Inari (Inari Sámi Aanaar, Skolt Sámi Aanar, Northern Sámi Anár,
Swedish Enare) is a Finnish municipality located in the province of
Lapland. The municipality has a population of 6,866 and covers an
area of 17,333.62 km2, of which 2,277.33 km2 are water bodies. The
population density is 0.46 inhabitants / km2. Inari is the largest
municipality in Finland. The neighboring municipalities of Inari are
Enontekiö in the southwest, Kittilä and Sodankylä in the south, and
Utsjoki in the north. In addition, the municipality is limited to
Norway in the west and east, and also to Russia in the east. Inari
is the most important reindeer herding area in the country. Inari's
economy relies heavily on the experience economy in its various
forms, and the image of the municipality is international due to
tourism and cross-border trade. Car and tire testing are also the
municipality's largest industries. Traditional livelihoods such as
reindeer husbandry and fishing are still particularly important
culturally, but their economic importance has diminished over the
years. Inari, a lot of different TV series are also filmed, the main
part being in cars, but recently also e.g. the Finnish-German Ivalo
crime thriller series was filmed mainly in Inari.
The largest
agglomeration and administrative center of the municipality of Inari
is Ivalo, with a population of about 3,000, located 39 km south of
the church village of Inari. The church village of Inari is the
center of Sámi culture, where e.g. Sámi Parliament. Inari's tax rate
is the lowest in Finland, 19%. Inari is known as an economically
strong municipality and culturally one of the most diverse
municipalities in Finland. Inari is the only four-language
municipality in Finland. Due to tourism, the municipal image of
Inari is very international. In addition to Finland, three Sámi
languages are spoken in Inari; Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Northern
Sámi. Sámi is strongly visible in the various villages of the
municipality.
In addition to traditional livelihoods, Inari
is especially known for its Saariselkä, Lake Inari, its gold mining
tradition and its numerous national parks.
In addition to the village settlements, there are numerous other
well-known places and place names in Inari municipality, which are
related to tourism, various events and history, among other things:
Pielpajärvi; wilderness church, the center of Inari parish and
municipality in the 18th century
Lemmenjoki; national park, gold
mining area, tourist destination
Urho Kekkonen National Park (UK
national park); partly in the territory of the municipality
Hammastunturi Wilderness; a wilderness area that was the subject of
logging disputes
Kessi; a wilderness area that was the subject of
logging disputes
Ivalo River; camping destination and gold mining
area (e.g. Ivalojoki Kultala)
Forehead ridge; camping destination
Luttojoki; gold mining area, Raja-Joosep's "home river"
Raja-Joseppi;
border crossing point, residential area of the title person
Intestinal canal
Ukko, Vanha Hautuumaasaari and Hautuumaasaari in
Inarijärvi
Sámi museum and nature center of Upper Lapland in the
church village of Siida Inari
Sámi church in the church village of
Inari
Sovintovaara Viewpoint
Petsamo statue in Ivalo
Ivalo
church
Tourist destinations: Laanila, Kiilopää, Kaunispää,
Muddusjärvi, Myössäjärvi.
Sajos; The Sámi cultural center Sajos,
built on the banks of the Juutuanjoki in the church village of Inari, is
the administrative and cultural center of the Sámi people in Finland.
In the church village of Inari, the Sámi culture center in Sajos will host the Skábmagovat film festival of the indigenous peoples in January and the indigenous music event Ijahis Idja (Yötön Yö in Finnish) in August. Inari Weeks are celebrated at the end of July, when various events and concerts are organized in different parts of Inari municipality.
Prehistory
Rich prehistoric discoveries have been made in the
Inarijärvi watershed. The Early Stone Age settlement in Luusua of
Paatsjoki dates back to 5360 BC. There is comb pottery in Nellimi,
asbestos pottery in Vuopaja shares residences representing Sär 2
ceramics in Luusua. There is also an Early Metal Age quartzite
arrow-making site in Nellimi.
The birth of a settlement
The
population of the Stone and Bronze Age is considered to be the ancestors
of certain types of Sami people. The actual Samleian culture in Inari is
represented by the ancient talviklä sites found in Nukkumajoki. The Sámi
settlement of Inari has been known from documents since the 16th century
as the large Lapland village of Inari.
