I am confused with my Sámi ancestry and would like to research this further, but have no idea where to begin. My grandfather was born in Vännäs and his parents immigrated to North America in the 1930’s. I believe my great grandma knew of her Sámi background since I have inherited an 100+ year old reindeer antler candle holder and puukkos with reindeer engravings (given to her family by the Sámi people). I know that my 4th great grandma had Sámi lineage, I suspect many of my other ancestors did as well.

My ancestors have lived in the;

-Västerbotten (Umeå, Vännäs, Åsele, Nordmaling, Mjösjö, Örtrask, Lycksele) -Västernorrland/Angermanland (Gudmundrå, Fjällsjö, Movattnet, Västersel, Helgum, Flärke, Nyland, Ramsele) -Jämtland (Rudsjö, Offne)

Counties practically forever (I can trace back past the 1500’s). Some of my ancestors immigrated to Sweden from Finland, particularly Österbotten, Kuopio, Närpes, Kuusamo, Hackas, and Joroinen.

I’ll provide two examples of ancestors I’ve found below:

My 8th great grandfather, Matts Hindersson “Finne” settled near Mjösjö, Sweden probably around 1683. He was from brattsbacka and was from a tribe called the “brattsbacka Finns” or “bratt back pimples” which most old people still know about. Matts name was first entered in the 1694 Mjösjö census (which was dominated by Finns at the time). The next time his name is found is a baptismal register for the year 1701.

Matts had a son named Hindrik Mattsson, born in 1661, in Brattsbacka. He was described as a Finnish peasant, and in 1711 he stood accused at the village council for pretending to be "able to cure and cure one or another passion". This court record is from the parish of Nordmaling in the court register for the year 1711, the entire spell rune Hindrik used is recorded in the record. Apparently this record is the only one of its kind in Norrland north of Hälsingland. My 7th great uncle Hindrik was a man who conveyed the hidden forces of nature and was called a sage or in Finnish tietajat "those who know" or loihtija.

Apparently my 8th great grandfather Matts trusted his son Hindrik with the magical arts he was in possession of, and he also learned some formulas from his grandmother. Hindrik was employed in a much larger area than Sweden's provincial medical district today. A farmer all the way up in Bygdeå had sent for my great grandpa Matts to get an atonement for “his body being filled with internal boils”. This farmer wanted to hire the brattsbackafinn, Matts, whom he heard could assist in such cases. However, Matts had no desire to ride up to Bygdeå, so he sent his son Hindrik.

Well equipped with decoctions, goat tallow, bear essences, bear bile, snake essences, fox and bear brains, Hindrik set off. Arriving, he began the anointing and in the meantime read a Finnish spell rune. according to the judgment book, the rhyme sounded like this:

Kippu Tyki Waren Ney Kipma kinj åtelko Warum warum wannustelko , Isan beading woix into question pahax Pana ait Sinä tählä kaufwan wifwyt kottonan kiusat kyrsätt toe olan tarfwäckz Päifwellä its autäckz ättj sammax paremax muinosta

At the court, Hindrik stated that he learned the Finnish rhyme from his father or from his grandmother. After he repeated it before the court, it was recorded, and the judge asked someone on the board to translate it into Swedish. Hindrik then blurted out that the reading in Swedish could read:

Pain and burning will disappear, where it feels the pain to stand, Your Father, He grieves over it, that You are here for so long, The mother thinks everything is bad, You have enough food at home unless you don't want to live here. Make good at night, so that all is well before the day comes and better than it was before.

The district court found that the matter should be handled in Nordmaling, so that the parents could also be heard. Two years later, Hindrik stands before the court in Nordmaling, but now he excuses his parents completely and says he came up with the rhyme himself, and he made the decoctions based on descriptions he heard from traveling people. It has not been investigated how the verdict ultimately turned out, but Nordmaling's death book reports that Hindrik Mattsson died in 1717 without specifying the cause of death.

Another ancestor:

My 9th great grandfather, Kristoffer Olofsson, was born in Åsele. His father was Olof Mattsson Juvonen from Kuopio, Finland and his occupation is listed as Nybyggare, bonde och Nämdeman.

