Kautokeino, in North Sami Guovdageaidnu (Kven and Finnish:
Koutokeino), is a municipality in Finnmark in northern Norway. The
municipality is located on the Finnmarksvidda and borders Finland
(Enontekis in the south and southwest and Inari in the southeast),
and in Norway to Nordreisa in the west, Kvænangen in the northwest,
Alta in the north and Karasjok in the east. Kautokeino is the
country's largest municipality in area, almost as large as the next
two combined, and about a quarter of Denmark's area. The
administrative center of the municipality is the town of Kautokeino.
The origin of the Norwegian name Kautokeino is the Finnish /
Kven name Koutokeino which in turn is a loan from the North Sami
name Guovdageaidnu; the names are spelled differently for the same
name. The North Sami and Norwegian names are equal. Kautokeino is
considered the cultural headquarters of the North Sámi area, and
around 90% of the inhabitants speak Northern Sámi. Kautokeino was
the first and for a long time the only municipality in Norway that
equated Sami with Norwegian in public administration. The municipal
coat of arms is a gold avvu with a blue background.
The
municipality is home to a number of Sami cultural and educational
institutions. It is Norway's largest Sami municipality and largest
reindeer husbandry municipality. Kautokeino has been the center of,
among other things, the Kautokeino uprising in 1852 and the Alta –
Kautokeino development.
Kautokeino is located in western Finnmark in Finnmarksvidda. The
municipality borders Finland to the south. In Norway, Kautokeino borders
Karasjok to the east, Alta to the north, and Kvænangen and Nordreisa to
the north-west. The river Kautokeinoelva (Northern Sami
Guovdageaineatnu), which is called Altaelva in the northern neighboring
municipality of Alta, flows north through the municipality. In the
municipality of Kautokeino, many rivers flow into the Kautokeinoelva. On
the banks of the river is the village of Kautokeino, the largest in the
municipality.
Lake Iešjávri lies on the border with the
municipalities of Alta and Karasjok in the north-east. With an area of
68 km², this is the largest lake in Finnmark. The total area of the
municipality is 9,707.35 km², with inland waterways totaling 738.48 km².
With this area, Kautokeino is by far the largest municipality in Norway,
ahead of Karasjok with 5,452.94 km² and Porsanger with 4,874.29 km².
Kautokeino also ranks first in terms of forest area and area covered by
lakes.
The high plateau of Finnmarksvidda lies largely at
altitudes between 400 and 500 moh in the municipality. The Mollejus
elevation, with a height of 973.92 moh. represents the highest point of
the municipality of Kautokeino. The mountain is located on the western
border of the municipality. There are also two geodetic measuring points
of the Struve arc in Kautokeino. The measuring points are the two
mountains Lodiken and Bealjášvárri. Øvre Anárjohka National Park (Øvre
Anárjohka nasjonalpark) is located in the southeast of Kautokeino.
It was not until the 18th century that more and more people settled
in Kautokeino. Previously, the area was inhabited only by roving Sami
people. Most of the residents of Kautokeino are Sami. Due to the high
number of births, the population rose sharply until the 1970s and the
number of residents doubled between 1935 and 1970. In the 1990s, a
population decline began to set in. The inhabitants are distributed
throughout the municipality, with most of the larger settlements on the
banks of the Kautokeinoelva. The place Kautokeino is the only so-called
Tettsted, ie the only settlement that is counted as a town for
statistical purposes. As of January 1, 2022, 1510 residents lived there.
The second largest town in the municipality is Masi. The rest of the
inhabitants are spread over 14 other smaller villages.
The
inhabitants of Kautokeino are called Kautokeinoværing. As in many
municipalities in Troms og Finnmark, the official written language is
Bokmål, the more widespread of the two Norwegian language forms. Since
Kautokeino is part of the Sami administrative area, the Norwegian
language is on an equal footing with Sami. Among other things, this
gives residents the right to communicate with authorities in a Sami
language. Most of the residents speak the Sami language.
