Before the Fall of the Reindeer People

Environmental Graffiti ^ | 13 Dec 2009 | EG

[muawiyah]

The term "Finn" appears to have not settled down to it's modern meaning until Finland, per se, became important to the Russians (in the 1700s) ~ and you'll notice they took it in the end! (1812).

At the same time the repeated references to what people were doing in the Karelian Isthmus or Kola Peninsula are almost always to people identifiable through archaeological means as members of at least 5 different Eastern Sa'ami tribes.

I'm sure we will eventually be digging up bones and doing DNA sampling to see who were what and where in that area!

Some degree of assimilation cannot be ruled out of course.

[Viiksitimali]

Proclamation 5704
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Finnish settlers first arrived in this country in 1638, when Nordics, many of them natives of Finland or Swedes who spoke Finnish, established the colony of New Sweden in present-day Delaware. They introduced European civilization to the Delaware River Valley and began the transformation of a vast wilderness. Theirs were the pioneer spirit and virtues that are the foundation of our national character. The 350th anniversary of their landing is a most fitting time to celebrate the legacy of America’s Finnish pioneers and their descendants and to recall that the friendship of the United States and Finland has deep historical roots.

To commemorate the relationship between the peoples of Finland and the United States on the 350th anniversary of New Sweden, the Congress, by Public Law 99-602, has designated 1988 as “National Year of Friendship with Finland,” and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in its observance.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim 1988 as National Year of Friendship with Finland. I call upon all Americans to observe the year with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twelfth.

RONALD REAGAN
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Proclamation_5704

[muawiyah]

You can get a President to say anything you want, but Ronald Reagan has a large number of Reagan relatives buried on Crane Hill overlooking Seymour ~ and they didn't get to do that by 'splainin to the locals that they were Soumi and not Sa'ami! (as if any of them knew anything about any of that eh).

NOTE: First place I've encountered an Orthodox/Russian cross on a really old grave in Southern Indiana was in a pioneer cemetery on Crane Hill. There are several such burial grounds there. I do believe all the log cabins have been taken down and relocated elsewhere.

[blam]

Excellent info. Thanks.

[blam]

Geographic distribution of the Sami languages:

1. Southern Sami,
2. Ume Sami,
3. Pite Sami,
4. Lule Sami,
5. Northern Sami,
6. Skolt Sami,
7. Inari Sami,
8. Kildin Sami,
9. Ter Sami.

Darkened area represents municipalities that recognize Sami as an official language.

[Viiksitimali]

He has no finnish roots (Ronald Reagan).


The legacy of the 17th century "Forest Finns" lives on in the border areas of Norway and Sweden By some curious historical accident, George W. Bush may have his roots in Finnish Savo Helsingin Sanomat
/ First published in print 19.10.2008

[Viiksitimali]

The new Finnish gene atlas places Finns on the worlds genetic map
http://www.fimm.fi/en/scientific_highlights/the_new_finnish_gene_atlas_places_finns_on_the_world-s_genetic_map/

[blam]

It would be nice/helpful if they would publish the haplogroups when they’re talking about the DNA. My mom is haplogroup ‘V’ as are (I’ve read) 52% of the Skolt Sa’ami.

My dad’s mom is haplogroup U5a as are many Sa’ami’s. (My yDNA is R1b)

[muawiyah]

Didn't say he did, but he has a plentitude of relatives who settled in that particular community long enough to get buried there.

He also has a "mother's side of the family".

BTW, this is Nixon country and depending how you understand his mother's family's name to have been spelled even he may have Sa'ami relatives.

The name was Anglicised as Milhous. The line runs out going back to the 1700s which is not at all unusual ~ but many of Nixon's Southern Indiana cousins actually spelled the name "Mulis" and "Mullis", which reflects a French pronunciation, but it also reflects what a reindeer is called in several Sa'ami languages, and I believe in Finnish rural dialects as well.

