The Hudson’s Bay Company
• ᐅᒋᒪᐤ
ᑕᐛᐅᒋᐛᐱᒡ
The years 1831 onwards were characterized by the
first regular contacts between the Naskapis and
western society, when the Hudson’s Bay Company
established its first trading post at Old Fort
Chimo.
The relationship between the Naskapis and the Hudson’s
Bay Company was not an easy one. It was difficult
for the Naskapis to integrate commercial trapping,
especially of marten in Winter, into their seasonal
round of subsistence activities, for the simple
reason that the distribution of marten was in
large measure different from the distribution
of essential sources of food at that season. In
consequence, the Naskapis did not prove to be
the regular and diligent trappers that the traders
must have hoped to find, and the traders seem
to have attributed this fact to laziness or intransigence
on the part of Naskapis.
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Major Moves
• ᑲᐃᔅ
ᐊᑎᐱᓇᓄᒡ
Between 1831 and 1956, the Naskapis were subjected
to several major relocations, all of which reflected
not their needs or interests, but those of the
Hudson’s Bay Company. The major moves were:
1842 – Fort Chimo to Fort Nascopie
1870 – Fort Nascopie to Fort Chimo
1915 – Fort Chimo to Fort McKenzie
1948 – Fort McKenzie to Fort Chimo
1956 – Fort Chimo to Schefferville
Numerous cases have been documented in which the
Hudson’s Bay Company relocated the Naskapis from
post to post purely for its own commercial purposes
and without any concern as to whether the areas
where the posts were situated offered the Naskapis
the possibility of harvesting the fish and game
that they required for food as well as the fur-bearers
that the Company sought. In several instances,
individual managers, apparently dissatisfied with
the Naskapis’ seeming lack of commitment to trapping
withheld from them the ammunition that they needed
to hunt for food, thereby directly causing a considerable
number of deaths from starvation.
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The 1940s
• ᐱᐳᓐ
ᑲᐃᑎᔅᑕᒡ
By the late 1940s, the pressures of the fur trade,
high rates of mortality and debilitation from
diseases communicated by Europeans, and the effects
of the virtual disappearance of the George River
Caribou Herd had reduced the Naskapis to a state
where their very survival was threatened.
The Naskapis had received "relief" from
the Federal Government as early as the end of
the 1800s, but their first regular contacts with
the Federal Government began only in 1949, when
Colonel H.M. Jones, Superintendent of Welfare
Services in Ottawa, and M. Larivière of the Abitibi
Indian Agency visited them in Fort Chimo and arranged
for the issuing of welfare to them.
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The 1950s
• ᐱᐳᓐ
ᑲᐃᑎᔅᑕᒡ
In the early 1950s, the Naskapis made a partially
successful effort to re-establish themselves at
Fort McKenzie, where they had already lived between
1916 and 1948, and to return to an economy based
substantially on hunting, fishing, and commercial
trapping. They could no longer be entirely self-sufficient,
however, and the high cost of resupplying them,
combined with the continuing high incidence of
tuberculosis and other factors, obliged them to
return to Fort Chimo after only two years.
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The Journey to Schefferville
• ᑲᐃᑐᑕᓄᒡ
ᐊᓐᑕ ᐅᑕᓇᒡ ᓴᐱᐸᐤ
For reasons that are not entirely clear, virtually
all of the Naskapis moved from Fort Chimo to the
recently founded iron-ore mining community of
Schefferville in 1956. Two principal schools of
thought about this move exist. One of them holds
that the Naskapis were induced, if not ordered,
to move by officials of Indian and Northern Affairs,
while the other believes that the Naskapis themselves
decided to move in the hope of finding employment,
housing, medical assistance, and educational facilities
for their children
Although officials of Indian and Northern Affairs
were certainly aware of the intention of the Naskapis
to move from Fort Chimo to Schefferville and may
even have instigated that move, they appear to
have done little or nothing to prepare for their
arrival there, not even by warning the representatives
of the Iron Ore Company of Canada ("IOCC")
or the municipality of Schefferville.
The Naskapis left Fort Chimo on foot to make the
400-mile journey to Schefferville overland. By
the time they reached Wakuach Lake, some 70 miles
north of Schefferville, most of them were in a
pitiable state, exhausted, ill, and close to starvation.
A successful rescue effort was mounted, but the
only homes that awaited the Naskapis were the
shacks that they built for themselves on the edge
of Knob Lake, near the railroad station, with
scavenged and donated materials. A short time
later, in 1957, under the pretext that the water
at Knob Lake was contaminated, the municipal authorities
moved them to a site adjacent to John Lake, some
four miles north-north-east of Schefferville,
where they lived without benefit of water sewage,
or electricity, and where, despite their hopes
in coming to Schefferville, there was no school
for their children and no medical facility.
