DOCSLIB.ORG

Innu (Montagnais) in Newfoundland

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Innu (Montagnais) in Newfoundland Innu (Montagnais) in Newfoundland CHARLES A. MARTIJN Ministere des Affaires culturelles, Quebec Introduction A number of years ago in an article with the intriguing title "A Nice Place to Visit, But . .", Tuck and Pastore (1985) outlined how during the course of prehistory various native groups, Amerindians as well as Paleo-Eskimo, moved from the mainland, across the Strait of Belle-Isle into Newfound­ land. Due to the "closed" nature of food resources on this island, there appears to have been a cycle of extinctions with each prehistoric group be­ ing successively replaced by new immigrants. Not surprisingly, such native population movements, although on a reduced scale, also continued to take place during post-contact times. The present discussion1 will focus on voyages made during the past three centuries by Montagnais Indians (or Innu as they call themselves) from Quebec and Labrador. They travelled to Newfoundland to hunt, to trap furbearers and to trade, and in some instances to settle there perma­ nently. This constitutes a chapter in Montagnais history which nowadays is largely forgotten.2 Few old people survive who were actually born there, JI am indebted to Moira T. McCaffrey for her invaluable suggestions and editing services. My sincere thanks are extended to Jose Mailhot, Ingeborg Mar­ shall, Toby Morantz, Ralph T. Pastore, Francois Trudel and Sylvie Vincent for commenting on earlier versions of this paper presented at the First Labrador Straits Studies Conference in Forteau, Labrador, September 15-17, 1988 and at the Twenty-First Algonquian Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland, October 27-29, 1989. I also wish to express my appreciation to Ed Dahl of the National Archives in Ottawa, and to R. Calvin Best and other staff members of the Provin­ cial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John's for their courteous and professional assistance during the course of this research project. The accompa­ nying map is the work of Richard Mailhot, cartographer at the Avataq Cultural Institute in Montreal. 2The subject has been summarily dealt with by the following authors: Anger (1988:5, 55, 59-60); Bellefleur (1979:14-15); Blake (1888:907); Cormack (1928:57- 62); Gosling (1910:152); Harp (1964:152-153); Howley (1915:22, 26-27, 52, 148- 227 228 CHARLES A. MARTIJN or who can still remember stories by their parents or grandparents about such trips. Unfortunately, little has been done to interview them and to write down the particulars of those events. One has to make a painstaking search through archival records to obtain a glimpse of what took place. Such accounts are usually by Eurocanadian observers, and as a result we rarely possess any detailed information as seen through Amerindian eyes. Our vision of the past can be obscured or falsified by misconceptions and prior assumptions. For example, we are used to looking at maps which show native tribes neatly distributed within specific contemporary political boundaries: the now-extinct Beothuk in Newfoundland, the Micmac in the Maritimes, the Maliseet in New Brunswick, the Montagnais in the Quebec- Labrador Peninsula, and so on. We tend to forget, or simply to be ignorant of the fact that in the past these native groups did not remain within fixed boundaries. In recent contributions to Northeastern ethnohistory, Prins (1986), Bourque (1989) and Martijn (1989) have shown that such bound­ aries contracted or expanded in response to a variety of factors, cultural as well as environmental. Consequently, to improve our understanding of what took place in the past we need to examine more closely the factors which were responsible for these population displacements. The question of how far back in time the Montagnais can be traced in Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland, and who their ancestors were, has been debated by archaeologists for several decades. A growing num­ ber of researchers consider a regional late prehistoric manifestation, called the Point Revenge complex (1200-400 BP), to be directly ancestral to the present day Montagnais (Fitzhugh 1978; Loring 1983). No classic Point Re­ venge sites are thus far known from Newfoundland itself, but archaeologists such as Pastore (1987, 1989) and Pintal (1989) have identified other late prehistoric components there as well as along parts of the Quebec Lower North Shore, which they refer to as the Little Passage