Ole Magga, Norwegian politician
On this blog I regularly get questions about the Sami (Lapp*). That’s because I often talk about Finnish genetics, have readers such as Clark who are of part-Sami origin, and, the provenance and character of the Sami speak to broader questions about the emergence of the modern European gene pool. More precisely questions about the Sami are relevant to the broader nature of the Finnic presence in Europe, and their relationship to other Baltic and northern populations. Are these people “indigenous” to Europe, or relatively newcomers (prehistoric Magyar or Turks).? These questions are prompted by the peculiarity of their languages (as well as the physical appearance of some of the Sami). With Basque they are the only living non-Indo-European European languages whose origins are prehistoric (Magyar and Turkish were arrivals within the last 1,000 years).**
