -- of their initial geographical origin: the northern edge of the
Lake Baikal region on the Siberian/Mongolian border and a migration that
moved westward over centuries, undoubtedly mixing with many other peoples
along the junket -- and certainly, in the more "European" sections of
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, blending with those peoples.
Traditional Saami still hold to a theology encompassing The Bear, and some
extended family structures still have a delineated "family shaman."
Originally from Northern Minnesota, and raised a liberal Lutheran, my wife
also has a very culturally ingrained recognition of the "mysterious forces
which cannot be codified in blackboard formulae" [my words.] Several members
of her family have married Native Americans.

What really matters, of course, is not the racial piece of it -- culture, of
course, is always critical and the Saami are the Saami, whatever the colour
shade, as the Rom are the Rom -- but the fact that the Saami, like Fourth
World peoples everywhere, are maintaining essentially tribal societies and
basic cultures, fighting for their inherent sovereignty and rights of
self-determination and aboriginal title, holding on to land and other
resources -- while endeavouring to make some sort of practical adjustment to
the influences of urban/industrialism: e.g., using snowmobiles -- but for
Saami purposes -- as a Navajo uses a pickup ["Navajo Cadillac."]

Many years ago, I had the honour of taking the then Finnish ambassador to
the U.N. on a full-day tour of Chicago -- with an emphasis on a number of
low-income grassroots minority community organizational projects in which I
was deeply involved. He was a very sensitive and decent person and aware
of my wife's background. The subject of the Saami did not arise until --
after our tour was essentially completed and he had expressed considerable
concern about the minority groups of Chicago -- I broached the "minority
situation" of Finland. Gamely, he rose to the occasion, making no effort
whatsoever to sugar-coat Finland's treatment of the arctic nomads. "I am
glad you raised this so directly," he told me, "because we always have to be
reminded."

And the Saami are now reminding not only Finland and the other neighbouring
countries -- but the world -- and are doing it with increased effectiveness.

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]

[A trenchant, informative link for the Saami: http://www.allthingsarctic.com/people/saami.aspx


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

See Apache County Tragedy: The Least and the Littlest:
http://hunterbear.org/apache_county_tragedy2.htm

And see Hunter's Movement Life Interview:
http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm