Acknowledgements

I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the Innu people of Matimekush Lac John, Maliotenam and Uashat who trusted me with their history and shared with me their wisdom, their beliefs and their warm hospitality. In particular my thanks are due to Chief Réal McKenzie who invited me to Matimekush Lac John and to Chief Negotiator Lucien McKenzie whose proposal it was that I should undertake an oral history of his community and their struggle to retain their land rights. Innu lawyer and activist Armand Mackenzie proved an excellent guide and shared his knowledge and experience of Innu culture and politics as well as providing insightful interpretations of the interviews. Thanks are also due to Mike Cluney, who also acted as interpreter, for his growing interest in his people’s history and culture so that elders were keen to pass on their knowledge to him and thus to me.

Danielle Descent has been a mentor, guide, an excellent host with her husband Sylvain Vollant, and a true friend. Yvette Mackenzie and Bruno Ouellet lent me their house in Matimekush where I could work in peace and comfort. On my third visit they were at home and welcomed me, providing great hospitality and valuable insights. Mani Aster and Jean-Marie Mackenzie took me into their family and I gained much from Mani’s wisdom and Jean-Marie’s non-judgmental approach to life on reserve. Rita McKenzie and Adrian Cluney also gave me great encouragement, helpful suggestions and introductions and many cups of coffee.

My introduction to the Innu way of life came in 2008 at the 4ème Seminaire Nordique at Mushua Nipi, Northern Quebec. Elizabeth Ashini, Serge Ashini-Goupil, Philippe Messier and Anne-Marie Andre organised a multicultural, multidisciplinary conference which enabled wide-ranging discussion of the issues which affect the life of the Innu today. They took time to answer my many questions and to explain complex aspects of resource extraction from Innu lands. I am truly grateful for their encouragement and friendship. But above all, I am indebted to those who agreed to speak to me, who were, like all Indigenous people, meticulous in their need to give a full and truthful account of their people’s history so that this could be recorded in order that future generations should know how they fought to prevent the extinguishment of their rights.

In Sheshatshiu, my thanks are due for the guidance of Anthony Jenkinson and Marcel Ashini and for my continued contact with Napes Ashini who, with Marcel and Tony, maintains his fight for the rights of Innu hunters despite the ratification of the New Dawn Agreement in Principle.

Professor Colin Samson has provided immense help and support throughout my years of study. This work has benefitted greatly from his suggestions and constructive criticism and his generosity in sharing sources and contacts and, most of all, his own experience. Through him, I joined a group of doctoral students who have formed close bonds and offer mutual support and encouragement: Pierrot Ross-Tremblay, Suzanne Robinson, Katya Brooks, Carlos Gigoux and Rebecca Fan.

I am grateful to the staff in the libraries I used, especially to Caroline Checkley, law librarian at the University of Essex, and Annalise D’Orsi at the Tshakapesh Institute in Uashat. Thanks are also due to the library staff at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Montreal, and Université Laval, Quebec City, in particular to their film archivist.

Damien Short, Robert Davies and the team at the University of London Press have provided strong and very helpful guidance, especially Juliet Chalk, whose careful editing illuminated my prose.

My family, David Cassell, Miranda and Mark Andras and Beth and Holly Andras, have supported my work with encouragement and forbearance, putting up with long absences, reading my drafts, correcting my spelling and grammar and providing love and laughter.

Any inaccuracies are all my own.