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.

56 and unemployment are discussed in the next paragraph). Some relocated people did not have place to live and simultaneously did not have a job. These factors triggered alcohol misuse and many people have passed away in result of accidents, homicide or suicide (also discussed in Jakovleva 2003: 39, Scheller 2013). Informant F stressed that the lack of jobs and housing influenced the status of Sámi men to a greater extent than women. The Sámi men appeared to be of lower social status than Komi, Russians and others. In extreme situations Sámi women wanted to integrate into a new society as soon as possible and therefore preferred to marry Russians or Komi. It was common among the Kola Sámi to practice arranged marriages until almost the 1960’s. My informants told me that the men were used to marrying women from their villages and did not understand how to build relationships with women in a different manner. The poor economic situation was also a challenge for them to marry and make families, because men who were bringing food to families and building houses appeared to be without housing, jobs and education (education in its turn started to play bigger role in order to find new employment). The change of environment after displacement disrupted the marriage-patterns of the Sámi women. 173 The informants expressed true grief in this respect and stressed that the overall situation very much influenced the well-being of Sámi society on the whole. Ethnically mixed marriages increased cultural assimilation and disrupted the Sámi language transmission to children. The anthropologists Atkinson and Duran Duran address the topics of Native American and aboriginal communities in Australia, which have undergone traumatic historical experiences in their histories, such as colonization, imposition of government policies and removal to reserves. They argue that the indigenous communities, which have experienced collective stressful events, can cause various negative problems among the members of such communities, such as self-destructive andantisocial behavioral problems, psychological morbidity, early mortality, homicide and suicide. 174 Duran stresses that the negative effects of such traumatic events are transmitted from adults to younger generations, who often become victims of their parents’ despair, destructive, and self-abusive behaviors as in the case of the Kola Sámi. 175 According to my own observations, the trauma connected to relocations of the Kola Sámi groups from their traditional territories and the adaptation of the community 173 Informant F. 174 Atkinson, Nelson, Atkinson 2010: 137-139; Duran, Duran 1995:95. 175 Scheller 2013.