Page Sec1:18 - Labyrint 2013 - English Edition

the start of the second phase. With Elsa
Laul ­Renberg, a southern Sami, as the
spearhead, a more unified domestic Sami
movement emerged - with Sami from
both the north and south, and a national
Sami organization, Sámi Sentralsearvi
(Sámi Central Association). This organi-
zational mobilization nevertheless broke
down in 1921.
“Then ideological and cultural issues
were put on the agenda, first and fore-
most by a teacher and later principal and
mayor Per Fokstad from Tana, who pro-
pelled the Sami opposition forward more
or less by himself,” Zachariassen said.
Per Fokstad
“Per Fokstad was a man before his
time. In the early 1920s, he published
a series of articles on the basis for the
Sami language, culture and society, and
prepared school plans that were based
on a societal organization founded on
linguistic and cultural pluralism. He
believed that the Sami could also be a
civilized nation - and not “just” primi-
tive people - and that the Sami people
could be Norwegian without losing what
it was that made them Sami.
Of course Fokstad believed that the
Sami had to learn Norwegian, says
­Zachariassen, but he was concerned that
they should also have the right to learn
their mother tongue - not only because
it was a useful auxiliary language, but
also because it was a right and a value in
itself. A separate people had to have its
own language.
“This was a modern way of thinking,
which Fokstad had developed in part
as a result of studying abroad for four
years – between 1917 and 1921, he was
in Denmark, England and Paris. This
­approach had much in common with
how the leading pedagogues in Norway
of the time, such as Erling Kristvik,
thought.
Many counter-arguments
The demand for native language training
was met with political, linguistic and
educational counter-arguments, and
not least, researchers used the issue of
security policy as one explanation for the
opposition: Assimilation and becoming
Norwegian were both seen as important
in ensuring loyalty to the new nation.
“But even if Fokstad’s arguments
concerning native language instruction
did not result in a breakthrough in the
1920s, he laid an ideological foundation
that was later was picked up by the Sami
movement after the war, and Fokstad
remained a leading Sami actor all the
way to 1970,” says Zachariassen.
18 ••• Labyrint E/13 – University of Tromsø
Early voices of the Sami people
Anders Larsen and his wife. Photo: G. Gustafson