Laplanders...Sami reindeer herders just arrived from Norway. They lived outside of Nome doing what they do best...herding reindeer. What's even MORE interesting is their names (from left to right, according to the information taken from notes probably on the back of the photograph): Merit Balto, Anders Balto, and Marie Balto (mother, father and daughter). The family name "Balto" was apparently not all that uncommon in the Sami people...and the Balto we know was named for one of them - Samuel Johannesen Balto. The hat Anders is wearing was not all that uncommon a style for his people at that time either. Undated photo, but it was probably before 1910.
