Peoples of the High North

Abstract

As a result of complex historical processes initiated by expansive colonization policies of European countries and the United States, indigenous people in the High North had been marginalized for centuries. Today, indigenous peoples have become a nucleus of political and social changes in the Arctic region. A perception of the region through the categories of autonomous aspirations of the local communities changes the picture of today’s Arctic and makes it incredibly interesting as those trends imply a possible redefinition of the interest of several countries in the High North. In the North, in the eight Arctic countries, approximately 4 million people live. The context requires drawing attention to the problems of the people inhabiting this region in order to emphasize their ethnic and cultural diversity as well as specificity of difficult coexistence of the “old” with the “new” in a much dynamic and rapidly changing social, economic and political reality.