Custodial reindeer and custodial goats - part of reindeer herding and animal husbandry Bjørg Evjen Centre for Sami studies, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway ([email protected]). Abstract: The Sami husbandry has traditionally incorporated reindeer, which did not belong to the nomadic household. According to the national census from 1875, this system was found in many parts of Norway. Among the counties, Nordland stood out having the highest number of households owing custodial reindeer. Most of the households were non-Sami, and most of them having less than ten reindeer. Especially in Nordland and Troms, a system with custodial goats also served as the transaction. There were eventually, with an exception of Finnmark, rules in place trying to prevent settled people from keeping reindeer, only followed in part. The system went on till after the Second World War, mainly because it was an important part of the household economy of the settled people. The great changes and rational- ization within the agricultural sector, the growth of industrial society, and the modernisation of society in general under- mined the use of reindeer as a part of the household livestock. Key words: domestic animals, livestock, national census, Ovis aries, pig, Rangifer tarandus, reindeer husbandry, Sami, Sus domesticus, verdde. Rangifer, 27 (2): 79-91 Introduction The Sami husbandry of domesticated reindeer has relations emerged from this practice and when and traditionally incorporated reindeer which did not why did it come to an end? These are the factors, belong to the nomadic household. These reindeer which I want to shed light on in this article. were called “custodial reindeer” (sytingsrein) or according to Historical Lexicon (2001): “Custodial reindeer or breeding reindeer [alrein], as they were also called, Previous research on the topic was the term for reindeer which belonged to Sea Sami No researcher from the Norwegian part of Sápmi1 has or farmers, but which were tended by Mountain focused solely on the institution of keeping custodial Sami”. In some areas the term farm reindeer (gårds- reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus). In her investiga- rein) was used, other places used the designation tion dealing with the island Senja in Troms County “akterein” (akte = take care of). Common to all these in northern Norway (toponymes in Fig. 1), Dikka expressions was the fact that it involved a small num- Storm (1990:152) demonstrated that reindeer herding ber of reindeer, which were owned by the settled Sami from Jukkasjärvi in Sweden tended custodial people but were tended by the nomadic Sami. How reindeer belonging to settled people in both outlying extensive was the husbandry of custodial reindeer field and coastal settlements. Bård A. Berg (1999) in the north and the south of Norway? What other only briefly dealt with the custodial reindeer system 1 The areas where the Sami people live; a trans-national region covering the Kola peninsula in Russia, and the northern parts of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Rangifer, 27 (2), 2007 79 Finnmark Troms Vesterålen Russia Lofoten Ofoten Jukkasjärvi Tornedalen Salten Gällivare Finland Nordland Saltfjellet Helgeland Norrbotten Norway Sweden Västerbotten Trøndelag South Norway Kvaløy Malangen Senja Balsfjord Evenes Tysfjord Hamarøy Sørfold Fauske Sulitjelma Saltdal Fig. 1. Map with the place names (toponymes) used in the article. in his dissertation on reindeer herding in Helgeland During a previous study in Tysfjord municipality in in Nordland County. In his master thesis on the Nordland County, I also adopted this understanding history of the “markasámi” (a group of settled Sami) with reference to conditions in the 1900s. Reindeer Thomas Ole Andersen (2005) discusses the institu- could, without any problem, graze together with tion in a smaller area of Troms County going deeper goats (Capra hircus), cows (Bos taurus), and sheep (Ovis into one or two local examples. In an article, Lars Ivar aries) (Fig. 2), but this was the exception. As a rule, Hansen (2005) addressed reindeer herding as it was the reindeer were to be found in the herds of the combined with other livelihoods in the 1600s and nomadic Sami, a practice that is also the basis for my 1700s. He concluded that any analysis needs flexible understanding of the custodial reindeer system from concepts that can encompass transitional arrange- 1875 onwards. ments and intermediate stages from subsistence to This practice involved relations and exchange of nomadic reindeer herding. He considered that rein- services between settled and nomadic peoples. Some deer husbandry could be part of multiple subsistence Norwegian researchers have analyzed the so-called households in the southern part of Troms County. “verdde-system,” a system of mutual exchange of goods 80 Rangifer, 27 (2), 2007 Fig. 2. Semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus) and domestic sheep (Ovis aries) grazing together in Kvaløy/ Sállir, Troms County, northern Norway. Photographer: Terje D. Josefsen. 