section_path: Indigenous peoples by region/Europe
section_name: Europe
paragraph_text: Europe
  
  Various ethnic groups have lived in Europe for millennia. However, the concept of Indigenous peoples is rarely used in the European context and the UN recognizes very few Indigenous populations within Europe; those which are recognized as such are confined to the far north and far east of the continent.
  
  Indigenous minority populations in Europe include the Sámi peoples of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and northwestern Russia (in an area also referred to as Sápmi); the Nenets of northern Russia, and the Inuit of Greenland, and the Irish travelers (also referred to as Pavees or Mincérs) of Ireland. Some sources describe the Sámi as the only recognized Indigenous peoples in Europe, with others describing them as the only Indigenous people in the European Union.
  
  Other groups, particularly in Central, Western and Southern Europe, that might be considered to fit the description of Indigenous peoples in the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, such as the Sorbs, are generally categorized as national minorities instead.