Innu
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Religion | |
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Christianity, other | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Cree, Algonquin people, Naskapi, Atikamekw |
Innu, Ilnu / assi "person" / "land" | |
---|---|
Person | Innu / Ilnu |
People | Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh |
Language | Innu-aimun |
Country | Nitassinan |
The Innu / Ilnu ("man", "person") or Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh ("people"), formerly called Montagnais from the French colonial period (
The Innu are divided into several bands, with the
Their ancestors were known to have lived on these lands as
, and small game.Their language,
The "Innu / Ilnu" consist of two regional tribal groups, which differ in dialect and partly also in their way of life and culture:
- the Ilnu, Nehilaw or "Western/Southern Montagnais" in the south, speak the "l"-dialect (Ilnu-Aimun or Nenueun/Neːhlweːuːn), and
- the Innu or "Eastern Montagnais" ("Central/Moisie Montagnais", "Eastern/Lower North Shore Montagnais", and "Labrador/North West River Montagnais") live further north; they speak the "n"-dialect (Innu-Aimun)
Both groups are still called "Montagnais" in the official language of
Today, about 18,000 Innu live in eleven settlements within reserves in Quebec and Labrador. To avoid confusion with the Inuit, who belong to the Eskimo peoples, today only the singular form "Innu / Ilnu" is used for the Innu, members of the large Cree-language family. The plural form of "Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh" has been abandoned.
Montagnais, Naskapi or Innu
The people are frequently classified by the geography of their primary locations:
- the Neenoilno, live along the north shore of the mountain people", English pronunciation: /ˌmɔːntənˈjeɪ/),[3]or Innu proper (Nehilaw and Ilniw – "people")
- The Naskapi (also known as Innu and Iyiyiw), live farther north and are less numerous. The Innu recognize several distinctions among their people (e.g. Mushuau Innuat, Maskuanu, Uashau Innuat) based on different regional affiliations and speakers of various dialects of the Innu language.
The word Naskapi was first recorded by French colonists in the 17th century. They applied it to distant Innu groups who were beyond the reach of Catholic missionary influence. It was particularly applied to those people living in the lands that bordered Ungava Bay and the northern Labrador coast, near the Inuit communities of northern Quebec and northern Labrador. Gradually it came to refer to the people known today as the Naskapi First Nation.
The
The Mushuau Innuat (plural), while related to the
Since 1990, the Montagnais people have generally chosen to be officially referred to as the Innu, which means human being in Innu-aimun. The Naskapi have continued to use the word Naskapi.
Innu communities
Labrador Communities
Natuashish
('Nat-wah-sheesh', formerly
Sheshatshiu
('Shesh-ah-shee', Tshishe-shatshu in standardized orthography, home of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation, Reserve: Sheshatshiu #3, ca. 8 km2, Population: 1,824)
Although Sheshatshiu and Natuashish are home to most of the province's Innu people, some also live at Labrador City, Wabush, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, St. John's, and elsewhere.[4]
Quebec Communities
Mamit Innuat
More of 3,300 members
1
- Ekuantshit (Mingan) (Ekuanitshu in standardized orthography, home of Les Innus de Ekuanitshit, Reserve: Mingan, c. 19 km2, Population: 685)
2
- Montagnais de Natashquan, Reserve: Natashquan #1, c. 20 ha, Population: 1,214)
3 Montagnais de Pakua Shipi ||Pakuashipi (Saint-Augustin) || 394[7]
- Pakua-shipu (Montagnais de Pakua Shipi)
Reserve community: St. Augustin Indian Settlement, Population: 398
4 Montagnais de Unamen Shipu || La Romaine ||1225[5]
- Unaman-shipu (Montagnais de Unamen Shipu)
Reserve: Romaine #2, c. 40 ha, Population: 1,232
Conseil tribal Mamuitun
Around 17,000 members
1
- Bande des Innus de Pessamit, known also as 'Pessamit Innu Band', Reserve: Betsiamites, ca. 252 km2, Population: 4,041)and the capital of the Innus
2 Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam || Sept-Îles || 4,687[9]
- Uashat-Maliotenam (Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam)
Reserves: Maliotenam #27A, c. 16 km east of Sept-Îles, Uashat #27 in the City of Sept-Îles, c. 6 km2, Population: 4,813
3 Innue Essipit || Essipit || 790[10]
- Essipit First Nationor 'Montagnais Essipit', Reserve: Innue Essipit (or 'Communaute Montagnaise Essipit'), c. 88 ha, Population: 886)
4
- La Nation Innu Matimekush-Lac John (also known as 'Innu Nation of Matimekush-Lac John', Reserve: Lac John, Matimekosh #3, c. 94 ha, Population: 1,040)
- Lac-John
- Matimekosh(Matamekush in standardized orthography)
5 Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation || Mashteuiatsh || 6,761[12]
- autonym: 'Ilnuatsh du Pekuakami', Reserve: Mashteuiatsh, c. 15 km2, Population: 7,274)
Kawawachikamach
(Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach), Reserve: Kawawachikamach, c. 49 km2, Population 2020: 639
History
The Norsemen referred to the Innu as the Skræling in Greenlandic Norse. They referred to Nitassinan as Markland.
