Siida

The siida is a Sami local community that has existed from time immemorial. A siida (in different Sami languages cearru, siida, sita, kite), or a "reindeer pastoralistic district," is a Sami reindeer foraging area, a group for reindeer herding and a corporation working for the economic benefit of its members. The reindeer herding siida has formed as an adaptation of ancient siida principles to large-scale nomadic reindeer herding. It is termed a sameby ("Sami village") in Swedish law, reinbeitesdistrikt ("reindeer pasture district") in Norwegian law, and paliskunta in Finnish law. The pastoralistic organisation differs slightly between countries, except in Russia, where kolkhoz has replaced these earlier organisations.