Abstract
Sacred sites, their fate and sustainment are most important topics for the Sámi people and it is essential to analyze what should be done to preserve them against possible threats.
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Notes
- 1.
Ethnoecological niche is a term that refers to community’s cultural, environmental and social environment. It consists of fundamental necessities that the communities need for survival, including cultural, economic, environmental and social factors.
- 2.
Some self-named “new age” Sámi shamans exist, but neither is their faith grounded on the traditional philosophy and knowledge of the Sámi, nor are they recognized by their peoples as authentic shamans.
- 3.
The most significant sacrificial church of the Sámi is the Pielpajärvi (saam. Piälppáájävri) church, built in 1760, in the Inari (saam. Aanaar) municipality in Finland. It is located on an ancient sacrificial place and it is located very near to one of the most holy places of the Sámi, the big rock island of Ukonsaari (Äijih) in the Inari Sea. See Äikäs et al. 2009; Äikäs 2012.
- 4.
Even if the only binding of Laestadius was to Finnish culture was his excellent knowledge of Finnish language, is he often seen as ”one of the greatest Finns in the history”. As movement has the Laestadionism however really the Finnish language as own ”lingua franca”, which leads the Laestadian Sámi to tender more towards the Finnish as Norwegian or Swedish culture. The uprising of Sámi Laestadian against Norwegian state power in 1852 played an important role in the national awakening of Sámi.
- 5.
Akmeeli Antereeus (finn. Ikämieli) lived in the eighteenth century. He is mentioned in many Finnish and Sámi legends and tales but regrettably there exists no scientific research on him. The most profound and authentic presentation seems to be: Paulaharju, Samuli: Sompio, Luiron korpien vanhaa elämää [Sompio. Wildernesses of Luiro of Yore]. WSOY, 4th ed., Porvoo – Helsinki – Juva1980, p. 26–27. S. also the main work of Paulaharju to the sacred sites of the Sámi: Paulaharju, Samuli: Seitoja ja seidan palvontaa [The Sámi offering stones and their cult]. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki 1932 (=Vähäisiä kirjelmiä 84); even though Paulaharju was neither scientist nor Sámi and there are many misunderstandings and errors in his works. It seems that in the independent Finland, since 1917, Akmeeli was strangely “forgotten” in the popularization of folk tales. However, would this romantic figure, which often magically fights the Russians invading the lands of his people, not been superficially optimal for the tendencies of these popularizations? This shows some analogies with the many lapses of memory concerning the Sámi in the nationalistic self-portrait of Finnland. This might have been crucial for the fateful forgetting of the cultural value of the destroyed by basin Lokka-Sompio region in 1967.
- 6.
The Kalevala, collected and redacted by Elias Lönnrot in 1831, consists of the oldest Finnish and Karelian epic poems, and forms a fundamental pillar of the self-consciousness of Finns and Karelians. The 17th poem of the Kalevala concerns Antero Vipunen.
- 7.
The land of and around these peats brings the name Sompio. The Sámi culture of Sompio died off in the beginnings of the twentieth century.
- 8.
The author (1860–1917) was a Lutheran pastor. It seems, that in his case, likewise in case of Laestadius, the Christian religion inspired respect for the traditional religion of Sámi.
- 9.
A new edition of “And in the Distance Rises Mist” was published in 2007. The coauthor Kauppala of given article had in the beginnings of 1970’er as a teenager found by accident the book in edition oft the year 1955 in his familiar municipal library in South Finland and it formed his first impression of the Sámi spiritual culture.
- 10.
I have heard in my childhood tales of the reindeer herds of gnomes (ulda), but they were also to the tellers only fairy tales and can be contrasted with modern tales of Santa Claus and elks.
- 11.
Also a a form Sáivá is used.
- 12.
Therman 1990, 269.
- 13.
Pentikäinen 1995, 146–149.
- 14.
More on the prehistory and archaeological research on this area, see for example Halinen, P. 2005: Prehistoric Hunters of Northernmost Lapland: settlement patterns and subsistence strategies. Iskos 14. Dissertation, Finnish Antiquarian Society Vammala, pp. 36.
- 15.
Concerning the isolation of the Russian Sámi, the fact that practically all inhabitants, including Sámi, of the Pečenga region were evacuated to Finland in the year 1944 strengthened it.
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Näkkäläjärvi, K., Kauppala, P. (2017). Sacred Sites of the Sámi – Linking Past, Present and Future. In: Heinämäki, L., Herrmann, T. (eds) Experiencing and Protecting Sacred Natural Sites of Sámi and other Indigenous Peoples. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48069-5_8
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