[3] In 1866 he met Maria Magdalena Mathsdotter, who contacted him via his half-brother Carl Jonas Love Almqvist.

[4] Mathsdotter had successfully petitioned the king two years earlier to improve Sami education in Lapland.

[4] Almquist took up Mathsdotter's case and starting in 1871 the law was changed to establish better rights for the Sami people.

He introduced two bills that won approval whilst he represented Harnosand, Umeå, Luleå and Piteå.

A new Swedish word derived from the name of the village, baggböleri,[3] was a derogatory term for the deforestation that had taken place in his county.