View source for Draft:Alta conflict

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[PICTURE HERE]

The '''Alta conflict'''<ref name="Donaldduck">[http://www.nrk.no/nordnytt/donald-bruker-jula-pa-a-hamle-opp-med-gruveaksjonistene-pa-finnmarksvidda-1.12048657 Donald bruker jula på å hamle opp med gruveaksjonistene på Finnmarksvidda] [During Donald's Christmas he overcomes the mining activists on Finnmarksvidda]</ref> or '''Alta controversy''' refers to a series of protest campaigns in [[Norway]] in the late 1970s and early 1980s led by Sami reindeer herders against the Norwegian government's proposed construction of a [[hydroelectric power plant]] on the [[Altaelva|Alta River]] in [[Finnmark]], [[Northern Norway]].

In the 1970s(when exactly), the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration (''Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat'', or NVE ), with the support of the  Norwegian state, made plans to flood a remote area in northern Norway that included two Sami villages [one or two].<ref name="Andersen">Andersen, Svein S., and Atle Midttun. "Conflict and Local Mobilization : The Alta Hydropower Project 1." Acta Sociologica 28, no. 4 (1985): 317-35. doi:10.1177/000169938502800402.</ref> This news generated unrest in the surrounding area of Alta and protests against the state and the NVE were organized by Samis of Mazi and drew both support and detraction from Norwegians in nearby towns.<ref name="Andersen" />

The local Samis were concerned that their traditional culture and vocation would be harmed if a dam dispossessed them of their land and forced them to relocate.<ref name="Andersen" /> These concerns were not shared by the Norwegian state in the 1970s and no official recognition at this point had been given to Sami language, culture, or political structures.<ref name="Paine" /> The ensuing public debates and protests of 1978-81 involved  by media the incompatibility of contemporary Sami lifestyles with the resource development goals of mid-century Norway.<ref name="Andersen" /> Ultimately, the dam’s construction proceeded, albeit with modifications intended to address Sami concerns.<ref name="Dalland" /> In spite of the dam's approval, the controversy is recognized as a watershed moment for recognition of Sami rights and a catalyst for future legislation that intended to formalize and protect those rights.<ref name="Dalland" />

== Background ==
The Sami are a Finno-Uragic people indigenous to the Sapmi cultural region, which stretches across the northernmost parts of the Fennoscandian peninsula and is intersected by the modern borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia<ref name="Muga">Muga, David A. "A Commentary on the Historical Transformation of the Sami Communal Mode of Production." The Journal of Ethnic Studies 14, no. 1 (1986): 111.</ref>  <ref name="Dalland">Dalland, Øystein. "The Alta Case: Learning from the Errors Made in a Human Ecological Conflict in Norway." Geoforum14, no. 2 (1983): 193-203. doi:10.1016/0016-7185(83)90017-9.</ref> Between the 16th and 18th centuries, most Sami people transitioned from a dependence on a variety of subsistence modes (e.g. hunting, gathering, fishing) to a fully nomadic economy centered around the maintenance of  large reindeer herds.<ref name="Muga" /><ref name="Paine">Paine, Robert. Dam a River, Damn a People?: Sami (Lapp) Livelihood and the Alta/Kautokeino Hydro-electric Project and the Norwegian Government. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 1982.</ref> During this transitional period, Sami adapted closely to this cycle of movement, and transhumant Sami have since intertwined their schedules to the reindeer’s inseparably.<ref name="Paine" /> Driving this cultural evolution was the encroachment of Nordic settlements on traditional Sami lands and the resulting depletion of wild game.<ref name="Muga" /><ref name="Paine" />  By weaning themselves off of wild animal populations and taming reindeer instead, Sami communities ensured access to a reliable source of meat that delinked them from direct competition with European hunters.<ref name="Sara">Sara, Mikkel Nils. 2009. Siida and traditional sami reindeer herding knowledge. Northern Review(30): 153.</ref> A detailed protocol around herding arrangements evolved over the ensuing centuries.<ref name="Muga" />

