Johan Turi, born Johannes Olsen Thuri also spelt Johan Tuuri or Johan Thuri or Johan Thuuri (March 12, 1854 – November 30, 1936) was the first

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

author to publish a secular work in a

Sami language Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

. His first book was called ''Muitalus sámiid birra'' ("An Account of the Sami") and tells about the life of people herding

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

in the

Jukkasjärvi Jukkasjärvi (; Sami: ''Čohkkiras'') is a locality situated in Kiruna Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 548 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated at 321 meters elevation. The name is of Northern Sami origin, where ''Čohkkirasjávri'' ...

region of northern Sweden at the beginning of the 20th century. An eclectic and nuanced text, ''Muitalus'' includes details on Sami traditions of child rearing, hunting, healing,

yoik A joik or yoik (anglicised, where the latter spelling in English conforms with the pronunciation; also named , , , or in the Sámi languages) is a traditional form of song in Sámi music performed by the Sámi people of Sapmi in Northern Europ ...

, and folklore. At its heart the text aims to draw outsiders' attention to the intrinsic value of Sami culture. Turi was born in

Kautokeino Kautokeino ( no, Kautokeino; se, Guovdageaidnu ; fkv, Koutokeino; fi, Koutokeino) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other village ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, but moved with his family to the Talma Sámi community near

, Sweden, in the 1880s. In 1904, he met the art student Emilie Demant Hatt on a train in northern

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

. Through an interpreter, he told her he wanted to write a book about Lapps, while she told him she wanted to be a nomad. Three years later, having learned the Sami language, Demant-Hatt returned to northern Scandinavia and lived with Turi's family. In 1908, Turi and Demant-Hatt lived in a mountain cabin where she assisted him with his manuscript. Turi died in Jukkasjärvi. The book has been translated into some ten languages, including

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

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, French,

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, Hungarian and

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. In 2011
Nordic Studies Press
published an English edition of Turi's "An Account of the Sami," translated by folklorist and professor of Scandinavian Studies Thomas A. DuBois

Works

*1910: ''Muitalus sámiid birra'' *1920: ''Sámi deavsttat'' (Texts in Sami) *1931: ''Duoddaris'' (From the mountain)

References

Norwegian Sámi-language writers Norwegian Sámi people Norwegian writers 1854 births 1936 deaths People from Kautokeino {{Norway-writer-stub