title: Sámi

text: Fishing has always been the main livelihood for the many Sámi living permanently in coastal areas. Archeological research shows that the Sámi have lived along the coast and once lived much farther south in the past, and they were also involved in work other than reindeer herding (e.g., fishing, agriculture, iron work). The fishing along the north Norwegian coast, especially in the Lofoten and Vesterålen islands, is quite productive, with a variety of fish; during medieval times, it was a major source of income for both the fishermen and the Norwegian monarchy. With such massive population drops caused by the Black Death, the tax revenues from this industry greatly diminished. Because of the huge profits that could be had from these fisheries, the local authorities offered incentives to the Sámi—faced with their own population pressures—to settle on the newly vacant farms. This started the economic division between the Sea Sámi ("sjøsamene"), who fished extensively off the coast, and the Mountain Sámi ("fjellsamene, innlandssamene"), who continued to hunt reindeer and small-game animals. They later herded reindeer. Even as late as the early 18th century, there were many Sámi who were still settling on these farms left abandoned from the 1350s. After many years of continuous migration, these Sea Sámi became far more numerous than the reindeer-herding mountain Sámi, who today only make up 10% of all Sámi. In contemporary times, there are also ongoing consultations between the Government of Norway and the Sámi Parliament regarding the right of the coastal Sámi to fish in the seas on the basis of historical use and international law. State regulation of sea fisheries underwent drastic change in the late 1980s. The regulation linked quotas to vessels and not to fishers. These newly calculated quotas were distributed free of charge to larger vessels on the basis of the amount of the catch in previous years, resulting in small vessels in Sámi districts falling outside the new quota system to a large degree.


title: Sámi

text: As the Sea Sámi settled along Norway's fjords and inland waterways, pursuing a combination of farming, cattle raising, trapping and fishing, the minority Mountain Sámi continued to hunt wild reindeer. Around 1500, they started to tame these animals into herding groups, becoming the well-known reindeer nomads, often portrayed by outsiders as following the traditional Sámi lifestyle. The Mountain Sámi had to pay taxes to three states, Norway, Sweden and Russia, as they crossed each border while following the annual reindeer migrations; this caused much resentment over the years. Between 1635 and 1659, the Swedish crown forced Swedish conscripts and Sámi cart drivers to work in the Nasa silver mine, causing many Sámis to emigrate from the area to avoid forced labour. As a result, the population of Pite- and Lule-speaking Sámi decreased greatly.


title: Sámi

text: For long periods of time, the Sámi lifestyle thrived because of its adaptation to the Arctic environment. Indeed, throughout the 18th century, as Norwegians of Northern Norway suffered from low fish prices and consequent depopulation, the Sámi cultural element was strengthened, since the Sámi were mostly independent of supplies from Southern Norway.


title: Sámi

text: During the 19th century, the pressure of Christianization of the Sámi increased, with some Sámi adopting Laestadianism. With the introduction of seven compulsory years of school in 1889, the Sámi language and traditional way of life came increasingly under pressure from forced cultural normalization. Strong economic development of the north also ensued, giving Norwegian culture and language higher status.


title: Sámi

text: On the Swedish and Finnish sides, the authorities were less militant, although the Sámi language was forbidden in schools and strong economic development in the north led to weakened cultural and economic status for the Sámi. From 1913 to 1920, the Swedish race-segregation political movement created a race-based biological institute that collected research material from living people and graves. Throughout history, Swedish settlers were encouraged to move to the northern regions through incentives such as land and water rights, tax allowances, and military exemptions.


title: Sámi

text: The strongest pressure took place from around 1900 to 1940, when Norway invested considerable money and effort to assimilate Sámi culture. Anyone who wanted to buy or lease state lands for agriculture in Finnmark had to prove knowledge of the Norwegian language and had to register with a Norwegian name. This caused the dislocation of Sámi people in the 1920s, which increased the gap between local Sámi groups (something still present today) that sometimes has the character of an internal Sámi ethnic conflict. In 1913, the Norwegian parliament passed a bill on "native act land" to allocate the best and most useful lands to Norwegian settlers. Another factor was the scorched earth policy conducted by the German army, resulting in heavy war destruction in northern Finland and northern Norway in 1944–45, destroying all existing houses, or "kota", and visible traces of Sámi culture. After World War II, the pressure was relaxed, though the legacy was evident into recent times, such as the 1970s law limiting the size of any house Sámi people were allowed to build.


title: Sámi

text: The controversy over the construction of the hydro-electric power station in Alta in 1979 brought Sámi rights onto the political agenda. In August 1986, the national anthem ("Sámi soga lávlla") and flag (Sámi flag) of the Sámi people were created. In 1989, the first Sámi parliament in Norway was elected. In 2005, the Finnmark Act was passed in the Norwegian parliament giving the Sámi parliament and the Finnmark Provincial council a joint responsibility of administering the land areas previously considered state property. These areas (96% of the provincial area), which have always been used primarily by the Sámi, now belong officially to the people of the province, whether Sámi or Norwegian, and not to the Norwegian state.


title: Sámi

text: The indigenous Sámi population is a mostly urbanised demographic, but a substantial number live in villages in the high Arctic. The Sámi are still coping with the cultural consequences of language and culture loss caused by generations of Sámi children being taken to missionary and/or state-run boarding schools and the legacy of laws that were created to deny the Sámi rights (e.g., to their beliefs, language, land and to the practice of traditional livelihoods). The Sámi are experiencing cultural and environmental threats, including: oil exploration, mining, dam building, logging, climate change, military bombing ranges, tourism and commercial development.


title: Sámi

text: Sápmi is rich in precious metals, oil, and natural gas. Mining activities and prospecting to extract these resources from the region often interfere with reindeer grazing and calving areas and other aspects of traditional Sámi life. Some active mining locations include ancient Sámi spaces that are designated as ecologically protected areas, such as the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve. The Sámi Parliament has opposed and rejected mining projects in the Finnmark area, and demanded that resources and mineral exploration benefit local Sámi communities and populations, as the proposed mines are in Sámi lands and will affect their ability to maintain their traditional livelihood. In Kallak (Sámi: "Gállok") a group of indigenous and non-indigenous activists protested against the UK-based mining company Beowulf which operated a drilling program in lands used for grazing reindeer during the winter. There is often local opposition to new mining projects where environmental impacts are perceived to be very large, as very few plans for mine reclamation have been made. In Sweden, taxes on minerals are intentionally low in an effort to increase mineral exploration for economic benefit, though this policy is at the expense of Sámi populations. ILO Convention No. 169 would grant rights to the Sámi people to their land and give them power in matters that affect their future.


title: Sámi

text: In Russia's Kola Peninsula, vast areas have already been destroyed by mining and smelting activities, and further development is imminent. This includes oil and natural gas exploration in the Barents Sea. Oil spills affect fishing and the construction of roads. There is a gas pipeline that stretches across the Kola Peninsula, and power lines cut off access to reindeer calving grounds and sacred sites.


title: Sámi

text: In northern Finland, there has been a longstanding dispute over the destruction of forests, which prevents reindeer from migrating between seasonal feeding grounds and destroys supplies of lichen that grow on the upper branches of older trees. This lichen is the reindeer's only source of sustenance during the winter months, when snow is deep. The logging has been under the control of the state-run forest system. Greenpeace, reindeer herders, and Sámi organisations carried out a historic joint campaign, and in 2010, Sámi reindeer herders won some time as a result of these court cases. Industrial logging has now been pushed back from the most important forest areas either permanently or for the next 20 years, though there are still threats, such as mining and construction plans of holiday resorts on the protected shorelines of Lake Inari.


title: Sámi

text: The Swedish government has allowed the world's largest onshore wind farm to be built in Piteå, in the Arctic region where the Eastern Kikkejaure village has its winter reindeer pastures. The wind farm will consist of more than 1,000 wind turbines and an extensive road infrastructure, which means that the feasibility of using the area for winter grazing in practice is impossible. Sweden has received strong international criticism, including by the UN Racial Discrimination Committee and the Human Rights Committee, that Sweden violates Sámi "landrättigheter" (land rights), including by not regulating industry. In Norway some Sámi politicians (for example—Aili Keskitalo) suggest giving the Sámi Parliament a special veto right on planned mining projects.


title: Sámi

text: Government authorities and NATO have built bombing-practice ranges in Sámi areas in northern Norway and Sweden. These regions have served as reindeer calving and summer grounds for thousands of years, and contain many ancient Sámi sacred sites.


title: Sámi

text: State regulation of sea fisheries underwent drastic change in the late 1980s. The regulation linked quotas to vessels and not to fishers. These newly calculated quotas were distributed free of cost to larger vessels on the basis of the amount of the catch in previous years, resulting in small vessels in Sámi districts falling outside the new quota system to a large degree.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi recently stopped a water-prospecting venture that threatened to turn an ancient sacred site and natural spring called Suttesaja into a large-scale water-bottling plant for the world market—without notification or consultation with the local Sámi people, who make up 70 percent of the population. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities has registered the area as a heritage site of cultural and historical significance, and the stream itself is part of the Deatnu/Tana watershed, which is home to Europe's largest salmon river, an important source of Sámi livelihood.


title: Sámi

text: In Norway, government plans for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the Alta river in Finnmark in northern Norway led to a political controversy and the rallying of the Sámi popular movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a result, the opposition in the Alta controversy brought attention to not only environmental issues but also the issue of Sámi rights.


title: Sámi

text: Reindeer have major cultural and economic significance for indigenous peoples of the North. The human-ecological systems in the North, like reindeer pastoralism, are sensitive to change, perhaps more than in virtually any other region of the globe, due in part to the variability of the Arctic climate and ecosystem and the characteristic ways of life of indigenous Arctic peoples.


