The Varanger Saami

Book excerpt: The Varanger Saami is a narrative of 700 years of history of a small group of Saami (Lapps) who live near the base of the Varangerfjord in north-east Norway. Dramatic social and economic changes occurred in this area during this period. Once targeted for taxation by Norway, Sweden, and Russia, the Varanger Saami became part of the kingdom of Norway in 1613. Once exclusively hunters and fisherman, the Saami splintered in the 18th century into two groups: the majority turned to cattle raising and commercialized fishing while a minority became full-time reindeer pastoralists. Habitation patterns also underwent radical change, from large camps in the middle ages to increasingly nuclear settlement patterns in the 17th century. Knut Odner attributes this process of dynamic change to the ideology of self-reliance among the Saami.