The Progress Party^[Fremskrittspartiet is the furthest right party in Norway's parliament, and the second biggest party in Norway as of the election of September 8, 2025.] believes it is unclear whether the Sámi people of Norway are actually covered by the UN convention on indigenous^[The term for "indigenous" used throughout this article is urfolk, cf. First Nations. Another term used in Norwegian is innfødt, and I believe this term is gradually overtaking urfolk.] rights, and is now asking the Norwegian parliament^[Also called the Storting.] to investigate the matter.
Klassekampen^[Literally The Class Struggle, this is Norway's third largest print newspaper. It is associated with the Red Party, the furthest left party in Norway's parliament.] reported on Monday that the Progress Party's program for the Sámi parliamentary^[The Sámi Parliament of Norway was founded on October 9, 1989, as the representative body of Sámi people in Norway and an institution of cultural autonomy for them. It manages a number of grants and funds among other responsibilities. Also, yes, the Progress Party despite wanting to abolish the Sámi Parliament still runs for it, and currently has 1/39 seats.] election claims that ILO Convention 169 concerns tribal peoples with a lower socioeconomic status than the rest of the population, and that the party believes that there are no groups in Norway living under such circumstances. The Progress Party questions in fact whether Norway should be bound by ILO Convention 169 at all.
::: spoiler About ILO C169
The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, or ILO Convention 169, was adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1989. Norway was the first country in the world to ratify the convention, doing so in 1990. The convention applies to indigenous and tribal peoples with distinct language, culture and historical ties to the land compared to the majority, and aims to secure their rights to land, resources, language and culture. The convention is binding international law for the states who have ratified it.
:::
Progress Party politician Bengt Rune Strifeldt, who represents Finnmark^[Finnmark is the county in Norway with the largest percentage of Sámi people and is home to a large number of Sámi organizations, including the Sámi Parliament of Norway. The county has five representatives in the Norwegian parliament.] in the Norwegian parliament, says it's high time for a clarification on the matter.
—"We don't need either the Sámi parliament nor the county councils. Give the municipalities more responsibilities," he says, and points out the administration of uncultivated land^[Utmark has a more precise legal definition but I can't be bothered with it.] as an area where he believes the Sámi parliament and the Finnmark Estate^[From the Finnmark Estate's website: "The Finnmark Act (Finnmarksloven) of 2005 transferred about 46 000 km² to the residents of Finnmark County in Northern Norway. Finnmark Estate (Finnmarkseiendommen) equates to around 95 % of the county’s total area."] have too much power.
The Progress Party has long been critical of the role of the Sámi Parliament in Norwegian politics and has on several occasions proposed abolishing the institution. Strifeldt believes it is unfavorable that only one of the traditional peoples of Northern Norway has a legal status as indigenous, and points out that Kvens and Norwegians also have a long history in the region.
—"The pendulum has swung too hard, and the Sámi have too much power now, among other things to stop mines, wind turbines, power lines and other things of interest to society which may have potential environmental impacts," he says.
Associate professor Ande Somby at the University of Tromsø^[Troms County is another region with a high Sámi population.] says that the Progress Party is misrepresenting the situation. He says that the Sámi people meet all the criteria under the UN's definition of indigeneity, when it comes to language, culture, and historical ties to the land.
Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem] - 3mon
Who are the Sámi?
The Sámi homeland, Sápmi, historically known as Lapland, covers much of Northern Finland, Northern Sweden, Northern Norway including Trøndelag, as well as Murmansk Oblast in Russia.
Norway has the biggest Sámi population; the Norwegian counties with the greatest Sámi percentage are Troms and Finnmark, both north of the Arctic circle. However, it's worth remembering that many Sámi people today live in major cities outside their traditional homeland, especially in Oslo, Norway's capital city. Within Sápmi, the inland towns of Kárášjohka (NO: Karasjok) and Guovdageaidnu (NO: Kautokeino) in Finnmark County are recognized as the effective capitals of the Sámi: Kárášjohka is home to the Sámi Parliament of Norway, and Guovdageaidnu was the site of the Sámi revolt of 1852, which was adopted into a feature film in 2008. That revolt was connected to the anti-alcoholic views of Laestadianism, a Christian movement associated with the Sámi. Sámi people of course also have their traditional pre-colonial religious beliefs, alluded to on the Sámi flag, which also represents the colors of the Sámi's traditional costume, the gákti.
