Homeland for the Cree 9780773584372

Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
Maps and Tables
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
PART ONE: THE CREE IN 1971
1 Village-band Society in 1971
Interlude, 1971–1981
PART TWO: THE CREE IN 1981
2 Regional Society in 1981
3 Hunting in 1981
4 The Cree Economy in 1981
5 Local Politics in a Regional Society
6 Cree Education
PART THREE: A CREE HOMELAND
7 The Emergence of a Regional Society
Epilogue: Anthropologists and the Cree
Notes and Bibliographical Review
References
Index
A
B
C
D
E
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W

Citation preview

A Homeland for the Cree: Regional Development in James Bay, 1971-1981

In 1971, the six thousand Cree of northern Quebec lived as eight bands scattered across 150,000 square miles of forest, under the administration of the Department of Indian Affairs. The announcement of the James Bay Project which would flood those lands united the bands. During the next ten years the Cree fought the project in the courts, negotiated with the Quebec government, built and staffed a local administrative structure, and organized successfully for economic development. The area is now their "Homeland," legally recognized in the James Bay Agreement. Richard Salisbury compares Cree society in 1971 with that society a decade later. He analyses the nature of the changes that took place during those years and shows why the experience of the Cree with economic development has been positive, unlike that of most Indian groups in North America. Among the most critical changes have been the provision of modern services in education, health care, communications, and justice, and the combining of the bands in a Cree Regional Authority which has enabled the local people to assume control of the planning and administration of those services, as individual bands could not do. Salisbury's study provides a detailed portrait of a contemporary native society and suggests valuable guidelines for any agency working to secure an accord between native peoples and government. The Cree experience offers a convincing argument for regional unity and regional autonomy as the foundations for a successful agreement. Richard Salisbury was Dean of Arts at McGill University and director of McGill's Anthropology of Development program.

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A Homeland for the Cree Regional Development in JamesBay 1971-1981 RICHARD

F.

SALISBURY

McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo

McGill-Queen's University Press 1986 ISBN 0-7735-0550-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-7735-0551-2 (paper) Legal deposit fourth quarter 1986 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada Reprinted in paperback 1994 This book was first published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Publication has also been assisted by the Canada Council under its block grant program.

Printed on acid-free paper

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Salisbury, Richard F.; 1926-1989 A homeland for the Cree Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-7735-0550-4 (bound). - ISBN 0-7735-0551-2 (pbk.). 1. Cree Indians. 2. Indians of North America James Bay Region (Ont. and Quebec). 3. Cree Indians - Government relations. 4. James Bay Project. I. Title. E99.C88S35 1986 971.4'100497 C86-094466-2

Contents

Maps and Tables vi Preface vii Abbreviations xiii Introduction

3

P A R T O N E T H E C R E E IN1971

1 Village-band Society in 1971 15 Interlude, 1971-1981 PART TWO

53

T H E C R E E IN1981

2 Regional Society in 1981 63 3 Hunting in 1981 76 4 The Cree Economy in 1981 85 5 Local Politics in a Regional Society 106 6 Cree Education 117 PART T H R E E A CREE H O M E L A N D

7 The Emergence of a Regional Society 135 Epilogue: Anthropologists and the Cree 151 Notes and Bibliographical Review 157 References 165 Index 169

Maps and Tables

MAPS

1 Cree Band Territories, 1971 17 2 The Cree Homeland, 1981 59 TABLES 1 Cree Incomes, 1971 and 1981 94 2 Cree Manpower, 1971 and 1981 95 3 Budget Estimates for Cree Families, 1981 102 4 Cree School Population, 1971 and 1981 120 5 Educational Level of Cree Population, aged 16-65, 1971-1981 126

Preface

This book has a simple goal: to show how the major recent changes in the way of life of the Cree of Northern Quebec constitute an emergent outgrowth from their preexisting society and culture. It presents this picture of development as a continuing evolution, linked directly to historic roots in the past, explicitly in contrast to studies that start from actions of non-Cree and present a picture of passive Cree reactions to dynamic forces from the outside. The latter need full appreciation - particularly the actions of businessmen who conceived the James Bay Project, and politicians and bureaucrats who composed the legislation of the James Bay Agreement. But what is important in the present context is how the Cree were not merely passive reactors, but acted to try and control the direction of their social evolution. From this study, I hope, other northern people facing similar problems of preserving their heritage within the modern Canadian nation-state will see how far Cree society has been able to maintain its culture over the decade described, and how far that culture has been modified in the process. I began working with the Cree in 1971 after a major study, financed by ARDA (the precursor of the Department of Regional Economic Expansion), had described the effects of expansion of mining and logging on the most southerly Cree communities of Waswanipi and Mistassini. The McGill Cree Project, directed by Professor Norman Chance, had painted a gloomy picture. The hunting economy of the communities was under threat, and the wage earning of the Cree was mainly that of short-term unskilled labour. They were turning "from hunters to proletarians," in LaRusic's (1968) words. Their educational system was preparing them badly for both "white" and "Indian" worlds, and psychological studies showed that this involved psychological conflict.