The commune of Kautokeino came into being in 1851 when it was
separated from Kistrand. On September 1, 1987, the municipality received
the new official name Guovdageaidnu-Kautokeino. In 2005, Kautokeino
became the official Norwegian name and Guovdageaidnu the official North
Sami name. Since then, both forms of names have been given equal status.
Until December 31, 2019, Kautokeino belonged to what was then Fylke
Finnmark. In the course of the regional reform in Norway, this was
transferred to the newly created Fylke Troms og Finnmark on January 1,
2020.
In November 1852, the Kautokeino rebellion broke out,
bloody riots, especially against the sale of alcohol, by the
Laestadian-influenced Sami population against church and state. 35 angry
Sami lynched on November 8, 1852. They killed the local merchant and
gendarme, flogged the priest and burned down the merchant's house. This
uprising had its background primarily in the miserable social conditions
of the Sami, but many blamed Læstadius and his movement for what
happened. Ringleaders Aslak Jacobsen Hætta and Mons Aslaksen Somby were
sentenced to death in October 1854 and executed by beheading. Hætta's
brother Lars (1834–1896) had his death sentence commuted to life
imprisonment. By the time he was pardoned after fifteen years in prison,
he had begun translating the Bible into Sami. His translation of the New
Testament appeared in 1874, followed by the entire Bible in 1895. The
story of the rebellion was filmed in 2007 under the title
"Kautokeino-opprøret" (Eng. The Kautokeino Rebellion) by Nils Gaup.
In the winter of 1882/83, as part of the First International Polar
Year, the Dane Sophus Tromholt operated an observatory for observing the
northern lights at the Kautokeinos police station. The photographs he
took during this period of the life of the Sami people and the landscape
of Finnmark are now in the library of the University of Bergen. The
Sophus Tromholt Collection was declared a World Document Heritage by
UNESCO in 2013.
The Alta conflict, which lasted from 1968 to
1982, took place partly in the municipality of Kautokeino. It was a Sami
protest against the planned power plant in the Alta- and Kautokeinoelva
river system. Although the construction of the power plant could not be
avoided, the flooding of the village of Masi in the municipality of
Kautokeino was prevented. The protest also led to an improvement in the
legal situation of the Sami in Norway. Among other things, the
protection of the Sami language, culture and society was anchored in the
Basic Law and the Sami Parliament Sameting was founded. Ole Henrik Magga
from Kautokeino became the first Sameting President.
The European Route 45 (E45) runs through Kautokeino. The villages of
Kautokeino and Masi are located on the E45. The E45 runs north to the
neighboring municipality of Alta, and south to Finland. About halfway
between Masi and Kautokeino, Riksvei 92 branches off northeast towards
Karasjok.
Reindeer herding is an important industry for the
residents of Kautokeino. The largest employer is the local government.
In 2021, around 1,170 of around 1,460 employees worked in Kautokeino
itself. More than 50 people each commuted to the neighboring
municipalities of Alta and Karasjok.
In the village of Kautokeino is the Kautokeino kirke, a wooden church
from 1958. The previous church had been burned down by the German
occupiers in 1944 during the Second World War. The old church was built
in 1701, making it the second oldest church in Finnmark. The second
church in the commune is the Masi kirke in Masi. The wooden church was
built in 1965.
Several Sami institutions have their headquarters
in Kautokeino. The Sámi allaskuvla college is based in Kautokeino. The
Sami theater Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter and the Norwegian Sami
Parliament Sameting each have a location in Kautokeino. There is also a
Sami secondary school in Kautokeino. Since 1990, the Sami music
competition Sámi Grand Prix has been held in Kautokeino in connection
with the Easter festival that takes place there. There, Sami artists
from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia compete against each other in
two categories. From 1996 to 2012, the Sami Film Festival also took
place at Easter. The band KEiiNO, which represented Norway at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2019, named themselves after the place.
From Kautokeino comes the Kautokeino-kofta, the costume of the Sami in
Kautokeino. The Kautokeino kofte is one of the more colorful and
decorated costumes compared to other Sami costumes. It is similar to
those from Inari and Enontekiö in Finland.