Tromsø

Alta

Kautokeino

Alta Dam

Snow Scooter

PlaneBus

Fieldwork Findings Kautokeino and Alta - January 2014

Ronald van Schaik

Fig 1. The Alta Canyon

Tromsø

Alta

Kautokeino

Plane

Bus

Day 1:

Transport to Kautokeino

Events:

The �rst day was a travel day. We �ew from Tromsø to Alta and took a bus from Alta to Kautokeino.

Learning´s:

Even though it was mostly dark we could observe the land-scape quite well during the two hours bus ride to Kautokei-no. The landscape was quite impressive. Close to Alta there were high mountains and deep canyons and after about 30

minutes we entered huge relatively �at areas with only a few hills in between all the way to Kautokeino. Only one

main road was crossing through this land and there were almost no villages, side roads and other human made

structures. A huge preserved natural environment for the reindeers to use was the primarily thing in the area.

Fig 2. Widerøe Plane

Fig 4. Kristján, Sun and Bowen @ Atla Airport

Fig 3. Kautokeino

Kautokeino

The Kautokeino region is one of the largest reindeer herding regions in the world. The area is covered in snow for over 7 months per year and snow has therefore large impact on the herds. Changing snow conditions can cause dangers

and strong challenges for the herds and makes a clear understanding about these di�erent conditions crucial.

Especially now that climate change is causing conditions to be increasingly unpredictable.

Main problem here is the forming of ice layers that are blocking the reindeer from getting access to the vegetation underneath the now. When to many or when these layers

get to thick this can cause the herds to starvv.

Day 2:

Sami University College

Events:

On day two we went to the Sami University College for a number of lectures and a tour around the building.

Learning´s:

The Sami University College is located on a hill overseeing the city. The outside of the building doesn´t look typical

Sami but the inside has many Sami details. For example art pieces on the walls and details like a piece of the armrest of the stairs made out of reindeer horn. The materials for the building were mostly acquired out of the north of Norway.

The lectures were about Sami knowledge and names for terrain and features; City planning in Kautokeino; General Reindeer herding knowledge and a case study about Rein-deer herding in Yamal and their con�icts with oil and gas

development and Sami snow knowledge.

Fig 5. Sami University College in Kautokeino

Fig 6. Sami University College, main area

Snow Scooter

Kautokeino

Day 3:

Snow Scooter Tour

Events:

On day three we went through the landscape on snow scooters to see the landscape of the winter pastures and

search the reindeer herds.

Learning´s:

The Kautokeino area holds around 93.000 reindeers in the winter so no one could predict that we would not �nd them

but unfortunately we didn´t �nd any.

We did however got a good impression about the immense space that the reindeers have as their winter pasture area. Distances are big both for reindeer and for the herders. We

also saw their infrastructure, for reindeer in the form of fences to separate the herds and for the herders and other people snow scooters tracks in the form of marked paths.

´Normal people‘ are bound to use these paths however Sami reindeer herders are free to use their scooters wherev-

er they want.

Fig 7. Snow Scooters near Kautokeino

Fig 9. Open areas near Kautokeino

Fig 8. Kautokeino in the evening

Alta Dam

Alta

Kautokeino

Bus

All the protests did turn out to be e�ective since the original plan of the dam was changed, saving the Sami village of

Máze and causing less damage to the salmon and reindeer pastures.

Also arguable is that as compensation for the dam the Sami were given the Sami Parliament in Kasajok and the

Sami University College in Kautokeino.

Day 4:

Alta Dam

Events:

In the morning we went to Alta by bus to pick up the guides for our trip to the Alta Dam and canyon. From Alta it is a

one-hour bus ride to the dam.

Learning´s:

On our way to the dam we saw many important points in the history of the Alta dam, like Point Zero. This was a place

halfway to the dam were a large demonstration of Sami and others (mainly environmentalists) had taken place to stop the building of the dam. They blocked the road at this

point and had their �nal demonstration.

Eventually with a large police force the protests were beaten down and the dam was eventually build and

opened in 1987. One last attempt of a local to blow up a small bridge, vital for the road leading to the dam, failed

injuring himself badly.

Fig 10. The Alta Dam

Fig 11. Inside the Alta Dam

Tromsø AltaPlane

Day 5:

Alta Museum

Events:

The last day in Alta we went to the Alta Museum (rock carving museum). And later in the day we �ew back to Tromsø.

Learning´s:

In the museum we were told a lot about ancient rock carvings that can be seen just outside Alta but which are currently covered in snow.

These carvings are unique, well conserved and between 7000 and 2000 years old.

Besides the carvings we were told and shown a lot about the history of North Norway, its settlements and people. The picture on the right

shows the churches in 1589 (Fig. 13), which explains that all settle-ments back then were located along the coast.

Di�erent groups have inhabited the north in the past: Sami, Norwe-gians, Swedish and Finnish (see Fig 14). The Sami wanted their own land, however this was never given to them. The do however have

some sort of self-governance now with the Sami parliament.

Fig 12. Alta Rock Carvings

Fig 14. Finnish build style house in northern Norway

Fig 13. Churches in North Norway in 1589