Accualy, Humon is wrong on two accounts concerning the sami. Understandable, as there are no sami in Denmark, but I still find it importand to correct her.
First of all, they are no more indigenous then germanic scandinavians, and no less. The debate concerning who came first can go on for days, but all in all, we dont know for sure who came first when the inland ice melted away, and it dosent realy matter. Both have lived in the Nordics for about eight thousand years.
Secondly, the sami have been treated badly, but not for long. They were accualy a very favored population group untill the 1800:s (at least in Sweden. I dont know about the sami in Norway before that period). The conflict we see today is mostly about the sami herders and germanic wood farmers (reindeers eat crops when they pass through, wich pisses the farmers off, but ofcourse the herders must get though and they have the lawful right to lett their animals feed from the forest), not about what happend in the 1800:s. However, many sami have imported the american situation between natives and "white settlers", and tries to apply it to their own situation, despite the fact that it is incorrect in terms of nordic history.
29
Accualy, Humon is wrong on two accounts concerning the sami. Understandable, as there are no sami in Denmark, but I still find it importand to correct her.
First of all, they are no more indigenous then germanic scandinavians, and no less. The debate concerning who came first can go on for days, but all in all, we dont know for sure who came first when the inland ice melted away, and it dosent realy matter. Both have lived in the Nordics for about eight thousand years.
Secondly, the sami have been treated badly, but not for long. They were accualy a very favored population group untill the 1800:s (at least in Sweden. I dont know about the sami in Norway before that period). The conflict we see today is mostly about the sami herders and germanic wood farmers (reindeers eat crops when they pass through, wich pisses the farmers off, but ofcourse the herders must get though and they have the lawful right to lett their animals feed from the forest), not about what happend in the 1800:s. However, many sami have imported the american situation between natives and "white settlers", and tries to apply it to their own situation, despite the fact that it is incorrect in terms of nordic history.