Challenges to Sámi Indigenous Sovereignty in an Era of Climate Change

Abstract

My thesis examines the Indigenous Sámi’s “right to the cold” in northern Norway based on the developing concept of Indigenous climate sovereignties. The right to the cold favors the inclusion the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples to retain and balance necessary knowledge and cultural integrity for future generations. Indigenous climate sovereignties is used to describe the complex nature of the impacts of climate change on Indigenous sovereignties to build and maintain self-determination and traditional knowledge. Indigenous People throughout the world seek greater control over their own affairs. However, often their ability to control is challenged by government and other organizations, unregulated mining, loss of access to natural resources, and climate change. Therefore, Indigenous climate sovereignties include Indigenous voices and ways of research that inform policy by merging with Indigenous knowledge of a changing environment from a geographic perspective. This study focuses on Indigenous people across the arctic, specifically the Sámi, experiencing change in their political, cultural and economic livelihood during the current period of climate change. The Arctic is experiencing climate change, as documented by scientific measurements and as observed by local people through changes in temperatures and precipitation, snow cover, sea ice, and extreme weather events.