They call their ancestral lands Sápmi;. Traditional occupations are hunting, fishing, reindeer herding and farming, but today only a minority of the Saami making a living from these things alone. The population is about 85,000, of which roughly half live in Norway, although Sweden also has a significant group. Finland and Russia only have smaller groups located in the far north, including the Russian Kola peninsula.
Sami inhabitants have in Sweden, Norway and Finland (but not Russia) a vote in their special designed authority, the Sami Parliament (SP). The SP has a democratically elected parliament and acts as a governmental authority. An individual have a Sami vote length if
he or she consider oneself to be Sami and (Sweden, Norway, Finland)
he or she speaks Sami language, or (Sweden, Norway, Finland)
he or she had/have an father or mother, or grandfather or grandmother, that speak/spoke Sami language (Sweden, Norway, Finland)
The Sami folk have inhabited northern regions of Scandinavia since far back into antiquity. The culture is inherited from the pre-historic "Sami people", a Finno-Ugric people. See Laponia for antiquity history.
Lapponia, a large, 35-chapter book written by Johannes Schefferus (1621 - 1679) is the oldest source of detailed information on Sami culture in ancient times. It was written due to "ill-natured" foreign propaganda (in particular from Germany) claiming that Sweden had won victories on the battlefield by means of Sami magic. Although the prominent position Sweden had in that time is today seen as a rather lucky coincident by historians, these rumors were seen as gross slander on the Swedish honor and the country's ability to conduct warfare, and Scheferrus felt they had to be condemned by an accurate view of the Saamis. The book was publicized in late 1673 and quickly translated to French, German, English, and other languages (though not to Swedish until 1956). However, an adapted and abridged version was quickly publicized in the Netherlands and Germany, where chapters on their difficult living conditions, topography, and the environment had been replaced by made-up stories of magic, sorcery, drums and heathenism.
The term Sami religion is usually referring to the pre-Christian religion, practiced till about 18th century. The Christianity started already in the 16th century but the Lutheran bible was first translated in much later time.
The religion has often been described as "magic" and "sorcery" through out time, and peoples both admire and (especially priests) condemn it. But it is rather covered by a large degree of wisdom and a great worship of one's ancestors. It also has common elements with other circumpolar religions -- such as those in Siberia and North America -- and might because of this reason have influenced the Norse mythology, and not vice versa.
The Sami language is divided into nine dialects, of which several have their own written languages. Southern Sami cannot understand Northern Sami. Most dialects are spoken in several countries, as linguistic borders do not correspond to national borders. The Sami language is part of the Finno-Ugric family, related to Finnish but not to Norwegian and kin, however due to prolonged contact with the Scandinavians, there is a large number of Germanic words in Sami.
One very interesting Sami tradition is the singing of joik (not to be confused with the call yoicks used in fox hunting). Joiks are traditionally sung a capella, usually sung slowly and deep in the throat with apparent emotional content of sorrow or anger.
Christian missionaries and priests regarded these as "songs of the Devil". In recent years, musical instruments frequently accompany joiks.
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