Complex (1000-400 BP). This culture is now generally thought to be an ancestral stage of the Beothuk Indians (Pastore 1985; Robbins 1989:21-23). The Point Revenge and Little Passage complexes share a number of affinities and it has been proposed that they may constitute two phases of an earlier common prehis­ toric population (Pastore 1987:59; 1989:59-61). The occasional presence of Ramah chert from northern Labrador on sites of the Little Passage Complex in Newfoundland illustrates the movement of people and materials across the Strait of Belle-Isle. More than a century ago, T.G.B. Lloyd (1874:36) predicted that some 150, 278); Jukes (1842(2):129); F. Lloyd (1886:27-28); Marshall (1981:74-75; 1988:59, 63, 75); Parent (1985:775, 792-793, 867); Pastore (1987:57-59); Robbins )]lll^ J\' R°gerS (1911:132); Speck (1922:33-36, 118, 126-127, 155); Tanner (1977:9); Usher (1980:93-94); and Whitby (1977:7, 14-15) \ ATLANTIC OCEAN Bclk .. {} I fSaloo I : 7,500,000 , ,-r 9 ICJO 2f!O lull 230 CHARLES A. MARTIJN of the archaeological remains found in Newfoundland would turn out to be "mountaineer" sites of the historic period. Up until now, however, none have been reported by researchers working there. While this may be simply a reflection of the actual state and scope of survey activities in the western part of the island, we might also ask the practical question, how would one recognize such Montagnais sites? Thus far, archaeologists have not yet looked into this matter. The following analysis of the available documentary evidence will focus on the question of whether or not Montagnais crossings to the island were undertaken at the behest of Europeans. Hopefully too, this discussion will lead to a more precise problem orientation from an archaeological point of view, and serve as a stimulus for new efforts towards locating Montagnais sites in Newfoundland. Montagnais Voyages to Newfoundland during the French Regime The early contact sagas relating the explorations of Norse seafarers (McGhee 1984), and later European records dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, are usually so brief and vague in their descriptions that it is often impossible to distinguish between specific native populations in the Northeast at those time levels (Quinn 1981). Beginning in 1529, mention is made of various unnamed groups in the Strait of Belle-Isle.3 Some of these were said to be friendlier than others, engaging in trade with European fishermen and merchants, and at times working for small rewards to assist the whalers in cutting up and boiling whale carcases to extract the oil (Whitbourne 1622:2). There are descriptions of at least four different native groups in that region during the course of the 16th century. We can tentatively iden­ tify these as the Beothuk, the Montagnais, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, and the Inuit (Tuck 1987:63-67). The first known use of the name Mon­ tagnais (i.e., "montaneses") appears in an account by the Basque historian, Lope de Isasti (1850:154), which though written in 1625, appears to incor­ porate information dating to the late 1500s. Referring to native people in the Strait of Belle-Isle, he stated that the "esquimaos" were very hostile, whereas the montaneses" and "canaleses" exhibited a friendlier attitude towards the Basques and would warn them of Inuit raiding parties. These last two names are certainly not indigenous words and must be of Spanish Basque origin. The "canaleses" or "people of the canal" (i.e., strait) may tZ T « f0^" Selma Barkham' Pers°nal communication). In con bv rLr f m°ll T- T PresumabIy so called because they descended by river from the interior Quebec-Labrador highlands each year in order to ^7^::e7:zt^Tphy dealins with the presence of native groups in INNU (MONTAGNAIS) IN NEWFOUNDLAND 231 spend the summer on the coast. It should be noted that the encounters between Isasti's compatriots and local natives seem to have taken place primarily along the north shore of the Strait of Belle-Isle (Barkham 1980), and there is no direct reference to Montagnais in Newfoundland during that period. By 1580, and increasingly so after 1620, Inuit bands began to frequent the Strait on a seasonal basis. During the interval 1640-1690 there may even have been a small resident Inuit population on the Lower North Shore, between Brador and St. Paul's River (Martijn 1980:122). These newcomers could have temporarily displaced the Amerindian groups who used to ex­ ploit this area (Pastore 1987:57). This situation began to change towards the end