We have a lot of young, healthy hunters here. They can hunt for the elders and people in the communities. The trail to Shipiscan Lake is good now. We should go there to get our caribou. We should hunt in Shipiscan. I will talk about how we, the Innu... ...have been bonding with the caribou since long ago. In our world, we know that the caribou is out there. But in the world of the government... ... they say they are losing the caribou herd. We know where the caribou are, though. The old stories say that there is place where the caribou go. In that place, there is a lot of caribou. I will use this map to talk about how the government ... ... is saying that there is no caribou. The government is not saying this just to us. They are saying it to everyone in Labrador. Now they are sending the police. They want to stop us from hunting caribou. The Innu Nation sent us, their forest guardians. We did our own survey. They sent us by helicopter. In Seal Lake we started to see a lot of caribou out in the woods. This is where we have seen the caribou. There were a lot out there in the woods. We saw their tracks. The tracks were all over, as far as Snekamook. This is where we turn to Shipiskan Lake... ... where we saw some wolves that have killed Caribou. There was a lot of tracks here around this area, too. The wolves had killed caribou right here at Shipiskan Lake. We are going to decide today about the caribou hunt. What the elders advise regarding the hunt. We will see what is the outcome of the meeting. The elders are the ones who know about the land. The elders know how the animals behave. We will hear more from the elders. We have heard news from Sept-Îles, Quebec. The Innu from Sept-Îles killed their caribou. We have not hunted yet in Sheshatshiu. Therefore, in this meeting we will talk about our strategy. We will talk about the future of the caribou. We will talk about our dependence on it. I will tell a little bit about the story of the caribou boss. I learnt this story from my elders. From my grandfather Joachim Ashini and from Joseph Nuna. This is the story of the caribou man. The caribou man lived among the caribou. It was said that an Innu saw a caribou herd walking by. One of the caribou asked the Innu person: -Do you think you can live with us? The hunter answered: -I don't think, for I cannot eat the things that you eat. -I can't eat moss! -You also have a hide! -The hide keeps you warm during the winter. -I have nothing to warm myself. The caribou said to the hunter: -You will not have any problem to live with us. -You are going to like living with us. -It will be given to you... ...the power that we have... ...and the courage to stay with us. -You will become a member of the herd. After thinking about it... ...the Innu man decided to join the herd of caribou. The story says that he is still around. He is living among the caribou as the caribou boss. That is the story that my elders told me. Some say it is a legend, but I think it is true story. There is a place where the caribou go. They used to call it the "caribou house". In the caribou house... ...the caribou makes themselves invisible. The caribou goes to the caribou house and dies off. But the caribou is rejuvenating at the same time... ...so the caribou can be very plentiful again. Nobody have ever seen this place... ... because there the caribou does not want to be seen. You might find caribou that have been wounded. You might find caribou that have been killed. The wolves can kill a caribou. But you will never see healthy caribou ... ... that is dying off just like that. The healthy caribou goes to the caribou house. In their house... ...the caribou makes itself not visible. There was a big orange plane yesterday. Michael could not find the orange plane! Antuan, pass me the small ax you are using. If you did not have any caribou brain... ... you would not be able to prepare the caribou hide. The brain is used to soften the hide. It is a little hard work. First you have to get the brain from the head. Then, you have to smash it and stir it to make it fine. Then, you have to use lard. In the old days, when there was no lard ... ...they used caribou fat. Then, you have to cook the lard ... ... and mix it with the brain. That is how the caribou hide is softened. This is how it looks when the skin is ready. If the hide did not have holes in it ... ... it would have been so much better. They didn't take a video of his gun. They only take a video of the caribou head. There is a plane coming tomorrow. The plane will take people back to Sheshatshiu. They told us do not put any guns on board. We can only put people and their bags. They are going to call back this evening. They will have news about what is going to happen. I am done! He finished it himself! Pien, tell us about the legend of Atiku Napeu. Atiku Napeu? Yes, Atiku Napeu, the caribou man. The caribou man, Atiku Napeu... That is not the real name of the Caribou man. His real name is Kanipinikuasikueu That is his name. Some other Innu call it Papakashtshihk. He is indeed the leader of all the caribou herd. But he is also the leader of all the animals. All the animals living in the land. For example, he is the boss of the wolf, too. The other leader in the animal world along with Atiku Napeu ... ... is Missinak. Missinak is the leader of all the water animals, like fish. He is a leader like Atiku Napeu. I should say his real name, Kanipinikuasikueu. Missinak