[[File:A_man_with_two_reindeer,_Winter,_Finnmarksvidda..jpg|thumb|A Sami man with two reindeer.]]
'''Social History in Norway''' 

Sami people have existed side by side with the majority Norwegian culture for hundreds of years, manifesting in modern times as an unequal power relationship between a beauratracized nation-state and a semi-nomadic people.<ref name="Eidheim">Eidheim, H. Aspects of the Lappish minority situation. Universitetsforlaget. (1971)</ref> <ref>Eriksen, K.E. and Niemi, E. (1981) Den finske fare. Universitetsforlaget.</ref> Sami were historically stereotyped by Norwegian society as a poverty-stricken and intellectually inferior group, and racialized discrimination against Sami has historically been widespread in Scandinavia.<ref name="Minde2003">Minde, Henry. "Assimilation of the Sami – Implementation and Consequences1." Acta Borealia 20, no. 2 (2003): 121-46. doi:10.1080/08003830310002877.</ref> Sami in Norway were subjected to a long period of assimilationist policy, known as ''Fornorsking'' (literally "Norwegianization")[switch to english main], between roughly 1850 and 1980.<ref name="Minde2003" /> The 1850s saw the creation and implementation of legislation intended to re-orientate Samis to Norwegian culture and farming practices, including measures that discouraged the use of Sami languages and restricted Sami access to certain traditional reindeer pastures.<ref name="Minde2003" /> Boarding schools for Sami children were created to break cultural and linguistic inheritence and replace in them a norwegian identiy and culture.

It was during this time(when?) that the state formalized their right to all non-registered or “ownerless lands” within Norway's borders.<ref name="Minde2008">Minde, Henry. "Sami Land Rights in Norway: A Test Case for Indigenous Peoples." International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 8, no. 2 (February 02, 2008): 107-25. doi:10.1163/15718110120908367.</ref> By claiming that the semi-nomadic nature of Sami societies disqualified them from holding title to the lands they lived upon and used for reindeer herding, the Norwegian government was able to formally legitimize it's authority over traditional Sami lands and the resources contained within them.<ref name="Sillanpää">Sillanpää, Lennard. "A Comparative Analysis of Indigenous Rights in Fennoscandia." Scandinavian Political Studies 20, no. 3 (1997): 197-217. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1997.tb00192.x.</ref>

'''Geography and settlements'''

The Alta river is the third-longest river in Finnmark county, and empties an ecologically complex watershed into the Norwegian Sea.<ref name="snl">{{cite web|author=Store norske leksikon|authorlink=Store norske leksikon|title=Altaelva|url=http://snl.no/Altaelva|access-date=2013-01-14|language=Norwegian}}</ref> Before the 1980s, the Alta river was over 150 km long and one of the last remaining rivers in Europe still unregulated by damming.<ref name="Dalland" /> The Alta river canyon is among the largest in Europe and contains a varied topography.<ref name="snl" /> Upstream, deep in Kautokeino county, the open tundra provides reindeer herds with lichen pasture before transitioning to forest and meadowland downriver.<ref name="Paine" /> The Alta river was known in Western Europe for the angling of Atlantic salmon, and has historically hosted a significant amount of the species' spawning habitat.<ref name="Ugedal">Ugedal, Ola, Tor F. Næsje, Eva B. Thorstad, Torbjørn Forseth, Laila M. Saksgård, and Tor G. Heggberget. "Twenty Years of Hydropower Regulation in the River Alta: Long-term Changes in Abundance of Juvenile and Adult Atlantic Salmon." Hydrobiologia 609, no. 1 (2008): 9-23. doi:10.1007/s10750-008-9404-2.</ref> The Alta river's salmon population had provided subsistence options for Sami and Norwegians for centuries and also supported an economy of commercial fishing, sports fishing, and tourism.<ref name="Andersen" /> These activities netted salmon in quantities of 50-100 metric tons a year during the 1970s.<ref name="Dalland" />

