The Whippet: The Arctic Circle and Jokkmokk

The Arctic Circle

On my second day (09/10/2019) I got to cross the Arctic Circle (66° 30 min. N) after that and for two weeks all my time would be spent within the Northern Shield (The parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia that are north of the Arctic Circle).

The Arctic Circle is defined at 66-and-a-half-degree north or 23.5° from the North Pole’s latitude of 90°. This corresponds to the tilt of the earth and so defines the area, in winter, where the sun would strike at Zero degrees on the sphere and so represents a circle of 24-hour darkness i.e. the Arctic Night. For those who are not enthused about a several months-long night, know that in summer this area benefits from the midnight sun, so a VERY long day indeed.

JOKKMOKK

Jokkmokk (66.6070° N, 19.8229° E) is one of the most important Sámi reindeer herding centers as well as a cultural center that includes the most extensive Sámi museum as well as the Sámi Art Foundation and a whole host of Sámi artists with their own outlets.

A “Sameby” is an organization that federates some number of reindeer herding outfits. The Sameby is a descendent of the ancient Sámi Siida which was a set of self-regulating hunting and fishing districts going back to the 15^th century. It is likely that the Sámi Siida itself was the formalization of even more ancient cooperation for the hunting of reindeer, moose, bear, and other smaller prey. Fishing was of course also very important and for some, the "Sea Sámi" the main source of sustenance. Those Sámi were and are mostly on the Norwegian northernmost coastline. Jokkmokk is home to five of the largest Sameby including the nbr. one largest in the country managing 9,000 reindeer.

A bit of Sámi history

Mass hunts of reindeer are known in Europe through cave paintings at Altamira in Spain from the days when the tundra reached that far down. Those paintings are estimated to be 15,000- 17,000 years old. As the ice receded and the tundra moved north so did the reindeer with some hunter-gatherers following closely. At about 13,000 years ago mass hunting sites have been found in what today is northern Germany. Some descendants of those reindeer hunters eventually crossed from Denmark into Sweden and up to Norway following the ice-free coastline all the way up to what now is Alta in northernmost Norway. This happened about 11,000 years ago and is believed to be the very first post-glacial re-population of Scandinavia. It is referred to as the “Western Route”. The next strand of hunters would come from the East migrating through today’s Finland and also ending up in Norway. The oldest sites known of these people are about 10,200 years old. This is referred to as the “Eastern Route”.

The Sámi take their origin from this mix plus a continually added component of peoples immigrating from the West Russian plain. Of course, these migrants had pretty much nothing in common with Russians. They were not Slavs, did not know Russian, and even the ones that eventually got to know agriculture did not want it. They were Finno-Ugric speaking hunter-gatherers like practically all the Sámi’s ancestors.

Today there are a few central bastions of Sámi culture and the largest are:

Jokkmokk, Sweden
Karesuando, Sweden
Arjeplog, Sweden
Katokeino, Norway
Karasjok, Norway
Alta, Norway
Enontekiö, Finland
Lovozero, Russia

The Sámi are the only people left in western Europe possessing the competence necessary to live successfully off of nature alone. They do more than that, but that skill sets them apart from everyone else. In fact, they are so good at it that the Swedish Crown (seeing taxable revenue opportunities) many centuries ago gave them the exclusive rights to all reindeer in Sweden. This right survives till this day. No matter where you are in Sweden if you see a reindeer it belongs to a given Sámi. Although the Sámi have struggled with encroachment from farmers for many centuries, they have survived and thrived by dint of their unique skills at extracting value from the wilderness. A Sámi take great pride in their herd as they very well should!

They also understood sustainability long before it became a word. Many centuries ago, they decided in council to transition from reindeer hunting to herding understanding that if they kept indiscriminately hunting them, the reindeer would go extinct. Today the Fenno-Scandian herd exceeds half a million heads.

OK, so that ended up being a lot more of my favorite topic than expected for a post announcing me making it to Jokkmokk! So, enough talking, and here are a few pictures (click to enlarge):