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11-482: The station is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the mouth of the Alta River , and receives most of its water from the great Finnmarksvidda plateau. Below the power station, the river has salmon , and is a good fishing river. The station consists of two generators , at 100 megawatts (130,000  hp ) and 50 MW (67,000 hp), respectively. The station utilises a 185 metres (607 ft) fall from

22-525: A cruise ship. The protesters were forcibly removed by police. For the first time since World War II, individuals were arrested and charged with violating laws against rioting. The central organizations for the Sámi people discontinued all cooperation with the Norwegian government. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government in early 1982, at which point organized opposition to the power plant ceased, and

33-452: A dam and hydroelectric power plant that would create an artificial lake and inundate the Sámi village of Máze . After the initial plan met political resistance, a less ambitious project was proposed that would cause less displacement of Sámi residents and less disruption for reindeer migration and wild salmon fishing for which the river is widely regarded as the best Atlantic Salmon river in

44-496: The dam at the end of the 18 km (11 mi) long reservoir Virdnejávri . From the 145 m (476 ft) tall Virdnejávr Dam to the end of the power station, the river is dry for about 2 km (1.2 mi). It is the tallest dam in the country. The background for the controversy was a published plan by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) that called for the construction of

55-544: The fall of 1979, as construction was ready to start, two acts of civil disobedience started. At the construction site itself at Stilla, a number of activists sat down and blocked the machines from starting their work; and at the same time, a number of Sámi activists camped outside the Norwegian parliament , starting a hunger strike . Documents, which have since been declassified, show the government planned to use military forces to support police authorities' efforts to stop

66-616: The mountains and lakes in Kautokeino Municipality , near the border with Finnmark county and Finland , just south of Reisa National Park . The 240-kilometre (150 mi) long river then runs northward into Alta Municipality where it flows out into the Altafjorden in the town of Alta . The river has carved out Sautso , one of the largest canyons in Europe on its way from the high Finnmarksvidda plateau down to

77-474: The power plant was built. The controversy around this project inspired the plot of the 2019 film Frozen II , which is heavily inspired by Sámi culture, including this particular conflict with the national government. Altaelva Altaelva (English: Alta River ; Northern Sami : Álttáeatnu ; Kven : Alattionjoki ) is the third-longest river in Finnmark county, Norway . The river begins in

88-579: The protests. The prime minister at the time, Odvar Nordli , pre-empted such an escalation by promising a review of the parliament's decision, but the Norwegian parliament subsequently confirmed its decision to dam the river. More than one thousand protesters chained themselves to the site when the work started again in January 1981. The police responded with large forces, and at one point 10% of all Norwegian police officers were stationed in Alta and quartered in

99-613: The river. The Altaelva literally means the "Alta River" in English. The Northern Sami language version of the name is Álttáeatnu and the Kven language version of the name is Alattionjoki . The part of the river that is upstream (south) of the Alta dam is also called Kautokeinoelva , meaning the "Kautokeino River", since that part of the river lies in Kautokeino. That part of

110-708: The sea. The villages of Kautokeino and Masi are located along the river, in addition to the town of Alta. During the 1970s and 1980s, the river was the site of the Alta controversy regarding the construction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant. The Alta power station was eventually built in 1987, creating the lake Virdnejávri on the river. The river is one of the best salmon rivers in Norway, known for its large-sized salmon. In older days, salmon up to 33 kilograms (73 lb) were recorded, and still fish up to 24 kilograms (53 lb) are caught. In 2011, 1,082 salmon (7 kilograms (15 lb) or heavier) were caught on

121-472: The world. In 1978, the popular movement against development of the Alta-Kautokeino waterway ( Folkeaksjonen mot utbygging av Alta-Kautokeinovassdraget ) was founded, creating an organizational platform for first opposing and then resisting construction work. This group and others filed for an injunction in Norwegian courts against the Norwegian government to prevent construction from commencing. In

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