This Master's Thesis discusses two phenomena: the Sami people and the Arctic. The Sami are indigenous populations of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Federation. The Sami are a single people living in the four different countries, where they strive for their non-territorial autonomy. The main channels for their political influence are the Sami Parliaments on the respective nation states, while in Russia have very limited legal means for their political participation and influencing their position. The Arctic is the northernmost part of the World; it is the huge ocean mostly covered with ice, surrounded by land. It is the Sami peoples' homeland. The littoral states, the United States of America, Canada, the Russian Federation, Norway, and Greenland (Denmark) with Iceland, Sweden and Finland formed the Arctic Council have, the main intergovernmental and supranational organization in the Arctic, where major decisions are adopted. The Arctic is rich in natural resources and extractive industries are influencing both the peoples and environment of the Arctic. Global warming rapidly changes the face of the Arctic, while over-exploitation endangers the indigenous peoples and biodiversity.
The first part of the master thesis presents the Sami people, their history, political organization, legal regulation and protection of the Sami people, their everyday lives and the ongoing changes taking place in the Arctic. The second part presents the results of the survey among the Sami people. The survey tackled different set of personal views regarding topics discussed in the thesis.