Swedish Lapland - As a Hosteler Saw It

• Main Author: Halpern, Joel
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SelectedWorks 1950
• Subjects: Lapps; Lapland; Anthropology; Arctic; Jokkmokk; Narvik; sami; Sapmi; Tundra
• Online Access: https://works.bepress.com/joel_halpern/63; https://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=joel_halpern

The train had just left Kimna, the last stop before Narvik. It was a mid-September morning, the snow had just begun to fall from a bleak, gray sky. From the train one saw nothing but a stretch of barren Arctic tundra. I felt more depressed than at any time since I had left home three months ago. In the past few days I had been completely frustrated in my attempts to visit with the Nomad Lapps, and now that I was leaving the country I had to abandon any hope of doing so. Attached photos by Lennart Wallmark.Lennart Wallmark and two young men, ca. September 14, 1949Lennart Wallmark is pictured sitting on a small hill behind two Sami boys. One of the boys is dressed in traditional Sami clothing, the other is dressed is a military or scouting uniform. The boys may be part of the Tuuri family. This is one of a series of five photographs taken on the same day of the same group of men. This photograph was taken when Joel M. Halpern accompanied Lutheran Pastor Lennart Wallmark (principal of the Sami folk high school un Jokkmokk from 1942 to 1972) to Lapland (Sapmi) in September of 1949. Since Halpern's camera was damaged, several shots were taken with Wallmark's camera. Wallmark sent a set of prints to Halpern back in the U.S.