The headwaters of the Alta-Kautokeino River are located deep in western Finnmark and flow past the Sami villages of Kautokeino and Masi before draining into two lakes.<ref name="Paine" /> From there the river runs through a geography of mountains and canyons, into the Alta valley and out to the sea.<ref name="Andersen" /> The Norwegian town of Alta sits at the mouth of the river.
[[File:Norway_Finnmark_adm_location_map.svg|thumb|The Finnmark County in Norway where Alta is located.]]
'''Sami Villages on the Alta'''

The two Sami villages of Masi and Kautokeino are politically contained in the Kautokeino municipality of Finnmark county and are situated along the upper reaches of the Alta river.<ref name="snl" /> The village of Masi held about 400 people in the early 1980s and was almost 100% Sami-speaking at that time.<ref name="Paine" /> Kautokeino, located farther up river than Masi, had a population of about 2,000 during the same time period, where over 80% of the residents spoke Sami as their primary language.<ref name="Paine" /> Many herded reindeer but others were employed in farming, hunting or fishing.<ref name="Anderson">Anderson, Myrdene. Vectors of Diversification and specialization within Saami society. Purdue University. 1981.</ref> Others worked in local administration or were employed in a service position.<ref name="Anderson" />  These villages had retained a largely intact Sami culture into the modern era, partly because Norwegian assimilationist policies saw a weaker implementation in the interior of the Finnmark plateau compared to the coast.<ref name="Paine" /> Observers noted a strictly local system of social control, so that even Sami that work in non-traditional occupations maintained a distinct Sami identity.<ref name="Paine" /> 

[Reindeer management was a central, stabilizing feature of the local economy. Even Sami not employed in herding understood the trade to be an ever-present alternative if work become scarce in a preferred field.<ref name="Paine" />] 

Sami in this area lived in settled households as well as in transhumant arrangements, following their herds to the coastal regions in the summertime but maintaining principal households near their interior reindeer pastures on the Alta river.<ref name="Paine" /><ref name="Dalland" /> Guovageaidnu-Kautokeino was one of the last areas in Norway where reindeer herding was still practiced.<ref name="Briggs">Briggs, Chad M. "Science, Local Knowledge and Exclusionary Practices: Lessons from the Alta Dam Case." Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography 60, no. 2 (February 18, 2007): 149-60. Accessed March 3, 2019. doi:10.1080/00291950600723146.</ref>

In the decades before the Alta dam plans materialized there was already Sami concern regarding the fast pace of Norwegian resource development in the northern counties. Local Sami and Norwegian fisherman voiced their concerns over overfishing and the destruction of stream spawning areas by hydro-engineering projects.<ref name="Jenoft">Jentoft, Svein, Henry Minde, and Ragnar Nilsen. Indigenous Peoples: Resource Management and Global Rights. Delft, The Netherlands: Eburon, 2005.</ref> These complaints rarely reached the government after being reported to local fishery associations or were overlooked by decision makers, who rarely sought input on projects beyond the initial scientific or economic recommendations provided by government-sanctioned research bodies.<ref name="Jenoft" /> Private organizations who successfully lobbied the government in favour of natural resource development, such as the Norwegian Fisherman’s Association, tended to argue for measures that would benefit broad economic interests over those of small-scale fisheries<ref name="Briggs" /> 

== Controversy over construction of the Alta dam ==
[[File:Folkeaksjonen_mot_Altautbyggingen_(6263033681).jpg|thumb|Blockade against Alta hydroelectric project on traditional [[Sami people|Sami]] territories. The project was completed in 1987.]]

