Go to the tundra!

In Murmansk, the indigenous people were refused rights

“I wanted to put Kuvaks in the courtyard of the court,” Andrei leisurely takes out of the box the tambourine of Noyd - the Sami shaman. Kuvaksa is a portable Sami dwelling, before they were made from the skin of a deer, now from a tarp. The reindeer herds had long grunted, there were almost no wild on the Kola Peninsula, the house is overlapping. Andrei Kuvaksa carries with him not only to the tundra, but also on vacation. He shows photographs of his portable dwelling to the judge, who are sitting opposite the man and a woman - representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Murmansk region - grinned and call Kuvaksu a tent, and Andrei - a tourist.

- We believe that the plaintiff did not prove that he leads a traditional lifestyle. Any citizen of Russia can deal with folk crafts. He lives in the city, has a source of income, - the defendant Boyko lists the evidence that Andrei Danilov - the Sami activist, the chairman of the Sami Heritage and Development Foundation - has nothing to do with this heritage and even more so much development. Along the way, proving that the ministry, apparently, has no idea what kind of native people live in the region where exactly they live and how.

“New” talked about how in the Murmansk region representatives of the indigenous people by Sami are forced to establish in the courts that they are Sami in order to exercise the right to benefits guaranteed by law. Other documents issued by the state where nationality is recorded - a military ID, birth certificates and marriage - officials consider it insufficient.

Andrei Danilov, faced with an absurd requirement, went to court to cancel the regulations established by officials. And, by the way, going against the Constitution, which prohibits force to determine his nationality. At first, Andrei was looking for intercession from the regional Ombudsman. But he, having received Danilov’s complaint, recommended that he comply with the requirements of officials.

The essence of Andrei’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Natural Resources of the region is the requirement to put a note on belonging to the CMNS (indigenous peoples of the North) in the hunter without any additional conditions. This will allow you to hunt, without buying licenses, and complies with the norms of the Federal Law “On Hunting”, according to which fishing for personal consumption, if it is an element of the traditional way of life of the people, is carried out freely, without any permits.

- My little daughter fell ill, no medicine helped, I went to Lovozero, bought deer meat, cooked the broth, gave it. And everything has passed. You see, this is part of our life, we cannot without this, ”Danilov patiently explains to the court why he, the city resident, the right to free hunt. - Hunting is part of our identity, we convey traditions, experience, identity to children. To preserve the language, it is also important, there are a lot of specific hunting terms in Sami. Without a language, there is no people.

“So take permits and pass experience, no one hinders you,” the representative of the ministry reacts.

The argument of officials - "unlimited" for the indigenous ones will jeopardize the animal world of the Arctic. Say, Sami crowds will run into the forests and knock out the remnants of game and beast. True, in Russia Sami remains exactly 1196 - counting the old people and babies. The person is regularly engaged in 10–12 people. This is part of the culture, and - we will be frank - a way not to die with hunger for people receiving penny salaries and pensions. They simply cannot pay one and a half to three thousand for a license for an elk or bear.

The judge is interested in what are the sources of the plaintiff’s income, where he lives and works. He lives in the city of Olenegorsk, works at the plant ...

“You are not leading a traditional lifestyle,” the official says. - I called to the Nenets district, they told me there, the KMNS live in the tundra, in the yurts! And you live in a city apartment.

A commendable desire for truth. True, yurts are in Central Asia, they do not look like Sami Kuvax. Hearing the word "Kuvax", both representatives of the state faded and asked to repeat the syllables.

However, terminology is not the main thing. The main thing is that, unlike, for example, the nomadic life of Nenets-Tundroviks, Sami do not wander. During the years of Soviet power, they were forcibly relocated to places of compact residence - a kind of reservation. Everyone was given an apartment in a five -story building, a residence permit and a work book. Migration from the tundra is not only obvious and a well -known fact in the Murmansk region. This is also a national tragedy that can be read about in the heartbreaking memories of Sami and in the books of local historians.

-After the trial, he met a man in Murmansk-his parents were once evicted from Teriberka. They gave 4 hours to the fees, ”says Danilov. Teriberka is the one where Leviathan. Now the new regional authorities are intensely making a tourist brand out of it. And Leviathan is still alive.

- First they closed schools, hospitals. Then the commission arrived, they said: "They are not promising." So they evicted Pena, Chudzyavr, Arsyegk. Until the last, people were taken with tractors, those who did not want to, said that the last tractor was going on, and there - as you want, at least die, ”says the Sami activist Valentina Obkina, recalling how the Sami graveyards were erased from the face of the earth.

