The aim of this study is to explore if Western researchers with different academic backgrounds comply with requests articulated by Indigenous scholars in establishing relationships with Indigenous Sámi reindeerherders. I examine if the researchers’ motivations, attitude and their possible decolonizing approaches are in accordance with the requests of Indigenous scholars, and how these differ between social and natural scientists.The results illustrate that the researchers’ general mind set,as well as their decolonizing approaches-ifexisting-only partly meet the requests of Indigenous scholars. However,the herders are still interested in participating in research projects,even though the outcomes of these projects often do not seem to have direct positive effects on the reindeerherding community.The differences between social and natural scientists are not strongly pronounced and may possibly be caused by other factors than the academic background only