Resistance and Resilience in Sápmi
The Sámi, spread out over the northern parts of the nation-state territories of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, are the only indigenous people recognised within the European Union. A young generation of Sámi activists is currently at the forefront of social struggles in northern Europe, rejecting “green colonialism” and demanding political sovereignty.
When, in August 2025, the entire church of Giron (Kiruna)[1] was moved by special trucks to a new location five kilometers away, the event was broadcasted live on Swedish television. It marked the peak of the entire town of 17,000 people being demolished and rebuilt on another site to allow the world’s biggest underground iron ore mine to expand even further.
While the operation was widely hailed as a milestone of technological adaptation, the local Gabna association of Sámi reindeer herders declared that the mine’s expansion “not only threatens but risks destroying the very survival of reindeer herding and wiping out Sámi culture.” For many Sámi, the relocation of the church symbolised an ongoing conflict that has long engulfed Europe’s far north: indigenous rights versus economic development, today often dressed up in the name of the “green transition.”[2]
Historical Background
The Sámi people arrived in the region known as Fennoscandia (Scandinavia, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula) roughly 4000 years ago. Their origins lie near the Volga and Oka Rivers of Russia. Traditional Sámi society was nomadic, with groups of about a hundred people hunting and gathering. Reindeer herding, now the best-known feature of Sámi life today, only began in the sixteenth century, and reindeer herders have always been a minority among the Sámi population. Nonetheless, they are considered important bearers of Sámi culture.
It is hard to put exact numbers on the Sámi population, as the Nordic countries do not keep official statistics on ethnicity or race. Self-identification plays an important role, and estimates speak of a total of 70,000 to 100,000 Sámi, with about 40,000–60,000 in Norway, 15,000–20,000 in Sweden, 10,000 in Finland and 2,000 in Russia. Cut off from their fellow Sámi in the Nordic countries due to the Iron Curtain, the Sámi on the Kola Peninsula were isolated for decades. A rekindled collaboration after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 has once again been put on ice due to the international sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
The term Sámi, which derives from the Sámi language, has been widely used since the 1980s. The term Sápmi not only describes the traditional homeland of the Sámi, but also refers to the totality of Sámi culture, life, and spirituality.
Colonialism and Rebellion
A pivotal moment for the colonisation of Sápmi was the opening of a silver mine near Árjepluovve (Arjeplog) in 1635. With the region gaining in economic interest, settlers, administrators, and missionaries arrived. Settlers were enticed to move north with promises of free land and tax deductions, while Sámi crossing nation-state borders with their reindeer were often taxed by two or more governments. Spiritual sites of the Sámi were destroyed, and more than forty noaidi (Sámi “shamans”) were burned at the stake.
By the nineteenth century, colonial structures were firmly in place in Sápmi. Land grabbing and forced relocation had become common practice. The first open Sámi rebellion emerged from a Sámi-Christian revival movement instigated by the priest Lars Levi Læstadius in the 1830s. Læstadianism instilled self-confidence among the Sámi, while at the same time condemning traditional cultural features such as the yoik (traditional Sámi singing). Læstadian communities carry the same ambivalence to this day.
On November 8, 1852, a group of fifty Læstadian Sámi descended upon the town of Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) and killed a government agent and an alcohol trader before being subdued by local residents. Two alleged leaders, Aslak Jacobsen Hætta and Mons Aslaksen Somby, were executed. The events left deep scars in Sámi society: violence is rare in the anti-colonial history of the Sámi. Reminders that the Sámi have no word for “war” are often overused, but it is true that some central features of modern politics have no equivalent in Sámi culture.
Political Organisation
Subsequent government policies in the Nordic countries focused on assimilation, forcing Sámi children into boarding schools, where they were punished for speaking the Sámi language. The national borders drawn across Sápmi had divided families, cut off pastures, and introduced bureaucracy alien to Sámi culture. In the early twentieth century, Elsa Laula emerged as a prominent Sámi leader. Born on “the Swedish side” of Sápmi (as it is called in the Nordic languages), Laula envisioned a pan-Sámi movement, and – in 1917 – organised the first Sámi National Assembly in Tråante (Trondheim).