=== Alta dam planning phase and early reactions (1960-1978) ===
Although internallans to build a dam on the Alta river materialized in the early 1960s when the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) sought a location on which to expand the hydroelectric infrastructure serving the sparse, northernmost counties.<ref name="Auestad">Auestad, Inger, Yngve Nilsen, and Knut Rydgren. "Environmental Restoration in Hydropower Development—Lessons from Norway." Sustainability 10, no. 9 (2018): 3358. doi:10.3390/su10093358.</ref> The mountainous geography of Norway leads to difficulties in building and maintaining electrical transmission lines to the north from the more populous south, where most of the country's energy production occured.<ref name="Paine" /> These physical barriers made the running of transmission lines between the north and the south expensive, and a hydrolectric dam on the Alta was proposed as part of a national energy strategy to make the provision of electricity to the northern counties more affordable.<ref name="Dalland" /> Studies done in preperation indicated that the building of a dam on the upper reaches of the Alta river would require that the riverside villages of Mazi and Kautokeino, along with a substantial portion of the surrounding reindeer pasture surrounding reindeer pasture, be flooded. Despite this information being known early on, the government's planning around the dam was conducted in relative secrecy without a public consultation process, and without any contact with the people or leadership of Mazi and Kautokeino<ref name="Paine" />. The central authourities in southern Norway were known to view the upper reaches of the Alta river valley as barren and unimportant to anyone's 

The first public awareness of the construction plans occurred by accident in the mid-1960s after a local Sami teacher, upon visiting a regional engineering office in Navrik, took note of maps displayed within the building that indicated flooding boundaries well within the borders of Mazi <ref name="Briggs" />

In 1969, more reason for Mazi villagers to building permits began being denied to villagers by the county agricultural office without explanation.<ref name="Briggs" /> [how exactly did this happen]. The NVE issued no official statements until 1970, when it announced that a dam was to be built on the Alta river, flooding a total area of 75 km2 that would include the Sami villages of Masi and Mieron (Mieroja´vri).<ref name="Briggs" /> 

[PHOTO "VI FLYTTER IKKE"] Local opposition towards the proposed dam grew quickly. On August 27, 1970, a visit to Masi made by NVE officials and members of parliament was met by 400 Sami carrying banners protesting the government's announcement.<ref name="Paine" /><ref name="Briggs" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61725014|title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Volume 1|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|others=Mark Nuttall|isbn=0-203-99785-9|location=New York|oclc=61725014}}</ref> The issues quickly rose in public awareness after the protests gained the attention of the Norwegian and international press.<ref name="Briggs" /> 

In 1973, parliament designated the Masi segment of the Alta river a protected area under the national plan for protected water courses and reduced the scale of the planned project to avoid flooding the village.<ref name="Briggs" /><ref name="Paine" />     

In 1974, an official report on the dam's rationale commissioned by the NVE and Norwegian Hydro warned of the dam's "catastrophic" consequences for reindeer pastoralism.<ref name=":0" /> 

In 1975, national Sami assiciations,[ Norske Samers Riksforbund (NSR), Norske Reindriftssamers Landsforbunder (NRL), and Samenes Land Forbund (SLF)] {ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS?} made public declarations of their disapproval of the project.<ref name=":0" /> In the same year the environmental advocacy group Norwegian Friends of the Earth (Naturvernforbund, or NVF) publicly accused the government of inadequately assessing the environmental impacts of the project and insisted that parliament scrap the project.<ref name="Briggs" /> 
=== Sami grievances against the dam ===
The aim of residents from Masi and Kautokeino was to stop the construction of a dam which would force the relocation of their villages and damage or destroy valuable habitat utilized by their reindeer. The significance of flooded and flood-affected pasture had increased by the 1970s on account of the loss of traditional calving and rutting grounds elsewhere from government project development.<ref name="Paine" /> Many herders concluded that no substitute could be found for the grazing habitat expected to be lost through flooding.