The Lapps of Inari were
the so-called forest Lapland people who moved from a relatively
permanent winter village to fish, e.g. To the beaches of Inari and
Muddusjävr. Along with fishing, deer and fur animals were hunted in
particular. Riekko was economically important until the 20th century.
The Sámi were already taxed in the Middle Ages by the Kainians,
Norwegians, Karelians and Birkarls. Until the beginning of the 19th
century, the village of Inari had to pay taxes to Sweden, Russia and
Denmark-Norway. The Sámi people first traded freely, but from the 1650s,
efforts were made to concentrate trade on the Inari market.
The
first church in Inari was completed in 1646 and in the 17th century the
Sámi people of Inari were converted to Christianity. Inari first
belonged to Kemi, and then to the Kemi Lapland parish founded in 1673.
In 1757, Inari became the chapel congregation of Utsjoki. The new church
was built in 1754–1760 on the shore of Lake Pielpajärvi.
The
emergence of Finnish settlement
Finnish settlement began in Inari in
1758, when Heikki Kyrö settled in Ivalojokivarte. The settlement
gradually expanded into the village of Kyrö, i.e. the beginning of the
current center of Ivalo. Finnishness progressed slowly in Inari Lapland
and only grew in the early 19th century. In addition to Kyrö, the
villages of Koppelo and Törmänen were born.
In the 19th century,
the importance of reindeer husbandry began to grow. It was particularly
affected by the closing of the Norwegian border, after which the
Norwegian Sámi could not graze their reindeer in Inari. In 1912, half of
the inhabitants of Inari owned reindeer and Inari was divided into five
paliskunta. The Sámi cultivated some land and kept cattle.
In
1881, Inari became an independent parish and it got its own vicar in
1886. Inari's third church was built between 1884 and 1888 in
Juutuanjokisu.
20th century
The gold movement had a direct
connection to the beginning of tourism in the 1920s and 1930s. After the
completion of the roads between Sodankylä and Kyrö, Ivalo's rise to
become Inari's most important business and financial center began. In
1932, Ivalo became a crossroads when the road to Petsamo was completed.
Ivalo became the center of Finnish settlement and the church village of
Inari remained the center of Sámi.
Inari's church in
Juutuanjokisuu was destroyed during the winter war. In 1952, a Sámi
church was completed on the same site. Ivalo got a new church in 1966.
After the Second World War
Inari's Sámi became stronger and at
the same time registered after the Second World War, when Petsamo's
kolts were settled in the area. Mostly the Koltas settled in the
Sevettijärvi area. During the war in Lapland, the building stock of
Inari was almost completely destroyed and e.g. Ivalo was completely
rebuilt after the war.
Inari is the largest municipality in Finland by area, about five
percent of the entire country's area. It is almost as large as the land
areas of the provinces of Varsinais-Suomen and Uusimaa combined.
Compared to Åland, Inari's land area is almost ten times larger. The
size of the municipality can be illustrated as an area whose side
lengths are as the crow flies 130 kilometers (northern border of the
municipality), 90 kilometers (eastern border), 140 kilometers (southern
border) and 75 kilometers (western border). Lake Inarijärvi, located in
the municipality, is Finland's third largest lake (1,043 km²). In total,
there are 8,033 lakes in Inari, which is more than in any other
municipality in Finland, and the municipality's inland water area is
also the largest among Finnish municipalities.
After the Second
World War, the Jäniskoski–Niskakoski area that was part of Inari was
sold to the Soviet Union, as a result of which the area of the
municipality decreased by 176 km².
In terms of natural geography,
the municipality of Inari is divided into three parts: Outa-Lappi, Inari
lake country and Back-Lappi fell country.
Inari is the growth center of the arctic experience economy in
Finland. The tourism and restaurant industry is a significant employer
in the municipality of Inari. Inari's economy relies heavily on the
experience economy. There are numerous accommodation and hotel centers
in the municipality, the largest of which is the Saariselkä area.
Recently, the growth of tourism by Asian tourists in particular has been
significant.
In addition, the municipality operates a
considerable amount of arctic tire and car testing. Traditional
livelihoods such as reindeer husbandry and fishing are part of the
experience economy and the traditional economic structure. A significant
source of income is also cross-border trade, which is very strong in
Inari due to the size of the municipality's population due to the
significant services it provides. Due to the strong growth, Inari has
recently been plagued by housing and labor shortages.
