Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland

The article studies the Sámi experiences during the ‘German era’ in Norway and Finland, 1940–1944, before the Lapland War. The Germans ruled as occupiers in Norway, but had no jurisdiction over the civilians in Finland, their brothers-in-arms. In general, however, encounters between the local people...

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Published in:Scandinavian Journal of History
Main Authors: Evjen, Bjørg, Lehtola, Veli-Pekka
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10037/17966
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774
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author Evjen, Bjørg
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka
author_facet Evjen, Bjørg
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka
author_sort Evjen, Bjørg
collection University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive
container_issue 1
container_start_page 25
container_title Scandinavian Journal of History
container_volume 45
description The article studies the Sámi experiences during the ‘German era’ in Norway and Finland, 1940–1944, before the Lapland War. The Germans ruled as occupiers in Norway, but had no jurisdiction over the civilians in Finland, their brothers-in-arms. In general, however, encounters between the local people and the Germans appear to have been cordial in both countries. Concerning the role of racial ideology, it seems that the Norwegian Nazis had more negative opinions of the Sámi than the occupiers, while in Finland the racial issues were not discussed. The German forces demonstrated respect for the reindeer herders as communicators of important knowledge concerning survival in the Arctic. The herders also possessed valuable meat reserves. Contrary to this, other Sámi groups, such as the Sea Sámi in Norway, were ignored by the Germans, resulting in a forceful exploitation of sea fishing. Through the North Sámi concept birget (coping with), we analyse how the Sámi both resisted and adapted to the situation. The cross-border area of Norway and Sweden is described in the article as an exceptional arena for transnational reindeer herding, but also for the resistance movement between an occupied and a neutral state.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
genre Arctic
North Sámi
Sámi
Lapland
genre_facet Arctic
North Sámi
Sámi
Lapland
geographic Arctic
Norway
geographic_facet Arctic
Norway
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language English
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op_container_end_page 47
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774
op_relation Scandinavian Journal of History
FRIDAID 1699876
doi:10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/17966
op_rights openAccess
Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited
publishDate 2019
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format openpolar
spelling ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/17966 2025-04-13T14:14:40+00:00 Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland Evjen, Bjørg Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2019-05-09 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/17966 https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774 eng eng Taylor & Francis Scandinavian Journal of History FRIDAID 1699876 doi:10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/17966 openAccess Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited VDP::Humanities: 000 VDP::Humaniora: 000 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed acceptedVersion 2019 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774 2025-03-14T05:17:55Z The article studies the Sámi experiences during the ‘German era’ in Norway and Finland, 1940–1944, before the Lapland War. The Germans ruled as occupiers in Norway, but had no jurisdiction over the civilians in Finland, their brothers-in-arms. In general, however, encounters between the local people and the Germans appear to have been cordial in both countries. Concerning the role of racial ideology, it seems that the Norwegian Nazis had more negative opinions of the Sámi than the occupiers, while in Finland the racial issues were not discussed. The German forces demonstrated respect for the reindeer herders as communicators of important knowledge concerning survival in the Arctic. The herders also possessed valuable meat reserves. Contrary to this, other Sámi groups, such as the Sea Sámi in Norway, were ignored by the Germans, resulting in a forceful exploitation of sea fishing. Through the North Sámi concept birget (coping with), we analyse how the Sámi both resisted and adapted to the situation. The cross-border area of Norway and Sweden is described in the article as an exceptional arena for transnational reindeer herding, but also for the resistance movement between an occupied and a neutral state. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic North Sámi Sámi Lapland University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Norway Scandinavian Journal of History 45 1 25 47
spellingShingle VDP::Humanities: 000
VDP::Humaniora: 000
Evjen, Bjørg
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka
Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title_full Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title_fullStr Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title_full_unstemmed Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title_short Mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) Adaptation and resistance in Sámi relations to Germans in wartime Sápmi, Norway and Finland
title_sort mo birget soadis (how to cope with war) adaptation and resistance in sámi relations to germans in wartime sápmi, norway and finland
topic VDP::Humanities: 000
VDP::Humaniora: 000
topic_facet VDP::Humanities: 000
VDP::Humaniora: 000
url https://hdl.handle.net/10037/17966
https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2019.1607774