3. Naskapi Women: Words, Narratives, and Knowledge
chapter three Naskapi Women Words, Narratives, and Knowledge Carole Lévesque, Denise Geoffroy, and Geneviève Polèse By sharing their stories and knowledge, Naskapi women have played a key role in the reconstruction of the cultural and ecological heritage of their people. The Naskapi, who live in the subarctic region of the province of Québec, today represent about nine hundred people, most of whom reside in the village of Kawawachikamach, located about fifteen kilometres from the former mining town of Schefferville, along the 55th parallel (see map 3.1). The first written reports of the Naskapi date from the late eighteenth century. It appears that, at the time of the Europeans’ arrival, the peoples to whom these reports refer did not form a single, integrated group rather they were several groups of hunters who ranged across the northern portion of the Québec Labrador peninsula (Lévesque, Rains, and de Juriew 2001). The evidence suggests that these were families or groups of hunters of Innu origin who, sometime around the mid-eighteenth century, had apparently migrated to the hinterland of the subarctic region from the North Shore of the St. Lawrence (where several Innu bands had settled). Initially few in number, the Naskapi are said to have comprised about three hundred people around 1830 (Lévesque et al. 2001). 59 doi:10.15215/aupress/9781771990417.01 Ungava Bay Québec Fort Chimo Fort McKenzie Kawawachikamach Newfoundland and Labrador Québec Map 3.1 Location of the Naskapi village of Kawawachikamach, northern Québec. Source: Laboratoire d’analyse spatiale et d’économie urbaine et régionale, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montréal.
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