{"id":13069,"date":"2024-06-18T10:50:49","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T10:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/?post_type=artikler&p=13069"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:17:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:17:01","slug":"the-turf-house-in-kaperdalen-bears-witness-to-a-little-known-sami-group","status":"publish","type":"artikler","link":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/artikkel\/the-turf-house-in-kaperdalen-bears-witness-to-a-little-known-sami-group\/","title":{"rendered":"The turf house in Kaperdalen bears witness to a little known S\u00e1mi group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tOn a clearing in the woods on Senja Island, you find a unique piece of preserved architecture; a goahti – or turf hut – used as a permanent dwelling until 1963. It traces the path back in history to traditional S\u00e1mi life. The lives of the residents were marked by both love and drama.\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

I had stopped the car in the Kaperdalen valley, in Senja\u2019s forested inland. The trees were clad in the bright green of early summer, the birds were singing, and the Lakselva river was roaring in flood somewhere behind the trees. The forest opened to a meadow, and in the middle some strange buildings seemed to grow right out of the ground. This is the Nikolaigammen<\/em> \u2013 Nikolai\u2019s turf hut \u2013 one of the last turf huts anyone lived in permanently in Northern Norway.  The hut is divided into two parts; the nucleus itself is a slightly elongated rectangular turf construction upheld by a simple log structure. An extension with a turf roof and vertical bark-covered wooden walls forms an entryway .<\/p>\n\n\n\t

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