title: Sámi

text: The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster caused nuclear fallout in the sensitive Arctic ecosystems and poisoned fish, meat and berries. Lichens and mosses are two of the main forms of vegetation in the Arctic and are highly susceptible to airborne pollutants and heavy metals. Since many do not have roots, they absorb nutrients, and toxic compounds, through their leaves. The lichens accumulated airborne radiation, and 73,000 reindeer had to be killed as "unfit" for human consumption in Sweden alone. The government promised Sámi indemnification, which was not acted upon by government.


title: Sámi

text: Radioactive wastes and spent nuclear fuel have been stored in the waters off the Kola Peninsula, including locations that are only "two kilometers" from places where Sámi live. There are a minimum of five "dumps" where spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste are being deposited in the Kola Peninsula, often with little concern for the surrounding environment or population.


title: Sámi

text: The tourism industry in Finland has been criticized for turning Sámi culture into a marketing tool by promoting opportunities to experience "authentic" Sámi ceremonies and lifestyle. At many tourist locales, non-Sámi dress in inaccurate replicas of Sámi traditional clothing, and gift shops sell crude reproductions of Sámi handicraft. One popular "ceremony", crossing the Arctic Circle, actually has no significance in Sámi spirituality. To some Sámi, this is an insulting display of cultural exploitation.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi have for centuries, even today, been the subject of discrimination and abuse by the dominant cultures in the nations they have historically inhabited. They have never been a single community in a single region of Lapland, which until recently was considered only a cultural region.


title: Sámi

text: Norway has been criticized internationally for the politics of Norwegianization of and discrimination against the Sámi. On 8 April 2011, recommendations from the UN Racial Discrimination Committee were delivered to Norway, addressing many issues related to the legacy of Norwegianization policies, including the need for more Sámi language education, interpreters, and cultural support. One committee recommendation was that discrimination against someone based upon their language be added to Article 1 of the Norwegian Discrimination and Accessibility Act. A new present status report was to have been ready by the end of 2012. In 2018, The Storting commissioned The Truth and Reconciliation Commission to lay the foundation for recognition of the experiences of the Sámi subject to Norwegianization and the subsequent consequences.


title: Sámi

text: Sweden has faced similar criticism for its Swedification policies, which began in the 1800s and lasted until the 1970s. In 2020, Sweden funded the establishment of an independent truth commission to examine and document past abuse of Sámi by the Swedish state. In 2021, the Church of Sweden made a formal apology to Sweden's Sámi population for its role in forced conversions and Swedification efforts, outlining a multiyear reconciliation plan.


title: Sámi

text: In Finland, where Sámi children, like all Finnish children, are entitled to day care and language instruction in their own language, the Finnish government has denied funding for these rights in most of the country, including in Rovaniemi, the largest municipality in Finnish Lapland. Sámi activists have pushed for nationwide application of these basic rights.


title: Sámi

text: As in the other countries claiming sovereignty over Sámi lands, Sámi activists' efforts in Finland in the 20th century achieved limited government recognition of the Sámis' rights as a recognized minority, but the Finnish government has maintained its legally enforced premise that the Sámi must prove their land ownership, an idea incompatible with and antithetical to the traditional reindeer-herding Sámi way of life. This has effectively allowed the Finnish government to take without compensation, motivated by economic gain, land occupied by the Sámi for centuries.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi have been recognized as an indigenous people in Norway (1990 according to ILO convention 169 as described below), and therefore, according to international law, the Sámi people in Norway are entitled special protection and rights. The legal foundation of the Sámi policy is:


title: Sámi

text: The constitutional amendment states: "It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sámi people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life." This provides a legal and political protection of the Sámi language, culture and society. In addition the "amendment implies a legal, political and moral obligation for Norwegian authorities to create an environment conducive to the Sámis themselves influencing on the development of the Sámi community".


title: Sámi

text: The Norwegian Sámi Parliament also elects 50% of the members to the board of the Finnmark Estate, which controls 95% of the land in the county of Finnmark.


title: Sámi

text: In addition, the Sámi have special rights to reindeer husbandry. In 2007, the Norwegian Parliament passed the new Reindeer Herding Act acknowledging siida as the basic institution regarding land rights, organization, and daily herding management.


title: Sámi

text: Norway has also accepted international conventions, declarations and agreements applicable to the Sámi as a minority and indigenous people including:


title: Sámi

text: Sweden recognised the existence of the "Sámi nation" in 1989, but the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, C169 has not been adopted. The Sametingslag was established as the Swedish Sámi Parliament on 1 January 1993. In 1998, Sweden formally apologized for the wrongs committed against the Sámi.


title: Sámi

text: Sámi is one of five national minority languages recognized by Swedish law. The Compulsory School Ordinance states that Sámi pupils are entitled to be taught in their native language; however, a municipality is only obliged to arrange mother-tongue teaching in Sámi if a suitable teacher is available and the pupil has a basic knowledge of Sámi.


title: Sámi

text: In 2010, after 15 years of negotiation, Laponiatjuottjudus, an association with Sámi majority control, will govern the UNESCO World Heritage Site Laponia. The reindeer-herding law will apply in the area as well.


title: Sámi

text: The act establishing the Finnish Sámi Parliament (Finnish: Saamelaiskäräjät) was passed on 9 November 1973. Sámi people have had very little representation in Finnish national politics. In fact, as of 2007, Janne Seurujärvi, a Finnish Centre Party representative, was the first Sámi ever to be elected to the Finnish Parliament.


title: Sámi

text: Finland ratified the 1966 U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights though several cases have been brought before the U.N. Human Rights Committee. Of those, 36 cases involved a determination of the rights of individual Sámi in Finland and Sweden. The committee decisions clarify that Sámi are members of a minority within the meaning of Article 27 and that deprivation or erosion of their rights to practice traditional activities that are an essential element of their culture do come within the scope of Article 27. Finland recognized the Sámi as a "people" in 1995, but has yet to ratify ILO Convention 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.


title: Sámi

text: Sámi in Finland have had access to Sámi language instruction in some schools since the 1970s, and language rights were established in 1992. There are three Sámi languages spoken in Finland: North Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Inari Sámi. Of these languages, Inari Sámi, which is spoken by about 350 speakers, is the only one that is used entirely within the borders of Finland, mainly in the municipality of Inari.


title: Sámi

text: The case of J. Lansman versus Finland concerned a challenge by Sámi reindeer herders in northern Finland to the Finnish Central Forestry Board's plans to approve logging and construction of roads in an area used by the herdsmen as winter pasture and spring calving grounds. Finland has denied any aboriginal rights or land rights to the Sámi people; in Finland, non-Sámi can herd reindeer.


title: Sámi

text: The 1822 Statute of Administration of Non-Russians in Siberia asserted state ownership over all the land in Siberia and then "granted" possessory rights to the natives. Governance of indigenous groups, and especially collection of taxes from them, necessitated protection of indigenous peoples against exploitation by traders and settlers. During the Soviet era, the inhabitants of the Kola tundra were forcibly relocated to kolkhoz'es (collective communities) by the state; most Sámi were settled at Lujávri (Lovozero).


title: Sámi

text: The 1993 Constitution, Article 69 states, "The Russian Federation guarantees the rights of small indigenous peoples in accordance with the generally accepted principles and standards of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation." For the first time in Russia, the rights of indigenous minorities were established in the 1993 Constitution.


title: Sámi

text: The Russian Federation ratified the 1966 U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Section 2 explicitly forbids depriving a people of "its own means of subsistence." The Russian Duma (parliament) has adopted partial measures to implement it. The Russian Federation lists distinct indigenous peoples as having special rights and protections under the Constitution and federal laws and decrees. These rights are linked to the category known since Soviet times as the "malochislennye narody" ("small-numbered peoples"), a term that is often translated as "indigenous minorities", which include Arctic peoples such as the Sámi, Nenets, Evenki, and Chukchi.


title: Sámi

text: In April 1999, the Russian Duma passed a law that guarantees socio-economic and cultural development to all indigenous minorities, protecting traditional living places and acknowledging some form of limited ownership of territories that have traditionally been used for hunting, herding, fishing, and gathering activities. The law, however, does not anticipate the transfer of title in fee simply to indigenous minorities. The law does not recognize development rights, some proprietary rights including compensation for damage to the property, and limited exclusionary rights. It is not clear, however, whether protection of nature in the traditional places of inhabitation implies a right to exclude conflicting uses that are destructive to nature or whether they have the right to veto development.


title: Sámi

text: The Russian Federation's Land Code reinforces the rights of numerically small peoples ("indigenous minorities") to use places they inhabit and to continue traditional economic activities without being charged rent. Such lands cannot be allocated for unrelated activities (which might include oil, gas, and mineral development or tourism) without the consent of the indigenous peoples. Furthermore, indigenous minorities and ethnic groups are allowed to use environmentally protected lands and lands set aside as nature preserves to engage in their traditional modes of land use.


title: Sámi

text: Regional law, Code of the Murmansk Oblast, calls on the organs of state power of the oblast to facilitate the native peoples of the Kola North, specifically naming the Sámi, "in realization of their rights for preservation and development of their native language, national culture, traditions and customs." The third section of Article 21 states: "In historically established areas of habitation, Sámi enjoy the rights for traditional use of nature and [traditional] activities."


title: Sámi

text: Throughout the Russian North, indigenous and local people have difficulties with exercising control over resources upon which they and their ancestors have depended for centuries. The failure to protect indigenous ways, however, stems not from inadequacy of the written law, but rather from the failure to implement existing laws. Violations of the rights of indigenous peoples continue, and oil, gas, and mineral development and other activities, (mining, timber cutting, commercial fishing, and tourism) that bring foreign currency into the Russian economy. The life ways and economy of indigenous peoples of the Russian North are based upon reindeer herding, fishing, terrestrial and sea mammal hunting, and trapping. Many groups in the Russian Arctic are semi-nomadic, moving seasonally to different hunting and fishing camps. These groups depend upon different types of environment at differing times of the year, rather than upon exploiting a single commodity to exhaustion. Throughout northwestern Siberia, oil and gas development has disturbed pastureland and undermined the ability of indigenous peoples to continue hunting, fishing, trapping, and herding activities. Roads constructed in connection with oil and gas exploration and development destroy and degrade pastureland, ancestral burial grounds, and sacred sites and increase hunting by oil workers on the territory used by indigenous peoples.