In Inari,
the online magazine Uusi Inari was founded in the fall of 2014. It
collected about 13,000 euros in crowdfunding and was published in
February–March 2015.
On December 31, 2022, 7,036 people lived in Inari. 6,131 of them
spoke Finnish as their mother tongue, 476 Sami and 22 Swedish. 233
people spoke other languages.[4] At the end of 2008, there were 73
foreign citizens. The population of Inari has decreased since 1990 by
693 people. Inari is Finland's only quadrilingual municipality: in
addition to Finnish, Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Koltan Sami are
spoken in the municipality. The population density is 0.47
inhabitants/km2. About 900 of the Sámi are Inari Sámi and 500 are Kolts.
The rest are mainly Northern Sámi. The municipality's population is
growing, largely due to the strong growth of the experience economy.
The population of the municipality is largely concentrated on the
west shore of Inarijärvi, where the largest settlements, Ivalo and the
church village of Inari, are located. The rest of the municipality's
territory is largely uninhabited, and there are also extensive national
parks and the Kess Wilderness to the east of Lake Inarijärvi. However,
several village centers currently have strong concentrations of the
experience economy or cross-border trade.
The following graph
shows the population development of the municipality every five years
since 1980. The regional division used is in accordance with the
situation on January 1, 2017.
There are bus connections to Inari from Oulu and Rovaniemi.
Finland's northernmost airport is located in the municipality of Inari,
south of Ivalo, near the village of Törmänen. Finnair flies to Ivalo
Airport from Helsinki to Ivalo with at least one round trip every day.
Norwegian also flies to Inari during the winter season. New connections
are connections to London and Frankfurt. In addition, numerous charter
flights are made to Ivalo every year. There is also a bus connection
from Ivalo to Murmansk. Ivalo Airport's connections have been growing
strongly in connection with the growth of the experience economy
Lapland Wolf Association is a general association of about 500
members founded in 1926. The actual activity is centered around the
central town of the municipality, Ivalo. The society organizes VASKOOLI
skiing in Saariselka every year on Good Friday.
Inari Palloseura ry.
A special club for ball sports founded in 2012. The main sport is
floorball, but the activity has expanded to soccer, rink, baseball,
basketball and American football. There are 189 members.
Tunturi-Kiekko ry. Founded in 1983, Finland's northernmost ice hockey
club operating in Ivalo. Plays in the III division Lappiliiga, BHL
(Barents Hockey League) and several junior age groups.
Inari Company.
Is a ski club operating in Inari.
According to the 2018 regional distribution, Ii has the following
parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland:
Inari parish
The parish belongs to the Northern Lapland parish association.
Among the revivalist movements within the church, the village has
the Elderly Lestadion, which has the Ivalonlaakso peace association in
the village. Other denominations are represented by the Pentecostal
congregation of Ivalo, which is part of the Pentecostal revival, and has
about a hundred members. In addition, there is a congregation of
Jehovah's Witnesses in Ivalo. In addition, the Lapland Orthodox
congregation of the Orthodox Church of Finland, which operates from
Rovaniemi, has three churches in Inari, located in Ivalo, Nellimi and
Sevettijärvi, in addition to which there is one tsasouna in Keväjärvi.
The majority of the Orthodox in Inari are Koltsa Sámi.
Yrjö Ahola, stage name Irian Ristubardni, gardener and painter
Amoc, rap artist
Angelit, the founders of the Sámi band
Dominick
Arduin, French-Finnish adventurer
Edorf, a rap artist from Ivalo
Ezkimo, rap artist
Jaakko Gauriloff, Koltan Sámi singer
Veikko
Honkanen, actor
Anni-Kristiina Juuso, actress
Raimo O. Kojo,
writer and editor
Renne Korppila, radio journalist (NRJ), X Factor
judge
A recluse, a recluse
Marja-Liisa Olthuis, Inari Sámi
linguist
Raja-Jooseppi, a legendary resident of the border region
Veikko Rajala, folk artist
Merja Aletta Ranttila, visual artist and
printmaker
Janne Seurujärvi, Member of Parliament
V. E. Törmänen,
writer
Kari Väänänen, actor