Bridging Divides

<p> The Sámi are a Northern indigenous people whose land Sápmi covers territory in Finland Norway Russia and Sweden. For the Nordic Sámi the last decades of the twentieth century saw their indigenous rights partially recognized a cultural and linguistic revival and the establishment of Sámi parliaments. The Russian Sámi 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 Sámi's attempt to achieve a linguistic revival to mend the Cold War scars and to establish their own independent ethno-political organizations.</p>