title: Sámi

text: In the Sámi homeland on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia, regional authorities closed a fifty-mile (eighty-kilometer) stretch of the Ponoi River (and other rivers) to local fishing and granted exclusive fishing rights to a commercial company offering catch-and-release fishing to sport fishers largely from abroad. This deprived the local Sámi (see Article 21 of the Code of the Murmansk Oblast) of food for their families and community and of their traditional economic livelihood. Thus, closing the fishery to locals may have violated the test articulated by the U.N. Human Rights Committee and disregarded the Land Code, other legislative acts, and the 1992 Presidential decree. Sámi are not only forbidden to fish in the eighty-kilometer stretch leased to the Ponoi River Company but are also required by regional laws to pay for licenses to catch a limited number of fish outside the lease area. Residents of remote communities have neither the power nor the resources to demand enforcement of their rights. Here and elsewhere in the circumpolar north, the failure to apply laws for the protection of indigenous peoples leads to "criminalization" of local indigenous populations who cannot survive without "poaching" resources that should be accessible to them legally.


title: Sámi

text: Although indigenous leaders in Russia have occasionally asserted indigenous rights to land and resources, to date there has been no serious or sustained discussion of indigenous group rights to ownership of land. Russia has not adopted the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, C169.


title: Sámi

text: On 16 November 2005 in Helsinki, a group of experts, led by former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Norway Professor Carsten Smith, submitted a proposal for a Nordic Sámi Convention to the annual joint meeting of the ministers responsible for Sámi affairs in Finland, Norway and Sweden and the presidents of the three Sámi Parliaments from the respective countries. This convention recognizes the Sámi as one indigenous people residing across national borders in all three countries. A set of minimum standards is proposed for the rights of developing the Sámi language and culture and rights to land and water, livelihoods and society. The convention has not yet been ratified in the Nordic countries.


title: Sámi

text: To make up for past suppression, the authorities of Norway, Sweden and Finland now make an effort to build up Sámi cultural institutions and promote Sámi culture and language.


title: Sámi

text: Duodji, the Sámi handicraft, originates from the time when the Sámis were self-supporting nomads, believing therefore that an object should first and foremost serve a purpose rather than being primarily decorative. Men mostly use wood, bone, and antlers to make items such as antler-handled scrimshawed Sámi knives, drums, and guksi (burl cups). Women used leather and roots to make items such as gákti (clothing), and birch- and spruce-root woven baskets.


title: Sámi

text: Gákti are the traditional clothing worn by the Sámi people. The gákti is worn both in ceremonial contexts and while working, particularly when herding reindeer.


title: Sámi

text: Traditionally, the gákti was made from reindeer leather and sinews, but nowadays, it is more common to use wool, cotton, or silk. Women's gákti typically consist of a dress, a fringed shawl that is fastened with 1–3 silver brooches, and boots/shoes made of reindeer fur or leather. Sámi boots (or "nutukas") can have pointed or curled toes and often have band-woven ankle wraps. Eastern Sámi boots have a rounded toe on reindeer-fur boots, lined with felt and with beaded details. There are different gákti for women and men; men's gákti have a shorter "jacket-skirt" than a women's long dress. Traditional gákti are most commonly in variations of red, blue, green, white, medium-brown tanned leather, or reindeer fur. In winter, there is the addition of a reindeer fur coat and leggings, and sometimes a poncho (luhkka) and rope/lasso.


title: Sámi

text: The colours, patterns and the jewellery of the gákti indicate where a person is from, if a person is single or married, and sometimes can even be specific to their family. The collar, sleeves and hem usually have appliqués in the form of geometric shapes. Some regions have ribbonwork, others have tin embroidery, and some Eastern Sámi have beading on clothing or collar. Hats vary by sex, season, and region. They can be wool, leather, or fur. They can be embroidered, or in the East, they are more like a beaded cloth crown with a shawl. Some traditional shamanic headgear had animal hides, plaits, and feathers, particularly in East Sápmi.


title: Sámi

text: The gákti can be worn with a belt; these are sometimes band-woven belts, woven, or beaded. Leather belts can have scrimshawed antler buttons, silver concho-like buttons, tassels, or brass/copper details such as rings. Belts can also have beaded leather pouches, antler needle cases, accessories for a fire, copper rings, amulets, and often a carved and/or scrimshawed antler handled knife. Some Eastern Sámi also have a hooded jumper (малиц) from reindeer skins with wool inside and above the knee boots.


title: Sámi

text: A characteristic feature of Sámi musical tradition is the singing of "joik". Joiks are song-chants and are traditionally sung "a cappella", usually sung slowly and deep in the throat with apparent emotional content of sorrow or anger. Joiks can be dedicated to animals and birds in nature, special people or special occasions, and they can be joyous, sad or melancholic. They often are based on syllablic improvisation. In recent years, musical instruments frequently accompany joiks. The only traditional Sámi instruments that were sometimes used to accompany joik are the "fadno" flute (made from reed-like "Angelica archangelica" stems) and hand drums (frame drums and bowl drums).


title: Sámi

text: In addition to Duodji (Sámi handicraft), there is a developing area of contemporary Sámi visual art. Galleries such as Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sami Center for Contemporary Art) are being established.


title: Sámi

text: Unlike many other Indigenous peoples, traditional dance is generally not a visible manifestation of Sámi identity. This has led to a common misconception that Sámi, at least in western Sápmi, have no traditional dance culture.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi modern dance company Kompani Nomad looked to old descriptions of shamanistic rituals and behaviors to identify "lost" Sámi dances and reimagine them through contemporary dance. An example is the "lihkadus" (ecstasy dance) described in sources from the 16th and 17th centuries, but which was adapted by Swedish–Sámi priest Lars Levi Laestadius, who brought it and other Sámi traditions into the Church of Sweden as part of the Laestadianism movement.


title: Sámi

text: Partner and group dancing have been a part of Skolt Sámi culture and among Sámi on the Kola Peninsula since at least the second half of the 1800s. These square dances, couple dances, circle dances, and singing games are influenced by Karelian and Northern Russian dance cultures, likely under the influence of Russian traders, military service under the tsar, and the Russian Orthodox Church. This eastern Sápmi dance tradition has been more continuous and has been adapted by modern Sámi dance companies such as Johtti Kompani.


title: Sámi

text: Reindeer husbandry has been and still is an important aspect of Sámi culture. Traditionally the Sámi lived and worked in reindeer herding groups called "siidat", which consist of several families and their herds. Members of the "siida" helped each other with the management and husbandry of the herds. During the years of forced assimilation, the areas in which reindeer herding was an important livelihood were among the few where the Sámi culture and language survived.


title: Sámi

text: Today in Norway and Sweden, reindeer husbandry is legally protected as an exclusive Sámi livelihood, such that only persons of Sámi descent with a linkage to a reindeer herding family can own, and hence make a living off, reindeer. Presently, about 2,800 people are engaged in reindeer herding in Norway. In Finland, reindeer husbandry is not exclusive and is also practiced to a limited degree by ethnic Finns. Legally, it is restricted to EU/EEA nationals resident in the area. In the north (Lapland), it plays a major role in the local economy, while its economic impact is lesser in the southern parts of the area (Province of Oulu).


title: Sámi

text: Among the reindeer herders in Sámi villages, the women usually have a higher level of formal education in the area.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi have traditionally played both card games and board games, but few Sámi games have survived, because Christian missionaries and Laestadianists considered such games sinful. Only the rules of three Sámi board games have been preserved into modern times. "Sáhkku" is a running-fight board game where each player controls a set of soldiers (referred to as "women" and "men") that race across a board in a loop, attempting to eliminate the other player's soldiers. The game is related to South Scandinavian daldøs, Arabian tâb and Indian tablan. Sáhkku differs from these games in several respects, most notably the addition of a piece – "the king" – that changes gameplay radically. "Tablut" is a pure strategy game in the tafl family. The game features "Swedes" and a "Swedish king" whose goal is to escape, and an army of "Muscovites" whose goal is to capture the king. Tablut is the only tafl game where a relatively intact set of rules have survived into our time. Hence, all modern versions of tafl (commonly called "Hnefatafl" and marketed exclusively as "Norse" or "Viking" games) are based on the Sámi game of tablut. "Dablot Prejjesne" is a game related to alquerque which differs from most such games (e.g. draughts) by having pieces of three different ranks. The game's two sides are referred to as "Sámi" (king, prince, warriors) and "Finlenders" (landowners, landowner's son, farmers).


title: Sámi

text: Sápmi is located in Northern Europe, includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia and spans four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Non-Sámi and many regional maps have often called this same region "Lapland" as there is considerable regional overlap between Sápmi and the provinces of Lappland in Sweden and Lapland in Finland. Much of Sápmi falls outside of those provinces. Despite the terms use in tourism, "Lapland" can be either misleading or offensive, or both, to Sámi, depending on the context and where this word is used. Among the Sámi people, "Sápmi" is strictly used and acceptable.


title: Sámi

text: There is no official geographic definition for the boundaries of Sápmi. However, the following counties and provinces are usually included:


title: Sámi

text: The municipalities of Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Arjeplog in Swedish Lappland were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 as a "Laponian Area".


