Sami people

The Sami people (also Sámi or Saami) are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sami are the only indigenous people of Scandinavia recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples, and are hence the northernmost indigenous people of Europe. Sami ancestral lands span an area of approximately 388,350 km² (150,000 sq. mi.), which is approximately the size of Norway, in the Nordic countries. Their traditional languages are the Sami languages and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.

Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are actively involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries.

Sam Israel

Sam Israel (March 4, 1899 – June 11, 1994) was an American real estate investor and landlord.

Biography

Israel was born to a Jewish family in Rhodes, then part of the Ottoman Empire, now part of Greece. He immigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a shoemaker in Seattle, Washington. After World War II, during which he had a military contract to repair combat boots at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, he began to invest in real estate. His holdings, many of them in the Pioneer Square historic district, were largely dilapidated and undesirable to the majority of investors. Through what Paul Dorpat in Pacific Northwest Magazine called Israel's "benign neglect," many of these buildings survived to be renovated after his death in 1994.

Israel established the Samis Land Company (now simply Samis) to manage his holdings. The name is based on his first and last names. In 1979, he established the Samis Foundation.

Israel spent much of his later years in Soap Lake, Washington, which was said to remind him of the land of Israel. He never married. He died in Seattle at age 95.