Arctic Samis celebrate their national day centenary

HELSINKI (AP) — With chants, poetry and traditional dress, the indigenous Sami people of Europe's Arctic north, formerly nomadic reindeer herders in Lapland, celebrated their national day Monday with hundreds of events across the Nordic lands.

Monday's start to the weeklong festivities — attended by Norwegian King Harald and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Norway, and Finland's president, Sauli Niinisto, in Finnish Lapland — marked the centenary of the Sami people's first congress in the Norwegian city of Trondheim in 1917.

For generations, the Nordic ethnic majority sought to assimilate the Sami into mainstream culture by banning their language and culture.