Just a hundred years ago, the situation of the Skolt Sámi was really good and every Skolt Sámi spoke their language. Today, the situation is completely different. Skolt Sámi is spoken by an estimated 300 people.
A recently published report indicates that the Finnish school system, the Norwegianisation policy and Stalin's persecution resulted in the silencing of the Skolt language.
A new report recommends that the state issue an apology to the Skolt Sámi, who lost their language as a result of state actions.
Since 1950, the Skolt Sámi language has weakened due to various assimilation measures by states, according to the report published by the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the situation of the Skolt Sámi language and education (in Finnish).
The study opens up the school history of the Skolt Sámi over a period of 174 years and the progress of the sociolinguistic situation.
Researchers Markus Juutinen and Taarna Valtonen have compiled the study from a range of textual and archival sources. Juutinen believes that the time is now right to present the history of the Skolt Sámi in a comprehensive manner.
This was a big job. Until today, it is difficult to find information about the history of the Skolt Sámi. A hundred years ago, the situation of the Skolt Sámi was really good and every Skolt Sámi spoke their language. Today, the situation is completely different, says Markus Juutinen.
The study did not have any ready-made information available in scientific sources, but could only be found, for example, by listening to old radio programs or interviewing people.
The work involved a lot of emotions: often anger and sadness about what people have had to experience at the hands of the state and its representatives. On the other hand, there was sadness in realizing how much better things could have been if history had gone differently.
The actions of three states weakened the position of the Skolt Sámi language.
The Skolt Sámi live in the territory of three states in Finland, the Kola Peninsula in Russia, and Norway.
According to the study, the assimilation policies and various educational measures pursued by the three states greatly influenced the use of the Skolt Sámi language from the 1850s onwards.
Even before the First World War, Skolt Sámi was the dominant language of the Skolt Sámi. In Norway, the language situation changed radically from the beginning of the 20th century, when the country began a policy of Norwegianization.
In the 1920s, Finland began assimilating the Skolt Sámi into the majority population through a Finnish-language school system. The Skolt Sámi were not allowed to attend school in their own mother tongue. The history of the forced Finnicization of the Sami Kolts is covered in detail by some Finnish scholars.
Read also:
"We were torn from our roots" Finnish settlement colonialism in Koltan County in the 1920s–1950s (in Finnish).
Petsamo 1920–1940: Rhetoric of Colonialism and Finnishness (in English)
During the Soviet era, the language was promoted in cooperation between Russian scholars and the Skolt Sámi, but the persecutions initiated by Stalin stopped linguistic and cultural progress. When many Sámi who promoted the language died as victims of persecution, the community did not dare to speak their own language.
After World War II, the Skolt Sámi continued their education in a Finnish-speaking environment, and the language shift from Sámi to Finnish began to strengthen from the 1950s onwards. It was not until 1970 that Sámi education began in Sevettijärvi. Many families also thought that it was better for children to study only Finnish.
Since the 1990s, the revitalization of the Skolt Sámi language has progressed through language nests and university studies, and teaching has also been developed for adult students. However, many resource issues are slowing down the language revitalization work.
The language situation has been affected by several issues, both external and internal to the language community, says researcher Taarna Valtonen.
Behind both of the above are the negative language attitudes and racist thought patterns that prevailed in the dominant culture, says Valtonen.
Researchers have given the Sámi Truth Commission and the Finnish state suggestions on how to begin to remedy the experiences of the Skolt Sámi and the loss of the language.
The state must apologize and admit that it has acted wrongly. The state must also provide enough resources so that the situation of the Skolt Sámi language and culture can be corrected,
says Markus Juutinen
Long-term resources are needed for the language of 300 speakers, so that the language revitalization work does not end due to lack of funding.
Sufficient, continuous resources must be allocated to the implementation of the Language Act, and additional special resources must be allocated to Skolt Sámi due to the many actions that have weakened the status of the language and the community that the community has suffered for a long time, says Valtonen.
Based on: Yle
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