With Ronald Reagan, the English forebears (particularly the royals) have been well researched ~ but the Scots less so. Dollars to doughnuts he can track and trace to people living in the Orkneys ~ and they appear to be a genetic isolate ~ Norse in culture and language but of a far more ancient lineage. Then there's "King Frosti" ~ and you tell me whether he's a Suomi or a Sa'ami. All the Orkney Island tribes and families have him in their lineage.

BTW, Nixon's genealogical records appear to have been brought up to date recently ~ probably in that search for Obama's ancestors. I now see that both of these guys are much more closely related than is at all comfortable.

[muawiyah]

Didn't we go through the "Forest Finn" business not too long ago with the Finns who actually did move North to Skolt country (Petsamo, Pechanga River, etc.) ~ that was 1700s stuff.

Still, with the discovery of a major iron bearing region stretching from Central Sweden through Finland and into Russia Sweden (in its guise as The Swedish Empire) began to act more like a major world power than a regional power, and opened the Northland up to many outside forces. The iron ore discoveries appear to have attracted Russian interest in the Fenno-Scandian peninsula. That's what finally brought about the modern state of Finland ~

BTW, there are actually references on the internet to one now extinct Sa'ami language actually being spoken far to the South in the Carpathian mountains in the 1600/1700 period. My impression is there was not a lot of archaeological evidence for that, but the Swedish Empire took effective control of the Carpathians in the 1600s and undoubtedly initiated mining operations there. At their farthest Western extent in Bohemia these mountains had one of the world's truly great silver strikes ~ the Thaler (dollar) was invented here. It would have been uncharacteristic of the Swedes to fail to send in trusted native miners to tap those mountains! When the Czar took over the Carpathians he sent in Cossacks to REMOVE the locals ~ which is why there's no one there speaking Sa'ami these days. The detailed histories of the region that'd give us the information we need are probably still in Hungarian so it'll be a while to provide any follow ups to this.

[Viiksitimali]

Forest Finn dual geographical DNA project - Y-DNA Memeber Distribution Map

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/forrestfinn/default.aspx?section=ymap

[Hot Tabasco]

Santa gets his reindeer from the Sami peoples......

[Viiksitimali]

Have you uploaded your results to mitosearch.org?

or better option..
(C) If you have tested with the Genographic Project at National Geographic, you can also enter your results in this database. In order to avoid transcription errors you can automatically create a record at Family Tree DNA by following the instructions at the bottom of your personal Genographic page. Once your record is at Family Tree DNA, just follow the instructions on (B).
http://www.mitosearch.org/add_start.asp?uid=

[blam]

"...you can automatically create a record at Family Tree DNA by following the instructions at the bottom of your personal Genographic page. "

Yes. I've done that. I just got tired of following it and don't pay any attention to notification of exact matches anymore.

[Kenny Bunk]

Thanks for a wonderful post.

[Viiksitimali]

Lapland's Sami people: how do you decide who is indigenous and who isn't?
The Arctic spring.

Far above the Arctic Circle, at the northern limits of Scandinavia, live one of Europe’s last indigenous peoples, the Sami. They are, or for the most part were, a seminomadic group, migrating with their reindeer from the forests to the northern coast for the short Arctic summer. But modern life has encroached on the Sami’s traditional lifestyle: roads and new national borders have sprung up across centuries-old migration routes, and many of the old ways of life have been lost because of government policies that sent generations of Sami children to boarding schools in the south.

In Finland, Sami campaigners are nearing the end of a long battle to have their right to land that they have inhabited for centuries recognised in law. They propose, in line with the International Labour Organisation’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, that control of 20,000 square miles of state land should pass to the Sami parliament in Inari, 800 miles north of Helsinki.

Under this move, backed in September by the UN’s committee for the eradication of racial discrimination, 10 per cent of Finland’s land area would be handed over to 21 representatives voted in by the Sami population. With these new powers, the Sami parliament might then seek compensation for use of its resources, now and in the past.


newstatesman.com