Sweden’s reindeer-herding Sami take back control
An indigenous people wins the right to decide who hunts and fishes on public land
TO MOST PEOPLE, one reindeer looks much like another. But for Anders-Erling Fjallas, one of the Sami people indigenous to northern Sweden, it is easy to tell which reindeer belongs to whom. “We carve our brand in their ears with a knife when the calves are a few months old,” says Mr Fjallas, who owns about 700 of the animals. Once hunter-gatherers, the Sami switched to herding reindeer (caribou) in the Middle Ages. Nowadays they move with their herds between the lowlands and the mountains. But their lifestyle is threatened by development.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Sami difference”
From the May 23rd 2020 edition
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