By Johan Mikaelsson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S\u00c1PMI, Norway (IPS)<\/strong> – The S\u00e1mi, Europe\u2019s last recognised Indigenous community, have faced threats to their existence throughout history. Norway, in 2024, apologised for its forced assimilation policy following the findings of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, and in September 2026 Sweden has recently been told to do the same. \uff5cJAPANESE<\/a>\uff5c<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the growing understanding of how their culture and economic livelihoods have been threatened<\/a>, their precarious lifestyle is again under threat, ironically from something that is usually considered positive: the \u2018green revolution\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kautokeino, in Norway\u2019s far north, feels like a capital of S\u00e1pmi, the homeland of the S\u00e1mi people<\/a>. The region is associated with the Scandinavian mountain range and the vast territories traversed by reindeer. Much of it lies above the Arctic Circle, stretching across Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Kautokeino, 95 percent of the population are S\u00e1mi, and Northern S\u00e1mi is the main language. One in every two inhabitants owns reindeer. So does municipal council leader Anders S. Buljo, who once worked full-time in reindeer herding, a livelihood his son has since taken over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight now, the reindeer are in the higher mountains closer to the coast and out on the islands,\u201d Buljo explains, standing on a hilltop with a 360-degree view across the vast landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, the reindeer move inland to their winter grazing grounds. The S\u00e1mi were once nomadic, following the reindeer\u2019s seasonal movements across the landscape. Reindeer herding remains deeply intertwined with S\u00e1mi culture, and both reindeer-herding S\u00e1mi and those who rely on hunting and fishing maintain a strong connection to nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the houses clustered in the settlement, the landscape is largely untouched: tens of kilometres of tundra and rolling hills dotted with low trees, marshes, lakes and flowing streams. Rounded, barren mountains stretch towards the horizon, where higher peaks remain covered in snow and ice throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reindeer were once wild, hunted by the S\u00e1mi with bows and arrows and spears. Traces of trapping pits, used for thousands of years, can still be found in the terrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, the S\u00e1mi began gathering reindeer into herds at certain times of the year, separating them and slaughtering selected animals. As the S\u00e1mi were brought under state administration, S\u00e1mi reindeer-herding communities were established. Each has hundreds or thousands of reindeer, yet the obstacles facing the livelihood continue to mount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWind power, mines and holiday villages are taking up more and more space. At least here, tourism is manageable, as there are no large ski resorts,\u201d says Buljo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forestry, agriculture, mining, construction, hydropower, snowmobile trails, ski-lift systems and a growing network of roads and railways are increasingly affecting S\u00e1pmi. Helicopters ferry hunters and skiers into the mountains, and skiing from mountain peaks by helicopter is permitted in Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is incredible how little people know about the S\u00e1mi and Indigenous peoples, especially further south. We need to build understanding,\u201d Buljo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wind farm at Fosen is a telling example. In 2021, Norway\u2019s Supreme Court<\/a> ruled that the wind turbines built there were illegal because they infringed on the reindeer herders\u2019 right to practise their culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey build first and ask questions afterwards. The courts established that it was a human rights violation. But the wind turbines are still there,\u201d Buljo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Indigenous peoples across the Americas, nation states forcibly displaced the S\u00e1mi through violence and legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis continued into the 1970s. We see similar tendencies even today, as the Fosen case<\/em> shows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything associated with the \u201cgreen transition\u201d is often presented as inherently positive. Yet beneath the rhetoric lie the economic interests of states and corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow green is the transition, really? When the last ore has been extracted from the mountains and the last peak has been fitted with a wind turbine, there will be no reason to stay,\u201d Buljo says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His municipality can nevertheless influence the direction of development and, for example, prevent mines from opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 2019, the Supreme Court recognised reindeer husbandry as a traditional use of the land, improving its legal position. And we have come a little further in Norway than in Sweden and Finland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1979, Karesuando in Sweden\u2019s far north hosted the Davvi Suvva festival, which brought together Indigenous people from around the world. In the opening speech, preserved in the documentary We Are All Brothers and Sisters<\/em>, Oula N\u00e4kk\u00e4l\u00e4j\u00e4rvi, spokesperson for the S\u00e1mi, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe, Indigenous people, have one thing in common: we want to live in harmony with nature, and we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That conviction remains. Yet technological progress and economic growth are transforming lives everywhere, with profound consequences for Indigenous peoples. The price of \u201cdevelopment\u201d is an escalating climate crisis<\/a>. Above the Arctic Circle, the changes are increasingly visible: milder winters, warmer summers and shrinking glaciers. Flora and fauna are being affected in front of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Norway and Denmark are among the 24 countries that have ratified the International Labour Organization\u2019s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169)<\/a>. Neither Sweden nor Finland has signed this key instrument for the protection of Indigenous rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The genocide of Indigenous peoples in North America began with colonisation and continued well into the 20th century. Neither the United States nor Canada has ratified ILO Convention 169. In the Nordic countries, the S\u00e1mi did not put up armed resistance. Living dispersed across the region, they were gradually pushed off lands they had inhabited for millennia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n