Government Information and Linguistic Minorities: A Case Study of Forest Finns in Varmland, Sweden, and Hedmark, Norway

Abstract

This paper examines government, library, and archival resources available in a national minority language in two provinces that border each other in Sweden and Norway. Finn’s Forest (Finnskogen), a forested area within the borders of Varmland, Sweden and Hedmark, Norway, was populated through immigration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by an ethnic and linguistic Finnish minority (figure 1). The Forest Finns (Skogfinner) minority population became the target of centuries-long forced linguistic and cultural assimilation practices by the Swedish and Norwegian governments.