History
The Kittilä siida
The Kittilä lapinkylä was a siida in Kemi Lappmark. Its people were Forest Sámi. This is a short start, not a finished study.
The year
A Forest Sámi year was not the same thing as mountain reindeer nomadism. Families moved on their own inherited grounds to hunt, fish, and trap. In the darkest part of winter they gathered in a shared winter village, the talvikylä.
The winter village and the kotakäräjät
The winter village was where people met, traded, and settled matters between families. The kotakäräjät was the meeting of family heads. They divided hunting grounds and resolved disputes. The siida had its own government before the Crown’s courts.
Tax lands
In 16th- and 17th-century court records, Lapp tax lands were treated as areas that passed down in families. Later the Crown drew farmers north with tax relief. The old tax lands were left under a new system of farming villages and farms.
In church books and tax lists, people were often written down simply as Lapp. The Forest Sámi detail disappeared from the record, even where the families continued.