The Innu were historically allied with neighbouring
The Naskapi, on the other hand, usually had to confront the southward advancing Inuit in the east of the peninsula.[citation needed]
Innu oral tradition describes the original encounters of the Innu and the French explorers led by Samuel de Champlain as fraught with distrust. Neither group understood the language of the other, and the Innu were concerned about the motives of the French explorers.[13]
The French asked permission to settle on the Innu's coastal land, which the Innu called Uepishtikueiau. This eventually developed as Quebec City. According to oral tradition, the Innu at first declined their request. The French demonstrated their ability to farm wheat on the land and promised they would share their bounty with the Innu in the future, which the Innu accepted.[14]
Two distinct versions of the oral history describe the outcome. In the first, the French used gifts of farmed food and manufactured goods to encourage the Innu to become dependent on them. Then, the French changed it to a mercantile relationship: trading these items to the Innu in exchange for furs. When the nomadic Innu went inland for the winter, the French increased the size and population of their settlement considerably, eventually completely displacing the Innu.[15]
The second, and more widespread, version of the oral history describes a more immediate conflict. In this version, the Innu taught the French how to survive in their traditional lands. Once the French had learned enough to survive on their own, they began to resent the Innu. The French began to attack the Innu, who retaliated in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral territory. The Innu had a disadvantage in numbers and weaponry, and eventually began to avoid the area rather than risk further defeat. During this conflict, the French colonists took many Innu women as wives. French women did not immigrate to New France in the early period.[16]
French explorer Samuel de Champlain eventually became involved in the Innu's conflict with the Iroquois, who were ranging north from their traditional territory around the Great Lakes in present-day New York and Pennsylvania. On July 29, 1609, at Ticonderoga or Crown Point, New York, (historians are not sure which of these two places), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois, likely Mohawk, who were the easternmost tribe of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A battle began the next day. As two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, a native guide pointed out the three enemy chiefs to the French. According to legend, Champlain fired his arquebus and killed two of the Mohawk chiefs with one shot; one of his men shot and killed the third. The Mohawk reportedly fled the scene. Although the French also traded extensively with the Mohawk and other Iroquois, and converted some to Catholicism, they also continued to have armed conflicts with them.
Present status
The Innu of Labrador and those living on the north shore of the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence in the
Labrador Innu organizations and land claims
In 1999, Survival International published a study of the Innu communities of Labrador. It assessed the adverse effects of the Canadian government's relocating the people far from their ancestral lands and preventing them from practising their ancient way of life.[17]
The Innu people of Labrador formally organized the Naskapi Montagnais Innu Association in 1976 to protect their rights, lands, and way of life against industrialization and other outside forces. The organization changed its name to the Innu Nation in 1990 and functions today as the governing body of the Labrador Innu. The group has won recognition for its members as status Indians under Canada's Indian Act in 2002 and is currently involved in land claim and self-governance negotiations with the federal and provincial governments.[4]
In addition to the Innu Nation, residents at both Natuashish and Sheshatshiu elect Band Councils to represent community concerns. The chiefs of both councils sit on the Innu Nation's board of directors and the three groups work in cooperation with one another.