The potential impacts of dam construction on local herding operations were not considered in initial government risk analyses of the Alta dam.<ref name="Dalland" /> Some herders expressed concern that the location of the dam could jeopradize the efficient and safe movement of reindeer between summer and winter pastures.<ref name="Paine" /> The several herds near the proposed dam required use of shared, narrow migration passages before they could spread out into their respective coastal pastures.<ref name="Paine" /> The stress responses to work camps, construction vehicles, roads, and landscape-feature changes was expected by ecologists to trigger abortions in pregnant reindeer.<ref name="Paine" /> The noise and movement from power lines and ground equipment were already known to Masi and Kautokeino residents by this point to be confusing obstacles for migrating herds. <ref>Klein, David. 1971. Reaction of Reindeer to Obstruction and Disturbances. Science, vol. 173.</ref><ref name="Paine" /> Herds elsewhere in nearby districts had had their migrations delayed or interrupted by power plant and dam activity.<ref name="Paine" /> In some cases reindeer refused to use grazing pasture that planning authorities had wrongly assumed would remain as active reindeer pasture after construction of a project was completed <ref name="Paine" /> Sami also feared that the construction of roads into their remote tundra would invite trespass by outsiders who otherwise would not have had access.<ref name="Paine" />

'''Attitudes toward Sami protests from the public and government'''

The majority of local Norwegian residents in the town of Alta opposed dam construction, demonstrating sympathy for the affected Sami villages.<ref name="Briggs" />  Anti-dam Alta residents were additionally motivated by concerns about their shared river and the downstream consequences of dam construction on their economies of farming, hunting, and fishing.<ref name="Andersen" /> In addition to direct communication with government representatives, these residents were able to add their numbers to highly influential ''Folkeaksjonen''. More than half of all local voters in the 1979 election participated in civil disobedience, public demonstrations, public meetings, or petition signing.<ref name="Andersen" /> In contrast to the anti-dam Alta residents, residents of the nearby township of Elvebakken, who had no fishing privileges in the Alta river, were more likely to support construction of the dam and less likely to express concerns over possible damage to the river.<ref name="Andersen" /> Pro-dam citizens in Elvebakken and Alta joined counter-protest demonstrations or voiced their opinions in town hall forums or local papers.<ref name="Andersen" />

Left Socialst and Liberal members of the Storting (The Norwegian parliament] were more likely to have sympathy for the interests of local communities in Norway and were therefore a natural path to a parliamentary voice for local Norwegians and Sami who were against the dam. However, given their minority status in the Storting at the time, those parties were not equipped to turn the Storting away from final approval of the dam's construction.<ref name="Andersen" /> Support for the dam in Storting was found most strongly from members of the Labour and Conservative parties, whose centralist and growth-orientated values informed an eagerness to approve projects with economic potential for nation-building.<ref name="Andersen" /> With a majority in Storting throughout the 1970s and 80s, those parties possessed a large amount of influence on legislative and executive decisions relevant to the outcome of the Alta Dam proceedings.<ref name="Andersen" />

=== Project approval and mass protests of the People's Action (1978- ===
A version of the project, revised to account for the concerns of Masi residents, was legislated by parliament in 1978.<ref name="Paine3">Paine, Robert. Dam a River, Damn a People?: Sami (Lapp) Livelihood and the Alta/Kautokeino Hydro-electric Project and the Norwegian Government. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 1982.</ref><ref name="Briggs3">Briggs, Chad M. "Science, Local Knowledge and Exclusionary Practices: Lessons from the Alta Dam Case." Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography 60, no. 2 (February 18, 2007): 149-60. Accessed March 3, 2019. doi:10.1080/00291950600723146.</ref><ref name=":03">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61725014|title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Volume 1|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|others=Mark Nuttall|isbn=0-203-99785-9|location=New York|oclc=61725014}}</ref> The now scaled-down project proposal called for 625 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) (down from 1400 GWh) in electrical production and shrunk the number of water impoundments from two dams to one.<ref name="Briggs3" />  A 100 m tall dam was to be built across a canyon downstream from Mazi and a 36 km access road was to reach the construction from the nearby Norwegian town of Stilla.<ref name=":03" /> Construction of access roads had already begun before the legislation was finalized.<ref name="Briggs3" /><ref name=":03" /> Though their village was spared from flooding, Mazi residents were still concerned about the potential indirect impacts of dam construction on reindeer health and continued to organize their protest networks.<ref name="Paine3" />

