Atikamekw

The Atikamekw are a small group of Indigenous people in Canada who originally lived mostly in the forested areas around Quebec. They had less contact with European explorers and settlers than most of the Indigenous people. While they were friendly with several neighboring tribes, the Atikamekw typically kept to themselves until attacks by the Iroquois in the seventeenth century made it beneficial for a number of groups of Indigenous peoples to band together. In contemporary times, the Atikamekw formed the Atikamekw Sipi Nation Council (ANC) to provide social services for their members; lobby for rights and negotiate treaties on behalf of the Atikamekw; and ensure their input in Canadian political, economic, social, and historical conversations.

Background

The name Atikamekw is pronounced ah-dik-ah-meck. The word means a kind of white fish in the Atikamekw language and is the name this Indigenous people gave to themselves. The French explorers who encountered them sometimes called them the Tête-de-boule, which literally translates to "round head" or "bowl head" and may have been the name applied to the same type of white fish. The name is also spelled Attikamekw, Attikamek, or Atikamek; this is because, like many Indigenous people, the Atikamekw had no written language. This resulted in spelling variations as their words were translated by others.

The people who became the Atikamekw first inhabited the area near Quebec about four thousand years ago and are associated with the seminomadic Algonquin tribes such as the Algonquin, Cree, and Innu. There were three main groups of Atikamekw: the Manawan, the Obedjiwan, and the Wemotaci. They lived in small family units of about one to two dozen individuals related by blood or marriage. Each Atikamekw family lived in a wigwam, which had a wooden frame covered with animal skins. These family groups formed small villages and generally stayed to themselves, although they did engage in some trade with the Cree and Innu. This trade generally took place once a year when larger numbers of family groups would gather together. These trade meetings happened in summer when food sources were most plentiful. Afterward, the tribes returned to their own areas so that there would be enough food for everyone, and preparations could be made for the harsher winter months.

For centuries, the Atikamekw people lived off the land, engaging in hunting, fishing, and trapping for most of their sustenance. They were known for their skills in making and traveling with birchbark canoes, which they used for both practical and recreational purposes. To get around in the cold, snowy climate in which they lived, they used snowshoes and dog sleds. Dogs were also used as pack animals to help carry belongings when the Atikamekw moved around, as they did not have horses until explorers and settlers brought the animals over from Europe.

Beginning in the 1600s, the Atikamekw had contact with European fur traders and hunters who came inland to where they could find more animals. Although the Atikamekw kept their contact with the Europeans to a minimum, it was not enough to protect them from being decimated by diseases carried by the Europeans to which the Indigenous people of North America had no immunity. These diseases spread to the Atikamekw after their allies, the Innu, contracted them from the Europeans. During the seventeenth century, the Atikamekw also found themselves embroiled in war with the very powerful Iroquois as a result of their alliance with the Innu.

The arrival of Christian missionaries in the middle of the nineteenth century was the beginning of increased contact with outside people for the Atikamekw, although they still managed to stay mostly to themselves. In the early twentieth century, the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 1914 and the increase of paper and logging operations in the 1930s brought changes to the way of life for the Indigenous people. Many of them worked cutting and transporting trees, especially during the World War II years when many non-Indigenous Canadians were involved in the military, something from which Indigenous people were exempt. Many Atikamekw continued to hunt and trap, however, since the forestry work was seasonal. Through the 1950s, the Atikamekw people maintained their relatively secluded way of life, until the depletion of the animals they hunted and trapped led to the formation of the Beaver Reserve, where the Atikamekw had exclusive rights.

Overview

The Atikamekw managed to avoid the forced or encouraged change to Canadian-European language and customs as a result of their natural tendency to stay to themselves. Unlike many other members of the native Canadian First Nations people, they have largely maintained their Indigenous language and culture. In the 1970s, the Atikamekw began actively lobbying the government for recognition of their place in Canadian politics and society.

They formed the Council of the Atikamekw and Montagnais (CAM) in 1975 for the purpose of holding negotiations with both local and national government entities. Montagnais is another name for the Innu. CAM existed until 1994 and was replaced by the Council of the Nation Atikamekw. During this time, the Atikamekw increasingly entered into agreements with the provincial and national governments that gave the Atikamekw more responsibility for the education, social needs, policing, and health of their own population.

The approximately seven to eight thousand members of the Atikamekw nation have also asserted their rights to certain areas of land in and around their ancestral territory. In 2014, after thirty-five years of negotiations over the area known as Nitaskinan, leaders of the Atikamekw nation proclaimed sovereignty over more than 80,000 square kilometers of territory, or nearly 30,900 square miles. The Atikamekw leaders expressed frustration with how long it has taken for formal negotiations with government officials to move forward and asserted the right of the Atikamekw nation to control what happens in the claimed area. The declaration was based on an action approved in the Canadian high court in June 2014 that granted a title to land in British Columbia to the people of the Tsilhqot'in Nation. In the twenty-first century, the Atikamekw work to preserve their culture and traditions while pursuing economic opportunities and providing vital services to its members.

Bibliography

“Atikamekw.” Gouvernement du Québec, 19 Dec. 2024, www.quebec.ca/en/government/quebec-at-a-glance/first-nations-and-inuit/profile-of-the-nations/atikamekw. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"Atikamekw First Nation Declares Sovereignty Over Its Territory." CBC News, 9 Sept. 2014, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/atikamekw-first-nation-declares-sovereignty-over-its-territory-1.2761105. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"Atikamekw Language (Attikamek, Tête-de-boule)." Native Languages, www.native-languages.org/atikamekw.htm. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Clermont, Norman. "Atikamekw." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 4 Mar. 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/attikamek. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Parrott, Zach and Tabitha Marshall. "Iroquois Wars." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 31 July 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iroquois-wars. Accessed 1 Jan. 2025.