of the 17th century. In 1702, Augustin Le Gardeur de Courte- manche was granted a concession by the French king which covered the entire coast from the Kegashka River as far north as Hamilton Inlet (Roy 1940 (1):16-17). From an account written by Courtemanche (1927:3687) in 1705, it is clear that the Amerindian guides who accompanied him on a journey of exploration along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were well acquainted with the Brador region and its fauna. These local natives were most likely Montagnais who seasonally exploited the coastal food resources of the middle and lower north shore of the Gulf, as well as the southern coast of Labrador. In an unpublished article, Trudel (n.d.) has examined in detail how, from 1702 onwards, Courtemanche tried to attract Amerindians to his es­ tablishments, first at Old Fort and later at Brador.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Canada's Most Unusual Cruise
    SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2017 SECTION T ON ON2 QUEBEC’S CAN’T-MISS LIST 10 things you must see and do during your visit to La Belle Province, T4-5 > QUEBEC CINDY NADEAU/RELAIS NORDIK The MV Bella Desgagnes transports people, cars and cargo along the St. Lawrence River between Rimouski and Blanc-Sablon on the Labrador border. Canada’s most unusual cruise Touring St. Lawrence’s Lower North Shore aboard a cargo ship offers rare opportunities TIM JOHNSON and I disembark down the gangway to see SPECIAL TO THE STAR just a few glowing lights at the end of the To celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we long pier. are exploring all 10 provinces and three Pausing for a moment to admire the territories. Today’s issue is devoted to Que- well-choreographed off-loading of cargo bec. Watch for our Saskatchewan coverage — the crane built into the side of the ship on Oct. 7. swinging big, blue containers onto the dock, some of them filled with cars, or ABOARD THE MV BELLA DESGAGNES, QUE.— building materials, or ice cream, or pretty The dusk grows deeper as we roll into much anything — the hard-hatted crew Port-Menier, population 216. The lone works like clockwork, guiding everything village on huge, remote Anticosti Island, into its perfect place. which sits right in the mouth of the St. And I see that I’m not alone here in the Lawrence River, this was once the play- gloaming. Glancing over at a brown, ex- ground of French chocolate tycoon Henri tended-cab pickup truck that I had as- Menier, who paid $125,000 for the island sumed was waiting to drop off something, in 1895.
    [Show full text]
  • Southern Extension to the Breeding Range of the Gyrfalcon, Falco Rusticolus, in Eastern North America S
    ARCTIC VOL. 48, NO. 1 (MARCH 1995) P. 94–95 Southern Extension to the Breeding Range of the Gyrfalcon, Falco rusticolus, in Eastern North America S. BRODEUR,1 F. MORNEAU,1 R. DÉCARIE,1 J.-L. DESGRANGES2 and J. NEGRO3 (Received 26 October 1994; accepted in revised form 8 December 1994) ABSTRACT. We report the observation of four gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) nests and several adults south of the previously recognized southern limit of the species’ breeding distribution in eastern North America. Our southernmost observation extends the known breeding range approximately 400 km to the south. The northern forest tundra biome could delineate the southern limit to the breeding range of the gyrfalcon. Key words: gyrfalcon, Falco rusticolus, nesting, distribution, Hudson Bay, Quebec. RÉSUMÉ. Nous rapportons la découverte de quatre nids de faucon gerfaut et la mention de quelques adultes au sud de la limite connue de l’aire de reproduction de l’espèce dans l’est de l’Amérique du Nord. Notre observation la plus méridionale étend l’aire de répartition quelques 400 km plus au sud. Les limites sud de la toundra forestière septentrionale pourraient coincider avec celle de l’aire de reproduction du faucon gerfaut. Mots clés: faucon gerfaut, nicheur, répartition, Baie d’Hudson, Québec. The gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) is a circumboreal breeder the eastern side of Hudson Bay from 1989 to 1992 (Fig. 1). which occurs in the arctic and subarctic regions of North Basins of the Great Whale, Little Whale and Nastapoka America and Eurasia (Brown and Amadon, 1968). In Canada Rivers, as well as some smaller catchments farther south and the species has been reported breeding sparsely north of 59˚ the Hudson Bay coast down to Long Island were covered, of latitude in the arctic tundra (Godfrey, 1986).
