The word "Saami" is correct and usable in written English.
The Saami people are an indigenous population of northern Europe who live in the northernmost regions of Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula of Russia. For example, you could write: "The Saami have lived in the Arctic circle for thousands of years."
In current usage, many exonyms can be considered insensitive (Gypsy, Lapp, Hottentot), and preference is given to the endonym (Roma, Saami, Khoi-San).
Saami people of northern Europe sing "yoik" – songs that similarly conjure a landscape; or animals, moods, people.
There are six of us Saami women at COP 21, at the frontline of this UN process.
Saami singer and shaman Nils-Aslak Valkeapää wrote: "Even an old man of more than 80 years of age was executed because he was irresponsible enough to yoik".
The Saami Easterfestival, Norway Dog-sledding, the reindeer racing world cup and storytelling are to be expected at a festival celebrating Sami traditions, but this week-long event in Kautokeino, in April, also features gigs, art exhibitions and a Sami film festival, with screenings in an ice drive-in cinema, where the audience watch from their snowmobiles and reindeer sleds.
Ed Hundert and Roger Seamon Vancouver, B.C. Greenblatt, in describing the universality of "our species' cultural birthright," and the "mixed blessings" of its contradictions, uses a derogatory term for the Saami, the indigenous people of Scandinavia: Laplander.
There are 50 languages at risk in Europe, including 14 in France and several Saami or Lappish tongues in the north.
April 2-8 2008, saami-easterfestival.org.org
The site, according to one legend, marks the spot in the river where a Cree medicine man lost his hat (saamis) after deserting his tribe and fleeing from Blackfoot warriors.
The city's best-known attractions are the Saamis Archaeological Site, a prehistoric buffalo camp and meat-processing site, and the historical Medalta Stoneware factory.
In our native land, we have been treated the way North America's indigenous people have been treated Saami were once even displayed in a human zoo in Germany.
