Before the Arctic Council was formed, in 1991, the eight Arctic states signed an agreem…

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Before the Arctic Council was formed, in 1991, the eight Arctic states signed an agreement on Arctic cooperation, the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). The three Indigenous Peoples' organizations: Inuit Circumpolar Council, Saami Council, and Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), were originally admitted as Observer organizations and later negotiated to have full access to negotiations as Permanent Participants. This photo was taken at the first ever Arctic Leaders' Summit in 1991, an international gathering of the three Indigenous Peoples' organizations that would later become the founding Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council.