Kasivarren

Käsivarsi belongs to the far northwestern fell country of Lapland. Sámi reindeer pastoralism became established here during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, linking seasonal grazing lands across what later became national frontiers. Herding families moved toward the Arctic coast in summer and returned inland with the seasons. Fishing and handicrafts complemented a livelihood dependent on access to different parts of this mountain landscape.

In 1751 Denmark-Norway and Sweden, which then included Finland, agreed on a northern boundary. The line crossed established Sámi land-use areas. An accompanying agreement, the Lapp Codicil, therefore recognised customary movement with reindeer across the border, as well as related rights and obligations. It acknowledged that herders required land on both sides rather than a livelihood contained within one state. Finland's transfer to Russian rule in 1809 changed the political setting again. For Käsivarsi's early modern communities, the meaning of a frontier consequently depended on how rulers dealt with inherited seasonal routes and access to pasture.