Kristoffer was forced to send his son Adam, to Lycksele Lappskola. 6 year old Adam received clothes since his father was “poor and unable to dress him”. It was noted that my great grandfather Kristoffer exclaimed that he would rather lose his life than send his son to the Lycksele school (Skytteanska skolan). After schooling, Adam became a “settler” and his descendants were described as settlers and peasants in the Åsele area.

Does this information mean these ancestors of mine were Sámi? I’m particularly curious to learn more about Brattsbacka Finn’s since I’ve never heard this term before. I suspect that more of my ancestors were Sámi, however I do not know where to look to confirm nor deny this. I was thinking perhaps parish records, or occupation statuses?

I’m Métis from Canada so I’m quite unfamiliar with Sámi/Finnish genealogy or history in general. Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

Edit:

Did some more digging and found out that my 8th great grandpa’s (Adam, the one sent to Lycksele school) daughter Anna (my 7th great grandma) married Samuel Samuelsson, born in Lycksele. His family was from Kuusamo, Kemi lappmark. They had the last name Hilduinen. According to Wikipedia;

“Historically, there were forest Sami in the northern parts of Ångermanland and further north in Sweden. The two southernmost Sami regions, Åsele and Lycksele, were not inhabited by fell Sami prior to 1606, but rather only by forest Sami, as was the Kemi lappmark in modern Finland. The forest Sami in Kemi, Åsele, and Lycksele became assimilated into Finnish and Swedish society beginning in the 17th century. There are still forest Sami cultures present in the woods in Norrbotten and in Malå in Västerbotten and in central Lapland of Finland.”

Hi all! I have an ancestor who I think may be Saami but I am not sure. His name is Olof Larsson Hotakka or Hotakainen (he has different last names on Family Search and Ancestry). On his Ancestry page there was a post that stated that his last name might have originated from a group of Saami people in Finland, but Olof was born in Sweden. I want to know for sure if the last name is of Saami origin as I try to learn more about my ancestor. I'll provide the post so you guys can get a better look at it.

Edit: My ancestor has a cursive L marked whenever her family is mentioned in a Church Record.

Hello! Sorry to be so American in here, forgive me for that. I've been trying my hardest to reconnect with my ancestry, and while exploring my heritage I have discovered a possible Saami connection through my mother's side (our DNA test showed Indigenous Arctic as well as a lot of Norwegian and Swedish ancestry, and some small connections from Finland). This was surprising to us, as we never looked into this and Grandpa always said he was simply Norwegian and Swedish.

So, long story short, I've been diving headfirst into census records, which have been pretty difficult to read. But I found an ancestor born in Troms (a great-great-great Grandma so pretty far back) that was named Lena (which I read was a Saami first name) and was the daughter of a man with the last name Rist, this surprised me as it wasn't the typical format I saw other last names in (Olesen, Nilson, etc).

And that leads me to the question, is Rist a Saami surname? I couldn't find an answer on Google unfortunately, but I figured if anyone would know it would be y'all! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Áiggun reŋgot, danne gulaskuttan. Boazodoalli jearai man ollu bálkkát siđan, muhto in dieđe...

Hi! I was wondering if it is ok to wear a komsekule as a non Sami person? I received one as a gift but have been nervous to wear it because I don't want to be disrespectful. Thanks so much for the help!

(In norwegian)

This small study maps some key differences between regular inland North Sámi and the coastal dialect, focused mainly in the Altafjord area, but it also shows elements that is common for all coastal sami areas in the north sami area.
https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/2546/henriksen.pdf?sequence=1

Hello friends, I am very interested in the Saami culture but it is super hard to find any material where I live in the US. Do you have any recommendations? Or are there any people who would be willing to answer some questions? Thank you

Tiervâ! I need help to find the traditional Sámi clothing (Mááccuh) from my family's birthplace in Inari, Finland. I belong to the Stoor/Stuor family from Inari but i'm not able to find the design of the Mááccuh to my family. The reason i don't know is because my family stopped having the traditional clothing made during the 1930's. Any help would be greatly appreciated (including photos and such)

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am a migrant to Sweden (and English is not my first language either, so forgive the bad grammar) and an analog photographer/enthusiast and with my partner we shoot and collect analog glass-plates.

