Editing Innu (section)

== Present status ==
The Innu of [[Labrador]] and those living on the north shore of the [[Gulf of St. Lawrence]] in the [[Canadian Shield]] region have never officially ceded their territory to Canada by way of treaty or other agreement. But, as European-Canadians began widespread forest and mining operations at the turn of the 20th century, the Innu became increasingly settled in coastal communities and in the interior of Quebec. The [[Government of Canada|Canadian]] and provincial governments, the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], [[Moravian Church|Moravian]], and [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] churches, all encouraged the Innu to settle in more permanent, majority-style communities, in the belief that their lives would improve with this adaptation. This [[Cultural assimilation#Canada 1800s–1990s: Forced assimilation|coercive assimilation]] resulted in the Innue giving up some traditional activities (hunting, [[trapping]], fishing). Because of these social disruptions and the systemic disadvantages faced by Indigenous peoples, community life in the permanent settlements often became associated with high levels of [[substance abuse]], [[domestic violence]], and [[suicide]] among the Innu.

=== Labrador Innu organizations and land claims ===
In 1999, [[Survival International]] published a study of the Innu communities of Labrador. It assessed the adverse effects of the [[Forced displacement|Canadian government's relocating]] the people far from their ancestral lands and preventing them from practising their ancient way of life.<ref name="survival-international.org" />

The Innu people of Labrador formally organized the Naskapi Montagnais Innu Association in 1976 to protect their rights, lands, and way of life against industrialization and other outside forces. The organization changed its name to the Innu Nation in 1990 and functions today as the governing body of the Labrador Innu. The group has won recognition for its members as [[Indian Register|status Indians]] under Canada's ''[[Indian Act]]'' in 2002 and is currently involved in land claim and self-governance negotiations with the federal and provincial governments.<ref name=labradorinnu/>

In addition to the Innu Nation, residents at both [[Natuashish]] and [[Sheshatshiu]] elect [[Band government|Band Councils]] to represent community concerns. The chiefs of both councils sit on the Innu Nation's board of directors and the three groups work in cooperation with one another.

The Innu Nation's efforts to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of [[Voisey's Bay Mine|a mining project]] in [[Voisey's Bay]] were documented in [[Marjorie Beaucage]]'s 1997 film ''Ntapueu ... i am telling the truth.''<ref name="BeardWhite">{{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=Lynne |last2=Williamson |first2=Janice |editor1-last=Beard |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=White |editor2-first=Jerry |title=North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980 |date=2002 |publisher=University of Alberta |isbn=9780888643902 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iLNhHWfarosC&q=%22Marjorie+Beaucage%22&pg=PA342 |language=en |chapter=In the Hands of the People: A Conversation with Marjorie Beaucage |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/northofeverythin00bear }}</ref>{{rp|342}}

===Davis Inlet, Labrador===
In the 1999 study of Innu communities in Labrador, Survival International concluded that government policies violated contemporary [[international law]] in human rights, and drew parallels with the [[Human rights in Tibet|treatment of Tibetans]] by the People's Republic of China. According to the study, from 1990 to 1997, the Innu community of [[Davis Inlet]] had a suicide rate more than [[Suicide in Canada#Among Indigenous peoples|twelve times the Canadian average]], and well over three times the rate often observed in isolated northern villages.<ref name="survival-international.org">[http://www.survival-international.org/files/books/InnuReport.pdf ''Canada's Tibet: The Killing of the Innu,'' a report from Survival International (PDF file)]</ref> <!-- Needs more explanation of government's relocating Innu - not covered in existing text -->

By 2000, the Innu island community of Davis Inlet asked the Canadian government to assist with a local [[Substance use disorder|addiction]] public health crisis. At their request, the community was relocated to a nearby mainland site, now known as ''Natuashish''. At the same time, the Canadian government created the Natuashish and Sheshatshiu band councils under the ''Indian Act''.

===Kawawachikamach, Quebec===
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2014}}
[[Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach|Naskapi Nation]] of Kawawachikamach, Quebec, signed a comprehensive land claims settlement, the ''[[James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement|Northeastern Quebec Agreement]]''; they did so in 1978. As a consequence, the Naskapi of Kawawachikamach are no longer subject to certain provisions of the ''Indian Act''. All the Innu communities of Quebec are still subject to the Act.

===New York Power Authority controversy===
The [[New York Power Authority]]'s proposed contract in 2009 with the province of [[Quebec]] to buy power from its extensive [[Hydroelectricity|hydroelectric dam]] facilities has generated controversy, because it was dependent on construction of a new dam complex and transmission lines that would have interfered with the traditional ways of the Innu.<ref name=Canadian>Katrina Kieltyka, "Sierra Club fighting plan to buy Canadian power: Say hydroelectric dams would harm indigenous people," ''Legislative Gazette'', March 16, 2009, p. 21, available at [http://www.legislativegazette.com/back_issues/09-3-16_for_web.pdf ''Legislative Gazette'' archives] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325113240/http://www.legislativegazette.com/back_issues/09-3-16_for_web.pdf |date=2009-03-25 }} (.pdf file). Retrieved March 20, 2009.</ref> According to the [[Sierra Club]]:

{{blockquote|[t]he "New York Power Authority is in preliminary discussions and considering the liability of a new contract with [[Hydro-Québec|Hydro Quebec]]," a Canadian supplier of hydroelectricity.|''Legislative Gazette''<ref name=Canadian />}}

The Innu community, the Sierra Club, and the [[National Lawyers Guild]] are fighting to prevent this proposed contract, which would have to be approved by New York's Governor, under his regulatory authority.<ref name=Canadian /> The problem is that construction of required [[Electric power transmission|electric transmission]] lines would hinder the Innu's [[Hunter-gatherer|hunting-gathering-fishing lifestyle]]:

{{blockquote|Chief Georges-Ernest Grégoire of the Innu community in Eastern Quebec urged the governor not to proceed with a plan to buy hydroelectric power from Canada, saying the dam complex that would be built would affect the traditional way of life for his people.|''Legislative Gazette'' (caption for a photo of Chief
Grégoire)<ref name=Canadian />}}

Chief Grégoire's comments at a press conference in [[Albany, New York]] were translated, but whether from French or [[Innu-aimun]] is not clear.<ref name=Canadian />

=== Natuashish and Sheshatshiu, Newfoundland and Labrador ===
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2024}}
Innu have only been in Sheshatshiu since fur [[trading post]]s were established by the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] in [[North West River]] in the mid-1700s and only in Davis Inlet / Natuashish since 1771, when the Moravian Church set up the first mission at Nuneingoak on the Labrador coast.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/moravian-missions-in-labrador-emc |title=Moravian Missions in Labrador|first1=France|last1=Rivet|publisher=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia ]]|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca|date=February 7, 2006|access-date=June 17, 2024}}</ref> [[Danny Williams (Canadian politician)|Danny Williams]], the then [[Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador]] struck a deal on September 26, 2008, with Labrador's Innu to permit construction of [[Muskrat Falls Generating Station]], a hydroelectric [[megaproject]] to proceed on the proposed [[Churchill River (Atlantic)|Lower Churchill]] site. They also negotiated compensation for another project on the Upper Churchill, where large tracts of traditional Innu hunting lands were flooded.