The collectivization, which destroyed the traditional economy, went through the extreme north no less severely than in the Black Earth South. 118 Sami were subjected to repression - a tenth of the people. Five survived. Then, in the 30s, the Sami writing was destroyed-along with the primer created by the executed director of the local history museum Vasily Alymov. The new primer Sami was written only in 1982.

Sami children at school were recorded by Russians, it was not customary to speak their native language. As a result, according to the 2010 census, 353 people remained in Russia. Active carriers - about a hundred. In the Lovozersky school, it was excluded from the compulsory cycle. They do not pass in the only pedagogical university in the field.

In reservations, the largest of which became the Lovozersky district, they drink a lot and die young.

- It is not the fault of people that many people lost their lives from their inescapable grief, many just drank. And I can’t judge them for this, ”says Skikina. Valentina was once the chairman of the Sami parliament-there are advisory bodies for Sami in all four countries where this people who are in scattering-Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia live. More precisely, in Russia - was. Last year, he self -opened: Sami actually did not affect decision -making by power, but activists demanding real powers were subjected to persecution, they were accused of extremism and separatism.

The state gives crumbs. Salaries, pensions, benefits, subsidies for housing. But, according to the logic of the government, it turns out that the indigenous resident will survive until retirement age, as he automatically loses national identity - this follows from the speeches of officials in court. After all, income appears. In fact, the executive branch deprived the people of the opportunity to legally realize their rights, without becoming poachers.

Andrei, who, even in the testimonies of the birth of children, indicated belonging to the indigenous people, in court he was forced to prove that he was leading a traditional way of life, that he, so to speak, is the right Sami, real.

- How to prove it? - A man in a Sami suit shrugs.

“Well, bring some documents, maybe you have letters for participating in craft exhibitions,” the judge prompts.

Andrei takes out letters.

“We do not think that this proves the plaintiff by a traditional lifestyle, any person can deal with Sami needlework,” the Ministry of Natural Resources reacts.

- I put the snares on the partridges.

- How long?

- From childhood.

- Make it in the protocol. We demand that these words enter the protocol! - the official comes to life. It seems that now the image of the poacher will be sculpted from the activist.

- And what? - The official shakes a photograph in which the head of the deer is.

- They hunted for a deer - we went to Finland, but we are forbidden.

- How do you prove that this is Finland?

Andrey smiles. Studing him in poaching is a funny idea. Six months ago, he spoiled a lot of blood of the same Ministry of Natural Resources, demanding that the Belgorod oligarch Orlov be recognized as illegal to hunt for an elk in the reindeer herding pastures. A deer for Sami is a cult creature. And not poaching for the sake of Danilov suits the state, but for all their people.

- We cannot live without hunting, without fish, without our faith. And hunting is not easy to get the beast, the process is important. Saam does not matter how much he earns, we have other values.

- Do you have a deer?

- This cannot be asked by Sami! - Danilov is shocked.

Questions about property, money, and especially the presence of deer in the culture of Sami are taboo, but the officials who work with them do not know this.

Two meetings in a row Danilov are forced to prove that he lives as Sami, not paying attention to that this requirement is significant when receiving benefits only for those who are not by nationality, the CMNS, wives, husbands. They do not pay attention to the decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of the Taimyr hunter Gennady Schukin. In May of this year, the Constitutional Court determined the right of indigenous peoples to hunt - even if they live in city apartments.

- Evidence of the leading of a traditional lifestyle is not presented. The plaintiff has income, lives not in the tundra, but in the city, - the Ministry of Natural Resources insists.

The judge is distracted from the defendant’s speech, makes a remark to Nina Afanasyeva. The Sami activist, local historian, co -author of the Sami dictionary, she came to support Andrei. Nina Eliseevna is a living legend, an old -timer, a connoisseur of the Sami needlework, a recognized expert in the culture of the CMNS. The judge threatens to remove her from the hall for replicas. And she is barely restrained so as not to enter into a dispute.

- Well, what are you, do not understand? We called colleagues to other regions. Everyone says that the indigenous peoples should live in the tundra, - officials explain condescendingly during the break.

“We were sent to the tundra, I see,” comments Afanasyeva.

The court makes a decision quickly. Enough about ten minutes. Danilov in the lawsuit refuse.

He is calm, prepared for such a decision, is going to reach the Constitutional Court.

In his support, representatives of various indigenous peoples of Russia on Facebook arranged a flash mob - they lay out the “photo prison” of their traditional lifestyle. Photos in costumes, on the hunt, for collecting berries. People are trying to prove that they are. On the occasion of the court, like -minded people brought a gift: a baseball cap, on which Make Sapmi Great AGain is embroidered in the image of Trump's agitation. Sapmi is the name of the Sami land on which there is no state and there are no boundaries. But only people.

Arctic