The Geography of Lapland explained

Learn about the Geography of Lapland!

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[CarreRan_]

The coastal regions of Norway, all the way to Kirkenes, was settled by Norwegians long before the first Samí ever arrived in the country interior. We Samí arrived when the larger ice sheets melted, which was after the northern migration up the coastal lands. As a Samí I don't object to the term "Lap", nor do I (or any Sami I know) have any yearning for an independent Sapmí. Proud to be Sami, proud to be Norwegian :)

[thulex]

This video has so many errors and misconseptions that it would be tedious to correct them.

[Draktand]

Just to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with calling the Swedish historical landskap and the modern Finnish region Lappland instead of Sapmi.

Sapmi is a term with clear Sami nationalist connotations, while Lappland is more of a formal name for these specific national subdivisions.

Essentially, this means the word Lappland has as much to do with the Swedish/Finnish states and peoples (in modern times) as it has to do with the Sami people, while Sapmi essentially only has Sami connotations.

Also, if you wonder why I didn’t call both Swedish and Finnish Lapland ”regions”, it’s because while the official term (in Swedish at least) for both areas is called by the same subdivision name (last I checked), which is ”Landskap” (Landscape), the Landskap subdivision type hasn’t been in practical political use for hundreds of years in Sweden, while Finland still uses it to this day last I checked.

Essentially, today’s Sweden uses the ”Region” type subdivision (which is essentially a collection of kommuner, or municipalities in English), and the regional council is responsible for healthcare, public transit, and regional planning.

Meanwhile, the landscape type subdivision, while essentially being on the same size scale as the region type, is essentially only used for ceremonial purposes, such as declaring a prince the duke of a landskap, or for local identity purposes, like when a town has been added into a region for the sake of practicality, but the locals still consider themself as a part of the cultural heritage of the landskap rather than their political subdivision.

Funnily enough, tve Skåne landskap had such strong cultural ties that the two län (old political subdivision) making up the area at the time ended up reuniting into the modern Skåne Region.

Back on the topic of Swedish Lappland, the political sibdivision that the Lappland Lanskap is goverened by is called ”Region Norrbotten”, which basically consists of Swedish Lappland and the two coastal Lanskap bordering it.

So essentially, Swedish Lappland as a term is only ever used by locals, weather forecasts, royalty, schools, and so on.

The politicians and lawyers ever only call the area Norrbotten unless the context calls for the use of the landskap subdivision.

This wasn’t done in an attempt to appease the Sami people mind you, but through sheer historical convenience.

So it is fine to calm Swedish Lappland by its name, just don’t call the Sami ass ”Lapps” as it is not only derogatory, but it also erodes their identity by using an exonym with strong ties to a Swedish national subdivision.

Essentially, the general political consensus in Stockholm as far as I’m aware is that the Sami people are a part of the greater Swedish nation, while simultainiously being their own fully fledged nation.
If a Swedish Ssmi person wants to be considered Swedish, that’s fine, and if they don’t, that’s fine as well.

Of course, there tension between the Sami people and the Swedish government are still very much an issue, so don’t be misled by my earlier paragraph.

[dmr]

I like to watch geographic documentary like this, but not if they are inaccurate. I would like to know what is correct information and what is wrong information. The format is very good.

[PerfectBrEAThER]

<About 3500 years ago, people from the Ural mountains in Russia migrated to the northern most extend of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and for thousands of years lived completely separately from the Norse cultures and Kingdoms of the south. These people are called the Sami, and their traditional homeland is what people now typically connect with the term Lapland.>

This is very far from current Scientific consensus.
Which is something like this:

" Prehistoric periods of Northern Finland:

Stone Age: Eastern European hunter-gatherers arrive (8500–1900 BCE).
Bronze Age: Siberians arrive (1900–500 BCE).
Iron Age: Sami people arrive (500 BCE–1300 CE).
Middle Ages and Modern Era: Finns arrive (1300 CE–).

