The Innu (or Montagnais) are Native Americans of an area in Canada they refer to as Nitassinan (“Our Land”), which comprises most of the northeastern portion of the province of Quebec & some eastern portions of Labrador. Their population in 2003 included about 18,000 people, of which around 14,000 lived in Quebec, under 3000 in Labrador, & the rest outside their traditional territory. Their ancestors were known to have lived on these lands as hunter-gatherers for several thousand years, living in tents made of animal skins. Their subsistence activities were historically centred on hunting & trapping caribou, moose, deer & small game. Some coastal clans also practised agriculture, fished, & managed maple sugarbush. Their language, Innu or Ilnu (popularly known as Montagnais), is spoken throughout Nitassinan, with certain dialect differences. It is part of Cree language group, & unrelated with neighboring Inuit languages.
The Innu were allied with neighboring Atikamekw, Maliseet & Algonquin against their traditional enemies, the Mi'kmaq & Iroquois. During the Beaver Wars (1640–1701) the Iroquois repeatedly invaded their territories, & enslaved women & warriors, as well as plundering their hunting grounds in search of more furs. Since these raids were made by the Iroquois with unprecedented brutality, the Innu themselves adopted the torment, torture, & cruelty of their enemies. The Naskapi, on the other hand, were usually in conflicts with the southward advancing Inuit in the east. The people are frequently categorized into two groups, the Neenoilno, often called by Europeans Montagnais, who live along the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec; & the less numerous Naskapi (Innu & Iyiyiw), who live farther north. The Innu recognize several distinctions (e.g. Mushuau Innuat, Maskuanu, Uashau Innuat) based on different regional affiliations & various dialects of the Innu language.
The word Naskapi was 1st recorded by French colonists in the 17C & was subsequently applied to Innu groups beyond the reach of missionary influence. It particularly applied to those living in the lands which bordered Ungava Bay & the northern Labrador coast, near the Inuit communities of northern Quebec & northern Labrador. It is here that the term came to be used for the Naskapi First Nation. The Naskapi are traditionally nomadic peoples, in contrast with the more sedentary Montagnais, who establish settled territories. Mushuau Innuat (plural), while related to the Naskapi, split off from the tribe in the 1900s. They were subject to a government relocation program at Davis Inlet. Some of the families of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach have close relatives in the Cree village of Whapmagoostui, on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Since 1990, the Montagnais people have generally chosen to be officially referred to as the Innu, which means human being in Innu-aimun, while the Naskapi have continued to use the word Naskapi.
Samuel de Champlain befriended members of this group who insisted that he help them in their conflict with the Iroquois, who were ranging north from their traditional territory in present-day New York state. On July 29, 1609, at Ticonderoga or Crown Point, New York, (historians are not sure which of these two places), Champlain & his party encountered a group of Iroquois. A battle began the next day. Two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position as a native guide pointed out the three Iroquois chiefs to the French. Champlain fired his arquebus & killed 2 of them with one shot. One of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next 100 years.
