Military Conscription, Settler-Colonialism and Discrimination of the Sami People in Sweden

This research project contributes new knowledge about racism and discrimination against the Sami people in Sweden by investigating the discourses which have motivated Sami people’s exemption from, and enrolment in, military conscription, between 1901 and this date.

The project spans the period of all-male universal conscription in Sweden when military service became associated with citizenship and symbolic inclusion in the national community, and the conscript became the embodiment of ideal citizenship.

The exclusion of the Sami from conscript service during large parts of the 1900s is often referenced in historical research as a testament to their unique status as an Indigenous people with special rights. Yet the motivations behind this exemption and its repeal have never been explored.

This project traces these motivations via interviews and document sources from the Swedish Government and Parliament and various Sami organizations.

By following the roots of exemption policy to early 1900s discourses of racial biology, which excluded reindeer herding Sami from notions of Swedishness, and at the same time problematizing the practice of forcing indigenous groups to take up arms for a settler-colonial nation-state (potentially against members of the same group), this project explores how exemptions from state mandates such as military service both can reproduce racism and thereby represent a form of discrimination and constitute an expression of Indigenous self-determination.