Tornedalians (; ; ) are an ethnic minority native to the Torne Valley (Meänmaa) region in northern Sweden and Finland. Tornedalians may refer to themselves using several different terms, though most commonly as Tornedalians, Kvens or Lantalaiset. Tornedalians were officially recognized as a distinct national minority in Sweden in 2000. In Finland, Tornedalians are generally considered a regional subgroup of Finns.
Etymologies The English word Tornedalian is derived from the Swedish name for the Torne Valley, Tornedalen. The Swedish word Tornedalen in turn is derived from the archaic Finnic word tornio meaning spear and the Swedish word dal which means valley.
Tornedalians use several different terms to refer to themselves. The term Tornedalian (Tornionlaaksolainen, pl. Tornionlaaksolaiset) originally refers specifically to someone living along the lower course of the Torne river, beginning roughly in Pajala municipality. The term has come to be used to denote all 'Tornedalians'. Lantalaiset (sl. Lantalainen; lit. "fertiliser/settled people") typically live in the further inland areas of Swedish and Finnish Lapland, known as Lannanmaa by Lantalaiset. The parts of Sweden inhabited by Lantalaiset largely correspond to the area known in Swedish as Malmfälten.
The term Kven has a disputed etymology. It appears for the first time in Ohthere of Hålogaland's 9th century accounts of northern Europe and is used mostly in Norwegian and Icelandic sources to refer to Tornedalians. With the integration of Torne Valley into Sweden the term fell into disuse in the Torne valley, though continued to be used among Norwegians Kvens. In Torne Valley the term featured in some traditional tales but was not actively used. Since the 1990s the term has been revived in Torne Valley and is especially commonly used by Lantalaiset. The term is also very common in the Karesuando (Karesuanto) area.
The somewhat derogatory Swedish terms byfinne (pl. byfinnar, lit. 'village Finns') and lappfinne (pl. lappfinnar, lit. 'Sámi Finns') have historically been used to describe the Meänkieli-speaking population in the Gällivare area. While the term lappfinne has fallen out of use, the term byfinne is still used.
Terms such as meänmaalaiset (lit. people of our land), meikäläiset (lit. people like us) and Kven (kvääni/kveeni) are used natively to refer to Tornedalians as a whole. Ultimately, there is no internal consensus on the use of any one term. Historically the term Finn has been used to denote all Tornedalians. While some Tornedalians will sometimes use the term Finn and Finnish, in contexts where being Tornedalians is implied, the term can be offensive to some. In a historical context the terms Finn and Finnish are sometimes still used.
These different terms/groups are not necessarily exclusive, and some may identify with multiple.
Language
Meänkieli, or Tornedalian, is the language or dialect spoken by Tornedalians. While Meänkieli is recognised in Sweden as one of the country's five minority languages, its status as an independent language is sometimes disputed due to its high mutual intelligibility with Finnish. It belongs to the Uralic language family.
History
Early history: 800–1323 Finnic populations first began settling in the northern reaches of the Bay of Bothnia during the Viking Age, which had likely been solely inhabited by the Sámi. While the earliest mentions of Kvens come from the account of Ohthere of Hålogaland in the 800s, the first certain evidence of Finnic populations in the Torne valley comes from the 1000s. Finnic settlement in the Bothnian Bay likely extended as far as the Pite and Lule Rivers by the 1100s and 1200s. Local toponomy indicates early Finnic populations in the area were made up of Tavastians and Karelians. These may have formed the ancient Kvens, which are often considered ancestors of today's Tornedalians and Kvens, though the connection between the ancient Kvens and modern Tornedalians and Kvens has been disputed.Myten om kvänernas rike. En granskning. Manuskript, 2013-08-12. Lennart Lundmark is a retired historian, formerly of Umeå University, a recognised expert in the field, and has published several books about the history of northern Fennoscandia (PDF in Swedish). Retrieved 14 July 2016.
Early interactions with Sweden: 1300–1500 In 1323, in the aftermath of the Treaty of Nöteborg, the government of King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden decreed that all land from Hälsingland to the Ule River would be free for settlement and that all those who did would be exempt from taxes until 1340. Five years later, in 1328, a legal hearing was held in Tälje as the birkarls, local Tornedalian tradesmen and representatives, disputed the right of the Hälsings (Swedes) to colonise the area. While the case was ruled in the favour of the birkarls and Sámi, and again re-confirmed in 1358 by king Erik Magnusson, Swedish expansion northwards nonetheless continued to encroach on Tornedalian lands. Likewise the rights of the birkarls to conduct trade were over the centuries be curtailed by Sweden which sought to establish control over the lucrative and well-developed northern trade. During the 1300s two churches were erected on Pirkkiö and near Kemi. These early churches were primarily constructed with the aim of establishing the administrative boundaries of the archdioceses of Uppsala and Turku, and did not serve to Christianise the area.
Swedish colonial era: 1500–1809 Tensions between Sweden and Muscovy at the end of the 1400s led to the establishment of new churches in the northern Bothnian area and the replacement of old wooden churches with stone fortress-churches. They established further Swedish influence over the area, however their success in Christianising the Tornedalian populace during the 1500s is uncertain.
