Sámi History 102

The Sámi (Northern Sámi: Sápmelaččat or Sámit) are the only recognized Indigenous people in Europe whose lands, Sápmi, are claimed and divided by the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian nation-states. Despite the central roles they’ve played in the political, economic, and cultural histories of Northern Europe, the Sámi are commonly depicted as ahistorical wildlings whose lands are an unused frontier, ripe for development today.

This series illuminates how untrue those depictions are. In “Sámi History 101,” this lecture examines the fundaments of Sámi history and culture, surveying oral histories, subsistence practices, societal organization, symbols of Sámi culture, and historical relations with neighbors. Session two, “Sámi History 102,” will expand on the work in session one by inspecting how archaeological, linguistic, and genetic studies contribute to the study of Sámi history, balancing our inquiry with Indigenous Studies methods. Session three “Sámi Histories of Colonization” will dive into how encroachment, taxation, and borders, among others, constructed Fennoscandic forms of colonialism, creating a rough timeline of how colonization has looked and still looks like in Sápmi. In the final segment, “Sámi Today: Survivance,” this lecture traces those legacies to the present to contextualize Sámi survivance, or survival by resistance, by looking at political organizing, rights, and contemporary forms of colonization in Sápmi. A recommended reading and media list will be mailed out to all participants following the final session.

These live lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings over Zoom. Attendance requires a reliable internet connection and a device with audio and video functionality. Each lecture has a separate registration.

• “Sámi History 101” (session 1)
• “Sámi History 102” (session 2)
• “Sámi Histories of Colonization” (session 3)
• “Sámi Today: Survivance” (session 4)