Who Are the Skolt Sámi? A Story of Resettlement and Survival

日本語

Have you ever heard of the Skolt Sámi?

The Skolt Sámi are a group within the Sámi people who reside in Finland and have endured perhaps the most tragic history. Due to their proximity to the Russian sphere of influence, they have been profoundly affected by Russian culture, resulting in a unique and distinct heritage.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Skolt Sámi, their unique history, and their remarkable culture.

　　

What is the Skolt Sámi People?

Language Notation	Term
English	（英）Skolt sami
Sámi	（サ）Säʹmmlai
Finnish	（芬）kolttasaamelaiset
Norwegian	（諾）Skoltesamer
Russian	（露）саа́мы-ско́льты

The Skolt Sámi are an Eastern Sámi group who historically inhabited a cross-border region encompassing what is now Russia (Kola Peninsula), Finland, and Norway.

Their geographical position led them to be heavily influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church and Eastern cultures (Russian and Karelian), allowing them to develop a unique culture distinct from other Sámi groups in Finland:

Feature	Northern Sámi	Inari Sámi	Skolt Sámi
Language	Northern Sámi	Inari Sámi	Skolt Sámi
Livelihood	・Large-scale reindeer herding	・Fishing in Lake Inari	・Small-scale reindeer herding ・fishing and hunting
Religion	Evangelical Lutheran	Evangelical Lutheran	Russian Orthodox
Traditional Dress	Dominated by blue	Dominated by black	Distinctive women’s dress (influenced by Russia/Karelia)
Traditional Craft	Reindeer-based crafts	Fish-skin crafts	・Bead embroidery ・Russian Orthodox motifs
Music	Yoik (Luohti)	Lullabies, folk songs, etc.	Yoik (Leu’dd)

The defining feature of the Skolt Sámi is their tragic modern history. In the 20th century, their homeland was divided by new national borders, forcing the majority to resettle in the Sevettijärvi region of Finland.

While some Skolt Sámi still reside in the original Kola Peninsula area, their communities are scattered, and younger generations are moving to cities. As a result, Sevettijärvi is arguably the world’s only place where the Skolt Sámi language and culture are still actively lived out on a daily basis.

　

　

Skolt Sámi Life

Livelihood

The Skolt Sámi livelihood was historically a complex mix of fishing, hunting, small-scale reindeer husbandry, and gathering berries and mushrooms. Unlike the typical image of the Northern Sámi who focused on large-scale nomadic reindeer herding, fishing and hunting were especially important. This diverse, risk-diversified livelihood supported their survival in a harsh environment.

　

Society: The Sijdd (Community)

Like other Sámi groups, the Skolt Sámi organized themselves into Sijdd (Seidas or communities). The Sijdd was a communal unit that seasonally migrated to secure food through hunting, fishing, and gathering, while managing communal land.

The Skolt Sámi had seven Sijdd, each with a traditional winter village location.

　

The Sijdd also functioned to protect the rights of its members. The Skolt Sámi Sijdd managed official Russian Imperial documents (Gramota), which guaranteed their fishing and land use rights dating back to the 16th century.

　

Food

Their diet relied on reindeer, fish, and wild game. Every part of the reindeer, including the blood and internal organs, was utilized, and the meat was often used in soups and stews (such as Bidus).

However, due to the nature of reindeer moss (their main food source) to easily absorb radioactive substances, they have faced a contemporary food issue: contamination of reindeer meat following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.　

　

Border Changes and Forced Migration

The lives of the Skolt Sámi were drastically altered in the 20th century.

Year	Event	Details
1917	Finnish Independence	Finland declares independence from the collapsed Russian Empire.
1920	Treaty of Tartu	Petsamo (their homeland) is ceded to Finland, dividing the community.
1939–1944	Winter War /Continuation War	Petsamo becomes a war zone and is ceded to the Soviet Union.

The 1920 Treaty of Tartu, which ceded the Petsamo region to the newly independent Finland, first split the traditional Skolt Sámi living area.

However, the situation changed dramatically with the Soviet Union’s territorial demands starting in 1938, which led to the Winter War. Finland lost the war, and in the subsequent Continuation War, Finland again suffered defeat.

Petsamo became a battleground and was ultimately ceded to the Soviet Union. During the wars, many Sámi in the region had evacuated to the interior of Finland. After the war, the Soviet Union initially allowed cross-border movement but later changed its policy, pressuring residents to choose citizenship.

The Skolt Sámi were faced with a devastating choice: return to their ancestral land under the Soviet regime, or settle on a significantly smaller, unfamiliar piece of land in Finland.

