What to do in Riisitunturi National Park

One of the Kuusamo region’s two historical Sámi communities, the Kitka Siida, was located near the northern shore of Lake Yli-Kitka, 10 km from the border of the modern-day national park. The people who lived centuries ago left only a few marks in the landscape. The forest Sámi were semi-nomadic people whose subsistence was mostly based on hunting, fishing and gathering. The quartz quarry on the western slope of Fell Nuolivaara and the deer hunting pits in the narrow neck of land between Liittolampi Ponds are some of the only visible remnants left by the Sámis. Deer were hunted by driving the prey to a narrow stretch of land where the animals would fall to camouflaged holes dug into the ground.

Settlers of the peasant class started to inhabit the Riisitunturi region in the late 17th century. As the peasants bred cattle, they led a less mobile lifestyle than the Sámi people. However, hunting, fishing and foraging still played a significant role in their lives. Despite their more stationary lifestyle, the peasants moved around in the area and its meadows, setting traps and fishing in the lakes. Cattle breeding was largely based on the use of natural meadows and, to a small degree, on the slash and burn technique. The mires and brook beds of the Riisitunturi area were used for extensive meadow agriculture long into the 20th century. The most distinctive remnants of this period are the restored barns in the Riisisuo Mire and certain place names. In general, all that remains of barns, haystacks and meadow lean-tos are old timbers, roof coverings made of birch bark as well as cut-off tree branches on which farmers hung their backpacks made of birch bark.

The cultural change was fast. Deer had been hunted in the area for centuries, and as a consequence, the local deer populations had thinned. As the peasant settlers arrived, more and more people fished in the same lakes. By the end of the 18th century, the forest Sámi had either moved beyond the modern-day Russian border or blended with the settlers.