Karim-Aly Kassam

The Russian Sami Co-Management Project

The Russian Sami Co-Management Project was initiated by the Arctic Institute of North America, the Russian Kola Sami Association and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1995.

The project introduced the concept of natural resources co-management to Russia, utilizing Canadian methodology (participatory action research) and Russian research trainees.

In this process a set of land-use and occupancy maps were prepared for the first time in the Kola Peninsula and are published in the book Sami Potatoes: Living with Reindeer and Perestroika (Robinson and Kassam 1998). In October 2000 Sami Potatoes was published in Russian. This project was funded by the University of Calgary Gorbachev Foundation.

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Land Acknowledgement

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' leadership.

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

Professor Kassam offers his respects to past, present, and emergent Elders of Indigenous Peoples.