The Sámi Council, which unites organisations from all parts of Sápmi, was founded later, in 1956. It is the most important political body of the Sámi and was a driving force behind the establishment of the national Sámi parliaments in Finland (1973), Norway (1989), Sweden (1993), and Russia (2010). These institutions – while important expressions of Sámi identity and self-determination – have limited power and influence.
The Alta Protests and the Sámi Civil Rights Movement
The economic importance of Sápmi has continued to grow, with predictable consequences. After World War II, Sápmi experienced a hydroelectric power boom, with power plants altering waterways used by the Sámi and making large areas unsuitable for reindeer herding. When, in the mid-1970s, the Norwegian government presented plans for a hydroelectric power plant along the Áltá-Guovdageaidnu (Alta-Kautokeino) River, a broad resistance movement emerged. A protest camp prevented access to the construction site, while Sámi activists in Oslo went on hunger strike and occupied the prime minister’s office.
Yet the government stuck to its plans, bringing six hundred police in by boat to clear the protest camp. The plant eventually opened in 1987. Despite not having been able to stop the project, however, the Áltá protests spawned a proud new generation of Sámi activists. This “birth of the Sámi civil rights movement” drew unprecedented attention to the plight of the Sámi people. As historian Björn Forseth put it, “The battle over the Áltá River was lost, but the war was won.”[3]
Indigeneity and Culture
The Sámi strongly identify as indigenous people, distinguishing themselves from “Western” and “European” culture, and Sámi solidarity with other indigenous peoples is given. The Sámi were an important force in the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (1974–1996) and regularly send delegations to indigenous protests, for example during the 2016 resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
Culture has always been central to Sámi activism. Sámi scholar Harald Gaski writes: “The Sami political awakening was, first and foremost, culturally based. The driving force behind political engagement was directed at insuring the rights to Sami language and culture. Not until later did the issue of rights to land and water come to the fore.”[4]
The five-day 1979 Davvi Šuvva Festival in Gárasavvon (Karesuando), which brought together indigenous musicians from around the world, has sometimes been referred to as the “Woodstock of the North.” Today, the annual Riddu Riđđu Festival near Romsa (Tromsø) is an important gathering place for Sámi artists and activists, categories that are so intertwined in Sámi society that some authors speak of “artivism.”[5] Prominent groups and individuals associated with the term are the artist collective Suohpanterror, the painter Anders Sunna, and the musicians Maxida Märak, Sofia Jannok, and Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen.
The Sámi and the Left
Even though the first ever Sámi member of any national parliament in the Nordic countries, Isak Saba, was elected on a Social Democratic ticket to the Norwegian parliament in 1906, the Sámi never had much support from the institutionalised Left. Nordic social democracy was based on notions of progress and modernity, and in the powerful trade unions of the mining and forestry industries anti-Sámi prejudices have long been widespread.
During the 1970s, however, there was some collaboration between the Sámi and far-left movements. In 1969, the Norwegian anthology Nordisk nykolonialisme (Nordic Neocolonialism) analysed the Sámi struggle in the context of anti-colonial struggles worldwide, referencing figures such as Julius Nyerere, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X. Charta 79, an influential magazine during the Áltá protests, was printed by the Norwegian daily Klassekampen (Class Struggle), and prominent Sámi activist John Reier Martinsen was a high-ranking member of Norway’s Maoist Workers’ Communist Party. In Sweden, Maoist publisher Oktoberförlag declared in the 1977 booklet Samerna i Sverige (The Sámi in Sweden) that it was “a duty for the communist movement not to leave the Sámi question to reactionaries who profit from their oppression.”[6]
Anti-capitalist, but nationalist?
Indeed, there is no lack of anti-capitalist rhetoric among Sámi activists. Profit-oriented corporations operating in Sápmi are seen as one of the biggest threats to Sámi life. Prominent Sámi filmmaker Suvi West said in a 2023 interview: “First and foremost, people should pay attention to our struggles against colonialism and capitalism. If we don’t win those, everything will disappear.”[7]
Sámi activists are also wary of political ideologies they view as “Western” and hold longstanding points of contention with the autonomous left. For example, the Sámi consider the hunting of predators such as wolves, lynx, and bears necessary to protect their reindeer herds. The Sámi also speak proudly of being a “nation,” rattling anti-nationalist sentiments among parts of the left. There is also a strong urban–rural divide. Towns in Sápmi are small and tight-knit, where political opponents engage on a daily basis: at work, at the doctor’s office, or at school. This proximity creates a very different political culture to that of activist communities in big cities.