The Siberian newcomers during the Bronze Age could not have spoken Uralic language yet, because Uralic language spread to Northern Siberia only with the Samoyedic people thousands of years later, and because at the time of migration, Proto-Uralic was still spoken in a small area far from Northern Siberia. Regardless of the language of the Siberian newcomers, the more original language of the Lapland population probably prevailed, which was inherited either from the indigenous people or the Comb Ceramic culture. Based on the phonetic features visible in the substrate loanwords adopted from lost languages, it seems that Lapland spoke a similar language to the south, all the way to the Upper Volga region, before the arrival of the Sami languages.

It is possible that the early precursor of the Sami languages arrived in Southern Finland around 1000 BCE, but it must have arrived there at the latest in the early Iron Age, because the Sami languages have loanwords that prove continuous contacts with the Germans. Paleo-Germanic, Proto-Germanic, Northwest Germanic, and Proto-Scandinavian loanwords were borrowed roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, and almost all of them were adopted before the spread and development of Late Proto-Saami into daughter languages."

Bing AI translation of "Sodankylän ja Lapin väestöhistoria" (2.9.2023 alkuperasivusto_fi)

<Urho Kekkonen> Urho Kekkonen National Park / álbmotmeahcci
👴 Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982.

Bortset fra det, en rigtig god video.

[lemetma]

Háliidan giitit su gii ráhkadii video, go dat ovddida sámi áddejumi miehtá máilmmi!🤩

[MatthewTheWanderer]

My best friend just got back from vacation in Finnish and Norwegian Lapland last week!

[Legpierna]

Good video mate, glad you showed up on the recommended feed.

[zelda]

As a person off sapmi heritage myself i see National development and bulding of mines that will benefit the entire nation as more important then keeping nomadic traditions

[Ranked_Journey]

It's shocking how political the comment section of this video is. It's also interesting how many people are coming differing facts and correction.

[Luredreier]

0:52
The southern border in Trøndelag is somewhat disputed in this regard.
There's no doubt that they've lived in partd of Trøndelag since before us Norwegians did.
But first of all, there where s previous people here before either of us.
And secondly we and they picked different areas to settle from the start, both due to having different preferences and due to the Norse having a military and population advantage due to our farming and metal works and of course warrior culture.

1:07
Not the north kingdoms.
The *Norse* kingdoms.
Norse and north are two very different things.

1:24
That's news to me.
Although it's possible that this is something people associate with the word further north...
But "Lapp" is definitely a exonym instead of a endonym, and should be avoided for that reason as well.

1:41
While your previous map included tók much in the south this one includes too little.
The Sami people populated the inland areas before we did.
Our ancestors where a seafaring people of farmers, displacing the previous hunter gatherers of the region along the coast, but the Sami where better hunters and later raindeer herders so they settled lands further away from the coast long before we or anyone else did.
The parts of the coast that wasn't suitable for agriculture could be settled by either of us first as both cultures practiced fishery.
Our ship building technology gave us a edge though early on, although the two groups merged along the coast into essentially modern Norwegians for the most part, although some still identify as sea Sami people.

2:36
Fell?
Do you mean fjell?
Fjell is the Norwegian word for mountain.

5:32
I think you're mixing up Sweden and Norway here.
Sweden got the mining, Norway the windmills, remember we're in the windy side of the Norwegian mountains, exposed to the winds from the sea.

[Nopaxzz]

i live in finnish lapland and its pretty nice

[WeirdAwesomeGeography]

Great video! You deserve more subscribers, I subbed! :D Keep it up!

[williswameyo]

It is the historical land of the Sami, a nomadic people of the Uralic language group, they are distantly related to the Finns and Estonians

[bennorwood]

I feel that the title of this video is wrong because it really is called Lapland and the tribe didn’t name it their name

[KnightDarkness-bvei]

Incorrect, the norsemen were here before the Samis.

[CaptainBoban]

As a Swede, with my fathers side being of sapmi background this video does not make sense from either a swedish perspective or a sapmi perspective.

[williswameyo]

He mentioned fjell or fell, Norwegian word for mountain

[Qsen]

only about 2% of sami own reindeer. I doubt the 98% would object to modern industry because of the 2%'s reindeer

[hermeliin]

It gets pretty confusing when “Lappland” is the official name of a landskap in Norrbotten län. Sápmi includes all of the traditional sámi land.