There were thirteen Sámi languages before colonization; four of these are dead now, leaving nine living Sámi languages. Northern Sámi, the lect of Troms and Finnmark, is by far the most spoken and most supported, with ~26K speakers in 2009, whereas all other Sámi languages have <1K speakers. The least spoken Sámi language is Ter Sámi, spoken in far eastern Murmansk Oblast, which had 2 native speakers as of 2011. All Sámi languages belong to the Uralic family and have varying levels of mutual intelligibility. This means that the Sámi languages belong to the same language family as Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and a large number of Indigenous or endangered languages in Russia and the Baltic countries.
Recommended reading
My translation of "A Sámi State of Our Own" (1987) provides a Sámi communist's views on the Sámi Parliament, and also touches on traditional Sámi organization, reindeer herding, borders, and the Alta conflict. It's a brief interview but should be a good start.
Own commentary
The Progress Party is pulling the same ol' settler BS done since the inception of settler-colonialism: they feel entitled to the resources of Sápmi so they're making up some nonsense about the Natives not reeeaaally being Natives and ackshyually it's the settlers who are the real natives. Norwegians do have a very long history in Sápmi, but the Sámi are not Indigenous because they were the first in their homeland to begin with! The Sámi are Indigenous because foreign governments felt and still feel entitled to their land and resources, and have created a paradigm of sending settlers to Sápmi and forcing Native Sámi to assimilate. The Sámi absolutely do have a lower socioeconomic status than other people in Norway because they've been fucked over by centuries of colonial politics.
Side note, but every day it feels like we're getting closer to this fakenews post of mine becoming real.
7
PKMKII [none/use name] - 3mon
Is this one of those silly “ackshully there was a different ethnic group there 5,000 years and the Sámi only moved into the area 3,000 years ago so they’re not really indigenous” arguments?
5
Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem] - 3mon
They're basically arguing
Norwegians have also lived in the region for a long time so why aren't they considered indigenous hmmmmmm?
The ILO Convention requires indigenous people to have a "lower socioeconomic status" to count as indigenous (it doesn't)
Sami people aren't oppressed (they are)
In fact, Sami people are the reeeaaal oppressors cause they won't let us build mines on their land wah wah wah
Erika3sis in indigenous
iNyheter: Progress Party wants a reconsideration of Sámi people's status as indigenous | Translation in post body
https://inyheter.no/29/09/2025/frp-vil-ha-ny-vurdering-av-samenes-urfolkstatus/The Progress Party^[Fremskrittspartiet is the furthest right party in Norway's parliament, and the second biggest party in Norway as of the election of September 8, 2025.] believes it is unclear whether the Sámi people of Norway are actually covered by the UN convention on indigenous^[The term for "indigenous" used throughout this article is urfolk, cf. First Nations. Another term used in Norwegian is innfødt, and I believe this term is gradually overtaking urfolk.] rights, and is now asking the Norwegian parliament^[Also called the Storting.] to investigate the matter.
Klassekampen^[Literally The Class Struggle, this is Norway's third largest print newspaper. It is associated with the Red Party, the furthest left party in Norway's parliament.] reported on Monday that the Progress Party's program for the Sámi parliamentary^[The Sámi Parliament of Norway was founded on October 9, 1989, as the representative body of Sámi people in Norway and an institution of cultural autonomy for them. It manages a number of grants and funds among other responsibilities. Also, yes, the Progress Party despite wanting to abolish the Sámi Parliament still runs for it, and currently has 1/39 seats.] election claims that ILO Convention 169 concerns tribal peoples with a lower socioeconomic status than the rest of the population, and that the party believes that there are no groups in Norway living under such circumstances. The Progress Party questions in fact whether Norway should be bound by ILO Convention 169 at all.
::: spoiler About ILO C169 The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, or ILO Convention 169, was adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1989. Norway was the first country in the world to ratify the convention, doing so in 1990. The convention applies to indigenous and tribal peoples with distinct language, culture and historical ties to the land compared to the majority, and aims to secure their rights to land, resources, language and culture. The convention is binding international law for the states who have ratified it. :::
Progress Party politician Bengt Rune Strifeldt, who represents Finnmark^[Finnmark is the county in Norway with the largest percentage of Sámi people and is home to a large number of Sámi organizations, including the Sámi Parliament of Norway. The county has five representatives in the Norwegian parliament.] in the Norwegian parliament, says it's high time for a clarification on the matter.
