REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION 



APPENDIX No. XII 



LAPPS AND REINDEER IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY 



Memorandum prepared for the use of the United States Bureau of Education by 

 Mr. Hjalmar Lundbohm, Delegate of the Royal Stvedish Government, and 

 appearing in Bulletin No. 4 of the United States Department of the Interior, 

 1919. 



Most of the figures and some of the information in regard to Sweden were 

 gathered by a commission which at present is negotiating with a Norwegian 

 commission in order to settle the difficulties which are always to be found when 

 Swedish Lapps migrate into Norway. The figures are furnished by the forester, 

 Mr. Avid Montell, who is a member of the commission. 



The Norwegian data were mostly taken from a lecture given by the Inspector 

 of Reindeer and Lapps in Norway, Mr. Kristian Nisson, as published in the year 

 book of the Norwegian Geographical Society (Det Norske Geografiske Selskab 

 aarsbek, 1914-15). This pamphlet gives a very good view of the whole Lapp 

 situation in Norway, historical notes about the Lapps, and many other things 

 of value to those who are interested in these people. 



The total number of Lapps is not very great. The latest official reports 

 give the following figures: Norway, about 20,000; Sweden, 6,000 to 7,000; 

 Russia, about 1,700; Finland, about 1,500; total. 30,200. 



The total here given may, however, be a little low. The whole might be 

 estimated at about 40,000. 



There is only a comparatively small percentage of Lapps who live on the 

 reindeer, a large number, especially in Norway, getting their livelihood from 

 agriculture and from fishing. 



The agricultural Lapps are probably in most cases descendants of the 

 Nomads, or "reindeer Lapps," who have decided to settle down and do farming 

 instead of nomadizing. There may be several reasons for this, but one is no 

 doubt that in certain districts there has been a lack of food for the reindeer, 

 and consequently it has been easier to make a living, even if very simple and 

 poor, by agriculture. In other cases, the Government or other interested 

 parties have induced the Lapps to settle as agriculturalists, as especially during 

 a certain period of time, it was thought to be very desirable to have the land 

 settled and farmed. In this respect it has often not been realized that agricul- 

 ture gives a very much smaller revenue than the reindeer service, and thus a 

 part of the population has been induced to live a poor life, without the possibility 

 of utilizing the opportunities of nature. The Swedish Government has, however, 

 always, but especially in the later years, realized the importance of giving the 

 Lapps the protection which makes it possible to continue their original life. 



The fishing Lapps, in most cases, originate from the Nomads, having pre- 

 ferred to get their living in a comparatively lazy life as fishers, instead of in the 

 more strenuous life as nomads. In many cases poverty seems to be the real 

 reason for the transition into the fisher's life. It is, however, not improbable 

 that some of the fisher Lapps in Norway have ancestors who came to the country 

 earlier than the Nomads. 



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