Normadic Herding - Sami

The classic reindeer nomadism is now largely a matter of history. Snowmobiles (Skidoos), cars, motorboats, even helicopters, controlled by telephones and transceivers, are used to manage the reindeer and to carry the loads they formerly bore. The paid hand has taken over from the unpaid member of the family. Cabins have replaced tents at stages on the migration routes. The Sami's grazing and calving grounds are threatened, or destroyed, by vast developments to provide raw materials, energy, or even holiday amusement, for other peoples. Dams have been build, to get the most out of rivers, but the side effects of these dams are that salmons can not migrate upstream anymore. Thereby Sami can not fish anymore, because there is are more fishes. The economic, and thus the social, basis of the old life is under permanent attack. But agriculture and forestry are still the most important sources of income for the Sami, with about 50% dependent on it as their main livelihood.…