The Sámi are often described as “Europe’s last indigenous people.” Why?

It was my understanding that “indigenous” means “native.” Aren’t many ethnic groups in Europe more or less native, having lived there for thousands of years? Or if it means something more like “living in a traditional way,” isn’t that true for some other rural ethnic groups in Europe, like the [Gorals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorals)?

Thanks for helping me learn more! No disrespect, I just want to understand better.

8 comments

  1. Yes it really doesn’t make any sense. It’s just terminology copied from the Americas and other colonized continents that doesn’t fit Europe.

  3. > It was my understanding that “indigenous” means “native.”

    Nope. Indigenous in this context means “native + minority”. It is pretty backwards, I know.

  4. I think everyone is confused about the indigenous label. There is a misunderstanding with Sami lifestyle. There is an idea that they would be living some traditional life style but actually they are just farming reindeer with modern equipment. Reindeer farming isn’t even that old way of life. It started becoming more popular after 1600s when it came from Norway to Finland. Sami and many other peoples in Finland used to live hunter-gatherer lifestyles. All of these people were called “lappalainen” but these days lappalainen is mostly used to refer to Sami people.

    I think it is same as my family being “indigenous” for fishing in the archipelago for 400 years. It makes no sense.

    I want to note that this does not excuse the treatment of Sami people especially when going back in time a bit more. This is unacceptable but it is irrelevant to the discussion of indigeneity.

  5. Indigenous is an political statement, read the original definition of it. It’s completely useless word otherwise, humans have moved around as long as we have existed. People tend to project always their own feelings into that word (which funny enough, actually happens with every word)

    And as long as, we don’t exactly define the meaning of word, people will continue to misunderstand it. As a Sámi myself, I hope they stopped using that word, because it’s by far the most misunderstood word there is and creates unnecessary schism between the minorities and ruling cultures around them.

    In a sense, Finns and Sámi are both indigenous. However, Finns can’t be indigenous because they have their own country (read the original definition of the word) However, in everyday use, especially if you don’t know the definition of the word, you automatically project that word to be Jean Rousseaus definition of it: an ancient culture that it’s not yet spoiled by European values and moralistic corruption. We tend to assume that indigenous people are somehow purer than the ruling cultures around them. And in that sense, Yes, Finns and Sámi are indigenous both, because we are the last “wildlings” of Europe, last people in Europe who possess at least somewhat of a healthy appriciation and connection to nature. And all of us, should be proud of that heritage and fight for those values to exist in future as well.

  6. From the UN:

    > Understanding the term “indigenous”

    > Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, an official definition of “indigenous” has not been adopted by
    any UN-system body. Instead the system has developed a modern understanding of this term based on the
    following:

    > * Self- identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their
    member.

    > * Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies

    > * Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources

    > * Distinct social, economic or political systems

    > * Distinct language, culture and beliefs

    > * **Form non-dominant groups of society**

    > * Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and
    communities.

    It’s a completely deceptive term that actually just means native minority.

  8. I guess it’s all relative. Native Americans crossed the Bering land bridge into North America starting 30,000 years ago. Ireland was uninhabitable due to glaciers until 10,000 years ago.

    So if someone has 20,000 additional years of history in one area, that’s “Indigenous” because we keep discovering new things about prehistoric peoples; years ago we didn’t know how much prehistoric people travelled around.

    Certainly 20,000 years is a long enough time to develop more differences in DNA, language etc.

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