is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, bounded by the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea, and White Sea."Lapland." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009. Web. 24 November 2009 http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9047170.We are the Sámi – Fact sheets. Gáldu Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the south, Sápmi extends to the counties of Trøndelag in Norway and Jämtland in Sweden.
Most of the Sámi population is concentrated in a few traditional areas in the northernmost part of Sápmi, such as Kautokeino and Karasjok. Inari is considered one of the centres of Sámi culture.HS: Inarin kirkonkylästä tullut saamelaisten pääkaupunki (in Finnish)Saamenmaasta, kulttuurista ja mytologiasta – Rantapallo (in Finnish) In the past, the Sámi settlement reached much farther south, possibly to present-day Oslo in the west and the lakes Ladoga and Onega in the east.
Sápmi has never been a sovereign political entity. Since the 1970s–1990s, the Sámi have had a limited self-governance in the Nordic states, represented by the Sámi Parliaments. The interstate cooperation is organized by the umbrella organization Sámi Council.
Historically, the Scandinavian peoples referred to the Sámi using the exonyms Finns and Lapps, terms now considered outdated or pejorative.; ; In Scandinavian languages, historical names for the region include , Lappmarken, and , and in English, Sápmi has traditionally been called Lapland (). Today, variations of these names persist in smaller cultural, geographic and administrative designations within each country, such as Finnmark County in Norway, Lapland Province in Sweden and Lapland Region in Finland, all of which overlap with Sápmi. The Russian part of the Sápmi is covered by Murmansk Oblast.
Etymology Sápmi (and corresponding terms in other Sámi languages) refers to both the Sámi land and the Sámi people. The word Sámi is the accusative-genitive form of the noun Sápmi—making the name's (Sámi olbmot) meaning "people of Sápmi". The origin of the word has been argued to be related to the Baltic word *žēmē, meaning "land". Also Häme, the Finnish name for Tavastia, a historical province of Finland, is thought to have the same origin, and the same word has been argued to be the origin of , the Finnish name for Finland, although the issue is debated.Kallio, Petri. Suomi(ttavia etymologioita) (1998). Virittäjä, volume 102, issue 4.
Sápmi is the name in Northern Sámi, the most widely spoken of the Sámi languages. In other languages, the following terms are used:
In modern Swedish and Norwegian, Sápmi is known as either Sapmi or Sameland. In Finnish it is known as or . In Old Norse, it was historically called Finnmǫrk, a name that later evolved into Finnmark, the name of Norway's northernmost county. In older Swedish, Sápmi was known as Lappmarken or Lappland. Some English language sources refer to Northern Norway and Murmansk Oblast as Norwegian Lapland and Russian Lapland, respectively, especially in the context of tourism marketing.Presentation of Finnmark by Norway's Ministry of Trade and Industry in their official travel guide to Norway.
Lappland became the name of Sweden's northernmost province (landskap) which was divided in 1809, leaving one part in Sweden and other under Finland, which became part of the Russian Empire. The name Lappland remains in use for both the Swedish province of Lapland and the Finnish region of Lapland. Finnish Lapland includes Peräpohjola, a region traditionally considered part of Ostrobothnia. Consequently. Lapland and Sápmi are not interchangeable in the Finnish context. While Rovaniemi is located in Lapland, it is not part of Sápmi.
In the 17th century, Johannes Schefferus assumed the etymology of the term Lapland to be related to the Swedish word for "running", (cognate with English, to leap).The History of Lapland: Chap. I: Of the name of Lapland, Scheffer, John, Oxford, 1674 The terms Lapp and Lappland are now regarded as outdated or offensive by many Sámi people, who prefer the area's name in their language , because over time the term Lapp has acquired the pejorative connotation of "silly", "uneducated", "backwards", etc. in the major languages of the Scandinavian countries that include Sápmi.
Geography Landscape The largest part of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle. The western portion is an area of fjords, deep valleys, glaciers and mountains, the highest point being Mount Kebnekaise (). The Swedish part of Sápmi is characterized by great rivers running from the northwest to the southeast. From the former Norwegian county of Troms and Finnmark and eastward, the terrain is that of a low plateau with many marshes and lakes, the largest of which is Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland. The extreme northeastern section lies within the tundra region, but it does not have permafrost. In the 19th century, scientific expeditions to Sápmi were undertaken, for instance by Jöns Svanberg.
Climate The climate is subarctic/tundra and vegetation is sparse, except in the densely forested southern portion. The mountainous west coast has significantly milder winters and more precipitation than the large areas east of the mountain chain. North of the Arctic Circle polar nights characterize the winter season and the midnight sun the summer season—both phenomena are longer the further north you go. Traditionally, the Sami divide the year into eight seasons instead of four.
