Because of language similarities, the Naskapi (also spelled Nascaupi and Nascapi and pronounced NAS-kuh-pee) of present-day northern Quebec and Labrador in eastern Canada can be considered relatives of the MONTAGNAIS, fellow ALGONQUIANS living to their south. But they had different ways of finding food. They both referred to themselves as Innu, “the people.”
In the winter months, the Montagnais depended primarily on the moose common to the forests of their own territory. The Naskapi, however, tracked the caribou herds that grazed on the grasses and lichens of the open plateau of the Labrador Peninsula. In their reliance on caribou, the Naskapi were like many of the western SUB ARCTIC INDIANS and certain Arctic INUIT. Nomads, they followed the seasonal migration of the herds, using snowshoes and toboggans. They covered their coneshaped wigwams with caribou hides and bound their snowshoes with caribou thongs.
Like the Montagnais, the Naskapi hunted small game, such as beaver, porcupine, otter, and a kind of bird called a grouse. They also fished the rivers that ran high with melted snow in the springtime, using stone, bone, and antler gear. Their favorite catch was trout. They used birch-bark canoes to travel in the spring and summer, one way to find some relief from the abundant black flies and mosquitoes in their area.
Since the Naskapi lived so far north, where a layer of clothing could mean the difference between life and death in subzero weather, they adopted certain Inuit methods of retaining body warmth. They often wore hoods attached to their snug caribou shirts, plus fur trousers and stockings rather than breechcloths and leggings. And in the coldest months, they wore double layers of clothing, with the fur on the inner layer facing their bodies and the fur on the outer layer facing outward.
The Naskapi had a special fondness for bright colors, perhaps because their environment was so harsh and bleak. They decorated their shirts with bright geometric patterns in red, yellow, or blue. They also tattoed their bodies, as did their CREE neighbors. The Cree pushed a needle through their skin, then ran a wet thread dipped in charcoal through the hole. The Naskapi, however, made cuts on the surface, then used a piece of stone to rub the charcoal or soot into the skin. Both methods were painful and served as a test of courage as well as decoration.
The Naskapi also proved their bravery in warfare, usually against their traditional enemies, the Inuit, who bordered their territory to the north. But they were not as efficient in battle as the Montagnais, who adopted some of the IROQUOIS (HAUDENOSAUNEE) fighting techniques.
Murder was uncommon in Naskapi society, as was the case among most Indian peoples. A killing in self-defense would go unpunished. But in the case of an unprovoked murder, the slain person’s relatives could take revenge. If they failed to do so, a band chief might call a council of elders. If they decided the killing was not in self-defense, the guilty man would be told to walk away. Then warriors chosen by the chief as executioners would shoot the condemned man in the back. No one would even bury his corpse.
Although hunger was often a problem, the Naskapi abhorred cannibalism even if survival depended on it. They believed in the existence of legendary beings called Atsan—evil creatures of the north country that kidnapped children and ate them, much like the windigos in the legends of other Subarctic Algonquians.
For a long time after the arrival of Europeans—first the French, who became their allies and trading partners, and then the English—the Naskapi were able to maintain their traditional ways since they lived so far from most non-Indian settlements. But European diseases eventually depleted their numbers and devastated their culture. Many remaining Naskapi live by hunting in the north country as their ancestors once did.
Naskapi painted leather mask
Naskapi bands have united with their Montagnais relatives as a political entity known as the Innu Nation, although the various bands, or First Nations as they are called in Canada, maintain separate leadership and have separate reserve lands.
America. And it is thought that some among the Native peoples whom Europeans contacted as late as the early 1700s were the last remnants of the once widespread Mis-sissippian, or Temple Mound, culture. These were the
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