Russia is
my homeland

Peoples of Russia

Sami people

The Sami people are a small-numbered Finno-Ugric people; a native people of the Northern Europe. Their self-designation is Saami, Saam; the Russians called them Lopary or Lop (this etymologizes from the Finnish as “the inhabitants of marginal lands”). In 2000, by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation they were given the status of native small-numbered people.

Language

The Sami language belongs to the Baltic-Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Ural-Yukagir language family, but it occupies a unique position in it: up to 30% of the language substrata of the Sami language do not have parallels in the Finno-Ugric languages. The Sami language is divided into many differing dialects which some linguists consider to be separate languages. Even back in the 20^th century four of them were widespread in Russia: Kildin, Iokan’ga, Skolt and Akkala.

Dispersion

The majority of the Sami people in Russia live only in the Murmansk region, on the Kola Peninsula (mostly in the Lovozero and Kola districts and the Yena village of the Kovdor district).

Traditional occupations

The Sami people that lived along the seashore and the river and lake banks have long practiced fishing, combining it with hunting wild reindeer and furry animals as well as hunting sea animals. The traditional basis for the economics has long been reindeer breeding, for which free-range grazing of the reindeer was typical in the past. Currently dairy cattle breeding and kitchen gardening are also being developed.

Dwellings

The seminomadic way of life determined the types of traditional dwellings. The permanent winter dwelling in the Sami settlements – pogosts – was a one-chamber log building with a window and a flat plank roof. The temporary summer dwelling was a pole construction in the shape of a truncated four-facet or sometimes even a six- or eight-facet pyramid (the Scandinavian Sami called it kota, and the Kola ones, vezha). The cover consisted of sloping poles put close to each other, birch, pine or fir bark and turf. The floor was covered with tree branches and reindeer skins, a hearth was set up in the center. When migrating, they used kuvaksa, a hut made from poles and covered in summer with sackcloth and in winter with reindeer skins.

Food

The traditional Sami food consists of reindeer meat and fish; for seasoning, berries are widely used: cloudberry, cowberry, crowberry, etc. In the western parts of their range, the Sami people also use reindeer milk.