Reindeer Blog

Most office workers would not appreciate the ashes of somebody’s recently passed away family member or loved one being spread around their workspace. Sami reindeer herders in Sweden have decided to draw attention to the fact that it is becoming an increasingly common occurence in the mountains that they call their workplace, according to a recent story in UPI and The Local

UMEA, Sweden, July 5 (UPI) — Spreading the ashes of a lost loved one in northern Sweden’s mountains is “unpleasant” for area reindeer herders, they say.

Tomas Nejne, who spoke for a group of reindeer herders, said the funerary practice may be soothing to grieving relatives, but has “unpleasant’ after-effects on herding activities, The Local reported Saturday.

“This has become a working environment problem for us. We think that it is unpleasant to be in and walk over areas where people are buried,” Nejne said.

Current law allows scattering ashes in the mountains thanks to a county administrative board decision. But the herders are asking county court officials to make an immediate change.

The Local said if the herders’ efforts are ultimately unsuccessful, two more people’s cremated remains will be released in the regional mountains.

Smoke from intense fires in southeastern Russia poured over the Sea of Okhotsk on June 30, 2008. This natural-color image of the fires (marked in red) is made from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites on June 30. The fires are affecting Amur, Khabarovsk, and southern Sakha Provinces in Russia’s Far East.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Fire data is now avaialble on the web, continuously updated, in a beta web tool developed in the University of Maryland, in cooperation with NASA.

During the EALAT Information workshops in Sakha and Chukotka, loss of reindeer pastures as a result of fires was highlighted by reindeer herders as a threat to reindeer husbandry. During Soviet times, considerable resources were expended on fire control and fighting from the air. With the economic crisis of the 1990’s, these efforts were halted and have yet to be resumed. The New Scientist recently carried an article that suggests that tundra fires will increase in size and intensity with climate change.

So said Toomas Ilves, the President of Estonia, as he marched his delegation out of last weeks Finno Ugric Congress in Khanty Mansisk. Ilves even called for the European Union to become engaged in protecting Finno Ugric languages. These remarks were designed to irritate Russia, no doubt, as more than 2 million Finno Ugrian people live in Russia (and many are reindeer herders) Nenets, Sami, Khanty, Mansy, and Komi. However, and this point was made in the Moscow Times in yesterdays editorial, many of Russia’s indigenous peoples are not benefiting from the recent rise in Russia’s wealth and this is all the more evident in areas that are rich in oil and gas such as Khanty Mansisk, Yamal Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Nenets Automous Okrug).

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(Pic - Svein Mathiesen, NAO) У оленеводов свои проблемы, решение которых, к сожалению, может затянуться на неопределенный срок, в связи с передачей полномочий от НАО к АО и реорганизацией управлений по делам малочисленных народов и сельского хозяйства окружной Администрации.

О том, что жизнь людей, ведущих традиционный для НАО образ жизни (оленеводов, охотников и рыбаков), во многом отличается от жизни строителя, геолога, учителя или врача, никто спорить не будет. Тут свои «кричащие» особенности: тундровое становище, продуваемое всеми ветрами, без каких-либо привычных для деревни (не говоря уж о городе) удобств, круглосуточное дежурство по охране тысячного стада в любую погоду, днем и ночью, однообразная пища, оторванность от семьи и, как в космосе, одни и те же лица соседей по чуму в течение нескольких месяцев. И это только малая часть обыденных проблем, с которыми приходится сталкиваться тундровикам.  English summary below 

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(Source - The Kremlin) Many Finno Ugric Peoples are reindeer herders - Sami, Komi, Khanty, Finns, Nenets, to name a few. While reindeer were not on the agenda at last weeks Finno Ugric Peoples congress in Khanty Mansisk last week, reindeer were not too far away..as seen in this picture with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Finnish President Tarja Halonen. Medvedev promised to visit to Finland in the near future - perhaps Reindeer will feature then?

(Pic-Philip Burgess). With the coming of summer and the migration of reindeer from Finnmarks’s interior to the coast, the local media has lately been filled with stories about the reinplagen. This translates as ‘reindeer plague’, a disease which sounds deadly, but so far, only reindeer have died as a result. It relates to reindeer grazing in urban and agricultural areas where they are not welcome by farmers or some residents. The epicentre of this ‘reinplagen’ seems to be Alta and Hammerfest. Both have been in the media extensively this last two weeks.

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(Visualisation of proposed wind power megaproject from Vernfosen)

Reindeer herders in the South Sami regions in Norway fear for their future, in a story from yesterdays NRK Sami Radio. Reindeer herder Terje Haugen is the head of the Fosen reindeer husbandry district (North of Trondheim). Much of his time over the last few years has been taken up with struggling against wind power development on his districts winter pastures, most particularly Fosenhalvøya. A seminar on South Sami rights is being held in Trøndelag this week and this issue has been high on the agenda. Hauge feels that legislation and current Sami rights do not protect their livelihood.

Large areas around each windmill will be developed, and roads are constructed between each windmill. When all this is combined, a lot of pastures disappear.

A campaign has been launched to protest against the megaproject, with an online petition.

(Pic - Philip Burgess, Reindeer in downtown Hammerfest) A media fury has erupted in Finnmark surrounding comments by a parliamentary representative Olav Gunnar Ballo who claimed that reindeer herders did not have the right to live and that reindeer husbandry was acting as a brake to development and that as a livelihood ‘it was just culture’. Many of these comments arose from a public meeting in Kvalsund regarding plans to expand copper mining in the area, as reported in the Reindeer Blog a few weeks ago.

The debate took a darker turn this week when 5 reindeer were found shot dead in Upper Alta in a farmers field, an event being investigated by police. The recently reappointed leader of the Sami Reindeer Herders Association  (NBR/NRL) retorted that such events are the result of the inflammatory remarks by Ballo. Ballo claims that his remarks have been misrepresented. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual NBR NRL meeting is now over and Nils Henrik Sara from Guovdageaidnu has been reelected as leader. He has a lot of serious issues to preside over - two that were in the media this weekend were the enormous increase in wind power development plans and another being the gender balance on the board.

Arvid Jåma, a reindeer herder in the southern Sami area of Fosen, Trondelag, where NVE plan to develop an enormous wind park supplying 4038 MW, said

I see no option but to quit reindeer herding if Fosen is developed into a windmill park. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual meeting of the Sami Reindeer Herders Association of Norway has started in the southern reindeer husbandry area of Trondelag. The theme of the opening day has been mental health issues for reindeer herders, an issue that is generally overlooked, accoridng to Nils Henrik Sara, NBR leader in a  report today in NRK Sami Radio. Nils Chris Danielsen , an elder herder spoke clearly and eloquently about the issues facing reindeer herders in the region, as he has seen it over the last six decades,

The whole world’s elite now come to the area. They come to areas (to ski) which we depend on in the summer. The reindeer need these areas for cooling in the summer, but the animals can no longer go there because of the skiing events. Interference is increasing. One can say that this also creates psychological problems for us,

 Danielson went on to talk about the other challenges that herders face in the area,

It is important to mobilise against the construction of windmills. Moreover, the expansion of cabin building creates problems for, among other things, migration. Those who have cabins will also be hunting in these areas. This creates problems for us with dogs who will run for anything at a time when the reindeer are to have peace. In addition, power lines are criss crossing the pastures.

If these issues were not addressed, reindeer could no longer thrive, said Danielson, and without reindeer, the Sami culture could not survive.