Premier Nation des Pekuakamiulnuatsh

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The Première Nation des Pekuakamiulnuatsh , sometimes called Montagnais du Lac St-Jean or Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan , are a group of the Innu in the Canadian province of Québec , who used to be mostly called 'Montagnais'. Their reserve is Mashteuiatsh on Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean . However, at the end of 2017, the majority of the more than 6,700 tribesmen, namely more than 4,600 of them, lived outside the reserve; the tribe belongs to the tribal council of Mamuitun . Chief (chief) is Gilbert Dominique.

history

The region is still the seat of the Innu who called themselves Ilnuatsh today. Since at least 4000 BC The ancestors of today's residents, the Tshishennuatsh, used the place as a meeting place. They were followed in the early 17th century by the Pekuakamiulnuatsh, who called Lac Saint-Jean Pekuakami or Piékoagami .

For the French, who founded a trading base in Tadoussac in 1604 , the groups moving there at that time were Montagnais , as they came from the mountains to the coast. Groups at the lake simply called them "Montagnais du Lac-saint-Jean". They called themselves Kakouchak , after their totem animal, porcupines . As there were no ore deposits in their area, they exchanged hides and furs for iron goods such as pots and knives. They soon achieved a monopoly, which they maintained until the middle of the 17th century, but then wars between the French and British, but especially smallpox , and finally overhunting and hunger, brought the population to a collapse.

After the death of the chief (Otchimao) Siméon in 1849, Peter McLeod acted as his successor in British Canada since 1763 at the latest. In 1852 he made the first attempt to set up a reservation in Metabetchouan. On July 25, 1856, still under British colonial rule, the Ouiatchouan reservation was established. For this, the name Pointe Bleue gradually gained acceptance, after the reflection of the lake, while the Innu initially called the square Ka Mestasiats, pointe de terre. It stretched 5.35 km along the lake and was about 16 km wide. In 1869, the Innu had to cede most of the hinterland, so that only a strip 1.6 km wide, i.e. a tenth of the area, remained. In 1870 30 families lived there. Their chief was Basile, but the first Abenaki came to them as early as 1857 .

In 1866 the Hudson's Bay Company opened a trading post on the reservation, and in 1875 the Oblates for Mission appeared. The reserve was reduced step by step. The place got its current name in 1985; he was officially recognized in 1987. In 1921 the reserve had 1,878 residents, plus 549 members who lived outside the reserve. In 1984, 1,428 of the 1,947 tribesmen still lived on the reservation.

In 1977 the local Musée amér Indien was established , which deals with the history of the Innu in the region. The Amisk school existed as the entrance school; to attend the secondary school, the students had to go to Roberval or Saint-Félicien. 1983-84, 296 students attended primary school, 140 a secondary school, 35 attended a Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel and a further 25 a university.

In 1978, 44% of the community spoke only French, 19% Innu and French, 21% English and French, and 14% even all three languages. The tribal council (band council) was the largest employer with 80 posts, 65 of which in the teaching company. At the same time, the community, which had integrated many whites and in which numerous descendants of mixed marriages lived, threatened to split up into a group of traditionalists and one of the assimilated. Some were inappropriately referred to as Métis (not to be confused with the ethnic group of the same name), the others as "pure Indians". The former had adapted culturally, dominated local politics, accumulated more wealth, and were more competitive. Access to resources and information from the band office increased this division.

Since then, the linguistic situation has changed. Over half of the Innu speak their mother tongue, but in 2005 this proportion was almost 95% in the municipality and in Essipit.

literature

  • Mashteuiatsh , in: Harold Bherer, Sylvie Gagnon, Jacinte Roberge: Wampum and Letters Patent. Exploratory Study of Native Entrepreneurship , Institute for Research on Public Policy, Halifax 1990, pp. 89-108.
  • Christiane Noël, Marie-Diane Siméon: Culture traditionnelle des Montagnais de Mashteuiatsh , Les éditions du Septentrion, Silléry 1997.
  • René Boudreault: Mashteuiatsh, Wendake , Institut culturel et éducatif montagnais, 1994.
  • Camil Girard, Gervais Tremblay, Marc-André Bourassa: Les Innus de Mashteuiatsh et la trappe aux castors sur la rivière Péribonka, Chicoutimi , Université de Québec à Chicoutimi 2003.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Affaires autochtones et du Nord Canada .
  2. ↑ Christiane Noël, Marie-Diane Siméon: Culture traditionnelle des Montagnais de Mashteuiatsh , Les éditions du Septentrion, Silléry 1997, p. 18.
  3. ↑ Mashteuiatsh , in: Harold Bherer, Sylvie Gagnon, Jacinte Roberge: Wampum and Letters Patent. Exploratory Study of Native Entrepreneurship , Institute for Research on Public Policy, Halifax 1990, pp. 89-108, here: p. 94.
  4. ↑ Mashteuiatsh , in: Harold Bherer, Sylvie Gagnon, Jacinte Roberge: Wampum and Letters Patent. Exploratory Study of Native Entrepreneurship , Institute for Research on Public Policy, Halifax 1990, pp. 89-108, here: p. 97.
  5. ↑ Alexandre Stefanescu, Pierre Georgeault (ed.): Le Français au Québec. Les nouveaux défis , Les Editions Fides, Montréal 2005, p. 236.