I recently came across a glass-plate (I assume from the early 1900's), a black and white portrait of an elder, sold as a collector item marked as Sámi. It didnt sit right with me that this plate should go around in collectors hands. So I bought it and decided that I'll try to return it to its right home (hopefully if there are descendants, otherwise an archive that can host it and handle it right).

I have tried reaching out to some museums and archives but they only could help me so far as telling me that the image comes from "northern parts of Sápmi, Gällivare and above". And they declined receiving it as it is just a single plate and doesn't have any context to it.

Would any of you be up to helping me find some more information about this plate? I would really appreciate it.

I haven't adeed the photo here as I'm trying to treat the person in the image with respect. but if you are up for helping me, I can send a scan of it in a DM.

Thank you so much!

Edit: I contacted Colormypast. They were super nice and got back to me. They suggested that she is wearing a cap that was common in the Jukkasjärvi district, close to Kiruna in Northern Sweden. And that in the summers, these families migrated to the coast of Norway, in Troms county. They are going to investigate it further and reach back to me.

Edit 2: TheDabitch suggested also that it comes from Northeast. As the headdress are seen in Enontekiö and Övre Soppero. Basically somewhere in Karesuando. As it seems like there is an agreement about the location. Do any of you lovelies are from or have contacts in that area? I would really appreciate if you can pass the picture around so we can also put a name and hopefully a date on it as well ❤️

Edit 3: I had contacted samer.se asking for help but they didn't have any info either (April 8th).

I realise this might be too last minute since I have to decide if I’m going out in about an hour but I’m in Stockholm and just realized I forgot to pack my normal shoes so I only have nutukas. Has anyone gotten any trouble or been bothered for that sort of stuff while outside Sápmi?

I’m debating whether to go out on town for dinner or eat in the hotel.

update: friend assured me it would be ok so I’m off. Thanks anyway!

I know about the Staallo. But what other Folkloric creatures are there in Saami cultures folklore and mythology. I'm very interested in broadening my knowledge on the subject and the onternest can be very hit or miss with folklore its always better to hear directly from the people in question themselves in my opinion

Thanks

Hello. Just curious, are the Sámi languages mutually intelligible? Can a Northern Saami speaker and Ter Sami speaker sit in a room drinking tea and speak to eachother without using a bridge language like Russian, Norwegian or Swedish. For eg, I'm an Irish Gael. My dialect fully mutually intelligible with Manx and Scottish Gaelic but none of us can communicate with Welsh, Cornish or Breton speakers (Welsh, Cornish and Breton are to me what Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are to Sámi language speakers).

In short can you speak in Inari and be understood by Akkala ect ect.

To be candid i'm very much an outsider being from the UK. However, i'm coming towards the end of a PhD and there's some research groups that work on wolves in scandanavia i'm considering reaching out to. Not that this is that important to my question but I realise it's a controversial topic politically in scandanavia so wanted to disclose where i'm coming from.

From my admitedly limited reading of the issue, the subsistence way of the life of the saami people just does not mix with wolves when wolves would kill your reindeer. However, saami people and wolves have been in Lapland for a lot longer than the last few hundred years when wolves were functionally extinct. I'm assuming maybe ignorantly that wolves were more common say 1000 years ago. Was the presence of wolves and the saami way of life always incompatible, or has the approach to reindeer herding changed ever since wolves were removed? Also, are there any saami myths/cultural stories surrounding wolves from when they were still around in Lapland?

Hello,

For a little song project I am currently learning a multilingual song from a german singer (Bodo Wartke - Liebeslied). The song basically has three lines of text that get repeated in over 70 different languages and dialects and last year I started to learn that song as a hobby.
Living in Norway and sometimes singing that song in some open mics in bars I would like to include the samisk language and therefore was looking for some help.
I would love to get in contact with somebody that speaks north samisk and could help me translate three lines of text and teach me how to pronounce this text in north samisk.

