[2] Neiden became the main settlement of the westernmost Njauddâm sijdd (Northern Sami: siida, i.e. the fundamental unit of the old Sami society, indicating both the area and the family group(s) exploiting it) of the Skolts and has remained relatively unchanged, leaving numerous traces of earlier use of the area intact.

The reason for that separation was the demarcation treaty between the Kingdom of Sweden-Norway and the Grand Duchy of Finland, which prohibited nomadic reindeer herding and moving of fishermen over the border.

In October, 1944, German forces withdrew through the area after having failed to capture Murmansk in Operation Silver Fox.

The Russian culture has had a strong influence on the Skolts, who adopted Christianity in its Eastern Orthodox form in the 16th century.

These include a Russian Orthodox graveyard, the ruins of a smoke sauna, sixteen sites of traditional turf huts known as gammer and a tiny (13 square metres or 140 square feet) Russian Orthodox chapel, St. Georg's Chapel, built 1565 by Tryphon of Pechenga.

The formal protection (scheduling) of the settlement was carried out in order to safeguard its historical and religious importance as well as the integrity of the landscape.