Indigenous Russians Harassed By Moscow By Katie Stallard, Russia Correspondent, on the Kola Peninsula The head of Russia's Saami parliament says she was harassed and physically assaulted on her way to a UN conference on indigenous peoples last month. Valentina Sovkina told Sky News that her car tyres were slashed, and a taxi she took was stopped three times by road police in northern Russia. During the third stop she says she was attacked by a man who pushed her to the ground and tried to grab her bag. Ms Sovkina says she was harassed three times by road police She claims the police did nothing to help. He was pulling and pulling my bag. But he couldn't tear it away. You know, I chop wood, I am strong," she said. Video: The Saami Capital: Lovozero In the end he pushed me to the ground and was dragging me along. She thinks he was trying to take her passport to stop her from travelling to the conference in New York, but she had already hidden it in her pocket. Two other Russian activists reported being stopped at passport control in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on their way to the same conference. They were told there were problems with their documents and turned back. One man accused officials of cutting a page out of his passport so that it would be invalid for travel, the other said the watermark in her passport had been tampered with. The Saami are Russia's oldest indigenous people. Traditionally nomadic reindeer herders, they live across the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. They first came to the remote Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic 5,000 years ago, but the population has since fallen to just 1,599 people. Many were persuaded to move to the Saami capital Lovozero, where they were promised modern apartments that largely failed to appear. A reindeer farm cooperative provides jobs for around 300 people, but for most, working with the reindeer as their ancestors did is no longer an option. Video: Reindeer Of The Saami Tribe The Kremlin sees the region as a source of oil, gas and mineral wealth - a crucial part of its energy and security ambitions. Ms Sovkina thinks the authorities are worried the Saami will assert their right to self-determination, and to their share of the natural resources. Svetlana Matrehina keeps a small herd of reindeer and tries to honour the traditions of her ancestors, but now she is struggling to feed even her few animals. She was given what she thought was a grant to build a traditional Saami village, but now the regional authorities want the money back, and she doesn't know how she will pay. Her car has been seized and she has spent six months in a pre-trial detention centre - she thinks they are trying to force her off the land. "If my government, which I respected before, is treating me like this, how can I be a patriot after this?" she said. Who can expect me to be a patriot of this Russia? Sky News approached the Murmansk Regional Interior Ministry about Ms Sovkina's case, but is yet to receive a comment.