The Innu Nation's efforts to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of a mining project in Voisey's Bay were documented in Marjorie Beaucage's 1997 film Ntapueu ... i am telling the truth.[18]: 342
Davis Inlet, Labrador
In 1999,
By 2000, the Innu island community of Davis Inlet asked the Canadian government to assist with a local addiction public health crisis. At their request, the community was relocated to a nearby mainland site, now known as Natuashish. At the same time, the Canadian government created the Natuashish and Sheshatshiu band councils under the Indian Act.
Kawawachikamach, Quebec
The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, of Quebec, signed a comprehensive land claims settlement, the Northeastern Quebec Agreement; they did so in 1978. As a consequence, the Naskapi of Kawawachikamach are no longer subject to certain provisions of the Indian Act. All the Innu communities of Quebec are still subject to the Act.
New York Power Authority controversy
The
[t]he "New York Power Authority is in preliminary discussions and considering the liability of a new contract with Hydro Quebec," a Canadian supplier of hydroelectricity.
— Legislative Gazette[19]
The Innu community, the Sierra Club, and the
Chief Georges-Ernest Grégoire of the Innu community in Eastern Quebec urged the governor not to proceed with a plan to buy hydroelectric power from Canada, saying the dam complex that would be built would affect the traditional way of life for his people.
— Legislative Gazette (caption for a photo of Chief Grégoire)[19]
Chief Grégoire's comments at a press conference in Albany, New York were translated, but whether from French or Innu-aimun is not clear.[19]
Natuashish and Sheshatshiu, Newfoundland and Labrador
Although Innu have only been in Sheshatshiu since fur trading posts were established by the Hudson's Bay Company in Northwest River in the mid-1700s and only in Davis Inlet/Natuashish since the Moravians set up along the Inuit Coast in 1771,
Culture
Ethnobotany
The Innu people grate the inner bark of Abies balsamea and eat it to benefit the diet.[20]
Traditional crafts
Traditional Innu craft is demonstrated in the Innu tea doll. These children's toys originally served a dual purpose for nomadic Innu tribes. When travelling vast distances over challenging terrain, the people left nothing behind. They believed that "Crow" would take it away. Everyone, including young children, helped to transport essential goods. Innu women made intricate dolls from caribou hides and scraps of cloth. They filled the dolls with tea and gave them to young girls to carry on long journeys. The girls could play with the dolls while also carrying important goods. Every able-bodied person carried something. Men generally carried the heavier bags and women would carry young children.
Traditional clothing, style and accessories
Men wore caribou pants and boots with a buckskin long shirt, all made by women. With the introduction of trade cloth from the French and English, people began replacing the buckskin shirts with ones made of cloth. Most still wore boots and pants made from caribou hide. Women wore long dresses of buckskin. Contemporary Innu women have often replaced these with manufactured pants and jackets. Women traditionally wore their hair long or in two coils. Men wore theirs long.
Both genders wore necklaces made of bone and bead. Smoke pipes were used by both genders, marked for women as shorter. If a man killed a bear, it was a sign of joy and initiation into adulthood and the man would wear a necklace made from the bear's claws.
Housing
The houses of the Montagnais were cone shaped. The Naskapi made long, domed houses covered in caribou hides. These days the hearth is a metal stove in the centre of the house.
Traditional foods
Animals traditionally eaten included moose,
Plants traditionally eaten included raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, wild grapes, hazelnuts, crab apples, red martagon bulbs, Indian potato, and maple-tree sap for sweetening. Cornmeal was traded with Iroquois, Algonquin, and Abenaki First Nations peoples, and made into apon (cornbread), which sometimes also included oat or wheat flour when it became available. Pine-needle tea kept away infections and colds resulting from the harsh weather.
Buckskin
Traditionally, buckskin was a most important material used for clothing, boots, moccasins, house covers and storage. Women prepared the hides and many of the products made from it. They scraped the hides to remove all fur, then left them outside to freeze. The next step was to stretch the hide on a frame. They rubbed it with a mixture of animal brain and pine needle tea to soften it. The dampened hide was formed into a ball and left overnight. In the morning, it would be stretched again, then placed over a smoker to smoke and tan it. The hide was left overnight. The finished hide was called buckskin.