While many initially considered returning to the Soviet-controlled homeland, the returning soldiers, who had just fought against the Soviet Union as an enemy, were reluctant to go. This shifted the community’s consensus toward migrating to Finland.

The Skolt Sámi formally chose to remain in Finland as a unified group and resettled in the current Sevettijärvi area.

The resettlement, however, was incredibly harsh, as the region was mostly unknown to the Skolt Sámi, who were accustomed to seasonally migrating within their established territories.

「ペッカが生まれて間もない頃、あたしたち一族は長い旅をしたの。小さい子はたいてい死んだわ。食べるものもなかったし、母親たちは乳が出なかったの。途中に家はなかったし、トナカイに引かせた橇にほんの少し家財道具を積んでただけ。父はまだ若かったから何百キロも歩き続けたわ」

（”Soon after Pekka was born, our family took a long journey. Most of the little children died. We had no food, and the mothers had no milk. There were no houses on the way, and we only had a few belongings loaded onto reindeer-drawn sleds. My father was still young, so he kept walking for hundreds of kilometers.”）

『極北の青い闇から　ラップ人と暮らした記録』　小野寺誠　1977　日本放送出版協会
(From Kyokuhoku no Aoi Yami Kara by Makoto Onodera, 1977)

The sheer hardship is palpable only through the words of those who lived through it.

「コルタ（筆者註：スコルト・サーミ）の子供は途中で悪い水を飲んでたくさん死んだわ。橇を引いていたトナカイを殺して食べながら移動してきたの。赤ん坊のペッカは皮で作ったかごに入れられて、角の大きいトナカイの横腹にくくりつけられていたの。でもそのトナカイも殺さなければならなくて、それからは父がペッカのかごを担いで歩いたわ」

（”Many Koltta [Skolt Sámi] children died along the way after drinking bad water. We killed and ate the reindeer pulling the sleds as we moved. Baby Pekka was placed in a leather basket and tied to the side of a large-antlered reindeer. But we had to kill that reindeer too, and after that, my father carried Pekka’s basket on his back.” ）

『極北の青い闇から　ラップ人と暮らした記録』　小野寺誠　1977　日本放送出版協会
(From Kyokuhoku no Aoi Yami Kara by Makoto Onodera, 1977)

　　

The Dilemma of the Outsider: Why Write This History?

The sheer weight of this history—the forced migration and the resulting losses—naturally leads to a question of ethics: To what extent should an outsider like myself share the tragic past of the Skolt Sámi?

It would be dishonest to downplay the extreme hardship they faced, yet highlighting it excessively risks reducing their culture to mere spectacle or victimhood. This difficulty in finding the right balance constitutes the dilemma of the non-Sámi writer.

However, comprehensive information on the Skolt Sámi is severely lacking outside of specialist circles. Therefore, accepting this ethical challenge and approaching the subject with deep respect is my responsibility. I believe that by shedding light on this crucial, complex history, we can better appreciate the resilience and unique cultural identity that endures today.

To help bridge this gap and provide insight from the community’s perspective, we recommend watching the following video, which offers a look at Skolts or Skolt Sámi history through their own lens.

　

Skolt Sámi Culture

言語

According to the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, there are only about 300 speakers of the Skolt Sámi language.

The distinctiveness of their language is even apparent in their greetings:

Greeting	Informal	Formal
Skolt Sámi	Tiõrv!	Šiõǥǥ peeiʹv!
Northern Sámi	Bures!	Buorre beaivi!
Inari Sámi	Pyeri/ Tiervâ!	Pyeri peivi!
Finnish	Terve! (Lapland region)	Hyvää päivää!

The written forms are complex and visually very different from Finnish!

　　

Religion: Coexistence of Tradition and Russian Orthodoxy

The Skolt Sámi traditionally practiced animism, polytheism, and shamanism, believing that spirits resided in all natural things.

However, the Russian Orthodox Church began missionary work around the 16th century, primarily through the efforts of Saint Tryphon of Pechenga.

Their conversion to Orthodoxy is evident by the presence of a Russian Orthodox church in the center of the Sevettijärvi village.

However, their traditional beliefs were not completely lost. Like other Sámi groups, they continued to practice traditional faiths. The belief in Seite (Seitas), or sacred stone places, was confirmed to be practiced well into the 20th century (Kjellström 1987).

