Sámi Assembly of 1917

Around 150 participants gathered at the assembly, of which the majority consisted of Southern Sámi from Nordland, Trøndelag, and Hedmark counties.

Elsa Laula Renberg (1877–1931) from Helgeland and the Sámi Women's union at Brurskanken initiated the assembly.

The lecture sparked a debate that led to the forming of a separate committee concerning reindeer farming by the assembly.

In the years preceding the assembly, Sámi people in both Norway and Sweden felt that their culture and livelihoods were threatened.

The Joint Sámi Act of 1883 was the first major attempt by the authorities to "gain control of the Sami's reindeer herding".

[2] In Sweden, the "limit of cultivation" had given Sámi nomads the right to use grazing land in the areas of the country that were situated above rural communities.

These territories, however, were eventually adopted by new settlers, a process that has been characterized as "rural colonization", so that the reindeer herds were pushed away from the known grazing areas.

In the Northern Sámi areas of Troms and Finnmark, the biggest challenge was Norwegianization, within "schools, industries, the church, defense and intelligence - often in a close (and intimate) relation".

Eventually, as a majority of these Sami became Swedish citizens, grazing and reindeer herding rights from Sweden became a burden for Norway.

[10] During the Karlstad Convention, this was finally resolved so that Norway accepted the grazing rights from Sweden, but was curtailed so that reindeer migration had to occur after June 15, six weeks later than previous regulations.

[11][12] The programme also included a civic reception, a dinner at the Trade Association, theatre visits, and a tour of the cathedral.

Mortenson was also concerned about a recent Supreme Court ruling on grazing rights and compensation in Røros that had gone against the Sámi there.

They also wanted to changes to the rules regarding the sale of unmarked reindeer; such that the profits from this in the future could go to common Sámi causes.

Lawyer Ole Tobias Olsen jr. from Mosjøen also attended the assembly and was active in the discussions about herding laws, in addition to that, he was one of the keynote speakers on the topic "legislation".

This committee met again in Mosjøen a few weeks after the national assembly, and delivered in 1919, a separate proposal for a new reindeer herding law.

To initiate the establishment of a Sámi organisation, Martin Tranmæl, former editor of the Trondheim newspaper Ny Tid, had been invited to the assembly.

The issue was introduced by a lecture from the Swedish Nomad School-inspector, Vitalis Karnell, who gave an account of the new school system in Sweden.

In Røros, Mortenson had already in 1902 begun to shift from intensive reindeer herding nomadism to extensive meat production.

Nissen succeeded in rejecting a draft resolution from the two Finnmark Sámi on the grounds that it concerned "special interests".