—"We don't need either the Sámi parliament nor the county councils. Give the municipalities more responsibilities," he says, and points out the administration of uncultivated land^[Utmark has a more precise legal definition but I can't be bothered with it.] as an area where he believes the Sámi parliament and the Finnmark Estate^[From the Finnmark Estate's website: "The Finnmark Act (Finnmarksloven) of 2005 transferred about 46 000 km² to the residents of Finnmark County in Northern Norway. Finnmark Estate (Finnmarkseiendommen) equates to around 95 % of the county’s total area."] have too much power.
The Progress Party has long been critical of the role of the Sámi Parliament in Norwegian politics and has on several occasions proposed abolishing the institution. Strifeldt believes it is unfavorable that only one of the traditional peoples of Northern Norway has a legal status as indigenous, and points out that Kvens and Norwegians also have a long history in the region.
—"The pendulum has swung too hard, and the Sámi have too much power now, among other things to stop mines, wind turbines, power lines and other things of interest to society which may have potential environmental impacts," he says.
Associate professor Ande Somby at the University of Tromsø^[Troms County is another region with a high Sámi population.] says that the Progress Party is misrepresenting the situation. He says that the Sámi people meet all the criteria under the UN's definition of indigeneity, when it comes to language, culture, and historical ties to the land.
Who are the Sámi?
The Sámi homeland, Sápmi, historically known as Lapland, covers much of Northern Finland, Northern Sweden, Northern Norway including Trøndelag, as well as Murmansk Oblast in Russia.
Norway has the biggest Sámi population; the Norwegian counties with the greatest Sámi percentage are Troms and Finnmark, both north of the Arctic circle. However, it's worth remembering that many Sámi people today live in major cities outside their traditional homeland, especially in Oslo, Norway's capital city. Within Sápmi, the inland towns of Kárášjohka (NO: Karasjok) and Guovdageaidnu (NO: Kautokeino) in Finnmark County are recognized as the effective capitals of the Sámi: Kárášjohka is home to the Sámi Parliament of Norway, and Guovdageaidnu was the site of the Sámi revolt of 1852, which was adopted into a feature film in 2008. That revolt was connected to the anti-alcoholic views of Laestadianism, a Christian movement associated with the Sámi. Sámi people of course also have their traditional pre-colonial religious beliefs, alluded to on the Sámi flag, which also represents the colors of the Sámi's traditional costume, the gákti.
There were thirteen Sámi languages before colonization; four of these are dead now, leaving nine living Sámi languages. Northern Sámi, the lect of Troms and Finnmark, is by far the most spoken and most supported, with ~26K speakers in 2009, whereas all other Sámi languages have <1K speakers. The least spoken Sámi language is Ter Sámi, spoken in far eastern Murmansk Oblast, which had 2 native speakers as of 2011. All Sámi languages belong to the Uralic family and have varying levels of mutual intelligibility. This means that the Sámi languages belong to the same language family as Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and a large number of Indigenous or endangered languages in Russia and the Baltic countries.
Recommended reading
My translation of "A Sámi State of Our Own" (1987) provides a Sámi communist's views on the Sámi Parliament, and also touches on traditional Sámi organization, reindeer herding, borders, and the Alta conflict. It's a brief interview but should be a good start.
Own commentary
The Progress Party is pulling the same ol' settler BS done since the inception of settler-colonialism: they feel entitled to the resources of Sápmi so they're making up some nonsense about the Natives not reeeaaally being Natives and ackshyually it's the settlers who are the real natives. Norwegians do have a very long history in Sápmi, but the Sámi are not Indigenous because they were the first in their homeland to begin with! The Sámi are Indigenous because foreign governments felt and still feel entitled to their land and resources, and have created a paradigm of sending settlers to Sápmi and forcing Native Sámi to assimilate. The Sámi absolutely do have a lower socioeconomic status than other people in Norway because they've been fucked over by centuries of colonial politics.
Side note, but every day it feels like we're getting closer to this fakenews post of mine becoming real.
Is this one of those silly “ackshully there was a different ethnic group there 5,000 years and the Sámi only moved into the area 3,000 years ago so they’re not really indigenous” arguments?
They're basically arguing