is also the leader of the beaver. Because the beaver makes her house on the water. The beaver lives in the land, too. But the beaver spends most of the time in the water. On the other hand, the bear lives mostly on the land. So, his boss is Atiku Napeu. The bear makes his den in the land. I heard long ago ... ... that some Innu were disrespectful of the black bear. All the animals know when they are disrespected. That is what the old people used to say: -Animals know if you disrespect them. This is what the old Pien Pastitshi used to say in his stories. Some other Innu people also told these stories. For example, the people from Pepakumat Lake. Also from Park Lake and up the Naskaupi River. All of them say that the caribou boss ... ... owns all the animals that live in the land. I am very happy to see the leaders ... ... of both Innu communities attending this meeting. We want to hear your ideas ... ...about the caribou hunt strategy. We are going to decide if we continue with the hunt ... ...and take one to three caribou per family. Two or three years ago we had this same meeting. The elders said then that three caribou per family is enough. We will decide how many caribou per family. If we decide to continue hunting ... ... is very important that the hunters respect the caribou. We will recommend a number of caribou per family. We all should respect that number. We should use all the caribou. We should waste nothing. The hunters should all hunt for their families. They should also hunt for Innu families with no hunters. You get your food from the store. We get our food from the country. Each time the Innu try to hunt to feed their families ... ... the government tries to stop them. As I see the Muskrat Fall hydro project progressing... ... I see the trees dying. I see the land dying. I will talk about 1949 when Newfoundland joined Canada. Two guys signed the treaty. One was Joey Smallwood. The other guy signed on behalf of Canada. The Innu called that guy the "pipe nosed man". Those two guys signed the treaty. Joey Smallwood was almost defeated in Labrador. He won by only one vote! That was how Joey Smallwood won ... ... when they voted in Labrador. The Innu and Inuit also voted. Then Joey took the votes back home. Not long after the election to join Canada... ... I heard that he said in a speech that ... ...there is no Innu, no Indian people. That is an outright lie. I feel that trees need our help. I see that when the young people are in the country ... ... they are laughing, they are playing. That's what I see in the country. You cannot see this. I wish you can feel what we feel inside ... ... when we see destruction in our land. I will talk about the mukushan. My elders, Joachim, Shushep and Tshakatshue ... ... taught me how to do the mukushan. It all comes from the caribou bone marrow. It is done extracting the bone marrow. The marrow has to be extracted from the bones. But first we have to take out the muscles. Then the bones are cracked and the marrow extracted. The end part of the bone has to be crushed. The long parts of the bone have to be cracked. Cracking it makes easier... ...to extract the marrow and fat. Sometimes we use a hatchet's blunt side. Long ago we used a rock. Not all the bones are used. Only the long ones that contain the marrow are cracked. Once the bones are cracked ... ... we extract something called "ui". "Ui" is how Innu refer to the marrow. That is what is put aside to make the mukushan. All the crushed bones are put in a large pot. We boil the crushed bones in the pot. The fat from the boiled bones raises up to the top. Then we scrap it off and poured over the caribou marrow. The marrow is cut one at a time. It is cut in bite-size slices. When the water boils for a while ... ... the fat melts and raises to the top. Then, the fat is poured on top of the marrow. Then you have to store the marrow and the fat ... ... in a cold place to cool it down. This was taught to me from the old people. After the marrow is prepared... ...all the excess of caribou meat is boiled in pot. For example, the muscles from the bones ... … are boiled in the pot, too. When it is all done... ... people would like to know when the mukushan will take place. I always remember since I was a young boy ... ... the Innu people often having a mukushan. Everybody in the community participated. The mukushan was a popular feast. Everybody in Sheshatshiu came to the mukushan. I remember an Innu called Tshakatshue. He used to organize the mukushan. Tshakashue also raised me for a little while. He used to hunt in a place called Kanauenash. This is a place not far from Sheshatshiu. Tshakatshue prepared the mukushan in that place. He prepared the mukushan in the country. After it was all prepared ... ... he would came to the community with the mukushan. This would happen maybe around Christmas time. That was the time that families ... ... came back from the country after fall. Is that leftovers? Eat! Antuan wants me to eat. My grandmother Monique told a story ... ... about this guy falling through ice. This was near Sheshatshiu. My grandmother was living there. This guy went to Monique's house He came by the house. He touched her shoulder ... ...and told her he fell through ice into the water. He fell at Northwest Point. And he got himself out of the water. He asked her: -Would you be able to come out of the water if you fall through thin ice? How can I fall through