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) \

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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. His aim was not only to develop the fur trade but also to obtain helpers who could procure food as well as participate in fishingan d sealing activities. Initially, these consisted of local natives. In due course, others ventured from the distant interior (Courtemanche 1927:3689), perhaps from as far away as Lake Melville (Tan­ ner 1977:9), but this remains speculative. By 1706, Courtemanche was reported to have 30 Montagnais families attached to his post at Brador (NAC 1706:170). They appear to have served as a homeguard, and may have been brought in especially for that purpose, perhaps from the Mingan region. Like Parent (1985:674), who supposes them to have come from Lake St. Jean in the Saguenay area, Tanner (1977:8-9) believes that they may have been "Indians already attached to posts within the Domaine du Roi", and that they probably consented to move because "the fur trade in the Domaine was already causing shortages of game and fur". On account of their numbers, and due to seasonal food and fur shortages locally, part of the native population that congregated at the Brador post in the summer habitually moved away during the winter. Some families returned inland to their traditional hunting grounds within the Quebec- Labrador peninsula, others journeyed further east along the north side of 232 CHARLES A. MARTIJN the Strait of Belle-Isle, while still others crossed over to Newfoundland. To what extent this traversal of the Strait represented a traditional pattern of dispersal by local natives during the winter months remains unclear. Only the vaguest of hints to that effect are contained in archival records that predate Courtemanche's arrival on the Lower North Shore (Ingeborg Mar­ shall, personal communication). A map of Newfoundland by the Sieur de Courcelle, dated 1676, contains a notation to the effect that "there [in the Bay of Islands] we found a group of savages who were engaged in hunt­ ing and brought us 3 deer [caribou] and some partridges, but one must go far [to hunt]. It took them three days" (Harrisse 1900:318; my transla­ tion). Since by then such cooperative behaviour was unlike that custom­ arily attributed to the Beothuk by most sources, these people may have been Montagnais, or even Micmac. Another report, by the British Com­ modore Graydon (PANL 1701:179-180), mentions "Canida Indians" who "come through Charles's Streights [Strait of Belle-Isle] in Canoes 70 men in each to the French Ships fishing in these Harbours & truck furrs with them for firearms and other things", adding that a great hatred existed between them and the Newfoundland Indians. Unless this involved Montagnais us­ ing European shallops, one can only surmise that these were Inuit travelling in umiaks (cf. Rochemonteix 1904:56-57). From more precise information furnished by a French informant at Port-aux-Basques to a British merchant, William Taverner, Montagnais were known to have visited Newfoundland as far back as 1713 (PANL 1733:178). Whether these Montagnais were homeguard, locals, or the odd family from the distant peninsula interior cannot be determined with certainty from sketchy archival sources. That some homeguard personnel were involved seems more than likely since these outsiders would otherwise have been competing with local natives who ex- ploited hunting and trapping territories within the Lower North Shore re- gion (Tanner 1977:9). Courtemanche died in 1717 and the following year his stepson, Fran~ois ~ Martel de Brouague, was appointed in his stead as commandant for the ) . King on the coast of Brador. It has often been claimed that the French sent the Montagnais to Newfoundland each year (cf. Tanner, in P ANL 1733:178; Gosling 1910:152; Parent 1985:755), and even that the commandant himself accompanied them (Rogers 1911:132). There is no evidence to support these statements. Brouague (1923:366, 374) makes it clear that they went there on their own initiative to avoid famine during the winter months, specifying that they "veulent aller tous les ans hiverner a Terreneuve n'ayant pas suffisamment de quoi vivre dans ce pays-ici ...". On the other hand, it is quite evident that furtrapping prospects also played an important role in these decisions. Indeed, the Montagnais were encouraged by Brouague to make contact with the Beothuk at Bonne Bay in order to engage them in INNU (MONTAGNAIS) IN NEWFOUNDLAND 233 trade. This would presumably have involved an exchange of furs for other merchandise. Although that particular attempt failed because the Beothuk had already departed, subsequent efforts must have met with more success judging from Beothuk oral tradition accounts as indicated below (Jukes 1842 (2):129). Several new practices were instituted by Brouague (1923:361-362, 367, 374) in connection with these annual crossings to Newfoundland. He pro­ vided supplies, shallops for transportation, and also sent along some of his French employees. His stated purpose was to have these engages keep their native companions "in subordination" so that they would not become embroiled in fights with crews of fishing vessels whenever alcohol was dis­ tributed. More likely though, it was to discourage the Montagnais from trading or squandering away their fur catch and to make certain that most of it was brought back to the Brador post. Such attempted supervision was not always effective, however, judging from a dispatch in 1720 by Com­ mander Percy of the Royal British Navy. Patrolling the coastal areas of Newfoundland, which had been ceded to the English in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht, he reported the presence of "a sort of French Indians who take a Considerable quantity of Furr in Winter and Sell to our Trading People" (PANL 1720:10; 1722:115). At a later date, in 1733, an English merchant described how large groups of up to 70 or 80 "Mountaineer Indians" were being sent across the Strait by the "Governor of the Grand Bay" [Brador], to hunt furs. He would fit them out with "Several Boats, with Powder, Shot, and all Necessarys for a Furring Voyage, for the Winter Season" (PANL 1733:178). They customarily arrived in September, dispersed along the en­ tire west coast from Cape Grott [Degrat] all the way down to St. George's Bay, and returned again to Labrador in April of the following spring, their shallops "loaded with Furrs and Skins". Brouague's relations with the Amerindians who lived at or frequented his post became strained on a number of occasions. In 1738, when he neglected to furnish presents to a group of visiting Montagnais, they took offence, boarded some French vessels and sailed to Newfoundland in order to trade with the English there (Roy 1940 (2):179-180). The growing number of concessions in this area, after 1720, had led to a wider choice of trading partners. As the above incident demonstrates, the Montagnais were adept at taking advantage of this situation for their own benefit. In the long run, however, increased contact exercised a pernicious effect on native existence in the North Shore region (Charest 1975; Trudel 1978). Another episode sheds light on the fact that although the Treaty of Utrecht prohibited Frenchmen from overwintering in Newfoundland, this clause was not always respected. In fact, there were constant encroachments on the west coast which escaped the attention of the British authorities since 234 CHARLES A. MARTIJN the area was little used by English fishermen (Paterson 1931:213-214). In November of 1738, one of Jolliet's sons, Jean-Baptiste Jolliet de Mingan, was killed in a hunting accident near St. Barbe where he had a "cabane d'hivernement". Among his companions was a 14-year old Montagnais youth named Michel Mononoumat who helped with checking marten traps (NAC 1739:204a-205).