viii

Preface

But the study collected massive data; it made many friends in the Cree communities; and most importantly it meticulously fed back its results to local people, who tried thereafter to make needed changes. For example, two Cree appeared before the House Standing Committee on Indian Affairs in 1969 to call for kindergarten education in Cree language. I supervised graduate students working on this project, and gained immensely in knowledge from discussions with Norman Chance, but never participated in the research. My own research between 1952 and 1971 had been a study of how local people can control (or at least influence) the direction of their own development in Papua New Guinea and in Guyana. I had shown how, in New Guinea, where there had been a viable subsistence economy and political leaders who were effective, people had accepted technological innovations but incorporated them into their own cultures in ways decided locally, not in ways prescribed by outsiders. In Guyana I had seen how the resources provided by the Alcan bauxite operation made possible the development by the local residents of an isolated interior region - and also what the problems were that obstructed regional development. I saw no reason why, within Canada, northern peoples using their own renewable resources, their own political leadership, and the potential spin-offs from large-scale resource industries should not also control their own future development. The scientific knowledge gained overseas seemed relevant, but I had not myself tried to relate it to Canadian northern realities. In May 1971 two of the Cree Project students whom I was supervising, Harvey Feit and Ignatius LaRusic, persuaded me that the James Bay hydro-electric project, recently announced by Premier Bourassa of Quebec, would cause major changes in the Cree way of life. In no way did it offer native people any say in the control of these changes. I agreed to write to the premier, protesting his decision, and to urge that the Cree be consulted and that an anthropological study of the impacts of the project was needed before proceeding. Meetings with the minister of the environment, Dr Victor Goldbloom, ensued, and by December 1971 a study of social impacts was under way, under my direction. It reached conclusions similar to those arrived at in New Guinea and Guyana, on the basis of secondary analysis of existing studies, and the ongoing research of students of the area, many of them from McGill. The Cree indeed had a viable subsistence base in hunting, which the project would seriously damage unless remedial measures were taken to strengthen hunting; Cree employment as unskilled labourers on the project, or the use of their villages to house project workers, would destroy their control of their own society; but if the

ix

Preface

resources of the project could be used to prepare the Cree to take over the administration of their own region by the end of the construction phase, and to train skilled personnel and administrators, then the basis for a prosperous society with full employment would be provided. We recommended measures to achieve that end. For some twelve years this writer was privileged to work with the Cree, and with a large body of students and colleagues, who, whether they were imbued with the same vision of possible development or not, have contributed to making that vision come true, and to recording how it happened. This volume is my own attempt to bring together the fruits of those twelve years of work. My colleagues have now compiled a substantial literature of technical papers, each stressing the aspects of most concern to them - I would cite, for example, Negotiating a Way of Life (LaRusic et al. 1979), stressing the role of the negotiation of the James Bay Agreement, of lawyers and of consultants, in the emerging structures of Creeland. I have chosen to give a less technical overview, to provide a volume both for scholars and for other interested people, including other Indian groups involved in land claims negotiation, who are considering what they seek in such negotiation. My focus, as I have said, is on the nature of the change in society when a people obtain a degree of control over their own destiny after a previous history of relative powerlessness. These changes are hard to visualize if only a snapshot view of the society is available, and the past (or the present) has to be interpreted in terms of that snapshot alone. Even Cree children, brought up in the villages and schools of today, have only a partial awareness of how things were ten years ago. Changes are also hard to visualize if only a sectorial view of society is presented - a view from one particular village, or of a particular activity such as hunting or education. The detail of the sectorial closeup obscures the pattern of the overall picture. I try to avoid these pitfalls by looking generally at the entire region. The pattern, which I describe, of a culturally distinct group gaining the permission of the state to take over administering and delivering services to its own people, within a distinct region, is potentially a highly important one for other minority groups to know about. The Cree experience shows, for example, its feasibility in terms of "national unity" and of "transfer payments"; its effect in vitalizing the entire local economy through the changes in the service industries; the problems it raises of relating the minority people to state bureaucracies and to people of majority cultures nearby, and of obtaining specialized services that are not locally available. How to solve these problems, and how to create the dynamic that the Cree

