Sevettijärvi skolt sámi village

Population of Näätämö village, ca. 350 people is located nearly 60 kilometres along the Sevettijärvi road. There are ca. 600 Skolt Sámi living in Finland. The village centre is Sevettijärvi where the Orthodox Church, school, healthcare centre, a little grocery store with post office and local bar are situated.
The Skolt Sámi were moved to Sevettijärvi and Näätämö area result of the war in 1940’s when Finland lost the Petsamo area. The Skolt had opportunity to choose weather to stay in Petsamo and have citizenship of Soviet Union or move to Finland. Most of them moved to Finland.
The Skolt Sámi live in the eastern parts of the Inari municipality, in the south-east and north-east of Lake Inari. This area is called Skolt Sámi area where they have own Skolt Sámi law (253/95), which is aiming to promote Skolt population and Skolt area’s living circumstances and support the living opportunities both their unique culture. Law gives also free permission to Skolt people to fish any territorial waters and also free permission to take firewood from government land. The village matters have been resolved for centuries together in the “village council” (sijddååbbar) and in different matters they have been turned to the Elder of the village. This old tradition is still working today; the matters of Skolt Sámi are handled by the elected Skolt official and Skolt council. The Skolt council office is situated in Sevettijärvi..
The Skolt speak Skolt Sámi language which belongs to Finno-Ugric language family, like Finnish, mountain Sámi and Inari Sámi languages. The first Skolt Sámi ABC-book was published in 1972. At that time also Skolt Sámi got its own way of writing and changed from spoken language to written language. The Skolt Sámi are orthodox by religion. St. Triphon of Petsamo established on the 16th century the monastery of Petsamo and baptized them to Christian. The Sevettijärvi church is dedicated to his memory and it is open in summertime daily 09:30-15:00.
Most families do their living from barter economy; from reindeer herding, fishing and berry picking. Most of the women make skilled handy crafts and sell them to the tourists. The village Traditions house acquaints visitors to rich Skolt tradition (open in summertime 09:00-17:00). The visitors may also buy reindeer delicates straight from the producer at “Kiela” (tel. 040-7019104). Accommodation is offered by Nilituvat (tel. 016-672240), Reindeer farm Toini Sanila (tel. 016-672509) and Kotakomsio (tel. 0400-375 201). Also the bar in Sevettijärvi offers accommodation (tel. 016-672265).