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi Domicile Area in Finland consists of the municipalities of Enontekiö, Utsjoki and Inari as well as a part of the municipality of Sodankylä. About 3,000 of Finland's about 10,000 people speak Sámi as their mother tongue. Today, a considerable part of the Finnish Sámi live outside the Sápmi region, for example in Helsinki there is a relatively large and active Sámi minority. According to the Sámi Parliament, the Sámi live in 230 municipalities out of a total of 336 municipalities in Finland. 75% of Sámi under the age of 10 live outside the Sápmi region.


title: Sámi

text: The following towns and villages have a significant Sámi population or host Sámi institutions (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or Russian name in parentheses):


title: Sámi

text: In the geographical area of Sápmi, the Sámi are a small population. According to some, the estimated total Sámi population is about 70,000. One problem when attempting to count the population of the Sámi is that there are few common criteria of what "being a Sámi" constitutes. In addition, there are several Sámi languages and additional dialects, and there are several areas in Sapmi where few of the Sámi speak their native language due to the forced cultural assimilation, but still consider themselves Sámi. Other identity markers are kinship (which can be said to, at some level or other, be of high importance for all Sámi), the geographical region of Sápmi where their family came from, and/or protecting or preserving certain aspects of Sámi culture.


title: Sámi

text: All the Nordic Sámi Parliaments have included as the "core" criterion for registering as a Sámi the identity in itself—one must declare that one truly considers oneself a Sámi. Objective criteria vary, but are generally related to kinship and/or language.


title: Sámi

text: Still, due to the cultural assimilation of the Sámi people that had occurred in the four countries over the centuries, population estimates are difficult to measure precisely. The population has been estimated to be between 80,000 and 135,000 across the whole Nordic region, including urban areas such as Oslo, Norway, traditionally considered outside Sápmi. The Norwegian state recognizes any Norwegian as Sámi if he or she has one great-grandparent whose home language was Sámi, but there is not, and has never been, any registration of the home language spoken by Norwegian people.


title: Sámi

text: Roughly half of all Sámi live in Norway, but many live in Sweden, with smaller groups living in the far north of Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sámi in Russia were forced by the Soviet authorities to relocate to a collective called Lovozero/Lujávri, in the central part of the Kola Peninsula.


title: Sámi

text: There is no single Sámi language, but a group of ten distinct Sámi languages. Six of these languages have their own written standards. The Sámi languages are relatively closely related, but not mutually intelligible; for instance, speakers of Southern Sámi cannot understand Northern Sámi. Especially earlier, these distinct languages were referred to as "dialects", but today, this is considered misleading due to the deep differences between the varieties. Most Sámi languages are spoken in several countries, because linguistic borders do not correspond to national borders.


title: Sámi

text: All Sámi languages are at some degree of endangerment, ranging from what UNESCO defines as "definitely endangered" to "extinct". This is due in part to historic laws prohibiting the use of Sámi languages in schools and at home in Sweden and Norway. Sámi languages, and Sámi song-chants, called joiks, were illegal in Norway from 1773 until 1958. Then, access to Sámi instruction as part of schooling was not available until 1988. Special residential schools that would assimilate the Sámi into the dominant culture were established. These were originally run by missionaries, but later, controlled by the government. For example, in Russia, Sámi children were taken away when aged 1–2 and returned when aged 15–17 with no knowledge of their language and traditional communities. Not all Sámi viewed the schools negatively, and not all of the schools were brutal. However, being taken from home and prohibited from speaking Sámi has resulted in cultural alienation, loss of language, and lowered self-esteem.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi languages belong to the Uralic language family, linguistically related to Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian. Due to prolonged contact and import of items foreign to Sámi culture from neighboring Scandinavians, there are a number of Germanic loanwords in Sámi, particularly for "urban" objects. The majority of the Sámi now speak the majority languages of the countries they live in, i.e., Swedish, Russian, Finnish and Norwegian. Efforts are being made to further the use of Sámi languages among Sámi and persons of Sámi origin. Despite these changes, the legacy of cultural repression still exists. Many older Sámi still refuse to speak Sámi. In addition, Sámi parents still feel alienated from schools and hence do not participate as much as they could in shaping school curricula and policy.


title: Sámi

text: In Norway, the name of the language is "samisk", and the name of the people is "Same"; in Finland, the name of the language is spelled "saame" and the name of the people "saamelainen".


title: Sámi

text: American scientist Michael E. Krauss published in 1997 an estimate of Sámi population and their languages.


title: Sámi

text: Many Sámi do not speak any of the Sámi languages any more due to historical assimilation policies, so the number of Sámi living in each area is much higher.


title: Sámi

text: It should also be noted that many Sámi now live outside Sápmi, in large cities such as Oslo in Norway.


title: Sámi

text: A division often used in Northern Sámi is based on occupation and the area of living. This division is also used in many historical texts:


title: Sámi

text: According to the Norwegian Sámi Parliament, the Sámi population of Norway is 40,000. If all people who speak Sámi or have a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who speaks or spoke Sámi are included, the number reaches 70,000. As of 2021, 20,545 people were registered to vote in the election for the Sámi Parliament in Norway. The bulk of the Sámi live in Finnmark and Northern Troms, but there are also Sámi populations in Southern Troms, Nordland and Trøndelag. Due to recent migration, it has also been claimed that Oslo is the municipality with the largest Sámi population. The Sámi are in a majority only in the municipalities of Guovdageaidnu–Kautokeino, Kárášjohka–Karasjok, Porsáŋgu–Porsanger, Deatnu–Tana and Unjárga–Nesseby in Finnmark, and Gáivuotna–Kåfjord in Northern Troms. This area is also known as the Sámi core area, and Sámi and Norwegian are co-equal administrative languages here.


title: Sámi

text: According to the Swedish Sámi Parliament, estimates of the size of the Sámi population of Sweden ranges from 20,000 to 40,000. As of 2021, 9,226 people were registered to vote in elections to the Swedish Sámi Parliament.


title: Sámi

text: According to the Finnish Population Registry Center and the Finnish Sámi Parliament, the Sámi population living in Finland was 10,753 in 2019. As of 31 December 2021, only 2,023 people were registered as speaking a Sámi language as their mother tongue.


title: Sámi

text: There are an estimated 30,000 people living in North America who are either Sámi, or descendants of Sámi. Most have settled in areas that are known to have Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish immigrants. Some of these concentrated areas are Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Illinois, California, Washington, Utah and Alaska; and throughout Canada, including Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northern Ontario, and the Canadian territories of the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.


title: Sámi

text: Descendants of these Sámi immigrants typically know little of their heritage because their ancestors purposely hid their indigenous culture to avoid discrimination from the dominating Scandinavian or Nordic culture. Some of these Sámi are part of a diaspora that moved to North America in order to escape assimilation policies in their home countries. There were also several Sámi families that were brought to North America with herds of reindeer by the U.S. and Canadian governments as part of the "Reindeer Project" designed to teach the Inuit about reindeer herding. There is a long history of Sámi in Alaska.


title: Sámi

text: Some of these Sámi immigrants and descendants of immigrants are members of the Sami Siida of North America.


title: Sámi

text: Sápmi demonstrates a distinct semi-national identity that transcends the borders between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. There is no movement for sovereign state, but they do seek greater autonomy in respective nation states.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi Parliaments ("Sámediggi" in Northern Sámi, "Sämitigge" in Inari Sámi, "Sää'mte'ǧǧ" in Skolt Sámi) founded in Finland (1973), Norway (1989) and Sweden (1993) are the representative bodies for peoples of Sámi heritage. Russia has not recognized the Sámi as a minority and, as a result, recognizes no Sámi parliament, even if the Sámi people there have formed an unrecognised Sámi Parliament of Russia. There is no single, unified Sámi parliament that spans across the Nordic countries. Rather, each of the aforementioned three countries has set up its own separate legislatures for Sámi people, even though the three Sámi Parliaments often work together on cross-border issues. In all three countries, they act as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indigenous Sámi people. The parliaments have very weak political influence, far from autonomy. They are formally public authorities, ruled by the Scandinavian governments, but have democratically elected parliamentarians, whose mission is to work for the Sámi people and culture. Candidates' election promises often get into conflict with the institutions' submission under their governments, but as authorities, they have some influence over the government.


title: Sámi

text: The main organisations for Sámi representation in Norway are the "siidas". They cover northern and central Norway.


title: Sámi

text: The main organisations for Sámi representation in Sweden are the "siidas". They cover northern and central Sweden.


title: Sámi

text: In contrast to Norway and Sweden, in Finland, a "siida" ("paliskunta" in Finnish) is a reindeer-herding corporation that is not restricted by ethnicity. There are indeed some ethnic Finns who practice reindeer herding, and in principle, all residents of the reindeer herding area (most of Finnish Lapland and parts of Oulu province) who are citizens of EEA countries, i.e., the European Union and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, are allowed to join a "paliskunta".


title: Sámi

text: In 2010, the Sámi Council supported the establishment of a cultural center in Russia for Arctic peoples. The Center for Northern Peoples aims to promote artistic and cultural cooperation between the Arctic peoples of Russia and the Nordic countries, with particular focus on indigenous peoples and minorities.


title: Sámi

text: Sápmi, the Sámi traditional lands, cross four national borders. Traditional summer and winter pastures sometimes lie on different sides of the borders of the nation-states. In addition to that, there is a border drawn for modern-day Sápmi. Some state that the rights (for reindeer herding and, in some parts, even for fishing and hunting) include not only modern Sápmi but areas that are beyond today's Sápmi that reflect older territories. Today's "borders" originate from the 14th to 16th centuries when land-owning conflicts occurred. The establishment of more stable dwelling places and larger towns originates from the 16th century and was performed for strategic defence and economic reasons, both by peoples from Sámi groups themselves and more southern immigrants.


