Decolonizing Dictionaries: The Telling Agendas of North Sámi Dictionaries

Abstract

The role of lexicographers of Davvisámegiella (North Sámi) in the historical colonization and present-day decolonization of Sámi society is examined. The careers and agendas of dictionary makers—both Sámi and non-Sámi—from the late eighteenth century until the present are surveyed, with attention to the ways they include and portray elements of folklore in their dictionaries and other works—including items of belief, traditional knowledge, and custom. Where the earliest Sámi dictionaries were intended as tools for missionaries and for the suppression of Sámi belief traditions, the dictionaries of today seek to equip users of North Sámi with the bureaucratic, professional, and cultural lexicon needed for effective functioning in modern Nordic societies, in which North Sámi has gained recognition as an official state language.

Notes

1 In this study, I use the term Sámi as a noun and adjective, rather than the outdated and pejorative terms Lapp and Lappish. The term Sámi is also sometimes spelled Sami, Same, Saame, or Saami. Where referring to the lands of the Sámi nation, I use Sápmi, but where describing an official geographic region or district in one of the Nordic countries or Russia, I use the standard geographic term Lapland.

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Notes on contributors

Thomas A. DuBois

Thomas A. DuBois is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore Studies, and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He researches and teaches on a wide array of topics related to folklore in the Nordic region and North America.