"the indigenous people over whose heads it would take place, the Saami of northern Scandinavia."
It's never been clear to me why the Saami are "indigenous" but average Swedes, Finns, and Norwegians aren't.
It's never been clear to me why the Saami are "indigenous" but average Swedes, Finns, and Norwegians aren't.
Because while Scandinavians were in Southern Scandinavia before Saami were in Northern Scandinavia, the Saami were in Northern Scandinavia for millenia before the Scandinavians were, so, in terms of northern Scandinavia, the Saami and not the Scandinavians are indigenous.
But they were definitely not Saami. If they were ancestors they could be called Proto-Finnic, from which Saami arose 3000-5000 years ago.
The 10000 year Saami story was mostly pushed by Norwegians, because stating that people of Finnmark were ancestors of Finns, it may cause land claims aka "Greater Finland". They even invented new ethnicity for Finns who moved to Norway in 1800's.