title: Sámi

text: Owning land within the borders or being a member of a "siida" (Sámi corporation) gives rights. A different law enacted in Sweden in the mid-1990s gave the right to anyone to fish and hunt in the region, something that was met with skepticism and anger amongst the "siidas".


title: Sámi

text: Court proceedings have been common throughout history, and the aim from the Sámi viewpoint is to reclaim territories used earlier in history. Due to a major defeat in 1996, one "siida" has introduced a sponsorship "Reindeer Godfather" concept to raise funds for further battles in courts. These "internal conflicts" are usually conflicts between non-Sámi land owners and reindeer owners. Cases question the Sámi ancient rights to reindeer pastures. In 2010, Sweden was criticized for its relations with the Sámi in the Universal Periodic Review conducted by the Working Group of the Human Rights Council.


title: Sámi

text: The question whether the fjeld's territory is owned by the governments (crown land) or by the Sámi population is not answered.


title: Sámi

text: From an indigenous perspective, people "belong to the land", the land does not belong to people, but this does not mean that hunters, herders, and fishing people do not know where the borders of their territories are located as well as those of their neighbors.


title: Sámi

text: Although the Sámi have considered themselves to be one people throughout history, the idea of Sápmi, a Sámi nation, first gained acceptance among the Sámi in the 1970s, and even later among the majority population. During the 1980s and 1990s, a Sámi flag was created, a Sámi anthem was written, and the date of a national day was established.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi flag was inaugurated during the Sámi Conference in Åre, Sweden, on 15 August 1986. It was the result of a competition for which many suggestions were entered. The winning design was submitted by the artist Astrid Båhl from Skibotn, Norway.


title: Sámi

text: The motif (shown right) was derived from the shaman's drum and the poem "Päiven Pārne ("Sons of the Sun") by the South Sámi Anders Fjellner describing the Sámi as sons and daughters of the sun. The flag has the Sámi colours, red, green, yellow and blue, and the circle represents the sun (red) and the moon (blue).


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi National Day falls on 6 February as this date was when the first Sámi congress was held in 1917 in Trondheim, Norway. This congress was the first time that Norwegian and Swedish Sámi came together across their national borders to work together to find solutions for common problems. The resolution for celebrating on 6 February was passed in 1992 at the 15th Sámi congress in Helsinki. Since 1993, Norway, Sweden and Finland have recognized 6 February as Sámi National Day.


title: Sámi

text: "" ("Song of the Sámi People", ) was originally a poem written by Isak Saba that was published in the newspaper "Saǥai Muittalægje" for the first time on 1 April 1906. In August 1986, it became the Sámi anthem. Arne Sørli set the poem to music, which was then approved at the 15th Sámi Conference in Helsinki in 1992. "" has been translated into all of the Sámi languages.


title: Sámi

text: Many Sámi people continued to practice their religion up until the 18th century. Most Sámi today belong to the state-run Lutheran churches of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Some Sámi in Russia belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, and similarly, some Skolt Sámi resettled in Finland are also part of an Eastern Orthodox congregation, with an additional small population in Norway.


title: Sámi

text: Indigenous Sámi religion is a type of polytheism. (See Sámi deities.) There is some diversity due to the wide area that is Sápmi, allowing for the evolution of variations in beliefs and practices between tribes. The beliefs are closely connected to the land, animism, and the supernatural. Sámi spirituality is often characterized by pantheism, a strong emphasis on the importance of personal spirituality and its interconnectivity with one's own daily life, and a deep connection between the natural and spiritual "worlds". Among other roles, the Noaidi, or Sámi shaman, enables ritual communication with the supernatural through the use of tools such as drums, Joik, Fadno, chants, sacred objects, and fly agaric. Some practices within the Sámi religion include natural sacred sites such as mountains, springs, land formations, Sieidi, as well as man-made ones such as petroglyphs and labyrinths.


title: Sámi

text: Sámi cosmology divides the universe into three worlds. The upper world is related to the South, warmth, life, and the color white. It is also the dwelling of the gods. The middle world is like the Norse Midgard, it is the dwelling of humans and it is associated with the color red. The third world is the underworld and it is associated with the color black, it represents the north, the cold and it is inhabited by otters, loons, and seals and mythical animals.


title: Sámi

text: Sámi religion shares some elements with Norse mythology, possibly from early contacts with trading Vikings (or vice versa). They were the last worshippers of Thor, as late as the 18th century according to contemporary ethnographers. Through a mainly French initiative from Joseph Paul Gaimard as part of his La Recherche Expedition, Lars Levi Læstadius began research on Sámi mythology. His work resulted in "Fragments of Lappish Mythology", since by his own admission, they contained only a small percentage of what had existed. The fragments were termed "Theory of Gods", "Theory of Sacrifice", "Theory of Prophecy, or short reports about rumorous Sami magic" and "Sami sagas". Generally, he claims to have filtered out the Norse influence and derived common elements between the South, North, and Eastern Sámi groups. The mythology has common elements with other indigenous religions as well—such as those of indigenous peoples in Siberia and North America.


title: Sámi

text: The term "Sámi religion" usually refers to the traditional religion, practiced by most Sámi until approximately the 18th century. Christianity was introduced by Roman Catholic missionaries as early as the 13th century. Increased pressure came after the Protestant Reformation, and rune drums were burned or sent to museums abroad. In this period, many Sámi practiced their traditional religion at home, while going to church on Sunday. Since the Sámi were considered to possess "witchcraft" powers, they were often accused of sorcery during the 17th century and were the subjects of witchcraft trials and burnings.


title: Sámi

text: In Norway, a major effort to convert the Sámi was made around 1720, when Thomas von Westen, the "Apostle of the Sámi", burned drums, burned sacred objects, and converted people. Out of the estimated thousands of drums before this period, only about 70 are known to remain today, scattered in museums around Europe. Sacred sites were destroyed, such as sieidi (stones in natural or human-built formations), álda and sáivu (sacred hills), springs, caves and other natural formations where offerings were made.


title: Sámi

text: In the far east of the Sámi area, the Russian monk Trifon converted the Sámi in the 16th century. Today, St. George's chapel in Neiden, Norway (1565), testifies to this effort.


title: Sámi

text: Around 1840 Swedish Sámi Lutheran pastor and administrator Lars Levi Laestadius initiated among the Sámi a puritanical pietist movement emphasizing complete abstinence from alcohol. This movement is still very dominant in Sámi-speaking areas. Laestadius spoke many languages, and he became fluent and preached in Finnish and Northern Sámi in addition to his native Southern Sámi and Swedish, the language he used for scholarly publications.


title: Sámi

text: Two great challenges Laestadius had faced since his early days as a church minister were the indifference of his Sámi parishioners, who had been forced by the Swedish government to convert from their shamanistic religion to Lutheranism, and the misery caused them by alcoholism. The spiritual understanding Laestadius acquired and shared in his new sermons "filled with vivid metaphors from the lives of the Sámi that they could understand, ... about a God who cared about the lives of the people" had a profound positive effect on both problems. One account from a Sámi cultural perspective recalls a new desire among the Sámi to learn to read and a "bustle and energy in the church, with people confessing their sins, crying and praying for forgiveness ... [Alcohol abuse] and the theft of [the Sámis'] reindeer diminished, which had a positive influence on the Sámi's relationships, finances and family life."


title: Sámi

text: Today there are a number of Sámi who seek to return to the traditional Pagan values of their ancestors. There are also some Sámi who claim to be "noaidi" and offer their services through newspaper advertisements, in New Age arrangements, or for tourist groups. While they practice a religion based on that of their ancestors, widespread anti-pagan prejudice has caused these shamans to be generally not viewed as part of an unbroken Sámi religious tradition. Traditional Sámi beliefs are composed of three intertwining elements: animism, shamanism, and polytheism. Sámi animism is manifested in the Sámi's belief that all significant natural objects (such as animals, plants, rocks, etc.) possess a soul; and from a polytheistic perspective, traditional Sámi beliefs include a multitude of spirits. Many contemporary practitioners are compared to practitioners of neo-paganism, as a number of neopagan religions likewise combine elements of ancient pagan religions with more recent revisions or innovations, but others feel they are attempting to revive or reconstruct indigenous Sámi religions as found in historic, folkloric sources and oral traditions.


title: Sámi

text: A very different religious idea is represented by the numerous "wise men" and "wise women" found throughout the Sámi area. They often offer to heal the sick through rituals and traditional medicines and may also combine traditional elements, such as older Sámi teachings, with newer monotheistic inventions that Christian missionaries taught their ancestors, such as readings from the Bible.


title: Sámi

text: Anthropologists have been studying the Sámi people for hundreds of years for their assumed physical and cultural differences from the rest of the Europeans. Recent genetic studies have indicated that the two most frequent maternal lineages of the Sámi people are the haplogroups V (Neolithic in Europe and not found in Finland 1500 years ago) and U5b (ancient in Europe). Y-chromosome haplogroup N-VL29 makes up 20%, came from Siberia 3500 years ago. Y-chromosome N-Z1936 makes up similarly about 20%, and likely came from Siberia with the Sámi language, but slightly later than N-VL29. This tallies with archeological evidence suggesting that several different cultural groups made their way to the core area of Sámi from 8000 to 6000 BC, presumably including some of the ancestors of present-day Sámi.


title: Sámi

text: The Sámi have been found to be genetically unrelated to people of the Pitted Ware culture. The Pitted Ware culture are in turn genetically continuous with the original Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers.


title: Sámi

text: The genetic makeup of Sámi people has been extensively studied for as long as such research has been in existence. Ethnographic photography of the Sámi began with the invention of the camera in the 19th century. This continued on into the 1920s and 1930s, when Sámi were photographed naked and anatomically measured by scientists, with the help of the local police—sometimes at gunpoint—to collect data that would justify their own racial theories. Thus, there is a degree of distrust by some in the Sámi community towards genetic research.