x Preface

people did, these are the questions that I hope readers will ask themselves when they read the description of the Cree experience. I venture to write an overview, not because I have spent years in Cree villages; my time in villages amounts to less than two months, and I have visited only Fort George, Wemindji, Ruperts House, Waswanipi, and Mistassini. Much of my "fieldwork" has been done in offices or meeting rooms in Val d'Or, Matagami, Ottawa, Montreal, Loretteville, and Quebec, over lunch in restaurants, the St James Club, Butch Bouchards, or in bars in Montreal and Chibougamau. For the fieldwork in villages I have depended largely on students and colleagues. With almost all of them I have discussed Cree research, either as they were planning their fieldwork, during their research or consultation, or after their fieldwork while they were analysing data. I have also discussed my personal interpretations of Cree development with most Cree leaders, and the ensuing arguments have been fruitful (to me at least). I feel that I have been a privileged observer (and, at one stage removed, a participant) in both Cree society and the political and economic institutions in which the Cree are embedded. I have, I would claim, a comprehensive inside view of the mass of research undertaken, and an outside perspective on the relationship of the Cree to Quebec and to Canada, that justifies the attempt at an overview. My own role in the changes that will be described requires that the reader be aware of possible bias. It is hard for any author to be objective about himself, but I believe I have tried consistently to maintain the role implicit in our 1972 impact study - that of an adviser with research skills and some fields of specialist knowledge that are made available to the people who can use the knowledge. All my knowledge and my findings have been made available to the Cree, and I have discussed them and made suggestions based on them. But at all points it has been up to Cree (or to other readers of my work) to make their own decisions. If those decisions have been, in my view, wrong ones, I have said so in face-to-face discussions, but I have not involved myself in political debate about them. More generally, the role that anthropologists (including myself) have played and could in future play in helping groups who want to control their own development, and who need anthropologists' specialist skills, is the subject of an epilogue. By describing what anthropological work has been done among the Cree I hope to allow the reader to make an informed judgment on the anthropological role. Have anthropologists influenced the course of Cree development? For the better, or for the worse? Is the role of specialist technical adviser the appropriate one for an anthropologist? Would the adoption

xi Preface

of a more directive stance, advocating policy for the Cree, or taking ideological stances vis-a-vis the actions of the Cree or the government have been more effective? Deliberately I leave such issues to the end, after the overview has been presented. The need to present an overview also justifies the bibliographic procedure adopted. Citing page references and source for every datum would add greatly to the volume of the work, and would distract the reader. It would also give a false impression of the literature, for often a dozen sources could be cited, and to mention only one would be to over-simplify. Sources are usually compatible (though often not identical) and a choice could always be justified, and I have done so, but I have not usually cited them in the text itself, presenting instead a review of the relevant technical literature at the end of the text, where the reader can search for fuller detail. In most cases the true source is "personal communication to the author," or a page in a joint publication of myself and the fieldworker. My acknowledgment of the collaboration in the research project of Harvey Feit, Ignatius LaRusic, Donald Stewart, Fernand Filion, Farida Rawji, Nathan Elberg, Jacqueline Hyman, Kenneth Hyman, John Hurley, Gail Valaskakis, Henry Raymond, Connie Kilfoil, Colin Scott, Taylor Brelsford, Serge Bouchard, Jean-guy Deschenes, Fritz Rieger, Durhane Wong-Rieger, Susan Marshall, I-Jen Chin Yee, Roger Pothier, Allan Penn, Rick Cuciurean, Karen Schafer, and Yesim Ternar is nonetheless profound for not being made explicit every time some datum that we discussed together is raised in the text. I must also acknowledge discussions of the issues with other colleagues - Carmen Lambert, Remy Savard, Peter Sindell, Richard Preston, Adrian Tanner, Edward Rogers, Moose Kerr, Richard Robbins, Bruce Trigger, Toby Morantz, Paul Wertman, Ed Hedican, Robert Schneider, Gaston Moisan, Robert Paine, and Brian Craik - that have involved me in earlier field research or relevant issues in the wider literature. To list all the Cree with whom I have talked would mean an even longer list, but especial thanks are due to Philip Awashish and Edna Neeposh, who first talked to me about Cree matters in the 1960s and from whom I have continued to learn ever since, to Peter Gull who was our guide during the IQA Taskforce, to Josie Sam and Wally Pachanos who arranged our stay in Fort George, to John Mark, Margie Mark, Gertie Murdock, and Fred Akwipineskum who made possible our work in Wemindji, to Robert Visitor who collaborated in studies of Cree communications, to Abel Kitchen who brought order to our relations with the GCCQ, to Robert Kanatewat for discussions of Fort George resettlement, to Matthew Coon-Come, Joseph Neeposh and Smally Petawabano for help in Mistassini, to Andrew Moar and George

