SWEDEN - Sapmi is the Sami peoples country. It covers the northern parts of the Scandinavian and Kola Peninsula, from the northwest of Norway and the city Idre in the middle of Sweden up east to the northwestern parts of Russia. Sapmi has never been an independent nation and the Samis live in four different countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. And they have three parliaments. On May 15 was the election in the Swedish Sami parliament.

Like most native people the Samis have been marginalized by the national parliaments in their countries. In Sweden, Finland and Norway the Sami people have their own Parliament. But they are subordinated to the national governments. Their Parliament mainly handles matters of land use, fishing, hunting, which are very important in the Sami traditional way of life.

The first election to the Swedish Sami parliament was in 1993, then 72 percent of the registered voters voted. Now, in the fourth election the share is 65 percent. The decline can be a result of disappointment about it not being more powerful than it has been shown to be, thinks Anneli Lundmark, information officer at Sametinget, that is the Swedish name for the Sami parliament.

She also says that there has been a great deal of confusion and disappointment related to the double-faced identity that the Sami parliament has. It is both a political parliament with some rights to hold its own political agenda, as well as it is a part of the Swedish Government’s department of agriculture, and thereby it is required to implement the national parliament’s politics in the Sami community. There are those who wish to strengthen the Sami Parliament towards the Swedish, but few or none of the candidates for the election propose a line of complete Sami independence.

Like most native folk groups around the world, the last few centuries have brought conflicts with modern society. There is a long history of conflicts between Lapps who still live in the Sami villages- that actually are not places, but economic associations consisting of several reindeer farming companies whose roots are in the nomadic life of the past- and the interests of other groups of Swedish people such as stationary farmers, about the right of land use for pasture.

Today there are in total 900 reindeer farming companies in 51 economic associations in Sweden. But that covers only about one tenth of all the people that identify themselves as Lapps. During modernization a lot of people whose ancestors were reindeer breeders, have been forced to leave the traditional lifestyle and settle as agricultural farmers or take other ordinary jobs. Their only links to their roots are the fishing and hunting that they still wish to enjoy. Maybe not for a living, but for keeping their Sami identity alive.

And this touches a sensitive issue. The Samis rights to fishing and hunting only benefits the ten percent who are in the Sami villages. And this question is probably where the battle has been fought at in the election. During this period the Sami County Party has been the biggest party in the Sami Parliament. They mainly represent the Sami villages who have the rights to fishing and hunting, and other rights that nominally are for the Lapps.

But a survey in the Sami radio indicates that The Hunting and Fishing Lapps that represents the interests of the 90 percent of the Lapps that do not have those rights are moving strongly forward.

To be allowed to vote for the Sami parliament a person must be registered in the electoral register. And there has been some commotion around that too. New for this year is that it is possible to appeal against the register, if someone is considered not to be a true Sami. There are no specific definitions that says who is an authentic Sami. To establish an electoral register, there has been made a categorization though. The Sami parliament law says that a person is allowed to vote if he sees him self as Sami and either proves likely that he has or has had Sami as his domestic language, or prove likely that his parents or grandparents have or have had Sami as their domestic language, or have a parent that is or has been registered in the electoral register for the Sami parliament.

In an article in Dagens Nyheter on May 2:nd Johnny Rubertsson said he has had Sami roots that stretch back more than 400 years, but that his identity now is questioned. And he doesn’t like having a public hearing in which he and others must prove their Sami identity to be allowed to vote.

“It was humiliating to have to prove in a court that I am a Sami. It stung my soul. It felt like my whole existence was at question.”