Green Colonialism
The Sámi don’t always see eye to eye with the environmentalist movement either, and the term “green colonialism” is widely used in Sápmi for what is seen as the continuation of colonial policies under the disguise of the “green transition.” Wind parks, for example, have been a highly contested topic in Sápmi for years. While wind power is hailed by environmentalists as a vital renewable energy source, wind parks make huge areas unsuitable for reindeer herding, since the reindeer avoid grazing and migrating near the turbines. . In Norway – where more than 95 percent of domestic electricity is already sourced from hydro power – wind energy is largely produced to meet industrial demand, and to facilitate the export of hydro power for profit.
In October 2021, the Supreme Court of Norway concluded that two of Europe’s biggest wind parks, built on the Fosen peninsula near Tråante (Trondheim), violated the Sámi’s rights as indigenous people. The ruling was considered groundbreaking – but it had no binding consequences, as the Norwegian government refused to act on it, despite some of the biggest protests in recent Norwegian history. The wind parks are still in operation, and new ones are being planned across Sápmi – as are new protests.
Mining
Other protests of the last decade have proved more successful for the Sámi and their allies. In Sweden, activists managed to halt test drills for a prospected iron ore mine in Gállok (Kallak) near Jåhkåmåhke (Jokkmokk). Even more stunning was Sámi activists forcing German copper giant Aurubis to pull out of a billion-euro deal with aspiring copper mine operators at Riehppovuotna (Repparfjord) in Norway.
A new struggle is also on the horizon in Giron, where the Swedish state company LKAB announced in January 2023 the discovery of Europe’s biggest reserve of rare earth metals, essential for producing solar panels and electronic car batteries. This discovery also has a geopolitical dimension, as the extraction of rare earth metals in the EU is seen as essential for decreasing Europe’s economic dependence on China. For the Sámi reindeer herders around Giron, however, the opening of yet another mine in the region is just one more potential deathblow to their livelihood.
Land Rights
The Sámi stress that their critique of green colonialism must not be misunderstood as a critique of the climate movement. On the contrary, from their perspective the green transition is actually insufficient in tackling the root causes of climate change and related environmental – and social – devastation. They insist instead that their traditional lifestyle, and those of other indigenous societies, provide much more sustainable solutions.
Consequently, land rights are today at the centre of conflicts between the Sámi and the Nordic nation-states. Despite some legal victories – most notably, the Girjas reindeer herding association on the Swedish side of Sápmi being granted the right to administer hunting and fishing licenses on the territory used by them – bureaucratic and legal hurdles make the actual transfer of land ownership from the Nordic nation-states to the Sámi near impossible. This also applies to Norway, even if the 2005 Finnmark Act was nominally passed to facilitate the process.[8]
There have been some tangible outcomes of the Sámi civil rights movement: February 6, the date of the first Sámi National Assembly of 1917, is nowadays officially recognised as Sámi National Day; Sámi handicraft and clothing feature prominently in national representations of the Nordic countries; Sámi educational facilities, media outlets, and language programmes have grown dramatically in recent decades; and, in 2022, a symbolic milestone of cultural integration was reached when the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale became a “Sámi Pavilion.”
A Place for Everything?
Even so, Sámi people still experience everyday discrimination – in some areas, wearing Sámi clothing on a Friday night can easily lead to physical confrontations. Mobbing on social media is also widespread. A 2018 study by Vaartoe, the Centre for Sámi Research at Umeå University, concluded that no less than two thirds of Sámi living in Sweden have experienced racist discrimination.[9] The rise of the far-right doesn’t help either. With the Norwegian Progress Party, the Sweden Democrats, and the True Finns, there are powerful political players strictly opposed to granting the Sámi exclusive rights as indigenous people.