xii

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Wapachee for help in Nemaska, and to John Murdock for help in Rupert's House. Chief Billy Diamond's critical remarks regarding anthropologists have always been a stimulus to do better. Support for the work connected with preparing the present volume must be acknowledged primarily to the Canada Council, whose award of a Killam Fellowship enabled me to have the time available to sit back and reflect upon my years of involvement with the Cree, and secondly to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, whose grant No. 410-81-026 made the collection of final data and typing of manuscript possible. I also want to thank for the support of earlier work of my own that the present book summarizes: the James Bay Development Corporation; the James Bay Energy Corporation; the Indians of Quebec Association; Beauchemin, Beaton and Lapointe; the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs; the Department of Communications; the Science Council; the Cree Regional Authority; the Quebec Ministry of Education, FCAC Programme; ssDcc, Inc. The work of students that I have directed has been variously supported by McGill University, the Canada Council, SSHRC, Quebec Fellowships, and most importantly by Field Training grants of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, administered through the McGill Centre for Northern Studies and Research. McGill University has graciously made facilities available to myself and to the Programme in the Anthropology of Development through the whole period. When the draft of the present monograph was nearly complete I was asked by the James Bay Energy Corporation to assess the potential impacts of Phase 3 of the James Bay Project. The experience gained in this study made that a challenging task, while the stimulus to make my findings practically useful resulted in major improvements in the present volume. Secretarial assistance was efficiently provided by Ena Ryant, who organized the files and improved the text.

Abbreviations

ARDA

Agricultural and Rural Development Agency, Canada Department of Forestry and Rural Development (subsequently Department of Regional Economic Expansion) CHC Cree Housing Corporation CMHC Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation CRA Cree Regional Authority CRBHSS Cree Regional Boards of Health and Social Services CSB Cree School Board CTA Cree Trappers' Association DGNQ Direction Generate du Nouveau Quebec (Administration of Northern Quebec) DINA Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada (the same acronym is used for earlier periods when the department's title was Indian Affairs and Northern Development) GCCQ Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec HBC Hudson's Bay Company HFTCC Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Coordinating Committee

xiv

Abbreviations

H&w IQA ISP JBDC JBNQA MAS MEQ NIB NNASI

PAD RCMP SEBJ TCP

Department of Health and Welfare, Canada Indians of Quebec Association Income Security Programme for Cree Hunters and Trappers James Bay Development Corporation James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement Ministere des Affaires Sociales du Quebec (Social Affairs Department) Ministere de 1'Education du Quebec (Education Department) National Indian Brotherhood (later Assembly of First Nations) Native North American Studies Institute, Montreal and LaMacaza (1971-6), also known as Manitou College Programme in the Anthropology of Development, McGill University Royal Canadian Mounted Police Societe d'Energie de la Baie James (James Bay Energy Corporation, also abbreviated to "Energy") Ministre de Tourisme, Chasse et Peche du Quebec (Department of Fish, Game and Tourism)

