The Reindeer People

In 1975 Marie Herbert and her husband spent time in the Lapland area in the north of Sweden and Norway, with the goal of joining the spring migration - well, that was Marie's goal, Wally's was more to work on his own project once Marie was on the migration.

The first half of the book was quite slow, and catalogued the disappointments they encountered, and the unfriendly behavior they received from those Lapps they encountered. The biggest problem was the way Lapps felt they had become a tourist novelty, and therefore reacted angrily when ‘foreigners with cameras' came near them. Most in the towns had stopped wearing their traditional dress, and were not interested in interacting with the couple.

Once they made some contacts they had an easier time of it, and through a family they stayed with for a couple of weeks, eventually Marie secured a place on the migration. They arranged for her to meet the family in advance, which they did, although it was not until she was had been left by her husband, and they were arranging the rendezvous, she was told the wife of the family was not making the journey, and she would be the lone female with four men she had barely met. Despite her concerns, Marie made the call that she would not be given a second opportunity, and would risk it, despite not telling her husband these details.

It was the second half of this book which saved it from a 2-3 star rating and pushed to it a 3-4 star rating. The actual migration, undertaken on snow-scooters towing sledges, driving the 600 reindeer from the mountain plateau to the coastal peninsular where the does are separated from the bucks to foal. In this part of the book Herbert writes well about the experience, the character of the four men and shares much of detail of nomad life she experiences. There is also a little narrative about the problems Lapps face with integration in Norway, and how this further divides the Lapps, with those who assimilate and those who don't.

I am glad I stuck to it with this book, and recommend it for those interested in the life of the reindeer herders, albeit really only a snapshot of the spring migration. There is only a couple of sentences about the other seasonal movements.

3.5 stars, rounded down for the slow start.