Montagnais in Newfoundland under British Rule Brouague died in 1761, and his Brador establishment passed into other hands. Whether these new concessionnaires also maintained a native home­ guard has not been determined. A different visiting pattern now emerged as certain Montagnais groups, apparently not attached to the post at Brador, started to lengthen their stays in Newfoundland. They used canoes rather than shallops, made their appearance in the summer, ranging southward from the Petit Nord, and overwintered on the island to trap for furs which they bartered locally to French fishing boats and small traders for different kinds of supplies. The first mention of this, by Captain G. Lumsdain, dates to 1785. He indicated that "Canadian Indians are at Great and Little Quirpoon [sic] for the summer: they go inland in winter for furs and sell them to the French" (PANL 1785:66). The following year, Captain R.C. Reynolds reported that "Two Tribes or small Parties of those Indians called Mountaineers to the amount of 60 in all frequent Quirpon and are said to penetrate a great way into the island", while "in the Winter [they] kill a number of deer and furs in the Northern part of Newfoundland". These Montagnais had arrived in canoes from the coast of Labrador during the summer, and traded "Furs to a considerable amount" with the French, in return for "Musquets, Powder, Musquet Shot, Gins, Traps, Boats, Sails, Wearing Apparel etc." He per­ sonally met "2 Men and their Wives" and noted that "they could speak a little French and had no arms of any kind nor anything to truck" (PANL 1786:204). Two years later, in 1788, Captain Reynolds again encountered 21 Montagnais at "Ferolle & Port aux Choix & in the Bay of St. Johns". They traded "furs etc. which they get on the Island" in exchange for "Musquets, Powder, Shot, Gins, wearing apparel, Provisions etc." Being a newcomer to that region, Captain Reynolds was unfamiliar with native lifestyles and values. In his ethnocentric estimation, "they seemed a poor Miserable set of People, indolent and lazy to the highest degree, that as long as they had any thing to subsist on dozed away their time in their Wigwams, and were only roused by necessity when their Provisions grew short and hunger began to pinch them. Then they dispersed abroad and when they chanced to kill a Seal, or any Beast of Size, retired with it to their Stys till hunger INNU (MONTAGNAIS) IN NEWFOUNDLAND 235 again compelled them forth" (PANL 1788:172). Still later, in 1792, Captain George Cartwright referred to the presence of Montagnais at Quirpon and in other parts of the island and described how at Hawke's Harbour "two French fishermen, having gone into the country shooting, were met by eight Mountaineers, men and women, belonging to Labrador tribes, who not only robbed them of their arms, but even stripped them almost naked" (Howley 1915:26-27, 52). While an adequate picture of those times cannot be conveyed by iso­ lated incidents such as the above, they do provide an indication that es­ tablished policies underwent modification under British rule as a result of different attitudes, perceptions and priorities. The formalized symbiosis de­ scribed by Trudel (n.d.), which typified Amerindian-White relations in the Strait of Belle-Isle region under the French Regime, gradually became un­ ravelled. Commercial establishments along the southern Quebec-Labrador coast apparently ceased the practice of advancing credit to Montagnais hunters, in the form of boats, guns, ammunition and other necessities, for their Newfoundland trips. Such commodities now had to be acquired after arrival by engaging in more opportunistic trading procedures. During the time period under consideration, these Montagnais parties originated from different places in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula. Some interesting details on this were obtained in 1800 by a French scholar, Pier- ronet (1800), who collected data on the Montagnais and Naskapi languages from a young Montagnais Indian. The latter, named Gabriel, worked for a Micmac in St. George's Bay. His father was actually a Naskapi who had been brought up in the Innu (Montagnais) community of Sheshatshit (North West River), and later emigrated to Newfoundland. This reveals a new, or at least a different form of settlement pattern, with single Montagnais fam­ ilies or individuals taking up permanent residence on the island instead of only making seasonal visits. It should also be noted that it was while on a visit to Labrador in 1810, that Governor Sir John Thomas Duckworth "issued a Proclamation to the native people thereof, warning them to live in terms of friendship with the Indians of Newfoundland" (Howley 1915:70; PANL 1810:113-114). Of considerable interest is a letter dated November 9, 1819, in which Father Angus MacEachern related how he had met with a schooner full of Micmac and Montagnais at Cape Breton in 1816. The Montagnais were from Sept-Iles (Bay of Seven Islands) and had gone by the Mingaji, and Esquimaux Islands [St. Paul's River?] along the shore in their canoes towards the Straits of Belles Isles [sic], across to Tierra Nueva, then to Bay St. George, where the Mique Maques have a settlement of 60 families, and from thence across sea to Cape North and Sydney Cape Breton, who had never before seen a priest, but had been instructed in the rudiments of Religion by the Mique Maques. I baptised many of them, married some, 236 CHARLES A. MARTIJN

