The Norwegianization that was carried out until 1970/1980 proves to have been effective particularly in the areas of the Coastal Saami. The majority of the population that lived along the coast in Finnmark, Troms and Nordland obviously had a Saami identity at the end of the 19th century. Today a large part of this population doesn't consider themselves as Saami anymore. A sad and shameful part of this process has been the general undervaluation of cultural features that could be associated with Saami culture. One of the consequences is that the Saami language is no longer in use in large parts of the traditional Coastal Saami living area.
In the last two decades there has been a revitalising of the Saami cultural self-understanding in
many Coastal Saami areas. The result of this is that new generations learn the Saami
language again, and important Saami identitymarks as for example the "gákti" -the
Saami traditional clothing - are in use again.