A Homeland for the Cree

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Introduction

In July 1971 the chiefs of the seven Cree villages and several younger educated Cree met in Mistassini to discuss the recent announcement by the Quebec government of a $5.6 billion hydro-electric project on their lands. Though the chiefs had met each other previously at sessions of the provincial Indians of Quebec Association (IQA), and most of the younger Cree had been at high school together in Ontario, this was the first time they had come together as a group. The meeting was possible only because of outside assistance, for it was whites who had recognized the common concern in the diverse isolated villages, and who had prevailed upon the Arctic Institute of North America to provide funds for the necessary air travel to bring the villagers together to discuss their plight. But though the meeting was historic in that it set in train the developments that form the subject of the present book, and was successful in bringing together people who subsequently became close collaborators in Cree society of the next decade, it did not immediately seem to produce direct results. At subsequent meetings of the IQA, in August and September 1971, the Cree persuaded other Indian groups that the project was an invasion of the land that the Cree claimed was theirs by aboriginal right, since Quebec had never settled their claims by negotiating a treaty with them, as was required by law.1 They asked IQA to forward a plea for support from the federal government to the minister of Indian Affairs,2 so that they could oppose this infringement of their rights. But somewhere between the request and the ministers desk, the plea became lost, for the minister, Jean Chretien, swears that he received no letter. No official action was taken by Indian Affairs on the plea until May 1972. By way of contrast consider what happened when three young

4 A Homeland for the Cree

children in the newly rebuilt Cree village of Nemaska died of gastroenteritis in the spring of 1979. Within a month the president of the Cree Regional Authority (CRA) had fired off complaints to the Quebec Ministry of Social Affairs, pointing out that the health services provided in the region were inadequate - the bacterial infection was of a new strain, and there had been delays in recognizing symptoms and providing appropriate treatment - and that the sanitation facilities for the village had not been properly constructed during the rebuilding. A legal suit was entered against the Quebec government. Not only that, but the president, Billy Diamond, within the following year was chosen to lead a Canadian native peoples' delegation to the World Health Organization in Geneva. His stinging denunciation of Canadian northern health measures that still left Canada's native people with a peri-natal death rate for children almost three times that of Canadian whites, received world-wide press coverage.3 The contrast is certainly a political one, between Cree organization in 1981 and their lack of it in 1971. In 1971 there were few links between Cree leaders, and little political responsibility for administration by the Cree themselves, except through the structures of the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DINA). In 1981 the Cree had a political structure of their own regional authority (the CRA), operating as a government for the Cree, structured as a municipality, with effective links, not merely through bureaucratic channels to the Quebec government, but also through the courts and the media to the Canadian public at large. But the political change is only one aspect of a much wider transformation. The isolation and fragmentation of individual villages in 1971, each occupied by one or more recognized "bands," and all administered from a regional office in a southern Canadian town (Val d'Or) by predominantly white administrators, reflected a "peripheral" status for the Cree in many fields. They were on the outskirts or periphery of the metropolitan society of southern Canada. By 1981, however, the Cree had become much more highly integrated with the metropolitan society. In terms of transportation, in 1971 only one band lived close to a major road and only one other village was accessible by road. The other five received most of their imported supplies by ship (or barge) during the ice-free summer months, and for the rest of the year had only air links to the outside world. Even those links were, for three of them, only by light aircraft, operating on water or on skis. Communication between villages was also possible by radiotelephone, but that was unpredictable. Proximity to the North

5

Introduction

Magnetic Pole makes radio-reception difficult at the best of times, and the complex procedure of having to contact the operator in ones own village, getting the operator to "raise" the operator in the other village, and then of having to use the speech pattern of ending every remark with the word "over" to allow both operators to switch between "send" and "receive/' made it difficult to communicate more than the briefest of messages by telephone. By 1981 a major road traversed Cree territory, and all settlements were negotiating for their connection to a road to the outside; satellite and microwave transmission of telephones joined almost every house of the region (though at some financial cost). In 1971 the use of English was restricted to those Cree under the age of thirty-five who had begun schooling after World War n. Almost no one spoke French. Although all older Cree were literate in the syllabic script in which their bibles were printed, the number of people who could write in English and occupy administrative posts requiring communication outside the villages was small. By 1981 the older people over the age of forty-five continued to be monolingual in Cree, but over 80 per cent of the population now spoke and read English as well, while 10 per cent (mainly trilinguals) now spoke French. Everyone still speaks Cree as their home language, however. In 1971 the housing in villages included a few older structures antedating 1947, mostly those connected with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the church (either the Anglican Church of Canada or the Roman Catholic Oblate Fathers), or the government (the RCMP), but also a few privately built structures. About half of the population lived in recently constructed buildings of standard design, built by DINA, while the rest spent their time in the villages in canvas dwellings - teepees built around poles, or tents with a ridge pole and an insulated opening for a stove pipe - and in the winter lived in the forest in a log or canvas structure. By 1981 all villages had almost completed a rebuilding in modern-style housing, though with different degrees of finish or services. In 1971 the involvement of the Cree people in a cash economy was quite small. The cash returns of hunting for furs were small and provided only 20 per cent of cash needs - not enough to finance what the hunters and their families needed to pay for travel to the winter hunting areas where meat for food was readily available even if sugar, tea, flour, and lard had to be bought, as did the supplies of wire, guns, and shells needed for the winter's hunting and trapping. Casual summer labour for white enterprises - unloading the HBC barges, cutting lines through the forest for mineral prospectors, guiding sport fishermen, or working in forestry gangs for the pulp