At the beginning of the 16th century there were around thirty villages in Torne Valley paying taxes to Sweden.
Gustav Vasa played a pivotal role in the decline of the Birkarls by doubling the tithes owed to the crown in 1528, beginning to tax their homesteads in 1543, and in 1554 he revoked their right to collect taxes, instead assigning the duty to agents of the crown.
In the mid-1500s the local birkarl-chieftain and the king's local bailif, called Olof Anundsson by the Swedes, was repeatedly accused of misconduct for refusing to visit church, deriding the authority of God and the Church, and mocking God's word.
In 1584 King Johan III had signed a decree regarding the protection of the inhabitants of the Lappmark from the intrusions of the Torne-peasants. According to the document the right to fish in the inland lakes of northern Sweden and Finland would fall exclusively to those who lived closest by them. Because of this, Sámi families who lived in the area could take over fishing lakes and hunting grounds that had been in the hands of Tornedalian families. The inland fishing was vital to Tornedalian livelihood at the time and this, along with an increasing population over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, led many to settle permanently in the inland in the areas that had only been seasonally inhabited by Tornedalians. Those who settled permanently in the inland came to be known as Lantalaiset. During this era relations between Sámi and Tornedalians continued to be positive overall despite increasingly predatory Swedish involvement. Most conflict was Tornedalian-Tornedalian or Sámi-Sámi, and land disputes between the groups were uncommon.
Charles IX imposed strict regulations on when, where and how the birkarls could trade and travel in general in Lappmarken. In the end the situation became untenable, and by 1620 the birkarls had ceased to exist as an entity. Despite their previous privileged status in Tornedalian society, very few birkarls became burghers, instead remaining as part of the peasantry. Simultaneously at the turn of the 17th century the Church of Sweden established itself in Torne Valley; the later 1500s had shown the failure of the Swedish church in the Torne Valley and in 1606 the church administration in the area was reformed. It is from this period which the last known pagan burials are known and Christianity is established clearly as the dominant religion.
The Great Wrath During the early 18th century the Torne Valley, like other parts of the Swedish Empire, suffered severely because of the Great Northern War (1700-1721). By 1710, around 650 men from Ylitornio and Alatornio parishes had been conscripted into the army, amounting to roughly 20% of the region's adult population (city of Tornio and certain metalworks not included). Out of those 650 only a handful ever returned home.
The Torne valley was, like other regions of Finland, subject to what is known as the Great Wrath. From late 1714 onwards Russian forces continually launched attacks into Torne Valley. Already in 1714 a peasant host of around 300-400 men was levied from the local population, yet the poorly trained and equipped force saw few successes and proved ineffectual in hindering Russian attacks. Exact figures on how many died during this period is unclear, but according to reports from the spring of 1717, when the attacks had largely subsided, up to 400 people had thus far died due to exposure and starvation or had been killed by Russian forces. In addition, a notable number of people (mainly children) had been kidnapped and/or enslaved, though how many is unknown.
In total around 140 homesteads were burnt in the war, and still by the 1720s a further 80 stood abandoned. It would take decades before the region recovered.
Modern eta: 1809–today Following the Treaty of Fredrikshamn between Sweden and Russia in 1809, all Swedish lands east of the Torne, Muonio and Könkämä rivers were ceded to Russia as the Grand Duchy of Finland. The split region continued to be culturally homogenous, so the border had little immediate impact on people's everyday lives. In time however the border would have a notable linguistic and cultural impact. Today Finnish Tornedalians typically do not consider their speech a separate language despite many speaking what otherwise could be considered Meänkieli.During the 1800s Tornedalians became the targets of extensive so-called "racial biology" and Swedification policies, and many Tornedalian and Sámi graves were plundered at the behest of priests. Lars Levi Læstadius participated in the process of plundering graves.
In 1886 the first Swedish Reindeer Herding Act was introduced. It prohibited non-Sámi from herding reindeer. The law likewise restricted the rights of non-members of Samebyar to winter pastures, hunting, and fishing. Tornedalians thus had to 'lease' their own reindeer to vested Sámi herders. This state of affairs has largely been repeated in the Reindeer Herding Acts of 1898, 1928 and 1971.
In 1888 Swedish was made the sole language of civil life, and the only language taught in schools. No ban was ever instituted in Finland, but those who spoke the language were discriminated against. After the 1902 Norrbotten famine, "work cabins" were established in Norrbotten in the fashion of boarding schools with the stated goal of providing food, lodging and education to children from the sparsely populated region. Here, teachers worked to forcibly assimilate Tornedalian children; abuse was rampant. In the early to mid-1900s, Herman Lundborg from the State Institute for Racial Biology performed skull measurements on Tornedalians in 1913, which continued into the 1950s. The ban on speaking Meänkieli in school was revoked by the Riksdag in 1957. At Furunäset Hospital and Asylum (1893-1987) in Piteå, Tornedalian women were sterilised, were forced to have abortions, and were subjected to other invasive surgeries.
During the 1970s and 80s a Tornedalian movement was formed. In 1981 The National Association of Swedish Tornedalians (STR-T) was formed, and in 1992 the first Meänkieli dictionary was written.