On November 8, 1852, 35 adults and 22 children arrived at the Kautokeino church site, where the sheriff Lars Johan Bucht was attacked and killed with his own knife. A group of women surrounded the merchant Carl Ruth and beat him to death. After this, the merchant’s building, where spirits were sold, was set on fire, and the priest and his household were whipped. This event became known as the Kautokeino Rebellion. 

A large number of the women who participated in the rebellion were sentenced to the workhouse and sent south to Trondheim to serve their sentences. Elen Aslaksdatter Skum was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour at the workhouse in Trondheim. In September 1854, she arrived at the workhouse together with her mother, Anne Sara. At the workhouse, the women were to receive education in Norwegian and religious re-education and guidance. The prison chaplain wrote that 5-6 years after their arrival, Elen Skum was extremely reluctant to be taught and had made little progress in learning Norwegian. In another source from 1861, a letter from the chief inspector revealed that her difficulties with the language were related to her poor hearing. 

By 1864, most of the prisoners had been released. In 1864, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of the six remaining female prisoners at the workhouse. All of them, except for Elen, were pardoned and released, including her mother, Anne Sara. Elen served an additional 3 years on her own, and in 1867, she too was pardoned and released by the Supreme Court, allowing her to return home to Kautokeino.