Recently, while researching a relative’s name online, this lovely 1926 film popped up: Med ackja och ren i Inka Läntas vinterland (With Reindeer and Sled in Inka Länta’s Winterland).

The course of events revolves around the young Sámi girl Inka Länta in her environment. The the arrival of Laestadian pastor August Lundberg stirs up emotions when his moral preaching goes too far.

A/V Club

(This version is only half as long as the original; let me know if you find a longer cut.)

Curiously, the relative I was researching, Joonas Purnu (1829-1902), was not in the film. But AI knows things, so I cast a wider net.

Bingo.

August Lundberg (1863-1930) who plays himself in the film, was rival of Purnu’s. Both men were lay preachers and became the godfathers of the two main Laestadian factions, Eastern (Lundberg) and Western (Purnu)—in a schism that launched many schisms, most recently in Wolf Lake, Minnesota. (The split that keeps on splitting.)

Tremors of the impending schism compelled Joonas Purnu to visit the USA in 1893, to calm the waters among Laestadian immigrants. This was also the year my morfars far Erik left Tärendö for America. At some point he visited the harness shop of his daughter Lina and her husband Oskar Walsten in Henry, South Dakota.

Did Erik and Joonas travel together? They were relatives after all (not via Purnu from Sjokksjokk sameby, though—as Purnu was a farm name for Joonas—but via mutual Heiva ancestors from Siggevaara sameby).

Yet to be discovered.

Both men returned to Sweden.

August Lundberg was a generation younger than they, and Swedish, not Tornedalen with Sámi roots. Born in Dalarna and educated in Uppsala, August came north in 1885 to lead a Sámi mission school in Lanavaara. He married into the Laestadius family, no doubt an important factor in his success as a preacher.

A friend in Finland has copies of letters between Lundberg and my Purnu relative, Syster Mia Carlsson of Kiruna. Translated, they may help me understand the schism that continues to reverberate among descendants.

Economics played a role, e.g., Joonas Purnu forbade his followers to join unions.

To be continued . . .