    [Show full text]
  • Botanical Problems in Boreal America. I Author(S): Hugh M
    Botanical Problems in Boreal America. I Author(s): Hugh M. Raup Source: Botanical Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, Botanical Problems in Boreal America. I (Mar., 1941), pp. 147-208 Published by: Springer on behalf of New York Botanical Garden Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4353246 Accessed: 15-12-2017 21:12 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Springer, New York Botanical Garden Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Botanical Review This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Fri, 15 Dec 2017 21:12:58 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE BOTANICAL REVIEW VOL. VII MARCH, 1941 No. 3 BOTANICAL PROBLEMS IN BOREAL AMERICA. I HUGH M. RAUP Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University CONTENTS PAGE Introduction ................ ........................... 148 Acknowledgments . ........................................... 150 Exploration .............. ............................. 151 Physiographic History ........................................... 161 Climate ........................................................... 169 Origin and Distribution of the Flora Speciation and Endemism .173 The Theory of Persistence The Darwin-Hooker Concept ............................... 178 The Nunatak Hypothesis .......... .......... 181 Conservatism vs. Aggressiveness ............................. 184 Wynne-Edwards' Criticism of the Nunatak Hypothesis . 186 Discussion of Wynne-Edwards' Criticism .188 Hulten's Studies of Arctic and Boreal Biota Statement of the Problem .198 Plastic vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Death and Life for Inuit and Innu
    skin for skin Narrating Native Histories Series editors: K. Tsianina Lomawaima Alcida Rita Ramos Florencia E. Mallon Joanne Rappaport Editorial Advisory Board: Denise Y. Arnold Noenoe K. Silva Charles R. Hale David Wilkins Roberta Hill Juan de Dios Yapita Narrating Native Histories aims to foster a rethinking of the ethical, methodological, and conceptual frameworks within which we locate our work on Native histories and cultures. We seek to create a space for effective and ongoing conversations between North and South, Natives and non- Natives, academics and activists, throughout the Americas and the Pacific region. This series encourages analyses that contribute to an understanding of Native peoples’ relationships with nation- states, including histo- ries of expropriation and exclusion as well as projects for autonomy and sovereignty. We encourage collaborative work that recognizes Native intellectuals, cultural inter- preters, and alternative knowledge producers, as well as projects that question the relationship between orality and literacy. skin for skin DEATH AND LIFE FOR INUIT AND INNU GERALD M. SIDER Duke University Press Durham and London 2014 © 2014 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Arno Pro by Copperline Book Services, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Sider, Gerald M. Skin for skin : death and life for Inuit and Innu / Gerald M. Sider. pages cm—(Narrating Native histories) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5521- 2 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5536- 6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Naskapi Indians—Newfoundland and Labrador—Labrador— Social conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Across Borders, for the Future: Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd Inuit
    ACROSS BORDERS, FOR THE FUTURE: Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd Inuit Knowledge, Culture, and Values Study Prepared for the Nunatsiavut Government and Makivik Corporation, Parks Canada, and the Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board - June 2014 This report may be cited as: Wilson KS, MW Basterfeld, C Furgal, T Sheldon, E Allen, the Communities of Nain and Kangiqsualujjuaq, and the Co-operative Management Board for the Torngat Mountains National Park. (2014). Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd Inuit Knowledge, Culture, and Values Study. Final Report to the Nunatsiavut Government, Makivik Corporation, Parks Canada, and the Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board. Nain, NL. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of the authors. Inuit Knowledge is intellectual property. All Inuit Knowledge is protected by international intellectual property rights of Indigenous peoples. As such, participants of the Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd Inuit Knowledge, Culture, and Values Study reserve the right to use and make public parts of their Inuit Knowledge as they deem appropriate. Use of Inuit Knowledge by any party other than hunters and Elders of Nunavik and Nunatsiavut does not infer comprehensive understanding of the knowledge, nor does it infer implicit support for activities or projects in which this knowledge is used in print, visual, electronic, or other media. Cover photo provided by and used with permission from Rodd Laing. All other photos provided by the lead author.