In Inari, the climate is warm-end subarctic, with summer highs of , and winter lows of . The average winter sees 131 days of snowfall, with the first flakes falling to the ground in September. Snow cover lasts about two-thirds of the year and may persist past the last flake and even the last frost.
Even without permafrost or a true tundra climate, much of Sápmi is arctic moorland with stunted, scattered trees.
Natural resources Mountain reindeers, Eurasian wolves, Eurasian brown bears, and birds are the main forms of animal life, in addition to a myriad of insects in the short summer. Sea and river fisheries abound in the region. Steamers are operated on some of the lakes, and many ports are ice-free throughout the year. All ports along the Norwegian Sea in the west and the Barents Sea in the northeast to Murmansk are ice-free all year. The northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia usually freezes over in winter. The ocean floor to the north and west of Sápmi has deposits of petroleum and natural gas. Sápmi contains valuable mineral deposits, particularly iron ore in Sweden, copper in Norway, and nickel and apatite in Russia.
Cultural subdivisions East Sápmi East Sápmi consists of the Kola Peninsula and the Lake Inari region and is home to the eastern Sami languages. While being the most heavily populated part of Sápmi, this is also the region where the Indigenous population and their culture are weakest. Corresponds to the regions marked 6 through 9 on the map below.
Central Sápmi Central Sápmi consists of the western part of Finland's Sami Domicile Area, the parts of Norway north of the Saltfjellet mountains and areas on the Swedish side corresponding to this. Central Sápmi is the region where Sami culture is strongest and home to North Sami—the most widely used Sami language, with around 20,000 speakers as of 2024. In the southernmost part of this subregion, however, Sami culture is rather weak—this is where the moribund Bithun Sami language is used. The areas around the Tysfjorden fjord in Norway and the river Lule in Sweden are home to the Julev Sami language, one of the more widely used Sami languages. These correspond to the regions marked 3 through 5 on the map below.
South Sápmi South Sápmi consists of the areas south of Saltfjellet and corresponding areas in Sweden and is home to the southern languages. In this area, Sami culture is mostly visible inland and on the coast of the Baltic Sea, and the languages are spoken by few. Corresponds to the regions marked 1 and 2 on the map below to the southeast of region 1 in Sweden.
Sámi languages
The Saamic languages are the region's main minority languages and its oldest attested languages. They belong to the Uralic language family and are most closely related to the Finnic languages. Many Sami languages are mutually unintelligible, but the languages originally formed a dialect continuum stretching southwest and northeast, so that a message could hypothetically be passed between Sami speakers from one end to the other and be understood by all. Today, however, many of the languages are moribund and thus there are "gaps" in the original continuum.
On the map to the right numbers indicate Sámi languages. Of these languages, Northern Sámi is by far the most vital; whereas Ume Sámi and Pite Sámi are critically endangered. Kemi Sámi has been extinct for over a century.
North Sami is subdivided into three main dialects: West, East, and Coast. The written standard is based on the Western dialect.
Demography It is difficult to give estimates of inhabitants since Sápmi is not precisely defined. It is also difficult to account for the distribution of ethnic groups as many people have double or multiple ethnic identities—both seeing themselves as members of the majority population and being part of one or more minority groups.
The number of Sámi is generally estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000. Many live in areas outside Sápmi such as Oulu, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki. Some Sámi people have migrated to places outside the Sápmi vernacular region, such as Canada and the United States.
Groups of Sámi people have settled in the northern parts of Minnesota.
The Sami are a small minority in the Russian part of Sápmi.
As of 2016, 13,226 people inhabited the Sami native region of Finnish Lapland many of whom are Sami.
Politics Norway, Finland and Sweden all have Sámi Parliaments that to varying degrees are involved in governing the region—though mostly they only have authority over the matters of the Sámi citizens of the states in which they are situated.
Sámi Parliaments
Every Norwegian citizen registered as a Sámi has the right to vote in the elections for the Sámi Parliament of Norway. Elections are held every four years by direct vote from seven constituencies covering all of Norway (six of which are in Sápmi) and run parallel to the general Norwegian parliamentary elections. This is the Sámi Parliament with the most influence over any part of Sápmi, as it is involved in the autonomy established by the Finnmark Act. The parliament is in the village of Kárášjohka and its current president is Silje Karine Muotka from the Norwegian Sámi Association.
The Sámi Parliament of Sweden, situated in Kiruna (), is elected by a general vote which all registered Sámi citizens of Sweden may attend. The current president is Lars-Anders Baer.
Every Sámi person in Finland who is registered in the election roll can vote in the elections of the Sámi Parliament of Finland. At least 12 of the 21 seats of the parliament are reserved for members from the Sámi Domicile Area. The Parliament is in Inari (), and its current president is Pirita Näkkäläjärvi [fi].