and after having heard the confessions of a schooner load of them, they returned home well satisfied. It makes a man sick to think of their state. They [Montagnais as well as Micmac?] have often brought from Newfoundland the corpses of their people, who died in the winter, to be buried, in the summer, in the Indian burying ground in a small island at the bottom of the Bras d'Or Lake near the little Isthmus within 6 miles of St. Peter's, where the Indians have a chapel dedicated to St. Ann (Johnston 1960:359-360, 541).

Montagnais Relations with the Beothuk and Micmac in Newfoundland During the course of their expeditions to Newfoundland, the Montagnais were bound to make contact with two other Amerindian tribes who inhab­ ited parts of that island, namely the Beothuk and the Micmac. There may also have been occasional encounters with seasonal Inuit parties in New­ foundland's northern peninsula, although there is no specific mention of this in archival documents. On the other hand, such contacts did take place on the north side of the Strait (Anon. 1717:145-146; Brouague 1923:365; Rochemonteix 1904:58). One of the last Beothuk Indians, a young woman named Shanawdithit, recounted stories about Indians from Labrador whom she called the Shau- namuncs or "Good People" (Jukes 1842, (2):129; Newfoundland House of Assembly Journal 1865:629). The two groups were said to exchange visits across the Strait of Belle-Isle and to trade for "stone hatchets and other implements". While archival sources are silent in regard to such encounters, one archaeologist, who has excavated dark blue and translucent white trade beads on late historic Beothuk sites, believes it conceivable that "a marginal trade between the Beothuk and the Montagnais lingered on into the nine­ teenth century" (Pastore 1987:58-50). Indeed, it has been suggested that some of the last Beothuk survivors sought refuge with Montagnais bands on the middle and lower north shore (Bonnycastle 1842:48; Howley 1915:257; Jukes 1842, (2):131). Although Speck (1931:588) claimed to possess historical and ethnolog­ ical evidence for a link between the Beothuk and the St. Augustin Mon­ tagnais band on the lower north shore, the evidence is at best tenuous. He based his belief on the fact that ethnographic specimens collected from that village "show a noteworthy prevalence of red coloration", and on a letter by Cabot (1930) declaring that one of the local family names, Poker (Pok-ue), meant "stranger coming into a strange country" ,4 that these people were considered different-looking by other band members, and hence that "there is a chance that they are Red Indian stock from Newfoundland". As a final

