Striving to Unite. The Russian Sámi and the Nordic Sámi Parliament model

Abstract

This article describes activism in the Russian Federation aimed at reforming indigenous policy by adopting a foreign model – a Nordic-type elected indigenous assembly – for the Sami of the Russian Federation. Key initiatives from the period ca. 1985–2010 are presented, their origins investigated, and some effects of the activists’ approach are analyzed, as well as certain functions of the original institutions, the Nordic Sami Parliaments.