Following this, the county administrative board by various means of force made Sámi families relocate from their homes to new unknown lands further South.
In 1852 Russia answered by cutting off all relationships with Norway, causing regions in the Torne Valley (on the Finnish-Russian side) to be excluded from the Norwegian Sámi's traditional pasture lands and vice versa.
About 400 individuals from Kautokeino Municipality in Norway then started to change nationality to Swedish and settled in the parish of Karesuando in Sweden, simply to gain access to previous pasture regions in Finland, since Russia allowed Swedish Sámi to enter Finland.
As the herds grew and the situation became worse, the Swedish parliament decided that the number of reindeer in Karesuando should be decreased or else moved.
Most herders refused to cut down their herd and the authorities decided to move some families from Karesuando by force.
When the authorities intervened, they were unable to solve the problems; however they sided with the North Sámi, claiming that they were more primitive – an opinion possibly based on clear racism.