We spent September 5, 2025, in Alta, Norway, above the Arctic Circle. We visited a Sami (Laplander) village.
We were greeted in Maze, the village, by a Sami leader, Johann, dressed in his hand-decorated traditional suit.
We pulled on life jackets and crossed the river in a traditional Sami boat.
Johann introduced us to the church and cemetery where his great grandparents were buried. The church was built in the 1600s. The Samis were originally pagan, but were converted to Christianity. Each Sami family has 600 to 800 reindeer that wander the hills and forests of Finnmark, the northernmost part of Norway. Increasingly, Samis also live and work in Norway's cities, such as Alta.
Johann told us about the Sami language, in which a single letter can stand for a name.
We wandered through the church, which had also been used as a school.
We also explored the graveyard. Many of the tombstones had been replaced with granite slabs, but we found a few old wooden grave markers.
As we sailed back across the river, we could see the Samis' new church and cultural hall.
As elsewhere in Norway, some of the buildings had grass growing on top.
We entered a large Sami tent, or lavvo, where Johann and his sons and sons-in-law prepared a meal of reindeer meat stew, bread, and cake served with cloudberries mixed with whipped goat cream.
Reindeer skins covered the inside of the lavvo.
Johann showed us the reindeer skin coat his wife sewed for him--fur side out and smooth skin inside. Johann says he usually wears a Western parka when he tends his reindeer in the hills, but he wears his reindeer coat when it is really cold.
Johann also showed us the Samis' traditional shoes. They are made of reindeer skin and filled with straw as insulation.
We shopped at Johann's collection of reindeer skins and articles made from reindeer antlers.
We brought home a cheese slicer with a reindeer antler handle. We used it at our Norwegian dinner.
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