Chill Survive

Lauri Linna: Maternal lineage A traditional kota in the Kitka siida. Now used for leisure. Arriving in Kuusamo after 12 h on train and bus from Helsinki. I take my bags to my grandmother’s place and get in Pia’s car. We drive to an area of Kuusamo that I can’t remember ever going to. I know that this is from where my grandfather’s line of fathers is, but not much else. We are trying to find remnants of the Sámi past in Kuusamo. I have heard, Sámi people used to live here before the settlers arrived from Kainuu in the South and Ostrobothnia in the West by the order of the Swedish King to farm and build houses. Since early childhood, I have wondered is this heritage in me. I’ve carried a strange feeling in me about it, but for whatever reason it has never been discussed in my family. Except for a joke my grandfather used to tell us: “Hey kids, we are lohilappalaisia (Salmon Sámi)! Hehehehehee! LOL. Just kidding.” He also used a lot of words that I didn’t understand. I ...

Korva and many versions of the last name are quite common in Lapland and many have the name because of their house/farm was called Korva. Korva means “an ear”. It also has other meanings. E.g. you could say that you live by the river -“asun joen korvalla”.  Or you can say “tavataan siinä 12.00 korvalla” = “Let’s meet around 12.00”. It is difficult to translate Finnish sometimes. At this point of my research I haven’t got any hard evidence of my family’s connections to other Korva families in Lapland. But there are interesting connections in Kuusamo still to talk about. I continued to research the name more. At first, I was finding more Finnish settlers coming and taking land. But then I stumbled upon another family: The Pitkä family. The family originates from a kind of a tribal chief or the elder of the tribe (again a bad translation of lappalaislautamies) of the Kitka siida, Marttinin Antti, who lived approx. 1624-1693. The family summer camps were in the Ala-Kitk...