With Sámi National Day coming up this weekend on February 6, we spend today’s show learning about and celebrating Sámi history and culture with Troy Storfjell, Marja Eloheimo, and Tim Frandy.

Over a wide-ranging hour, they cover topics including the history of colonization in Scandinavia, their identities as Sámi and Sámi Americans, the construction of race and critical Indigenous theory, ethnobotany and connection to place, and more.

Troy Storfjell is a professor of Nordic Studies and the director of the Scandinavian Culture Center at Pacific Lutheran University. His work involves literature, film, and critical Indigenous theory. He serves on the executive board of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

Marja Eloheimo is faculty at the Evergreen State College, where she teaches and researches ethnobotany, Indigenous studies, and climate justice.

Tim Frandy is an assistant professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University. Working predominantly with Sámi and Anishinaabe peoples, Frandy’s research includes revitalization and decolonization, pedagogies and public folklore, and the environmental and medical humanities. He is the editor and translator of Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar (UW Press, 2019) and co-editor, with B. Marcus Cederström, of Culture Work: Folklore for the Public Good (UW Press, forthcoming July 2022).

Cover photo courtesy of Anna Öhlund/imagebank.sweden.se

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