Started the day visiting a museum devoted to them. Very informative as it not only spoke to their heritage and history, which dated back to 1000, but also their events by calendar tied into worldwide events. Before the snowmobile and ATV, they used reindeer to pull sleds in the winter. They still raise reindeer, but are controlled as to how big a heard can be due to the amount of land available to feed them. Much of what they eat is lichen.
They mostly trapped bear and fox and fished the many waters to feed themselves. They would also use hides for clothing, rugs, etc. They built moss covered huts to store dried food.
The museum had an outside portion devoted to showing all the structures used for housing, etc.
Tonight we went to a location in the back woods where a Sami family maintains a reindeer herd and has a lodge where they serve reindeer dinners. We had one portion that was smoked and another contained inside a beef patty, with mushroom gravy. The entire meal was fresh meats and vegetables grown by the family.
Tomorrow we leave for Norway coast to board the ship to sale around Norway, stopping at most of the cities and villages along the coast, many located in fjords. The ship is a working vessel carrying passengers and cargo, including cars and trucks.
The pics below are from our visit to the Samis place in the woods. One is of a reindeer, duh, one of a young lady hired to host tourists, standing with the owner and one of the owners wife singing happy birthday in Sami language to one of our travelers. The dress is traditional, but only worn now for tourists or special events.
Not mentioned before is that we are 41 in the group, many from Ohio and ours from Michigan.
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