Kautokeino

Guovdageaidnu, or Kautokeino, occupied the inland Finnmark country between Alta, Muonio and Karesuando. Its Sámi communities organised herding through siida groups: related families cooperated in managing reindeer, while membership could change and leaders coordinated the work. Seasonal movement made a small permanent settlement serve a much wider population.

Swedish ecclesiastical authority established a parish in 1674 and built a church in 1701. A courthouse followed in 1721. The border settlement of 1751 placed Kautokeino under Norwegian jurisdiction, changing its political allegiance while Sámi families continued to organise life around herding and kinship. In the 1830s only eight or nine permanently resident families lived there, some at considerable distance from one another. The church, parsonage and school gave the scattered settlement an institutional centre. Its significance rested on the meeting of seasonal Sámi society with churches and courts maintained by northern states.