Mushuau Innu First Nation
The Mushuau Innu First Nation is one of the four First Nations in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador . The Mushuau Innu have lived in Natuashish on the east coast of Labrador since 2002 , before they lived in Davis Inlet . Their Natuashish 2 reserve covers an area of 4,267.3 hectares. In December 2011, 819 people were registered as members of the tribe, of which 759 lived in the reservation, in March 2013 there were 876 and 811, respectively, in March 2015 there were 954 and 883. They belong to the Innu and are Catholic. In the past they were also known as Innu of the Tundra (Tundra-Innu) because they belong to the northernmost group.
history
Colonial history
The ancestors of today's Mushuau lived mainly from hunting caribou . To do this, they traveled through the north of Labrador and followed the large herds. For example, they hunted on the George River in what would later become the province of Québec.
Although the Europeans who appeared on the American east coast from the end of the 15th century made contact with the Innu, they only reached the southern groups. These were partially evangelized by members of the Catholic orders of the Franciscan recollects and the Jesuits .
For a long time, the Innu area remained outside of the Indian policy customary in Canada . Due to a lack of development, the nomadic groups were barely tangible and were considered to be far from civilization. There was no money in circulation with them, the hunt provided what was necessary for life.
Establishment of the Innu, division into two provinces (from 1949)
Until 2000, the Innu Labradors were not recognized as Indians under the Indian Act . Their huge, almost uninhabited area (Nutshimiu Innut - Innu-Land) was economically of little interest for a long time. In 1927, the eastern part of Labrador was added to the province of Newfoundland , the rest went to Québec. Thus the Innu area was divided into two provinces. Only three Innu groups belonged to Newfoundland, the Sheshatshiu , the Miawpukek and the Mushuau .
The fact that the crown land was formally ceded by Great Britain to Canada in 1949 and the Innu lost their status as Indians - and with it all support - had a serious effect. This was all the more serious as the fur industry collapsed with the global economic crisis and the caribou herds collapsed. This deprived the Innu of any economic basis.
In 1957 a Catholic mission was established in Sheshatshiu. Government and mission put pressure on the z. Some of the Innu who lived in tents decided to settle down. The last resettlement took place in the winter of 1971/72, to Pukuatshipit. This ended the nomadic era and the children were made compulsory.
Disintegration
In the mid-1990s, the disintegration of the Innu company was in full swing. Underemployment, addiction, powerlessness and degraded self-esteem, as well as foreignness in one's own country, were the basis for drug addiction, violence and a high suicide rate that attracted attention in the Canadian press for several years.
In 1994 the conflict threatened to escalate. A group of Innu women had evicted a Canadian judge and his police escort. Now the Innu Nation feared attacks by the federal police on the Davis Inlet reservation . Outside help was sought for mediation and turned to Peace Brigades International . This was a one-time event in that this organization otherwise only appeared in countries in the so-called Third World . She succeeded in provisional arbitration, but in August the government threatened to send the federal police to the reservation. Once again the Peace Brigade succeeded in de-escalating , although the Innu were already preparing for a defense.
Davis Inlet: Uprooting, Drugs, and Moving to Natuashish (1967-2002)
The Innu in Labrador have been subjected to sedentary programs since the 1950s, which, like most nomadic peoples, had catastrophic results. In Davis Inlet alone, where a settlement was established in 1967, 47 alcoholic deaths occurred between 1973 and 1992. In 1993, a police officer posted a video of children sniffing gasoline that sparked relocation to Natuashish.
In December 2002 the entire congregation with its 680 members moved to a newly built village for $ 200 million . But the path of the 70 million dollars that have now been invested in social programs was no longer traceable in 2005 by means of government documents. The Canadian chieftain's system with its tribal councils, whose representatives have the few public jobs on the reservations, proved to be prone to corruption.
Only two social workers were overseeing the entire site at the time, domestic violence was not tackled by professionals, and there was not even a sheltered house to house women and children.
Fight for the alcohol ban, rigged chief election
From May 2004 to May 2007, Simon Pokue was chief or Utshmau of the tribe. In March 2007 he was made deputy chief , a position he held until 2010. He was followed by Prote Poker in office. In February 2008 there was a vote on an alcohol ban in the community, in which the supporters and the opponents faced each other on a sports field in two long rows. More than 300 votes were counted, 188 were in favor of an alcohol ban, 125 against. The tribe decided by a narrow majority (76:74), with less than half voting, for a complete ban on alcohol.
Simeon Tshakapesh, who was 42 at the time, sided with alcohol opponents, but earlier he had instructed the police not to actually enforce the bans. His opponents accordingly demanded his resignation, as they viewed the vote as a vote of no confidence in the chief and his councilors. The defeated opponents of the alcohol ban criticized that the vote had not been secret, and that smuggling and illicit distillery had increased. Proponents argued that the number of violent crimes had dropped sharply, and the number of suicides per year fell from 6 to 3.
Pokue claimed that when he was voted out, alcohol was used to buy voters, which his successor, Simeon Tshakapesh, rejected. On the other hand, he was accused of having been found in possession of alcohol together with his successor in the chief office, Simeon Tshakapesh, contrary to the alcohol ban, which was confirmed by the community in a vote on March 26, 2010. The two men, in turn, had argued for the alcohol ban to be lifted, although poker had been one of the proponents.
Simeon Tshakapesh, who won the election as chief by only 15 votes, lifted the alcohol ban that had been in effect since 2008 immediately after his election. A representative of the local police disagreed in the media because a formal process had to be carried out to lift the ban.
In January 2012, Judge Donald Rennie of the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the March 5, 2010 elections were invalid because of irregularities. He ordered new elections. The background to this was again the alcohol ban, which had divided the community.
At the end of 2011, Maritime Testing , an engineering and environmental consultancy, examined around 100 of the roughly 200 houses in the community. Mold was found almost everywhere in the houses, most of which were buildings of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development . Accordingly, the ventilation systems had been installed incorrectly, which had led to increased humidity. It is unclear whether this investigation served to raise the $ 25 million the mining company at Voisey's Bay earmarked for house construction, which is in a fund.
Caribou herd collapse
At least since the beginning of the 21st century it has been shown that the hunt, which is still operated by Innu, has little effect on the caribou herds. Rather, it is the development of Labrador through roads and energy generation systems, especially reservoirs and raw material extraction, that endanger their continued existence. The George River herd, which still consisted of 900,000 animals in 2000 and was therefore one of the largest herds of all, collapsed by 92% to only 74,000 animals by 2011. The hunting season has been shortened from eight to three months.
literature
- Gilles Samson: Ethno-history and Archeology of the Mushuau Innuts , in: Papers of the Seventh Algonquian Conference, 1975, Universite Laval, p. 39ff.
- James Roche: Resettlement of the Mushuau Innu, 1948. A Summary of Documents , Innu Nation, 1992.
- Mary Ellen Macdonald: The Mushuau Innu of Utshimassit. Paths to Cultural Healing and Revitalization , Dalhousie University, 1995.
Remarks
- ↑ Mushuau Innu First Nation ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Here is a photo from 1906, from a camp on the George River: Mushuauinnuts at camp on Mushuau shipu (George River) 1906 – Photo: William Brooks Cabot ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ A photo of a typical Innu tent can be found here: taken between Border Beacon (Ashuapun) and Davis Inlet (Utshimassits) ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Wendy Austin, Mary Ann Boyd: Psychiatric and mental health nursing for Canadian practice , Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2010, p. 949.
- ↑ The Innu of Labrador: From Davis Inlet to Natuashish , CBC News , February 14, 2005, archive.org, May 19, 2013.
- ↑ Innu leader pleads guilty on booze charge , CBC, April 19, 2010. In other articles he is referred to as "Simon Poker".
- ↑ Labrador Innu village votes for booze ban , CBC News , February 1, 2008, archive.org , April 18, 2009.
- ↑ Natuashish votes to keep alcohol ban , CBC, March 26, 2010.
- ↑ Simeon Tshakapesh Natuashish booze ban canceled: new chief , CBC, March 8 of 2010.
- ↑ Innu leader pleads guilty on booze charge , CBC, April 19, 2010
- ↑ Labrador Innu urge Ottawa to fight Natuashish mold , CBC, December 13, 2011.
- ↑ Georgia River Reindeer Population Dramatically Dropping , in: Huffpost Green, December 25, 2011
