Sameby – The actual Sami’s organization

A sameby is a geographical area as well as organization and administration fore reindeer husbandry. The geographical area stretches from inland forest to mountain ranges on both sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border. Many of the mountain samebys own grazing rights and summer grazing rights in Norway. The organization and administration to the sameby operations are regulated by the Reindeer Husbandry Act. The right to pursue reindeer husbandry in Sweden belongs to the Sami population, but in order to practice this right, one must be a member of a saeby. The most of the Swedish Sami population are members of a sameby. There are 51 samebys in Sweden. These are divided geographically into mountain and forest Sami, depending on how they use the land. Mountain samebys migrate with the reindeer to the highland mountains in the summer and east towards the coniferous forest regions in the winter. Forest samebys are more circular, moving between different grazing areas within the forested region.