Ponoi

Ponoi lies in the river and coastal country of the Kola Peninsula, home to communities of the Ter Sámi. Their siidas held and managed fishing and other resource grounds collectively; seasonal places and rivers were essential to life across a broad northern landscape.

Early seventeenth-century Russian records grouped Ponoi and Yokanga Sámi under the Ponoi and Yokanga pogosts. From 1626 a monastery leasing some of their grounds paid tribute to Moscow, while the Sámi were shielded from tribute collectors and alcohol traders. The same records also described a distinct Russian settlement at the mouth of the Ponoi River, which had grown from a church and probably a fishing station in the sixteenth century. Sámi and Russian families lived alongside one another there, and residents later joined the Sámi communities in decisions concerning rivers.