Forest Sami

The forest Sami (Swedish: Skogssamer) are Sami people who live in the woods and who, unlike the reindeer-herding Sami people (the "fell Sami"), do not move up into the fells during the summer season. Historically, there have been forest Sami in Sweden in the area ranging from northern Ångermanland to the far north. In the early 1600s the term granlapp was also used to refer to the Sami people who paid taxes only to Sweden, compared to the semi-nomadic fell Sami, who, since they worked in the fells that straddled the Swedish-Norwegian border, had to pay taxes to both countries. When Ernst Manker studied the life of the forest Sami in the early 20th century, nearly all of their habitations had been abandoned. Only one forest Sami village remained, in Malå in Västerbotten, an area known as Stenundslandet in Anundsjö.