Reindeer Brands:
Cultural Relationships and Norwegian Law in Sápmi
by Ivar Bjørklund and Harald Eidheim

In recent years a series of legal opinions have had great consequence for Sami culture and society. The point of departure for this article is a legal case dealing with the rights of settled Sami to have reindeer ear cuts or brands. Their ownership is based in an old cultural institution verddevuohtta and which in legal terms is referred to as reindeer outplacement arrangement. These brands represent a communication system expressing social and economic relationships between people, and verddevuohtta is a mutual exchange relationship between settled and reindeer Sami which reflects this relationship. By removing the possibility to participate in and develop these relationships, Sami culture unity is weakened. The verdict cleaves apart an important Sami institution by forbidding one part of it the right to have a brand. The case also indicates how Norwegian legal practices in Sápmi are self-fulfilling, in that only terms of relationships described in Norwegian law have legal authority.

This case from 1990 involved a group of 12 Sami, farmers, salaried employees and retirees, who were told that they could not own reindeer. They each owned between five and thirty deer which were placed with nomadic Sami. The case was lost.

Background: Sami reindeer herding is a lifestyle dependent on three production factors: animals, pasturage and people. The owner's challenge is to balance the relationship between these three factors so that over time the herd can provide a living. To regulate the relationship between animals, pasturage and people, reindeer Sami have understanding of and control over these elements. They must have thorough knowledge of animal behavior in relation to climate and pasture and must be in a position to regulate animals and pasture in synch with these elements. Such knowledge and regulation are, through time, developed and organized through a Sami cultural institution called siida.

Briefly, a siida is an institution which organizes a flexible work community between several reindeer owners and their herds. As an organizational model, the siida has the task of compensating for any imbalance between the above-mentioned production factors which invariably would arise were a single household to operate independently. Shifting seasonal variation and grazing conditions make for varying demands on labor and expertise. A grazing land's capacity is, in other words, not simply a matter of number of animals, as many seem to believe; it is also a question of that type of cultural proficiencies which in practice can be called an operation. The siida's viability, that is to say its ability to adapt to differing conditions in the yearly herding cycle and the families' development cycle, is dependent upon a widespread bilateral kinship network and through verdde relationships.

In the pasturage, herd size and workforce with the help of complex ecological expertise and the siida's organizational potential, reindeer society's other cultural expressions are integrated, be they language, terminology, technology, morality or world view. Sami reindeer herding presupposes that practitioners are competent in their expertise and ability to regulate pasturage and animals, have the ability to cooperate, and share basic cultural knowledge and values. The siida's viability and flexibility over time is further dependent upon potential recruitment of competent individuals who can be pulled into the siida's community.

As a lifestyle with all its material and immaterial aspects, reindeer herding in Sami consciousness is seen as that cultural form which today is the most visible expression for continuity in Sami historical development in Sápmi. It stands as a central element in Sami's understanding of themselves.

Since reindeer are individually owned, ownership is indicated by making cuts in the reindeer's ears. The position of the cuts indicate a certain individual has control over this animal. They can castrate it, tame it, slaughter it or let it live. It follows that each person owning deer has a right and obligation to mark their deer. The actual marking builds on an old system of a main mark and secondary marks. The system is probably as old as herding itself and is documented in many Sami reindeer herding areas.

Figure 1 shows how the system is constructed in Guovdegeaidnu/Kautokeino. Cuts 1 through 7 are main marks, and cuts 8 through 14 are secondary marks. The main cuts are made on the tip of each ear and the secondary cuts can be made on either the front or the back of the ear. Cuts 12 and 13 can be made on the tip or inside of a main cut, and 12 can be made inside a secondary cut.

The following illustration shows the two oldest reindeer brands we know from Guovdageainnu. They are documented in legal records from 1760, and we can see the same main and secondary cuts that we know today.

A brand is never composed arbitrarily, but includes a number of considerations. The brand should not only indicate ownership, but also kinship ties and other social relationships. Sami themselves use the expression árbemearka (inheritance brand) about "family brands" and refer to distinct main cuts which can go from generation to generation through either the mother or father's side. These family brands are considered especially valuable, not just because they indicate family continuity, but also because they are often tied to beliefs about reindeer luck.