6 A Homeland for the Cree

and paper companies then beginning operations in the southern Cree area - these provided the bulk (50 per cent) of the money needed for winter hunting. The balance, or about 30 per cent of cash income, was provided by transfer payments - mainly old age pensions, family allowance, and welfare - and it went predominantly to those who stayed in the village all winter - the old, the children attending school, or those unable to work in the forest in winter. Although the large amount of meat caught by the hunters provided a good and nourishing diet for most Cree, the cash available ($340 per capita) would have been considered a poverty income by most Canadians. (Salisbury et al. 1972a:58a). By 1981 the cash income of hunters had gone up twentyfold, while wage incomes had roughly quadrupled (the mechanisms of these increases will be examined in chapter 4), so that per capita incomes approached those of Canadian society at large. The impact of higher cash incomes was apparent in the consumption of goods in 1981. Not only were houses universally equipped with radios, television sets, and refrigerators, but the very technology of life had changed. Howling dogs provided the sound backdrop to village life even in 1971, when dog-teams had ceased to be widely owned, but snowmobiles were not yet common. Now every family owns at least one snowmobile and most own several (even if many are derelict). The howl of their engines is the characteristic sound in winter. Teenagers listen to records like most North American teenagers, and meet to drink diet drinks (and occasionally stronger beverages) dressed in clothes that resemble those of their counterparts elsewhere. Parkas are the universal outerwear, and most bear the village name. Television, which in 1971 was familiar only to those who had visited southern Canada, was, in 1981, watched avidly by most Cree households for hours every day, though the only channels received were those carried by satellite broadcasts, the programming for which originated entirely in southern Canada. The change from a "peripheral" status to a closer involvement to the "metropolitan" society of southern Canada is indeed one way of describing the differences I have impressionistically sketched. Some people would say that it would be better described as the "assimilation" of a traditional native Indian culture (already weakened by three centuries of the fur trade) into a relatively homogeneous "modern Western" culture. I will not use these words again in this book, though they are terms easily appreciated by the southern Canadian reader. Indeed the sketches that I have given of the changes describe what is likely to be seen by the tourist visitor, who flies in, spends a day or two touring the village, its schools, its band office and stores, and then leaves. The term "peripheral" is an ethnocentric, simplistic

7 Introduction

term that defines southern Canada as the centre (or the metropolis, or modern), and classifies as peripheral, traditional, and backward any area that is not southern Canada. The Cree have a different view of what is the centre, and what is happening to their culture. The Cree insist that the biggest change since 1971 is a stronger feeling of their identity as Cree, for in 1971 they rarely used the word, and thought of themselves as members of individual bands. They point to continuities in their lives as Cree between 1971 and 1981, where what they are now doing is more "traditional" than it was then. They point to increases in the number of people living by hunting, to schools that teach children locally relevant subjects and that include Cree language classes, to Cree themselves running services like Co-op stores, band and regional administration, housebuilding operations, and sport-hunting camps that were indeed provided in 1971, but by white personnel. They point out how new technology, like snowmobiles, has been accepted into traditional activities, like trapping, and has changed the organization of those activities. The trapper does not take a day to visit two or three beaver lodges on a fifteen-mile snowshoe walk lasting ten hours, but may travel forty miles to visit seven lodges in seven hours. The new technology has removed drudgery from a traditional activity, made it more productive, and opened the way to other activities by trappers, during the time set free. Life is traditional, they may argue, but has become a better life, allowing the hunter more time with his family. Though the outsider may notice the similarities between modern Cree life and that of metropolitan Canada, the Cree are aware of the similarities between 1971 and 1981, and of the features that distinguish them from "white men" whom they see epitomized by the television programs that take them into Hollywood apartments or New York police stations. They feel they are in greater control of their lives now than they were in 1971. Are there better ways to understand what has, in fact, changed among the Cree? I have characterized the "periphery-metropolitan" interpretation, and that of "assimilation by a dominant culture," as ethnocentric, based as they are on looking at what has happened from the viewpoint of a southern Canadian, rather than that of the Cree themselves. Are there other interpretations that recognize the reality of the closer links between the Cree and Canadian society, but take the Cree viewpoint into account? That is the question that I (even though I am indeed a southern Canadian) will try to answer in this book. We shall end up not with a single interpretation but with a number that are all closely related. Most simply, these interpretations are summed up in the contrast