title: Sámi

text: Examples of discriminatory actions include the Statens Institut for Rasbiologi compulsory sterilization project on the basis of race, which continued until 1975, and Sámi graves being plundered to provide research materials, of which their remains and artifacts from this period from across Sápmi can still be found in various state collections. In the late 19th century, colonial fascination with Arctic peoples led to human beings exhibited in human zoos. Sámi people were exhibited with their traditional lavvu tents, weapons, and sleds, beside a group of reindeer at Tierpark Hagenbeck and other zoos across the globe.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The "Fletcher" class was a class of destroyers built by the United States during World War II. The class was designed in 1939, as a result of dissatisfaction with the earlier destroyer leader types of the and classes. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The United States Navy commissioned 175 "Fletcher"-class destroyers between 1942 and 1944, more than any other destroyer class, and the design was generally regarded as highly successful. The "Fletcher"s had a design speed of and a principal armament of five guns in single mounts with ten torpedo tubes in two quintuple centerline mounts. The and classes were "Fletcher" derivatives.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The long-range "Fletcher"-class ships performed every task asked of a destroyer, from anti-submarine warfare and anti-aircraft warfare to surface action. They could cover the vast distances required by fleet actions in the Pacific and served almost exclusively in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, during which they accounted for 29 Imperial Japanese Navy submarines sunk. In a massive effort, the "Fletcher"s were built by shipyards across the United States, and, after World War II ended, 11 were sold to countries that they had been built to fight against: Italy, Germany, and Japan, as well as other countries, where they had even longer, distinguished careers. Three have been preserved as museum ships in the U.S. and one in Greece.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The "Fletcher" class (named for Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, Medal of Honor recipient) was the largest destroyer class ordered. It was also one of the most successful and popular with their crews. Compared to earlier classes built for the United States Navy, the "Fletcher"s carried a significant increase in lethal firepower, including anti-aircraft (AA) weapons and increased armor plating; this contributed to greater displacement and overall weight and height increase. Their flush deck construction added structural strength; however, it did make them cramped, as less crew space was available below decks compared with a raised forecastle.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The "Fletcher" class was the first generation of destroyers designed after the series of naval treaties that had limited ship designs heretofore. The growth in the design was in part a response to the challenge that had dogged U.S. Navy designs in coping with long range operations in the Pacific Ocean. They were also to carry no fewer than five guns and ten deck-mounted torpedo tubes on the centerline, allowing them to meet any foreign design on equal terms. Compared to earlier designs, the "Fletcher"s were large, allowing them to adapt to evolving defensive priorities through the addition of two Bofors quadruple mount AA guns as well as six Oerlikon dual AA gun positions. This addition to the AA suite required the deletion of the forward quintuple torpedo mount, a change done under the 4 April 1945 anti-"kamikaze" program.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: "Fletcher"s were also much less top-heavy than previous classes, allowing them to take on additional equipment and weapons without major redesign. They were fortunate in catching American production at the right moment, becoming "the" destroyer design, with only the "Fletcher"-class derivatives, the and classes, following it.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: The first design inputs were in the fall of 1939 from questionnaires distributed around design bureaus and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. The design parameters were the armaments desired of the next destroyer. As such, the questions were of how many guns, torpedoes, and depth charges were seen as desirable. Also asked was at what point would the design grow large enough to become a torpedo target instead of a torpedo delivery system. The answer that came back was that five dual-purpose guns, twelve torpedoes, and twenty-eight depth charges would be ideal, while a return to the 1,500-ton designs of the past was seen as undesirable. Speed requirements varied from , and shortcomings in the earlier , which were top-heavy and needed lead ballast to correct this fault, caused the "Fletcher" design to be widened by of beam. As with other previous U.S. flush deck destroyer designs, seagoing performance suffered. This was mitigated by deployment to the Pacific Ocean, which is relatively calm compared to the Atlantic.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: To achieve 38 knots with a 500-ton increase in displacement, power was increased from to compared to the previous and classes. The "Fletcher"s featured air-encased boilers producing steam at and , with two 350 kW steam turbine driven electrical generators and a 100 kW emergency diesel generator. Typically, Babcock & Wilcox boilers and General Electric geared steam turbines were equipped, although other designs and manufacturers were probably used to maximize the rate of production.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Main gun armament was five dual-purpose 5-inch/38 caliber (127 mm) guns in single Mk 30 turrets, guided by a Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System, including a Mk 12 fire control radar and a Mk 22 height-finder (replaced by the circular Mk 25 radar postwar) linked by a Mark 1A Fire Control Computer and stabilized by a Mk 6 8500 rpm gyroscope.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Ten torpedo tubes were fitted in two quintuple mounts amidships, firing the 21-inch Mark 15 torpedo. Anti-submarine armament was two racks for depth charges at the stern and six K-gun 300-pound depth charge throwers amidships.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Anti-aircraft armament initially was light, with a quadruple 1.1"/75 caliber gun located in an elevated tub between the number three and four 5-inch gun mounts and six Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (two in front of and below the bridge and four amidships). In June 1942, the 1.1" gun was replaced by a twin Bofors 40 mm gun mount; in some ships, another twin mount may have been added on the fantail between the depth charge racks. In February 1943, the fantail-mounted Bofors was removed and one twin mount was placed on each side of the aft funnel, bringing the total number of 40 mm to six.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: In 1942 and 1943, the number of Oerlikon cannons was steadily increased with ships modified before leaving the shipyard with a seventh 20 mm mount in front of the bridge behind the number two 5" gun mount and anywhere from one to three mounts on the flying bridge depending upon the configuration of the ship. In combat, commanders often requisitioned additional guns with some ships mounting up to thirteen 20 mm cannons. In June and July 1943, two more twin Bofors mounts were added in place of the 20 mm cannons in front of and below the bridge, giving a total of ten. With this modification, the Oerlikon cannons were rearranged and their number was standardized at seven; four amidships and three in a heart-shaped mount on the fantail.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Due to the increasing threat from "kamikaze" attacks, beginning in July 1945 some ships returning to the United States for refits received further anti-aircraft modifications, replacing the forward set of torpedo tubes with gun platforms housing two quadruple 40 mm guns (for a total of eighteen). The seven single 20 mm guns were replaced with six twin mounts (four amidships and two on the fantail.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Three (, and ) were built with aircraft catapults after deletion of the rear torpedo tube mount and the number 3 5-inch gun mount. This alteration was not a success and was not repeated. These three destroyers were later converted to the regular "Fletcher"-class configuration.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Nineteen "Fletcher"s were lost during World War II; six more were damaged, evaluated as constructive total losses, and not repaired. Postwar, the remainder were decommissioned and put into reserve.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: With the outbreak of the Korean War many were returned to active duty. During this time 39 were refitted under project SCB 74A, reducing their overall main armament and the number of torpedo tubes to accommodate other weapons. A new ahead-throwing weapon called Weapon Alpha was installed in many of the ships. Others carried trainable Hedgehogs. Eighteen ships were redesignated as escort destroyers (DDE), optimized for anti-submarine warfare; these reverted to destroyer (DD) designation in 1962.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Any remaining were broken up in the 1970s. The last "Fletcher" in service, BAM "Cuitlahuac" (ex-"John Rodgers"), left the Mexican navy in 2001, meaning the total service life of the "Fletcher"s stretched over almost six decades and into the 21st century.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: Four "Fletcher"-class destroyers are preserved as museum ships. Three are in the United States and one is in Greece, although only "Kidd" retains her World War II configuration.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: "Velos" is the only vessel still in commission. "Velos" alongside "G. Averof" are ceremonially commissioned by the Hellenic Navy having Palaio Faliro as their base. Their crew are active Officers of Hellenic Navy. "Velos" still retains its complete armament and equipment(as modernized in 1950s). In September 2019 its crew took her to Thessaloniki for a short 3-month stay. , she remains in Thessaloniki and she has been visited by over 157.000 visitors.


title: Fletcher-class destroyer

text: In 2018, "Kidd" was used as the filming location for the fictional USS "Keeling" (codenamed "Greyhound"), from C.S. Forester's novel "The Good Shepherd", in its appearance in the book's 2020 cinematic adaptation, "Greyhound".


title: Euro banknotes

text: Banknotes of the euro, the common currency of the Eurozone (euro area members), have been in circulation since the first series (also called "ES1") was issued in 2002. They are issued by the national central banks of the Eurosystem or the European Central Bank. The euro was established in 1999, but "for the first three years it was an invisible currency, used for accounting purposes only, e.g. in electronic payments". In 2002, notes and coins began to circulate. The euro rapidly took over from the former national currencies and slowly expanded around the European Union.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Denominations of the notes range from €5 to €500 and, unlike euro coins, the design is identical across the whole of the Eurozone, although they are issued and printed in various member states. The euro banknotes are pure cotton fibre, which improves their durability as well as giving the banknotes a distinctive feel. They measure from to and have a variety of color schemes. The euro notes contain many complex security features such as watermarks, invisible ink characteristics, holograms, optically variable inks and microprinting that document their authenticity. While euro coins have a national side indicating the country of issue (although not necessarily of minting), euro notes lack this. Instead, this information is shown by the first character of each note's serial number.


title: Euro banknotes

text: According to European Central Bank estimates, in November 2021, there were about 27.640 billion banknotes in circulation around the Eurozone, with a total value of about €1.519 trillion. On 8 November 2012, the European Central Bank announced that the first series of notes would be replaced by the Europa series (also called "ES2"), starting with the 5 euro note on 2 May 2013. This series does not have a €500 note, the ECB having decided to cease its production 'permanently' to frustrate criminality.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Estimates suggest that the average life of a euro banknote is about three years before it is replaced due to wear, but with wide variation by denomination level, from less than a year for €5 banknotes to over 30 years for €500 banknotes, on average. High denomination banknotes (€100, €200, €500) typically last longer as they are less frequently used. The Europa series of the lower denominations €5 and €10 is designed to last longer than the previous one due to additional coating.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The euro came into existence on 1 January 1999. The euro's creation had been a goal of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since the 1960s. The Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating economic and monetary union by 1999 for all EU states except the UK and Denmark (though Denmark has a policy of a fixed exchange rate with the euro).


