Nuorttanaste (modern Northern Sámi spelling Nuorttanásti), which means "The Eastern Star," was founded by "sled preacher" Gustav Lund, a travelling pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway who sought to evangelize Sámi in part by using their native tongue.

In 1898, he founded Nuorttanaste in Finnmark, and the paper soon began publishing news articles and letters from readers alongside its religious content.

Over the years it moved several times before setting up its first permanent printing press was in Gáivuotna Municipality.

The press alternated between Gáivuotna and Oslo for several years before setting up offices in Vuonnabahta in 1960.

[4] From 1948 to 1958, the paper used the Bergsland–Ruong orthography, which was the standard for writing Northern Sámi in Norway and Sweden (but not Finland), before reverting to the J.A.