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Indigenous peoples of Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The indigenous peoples of Europe are those peoples identified as indigenous peoples, as defined for certain purposes.
The term indigenous peoples has no universal, standard or fixed definition, but can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the geographic region with which they have the earliest historical connection. However several widely-accepted formulations, which define the term "Indigenous peoples" in stricter terms, have been put forward by important internationally-recognised organizations, such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. Indigenous peoples in this article is used in such a narrower sense.
Europe's present-day indigenous populations are relatively few, mainly confined to northern and far-eastern reaches of this Eurasian peninsula. Whilst there are numerous ethnic minorities distributed within European countries, few of these still maintain traditional subsistence cultures and are recognized as indigenous peoples, per se.
Notable indigenous populations include the Basques of Northern Spain and Southern France, Sami people of northern Scandinavia, the Nenets and other Samoyedic peoples of the northern Russian Federation, and the Komi peoples of the western Urals.
Some ethnic groups in Europe are still trying to get noticed as indigenous, such as the Kvens of Norway.