title: Euro banknotes

text: In 1999, the currency was born virtually, and in 2002 notes and coins began to circulate. It rapidly took over from the former national currencies and slowly expanded around the rest of the EU. In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty formalised the Euro's political authority, the Euro Group, alongside the European Central Bank.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Slovenia joined the Eurozone in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania in 2015.


title: Euro banknotes

text: There are seven different denominations of euro banknotes: €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200, and €500. Each has a distinctive colour and size, and displays examples of a historical European architectural style: windows or gateways on the obverse, and bridges on the reverse. The architectural examples featured are stylised illustrations of the corresponding style, rather than representations of existing structures.


title: Euro banknotes

text: All the notes of the initial series of euro notes bear the European flag, a map of the continent on the reverse, the name "euro" in both Latin and Greek script (EURO / ΕΥΡΩ) and the signature of a president of the ECB, depending on when the banknote was printed. The 12 stars from the flag are also incorporated into every note.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The notes also carry the acronyms of the name of the European Central Bank in five linguistic variants, covering all official languages of the EU in 2002 (the time of the banknote introduction), and now 19 out of 24 official languages of the EU27, in the following order:


title: Euro banknotes

text: The order is determined by the EU country listing order, with BCE ahead of ECB because of the national precedence of Belgium's two main languages, followed by the remaining languages of Germany (), Greece (, ) and Finland (), in that order.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The initial designs for the banknotes were chosen from 44 proposals in a design competition, launched by the Council of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) on 12 February 1996. The winning entry, created by Robert Kalina from the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, was selected on 3 December 1996.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The euro banknotes were made of pure cotton fibre, which improves their durability as well as giving the banknotes a distinctive feel.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In the first and Europa series, the Azores, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Madeira, Martinique, Réunion, and the Canary Islands, overseas territories of the eurozone member states, which also use the euro, were shown under the map in separate boxes. Cyprus and Malta were not shown on the first series because they were not in the EU in 2002, when the banknotes were issued, even though they joined the Eurozone in 2008. The map did not stretch as far east as Cyprus, while Malta was too small to be depicted. Both Cyprus and Malta are however depicted on the Europa series note.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The following table depicts the design characteristics of the second series of euro banknotes (ES2), also known as the Europa series, after the holographic depiction of the mythological Europa common to these banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The Europa series banknotes, similarly to the first series, bear the European flag, a map of the continent on the reverse and the signature of Mario Draghi, since 1 November 2011 president of the ECB. The 12 stars from the flag are also incorporated into the notes. On 4 May 2016 the European Central Bank decided not to issue a 500 euro banknote for the Europa series.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The series also bears the name of the currency in capital letters, but in three scripts: Latin (EURO), Greek (), and Cyrillic ().


title: Euro banknotes

text: The 2nd series €100 and €200 notes are a different size to the €100 and €200 notes from the 1st series. Both denominations are now the same height (77 mm) as the €50 banknote, which makes them more comfortable to use. Their length remains unchanged.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The design for the 50, 100 and 200 euro notes features the acronyms of the name of the European Central Bank in ten linguistic variants, covering all official languages of the European Union, in the following order:


title: Euro banknotes

text: The 5 euro, 10 euro and 20 euro notes do not feature ESB, as Croatian became an official language only in July 2013 with the accession of Croatia, after the introduction of the banknote design earlier that year. The order in which the acronyms are shown is determined by the same principles as for Series 1: the language of Bulgaria ("България/Bulgaria") precedes that of Germany ("Deutschland"); EKP now precedes ΕΚΤ due to the accession of Estonia ("Eesti"); and the languages of Croatia ("Hrvatska"), Hungary ("Magyarország"), Malta and Poland ("Polska") trail the list.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The notes of the Europa series do not show the same year. The year shown is the year the note is issued.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Reinhold Gerstetter, an independent banknote designer (and one of participants of the 1996 design contest), was chosen by the European Central Bank to redesign the euro notes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In December 2021, the ECB announced plans to redesign euro banknotes by 2024. A theme advisory group, made up of one member from each euro area country, was selected to submit theme proposals to the ECB. The proposals will be voted on by the public; a design competition will also be held.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Due to the great number of historic bridges, arches, and gateways throughout the European continent, all the structures represented on the notes are entirely stylised illustrations of the relevant architectural styles, designed to evoke the landmarks within the European Union, representing various European ages and styles. For example, the 5 euro note has a generic rendition of Classical architecture, the 10 euro note of Romanesque architecture, the 20 euro note of Gothic architecture, the 50 euro note of the Renaissance, the 100 euro note of Baroque and Rococo, the 200 euro note of Art Nouveau and the 500 euro note of modern architecture. The initial designs by Robert Kalina were of actual bridges, including the Rialto Bridge in Venice and the Pont de Neuilly in Paris, and were subsequently rendered more generic. In 2011, Dutch artist Robin Stam and the town of Spijkenisse in the Netherlands built seven bridges of colored concrete after the designs on the seven euro banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In the first series, notes printed between November 2003 and March 2012 show the signature of Jean-Claude Trichet, the second President of the ECB, replacing that of the first president, Wim Duisenberg, who was the ECB president when the first euro banknotes and coins were issued, until 2003. Banknotes printed after March 2012 bear the signature of the third ECB President Mario Draghi.


title: Euro banknotes

text: From 2020, Christine Lagarde's signature will gradually begin to appear on banknotes entering circulation, becoming the fourth signature to appear on Euro banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The European Central Bank has described some of the basic security features of the euro notes that allow the general public to recognise the authenticity of their currency at a glance:


title: Euro banknotes

text: However, in the interest of advanced security of the euro notes, the full list of these features is a closely guarded secret of the European Central Bank and the National Central Banks of the Eurosystem.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Still, between the official descriptions and independent discoveries made by observant users, it is thought that the euro notes have at least eleven different security features, which are:


title: Euro banknotes

text: The European Central Bank intends to redesign the notes every seven or eight years. A new series, called the "Europa series", was released from 2013; the first notes entered circulation on 2 May 2013. The new series includes slight changes, notably the inclusion of the face of the mythological princess Europa in the watermark and in the hologram stripe.


title: Euro banknotes

text: New production and anti-counterfeiting techniques are employed on the new notes, but the design shares the colours of the first series and the theme of bridges and arches. The new notes are nonetheless recognisable as a new series.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The new notes also reflect the expansion of the European Union: every member of the EU is depicted on it. The initial series did not include the recent members Cyprus and Malta (Cyprus was off the map to the east and Malta was too small to be depicted.)


title: Euro banknotes

text: The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet features on the Europa series banknotes, as a result of Bulgaria joining the Eurporean Union in 2007. Thus this series includes "", which is the Bulgarian spelling for EURO, as well as the abbreviation "" (short for ' in Bulgarian), while set to join the Eurozone and abandon Bulgarian lev in 2024. The new banknotes also feature the Maltese abbreviation BĊE ('), the Hungarian abbreviation EKB (') and the Polish abbreviation EBC ('). The modified 5 euro note features the initials of the European Central Bank in each of the contemporary EU member languages in a column on the left-hand side of the obverse. The word "euro" in Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic lettering has also been moved to a more central position.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The full design of the Europa series 5 euro banknote was revealed on 10 January 2013. The new note entered circulation on 2 May 2013. The full design of the Europa series 10 euro note was revealed on 13 January 2014 and it entered circulation on 23 September 2014. The full design of the Europa series 20 euro banknote was revealed on 24 February 2015,


title: Euro banknotes

text: On 4 May 2016, the European Central Bank announced that a Europa series 500 euro banknote would not be released, due to fears of facilitating criminal activity. "The ECB has decided to stop producing the €500 banknote, although the first series €500 remains legal tender."


title: Euro banknotes

text: The old series will gradually be withdrawn. The ECB will announce "well in advance" when the old notes will lose their legal tender status. However, they will not lose their value and it will be possible to exchange them for new notes at Eurosystem central banks indefinitely.


title: Euro banknotes

text: "A good design for the blind and partially sighted is a good design for everybody" was the principle behind the cooperation of the European Central Bank and the European Blind Union during the design phase of the first series banknotes in the 1990s. As a result, the design of the first euro banknotes include several characteristics which aid both the blind and partially sighted to confidently use the notes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: As in the design process of the first series of euro notes, visually impaired users were consulted during the design phase of the Europa series, and their requirements were included in the final designs.


title: Euro banknotes

text: On December 6, 2021 the European Central Bank announced its intention to redesign the banknotes. ECB President Christine Lagarde stated in a press release that it was time to "review the look of [the] banknotes and make them more relatable to the public".


title: Euro banknotes

text: A 19-member advisory board, with one member from each member state of the Eurozone, has been appointed and tasked with proposing a shortlist of themes for the new banknotes. After consultations with the public, a theme for the new notes will be chosen. A design competition for the new banknotes will follow, after which the ECB will again consult the public.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The final decision of the redesign is expected to be taken in 2024. Plans for the timing of introduction, and possible phaseout of older banknotes have not been announced.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The European Central Bank closely monitors the circulation and stock of the euro coins and banknotes. It is a task of the Eurosystem to ensure an efficient and smooth supply of euro notes and to maintain their integrity throughout the Eurozone.


