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Taxation, borders and reindeer husbandry
Throughout the Middle Ages, Norway, Sweden and Russia vied for influence in the north. Taxation of the Sami was an important source of income.
Increased taxation is pointed to as a central driving force behind the development from wild reindeer hunting to domesticated reindeer husbandry in the 15th-17th centuries. Through private ownership of reindeer – a former common resource – a clearer social hierarchy emerged. The pattern of larger reindeer herds and longer migration routes between summer and winter pastures that we know today, became clearer in the 18th century.
In 1751, the border between Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland was established. The rights of the reindeer herders that used areas on both sides, were secured in an addendum to the border treaty.
The addendum from 1751 regulated conditions until a new convention between Norway and Sweden came into force in 1923. The new agreement closed grazing on the islands and along the coast of Troms to groups that had winter pastures and citizenship in Sweden. This led to the forced relocation of reindeer and people southwards on the Swedish side, to areas where the authorities found vacant pastures. In the coastal areas in Troms, this lead to a break in the traditional forms of interaction between the resident population and the reindeer herders.
In the 1950s, Norwegian authorities invited new users to the then vacant grazing land in Troms. Several reindeer herders from Kautokeino moved in. Today, it is mostly their descendants who who are involved in year-round reindeer herding on the Norwegian side.
In 1972, another new convention was concluded between Norway and Sweden, which reduced the areas Swedish reindeer herders could use in Norway. This convention expired in 2005, and the states have not agreed on a new one. There is sometimes still disputes about the use of the pastures in eastern Troms, which is used by Swedish-owned reindeer in Summer and Norwegian-owned in winter.