The Naskapis shared the site at John Lake with
a group of Montagnais, who had moved voluntarily
from Sept-Iles to Schefferville with the completion
of the railroad in the early 1950s.
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Establishing a Presence in Schefferville
•
ᓴᐱᐸᐤ
ᑲᑕᓄᒡ
Initially, the Naskapis lived in tiny shacks that
they built for themselves, but by 1962 Indian
and Northern Affairs had built 30 houses for them,
and a further four were under construction at
a cost of 5 000$ each.
In 1969, Indian and Northern Affairs acquired from
the reluctant Municipality of Schefferville, a
marshy, 39-acre site north of the town centre
and adjacent to Pearce Lake. By 1972, 43 row-housing
units had been built there for the Naskapis, and
a further 63 for Montagnais, and most of the Naskapis
and Montagnais moved to this new site, known today
as Matimekosh Reserve.
For the first time in their lengthy history of
relocations, the Naskapis were consulted in the
planning of their new home. Indian and Northern
Affairs sent officials to explain the new community
to the Naskapis, a brochure was published, models
built, and progress reports issued. Particular
interest among the Naskapis centred on the type
of housing that they would receive. Possibly for
financial reasons, Indian and Northern Affairs
wanted them to live in row houses, whereas the
Naskapis had a strong preference for detached,
single-family residences. In the event, Council
was persuaded to accept row housing, but it did
so only on the condition that the houses were
adequately sound-proofed, which turned out not
to be the case.
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Row Houses without Trees
•
ᒥᒍᐛᐸ
ᑲᐃᔅᒋᒥᑕᐃᒋ ᑭᔭ ᐊᑲ ᐅᔅᑕᒡ ᒥᔅᑎᑯᒡ
Perhaps because it was the first such process in
which they had been involved, the Naskapis placed
considerable faith in the consultation undertaken
by Indian and Northern Affairs. It is a source
of considerable bitterness even today that, in
the minds of many Naskapis, not all of the promises
or reassurances that were made were lived up to.
Two examples are most commonly cited: the insistence
of Indian and Northern Affairs’ representatives
that the Naskapis live in row houses that, in
the event, proved not to be adequately soundproofed
and that had a variety of other faults; and the
fact that the brochure prepared by Indian and
Northern Affairs showed a fully landscaped site
with trees and bushes, whereas no landscaping
was done, and no trees or bushes were ever planted.
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Gaining mutual respect
• ᒐᒋ
ᑎᒂᒡ ᓱᒐᐃᑎᒧᐅᓐ ᑭᔭ ᔅᑕᐃᑎᒧᐅᓐ
Incidents like those may seem very minor to persons
with long experience of large and impersonal institutions
such as government departments, but they happened
to the Naskapis when they were in a very formative
stage of their relations with Indian and Northern
Affairs and when they had still not forgotten
their callous treatment by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that
these matters are still spoken of frequently today
and that they maintain very considerable importance
and significance for many Naskapis.
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The James Bay and Northern Quebec
Agreement (JBNQA) •
ᒋᒥᔅ
ᐱ ᑭᔭ ᒋᐛᑎᓄᒡ ᑯᐸᒃ ᓂᔅᑯᒧᐅᓐ
A pivotal event in the history of the Naskapis
occurred in early 1975, when, after separate visits
to Schefferville by Billy Diamond, Grand Chief,
Grand Council of the Crees (of Québec) ("GCCQ"),
and Charlie Watt, President, Northern Québec Inuit
Association ("NQIA"), the Naskapis decided
to become involved in the negotiations leading
to the signature of the James Bay and Northern
Québec Agreement ("JBNQA").
The Naskapis entered into a contract with the NQIA,
under which the latter was to provide logistical
support, legal advice, and representation to a
small team of Naskapi negotiators based in Montréal.
That arrangement was not very successful, however,
and the JBNQA was signed on 11 November, 1975,
without the Naskapis.
Shortly before the signing of the JBNQA, realizing
that the demands on the Inuit were too great to
allow them to represent the interests of the Naskapis
in addition to their own interests, the Naskapi
negotiators retained their own non-Native advisors
and started to function as an independent negotiating
body.
The signatories of the JBNQA were fully aware that
it provided for the extinguishment of the Naskapis’
Aboriginal rights in the Territory without granting
them any compensatory rights or benefits. They
also knew that the Naskapis, unlike certain others
of Québec’s First Nations at that time, were willing
to negotiate a settlement of their Aboriginal
claims.
