Neiden ( sms, Njauddâm, sme, Njávdán, smn, Njiävđám, and fi, Näätämö, previously also ''Näytämö'') is a village area in the

Sápmi (, smj, Sábme / Sámeednam, sma, Saepmie, sju, Sábmie, , , sjd, Са̄мь е̄ммьне, Saam' jiemm'n'e) is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi is in Northern and Eastern Europe and includes the ...

area along the

Finland–Norway border The border between Norway and Finland is long. It is a land and river border between two tripoints. The western tripoint is marked by Treriksröset, a concrete cairn where both countries border Sweden. The eastern tripoint is marked by Trer ...

with about 250 inhabitants. Neiden, situated along the

Neiden River Neiden may refer to: *Neiden, Norway, a village in Sør-Varanger, Finnmark county, Norway *Neiden Chapel, a chapel in the village of Neiden, Sør-Varanger, Finnmark county, Norway *''Neidenelva'', the Norwegian name of the Näätämö River that fl ...

, actually consists of two villages 12 kilometers apart, separated by the border of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. One village is in

Sør-Varanger Municipality Sør-Varanger ( sme, Máttá-Várjjat, fkv, Etelä-Varenki, fi, Etelä-Varanki, russian: Сёр-Вара́нгер/Syor-Varánger) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town ...

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English language, English), is a Counties of Norway, county in Northern Norway, northern Norway that was established ...

county, Norway, and the other village is in Inari Municipality in

Lapland Lapland may refer to: Places *Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) **Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region *** Lapland (former pr ...

, Finland. ''Neiden'' is the official name in Norway and ''Näätämö'' in Finland. The

European route E6 European route E6 ( no, Europavei 6, sv, Europaväg 6, or simply E6) is the main north-south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and t ...

highway runs through the Norwegian village of Neiden. The village on the Finnish side is close to the border and has border shops.

History

Neiden became the main settlement of the westernmost ( sme, siida, i.e. the fundamental unit of the old

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 net ...

society, indicating both the area and the family group(s) exploiting it) of the

Skolts The Skolt Sámi or Skolts are a Sami ethnic group. They currently live in and around the villages of Sevettijärvi, Keväjärvi, Nellim in the municipality of Inari, at several places in the Murmansk Oblast and in the village of Neiden in the m ...

and has remained relatively unchanged, leaving numerous traces of earlier use of the area intact. Neiden was governmentally divided officially in 1852. The reason for that separation was the

demarcation Demarcation is the act of creating a boundary around a place or thing. Demarcation may also refer to: *Demarcation line, a temporary border between the countries *Demarcation problem, the question of which practices of doing science permit the re ...

treaty between the Kingdom of

Sweden-Norway Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway ( sv, Svensk-norska unionen; no, Den svensk-norske union(en)), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden ...

and the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...

, which prohibited

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

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 subspe ...

herding and moving of fishermen over the border. That caused much harm to reindeer husbandry for a long time.

World War Two

In October, 1944, German forces withdrew through the area after having failed to capture

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') i ...

Operation Silver Fox Operation Silver Fox (german: Silberfuchs; fi, Hopeakettu) from 29 June to 17 November 1941, was a joint German–Finnish military operation during the Continuation War on the Eastern Front of World War II against the Soviet Union. The objectiv ...

. On the 26th and 27th around two hundred Soviet and German soldiers were killed around the village.Måtte begrave hundrevis av lik
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People

Most inhabitants of Neiden are

Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "La Voz 1520 AM & 96.3 FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language news/tal ...

, and

Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...

Skolt Sami

The

form a minority group among the

and are distinct from other groups in a number of ways. The

Russian culture Russian culture (russian: Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and Western culture, Western influence. Russian ...

has had a strong influence on the

, who adopted

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in its Eastern Orthodox form in the 16th century. The Skolt Sami language is highly endangered and not spoken actively in Neiden today. Almost all speakers live in Finland. The '' Ä'vv Skolt Sami Museum'', situated in Neiden, officially opened in June 2016. A Skolt Sami tradition maintained until today is the so-called Käpälä-fishing of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

with a cast net.

Protected area

The protected area in Skoltebyen includes a number of different monuments, some of which are old enough (i.e. more than 100 years) to be automatically protected under the ''Cultural Heritage Act''. These include a Russian Orthodox graveyard, the ruins of a smoke

sauna A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a ...

, sixteen sites of traditional turf huts known as ''gammer'' and a tiny () Russian Orthodox chapel, St. Georg's Chapel, built 1565 by

Tryphon of Pechenga Saint Tryphon of Pechenga (russian: Преподобный Трифон Печенгский, Кольский; fi, Pyhittäjä Trifon Petsamolainen (Kuolalainen); sms, Pââʹss Treeffan, 1495–1583) was a Russian monk and ascetic in the East ...

. In addition, many of the natural features of the area have been and are being used in religious ceremonies, such as

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

. The formal protection (scheduling) of the settlement was carried out in order to safeguard its historical and religious importance as well as the integrity of the landscape. This is the most important cultural heritage site for the

and their surviving culture in Norway. The protection order was issued to prevent the area from being developed in a way that would reduce its significance and cultural value, while at the same time encouraging use that will communicate, maintain and develop the Skolt culture. The protection order does not affect the commercial

fishing in the

nor other commercial activities in the area.

Religion

The oldest church in Neiden (and in Finnmark) is St. Georg's Russian Orthodox chapel (built 1565), mentioned above. There is also the Lutheran Neiden Chapel, built in 1902 in the classical style of a Norwegian stave church. It was built as part of a deliberate policy of

Norwegianization Norwegianization (''Fornorsking av samer'') was an official policy carried out by the Norwegian government directed at the Sámi and later the Kven people of northern Norway, in which the goal was to assimilate non-Norwegian-speaking native popula ...

of Eastern Finnmark in the face of fear of Russian encroachment.

References

External links

NeidenSkolt Sámi Culture Across bordersNeiden Blog (finnish)NeidenfossenOfficial website Skoltsami museum in Neiden
{{Authority control Villages in Finnmark Villages in Inari, Finland Populated places of Arctic Norway Populated places of Arctic Finland