Two major groups arose that coordinated opposition to the dam: the People's Action Group (PAG) and the Sami Action Group (SAG).<ref name=":03" />  PAG was a broad coalition formed in 1978 that attracted both environmentalists and indigenous rights activists and campaigned on a message of saving a regionally important river.<ref name="Dalland3">Dalland, Øystein. "The Alta Case: Learning from the Errors Made in a Human Ecological Conflict in Norway." Geoforum14, no. 2 (1983): 193-203. doi:10.1016/0016-7185(83)90017-9.</ref><ref name=":03" /> <ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Paine|first=Richard|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12798387|title=Indigenous peoples and the nation-state : 'fourth world' politics in Canada, Australia, and Norway|date=1985|publisher=Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland|year=1985|isbn=0-919666-44-2|editor-last=Dyck|editor-first=Noel|location=St. John's, Nfld., Canada|pages=190–235|chapter=Ethnodrama and the 'Fourth World' : The Saami Action Group in Norway, 1979-1981|oclc=12798387}}</ref> SAG, a Sami rights group that included members from Masi, formed in 1979 and sought to centre the Alta dam controversy around Sami and the mistreatment of the Sami by the Norwegian government.<ref name=":03" /><ref name=":1" />
[[File:Folkeaksjonen_mot_Altautbyggingen_(6263033681).jpg|thumb|Folkeaksjonen group demonstration protesting the Alta dam.]]
In the summer of 1979, a 'resistance camp' organized by the PAG was set up in Alta.<ref name="Briggs3" /><ref name=":03" /> The camp consisted of several thousand protesters from all over Norway and Europe that were organized against the dam.<ref name=":03" /> The demonstrations received official statements of support from the World Council of Indigenous Peoples and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.<ref name="Dalland3" /><ref name=":03" />

PAG protests happened on site in the Alta district and included the building of camps near construction zones and the blockading of roads. A group of seven SAG members also made their way to the parliament building in Oslo, where they erected a lavvo on the front grounds and demanded that the government rescind its authorization of the Alta dam until Sami rights and status were assessed by the courts.<ref name="Dalland22">Dalland, Øystein. "The Alta Case: Learning from the Errors Made in a Human Ecological Conflict in Norway." Geoforum14, no. 2 (1983): 193-203. doi:10.1016/0016-7185(83)90017-9.</ref><ref name=":022">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61725014|title=Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Volume 1|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|others=Mark Nuttall|isbn=0-203-99785-9|location=New York|oclc=61725014}}</ref> After the government rejected their demands, the SAG members, on October 9, 1979, staged a hunger demonstration that they declared would not end until the government accepted their demands.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Dalland22" /><ref name=":022" />

The hunger strikers in Oslo attracted crowds of support and included among those who joined or sat with the demonstrators were leftist members of parliament and Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad.<ref name=":1" /> A petition of support received over 20,000 signatures and the first issue of the action group's newspaper sold out a printing of 8,000 copies within hours on the streets of Oslo.<ref name=":1" /> Over the next few days, the strikers were repeatedly placed in custody, only to return each time to the parliament grounds where they would erect another lavvo.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":022" /> The police also removed over 200 sympathetic demonstrators from parliament grounds by the third day of the strike.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":022" />  On October 15, 1979, the executive branch of the Norwegian government responded to the growing national and international pressure from protesters and media and yielded to the demands of the hunger strikers.<ref name="Briggs22">Briggs, Chad M. "Science, Local Knowledge and Exclusionary Practices: Lessons from the Alta Dam Case." Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography 60, no. 2 (February 18, 2007): 149-60. Accessed March 3, 2019. doi:10.1080/00291950600723146.</ref><ref name=":022" /> Prime Minister Oddvar Nordli annouced a six-week suspension of construction plans, pending review of the project's legal status.<ref name="Briggs22" />

In 1980, the Norwegian government created the Sami Rights Commission to carry out an inquiry into Sami rights and make legislative recommendations based on their findings<ref name=":022" />

