THE INDIGENOUS SÁMI COMMUNITY

Upon hearing the term “indigenous community”, one might not be blamed for thinking perhaps of the supremely well-organized and politically active Latin American tribes, or perhaps First Nations communities from Northern America who have long-standing histories of formally organizing and agitating for their fundamental rights and freedoms. Their adversaries are represented in stark terms – the unrestrained capitalist bent of their national political and economic institutions, entrenched discrimination and histories of violence, mistreatment, and disenfranchisement persisting till today. 

The nomadic Sámi communities of northernmost Sweden, Norway, Finland and parts of Russia are seldom thought of in this regard. Historically referred to as “Lapps” or “Lapplanders”, Sámi historical territories (referred to as “Sápmi”)span a vast geographic region home to a variety of wildlife and extensive natural resources, where they engage primarily in reindeer-herding, fur trapping, and fishing as their sources of livelihood. The  looming threat of climate change directly and disproportionately impacts their livelihoods, cultural practices and very survival itself. 

The Scandinavian states are particularly well-regarded for being champions of progressive climate change actions, and are universally renowned for their relatively free and equal societies, low levels of inequality, and the reliable and well-demonstrated distributive benefits of their social democratic political and economic systems. What is less known is the legacy of aggressive forced assimilation in the name of sovereignty between southern-dwelling Scandinavians and northern-dwelling Sámi populations throughout the 1800s – alarmingly similar to the treatment faced by First Nations tribes. What is even less acknowledged is the deleterious impact of present-day environmental projectsconducted within Sápmi territories in the name of “fighting climate change”.

While evaluating any institution for the efficacy of its actions on a holistic scale, however, it is always the voices of its most marginalized and its most vulnerable populations that provide the inconvenient truths that must also be included within such claims.

THE IMPACT OF LARGE-SCALE PROJECTS ON SÁMI LANDS 

Around 80% of large-scale hydroelectric power generation is located in Sápmi, rapidly expanding with the transfer of powers from the Swedish monarchy to the Parliament in the 1900s and triggering a process that would involve the colonization, repression and forced assimilation of Sámi populations. To this day, local communities have not once been consulted or had any opportunity to provide informed consent over such activities occurring within their traditional lands, despite a volume of international normative standards binding states to exactly such a stipulation, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169 – both of which Sweden is party to. Such expansion has led to massive loss of culturally-significant sites and near-complete degradation of erstwhile fishing areas and reindeer pastures. This has grave implications for reindeer husbandry, changing the traditional migration routes of the reindeer which the Sámi communities have respectfully maintained for centuries.

Sámi lands are also rich in minerals, particularly iron ore, resulting in large-scale mining activities upon their lands, stripping bare vast tracts of vegetation and triggering environmental degradation, ecological contamination and waste through the use of dynamite. British-based companies such as Beowulf Mining have been quick to exploit the region’s resources, while arguing that the jobs provided by their operations will boost the local economy. Unfortunately, even such exploitative claims find success, given regional problems such as a declining population and reduction in steady employment opportunities. These mines are situated in pastures traditionally used for reindeer grazing during spring and autumn. The prospect of an upgraded road and rail infrastructure to transport the mined iron will devastate reindeer migration routes and has caused widespread fear in the community.  

Sweden has, however, taken some positive steps in this regard, such as applying new regulations to hydropower plants, and being more compliant with EU law by ensuring that all existing plants follow the same regulatory framework. However, issues of compensation and ongoing inequalities faced by the Sámi populations remain unsolved. Despite some victories on a legal scale, it is imperative that all further actions be sufficiently decolonized and include the full, effective and active participation of all local communities and stakeholders so that their voices are not ignored or dismissed particularly on matters having direct and measurable consequences upon their lives and livelihoods. Front Advokater, for example, has conducted a legal pilot study within the CO-LAND Research Projectand recommended that Sámi communities should have a say in all steps of any decision-making and review process, and calls for legislative bodies to expedite judicial processes that will enable them to have their claims heard.  

The sobering reality, however, remains that even the development of renewable energy resources, such as wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams, are encroaching upon indigenous territories without the consent of the population. The same has even been referred to as “windmill colonialism” by members of the Swedish Sámi Parliament. 

