North Skanderna

The Ounasjoki flows through the forested country of Kittilä in Kemi Lapland. Sámi communities occupied the district before new settlers arrived during the seventeenth century. A map of Kemi Lapland drawn in 1642 marks the Kittilä Sámi village beside the river. At Kurjenpolvi, an old burial ground was used before Christian conversion; burials from the early seventeenth century were laid east to west in the Christian manner.