8th Oct. 2005. and services, which existed between the nomadic Agricultural and national censuses reindeer herding families and settled people. This Agricultural and national censuses are two major especially occurred in conjunction with the seasonal sources for documenting the extent of the custodial migrations, an exchange involving, among other reindeer practice. In the national censuses from 1865 things, the custodial reindeer system (Fig. 3). Harald and 1875 the livestock is registered for each household. Eidheim (1971) demonstrated inter alia how changes The published statistics, however, give the number of in the post-WW II migrations led to the collapse reindeer for a geographical area as a whole, for example of parts of the verdde-system. However, this special a municipality. We are not able to ascertain how many relationship between the nomadic and settled people kept reindeer in addition to other livestock. Reindeer is still referred to in more recent research from herders, whose livelihood was based solely on the rein- present-day Finnmark County (Andersen, 2005). The deer were listed in the censuses as “nomads,” “reindeer settled people could be Sami or not. Lapps,” et al., and thus can be identified. However, The system of custodial reindeer was found both given these sources, we have no way of knowing if two within reindeer herding that involved movement along or ten households had custodial reindeer among the over- established routes on Norwegian territory – that is, all number of reindeer listed in any one municipality. coastal reindeer herding – and within herding which In the agricultural censuses, starting from 1907 moved to and fro across the border between Sweden on, there are great statistical variations in the treat- and Norway – that is, the cross-border reindeer herd- ment of reindeer husbandry from one census to the ing. On the basis of available sources, it is difficult to next. For example, there were four of them between distinguish between the custodial reindeer practices 1907 and 1939. In both of the agricultural censuses in the two types of herding; neither do earlier works of 1918 and 1939 reindeer were not placed in the provide any basis for such a distinction (Kalstad, category of domesticated animals. However in 1907 1982; Vorren, 1986; Berg, 1999). If nothing else is and 1929 they were included in this category but only indicated, the following account will treat the two as in terms of the overall number for a municipality or one entity. district. Another source that could have brought On the Swedish side, Åsa Nordin (2002) has exam- additional information is the so-called Migration ined the custodial reindeer institution at the begin- lists in Sweden, where the reindeer herding Sami ning of the 1900s in Gällivare parish. She analyzes crossing the boarder and their livestock are registered. how the institution changed over time, with reference As these lists are not in an electronically form, it will to changes in the legal environment and moderniza- take too long a time to get such information as on the tion. Nordin’s examination will provide an important Norwegian side of the boarder. It will be a research basis of comparison for my work. project in its own. Rangifer, 27 (2), 2007 81 Fig. 3. Saltfjellet montains, Lønsdal, Nordland County, in the early 1900 (probably around 1920). The female reindeer, “simle”, is milked. The milk gave a delicious cheese which was a part of the traditional co-operative trade in the verdde-system between nomadic and settled people. Photo: Salten Museum, Saltdal. To find the extent of custodial reindeer holding I will be considered Norwegian. That brings us to the have turned to one of the original national censuses question: considered by whom? From recent research to find information on household level. we know that the registrations were based upon instructions given by the national authorities, and done by census takers. Several uncertainties lead The extent of the system in 1875 to an under-registration of the Sami. It seems fair to In 1875, the information was recorded as data on the conclude that the statistical numbers thus arrived at individual level though the information about indi- cannot indicate the total size of the Sami population viduals and about agriculture was recorded on two (Evjen & Hansen, submitted). different lists. In my database they are combined in It is no accident that the 1875 census is conducted such a way that it is possible to determine the number in this way. Earlier investigations of the livestock of of reindeer in particular households.2 As a major source households in a local and regional area have con- criticism, it is not easy to determine if this involves cluded that the agricultural census of 1875 is the the same individuals in the two records. The manner most reliable census with regard to accurate entry of in which names were written was not or had not been the various categories of livestock (Jernsletten, fully standardized, so that Peder Hans Oluffsen, born 2003:170).