Before Christmas, news revealed that several people have been given the right to vote in the Sámi parliamentary elections without considering themselves as Sámi. The Sámi Parliament has therefore decided to examine the number of voters to find out how widespread this is. In the United States and Canada, this type of challenge is nothing new. In recent years, several high profile people have been accused of having lied about an indigenous identity. Last out is the high-profile professor and former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond in Canada. Canada’s national broadcaster CBC last autumn investigated her background and found that her claims about Cree affiliation are not true. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (No. 3 from right) has been regarded as one of Canada’s most successful and decorated Indigenous scholars and professionals. She has claimed to have indigenous background through her father, who she has said was a Cree. But investigations carried out by the CBC show that the father had British parents. Photo: DARRYL DYCK / The Canadian Press Turpel-Lafond herself has refused to present documentation for her indigenous background. Activist and actor Sacheen Littlefeather is also accused of lying about his ethnicity. She became world famous in the 70s for one of the most talked about Oscar moments of all time. Hollywood legend Marlon Brando caused both uproar and scandal when, in 1973, he refused to receive the Oscar statuette for best male actor. Instead, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, who took the stage and gave a speech on behalf of Native Americans. At that time, she was both booed and applauded from the audience. Photo: Scanpix She has told her whole career that she has a father who comes from the White Mountain Apache tribe, an indigenous group in America. But after her death last autumn, the sisters have come out and said that she was actually half Mexican and half white. Not a new phenomenon The problem of fabricated indigenous peoples has become a growing problem in both Canada and the United States, according to Professor Kim TallBear at the University of Alberta in Canada. – Before, I thought it only happened now and then, but now I see that it is very widespread. I fear that such fabricated indigenous people are in excess in some parts of the country, says TallBear. TallBear belongs to the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Nation in South Dakota in the United States. Even when she was growing up in the 1970s, she heard stories about people making up false stories about themselves as indigenous. – In the 70s we called them wannabes. Now there are other terms, like raceshifters and pretendians, says TallBear. In order to correct past injustices of racism and colonization, several institutions and universities now want to employ people with an indigenous background. Therefore, there is a big problem with fake indigenous people, especially in academia, TallBear believes. – When being indigenous can provide advantages, there are more people who are willing to wrongfully claim that they are indigenous, says TallBear. Simmering conflict Also in our neighboring country Finland, there has been a very heated conflict for many years about who should get the right to vote in the Sami Parliament. – We have seen gross examples of Finns wanting to enter the census and use the Sámi Parliament to promote their own agenda, says Petra Laiti. She heads the Sami youth organization Suoma Sámi Nuorat. She believes that the current legislation in Finland allows for people who have no connection to the Sami language and culture to be given the right to vote in the Sami parliamentary elections. The leader of the Sami youth organization Suoma Sámi Nuorat, Petra Laiti, has been strongly involved in changing Finland’s Sami Parliament Act. Photo: Tiina Jutila / Yle It is a disputed criterion in the Finnish Sami Parliament Act that is at the heart of the dispute. In the law, there is a clause stating that descendants of people who are listed as “Lapp” in several hundred-year-old public records can demand to be included in the electoral roll. Since 2011, the Högsta förvaltningsdomstolen (corresponding to the Norwegian Supreme Court) has given more than 160 people the right to vote according to this criterion, even though the Sami community does not recognize these people as Sami. The Sámi Parliament had rejected their applications to be included in the census, but they appealed the case to the court, and won. Laiti believes it is wrong that the Sami themselves do not get to decide who can be considered Sami or not. – The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the law is on a collision course with the Sami understanding of who is Sami, says Laiti. Finland has received strong criticism for this from the UN, both from the Human Rights Committee and the Racial Discrimination Committee. They state that Finland has violated the Sami’s human rights. – Good control in Sweden In Sweden, on the other hand, there is good control that only Sámi are admitted to the Sámi Parliament’s electorate. At least that is the opinion of Jennie Granberg, head of the Sámi Parliament’s electoral committee. All new applications to join the electorate are reviewed by a separate electoral committee, which is appointed by the Sami Parliament. Jennie Granberg is head of the electoral committee at the Sami Parliament in Sweden. Photo: Jenny Israelsson Skoglund / Sameradion & SVT Sápmi Granberg believes it is not possible to cheat one’s right to vote in the Swedish Sami Parliament. – It is impossible today. We have good control over those who apply and we thoroughly examine the new applications against various archives, such as the national archive, church records and genealogical records, says Granberg. But in Sweden too, there is sometimes heated debate about the number of electors. In 2016, the Sami Landspartiet filed a complaint against the entire population, because they believed that there are people in the population who are not Sami. The party demanded that the entire workforce of nearly 9,000 people be reviewed again. They were not approved by the County Administrative Board because a party cannot appeal the number of people, only individuals. – There is always someone who questions the number of voters. Among other things, it has emerged that people who are married to Sami people have been included in the number of voters. We know about that, says Granberg, who personally sees no problem with it. New law in Finland In Finland, a new Sami Parliament Act is under consideration in the Riksdag. Among other things, it proposes to remove the controversial “patching criterion” in the law. Petra Laiti does not dare to hope that the law will actually be passed. Sanna Marin’s government is the third government that is now trying to put forward the bill. Twice before, the bill has failed. The bill was submitted to the Riksdag in November, where it is now under consideration. – What is different now is that the rest of the population in Finland is interested in the matter and we have received broad support for the bill, but it is still uncertain whether the bill will pass, says Laiti. She has followed with interest the debate that is currently taking place in Norway. – We have followed the situation in Finland for so long that we find it strange that there have not been more discussions about this in Norway. – For us, it has been clear for a long time that the number of people can be misused, says Laiti.
ttn-69
Growing problem with fake indigenous people in the USA and Canada – news Sápmi
