And their adorable rescued reindeer Mustor
By Eileen Ogintz with Andy Yemma
Rudolph isn’t anywhere in the vicinity but we meet Mustor, a very friendly reindeer who has been raised by the Buijo family since babyhood.
The Buijos are indigenous Sami People, who live in Arctic regions Europe. This family has a 1,000 reindeer herd that they raise for meat and hides. But they also hope to introduce tourists like us to their culture, which has been much maligned in the past, just as with natives in many countries that were overtaken by new people and cultures.
We are on an excursion from the Hurtigruten MS Trollfjord, today in Lodingen as we make our way back down the Norwegian Coast. The Sami once roamed large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. There are some 40,000 Sami in Norway, mostly concentrated in the North and the largest concentration in the world. There is a Sami community in Seattle, and Sami descendants include the acclaimed singer/songwriter Joni Mitchel and Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger.
As has been the case for indigenous peoples around the world, the Sami suffered much discrimination in the 18th and 19th Centuries as Norwegians moved North to capitalize on the growing exports of the fishing industry. From the 19th Century, Norwegian and Swedish authorities started to consider the Sami primitive and effectively banned Sami language and culture.
As a result, said Maret Buijo, many Sami people lost their connection to their roots. “There was a lot of knowledge lost,” she said. “Today it is necessary to bring light to the language.”
In Norway today there is the Sami Parliament of Norway that represents the people of Sami heritage, acting as an institution of cultural autonomy. The parliament first opened in 1989 after nearly a decade before, there was strong Sami resistance to plans for a dam and hydroelectric power plant in a Sami village. The parliament works with issues of interest to the Sami people that includes allocation of funds to protect Sami cultural heritage sites, and allocation of grants to teach the Sami language.
At the beautifully Buijo homestead we were greeted by Mustor, a four-old-year reindeer adopted by the family after being abandoned by his mother at birth (she was probably scared off by someone walking their dog nearby, we were told). Mustor is a very gentle reindeer, allowing us to pet him and even walk him on a leash, although he preferred grazing on mistletow.
After meeting Mustor, who has lost one antler as is customary for males in the winter, we headed inside where Maret Buijo, the matriarch. She introduced us to some of the traditional foods the Sami eat—reindeer broth (especially good when you are ill), dried reindeer meat (a good nutritious snack when they are herding the reindeer herds in the mountains in the summer), cloudberry jam (cloudberries only grow in the mountains in the Arctic climes), a treat made with sour cream and lingonberries, and brown bread, gluten free and made in part with bark of pine trees (more like a cracker.)
“My big interest is bringing back our Sami recipes,” she said. “I’ve had to learn from older ladies.”
Her husband Peder, assisted by his son Mihkkal,17, told us Sami people have been herding reindeer for centuries. Mustor is four and will continue to grow. His kids, he said, when they were younger, loved to ride him; today he can pull kids in a sled. Some reindeer, he noted, can grow large enough for a grown man to ride.
And while Samis embrace their traditional culture, they also use modern vehicles (ATVS and snowmobiles) and technology (drones) when herding the reindeer.
They drones don’t always work when taking reindeer across the steep mountains, and that’s fine with Peder Buijo. “Walking with them in the mountains, drinking clear glacial water…that’s the best,” he said.
It’s the holiday season and the Buijo homestead is festively decorated. Asked if any of his reindeer could fly, Peder laughed: “That’s a very, very good question.”