Per Fokstad (3 September 1890 – 10 December 1973) was a teacher, politician, and intellectual of

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 ne ...

origin from Norway, and a pioneer in the fight for the use of the

Sami languages 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 ...

in Norwegian schools. Fokstad was born in Deatnu-Tana,

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

. His parents were yard workers in

Bonakas , , or is a village in Deatnu-Tana Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The village lies on the western bank of the Tana River, just north of the village of Rustefjelbma. Historically, Bonakas has been inhabited by the Sami people and Kv ...

in Tana. The language used in the family's household was

, and Per, who was the youngest of five, didn't know Norwegian when he began school. He started school as a 19-year-old at Tromsø's teacher college, and took his examination there in 1912. The same fall, he began as a teacher at ''Norskholmen skole'' in his home

Deatnu-Tana Municipality or is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tana bru. Among the other villages in the municipality are Austertana, Bonakas, Polmak, Rustefjelbma, and Skiippagurra. The mu ...

. In the following ten years, he would take a leave of absence for further studies, three of the times in countries other than Norway. For the 1915-1916 school year, he studied at

Askov Folk High School Askov is a city in Pine County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 364 at the 2010 census. Minnesota State Highway 23 serves as a main route in the community, and Interstate 35 is nearby. History The village was originally within ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In the fall of 1917, he studied the violin in Oslo. From 1919 to 1920, he studied at

Woodbrooke College Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre was a Quaker college and conference facility in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England. The only Quaker Study Centre in Europe, it was founded by George Cadbury in 1903 and occupied one of his former properties on Bristol ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The year after, he was at the ''Institut du pantheon de France'' in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he first discovered

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

s philosophy. Even in his first published article in 1917, he was fighting for

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 ne ...

training in schools. At a conference in 1919 he was the architect behind a resolution that required: # That the

should be studied for the first three school years. # That all teaching about

Sami religion 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 ...

should be done in the

. # Introducing Norwegian as a foreign language. He followed up the idea with an article in 1923, and with a detailed report on ''The parliamentarian school commission'' (1923–1926). In 1937, together with headmaster M. Bremer, a «cultural institute for the

».

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fokstad, Per 1890 births 1973 deaths People from Tana, Norway Norwegian Sámi politicians Norwegian schoolteachers