Innu

Not to be confused with Inuit.

The Innu (or Montagnais) are an Indigenous people group who live in Quebec and Newfoundland.

They lived as hunter-gatherers. Then the Canadian government moved them away from their homeland and forced them to practice Western lifestyles.

Lands

The Innu call the territory they live in Nitassinan ("Our Land").

History

Roman Catholic ceremony of Innu and other First Nations people in the Labrador

The Canadian government forced the Innu to live in permanent communities instead of letting them practice their nomadic lifestyle. They also forced them to go to schools run by churches. In those schools, the Innu were not allowed to practice their religion or speak their language. Because of all the wrong things done to the Innu, they have a lot of social problems. On one hand, they lost a lot of knowledge about their traditional ways. On the other hand, the schools did not prepare them well enough to live in Western society and they still faced racism because they were Indigenous.