Makoto Onodera, who stayed with a Skolt Sámi family in 1969, wrote this observation:

　老人は祈っているのであった。低い声で何かぶつぶつ口の中で文句をとなえ、一メートルほど積み上げた丸石の塔にむかって呪いをかけているのであった。

〈セイタ……〉話には聞いていたが現実に見るのは初めてである。セイタは、ラップ人の原始宗教の神様である。村民全員のものと、個人のものとがあって、丸石の塔は明らかに老人が自らの手で積み上げた彼個人のご本尊であるようだ。普通はさい銭やタバコをそなえて、トナカイや漁撈、狩猟の豊年を祈願するのだが、ときには呪いや、魔術をかけられたときの魔よけにも使われている。

（The old man was praying. He mumbled something in a low voice and cast a spell toward a tower of piled-up stones, about a meter high.

‘A Seita…’ I had heard of it, but this was the first time I saw it in reality. The Seita is the god of the Saami’s primitive religion. There are communal ones and individual ones, and the pile of stones was clearly his personal object of veneration, built by the old man’s own hands. Usually, it is dedicated with offerings of coins or tobacco to pray for a good year of reindeer herding, fishing, or hunting, but it is sometimes also used as an amulet against curses or black magic.）

『極北の青い闇から　ラップ人と暮らした記録』　小野寺誠　1977　日本放送出版協会
(From Kyokuhoku no Aoi Yami Kara by Makoto Onodera, 1977)

While the offerings of “coins or tobacco” might seem strange, this practice of providing contemporary offerings is surprisingly common among other Sámi groups as well, an adaptation from original offerings like reindeer bones.

This coexistence of two religions suggests that their adoption of Russian Orthodoxy did not lead to a fundamental disruption of their traditional way of life.

　

Russian Influence on Names

The Skolt Sámi people’s names often strongly reflect Russian influence due to their ethnic background. I was particularly struck by the presence of the letter “f” in their surnames, which is rare in Finnish names.

Examples of Names (Skolt Sámi Surnames)

・Moshnikoff ・Fofonoff ・Semenoff ・Gauriloff ・Sverloff

　Surnames ending in “-noff” or “-koff” definitely have a Slavic feel to them (e.g., the Russian imperial family was the Romanov dynasty, often written with a “v” in English).

　

Reindeer Herding

When the Skolt Sámi resettled in Sevettijärvi between 1945 and 1949, they purchased over 1,500 reindeer through donated funds. I don’t know the current number, but given that there are about 200,000 reindeer in all of Finland, one wonders how much the number has increased.

　

　

Music: Leu’dd—A Type of Yoik

The music of the Sámi is the Yoik. Yoik was traditionally sung by the Sámi shaman (Noaidi) while entering a trance state. However, the form varies among Sámi groups. The Yoik specific to the Skolt Sámi is called Leu’dd (Leu’ddi).

Yoik Type	Luohti	Leu’dd
Sámi Group	Northern Sámi	Skolt Sámi
Characteristic	Highly improvisational	Epic, narrative, and traditional

　

Unlike the highly improvisational Luohti, the Leu’dd is narrative and rich with traditional storytelling. Some singers can perform a Leu’dd for hours.

　

Handicrafts (Duodji)

　The defining characteristic of Skolt Sámi Duodji (handicrafts) is beadwork.

Unlike the pewter thread embroidery common in other Sámi groups, the decorations on Skolt Sámi hats and belts are created by sewing small glass beads onto fabric. Motifs often include crosses and church designs, reflecting the Russian Orthodox influence.

　

Summary: The History and Culture of the Skolt Sámi

　What are your thoughts?

If you ever have the chance to visit Inari, please consider traveling a bit further to the Skolt Sámi village of Sevettijärvi.

　

　

参考文献・サイト

• Lehtola, V. P. (2018). ” The Soul Should Have Been Brought along”: The Settlement of Skolt Sami to Inari in 1945–1949. Journal of Northern Studies, 12(1), 53-72.
• “THE SÁMI PEOPLE TRADITIONS IN TRANSITION” Veli-Pekka Lehtola 2004 translated by Linna Weber Müller-Wille UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA PRESS
• Kjellström, R. (1987). On the continuity of old Saami religion. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 12, 24-33.
• Jouste, M. (2017). Historical Skolt Sami Music and Two Types of Melodic Structures in Leu′ dd Tradition. Folklore: electronic journal of folklore, (68), 69-84.
• TALVIKYLÄ Kolttakulttuurikeskus（https://www.kolttasaamelaiset.fi）2025.10.6アクセス
• 『極北の青い闇から　ラップ人と暮らした記録』　小野寺誠　1977　日本放送出版協会
• 『フィンランド・イナリサーミによる母語存続運動』水本秀明　2004　北海道浅井学園大学生涯学習研究所研究紀要「生涯学習研究と実践』第6号