Kuusamo

Kuusamo lies in a country of forests, lakes and uplands near the eastern frontier of northern Finland. Sámi communities lived here before Finnish settlers arrived in growing numbers in the late seventeenth century. The Swedish crown's settlement decree of 1673 offered newcomers temporary relief from taxation and military service for a number of years, encouraging farms in a region already used by Sámi families.

The new farms and their slash-and-burn fields disrupted older livelihoods and brought disputes over land. The famine of 1696–1697 was severe, leaving both Sámi settlements and farms deserted. Church authorities organised a vast parish of Kemi Lapland in 1673, and Kuusamo gradually became one of its centres. Priests served communities scattered over a great distance of forest and water.