A responsibility taken seriously

A thousand-year-old relationship unites Atik^a and the Innu. Indeed, having enabled the survival of our Nation, it is part of our identity, our spirituality and our culture.

This is why the Chiefs of the nine Innu communities in Quebec (Mashteuiatsh, Essipit, Pessamit, Uashat mak Mani-utenam, Ekuanitshit, Nutashkuan, Unamen Shipu, Pakua Shipi and Matimekush Lac John) firmly believe that the protection of Atik^a is one of their responsibilities – by virtue of the ancestral rights and titles they hold on Nitassinan, ancestral territory, while ensuring the practice of their ancestral activities and the food security of their members.

The Atik^a is therefore vital for the Innu and our knowledge must be transmitted from generation to generation. Until very recently, our company was built around the Atik^a, its movements and its hunting. Its decline necessarily leads to a loss of our identity, the one that our ancestors, grandparents and parents have dearly defended. It is our turn to take the necessary measures to ensure the maintenance of our thousand-year-old relationship with Atik.^a for the “seven generations to come”.

In recent years, the Innu Nation has deployed strategies and assumed its share of responsibility in the protection of the Mushuau-Atik^a (George River Herd and Leaf River). Together with other Aboriginal groups in Quebec and Labrador, through the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Roundtable (TRACPU), we have developed an important management strategy for the species for the 100 years to forthcoming titled: “Long Ago in the Future: Caribou and the Indigenous Peoples of Ungava” (October 17, 2017). Our first actions are bearing fruit, as the George’s herd is timidly starting to increase its herd.

In January 2022, the nine communities of the Innu Nation signed a historic agreement “Matinueu-mashinaikan atik^a e uauinakanit” with the Cree Eeyou Itschee Nation for a Mushuau-Atik hunt^a (rivière aux Feuilles herd) in Cree territory in order to achieve the common objective of reducing the harvests of the populations of Minashkuau-Atik^a (caribou from the interior of the forest), while pursuing our respective cultural relations and respecting TRACPU’s strategy.

Concerning the Minashkuau-Atik^a, the stakes of its protection are great and complex (some communities are currently engaged in legal proceedings), given the industrial and human occupations of this territory on which its survival depends. This project deserves more effort from everyone, including our hunters, especially since some Innu communities are facing strong pressure from the forest industry and the region.

Like the First Nations and Indigenous Guardians of northeast British Columbia who managed to triple a dwindling caribou herd, the Innu Chiefs are taking matters into their own hands to find solutions specific to their communities.

To this end, the Chiefs of the Innu Nation will launch internal consultations on the Minashkuau-Atik^a. These will culminate in a national meeting so that the Innu Nation can decide on its strategies for the protection of Atik.^aand agree on the actions to be taken.

We are also at the origin of a forum on the protection of Minashkuau-Atik^a, which included the governments of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada. Unfortunately, the Innu Nation has noted the lack of seriousness and will of the Government of Quebec in this process, resulting in no progress being observed in recent years. Interventions by the Innu communities with the Government of Quebec proved unsuccessful. We consider that Quebec has failed to respect our ancestral rights, including the title, by not adequately taking into consideration our roles, our interests, our values, our knowledge and our needs concerning the Atik.^a. The latest actions of the Government of Quebec – obviously without consultation with the First Nations –, in particular the decision to create an “independent” commission and to postpone the publication of its strategy for the maintenance of woodland and mountain caribou, clearly demonstrate that the Quebec prefers the protection of the interests of forestry companies to the detriment of the preservation of this important species both for the Innu and for the maintenance of biodiversity in the Quebec and Canadian landscape.

We recall that this so-called tripartite Table had planned four priority areas, namely population management, Innu culture, communications, harvesting and cross-border issues.

Our knowledge, expertise and experience in the preservation of Atik^a give the Innu Nation in Quebec a central role in the creation, implementation and monitoring of any strategy aimed at the preservation of the Atik^a. We have solutions. Mamu (together) for the Atik^a.

* Chief Gilbert Dominique –Mashteuiatsh; Chef Martin Dufour –Essipit; Chef Jean-Marie Vollant –Pessamit; Chef Jean-Charles Pietacho –Ekuanitshit; Chef Real Tettaut –Nutashkuan; Chef Guy Mestenapéo –Pakua Shipi; and Chef Real Mckenzie –Matimekush Lake John.