the ice if I never go to the ice! When I do this mukushan, I do not allow anyone to say: -I do not have enough to eat. Did you heard what Johnny said? Do you want to add more water to the broth? To make it bigger ... Why Antuan is holding up to me ... ... when an elder walks by? You are suppose to rub the grease on your hair. You can do it like this. Are you ready now? I will talk about the feasting, the mukushan. This practices has been done for many generations. Our ancestors started it long ago. Yet we are still doing today in our community. The mukushan was always respected. And it is still respected today. I still remember when I was young ... ... this practice was done often then. I was so young! I barely made it to eat the mukushan. I was like this. I was always given the mukushan to eat... ... when I started to grow older. Everybody needs to respect the feast of the mukushan. Everybody has to eat the marrow. It is a very respectful thing. We need to respect it always. It makes us happy, eating the mukushan time after time. It shows that we are respecting the caribou. Our ancestors always showed how to respect the caribou. And this is how it is done. Now we pray and ask god to have a safe trip back home. I called Sheshashiu today. They say they are going to pray for us, for our safe travel. I told them that all our hunters are doing good. It is very nice up here in the bush. This is how I feel. I hope we have a great future hunting caribou. Try not to show disrespect for the caribou. Do not throw anything outside showing disrespect. Put everything away. Especially the caribou bones and the hide. Put away the caribou antlers also. Tie them up in a tree. It is very important to show respect. Especially for the caribou antlers and caribou hide. Especially today that we are killing some caribou. Out in the country... ... we were showing respect for all the animals. The antlers were hung up in a tree. I will be so proud of you ... ... if I do not see any garbage around. The caribou man will not like leftovers around. He is a top boss. Our boss is very big and will be very happy... .. if when we leave he does not see bones and hides thrown around. He will be very happy, he is very big, he is powerful. We are going to start the mukushan now. I am going to say a prayer for you. Long time ago, the prayer did not start the mukushan. The leader, the elder was the one who spoke. Now we have to pray before the feast. The mukushan started by the elder telling a story. I thank you all for being here... ... in this mukushan. Now we are ready to eat. All the older hunters will have marrow first. Antuan! Are you an elder also? I do not have a seat! Napess! You will be the cook. You decide how much everybody eats. The elder Washaunipen did the ritual of the shaking tent. It was here at the end of this lake. He had to do it because there was no caribou. After doing the shaking tent ... ... he knew where the caribou were. He saw the caribou through the shaking tent. Indeed! The shaking tent was how Washaunipen find caribou. Thus, the hunters went to the place that Washaunipen has said. All the hunters in the group went there. They took their backpacks and guns... ... and went towards these low hills on that side. I think that were gone for a week or ten days. Then, they came back. Before they left ... ... Washaunipen, the person doing the shaking tent... ...said that they would find a female caribou ... ... whose antlers were strange, not normal. Washaunipen said: -Once you kill that female caribou... ... bring her to me. -Bring the the one that has strange looking antlers to me. My father was among the hunters. The hunters saw one caribou with strange antlers. The antlers were beautiful. And the female caribou was brought to the camp... ... and they could celebrate the mukushan. The women prepared the caribou hide. They clean it and scrap the fat off. And that is the hide that Washaunipen took for himself. He took the skin after the mukushan, Washaunipen. It was a beautiful female caribou skin. Then, he would take the caribou hide... ...and every morning ... ... he showed it towards the rising sun. Nobody was allowed outside or make any noise. Only himself, the caribou hide and the rising sun. Everybody was inside the tent. After a while... ... he would take down the caribou hide ... ... and fold it nice and neat. That was the practice he did. Everybody was allowed to go outside after that. This was done for the hunts to be successful. That is how this old men practiced respecting the caribou. If he hadn't done this practice ... ... the hunts would not be successful. This is how he respected the caribou: he kept the hide neatly folded for himself. This is how other hunters did, too. Nothing was wasted. If there were leftovers... ... they would be used or eaten but never wasted. An the old man said: -Now the hunts will be successful. Because we respect the animal. You are trying to stop our caribou hunting. We teach our children to use the caribou for many things. Why are you stopping us? I think we should keep on killing caribou for our food. Because this is has been our food for many generations. You should not stop us ... ... because we use the caribou for good purposes. We use it for medicine. We teach our kids how to respect the caribou... ... and all the other animals. Penote, how do you feel? I feel good. It is a great day! It is very good to welcome the caribou hunters.