4A closer approximation would be "isolated" or "unattached to something1 (Jose Mailhot, personal communication). INNU (MONTAGNAIS) IN NEWFOUNDLAND 237 note, it has also been postulated that the Beothuk may have been exposed to diseases from the Montagnais, such as small-pox (Marshall 1981:74-75). Information about Montagnais-Micmac relations in Newfoundland is somewhat more detailed. Since both groups shared religious and linguis­ tic affiliations with the French, this may have played a role in facilitating contact. Inevitably, certain Montagnais individuals who came to the island ended up with Micmac marriage partners, thereby leading to close alliances between these two groups. A well-known example of this was the Montag­ nais hunter, James John, married to a Micmac woman, who played host to the explorer William Cormack in 1822, while the latter was travelling through the interior of Newfoundland (Cormack 1928:57-62, 134). James John had arrived there the preceeding year, having heard that "it was bet­ ter hunting country than his own". Starting out from St. George's Bay, he had been hunting and trapping in the interior for two months, and was making his way across to Bay Despair on the south coast where he intended to overwinter with some Micmac families to whom he was probably related by marriage. The direct descendants of James John are still living in that community today (Millais 1907:217; Speck 1922:132, 138; Usher 1980:94). While undertaking a second inland trip in 1827, Cormack was accompa­ nied by three Indians: an Abenaki, a Micmac and a Montagnais (Howley 1915:189). Other references to the presence of Montagnais on the island oc­ cur in subsequent decades (Jukes 1842 (2):126; T. Lloyd 1876:245; Tocque 1878:251). Anthropological studies carried out by Frank Speck (1922) in New­ foundland led him to the conclusion that the Montagnais families and in­ dividuals who established themselves there during the course of the 19th century tended to be assimilated into Micmac society and did not conserve their own cultural identity or language. However, some traces of Montag­ nais influence could still be observed in Micmac culture during the early decades of the 20th century. These included a variety of medicinal prac­ tices (Speck 1917:316-317), as well as clothing styles and certain types of camping equipment and bone implements (Speck 1922:33-36, 126-127). This same author also believed intermarriage to have been so common that probably more than half the Micmac population of Newfoundland today can claim some Montagnais ancestry. A number of corrections and an up­ dated account of the family lineages mentioned by Speck are to be found in Usher (1980:93-94). Attention should be drawn to the fact, however, that a traditional pattern of seasonal or extended temporary visits continued to be maintained by other Montagnais groups throughout the course of the 19th century. Thus at Mingan, in June of 1873, the Oblate missionary, Father Charles Arnaud, reported the arrival of a number of St. Augustin Montagnais who 238 CHARLES A. MARTIJN had just come back from Newfoundland (Tremblay 1977:66). They had been rumoured to have met with a tragic end there, but luckily this turned out to be untrue. Relatives and friends along the Quebec North Shore and in Labrador must have worried about the fate of those who undertook such long trips across many miles of open water, and whose absences might stretch out for over more than a year. In passing, it should be noted that there is no evidence, thus far, to show that H.B.C. managers or other traders either encouraged or induced the Montagnais to undertake such transmigrations (Jacoues Frenette, personal communication). The idyllic relationship between Montagnais and Micmac, as depicted by Speck (1922), is contradicted by other accounts. There were occasions when competition for fur resources between native outsiders and island residents led to tensions and animosities (Anger 1988:59). It is possible that an absence of marriage alliances may have constituted a causal factor in such particular instances. A Protestant missionary, the Rev. Frederic Lloyd, declared in 1882 that "a deadly feud has existed for a lengthened period between the Micmac and Mountaineer tribes, arising from disputed rights of trapping in the North and West of the island". That winter,

Andrew, the chief of the Mountaineers, having heard that the muchdreaded Micmacs were on their tracks, in company with three or four of his followers travelled to my residence from the distant interior, where he left his tribe. He was very much excited, and anxious for the safety of his people during his absence, fearing that their camp might be discovered, and they extermi­ nated by their deadly foes. In broken English he begged me that I would intercede on his behalf with the Government of Newfoundland, that he might be afforded some security against the attacks of the Micmacs. After some correspondence with the Colonial Government on the subject,5 it was found that the Mountaineers could not be debarred from hunting and trapping in Newfoundland. The belligerent parties did not subsequently meet, as the Mountaineers returned to Labrador in the Spring of 1883, and have not since appeared (F. Lloyd 1886:28). Thus far no Montagnais chief by the name of Andrew or Andre has shown up in administrative or church records pertaining to that period (Jose Mailhot, personal communication). It could be that the person iden­ tified as a chief by the Rev. Lloyd was the head of an extended household who, on account of his experience, enjoyed the respect of other families in the wintering unit. Half a dozen Montagnais hunters called Andre are known from that era, but with one exception these represent given names, not surnames. They include Andre Neshtikupu from the Mingan band;

