Hosted by John D. Craig, “Expedition!” was a pioneering anthropological TV show. This episode from 1960, “Survivors of the Ice Age” portrays the really harsh way of life of the seldom filmed Laplander culture. The film observes their daily life as a herding people dependent on the reindeer of the Norway’s far North. This is a documentary portrait of a culture adapted to survival in the harshest of world climates, the Arctic.
The Sami people (traditionally known in English as Lapps or Laplanders) are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sami are the only indigenous people of Scandinavia recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples, and are hence the northernmost indigenous people of Europe. Sami ancestral lands span an area of approximately 388,350 km2 (150,000 sq. mi.), which is approximately the size of Norway, in the Nordic countries. Their traditional languages are the Sami languages and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family.
Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are actively involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries.
John D. Craig (1903–1997) was an American businessman, writer, soldier, deep-sea diver, Hollywood stunt man, film producer, and television host. He pioneered deep-sea diving as a profession and as an industry from the 1930s on, and filmed aerial combat over Europe during World War II. He is best known for using film and television to show the United States public the beauties and dangers of Earth’s underwater worlds.
From 1954 on, Craig was involved with five different television series. He was nominated three times for Emmy Awards.
I Search For Adventure – Craig appeared several times in this locally produced Los Angeles documentary adventure show in 1954-1955. The show was produced by Jack Douglas.
Craig also hosted the nationally syndicated 1954-55 travel documentary series, also entitled I Search For Adventure and produced by Jack Douglas.
Kingdom of the Sea – Craig and the actor Bob Stevenson were hosts of the 1954-59 syndicated documentary series, Kingdom of the Sea. Each episode was 25–30 minutes long.
Expedition! – Craig was host of the 1960-62 ABC-TV documentary series Expedition!, shown Tuesday (and then Monday) nights 7-7:30 PM.
Of Lands and Seas – Craig produced and hosted the syndicated documentary series, “Of Lands and Seas”, starting in 1967. The show had 260 half-hour episodes of Craig’s work, with additional films from other film-makers — it was intended for daily weeknight presentation. Episodes continued to appear on national television through the late 1970s.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
