Saami

The Saami
This people - widely believed to have been chased in front of the first line of explorers when human beings first spread to the northern parts of Europe - is considered the indigenous people of the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. They're also currently among the most violent and dangerous examples of organized crime in the world.

Origins
As the outcasts from the tribes of hunters/gatherers spreading north through Norway and Sweden reached the coast of northern Norway and had nowhere else to travel, they quickly formed their own society, dressed up in funny clothes and setteled along the cold shores of Finnmark in order to escape their bloodthirsty. These first Saami were mostly hairdressers, advertisers and paparazzi photographers - lines of work that had not yet been commonly accepted, which was also the reason for them to be driven away by the not yet agriculturally proficient hunter/gatherer settelers that followed them north.

Re-discovery by protestant christian Norwegians
While the hunter/gatherers setteled down further south in Scandinavia and became Vikings, travelled the world, conquered Iceland, England, Ireland and the Bovuet Island, the Saami culture developed for hundreds of years before the Scandinavians finally expanded Norway and Sweden towards the north in the 18th century. By this time, the now chrisitan Norwegians had forgotten all about the outcast Saami people, and treated them much like the first Americans treated the Native Americans.

Re-integration into the Norwegian society
However, whereas the Native American were driven into reservations, taught how to run casinos and sucessfully integrated back into the American society, the Saami people were forced to keep their customs, culture and language in order to remind people of how things would turn out if they didn't follow the ways of the Protestant Church.

They where also spread out across the country to ensure a constant presens in a far stretched country where mass media was still decades away and most of the people lived in small communities built around either fishery or agriculture. The Saami were denied participation in these trades, and were forced to continue herding Raindeer for the use in Christmas-themed movies.

Quiet revolt and political influence
Living under this kind of supression has forged strong bonds between the members of the Saami society. Secret brotherhoods and links to the Cosa Nostra have long been rumored, and it is believed that they try to turn the powerful cultural weapon of alcohol back on their supressors by flooding the market with illegal homebrew, sometimes of the deadly methanol variant. Communications between cells of Saami is performed through their traditional tongue-speak like Joik style of singing believed to contain secret messages if played back in reverse. It is believed that the Saami people control political life in Norway through corruption and threats geared towards elected officials. They have amongst other things kept Norway out of the EU for decades due to the fear of a weakening of their influence over their own position.