end of the market...

so, this entry is going to be a kind of a rough draft of another entry that will tell more about the market and the things i saw and did, and the people i met. pictures will be included too, of course. but i have some time to kill before i head back to my room in porjus, so i am in the tourist office in jokkmokk using the internet.

actually, i think i'll write about the past 24 hours, which, i think, have been some of the best and most informative since i've been in sweden. i've spent pretty much the past 24 hours hanging out solely with Sami reindeer herders, who by the way have been the only people really to talk to me since i've been in Jokkmokk. i spoke to one swedish man (more on him later), but other than that it has been almost only Sami. i will also take this opportunity to say that, unlike the wikipedia article implies, everyone i've spoken to herds reindeer...the wikipedia thing makes it sound rare, but i don't think that's the case at all, at least not around here.

last night i met some Sami boys from a more southern part of Sweden. saturday night at the winter market is a ridiculously drunk affair...most people live in very rural areas (one of the boys said he lived in a "village of 4 people") and so this is one of the few times of the year when they get to see each other and take a break from work. anyway, we went to their apartments at the Sami school and they put on their traditional clothing in preparation for this big dance for the youths that i also attended with them. i have to say it was really amazing to dance with someone wearing shoes and pants made of reindeer and beautiful, colorful regional jackets. everyone there was dressed this way. i ended up spending the night at the Sami school with a big group of people...i can't say i slept well though, as all night people were climbing in and out of the windows (for some reason the police were not allowing guests into the rooms), and it was quite noisy with all the drunken kids speaking Sami and Swedish and probably Norweigan as well...

this morning, after wandering out in the snow for a good hour trying to figure out what to do till the only bus to Porjus would come at 5pm, i met an older Sami in his 50's, Nils, from Norway in a restaurant and talked with him for many hours. it turns out that his brother is the wealthiest reindeer herder in the world, with 30,000 head of reindeer. Nils himself is a translator for about 6 different languages and worked at the university in Tromso. in my book he drew a diagram of the "brand pattern" (actually cuts) made in the ears of the reindeer that they use to mark their herd. one of the boys last night did as well, and now i have about 4 drawings of the shape of a reindeer ear with these cut patterns in my book. soon we were joined by A., who, it turns out, is another wealthy reindeer herder from Kautokeino, Norway. A. is the only person under 35 (he is 26) in his district to have a certain amount heads of reindeer - his father has many more, of course, but even the amount he has reindeer = wealthy. he is also going to be in a film coming out this year showing at Cannes about the village he lives in, "Kautokeino 1852". another interesting fact - his uncle is Ole Henrik Magga, who was the first president of the Norweigan Sami Parliament, and the current president of the UN permanent forum for indigenous people. anyway, he spoke a lot about his life as a herder. it turns out his family, like many others who work with reindeer, is somewhat nomadic - they live in 4 different places throughout the year, moving with the reindeer from place to place. he kept saying interesting things throughout the conversation like "i like wild animals, because they respect you, i don't like tame ones..." and drawing diagrams of the best ways to skin a reindeer or tips on how to properly train a sheepdog.

...

A. told me all manners of things about Kautokeino and it's history. he said that maybe less than 100 years ago, there was an incident where a scholar took one of the ancient sacred stones, located in the mountain there and put it in a museum in a big city somewhere. he was sick for 20 years before a Sami woman told him if he returned it to the spot he would get better. he did this and sure enough, got better. A. says he passes the stone each year on the way to one of the seasonal pastures, and that he arranges 20 of his reindeer all around the stone so that it might bring him and the reindeer good luck. this stone however, is not originally the main and most powerful stone: the original stone was buried inside the mountain by the Sami priests during past Norweigan attempts to suppress the Sami culture.

earlier yesterday I was supposed to attend high mass in Sami at the church, to perhaps make an audio recording, but I could not tear myself away from such engaging conversation. we sat for about 4 hours or more talking before they left to drive back to Norway. A. had to work - he had three days to slaughter and prepare the meat of 30 reindeer to take to Oslo.

ok, i will stop for now and write more about these things in a few hours when i am back in porjus....