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Similar to the Lakota Indians, the Samis' use of decorated hides and skins for clothing and skin drums adds brilliant color to their all white winter landscape. Both men and women wore long, coatlike garments trimmed with bright colored cloth and intricate embroidery. Their deerskin boots, lined with fresh dry grass, replaced the need for socks. Babies were carried on their mothers backs, in cradleboards, while younger children rode on the reindeer. The adults, being too heavy for the reindeer, either walked or were transported in "pulkkas", canoe-like sleds with one runner, pulled by a reindeer and guided by a single rein that was attached to the base of its antlers. During the long winter months, travel was made easy. The frozen rivers were used as roads and doctors or nurses, riding in pulkkas, would make rounds to the Lapp villages. In the winter, when the sun sets in October and doesn't shine again until March, the Lapps remained stationary while their herd lived on reindeer moss and other lichens. They lived in tents, called "katas", made of skins with a wool tent cloth. Upon entering a kata, it was customary to shake the hand of each occupant, saying, "Pourist! Pourist!", which means, I greet you! I greet you!" The hostess would roast coffee beans in a kettle hanging over the fire, stirring them with a stick, and then fill another kettle with water to brew the coffee. Guests were always served coffee. Cups were always washed ceremoniously, before and after serving. On the floors were carpets of fresh twigs, 8-10 inches thick, making a springy, but slippery surface to walk on. Referred to as a "floor culture", they rarely had furniture of any kind. With no tables, chairs or elevated beds, most of the activity in the tent went on around the fire, but never in back of it, opposite the door. That area was reserved for food storage and was considered sacred. Their diet consisted primarily of deer meat, milk, bread and butter. When the wife needed milk, her husband would rope a doe with the skill of a cowboy, always hurling the lasso on foot, and oftentimes tie the antlers to a tree to prevent injury to the milkmaid. The milk was collected in a dipper-like wooden bucket with sides that curved in to prevent milk splashing out when the cow kicked. The milk was then stored in a skin flask to make a tough deer cheese. During the spring and summer, while following the herd, they usually kept moving while they ate. Reindeer, with their wide spread hooves, can travel as many as 100 miles a day when they have to. The tents were portable and could be erected in a few minutes. They would camp in fresh pasture and remain there for a week or two before moving on to the next migration point where fresh grass and young trees were plentiful for the deer to feed on. Their dogs were important family members. In addition to assisting in herding the deer, they were also trained to protect the children. Even if the children were to wander off, the bells they wore around their necks made them easy to find. Children of Lapp families were never scolded or punished. The girls were taught to sew by the age of eight and would play with hand made dolls, learning to become mothers, they would help with the younger children. The boys would play, roping their playmates and pretending to notch their ears. When provisions were needed, a reindeer would be slaughtered and every part was used. The meat was smoked and dried or frozen and shipped to market. The brains and liver were boiled and eaten. The lungs and blood were fed to the dogs. The skins would be washed and stretched on a rough board, then scraped and dried to be used for clothing or shelter. Their spiritual beliefs involved shamans and totemic animals, though many were eventually converted to Christianity. Both men and women share leadership and ownership within their villages. Traditional beliefs and way of life still continue in a modernized way, despite the assimilation of many over the centuries. Quoting G. Welker, a descendant of the Sami people, "There has also been land theft, encroachment, unscrupulous missionaries, forced loss of language, attacks on Sami villages, and the closing of borders (in Sweden) which threaten the Sami culture". Of the 70,000 Samis, less than 10 per cent are herders, but they are protective toward the reindeer Lapps because they have preserved their treasured language and provide balance to the Lapp society with their conservative influence and way of life. From encroachment on their grazing land for resource exploitation and population pressure to westernize with the introduction of the snowmobile, many reindeer Lapps were selling off their herds and moving into the cities to change occupations, wishing for improved conditions for their families. Cost of living increases were requiring larger herds and encroachment on land was getting to the point where it could not support the herds. But none of this was as devastating a blow to the reindeer Lapps as the aftermath of Chernobyl. Five months after the incident, the Scandinavian Lapps were required to have their herds tested for radiation. Ninety-seven percent of the measured meat was in excess of permissible levels and declared unfit for human consumption. Thousands of reindeer had to be slaughtered. Cesium 137 had collected in clouds over Chernobyl and the nuclear rains they deposited over the central third of the grazing lands that stretch across a vast northern arc of Norway, Sweden and Finland made reindeer the most contaminated meat in the world. Lapp mothers who had been feeding their children the meat, fish and berries from that area now feared for the health of their offspring. More than half of the land's 500,000 reindeer population remained contaminated for at least five years, the lichen they feed on for ten years. The Samis' anxiety over the future of their herds and the children who feed off of them caused a migration to safer grounds. Moreover, they fear that their traditional way of life is slipping into a nuclear limbo, considering that the cesium 137 would still be at half strength some thirty years from now. At the time of the mass slaughters, one Lapp man was reported to have said, " Without the reindeer, we have no culture." The government provided financial subsidy for reindeer Lapps wishing to change occupations, but the Lapps concern is for their unique culture, quickly being overwhelmed by westernization and the problems caused by the reindeer contamination. The Sami people now have a Parliament and Sami political and cultural organizations in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The Sami Parliament is a participant in the global indigenous peoples' movement at the United Nations. Since the incident at Chernobyl, on April 26,1986, studies have been conducted and scientists now believe that twice as many radionuclides, such as cesium 137, were thrown out during the explosion. Further studies reveal that the "sarcophagus" that was hastily built around reactor No.4 is structurally unsound. The roof is leaking and radioactive pools collect in the fields at the base of its crumbling walls. The 2,000 ton reactor lid rests on rubble filled with 180 tons of molten nuclear fuel. One good snowfall, high winds or an earthquake, would send 10 tons of radioactive dust across the region. Russian scientists working at the site are walking dead men, sacrificing their lives, as they work to come up with solutions to the problem of reactor No. 4 In the meantime, Reactor No. 1 and No.3 , identical to No.4 in design, complete with design flaws in the graphite core, are still in operation. In all , there are 15 such reactors in operation in energy starved Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania combined. And as the run off flows gently down the Dneiper River to Kiev's drinking supply, officials are hoping an agency like the World Bank will provide the billion dollar super-sarcophagus the European community is calling for. As we play Russian roulette in the Ukraine, an agency like the World Bank might consider funding the continued research on alternative energy. |