8 A Homeland for the Cree

sketched earlier. Between 1971 and 1981 the Cree society has changed from being a fragmented society of seven distinct village bands with little unity - their integration at a regional level having been through non-Cree agencies and non-Cree officials - into a regional society where the villages (now numbering eight) have close ties with each other and administer their own affairs through a Cree governmental structure, staffed largely by Cree. They have turned seven "home villages" into one "homeland." The nature of this social change, from village-band society to regional society, is, I feel, poorly analysed in much existing anthropological literature, though it is a change which holds one key to the successful economic and social development of many outlying areas of Canada. Studies of particular villages of the era after 1950 have consistently focused on the conflict within villages between those elements which show some continuity with traditional life, and those elements that have been brought in recently and are mainly the concern of intrusive whites. Each village (cf. Driben and Trudeau, 1982) has been seen as the arena in which natives and whites play out a duel that the native people are doomed to lose, with the prizes being the benefits that come from the resources-powerful Canadian government. The study of the whites in the villages has indeed been the central focus of the work of the Memorial University group headed by Robert Paine (1979). What has been omitted in such studies of individual villages has been the way in which inter-village articulation, even if carried out by whites, has been, in the village-band society era, of critical significance in the evolution of each village. This aspect of village life has been treated as "foreign" to the village and not meriting anthropological study. To my best knowledge no anthropological study exists of a regional grouping of villages. Yet it is only in a regional study that the nature of inter-village ties becomes evident. I shall begin by painting a fuller picture of what life was like in Cree villages in 1971, passing lightly over its historic origins and relations with aboriginal culture and stressing how society operated at that time. The term "village band" will be used to characterize this period. This term links two themes common in the work of anthropologists who have studied northern societies. In the first place, the word "band" as applied to modern Indian hunting societies refers to groupings that did not exist before contact with whites, but are, rather, the administrative units or "administrative bands" (Helm 1968) into which DINA, after the 1876 Indian Act, grouped the many small hunting groups that periodically came together for trade with a particular HBC post. The smaller hunting groups might number around

9 Introduction

twenty people, and for such groups anthropologists use the term "micro-bands." "Administrative bands/' under the Indian Act, had a formal chief appointed by DINA (after election by the members), even where traditionally there was no status of "chief" of any group larger than a micro-band. By 1971 the bands had become important units of Cree life, as had the individuals elected as chiefs. The second theme that the term recalls is that increasingly since 1947 the native people of the Canadian north have tended to settle in villages. Before 1947 each band dispersed in micro-band hunting groups for the winter, leaving few families in close proximity to the buildings of the HBC post, the church, and the RCMP office. Only during the summer when fish was a major food source, did people congregate in temporary, movable housing close to the permanent structures. After 1947, as schools and medical aid facilities were built at the posts, family allowances received for children attending school, old age pensions paid, and subsidized housing built, the number of people living year-round "at the post" increased dramatically. Some settlements now number 1,500 people, and the smallest contains over 300 people. There is still "transhumancy," or the migration of families from one residence to another as the year-round schedule of activities demands, but the location at which each family has a permanent house has become a "village." The villages in 1971 were called by the name given to the HBC posts and the administrative bands and the period is defined as the one when DINA "administered bands" settled into villages.4 Next I shall briefly sketch the events of the years 1971-81 that affected the area. These will often be events that are familiar to the southern Canadian reader from the newspapers, though Cree participation in those events will be examined more intensively than in the newspaper accounts. There is a danger of ethnocentricity in such a historical treatment (cf. Salisbury 1969:6-8), in that familiarity with events discussed in the newspapers convinces the reader that it is these events that cause the changes in societies about which the reader has no direct knowledge and which he or she assumes to be passive, conservative, and traditional. The reader is thus confirmed in the ethnocentric view that metropolitan societies are the source of all change in peripheral societies, or that all change in traditional societies is in the direction of assimilating them into the readers "Western culture." Those reasons for change in the unfamiliar societies that are of a local nature remain ignored and unknown. Nonetheless, it will be necessary, in subsequently depicting Cree society in 1981, to refer to certain events in southern Canada, such