Construction was halted for over a year as court cases were argued in the Alta local court.<ref name="Briggs22" /> One suit filed by the Sami and allied organizations against the government accused parliament of breaking procedural laws in its passing of the project and ignoring the impacts of access roads in their assessment of project risk to reindeer herds.<ref name="Paine22">Paine, Robert. Dam a River, Damn a People?: Sami (Lapp) Livelihood and the Alta/Kautokeino Hydro-electric Project and the Norwegian Government. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 1982.</ref><ref name="Briggs22" /> In December 1980, the Alta Court of Appraisal rejected the plaintiff's plea by a majority of 3 to 2.<ref name="Paine22" /><ref name=":022" /> The plaintiffs immediately made an appeal to the Supreme court, who ruled 4 to 3 in favour of the government.<ref name="Briggs22" />

Rejecting the decisions of the courts, PAG members continued their demonstrations into January 1981, when protesters chained themselves to constructed ice barriers at Stilla.<ref name=":022" /> The project's delay had caused conflict within the national Labour party, and in January 1981 Nordli was removed from power by his party and replaced with environment minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. <ref name="Briggs22" /> Her governnment promised that construction would proceed and ordered the national police into Alta to remove protesters<ref name="Briggs22" /> This was the largest police mobilization in Norway since WWII, with 600 police (10% of the national police force), taken into the area by military transport.<ref name="Briggs22" /> A second protest camp near Alta was the scene of up to 1000 arrests.<ref name="Briggs22" />

In February 1981, access road construction was paused again as protest campers continued blocking road construction sites between Alta and Stilla.<ref name="Briggs22" /> After two seasons of delay, construction began again in September 1981, only to be interrupted by a third protest camp.<ref name="Briggs22" />This camp remained through the winter until they were countered by a second mobilization of 400 police reinforements. The People's Action relented after a final Supreme Court ruling in 1982. The dam was completed in 1987.

== Outcomes ==
[[File:Alta-damm.jpg|thumb|The completed dam.]]
'''Ecological outcomes'''

As predicted by opponents of the plans in Alta, the dam had negative effects on the local ecology. A study on salmon density in the Alta River beginning in 1988 found significant reduction in salmon populations in parts of the river furthest upstream as a result of the Alta dam.<ref name="Ugedal" /> The highest part of salmon habitat is located 2.5 km downstream of the dam and significant changes in temperatures were observed there.<ref name="Ugedal" /> An increase of 1-3 degrees Celsius in September and 1-2 degrees in the winter was discovered along with a decrease of 1-2 degrees Celsius in the summer.<ref name="Ugedal" /> The warmer winter temperatures led to a decrease in ice cover of the river resulting in a doubling of mean river discharge. Ice has been shown to provide protection for juvenile salmon from invertebrate predators and the reduction of ice is likely a cause of lower population sizes.<ref name="Ugedal" /> Additionally, turbine malfunctions have caused sudden drops in water levels leading to stranding and increased mortality of fish.<ref name="Ugedal" /> 

Direct impacts of the Alta dam on reindeer population are difficult to study. The initial plans included flooding of the Iešjávri basin, an area central to up to 40 000 reindeer’s migratory routes.<ref name="Tyler">Tyler, N.j.c., J.m. Turi, M.a. Sundset, K. Strøm Bull, M.n. Sara, E. Reinert, N. Oskal, C. Nellemann, J.j. Mccarthy, S.d. Mathiesen, M.l. Martello, O.h. Magga, G.k. Hovelsrud, I. Hanssen-Bauer, N.i. Eira, I.m.g. Eira, and R.w. Corell. "Sami Reindeer Pastoralism under Climate Change: Applying a Generalized Framework for Vulnerability Studies to a Sub-arctic Social–ecological System." Global Environmental Change17, no. 2 (2007): 191-206. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.06.001.</ref> Although this plan was revised, the areas ultimately flooded by the revised plans were important to spring calving.<ref name="Tyler" /> It is also speculated that indirect effects of unfamiliar infrastructure may also negatively impact reindeer populations.<ref name="Paine" /><ref name="Tyler" />

