This article focuses on the features of Sami language instruction at the first school grades in Norway. The most important part is to describe what kind of challenges Sami language instruction at the first grades as an indigenous people's language and with the status of a minority language has. This situation introduces some differences and challenges that must be taken account at the planning level and in classroom working in practice. Sami language instruction is effected in a situation which is challenging both from the sociological and human rights perspectives. Pupil groups are more heterogeneous than ever before because of the assimilation process and power relations as well as the status of Sami language. Teachers must work in a situation which is quite different from the national-level language situation as a whole. Any examples cannot be found in research or in the national-level language situation as the situation of Sami language differs from that remarkably. (Contains 2 notes.)