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Lapland, (also Sápmi), is the area traditionally inhabited by the Sami people. It is located in Northern EuropeNorthern Europe is a name for the northern part of the European continent. At different times this region has been defined differently but today it is generally seen to include Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and includes the northern parts of ScandinaviaScandinavia is the cultural and historic region of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Scandinavian countries are Norway, Sweden and Denmark, which mutually recognize each other as parts of Scandinavia. The collective label "Scandinavia" reflects the cultural and Finland with the Kola peninsula in RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With. Only a minority part of the Sami group is working with reindeerThe reindeer known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic-dwelling deer Rangifer tarandus . Habitat The reindeer is distributed throughout a number of northern locales. Reindeer are found throughout Scandinavia (including Iceland); in Russian Europe in herding.

With the fall of the Soviet Union and increasing internationalization, co-operation across borders is becoming more important and existing county and national borders less important. This is true both for the Sami aboriginal population and the non-Sami and Sami-descent majority population.

1 Conflicts

There is a border, and some state that the rights (for reindeer herding and in some parts even for fishing and hunting) would include a larger part than of Sápmi. However, today's "border" orginates from the 14-16th century when land-owning conflicts occurred. The etablishment of more stable dwelting places and larger towns orginates from 16th century, and was performed due to strategical defence and economical reasons, both by peoples from Sami groups themself and more southern immigrants.

Owing land within the borders or being member of a siidas (="corporation villages") gives rights. A different law settings in Sweden from mid-90s gave right for anyone to fish and hunt in the region, something that was met with large scepticism and angry amongst the siidas.

Court proceedings have been common through out history, and the aims from Samic viewpoint is to reclaim territories used earlier in history. Due to a larger defeat in 1996s, one siidas have introduced a sponsorship "Reindeer Godfather" concept to raise their economical funds for further battles in courts. These "internal conflicts" are usually conflicts between non-Sami land owners and Reindeer owners.

The question whether the Fjelds territory is owned by the governments or the Sami population is not answered.