Summary:
Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Nationality of reindeer? Reindeer herding on the border zone between Finland and Norway at the beginning of the 20th century
The closings of borders between Norway and Finland under Russian rule in 1852 and between Russia/Finland and Sweden in 1889 put the Sámi reindeer herding into turmoil in the three Nordic countries. The border closings have been seen to be the reason for the crisis of large-scale reindeer nomadism among the Sámi, which was based on annual migration between the inland forest zone and the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Trying to adapt to the situation, the Sámi reindeer herders moved to different directions, e.g. to the northern Sodankylä area in Finnish Lapland.
Because the closing of the border between Norway and Russia/Finland was not a bilateral contract but an order made by Russia, different instructions were given in the two countries to control reindeer herders on the border zone. In 1853, the Finnish authorities were allowed to confiscate 10 per cent of every reindeer stock of Norwegian Sámi on the Finnish side of the border. The instructions in Norway in 1854 applied mostly to reindeer Sámi in Finnmark, Norway; Finnish reindeer owners could only be fined for having their stock on Norwegian soil. Usually, the Norwegian authorities could only claim their receivables through official channels. During 1869–1900, the Finnish officials confiscated nearly 3000 reindeer while the frustrated Norwegian authorities even shot “illegal” reindeer, using their own criminal law as a ground.
The acts of confiscation made by local sheriffs were races against Sámi herders because at least one reindeer of any herd was needed for evidence of illegal actions. In spite of the possible damages to pastures made by illegal reindeer, the Finnish Sámi were not eager to help the authorities because many of the herders across the border were their own relatives. There was an effective warning system among the Sámi to inform one another of raiding sheriffs.
Partly because of political reasons, the conflict situation on the border zone was heightened in the 1920s and 1930s, concerning the reindeer issue among many others. In 1922, a contract was made between Norway and Finland to unify the regulations, but it seemed to accelerate the collision even more. On the Finnish side, Norway was claimed to gain more benefit from the contract because more Finnish reindeer were supposedly escaping to Norway than vice versa.
As a result of the dispute, a special committee was established to study the use of pasture lands on the border zone. After serious investigations, the committee proposed a heavy fence system to prevent the reindeer from moving across the border. Reflecting the better understanding between Norway and Finland before the second world war, Norway even agreed to cover half of the cost of building and maintaining the fence system. The influences of the border closings to Sámi societies on both sides of the border are not studied in this article. Even at the beginning of the 1930s, some reindeer herding families from the border zone in Enontekiö moved to Inari at least partly due to the border closings and the planned fence system.
