The Sámi are one people, whose fellowship must not be divided by national boundaries. To what extent has that credo of Sámi politics come true after the end of the Cold War that divided Sápmi between East and West?
A new article written for the Russia in pan-Sámi politics project has now been published.
The Iron Curtain through Sápmi accounts for the close connection between post-WW2 Nordic cooperation and early pan-Sámi organizing, and the development of two separate but intertwined systems for pan-Sámi political activity: state-based and non-state based pan-Sámism.
The Iron Curtain looks into the challenge of including Russian Sámi in political structures made for Nordic conditions. It accounts for the inclusion of the group into the Sámi Council and the Sámi Parliamentary Council; their gradual detachment from the project aimed at making a pan-Sámi rights convention; and their lack of inclusion into the «new Nordic cooperation on Sámi issues» that launched in 2000.
The article can be downloaded here as PDF.
Please refer to the article as
Berg-Nordlie, M. (2013) «The Iron Curtain through Sápmi. Pan-Sámi politics, Nordic cooperation and the Russian Sámi». Anderson, K. (Ed) L’image du Sápmi II. Humanistica Oerebroensia. Artes et lingua nr 16, pp. 368-391.
* Note: Pagination in pdf is incorrect
Báhčeveaijohka, the border river between Norway and Russia. Image: Wikimedia Commons.