Mythology
The oral traditions of the Innu are noted as similar to those of other Cree-speaking cultures.[21] Of particular relevance is Tshakapesh, a lunar folk hero.[22]
The spirits they believed in are Caribou Master and Matshishkapeu.
Transportation
In traditional Innu communities, people walked or used
Notable people
- An Antane-Kapesh, writer
- Joséphine Bacon, poet
- Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush, filmmaker
- Bernard Cleary, politician[23]
- Naomi Fontaine, writer
- Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao, actress[24]
- Jonathan Genest-Jourdain, politician
- Michel Jean, journalist and writer
- Jean-Luc Kanapé, conservationist and actor
- Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, writer
- Kanen, musician
- Carole Labarre, writer
- Matiu, musician
- Claude McKenzie, musician (Kashtin)[25]
- Geneviève McKenzie-Sioui, musician
- Rita Mestokosho, poet
- Peter Penashue, politician[26]
- Scott-Pien Picard, musician
- Laurie Rousseau-Nepton, astrophysicist
- Shauit, musician
- Florent Vollant, musician (Kashtin)[25]
Citations
- ^ "Aboriginal Ancestry Responses (73), Single and Multiple Aboriginal Responses (4), Residence on or off reserve (3), Residence inside or outside Inuit Nunangat (7), Age (8A) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2016 Census - 25% Sample Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada. 2017-10-25. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
- ^ Innu-Aimun - the language of the Innu (Montagnais) Archived 2011-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Rogers & Leacock (1981:169)
- ^ a b Innu Rights and Government in Labrador
- ^ a b Branch, Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications (March 2020). "Population inscrite - Les Innus de Ekuanitshit". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Branch, Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications (March 2020). "Population inscrite - Première Nation des Innus de Nutashkuan". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Branch, Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications (2008-11-03). "Population inscrite - Montagnais de Pakua Shipi". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Population inscrite (Bande des Innus de Pessamit)". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ^ "Population inscrite (Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam)". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ^ "Population inscrite (Innue Essipit)". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ^ "Population inscrite (La Nation Innu Matimekush-Lac John)". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ^ "Population inscrite (Montagnais du Lac St-Jean)". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ISBN 1894778243.
- ^ Vincent 2006, p. 10.
- ^ Vincent 2006, p. 12–15.
- ^ Vincent 2006, p. 15–17.
- ^ a b c Canada's Tibet: The Killing of the Innu, a report from Survival International (PDF file)
- ISBN 9780888643902.
- ^ a b c d e Katrina Kieltyka, "Sierra Club fighting plan to buy Canadian power: Say hydroelectric dams would harm indigenous people," Legislative Gazette, March 16, 2009, p. 21, available at Legislative Gazette archives Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine (.pdf file). Retrieved March 20, 2009.
- ^ Speck, Frank G., 1917, Medicine Practices of the Northeastern Algonquians, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Americanists Pp. 303-321, page 313
- ^ "Naskapi and Montagnais Innu Legends (Folklore, Myths, and Traditional Indian Stories)".
- ^ "Tshakapesh (Chakabesh), dwarf hero of the Innu and Cree".
- ^ "Meet Canada's first Innu MP, the Bloc's Bernard Cleary". The Hill Times, November 8, 2004.
- ^ Sylvain Turcotte, "Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao se plaît à jouer". Le Nord-Côtier, August 2, 2022.
- ^ a b "Kashtin". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. September 19, 2023. Archived from the original on May 18, 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- ^ "Penashue appointed to federal cabinet". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
General bibliography
- Rogers, Edward S., and Leacock, Eleanor (1981). "Montagnais-Naskapi". In J. Helm (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic (Vol. 6, pp. 169–189). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
External links
- Official website of the Innu Nation of Labrador.
- Official website of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, Quebec
- Article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition on the difference between Naskapi and Montagnais
- Website of the Tshikapisk Foundation (a non profit Innu organization focussing on social and cultural renewal)
- Virtual Museum of Canada - Tipatshimuna: Innu stories from the land
- Distinctions between "Naskapi", "Montagnais" and "Innu"
- Montagnais Indians (Quebec) - Article in the Catholic Encyclopedia
- CBC Digital Archives - Davis Inlet: Innu community in crisis
- Montagnais History