Bridging Divides Ethno-Political Leadership Among The Russian Sami [Paperback]

The S?mi are a Northern indigenous people whose land, S?pmi, covers territory in Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. For the Nordic S?mi, the last decades of the twentieth century saw their indigenous rights partially recognized, a cultural and linguistic revival, and the establishment of S?mi parliaments. The Russian S?mi, however, did not have the same opportunities and were isolated behind the closed border until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This book examines the following two decades and the Russian S?mis attempt to achieve a linguistic revival, to mend the Cold War scars, and to establish their own independent ethno-political organizations.

Mikkel Berg-Nordlieis a Researcher at the Department of International Studies and Migration of the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research and is completing a Ph.D. at the University of Troms?-Arctic University of Norway on Russian S?mi politics and border-transcending S?mi politics. His research is focused on indigenous and ethnic minority-related issues, including, but not limited to, Russia and the Nordic Countries.

[These] excellent chapters detail the emergence of cross-border ties between Russia's S?mi communities and Nordic S?mi, and assess their contributions to cultural renewal . . . The socioeconomic and cultural portrait [drawn] will likely seem all too familiar to scholars of other Arctic and subarctic indigenous populations in northern Eurasia, but some of the information is unique to Russia's S?mi, making this an indispensable contribution to the documentation of northern peoples. Essential.? Choice

The S?mi political movement, although mentioned in many works, has been a central topic in very few publications. This makes Overlands and Berg-Nordlies monograph a long-awaited study . . . Bridging Divides, with its wide representation of diverse and often conflicting local opinions and societal attitudes toward the S?milƒ