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An Agreement-in-Principle
• ᓂᔅᑯᒧᐅᓐ
ᑲᑐᑕᑲᓄᒡ ᑭᔭ ᑲᒥᓯᓇᑕᐅᑎᓱᓇᓄᒡ
Thus, although the Naskapis had never filed a formal
statement of claim or similar document, except
for a draft history prepared by the late Dr Alan
Cooke, the parties to the JBNQA accepted the legitimacy
of their claims, and they entered into an agreement-in-principle
with the Naskapis in the Spring of 1977 to negotiate
an agreement that would have the same principal
features as the JBNQA. The result of the negotiations
was the Northeastern Québec Agreement ("NEQA"),
which was executed on 31 January, 1978.
Section 20 of the NEQA offered the Naskapis the
possibility of relocating from the Matimekosh
Reserve to a new site.
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Economic Development – A Path
to Self-government •
ᐊᑐᔅᒐᐅᓐ ᐊᒋᒥᑕᑲᓄᒡ - ᐛᓇᓴᐃᑲᓄᒡ ᒐᒋ ᑎᐸᐃᒥᑎᓱᓇᓄᒡ ᐊᓐᑕ ᒋᓴᐅᒋᒪᑲᓂᒡ
Between 1978 and 1980, technical and socio-economic
studies of the potential sites for the permanent
Naskapi community were carried out. On 31 January,
1980, the Naskapis voted overwhelmingly to relocate
to the present site of Kawawachikamach. Kawawachikamach
was built, largely by Naskapis, between 1980 and
1983. The planning and building of Kawawachikamach
provided an excellent opportunity to give Naskapis
training and experience in administration and
in trades related to construction and maintenance.
Between 1981 and 1984, the self-government legislation
promised by Canada in Section 7 of the NEQA was
negotiated. The outcome of those negotiations
was the Cree-Naskapi (of Québec) Act ("CNQA"),
which was assented to by Parliament on 14 June,
1984.
The overriding purpose of the CNQA was to make
the NNK and the James Bay Cree Bands largely self-governing.
In addition to the powers then exercised by Band
Councils under the Indian Act, most of the powers
that had until then been exercised by the Minister
of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development ("DIAND") under the Indian
Act were transferred to the NNK and to the James
Bay Cree Bands, to be exercised by their elected
Councils. The NNK and the James Bay Cree Bands
were also given powers not found in the Indian
Act, powers normally exercised by non-Native municipalities
throughout Canada.
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Iron Ore
• ᑲᑐᔅᑲᔅᑕᑲᓄᒡ
ᐊᑲᓇᐤ ᐊᑐᔅᒐᐅᓐ
The NEQA had been negotiated under the assumption
that Schefferville would continue to be an active
centre of mining, outfitting, and exploration
for the foreseeable future. Enquiries by the Government
of Québec to the Iron Ore Company of Canada ("IOCC")
in the late 1970s had apparently confirmed that
assumption. Nevertheless, IOCC announced in 1982
its intention to close the mines at Schefferville
immediately.
The closing of the mines at Schefferville had profound
implications for the implementation of the NEQA,
particularly for those provisions dealing with
health and social services and with training and
job-creation. Consequently, in the late 1980s,
the NNK and the Government of Canada undertook
a joint evaluation of Canada’s discharging of
its responsibilities under the NEQA. The evaluation
was motivated more by the change in the circumstances
of Schefferville and of the Naskapis than by any
belief on the part of the Naskapis that Canada
had wilfully neglected any of its responsibilities
under the NEQA.
The outcome of those negotiations was the Agreement
Respecting the Implementation of the Northeastern
Québec Agreement ("ARINEQA"), which
was executed in September, 1990. Among other things,
the ARINEQA established the model for funding
capital and O&M expenditures over five-year
periods, created a Dispute Resolution Mechanism
for disputes arising from the interpretation,
administration, and implementation of the NEQA,
the JBNQA, and the ARINEQA, and created a working
group to address employment for Naskapis.
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Writing a New Chapter
• .ᐊᒋᑕᐸᑕᑲᓄᒡ
ᒥᓄᐛᒡ ᒐᐃᓯᐱᒧᑕᓄᒡ
The Naskapis are now developing their homeland,
notably through economic development and community
reinforcement.
Economic Development Projects
· Schefferville Airport Corporation - Runway Maintenance
(with Naskapi Development Corp./Montagnais of
Matimekosh/Lac John )
· James Bay TransTaiga Road Maintenance (with
Naskapi Adoshouana Services/NDC subsidiary)
· Naskapi Typonomy Project (with Naskapi Adoshouana
Services/NDC subsidiary)
· Menihek Power Dam and Facilities (with Kawawachikamach
Energy Services Inc.)
· Enterprise, Resource, Planning, and Management
Software (Naskapi Imuun Inc. (Naskapi Nation))
Sectors of Activity currently being developed:
· Commercialization of Caribou (Naskapi Caribou
Meat Company/Nunavik Arctic Foods)
· Caribou Hunting and Fishing Operations (TUKTU-
Hunting/Fishing Club/Naskapi Management Serv.)
