Lecture, Tim Frandy: “The River Gives Life: Sámi Ontologies of Water and the Witchcraft Trial of Aikia Aikianpoika”

In the year 1671 the Sámi shaman Aikia Aikianpoika was charged with witchcraft by the missionary Gabriel Tuderus, for summoning salmon for a Finnish fisherman from Kemi, Mordula Tobias. After a bountiful catch, and upon failure to deliver a promised payment, Tobias was later found drowned near the place he fished for salmon. While this case study is best known as a convergence of European witchcraft trials and the religious persecution of the Sámi, it also speaks to the divergent ontologies of water across cultural lines. This presentation looks at the historic illegibility and criminalization of Sámi waterlore, foreshadowing enduring land-use conflicts that persist today.