Additionally a brand is composed so that there is potential for it to evolve for the next generation of owners. When a child is given a brand, it should be composed in such a way so that as an adult, there is the possibility of passing it on by only changing a secondary cut. A common method is to retain one ear from either the mother or father's brand, and uniquely compose the other ear. Future recruitment considerations requires intimate knowledge about possible future cut variations. It is not enough that a brand be practical to perform. The owner must also evaluate the brand's distinctiveness in comparison to other brands in the area. It should be easy to distinguish from other brands, and at the same time not easy to change by someone with bad intentions. Such "good" brands are called searus in Sami. The opposite are seagas brands which are difficult to distinguish and therefore are considered undesirable. It isn't just a handful of brands that a herder must be familiar with, it can quickly become a matter of a hundred or more. Brands must also be recognizable on the tundra, when, for example, thousands of running deer must be sorted in pitch-dark December. In such conditions it is important to have a brand that is searus, in other words, easily distinguishable.

For an example of how brands are used, these are from legal records for Guovdageainnu in 1976 and indicate some of the principles that have been mentioned.

Number 1 was originally settled and did fishing in Kvænangen. He accumulated deer and eventually became a reindeer Sami. After he married, he adopted this brand. The right ear is almost identical with his wife's (number 2). The left ear is from his father, Nilis Andersen Sara (Niillas Vuoras), but with a variation. The eldest son, Number 3, has kept the right ear from his parents, but made a new left ear (probably taken from his father's mother who belonged to the Thuri family). Since he was the oldest, it was important to have a brand that was distinct from his parents. The tounger sons on the other hand were given brands with their parent's main cut, since it was probable that when they became adults, their parents would be old and have few reindeer. Thus, there would be fewer occasions where the brands could be mistaken for each other.

Son number 3 was verdde for both 5, 6 and 7. Number 5 was settled in Guovdageainnu and brother-in-law to number 3. Numbers 5 and 4 used brands from their mother Inga Bær. She had been a reindeer nomad, but married a settler in Siebe. We see here how brands indicate kinship. The similarity in the main cuts of 4 and 5 is an indication that they are siblings, but are unique enough in the left main cut that they are easy to distinguish by a trained eye.

Brands for 6 and 7 are almost identical to 3. Since the first two are settled (Alta/Kåfjord), it is 3's task as verdde to watch their deer. He has therefore given them brands which, except for a few secondary cuts, are identical to his own. As settlers on the coast they most likely had so few deer that the possibility of developing their own herd was not great, even should they desire to.

Number 8 is the son of 3 and 4 and receives his brand from his father, with the addition of a cut and the removal of two secondary cuts from the left ear. His sister, number 9, however, acquires the right ear from 4, her mother. Number 10 is settled in Guovdageainnu and uses essentially the same brand as his father, 5. It is thus an inheritance brand, from father's mother Inga K. Bær, mentioned earlier. Her deer were cared for by 8 who was verdde for her father, 5. She is also cousin to 8.

The point of this three generation example is first to show how cut combinations indicate both social and economic relationships. On the one hand brands are a Sami expression of kinship relationships. In this way one can "read" kinship throughout a herd. Using 10 as an example, all the other brands presented indicate kinship. The main cut in the right ear indicates blood relationship, while cuts in the left ear (3, 6, 7, 8, 9) indicate affinity, "in-law" or verdde, relationships.

But brands also express economic reciprocity as we see between 6, 7, and 8, or 8 and 10. Brands in a herd express economic cooperation, and thereby larger shared interests.

In the preceding we see which considerations go into composing a brand, and we see that in Sami culture, brands indicate many additional and more complex meanings than what in Norwegian is understood as "ownership." Branding is in other words a very important part of a Sami multifunctional communication system and as such is a central element in reindeer herding's social and economic organization.

We will conclude by examining more closely verdde relationships. In 1976 in Guovdageainnu 1200 brands were registered, yet there were only 980 "reindeer Sami." Since we must presume that every brand owner registered because they owned at least one or more deer, this illustrates that reindeer have never been the sole occupation for many owners. Many owners have also been subsistence farmers or had several occupations that have not been statistically acknowledged. This is an example of how having others herd your deer - being part of a verdde relationship - is an important adaptation technique for many settlers in this area. They provide for themselves in a number of ways, and reindeer have always been an important component.

From a herding perspective, the large number of brands indicate many potential relationships which can be activated under certain circumstances, for example in the form of favors or crew, ensuring the siida's flexibility and therefore its continued future viability.