HISTORICAL INJUSTICESAND LEGACIES OF DISCRIMINATION AND ABUSE 

 Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to repressive state actions when claims of land use and property rights are brought to the fore, since such claims ostensibly oppose goals of national development. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been a staunch defender of the rights of a number of Latin American indigenous communities, ruling in their favour when states proceeded with large-scale industrial projects on their lands without their consent. An emerging concept within international law pertains specifically to the “special relationship”indigenous communities have with their lands, which must be respected by states and the pretext to which consultations with local stakeholders must be conducted in good faith before the initiation of any projects on their lands which might have an impact on their lives and livelihoods.  

 Centuries of well-documented discrimination, abuse, and mistreatment of Sámi populations exist, and remains scarcely acknowledged on a global scale. The UN Racial Discrimination Committee (2011) has issued a number of recommendations to Norway and Sweden, criticizing their policies of forcibly assimilating Sámi populations and condemning language as a basis for discrimination. "Swedification" policies of the 1800s persisted well into the 1970s, based on the premise of Sámi populations being “backwards” and “uncivilized”, resulting in forced Christianisation, segregated schooling, banning the use of local languages, and “encouraging” civilized norms – often through force. 17th century Sámi who refused to give up their traditional beliefs in favour of Christianity were threatened with fines, imprisonment and even the death penalty. 

Despite present-day acknowledgement of the Sámi language as an official minority language and the setting up of a 2020 Truth Commission to document the legacy of abuse and discrimination faced by the population, local Sámi believe that such ethnic discriminations persists and remains normalized on a large-scale. Even the Swedish Sámi Parliament has claimed that their operations are largely limited to monitoring issues related solely to Sámi culture. Existing mining laws do not contain any provisions to safeguard their rights, and Sweden has not made any effort to ratify ILO Convention 169, which deals extensively with indigenous rights pertaining to land and property claims. As recently as 2008, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a sharply-worded report condemning Sweden’s treatment of their indigenous populations within the realm of the right to a fair trial and lack of linguistic inclusion within administrative functions. The Committee was especially observant of the “…mutual distrust between the Sámi and authorities on local and national levels that stem from historical injustices.” 

TOWARDS A DYNAMIC OF SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY 

Such findings are particularly galling, given the global impression of the Scandinavian states as the most egalitarian, progressive and democratic of societies. However, indigenous Sámi are not treated on equal terms as Swedes or even recently-arrived immigrants; while some authors have questioned whether such actions on part of the state necessarily arise from racist intentions, it cannot be denied that there persists a prevailing dismissal of such populations as “primitive” and less likely to adapt to the rigours of modern society. Historical processes of colonialism and resource exploitation have resulted in “…a gradual loss of land, rights, religion and culture” which has scarcely been acknowledged; even the formal apology on part of the Swedish government took place in 1998, and included no major substantive actions thereafter to make good on the same. That a new era of "eco-colonialism" seems to have emerged now in the name of “protecting the environment” is particularly untenable, given its reproduction of historical dynamics of oppression and inequality on paternalistic, even racist foundations. 

Historically, Sámi skulls were even publicly displayed within Swedish museums as subjects of curiosity, with the implication that they were “almost” the same as regular Swedish physiognomy. The first racial biology institute in the world was actually founded in Sweden in 1922, where founder Herman Lundborg insisted that intermarriage between Swedish and Sámi boded negatively for the future of the Swedish race. Even the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, which forbade intermarriage between Germans and people of Jewish descent, were only provided as a recommendation to the Swedish Foreign Office, yet eagerly followed by the ministers of the Church of Sweden who showed no compunctions to upholding and enforcing racist policies. 

 Such Social Darwinist ideals viewing indigenous cultures as “…immature children that needed help” continue to persist to this day, on a global scale, unfortunately informing policy and public opinion. It was only following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 that called for the respect of rights of different indigenous groups within international law that provided impetus for Sámi groups to formally organize and agitate for justice and parliamentary representation. 

A Swedish National Plan for Human Rights 2006-2009 does exist, delineating a number of Sámi-specific rights. Similarly, in 2019, the Swedish History Museum returned the remains of indigenous Sámi to their communities for a proper burial and mourning; these remains had been previously exhumed for display in the 1950s for examination and to “prove” racial theories. Such actions are crucial steps towards rebuilding new paths to the future built on a legacy of respect for fundamental human dignity, and reflect that national institutions are acknowledging the devastating impact of the Social Darwinist ideals influencing their actions against indigenous communities of the previous centuries. 

Pallavi is a student at the University of Vienna, currently completing her Master of Arts in Human Rights. She has extensive experience in the fields of education, women's rights, community organization and development, and aims to channelize her research interests towards actionable change for vulnerable and marginalized populations.

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