Caring for the dead? An alternative perspective on Sámi reburial

ABSTRACT

This article is an effort to critically discuss Sámi repatriation and reburial practice based on the analysis of five repatriation cases. Since the seminal repatriation (and burial) of the skulls of Somby and Hætta in Gávvuonna/Kåfjord in 1997, and the more recent reburial of 94 skeletons in Njauddâm/Neiden in 2011, a precedent seems established in Norway that allows the unconditional reburial of all Sámi human remains from collections and excavations. This inevitably poses a serious challenge to research on Sámi human remains and the Sámi past. It is argued that what is important is not research, but that Sámi are allowed to decide for themselves how they wish to care for the dead. Rather than argue according to the adversarial pro-research or pro-reburial viewpoints, this article will take a closer look at how the dead, and their associated material remains, are cared for during Sámi reburial. As will be argued, the care for the material side tends to be neglected and therefore raises an ethical question regarding this practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Sámi repatriation and reburial
• human and non-human remains
• ethics
• archaeology
• materiality

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Þóra Pétursdóttir for insightful comments and Johan Eilertsen Arntzen for producing the map illustration. Thanks also to the referees, Liv Nilsson-Stutz and two anonymous reviewers, for raising important questions and comments that have improved this article, although it should be admitted that some remarks are clearly incommensurable with my own perspectives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 When possible/adequate, place names are given in both Sámi and/or Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish throughout the paper.

2 Hætta and Somby were buried 19 November 1854 (Parish registers of Kåfjord No. 16 1847–1857 and Kautokeino No. 2 1843–1861).

3 The skull of Hætta was exchanged for two Inuit skulls from Copenhagen University in 1856 (Schanche 2002b, 110). However, Hætta's skull could not be identified with absolute certainty but is very likely the same as that located in the cranial collection at the university's Panum Institute and thus buried in Gávvuonna/Kåfjord (Holck, Schanche, and Sjøvold 1997).

4 Original in antiquated Sámi orthography: “Hærra Jesus fasted munji”. Vicar Jacob Wetlesen supervised the execution in Alta.

5 What constitutes a “case” is somewhat roughly defined in this context and limited to demands/requests forwarded in public or officially. In addition to those mentioned in the text, the actual cases are: reburial 12 August 2011 of human remains of a sixteenth-century woman in the original grave at Gransjön, Frostviken, north Sweden; reburial 3 October 2016 of the cranium of a seventeenth-century man from the cemetery of Jámetmielli, Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, in the churchyard of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, north Norway; burial 27 June 2017 of human remains of Mathias Larsen Hætta (22 May 1877 – 22 June 1905) at the protected part of the churchyard of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, north Norway; pending reburial of 21 crania from the mediaeval-to-nineteenth-century cemetery of Todd'suel/Gravholmen, Sør-Varanger, Finnmark, north Norway; pending reburial of 25 crania from Gamplatsen, Lycksele, north Sweden; anticipated reburial of human remains of two seventh-century individuals from Skjellesvik, Tysfjord, Nordland, north Norway; deposition of 12 mediaeval crania and some post-cranial bones from Rounala Churchyard, north Sweden, to Ájtte – Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum; deposition 2001 of unknown number of undated skeletons/crania from graves/cemeteries in north Finland to Siida Sámi Museum, Aanaar/Inari, north Finland; anticipated transfer of the cranium of an allegedly nineteenth-century individual from Lycksele, north Sweden, to the Swedish Sámi parliament (decision 2009); request of reburial of skeletal remains of minimum 42 individuals excavated 2004–2016 from Silbojokk cemetery, AD 1635–1770, Árjepluovve/Arjeplog, north Sweden; request of repatriation of human remains excavated 1992 from the old (alleged seventeenth-to-eighteenth-century) churchyard of Dálvvadis/Jokkmokk, north Sweden.

6 Gustav Hallström investigated some of the graves in the early twentieth century (Hallström 1935).

7 The Christianization of the Sámi is generally considered to have taken place between AD 1550 and AD 1750, although there were earlier attempts of various influence (see, e.g. Mundal 2012; Aronsson 2013; Hansen and Olsen 2014; Rasmussen 2016).