Strong feelings when skulls should be buried in Lycksele

It is a long, tragic story that will end at the Gammplatsen in Lycksele on Friday.

25 Sami skulls will be placed in their original graves after they were disrespectfully excavated and taken to the Stockholm Historical Museum for research in the 1950s. For many years, the remains were forgotten in a magazine.

- The likelihood that I have relatives who were forced to be buried there in the 17th and 17th centuries is extremely high, says Michael Lindblad, former chairman of the Umeå joint association.

He has his roots in the districts surrounding Vilhelmina, Ammarnäs and Hemavan and tells about how the Sami were forced to bury their dead in Lycksele at that time. Sometimes they had to travel very far to bury relatives.

- This was part of the missionary era when the Sami were to be Christian. It was during the same era that the Sami drums were seized, because it was considered to be devil worship, says Michael Lindblad.

During the reburial ceremony, he will carry one of the boxes of fists in which the remains will be buried.

It is a long-awaited event for Sami representatives, who think that Sweden's actions leave much to be desired.

- The state has quite a lot to do. You have not yet, although discussed, conducted a truth commission in which you try to find out with what is now living what happened, what abuses were done, says Michael Lindblad.

Listen to the clip about what he thinks about the reburial.