Sami

Sami

An indigenous people recognised by the United Nations. Also known as Lapps, they are treated as a national minority with their own parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland. There are also Sami in Russia. There are 40 000 Sami in Norway, 20 000 in Sweden, 6 000 in Finland and 2 000 in Russia. Ten thousand of them work in reindeer herding.

The Sami have their own common flag: vertical red, green, yellow and blue sections with a circle linking them. They cooperate within the Sami Council in order to promote common Sami interests and defend the economic, social and cultural rights of the Sami people in the legislation of the four countries.