Circum Polar Perspective

In this illustration we've used blue for the the area populated by the Sami and a darker shade for the region inhabited by the Nenets, Khanty, Yakut etc. in Russia. Purple outlines the polar circle..

In the most northern part of Europe and the Russian part of Asia one can find several indigenous groups that have been called the "circum polar tribes" a fitting description since these lives in the habitable parts of this northern region and used to have a lifestyle and culture with much in common in pre christian / pre communist times. The forefathers of all these people was hunters and fishermen who carved pictures of their quarry in the rocks to tell about successful hunts as well as appease the spirits of nature. The number of wild reindeers decreased when other peoples arrived in these areas and competed for the same game with more efficient huntingtools such as muzzle-loaders and rifles. The native peoples adapted their survival strategy and became the herders of the reindeers, some others became fishermen and some appropriated the ways of the immigrants and became farmers. But even today we can find communitys and families that depend on, and derive their necessaries for survival from their reindeers combined with hunting and fishing both in the Scandinavian countries as well as the most inaccessible parts of Siberia.
The ~55 000 Sami can therefore be considered to be the westernmost example of this larger group that together might be as many as one million.

The idea that there was a connection between the Sami's and other circumpolar people is old, yet the idea was replaced of a theory that the Sami's was descendants of reindeerhunters who had immigrated from the south. This idea originated among linguists who claimed to find ancient Scandinavian words in the Sami languages which is correct, but more likely due to cultural exchange with Vikings etc. as well as archaeological finds of stonetools which was viewed as of south- Scandinavian origin.
The idea that the Sami's are part of a circumpolar culture was not completely abandoned however, and it would be difficult to deny the connection between the Sami's and the stoneage tools today, in part since it has been proven that Sami's used stonetools similar to those found in ancient sites as late as the 16'th century.
After the discovery of the Komsa culture in northern Norway the idea of a circumpolar culture once again gained respect. This find have spurred a number of scientific papers presenting the theory that the Sami's have been living on the Scandinavian peninsula since before the last iceage and might have remained in coastal areas during the last glacial period.
This certainly isn't impossible if one consider the fact that the Inuit populate Greenland under similar conditions today, yet it must be noted that this theory is unproven.
The idea have however gained further support by genetic studies of the Sami's which have proven that the group have lived isolated from other European peoples for several ten thousands of years. But nevertheless we have to conclude this summary that the last word in the debate over the origin of the Sami people isn't said yet.

The Sami infopage. Reindeer page

Images: Copyright©, Boreale 1997.