The text is kind of the same in every language yet has some small differences every now and then.
The english lyrics are: I want to sing in every language for you baby, and play on every instrument to say these words to you, believe me it is true: I love you

In norwegian: Jeg skal synge det for deg på alle språk i verden, bruke hardingfela i fra brudeferden, jeg elsker deg.

Or in swedish: Jag vill sjunga det på alla språk för dig, och på alla insturment vill jag säga dig, det är sant, lita på mig, jag älskar dig

From the University in Tromsø I got help with a North Sami text which would be: Mun háliidan lávlut juohke gillii dutnje ráhkis, čuojahit buot čuojanasain, jáhke mu sániid: Mun ráhkistan du.

But I would be very happy if somebody could a.) confirm that this text makes sense and b.) help me with the pronunciation.

Thank you in advance

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hello. For the start I’m a Finnish girl and I’ve lived my whole life in northen Finland/not Lapland tho. My grandma was Sami and even though she was taught to hide and dislike that part of herself she would still bring that part to her private life as a grown up. She lived in Inari as a child and was moved around because of the war I think? She was a painter and we have a cabin in Inari. She always painted beautiful views from Lapland and she would feel to be the most alive at our family cabin. My favorite painting from her is a shamans drum that I got after her passing. She taught me how to paint and draw, she was literally the best goodest warmest person on the planet. I would have a thousand examples of her putting others before her and helping everyone around. She had alzhiemers for many years and it was ripping our soul apart watching her memories fade away until she didn’t remember me or even my father. One day during those later years of her life we were listening to radio together and a song in sami, im guessing it had to be Inari Sami/Anarâškielâ. She started singing along and we were all shocked she remembered the lyrics. I wish I had more chances to talk to her about everything and anything. I miss her so much and I want to learn more about her roots. I want to make an art piece in her memory. Something big tied to her life and I want to include her roots in it. Reading posts in this subreddit has me in tears no matter the context. Losing my grandma has been so hard especially since it didn’t just start when she actually passed away but already years before with the alzhiemers. She is so missed. What should I include in the piece? I would love to learn about the culture. I have so many questions, mostly for my grandma but I think I can figure some stuff out here too. I want to make my grandma proud.

Love you forever Inga❤️

(Please be nice I’m new to Reddit)

I suppose I am, I have a lot of distant relatives in Lapland, ( I live in Finland ) there are pictures of my dad and uncles wearing Gakti at my grandma’s place, and when I asked my grandma she said we were sami. But I’ve never participated in Sami culture, I dont have the clothes, nor speak the language. I don’t know of any holidays or traditions. So like, do I count? If I’ve never once been a part of Sami culture do I get to call myself Sami?

Hii, is there any place of Sami interest close to Stockholm or Uppsala (like museums, art galleries, community centers etc)?

I'm not Sámi or even Nordic. I'm Irish. We used to have this tradition with cattle to drive them to summer pastures over a mountain. It was called An Bhuailteachas. You had to walk across 20,0000 acres of mountain land and through a good few hundred acres of Bogland to get to the good summer pasture. Took like a week to do (bare in mind it was up mountain, through bog and just a long fecking walk in general)

Sámpi streches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. For the people who still herd and migrate, do ye ever go as far as into the other countries that Sápmi happens to be apart of and if so do ye have trouble at borders or is just open country that can be traversed without "political" issue?

…as soon as the response was even slightly skeptical. So much for being comfortable with (even mild) discomfort. =\

The market opening ceremony is tomorrow and I really hope it’s not going to be crashed by a bunch of social media artists.

My main concern is that most of the country wouldn't even be Saami or even speak a Saami language. Would there be tension between the Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Russians in this hypothetical state? If so, what would the population of each be, and what would the population of the whole country be?

i'm writing a novel set in modern finland. i've been enjoying it so far, and there's a lot i've learned thanks to finns. i'd like to write a sámi character as well, from central sápmi.

i don't want to accidentally stereotype and hurt sámi people in the process. writing nuances is important too. is there anything outsiders are allowed to know like superstitions, dress codes, traditions and/or habits?

or would sámi groups prefer for outsiders to not create sámi characters altogether? i'm romani and understand that sentiment. the community's opinion is highly valued. thank you!!