Sámi natural resource exploitation in amarkebygdand its significance today?

Abstract

They settled on localities where there were Sámi nomadic routes and along the Málatvuotna/Malangen Fjord where there were Coastal Sámi settlements. In the same area, Johanne Volden (1979) focused on the conflicts between the markebygds, the Sámi reindeerherding population and the Norwegian colonists in the last part of the 19th century. The concept of localizationThe markebygds are located in the provinces of Romssa/Troms and Nordlándda/Nordland from the Málatvuotna/Malangen Fjord and southwards. The settlement pattern forms a neat network where the Norwegian settlements are intertwined with the old (i.e. pre-markebygd) Coastal Sámi settlements, the areas used by the nomads and the markebygds. The markebygds make up rural districts which developed in the coastal area from the 18th century onward. I want to put forward the hypothesis that the change of settlement pattern in these areas can possibly be connected to the widespread old Sámi coastal settlements in the Ofuohtta/Ofoten and Southern Romssa/Troms area (Andersen

2 | 1 | 2022 Humanities, Ecocriticism and Multispecies Relations. Proceedings (part II)

“…Along the coast, communities -usually self-identifying as Norwegians -engaged primarily in fishing while, inland, small-scale farming constituted the bulk of local Márka-Sámi economics. During winter, Márka-Sámi men did paid work or went fishing in Lofoten and/ or along Finnmark's coast (Storm 1993;Hansen, Olsen 2014). Since the 1960s, Stuornjárga has witnessed migration flows from the countryside towards major cities both near and far.…”

“…In the area known as Márku (Norwegian: Márka), 2 the inland territories of Stuornjárga between Skánik/Skånland-Dielddanuor-2 Originally derogative, this term has undergone a process of resemantisation, becoming a positively-charged endonym. Márku derives from markebygd (outlying fields), a term Norwegian-speaking coastal villages used to refer to rural settlements located in the inner areas of the peninsula (Storm 1993). ri/Tjelsund (Troms-Finnmark) and Evenássi/Evenes (Nordland), decolonial processes have enjoyed privileged expression in toponymic resistance since the 1990s.…”