Afanasyeva, A. Forced relocations of the Kola Sámi people: background and consequences / by Anna Afanasyeva. - Tromsø: University of Tromsø, 2013. - 82 p.: ill., map, portr.

50 the river, which they previously used for subsistence. Michael Robinson provides the quotes from promotional video of the company: 155 I think [the Ponoj] is a paradise for fishing…it is full of salmon. I have never seen so many salmon in my life. The Ponoj river is exclusively at our disposal, the Ponoj River being about 300 miles long, allows us to spread the beats so far apart that we measure our beats in miles. You can fish all day, never duplicate water throughout your whole week’s stay, and never see another person on the river. No one else from the outside world is allowed to fish our river’s beat except our guests. Unlike some Kola rivers, locals are not allowed to fish the Ponoj. Standing out as the best of all Kola rivers, the Ponoj presents a remarkable combination of attractive size and amazing numbers [of salmon]. The relocations created additional challenges in accessibility for the relocated population to use resources in their traditional territories. First, they were relocated far away from their traditional places and they needed additional transportation to visit their lands; for instance Varzino and Jokanga, which could be reached only by ship. While people were living on the territories they could practice their traditional activities in these territories without additional need for transportation. They had boats and all necessary equipment in the villages and could utilize the rivers on a daily basis. After the relocations, people face additional challenges in taking long trips by ship and in the problem of lacking big fishing equipment such as boats. It is impossible to leave boats in these places, as in the case of the former village Varzino, there are no houses left and people usually live in tents when they are there. Furthermore, it is unrealistic to transport large equipment like boats with them when they traveled there. Another serious challenge was caused by the involvement of third parties to use these resource areas, namely private companies. As stated by several of my informants, the leased rivers had guard patrols, which made sure that no one except personnel and customers of the company could enter the river territory, including the local population. The situation with fishing companies was especially relevant in the 1990’s. Thus, the relocated people around forty years after the relocations started to exercise their rights for fishing, while at the time reindeer herding is still a matter of concern for many Sámis. The cooperative farms “Tundra” and “Olenevod” are the two organizations dealing with reindeer herding on the Kola Peninsula today. Most private reindeer are owned by the workers of these cooperative farms, as has been mentioned earlier in the 155 Robinson 2000:97.