In arctic Europe, Saami peoples have been patrons of the land for thousands of years. Times are changing quickly – seasonal shifts, industry, and sociocultural challenges (among many other things!) mean that many Saami feel as though their way of life is on the edge. We met up with my friend Eero, a tenth generation Saami reindeer-herder, and travelled around Sapmi learning about the perspectives and concerns shared by Sami elders and community members alike. We were taught so much during this journey, and were privileged to have people share nearly a century of stories on Saami ways of life.
As we started our journey Eero talked to us about his worries that his children will be the first generation to not be able to continue living reindeer herding lives. The same one that he, and his parents, and his ancestors have all shared in, and been immersed in, for generations. He told us about an evening when he and his wife caught the four of them – ages 11 and younger – holding a secret meeting about how to keep the farm, the reindeer, and their way of life.
“We had to fight for our children to even learn the Sámi language, even today. It is still not encouraged in Finland. In school, they have the opportunity to learn German, French, English, and other European languages. Services like cars to bigger cities for these language lessons are even offered. Families and parents in our community were told that there wasn’t enough demand for it until we got together and discussed it ourselves. We went to the school to show that 90 children were in need of Sámi language lessons and that there was interest just a few years ago. They now get to learn Sámi too.”
“Well, life became more expensive and you have to start trying to do something to earn more. Many of the young people are now working in the mining industry. You get some money from the government to support reindeer herding [in Sweden], but that money goes straight to covering basic expenses and does not even cover all the expenses that have been coming in. Then what do you do to keep living this life.”
“A lot has changed in the past two generations. In the 60’s we used to still live in “Kota” [a traditional Sámi tent] all year round. All the family. It was a totally different kind of reindeer herding. Before the year 1965, there were no snow mobiles. When the first snow mobiles arrived they were very unreliable and the men always have to have the skiis with them, so when the snowmobile broke up, they just continued by skiing. Now you just call your friend to pick you up.”
“Being Sámi means keeping up the old way of living. Now they are arguing about who is Sámi and who is not. It doesn’t make any difference.”
“It was totally forbidden even to speak about the Sámi culture. The church said that the Sámi language was language of devil, and in school if you said a Sàmi word, you had to stay two hours after school for every single word. I remember that in 1958, a priest came to see how well people knew the bible in Finnish. Even adults had to stand in the corner to shame them if they did not remember the bible. So everybody was afraid to speak about it.”
“Time here is running short. We have about two decades before I fear reindeer herding will be extinct. In one cup there is our culture and in the other cup there’s money – but I feel like you can’t put a value on culture until it is gone.”
“We don’t want money from the government, we just want to be reindeer herders the same as our ancestors have been for thousands of years.”
“I believe this is the first year in history where most of us have to feed our reindeer year round. Trying to feed that many reindeer is like trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket.”