A popular argument among moderate politicians in the Nordic countries is that “there is a place for everything” in Sápmi, meaning traditional Sámi culture and economic development side by side. But that’s simply not true. You can’t promote unrestricted development in the region and protect Sámi culture at the same time – you must choose and prioritise, and governments have not been prioritising the Sámi.
A Materialist Turn
The role of the European Union in all this is ambivalent, at best: while it supports educational and cultural programmes in Sápmi, it also propagates development plans deemed part of the green colonialist project, for example with its promotion of European “rare earths autonomy” through the 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The CRMA aims to boost the extraction and processing of strategic minerals within the EU to address supply chain vulnerabilities associated with the green and digital transitions. Sápmi’s rich mineral wealth all but guarantees that this EU strategy will lead to further conflict with Sámi communities.
Indeed, frustration continues to grow – especially among younger Sámi. Despite relative progress in the cultural realm, multinational corporations continue to exploit Sápmi, the Sámi parliaments remain politically powerless, and Sweden and Finland have yet to ratify Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which is meant to guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples (Norway did so in 1990). If Harald Gaski was right in stating that the Sámi’s political awakening was “culturally based,” Sámi activism is now increasingly turning toward the material core: economic and political power.
Sámi sovereignty?
In his 1971 book Greetings from Lappland: The Sami – Europe’s Forgotten People, the famed Sámi poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää wrote: “The Samis do not aim for their own state. That would be too unrealistic.”[10] This hasn’t changed. The Sámi have become a minority in their traditional homeland, and the establishment of a Sámi state is logistically near impossible. But what can “sovereignty” – a concept held dear by Sámi activists – mean under these circumstances?
It depends on the reference points. Globally, there are numerous examples of autonomous regions under indigenous control, reaching from Chiapas, where power was seized by the Zapatista rebellion of 1994, to Nunavut, where it was granted by the Canadian government. There are self-governing territories in the Arctic region, such as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, or the islands of Åland. The Swedish-speaking community of Finland enjoys strong minority rights. Further afield, the “democratic confederalism” embraced by parts of the Kurdish movement could serve as an inspiration for another people divided by several nation-state borders.
There is no common line in Sápmi with regard to these issues. Answers will arise from Sápmi’s social movements, which operate at the crossroads of anti-colonialism, minority rights, and climate justice. As the strategic importance of the region grows, these movements will help shape the north of Europe – and indeed the entire continent – in the years to come.
Gabriel Kuhn is an Austrian-born author, translator, and union activist living in Sweden. Among his book publications are Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe’s Far North (2020) and Indigener Widerstand in Zeiten des Klimawandels. Sápmi: Grüner Kolonialismus im Norden Europas (2024). He blogs at lefttwothree.org.
[1] In this article, Sámi place names are always listed first – in the spelling of the Sámi dialect prevalent at the place in question – with the Norwegian/Swedish/Finnish name following in brackets.
[2] Gabna Indigenous Sami Community, Press Release, August 18, 2025: “The relocation of Kiruna Church will be a spectacle that obscures the Indigenous Sami people and their indigenous rights.”
[3] Björn Forseth, Samelands historia (Solna: Ekelunds förlag, 2000), 270.
[4] Harald Gaski, “Introduction,” Sami Culture in a New Era (Kárášjohka: Davvi Girji, 1997), 17.
[5] See for example Moa Sandström, Dekoloniseringskonst: Artivism i 2010-talets Sápmi (University of Umeå, 2020).
[6] Göran Lundin, Samerna i Sverige (Stockholm: Oktoberförlaget, 1977), 11–12.
[7] “Keine Zeit für Spiritualität,” Neues Deutschland – Die Woche, 9./10. April 2022.
[8] See for example Aaron John Spitzer and Per Selle, “A Sami land-claims settlement? Assessing Norway‘s Finnmark Act in a comparative perspective,” Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 46, issue 4, December 2023.
[9] While the report, Kartläggning av rasism mot samer i Sverige (A Survey of Racism against Sámi in Sweden), has been criticised for lack of scientific scrutiny, the data it collects does reflect widespread perceptions among Sámi living in Sweden.
[10] Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Greetings from Lappland: The Sami – Europe’s Forgotten People (London: Zed Books, 1983),