Reindeer Blog
In 2008, I traveled with my family to a small town in northern Norway (several hundred miles above the arctic circle) for the 110th anniversary of the Manitoba expedition. The Manitoba was a ship that brought about 150 Sámi reindeer herders and their families to Alaska (and about 500 reindeer, of which around 200 survived the trip) to exchange knowledge with the Inuit and other indigenous peoples in Alaska about reindeer husbandry. My great-grandparents were on this ship, and so our family and some other descendants of Sámi in North America traveled to Kautokeino, Norway for the anniversary celebration.
March 21, 2008 4:26 PM (NYC time), 9:26 PM (Norway time)
We arrived in Alta, Norway in the afternoon on the 19th. Many of our cousins met us at the small airport in Alta, and then they took us to have coffee at our cousin Vibeke Elvenes' house. Our cousins the Monsens were also there, and Grete (left, below) made us exquisite family trees and in this picture you can see her showing one of these family trees to my parents. She made one for my great-grandfather, Per Nilsen Bals, and one for my great-grandmother, Inger Anna Olsdatter Baehr - going back to the 1500s!
After coffee, our cousin Olav Mathis Eira (center, above) drove us to Kautokeino. Here are a few pictures from the drive:
We arrived in Kautokeino in the evening, and the next morning (March 20) we hopped around town seeing the sights. Here is a photo of the tourist center (you can see traditional Sámi outfits - called "gákti" in the window):
This is the official Sámi flag. The blue part of the circle represents the moon and the red part of the circle represents the sun.
Here I am in a gákti borrowed from Ellen Inga Haetta and her daughters (Ellen Inga is the Director of the Norwegian Reindeer Husbandry Administration):
Today, March 21st, was the official celebration. Here are our cousins Olav Mathis Eira, his mother Kristine Bongo Eira, and his wife Kristina:
Here we are with one of our cousins (the dude with the cool hat) and our cousin Mimi Bahl De Leon from Washington state - we had to come all the way to Norway to finally meet her!
March 26, 2008 11:07 AM (NYC time)
We got back to the states late last night, and I'm heading home to New York from DC this afternoon. It's time to put up the rest of the pictures. This includes the reindeer race and our visit to a reindeer herd!
Here are some of the reindeer that ran in the race. The race is held once a year around Easter. These reindeer are castrated males. They are very tame and so we could get up pretty close to them (but not too close)!
Here is the reindeer that ran the ceremonial first run:
Here is the mayor of Kautokeino who raced using the reindeer above with the traditional wooden skis.
Here is the Kautokeino church after Easter service:
This was my first time ever driving a snowmobile. We drove about 40km round trip on snowmobiles to see our cousin Per Baer's reindeer herd.
Here we are with the herd!
And here's Per Baer himself:
Here is Ellen Inga on her cellphone and my dad in the background. My mom loves this picture because we're in the middle of the tundra and she has pretty good reception!
I hope we can visit Kautokeino again soon to see our wonderful family. If you'd like to read more about Sámi and reindeer herding you can find some information at the links below:
Baiki magazine - information on the Manitoba expedition