Varpu Lotvonen

(Here I am nailing up reindeer skins to the wall in order for it to be stretched properly)

I (Varpu Lotvonen) had the opportunity to visit Sámi Allaskuvla in the fall of 2022 as part of my PhD research on the lives of Sámi reindeer herders in Alaska. It was truly a wonderful experience. Guovdageaidnu is beautiful and the people were generous with their time, coffee, food, and stories. I learned a lot! My research is about Sámi involvement in reindeer herding in Alaska.

The "Reindeer Project" in Alaska was a multicultural endeavor that included Chukchi and Sámi herding instructors, Alaska Natives, and the oversight of the United States government (whose views often clashed with those of the Indigenous participants). Alaska Natives I have spoken with remember Sámi with warmth, and there were many intermarriages that tie Guovdageaidnu families to Indigenous Alaskans. Of course, Guovdageaidnu community’s historical memory and ongoing friendships between people are crucial. I hope my work will serve Alaska Native interest in their Sámi ancestry, Sámi interest toward Alaskan stories, and maybe most of all, I hope to “set the record straight” in reindeer herding literature. Many of the older studies of Alaska Native herding depict Sámi only as pawns to colonial processes but the situation of the immigrants was much more complex.

Although I grew up in Muonio, just 121 kilometers southwest of Guovdageaidnu, and studied in Helsinki, I am now a long-time resident of Fairbanks, Alaska. While I am familiar with Northern Sámi culture through my studies and friendships, I am not Sámi myself, and my visit to Guovdageaidnu was essential. It was also a deeply personal and rewarding experience, and I even got to meet some of my intellectual heroes through Allaskuvla!

During my visit, I spoke with many people and learned a lot about the history, and about the old archival photos I have been researching. People showed me how they were roughly able to time the photographs by observing how the reindeer changed according to the seasons and we discussed changes in reindeer herding technology. They also told me about muorranamma, duodji, old reindeer herding ways, and much more. In the end, my visit was an unforgettable experience, and I am deeply grateful to everyone who shared their knowledge with me.

(The lavvu outside Diehtosiida campus on a misty day)

As part of my work, I have been collaborating with Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives to get their Sámi photographs digitized and onto Vilda database – At the time I am writing this, in April of 2023, they do not yet seem to be online, but eventually they will be. (https://vilda.alaska.edu/).

Previously, I have been a part of a project that researched Alaskan reindeer herding history around 1905. “Frank Churchill’s 1905 Documentation of the Reindeer Service in Alaska” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/aps-20-2-5.htm