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Peoples, Political Economists and the Tragedy of the Commons
    559 Indigenous Peoples, Political Economists and the Tragedy of the Commons Michel Morin* In “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Garrett Hardin implicitly moved from bounded commons — a pasture or a tribe’s territory — to the case of boundless commons — the ocean, the atmosphere and planet Earth. He insisted on the need for imposing limits on the use of these resources, blurring the difference between communal property and open access regimes. The success of his paper is due in great measure to his neglect of economic, scientific, legal and anthropological literature. His main lifelong focus was on limiting population growth. He could have avoided the conceptual confusion he created by turning to well-known political economists such as John Locke and Adam Smith or, for that matter, jurists, such as Blackstone. Instead, he simply envisioned indigenous lands as an unbounded wilderness placed at the disposal of frontiersmen. Though he eventually acknowledged the existence of managed commons, he had little interest in community rules pertaining to resource exploitation. For him, these were simply moral norms which inevitably became ineffective after a community reached a certain level of population. He also took economists to task for failing to include in their analysis the true environmental and social costs of public decisions. Still, the famous example of the indigenous people of Northeastern Quebec illustrates a shortcoming of his analysis: community members did not act in total isolation from each other. On the contrary, communal norms * Full Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Montreal. The author would like to express his gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, to his colleagues Jean Leclair and Ejan Mackaay, to Dr Edward Cavanagh, to the participants of the conference “The Tragedy of the Commons at 50: Context, Precedents and Afterlife,” as well as the editors of this issue, for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Temps Des Sociétés Qu'ils Évangélisent
    Des missionnaires-narrateurs à contre- temps des sociétés qu’ils évangélisent MADELEINE SAVART Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne/Université de Montréal [email protected] RÉSUMÉ Lorsque les missionnaires français arrivent en Nouvelle-France au XVIIe siècle, ils rencontrent des populations indigènes à la culture et à l’imaginaire social très distincts des modèles européens, et ce premier contact est empreint d’une violence tant physique et culturelle qu’idéologique et symbolique. Le traitement lexical et narratif de l’expression autochtone du temps illustre le paradoxe d’un apprentissage de la part des missionnaires teintés de méconnaissance et d’incom- préhension. Cet article vise à étudier la représentation déformée de la temporalité autochtone dans la Relation de la Nouvelle-France du père jésuite Paul Lejeune (1634) et la Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspésie du père récollet Chrestien Leclercq (1691). Après avoir envisagé quels sont les repères temporels (cycles lunaires et saisonniers) que les missionnaires identifient, l’analyse de la traduction et de la description de ces repères permettra de souligner que les retranscriptions des missionnaires-narrateurs oscillent entrefine compréhension, biais idéologique et dénégation. Le temps social cyclique paraît étranger aux hommes d’Église, imprégnés d’une vision historique linéaire et eschatologique. Alors même qu’ils en maîtrisent les vocables, ils n’en présentent qu’une simple image, sans en saisir les implications ontologiques et sociales, ou du moins, sans les rapporter à leurs lecteurs européens. MOTS-CLÉS langue, temps, traduction, missionnaire, Nouvelle-France 40 ABSTRACT When French missionaries arrived in New France in the seventeenth century, they discovered several indigenous cultures very different from their European models : a violence both physical and cultural as well as ideological and symbolic marked this first contact.
