Location: The Montagnais are a group of people located originally in Labrador, Canada. They received their name from the French, meaning "mountaineers". There are many ways to spell the name of these people including Montagnar, Moatagne, Montagnie, and Montainier. Labrador is located in the northeastern part of North America. Most of the Montagnais groups were located along the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. This accounts for why the French gave them the name Montagnais, due in large part to the ruggedness of the land along the St. Lawrence.
Language: Another group of people closely related to the Montagnais are the Naskapi. Because of this, information about these people is grouped together. Both groups speak almost identical Algonquian dialects.
Daily Life: The Montagnais and Naskapi have similar cultures. The only differences in these people are how they adapted to their environment. Each group has some similarities in what they use for shelter and what they eat. The Naskapi depend on caribou, small animals, and fish for their food. Both the Montagnais and the Naskapi live in shelters called wigwams. A wigwam is a shelter made out of reeds, mats, or hides from animals. The shape is similar to a teepee but is larger. This form of shelter is usually used for large groups of people or single families. The wigwams used by the Montagnais are covered by birch-bark. The Naskapi lived farther north where birch trees were very scarce. Instead of using bark for their wigwams, they used caribou hides.
The Montagnais believed in a supernatural power called Manitou. Other beliefs include the worship of spirits found in nature or in animals.
The land that the Montagnais lived on was not very well suited for agriculture so most were hunters and gathers. They hunted eel, seal, caribou and moose. One of the delicacies of the Montagnais was the porcupine. Some people actually called the Montagnais the "Porcupine Indians" because they enjoyed the animals so much. In addition to hunting animals for food, they also used the hides of seal, moose and caribou for clothing. Their basic clothes consisted of a robe, breechcloth, leggings, and moccasins. The Montagnais traveled from summer and winter camps using canoes in the summer and snowshoes in the winter. The use of dogsleds has been recently borrowed from their enemies, the Eskimo.
The organization of the Montagnais was based on small bands. Most members of these bands were closely related family members. The composition of the bands changed from time to time with the rise and fall of successful leaders. Southern bands were imposed by the European fur trade to create fur-trapping and hunting territories. With the interaction of the Europeans, the Montagnais were exposed to many new items, including items made of metal. Anything that was made of metal had great value. Many furs could be traded for one gun, a pot or a pan, or other metal objects. The Europeans not only introduced new things that the Montagnais could use, they also introduced disease and over hunting of the animals that the Montagnais use for food.
In recent times, the Montagnais and the Naskapi joined to create the Innu. Currently there is about 12,000 Innu living on reservations throughout Quebec.
Sources:
"The Innu" (1997) www.heritage.ng.ca/aboriginal/innu.html April 10, 2001
"Montagnais and Naskapi" Britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9053461 April 10, 2001
"Montagnais" www.dickshovel.com/mon.html April 24, 2001
"Montagnais and Naskapi" Encyclopedia.com http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/08692.html April 10, 2001
Written by Clint Warriner