ABSTRACT
In this chapter,1 northern Scandinavia is seen as comprising the northernmost parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, mainly the parts beyond the polar circle. One of the historical minorities in this area are the Sami who are an indigenous people and whose traditional territory, Sapmi or the Sami Land, has been split into four parts by national borders. The other populations taken up in the chapter are two regional minorities speaking a variety of Finnish, the Tornedalians, living on the Swedish side of the Swedish-Finnish border, and the Kven, living scattered in small villages by the North Norwegian coast.2