    [Show full text]
  • Prévision Des Niveaux D'eau Dans L'estuaire Et Le Golfe Du Saint
    Prévision des niveaux d’eau dans l’estuaire et le golfe du Saint-Laurent en fonction des changements climatiques Rapport final Projet X011.1 Zhigang Xu, Chargé de projet et chercheur principal et Denis Lefaivre, chercheur associé Institut des Sciences de la Mer Université du Québec à Rimouski Réalisé pour le compte du ministère des Transports du Québec Le 31 janvier 2015 i La présente étude a été réalisée à la demande du ministère des Transports du Québec et a été financée par la Direction de la recherche et de l’environnement dans le cadre du Plan d’action 2006-2012 sur les changements climatiques du gouvernement du Québec, Action 23C – volet érosion côtière. Les opinions exprimées dans le présent rapport n’engagent que la responsabilité de leurs auteurs et ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions du ministère des Transports du Québec. ii Équipe et Collaborateurs Zhigang Xu, Ph. D., professeur associé, Institut des sciences de la mer, Université du Québec à Rimouski et chercheur scientifique, Pêches et Océans Canada, Institut Maurice- Lamontagne. Denis Lefaivre, Ph. D., professeur associé, Institut des sciences de la mer, Université du Québec à Rimouski et chercheur scientifique, Pêches et Océans Canada, Institut Maurice- Lamontagne. Jean-Pierre Savard, M. Sc., spécialiste Impacts climatiques et Adaptation, Ouranos (collaborateur) Référence suggérée Xu, Z. et D. Lefaivre. Prévision des niveaux d’eau dans l’estuaire et le golfe du Saint-Laurent en fonction des changements climatiques. Rapport interne au Ministère des Transports
    [Show full text]
  • The Ice Age in the North American Arctic
    THEICE AGE IN THENORTH AMERICAN ARCTIC Richard Foster Flint” Significance of glacialand interglacial ages RCTIC North America’, incommon with the rest of theworld, is now emerging from the latest of the series of glacial ages which, as a group, haveA characterized the last million years or more of geological time. During the glacial ages, each of which was a hundred thousand years or more in length, the mean temperatures at the earth’s surface were markedly lower than today. In consequence theproportion of snowfall to rainfall increased, melting diminished, and the accumulated snow formed glaciers. These great ice masses spread outward, slowly flowing under their own weight, until they covered one quarter to nearly one third of the land area of the world, principally of course in high and middle latitudes. In North America and Greenland alone, the area covered by ice amounted to seven million square miles. Between the cold glacial ages, warmer times intervened. The record of the soils formedin temperate latitudes during the warmer, interglacial ages shows that those ages were longer than the glacial ages-one of them probably lasted 300,000 years. The record of the fossil animals and plants entombed in the deposits of interglacial times establishes that one or more of those times was warmer than today; from this the inference follows that the interglacial ages probably witnessed a more extensive disappearance of ice fromthe arcticregions than is nowthe case. Infact for the world as a wholethe present is a time transitional from glacial to interglacial. The great ice sheets 1 that formerly blanketed much of North America and Eurasia have disappeared, but more than ten per cent of the world’s land area still remains covered by glacier ice.
