Arvidsjaur Municipality ( sv, Arvidsjaurs kommun; sju, Árviesjávrrien kommuvdna) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is

Arvidsjaur Arvidsjaur (; sju, Árviesjávrrie; ) is a locality and the seat of Arvidsjaur Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 4,635 inhabitants in 2010. Arvidsjaur is a center for the European car industry. During the winte ...

History

Arvidsjaur Municipality was for a long time inhabited only by the Sami people. They were back then a

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

people, living off the abundance of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

and

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

in the area. Archaeological discoveries suggest that people have been moving through the area for several thousands of years. The name ''Arvidsjaur'' itself comes from a

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

word which means "generous water" and was originally the name of the adjacent lake. In the 14th and 15th century some

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

s settled in the area. They acquired

fur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...

s and skins from the hunters, and traded them off to southern regions, allegedly in vast numbers. The

Christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

of Arvidsjaur Municipality was slow, as it was in

Norrland Norrland (, "Northland", originally ''Norrlanden'' or "the Northlands") is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administ ...

as a whole, because of the low population, the harsh climate and the long distances. It was also commonly believed that Norrland was inhabited by

magicians Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

. Not until 1577 did the first settler, Per Käck, settle in Arvidsjaur. The settlers built the first

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

at the

marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

at the time, in 1560. The first

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

was inaugurated in 1604. The Swedish minister and

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

Petrus Læstadius (1802–1841;

brother A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

of Lars Levi Læstadius, founder of the largest Christian revival movement in Norrland) collected old stories and myths in the area in the 19th century, which create the basis for our knowledge from that time.

Geography

Arvidsjaur Municipality is located about 110 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, in the center of the northernmost

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...

. It is also part of the

geographic Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

area Lapland, which consists of the northern parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland. Sami people are an indigenous

minority group The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

who mainly live on breeding

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

. Arvidsjaur Municipality still contains several Sami villages, and as a tribute to the Sami people a reindeer is the basis for the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

Localities

There are three localities (or urban areas) in Arvidsjaur Municipality:Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
/ref> The municipal seat in bold

Elections

Riksdag

These are the results of the elections to the Riksdag since the 1972 municipal reform.

Norrbotten Party The Norbotten Party (''Norrbottenspartiet'') was a minor, regional party in Sweden. The base of the party was in the most northern Swedish province, Norrbotten County, and in the local and regional parties, the Kiruna Party and the Norrbotten Hea ...

also contested the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

election but due to the party's small size at a nationwide level SCB did not publish the party's results at a municipal level. The same applies to the Sweden Democrats between 1988 and 1998. "Turnout" denotes the percentage of eligible voters casting any ballots, whereas "Votes" denotes the number of actual valid ballots cast. Blocs This lists the relative strength of the socialist and centre-right blocs since 1973, but parties not elected to the Riksdag are inserted as "other", including the Sweden Democrats results from 1988 to 2006, but also the Christian Democrats pre-1991 and the Greens in 1982, 1985 and 1991. The sources are identical to the table above. The coalition or government mandate marked in bold formed the government after the election. New Democracy got elected in 1991 but are still listed as "other" due to the short lifespan of the party.

References

External links

Arvidsjaur Municipality
- Official site
Arvidsjaur.eu
- Arvidsjaur in Swedish Lapland {{authority control Municipalities of Norrbotten County