5 Despite a lengthy search at the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland in St. John's, and the assistance of several staff members, the present author was unable to locate this dossier. INNU (MONTAGNAIS) IN NEWFOUNDLAND 239

Andre Mishtanapeu or Mishtanapeshish, also a Mingan band member, but who often frequented the North West River post; Andre Napeu from the La Romaine band; another Andre from this same group, married to a Hen- riette; and an Andre Uatshikutakan. A last possible candidate is the great­ grandfather of Mathieu Andre, himself a noted contemporary Montagnais leader (Andre 1984:95). This person, known as Andre Atshapi, married at Sept-Iles in 1859. His name appears repeatedly in the church registers of that mission, the last time being in 1877, but he is also heard from at Petit- sikapau Lake and at Sheshatshit. None of his living descendants, however, have ever heard stories about Andre Atshapi traversing to Newfoundland. (Jose Mailhot, personal communication). For the moment, then, a lack of adequate information prevents the positive identification of "chief Andrew". The final decades of the 19th century witnessed the last of such ex­ tensive seasonal movements to the island by the Montagnais. As many as 40 families, from the south coast of Labrador, made an appearance above Bonne Bay in 1889, and stayed there all winter hunting beaver (Speck 1922:126-127). They must have met with some success because local gos­ sip had it that they employed magical practices to draw all the beaver from that part of the country. It may have been around this time too that, as recounted by Clement Bellefleur, a native informant from Natashquan, his father was baptized in Newfoundland and grew up there. The mission­ ary who carried out this baptism was known by the name of Utasikan to the Montagnais. People from Mingan were the ones who customarily pro­ vided him with transportation during the course of his travels to the island and along the lower north shore (Bellefleur 1979:15). As yet unpublished oral traditions dealing with such Montagnais voyages have been collected at St. Augustin and La Romaine in recent years (Jean-Yves Pintal, Sylvie Vincent, personal communications). Towards the end of the last century, the Newfoundland Government reversed its previously established policy and decided to put a stop to any further Montagnais migrations to the island, giving as a pretext the need to protect the local beaver population from overexploitation (Speck 1922:155). Pressure exerted by local trappers, presumably both Whites and Micmac, intent on safeguarding their own interests, must have played a role in this decision to expel seasonal Montagnais groups.6

Conclusion The Montagnais presence in Newfoundland is a subject which merits fur­ ther investigation and analysis. In the years ahead, if criteria for identifying

6 As yet, no administrative documents relating to this Government edict have come to light. 240 CHARLES A. MARTIJN

Montagnais sites on this island can be established, archaeological research may be able to provide us with more insight into the nature and scale of these population movements, as well as the time span involved. Although a number of authors have argued that Montagnais voyages to Newfoundland only originated during the 18th century at the urging of French concession- naires such as Courtemanche and Brouague, this is not necessarily the case. To the contrary, it may represent an ancient pattern tied to native needs and native initiatives. Of decided interest is the fact that for more than a century after Brouague's death in 1761, Montagnais from several locations in the southern Quebec-Labrador peninsula continued to make such trips and even to settle there permanently. It should be kept in mind that the socio-economic system of the historic Montagnais depended on big game hunting, sealing and fishingfo r subsis­ tence, and on the trapping of fur animals as a means of obtaining manufac­ tured goods that had become essential to the native way of life (cf. Tanner 1978). Any drastic declines in fur and target animal populations meant that survival strategies had to be modified, for example by carrying out hunting and trapping activities over much wider areas. We must therefore try to identify those historical and ecological events in the Quebec North Shore region and Southern Labrador which may have resulted in periodic shortages of key animal species such as caribou and beaver (Tanner 1977). Examples of this would be the destruction of animal habitats by forest fires or forestry operations; cyclical animal population crashes and disease epi­ demics; overexploitation of faunal resources due to the arrival of newcomers in a given territory, or resulting from native population shifts tied to the establishment of new missions or trading posts; and finally,technologica l innovations involving new types of rifles, traps or modes of transportation. All known instances of such underlying causes should be compiled and then compared with the record of Montagnais voyages to Newfoundland in order to determine whether any correlations exist. Genealogical studies could provide additional insights and link-ups. Only in this manner will it be possible to acquire a clearer understanding of why the Montagnais arrived at decisions of this nature, and from what areas on the mainland these population movements originated.

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