== Legacy ==
[[File:Folkeaksjonen_mot_utbygging_av_Alta-Kautokeinovassdraget_knapp_samisk.jpg|right|thumb|150x150px|Sami language button (campaign against development of the Alta)]]


== In popular culture ==
''[[La Elva Leve!]]'' ["let the river live"] was a 1980 [[docudrama]] inspired by the events of the Alta protests. [link to youtube]

In 2014 "in one of the scenes of the [[Donald Duck]] Christmas story, mining activists—clad in ''[[gákti]]''—and a chain gang show up. Associations to the Alta conflict of the 70s and 80s, where there was great resistance to the building of a dam on the [[Alta River]], are clear", according to [[NRK]].<ref name="Donaldduck" /> A [[documentary film]] ''Tidsvitne: Alta-kampen'' ["the Alta Struggle" episode of the Tidsvitne series] was produced by [[NRK]].

A subplot in the 2019 animated musical film ''[[Frozen II]]'' where a dam built on tribal land by King Runeard, [[Elsa (Frozen)|Elsa]] and [[Anna (Frozen)|Anna]]'s grandfather, alludes to the Alta controversy. Runeard had the dam built ostensibly as a gift to the Northuldrans, a fictional tribe inspired by the [[Sámi people]], but was actually a means to further subjugate the tribe whom the king distrusted for their reliance on magic.<ref name="marshall">{{cite web|last1=Marshall|first1=Emily Zobel|title=Frozen 2's postcolonial plotline: is it all a bit of a charade?|url=https://theconversation.com/frozen-2s-postcolonial-plotline-is-it-all-a-bit-of-a-charade-127981|access-date=8 July 2020|website=The Conversation|language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Environmental racism in Europe]]
* {{Interlanguage link multi|Tore Bongo|no}}

== References ==
{{reflist|33em}}

== Literature ==

* Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs [http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/history/032005-990463/index-dok000-b-n-a.html The Sami in Norway]
* Bård Berg: ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20051125142952/http://www.galdu.org/govat/doc/25_aar_i_skyttergravene.pdf 25 år i skyttergravene? Fra kampen om Alta/Kautokeino-vassdraget til Bondevik-regjeringens forslag til Finnmarkslov]'' {{in lang|no}}
* Lars Martin Hjorthol: ''Alta -  Kraftkampen som utfordret statens makt'' ["the power struggle that challenged the government's power"], Gyldendal, 2006 {{ISBN|82-05-33943-0}} {{in lang|no}}

== External links ==

* [http://tv.nrk.no/serie/tidsvitne/DKOS60000414/sesong-2/episode-6 Tidsvitne: Alta-kampen] (Documentary film viewable from Norwegian IP addresses)
* [http://www.nordlys.no/nyheter/article722508.ece - AKP ville hjelpe samene med sabotasje - I 1981 ble Samebevegelsen flere ganger kontaktet og tilbudt hjelp til terror- og sabotasjeaksjoner mot mål i Norge. Henvendelsene kom fra både IRA og venstreradikale nordmenn, mest sannsynlig AKP-medlemmer.] [The Workers' Communist Party wanted to help the Sami with sabotage - In 1981, ''Samebevegelsen'' was contacted several times, and offered help with terror- and sabotage attacks against targets in Norway. Contact came from both IRA and leftist Norwegians, most probably AKP members.]
* [http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2003/08/10/375553.html Ville sprenge skip i Alta - Under Alta-striden planla venstreradikale nordmenn å sprenge politibåten «Janina», som lå i Alta med 800 politifolk om bord.]

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[[:Category:Political history of Norway]]
[[:Category:Environmental protests in Norway]]
[[:Category:Sámi politics]]
[[:Category:Political controversies in Norway]]
[[:Category:Alta, Norway|Controversy]]
[[:Category:1978 in Norway]]
[[:Category:1979 in Norway]]
[[:Category:1980 in Norway]]
[[:Category:1981 in Norway]]
[[:Category:1982 in Norway]]
[[:Category:Dam controversies]]

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