Matti Aikio (1872-1929) was a S mi who wrote in Norwegian at a time when indigenous people were new to reading and writing. Poor health when young meant he was ill equipped for physical labor. He did not learn to write Norwegian until he was eighteen and then spent his relatively short life among Norwegians in Oslo penning novels and articles for newspapers. In Reindeer Hide from 1906, his first Norwegian novel, is a story with two strands: reindeer theft and a love affair between a S mi boy and a Norwegian girl that is doomed by cultural and societal mores.His best known novel is The Village at the Riverbend, available from Agarita Press and Amazon.
