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This article addresses the changing ethnic relations between the Norwegians and the indigenous Saami in coastal Northern Norway in a historical perspective, with a special focus on the impact of the state on the varying local constructions of “the Other”. Over a period of approximately 150 years ethnic distinctions have been radically reduced, either through assimilation or suppression. However, over the last 30-40 years an ethnic tension between the two categories has produced a sharpening of the rather blurred ethnic division in many local communities.