    [Show full text]
  • Authentic Safari in Nunavik
    Rapid Lake Lodge ……… . Experience an exceptional moment with nature www.rapidlake.com Quebec AUTHENTIC SAFARI IN NUNAVIK Departure on July 3, 2015 Privately guided 7-day/6-night trip PROMOTIONNAL OFFER From 6000 $ CAD (plus tax) Full board in bivouac Trip Description Here’s an unparalleled private safari to Quebec’s wide open spaces in Nunavik. Wildlife photographers and animal lovers alike have an opportunity to take full advantage of the natural resources here in the Arctic tundra and its incomparable animal life! Nunavik will thrill those who would like to experience the absolute nature of the least travelled corners of Arctic Quebec . You will explore the Kuururjuaq National Park and immerse yourself in its spectacular scenery as well as his Labrador neighbour, the Torngat Mountains National Park. The region is a true... ...natural treat whose wilderness landscape is comparable to Norway and the upper Canadian Arctic. This real-life safari with floatplane travel, short exploratory hikes, and occasional camping along the hard-to-reach coasts of Ungava and Labrador is off the beaten track. In July and August, watch the famed annual migration of caribou herds when thousands of hoofs trample the Labrador Plateau. Wolves on the hunt during the calving season add an opportunity for a rare and poignant experience! Both polar and black bears are well present along the coastal Ungava region and you will stop to observe them in their natural habitat. This remarkably diverse itinerary takes you to the northern tip of Quebec and Labrador Peninsula, across the Arctic Cordillera and finally to the north Atlantic ocean.
    [Show full text]
  • ORAL and RECORDED HISTORY in JAMES BAY TOBY MORANTZ Mcgill University
    ORAL AND RECORDED HISTORY IN JAMES BAY TOBY MORANTZ McGill University Introduction The purpose of my presentation is to show that a blend of documentary and oral history is essential to writing honest, thor­ ough histories of Algonquian peoples. My concern here is with histories developed for the non-Indian public. We must ensure that these histories agree with our sense of credibility, integrity and relevance. The particular combination or blend of oral and documentary history for use by individual Algonquian groups must be their decision to suit their needs (in the school setting, for example) . What we produce as ethnohistorians would be a local or re­ gional history, broadly categorized as "social history". Fortu­ nately, now in the 1980s, one does not have to justify to every historian the validity of social histories that concentrate on the events connected with the lives of ordinary individuals in far- flung regions, rather than on nation state centered political, mil­ itary, administrative, diplomatic and ecclesiastical themes that are promulgated, instituted and documented by an elite. How­ ever, it seems to me that we still have to prove to historians and to ourselves the validity of the oral tradition, of folk history, particularly for Algonquian history. In our area of interest much of Vansina's pioneering promotion of oral history, based as it is 172 TOBY MORANTZ on African chiefdoms with long-standing established oral tradi­ tions, does not apply. Having myself completed a first attempt at writing an Algonquian regional history based on documentary sources (Francis and Morantz, 1983; Morantz 1983) , I feel it be­ hooves me to demonstrate the richness and accuracy of the oral tradition by showing how the documentary and oral accounts complement each other to form a more complete, vital portrayal of events.
    [Show full text]
  • A Unique Pictograph Site in the Context of Political and Ideological Conflicts
    A Unique Pictograph Site in the Context of Political and Ideological Conflicts DANIEL ARSENAULT Universite Laval The recent discovery of a pictograph site in the eastern part of the province of Quebec has allowed the commencement of a multidisciplinary research effort, the Nisula Project (Arsenault 1994a, b,; Arsenault, Gag- non, Martijn and Watchman 1995). The main purpose of this project has been the scientific investigation of a unique archaeological site, a pictograph site called Nisula (DeEh-1), in its regional context. However, in the course of our research we noticed that the current status of the site was at stake when confronted with the values defended by different interest groups. These values are closely related to distinct standpoints that appear to be in conflict regarding the conservation and management of the Nisula site. In the following discussion, we will scmtinize those revealed by representatives of local organizations involved in economic, tourist and recreational development, by political leaders of the Native communities, and by their spiritual leaders and traditional activists, as well as those put forward by the scholars themselves. One of the main issues to be discussed here is how the Nisula site can become both a place of commemoration for the Native people and a tourist attraction, without hindering the pursuit of scientific research. In particular, one can wonder whether it will be possible to safeguard the sacred and ideological values attributed to this type of archaeological site by the Native communities, while at the same time making it accessible to visitors. As I will show, if the Nisula Project is to be carried on, it will only be when the actors apparently in conflict have reached an agreement.
    [Show full text]