Salomo Näkkäläjärvi and Tafie - Finland
|
 |
Home for Salomo Näkkäläjärvi is the small village of Lisma in the municipality of Inar and is surrounded by the Lemmenjoki National Park in Finland. Lisma village and its livelihood historically has been reindeer herding. Nowadays there are seven families and the village still lives from the reindeer husbandry. The first road came to the village in 1970s. Prior to that the Lisma River provided the main form of transportation in the summertime while in the winter, the reindeer sledge was the main mode of transportation. In the 1960s snowmobiles replaced reindeer sledges as the means of travel in the winter.. The nearest village and shops were and still are 90 km away. At the age of seven children have to go to school and in the 1950s the nearest school was 60 km from Lisma village. Young children had to stay the whole winter at the boarding school. They were only able to come home only at Christmas and summertime. Many times it was mother who took the children to school with her favorite reindeer. The men of the village spent long periods, weeks and even months, on the fells with the reindeer and the women had to take care of the household, children and usually a couple of cows which they also had at that time.
Before the introduction of snowmobiles every reindeer herder had at least one or two herding dogs. Handling the semi wild reindeer would not have been possible without dogs. At that time, the men were on skiis and they used their dogs extensively to help manage the reindeer. With snowmobiles, the need for dogs diminished, as did the number of dogs.
Salomo Näkkäläjärvi has been a reindeer herder all his life. His reindeer roam in the area of Lemmenjoki National Park, which covers
an area of 2860 sq.km. The National Park was established in 1956 and it is one of the largest in
Finland. The landscape is dominated by the 70 km long Lemmenjoki River surrounded with fells.
The slopes of the valley are covered in unique old-growth Pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests. Above
the river valleys, the pine forests gradually give way to birch forests, and up at the rugged fell
tops the ground is bare. On those tops one will find the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus). Also
large mires form an essential part of the National Park’s landscape. Those mires are the summer
pastures of the reindeer. The National Park is a home for many rare plant and animal species.
The reindeer herder’s life with protected predators like Wolverines (Gulo gulo) and Wolves (Canis lupus) is sometimes
complicated.
The three northernmost municipalities in Finland belong to Sámi homeland where the Sámi people have special rights to develop the Sámi culture and livelihoods. Sami people are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost and the Nordic countries’ only officially indigenous people. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are endangered.
The best known means of Sámi livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding – which about 10 % of the Sámi are connected with and 2800 actively involved with full-time. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sámi people in certain regions of the Nordic countries. For historical reasons in Finland there is also Finnish reindeer herders.
The Finnish reindeer herding area is divided into 56 geographically defined reindeer herding co-
operatives. In the North, the co-operatives are big and there are more reindeer. Reindeer are also
the source of income for a bigger part of the population; whole families are involved and many
women work independently in reindeer herding. The Reindeer Herding Association has built a
2000 km long fence for reindeer on the Northern borders of Finland. The association is responsible
for maintaining this fence.
The herding dog is mostly used while gathering reindeer for round-ups and moving the herds. The slaughter season starts at the end of October, after the reindeer have mated in peace. The gathering of the reindeer depends on the winter. If there is no snow and the area is suitable, ATVs are used. If there is snow and the waters have frozen, snowmobiles are used. Some herding co- operatives use an assisting helicopter.
Salomo got to know Border Collies in 2000s after meeting the National Park officer, Maarit Kyöstilä and her bitch Judy, and he has used Border Collies ever since. In reindeer herding the dog has to be fully trained because there is always many people working together and reindeer are wild and accidents happen easily. A trained Border Collie may be used in a place where a traditional reindeer herding dog is never used. It is not possible to train a dog with reindeer, one has to have some sheep for training. Following Maarit's interest in trialling, Salomo started sheepdog trialling in 2004. Ever summer he travels to trials in Southern Finland, Northern Sweden and Norway. He regularly travels 25,000 km a year to attend trials. In the World Trial 2011 Salomo will trial with Tafie, who is an 8 year old bitch. Tafie was in the Finnish team for the 2008 WT in Wales with Maarit. Salomo´s main reindeer dog at the moment is Tor, which is a homebred, three year old dog and is a reserve dog for Tafie. He is more trial type dog and has been trialing in open class since age of 1.5 years.
Thank you Maarit Kyöstilä for providing the above information and photos.
