THE STORY WORLD
Lapland, or Sápmi (native name), is a vast area at the top of Europe divided by the borders of four states: Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden. It’s about the same size as California, but has a population of just 2,000,000 people. The Indigenous Sámis are only 10 0 ,000 strong, and they are the European Union’s only indigenous people. The biggest town in the area is the Russian town Murmansk, with 350,000 inhabitants. Unfortunately, Murmansk is also the home of the mighty Russian Arctic Navy. Their deadly submarines and stealth missiles can cause huge damage. The states in Lapland are organized very differently. Two of them are kingdoms, one is a republic, and the fourth is a global federation. Policing in this area is a nightmare. The state judicial systems are totally incompatible. There are native courts that practice indigenous law. If you steal a reindeer, there is no trial. According to the oral unwritten nomadic rule, you or your family just negotiate how the other clan is com- pensated. The killing of reindeer owned by others is not always a crime; sometimes it’s a form of obligatory self-defence. Suppose that some other tribe tries to conquer your gracing grounds by flooding your lands with their herds. In that case, your survival is dependent on a deterrent response from your tribe. You must prove that the invasion cost is so expensive that it is not worth the effort. The only power that can guarantee you justice in that case, as an individual, is your tribe.
For the reindeer-herding clans, the deserts of ice are a perfect world. Nothing improves it, since everything is made perfect by the creator. If nature is protected, the reindeer herds will provide food and shelter for thousands of years to
come. If only the nomadic migration routes between summer and winter pastures were preserved. Then, life could continue in the most perfect form that a human being could live. Nomadism is the closest neighbour to nirvana for the natives. The melt- ing of the ice and snow, caused
by the state’s greed, has not gone unnoticed. The good- hearted people of a small
indigenous village are struggling to survive in this changing natural world.
8
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker