About the Sami
The Sami (also spelled Saami) are the 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Kola Peninsula. Their history parallels that of other Indigenous circumpolar Peoples. After a 500-year period of colonization by Norway and Sweden during which the Sami nature religion, the Sami language, and the Sami joik were forbidden, the Sami people in the Nordic countries are experiencing a rebirth of their ancestral belief system, language and cultural expressions. Concern for the environment has lead them to become active in international Indigenous organizations including NGO (non-governmental organization) status in the UN.