title: Euro banknotes

text: As of November 2021, there were about 27,640 million banknotes in circulation around the Eurozone, totalling about €1.519 trillion worth of banknotes. As of November 2021, there were:


title: Euro banknotes

text: The European Central Bank publishes information on the amount of counterfeit banknotes removed from circulation every 6 months. In 2009 the ECB reported the highest amount of counterfeits with 860,000 removed items, a rate of 64 per million banknotes in circulation. According to an investigation of the University of Lausanne, the ratio of counterfeited banknotes was about 10 in one million of real banknotes for the Swiss franc, of 100 in one million for United States dollar and of 300 in one million for pound sterling.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In 2011, 606,000 euro counterfeits were removed from circulation (41 per million). In 2012, it was lower at 531,000 euro counterfeits (34 per million). In 2014, the ECB removed 838,000 counterfeit euro banknotes from circulation (48 items per million). Since then these values continuously decreased, mainly due to the improved security features of the Europa series. In 2021, 347,000 euro counterfeits were seized, equivalent to a rate of 12 counterfeits per million banknotes in circulation. The majority of counterfeit items were €50 (33.8%) and €20 (32.1%) banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Legally, both the European Central Bank and the national central banks (NCBs) of the Eurozone countries have the right to issue the 7 different euro banknotes. In practice, only the NCBs of the zone physically issue and withdraw euro notes. The European Central Bank does not have a cash office and is not involved in any cash operations. However, the European Central Bank is responsible for overseeing the activities of national central banks in order to harmonise cash services in the Eurozone.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The ECB has the exclusive right to authorise the issue of notes within the Eurozone, but most notes are actually issued by the National Central Banks (NCBs) of the Eurozone. As of 2004, 8% of banknotes issues were allocated to the European Central Bank and 92% were allocated to Eurozone NCBs (in practice, the ECB issues no notes and the NCBs' issues may deviate from the statutory allocation). The issuing central bank can be seen from the serial number. Each NCB is now responsible for the production of certain denominations, as assigned by the ECB.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Since 2002, euro notes have been printed by the National Central Banks of the Eurozone, with each Central Bank being responsible for and bearing the cost of producing a proportion of the notes. The production of notes needs to be sufficient to meet expected and unexpected surges in demand and to replace unfit notes. Production volumes are forecast jointly by the National Central Banks and the European Central Bank, and it needs to be approved by the Governing Council of the ECB.


title: Euro banknotes

text: There is a six-character printing code on every banknote which states the printer of the banknote. These printing codes have an initial letter, followed by three digits, then by a single letter, and ending in a digit, for example, "R001A1".


title: Euro banknotes

text: The initial letter identifies the printing facility. (the facilities are described below) "R" for example would be Bundesdruckerei, a printer in Berlin, Germany. The three digits state sequential printing plates. "001", for example, would be the first printing plate created by the printer. The fifth character, a letter and sixth character, a number, represent the row and column, respectively, of the particular banknote on the particular plate. So "A" would be the first row and "1" would indicate the first column.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Banknotes are printed in sheets. Different printers use different sheet sizes and sheets of higher denominations, which are larger in size, would have fewer notes printed per sheet. For example, two German printers print €5 banknotes in sheets of 60 (10 rows, designated "A" to "J" and six columns), the sheets of €10 notes have 54 banknotes (nine rows, six columns), and €20 banknotes are printed in sheets of 45 banknotes (nine rows, five columns).


title: Euro banknotes

text: The printer code does not need to be the same as the country code, i.e. notes issued by a particular country may have been printed in another country. The printers used to print euro banknotes include commercial printers as well as national printers, some of which have been privatised, some previously produced national notes before the adoption of the euro. There is one former or current national printer in each of the countries which issue euro notes, with the exception of Germany, where the former East German and West German printers now produce euro notes. France also has two printers, F. C. Oberthur (a private printer) and the printing works of the Bank of France, and two more in the United Kingdom: Thomas De La Rue (another private printer) and the Bank of England printing house, although the latter does not produce euro banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Unlike euro coins, euro notes do not have a national side indicating which country issued them. The country that issued them is not necessarily where they were printed. The information about the issuing country is encoded within the first character of each note's serial number instead.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The first character of the serial number is a letter which uniquely identifies the country that issues the note. The remaining 11 characters are numbers which, when their digital root is calculated, give a checksum also particular to that country.


title: Euro banknotes

text: The W, K and J codes have been reserved for the three EU member states that did not adopt the euro in 1999, while the R prefix is reserved for Luxembourg, which, at present, does not issue euro banknotes. The first series of uncirculated notes from Luxembourg use the prefix belonging to the country where they were printed.


title: Euro banknotes

text: Although the Slovenian letter had been reserved since the eurozone enlargement in January 2007, the country initially used previously issued banknotes issued from other member states. The first banknotes bearing the "H" letter, produced in France specifically on behalf of Slovenia, were witnessed no sooner than April 2008. The 'Cypriot banknotes' (G) appeared in circulation in November 2009, whereas, those from Malta (F) appeared 3 months later (February 2010). Slovak notes (E) first appeared in October 2010.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In the new series, there are two codes, like in the first series. They are the printer code in the top right hand corner and the serial number. Part of the serial number is horizontal and part of it is vertical. The serial number begins with a letter indicating the printer, which is broadly similar to the first series (Z for Belgium, Y for Greece, etc.). The second letter of the new serial numbers is part of the serial number itself, and has no further significance.


title: Euro banknotes

text: However, as the code indicates the printer, rather than the issuing NCB, certain letters have been reassigned from NCBs which do not maintain their own printing facilities. In the first series, H denoted Slovenia. As there is no Slovene printer of euro banknotes, H represents De La Rue (Loughton) in the second series. Several of the printers which replaced what were NCB codes maintain their printing code from the first series (De La Rue, mentioned, and Bundesdruckerei, which replaced Luxembourg as R, its previous printing code).


title: Euro banknotes

text: The ECB has stated that "printing a €1 note is more expensive (and less durable) than minting a €1 coin". On 18 November 2004 the ECB decided that there was insufficient demand across the Eurozone for very-low-denomination banknotes. On 25 October 2005, however, a majority of MEPs supported a motion calling on the European Commission and the European Central Bank to recognise the need for the introduction of €1 and €2 banknotes.


title: Euro banknotes

text: In 2015, French entrepreneur Richard Faille developed the idea of souvenir Euro notes made to the same standards as the currency, but without value, to commemorate places or events. Such notes are not printed or sanctioned by the European Central Bank.


title: Beretta

text: Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. Sporting arms account for three-quarters of sales; Beretta is also known for marketing shooting clothes and accessories. Founded in the 16th century, Beretta is the oldest active manufacturer of firearm components in the world. In 1526 its inaugural product was arquebus barrels; by all accounts Beretta-made barrels equipped the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Beretta has supplied weapons for every major European war since 1650.


title: Beretta

text: Val Trompia, a northern Italian river valley in the Province of Brescia, Lombardy, has been mined for iron ore since the time of the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, Val Trompia was known for its ironworks; after the Renaissance it came to be a center for the manufacture of weapons. By the mid 16th century Val Trompia had forty ironworks, supplied by fifty mines and eight smelters. The birthplace of Beretta is in the village of Gardone located on the banks of the Mella river, in the middle of Val Trompia (i.e., between the upper valley and lower valley).


title: Beretta

text: The Beretta forge was in operation from about 1500, although the first documented transaction is a contract dated October 3, 1526 for 185 arquebus barrels, for which the Republic of Venice was to pay 296 ducats to "Maestro di Canne" (master gun-barrel maker) . The original account document for the order of those barrels is now stored in the in Venice. By the end of the 17th century, Beretta had become the second largest gun barrel maker in Gardone.


title: Beretta

text: Under the guild system, the knowledge of gun barrel fabrication that was bequeathed to Jacopo (1520/25 – …) from his father Bartolomeo (1490 – 1565/68) was then passed on to his own son Giovannino (1550 – post 1577), and to his grandson Giovan Antonio (1577 – post 1649) and so on until guilds were abolished by Napoleon after his conquest of Venetian Republic in 1797.


title: Beretta

text: Beretta has been owned by the same family for almost five hundred years and is a founding member of Les Henokiens, an association of bicentenary companies that are family owned and operated.


title: Beretta

text: In 1918, the Beretta Model 1918, one of the first submachine guns in the world, was fielded by the Italian army. Beretta manufactured rifles and pistols for the Italian military until the 1943 Armistice between Italy and the Allied forces during World War II. With the Wehrmacht's control of northern Italy, the Germans seized Beretta and continued producing arms until the 1945 German surrender in Italy. During that time, the quality of the exterior finish of the weapons diminished, with late-war examples being much inferior to both the pre-war and mid-war weapons, but their operation remained excellent. The last shipment of Type I Rifles left Venice for Japan in a U-boat in 1942.


title: Beretta

text: After World War II, Beretta was actively involved in repairing the American M1 Garands given to Italy by the U.S. Beretta modified the M1 into the Beretta BM-59 rifle, which is similar to the M14 battle rifle; armourers consider the BM-59 rifle to be superior to the M14 rifle in some ways, because it is more accurate under certain conditions.


title: Beretta

text: After the war, Beretta continued to develop firearms for the Italian Army and police, as well as the civilian market.


title: Beretta

text: In the 1980s, Beretta enjoyed a renewal of popularity in North America after its Beretta 92 pistol was selected as the service handgun for the United States Army under the designation of "M9 pistol".


title: Beretta

text: In the 1970s, Beretta also started a manufacturing plant in São Paulo, Brazil. A contract between Beretta and the Brazilian government was signed, under which Beretta produced Beretta 92s for the Brazilian Army until 1980. Later this plant was sold to Taurus, who continues to manufacture the Beretta 92 under the name of PT92 using the same tools and labour which Beretta used, without the need for a license from Beretta, since the design is based on the original Beretta 92, for which the patents are expired.