10 A Homeland for the Cree

as the 1971 proposals for a hydro-electric project and the Gree legal actions and negotiations that culminated in the November 1975 signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA). This enabled the project to proceed legally and gave legal recognition to the Cree (and Inuit) right to control or influence, under provincial jurisdiction, all developments in northern Quebec other than the hydro-project. The terms of that agreement, and some of the legal consequences that flowed from it will be presented, but I shall try to counter the simplistic view that it is "the Agreement" that has "caused" the changes, by showing that the form of the JBNQA itself is, in large part, the outcome of what the Cree negotiators were trying to obtain (or to establish as being their aboriginal right) between 1971 and 1976, and of the changes that were already occurring among the village bands in 1971. We shall then look in turn at five main areas of Cree life in 1981 - their hunting, their involvement in a wage economy, their educational system, their political and internal administrative structure, and their interaction with governmental and other bodies outside their own territory. For each of these areas analyses and descriptions exist in technical monographs, learned journal articles, or government reports, but these are relatively inaccessible to the general reader.5 I shall try to summarize these sources in my own words, as I try to make intelligible the main changes that have occurred during the ten-year period. For each of the five areas the reader will be able to see the elements of continuity with the past, particularly as these are stressed by the Cree in terms of "maintenance of Cree culture." Some of the elements of the past, such as the administrative units and the structure of trade, clearly influence the present even if they appear less advantageous in modern circumstances. The increasing complexity of life in every area will also appear, as an increasing number and variety of activities are carried on at the same time, as people become more specialized in what they do, and as population growth occurs. In most areas the increasing complexity involves what is called "bureaucratization" (cf. Weber 1947). This technical term means that social tasks are performed, not by personal action but impersonally by large organizations, in which the tasks to be done are divided into specific jobs. Each job may be further subdivided. Individuals then are entrusted with one specific job (or division of a job), and are responsible to a superior in the organization in performing the job. They are judged as performers of specific jobs, not as persons. Outsiders needing a job done are required to treat them as occupants of a job, not as the particular person that they

11 Introduction

are - friends, relatives, or enemies - and in return the bureaucrat is expected to treat others impersonally. In chapter 8 an attempt will be made to pull together these characterizations of the changes that have occurred. The economy of the Cree, under 1981 conditions will be shown to be a "service economy" or a "transfer payment economy," where most money in the society comes to it from the state, and where large portions of the money flow into the provision of social services for the people. I shall argue that this relationship between the Cree and the state permits them to live a life with more services - more education, a longer life-expectancy, more leisure and entertainment for example - but also necessarily involves them in the bureaucratization of tasks and takes the control of what happens out of the hands of local people. At the same time, the emergence of Cree political and administrative structures, the stress on Cree language and cultural identity and continuity, and the jealousy with which they guard against infringements on their rights as specified in the IBNQA, all appear as methods by which the Cree attempt to maintain control over their own life, within the structures of the encompassing state. It is a strategy that in past centuries underlay the structure of the East European Jewish ghetto as it sought to maintain a distinct identity in a larger political unit, but in more recent times has been shown to be a common strategy among small groups within larger heterogeneous states, and has been called "the ethnic strategy." It remains an open issue which of these three analytic concepts - the transfer payment (or service) economy, bureaucratization, or the ethnic strategy - best explains the structural change in a regional society that is here described. All are clearly linked together. All are common elsewhere in the world. None are primary causes of the changes that have occurred, but all add to our understanding of what is happening. All help us understand why the Cree are likely to act in the future in certain ways, as they seek to continue the life that they want and make their own decisions about the future in the face of pressures of technological and political change in the world at large. The recognition of what is the nature of a regional society may, it is hoped, be of value for other groups, Indian and non-Indian, who currently see themselves reflected in the concept of the village-band society; groups who maintain their local identity and their feeling of roots in a local area, but who feel that administrative decisions that affect the community are being taken by outsiders. Too often such minority groups focus their concern exclusively on maintaining the integrity of the local community in the face of a general "outside

12 A Homeland for the Cree

world/7 while ignoring the importance of strengthening the links of the local community with others nearby - links that are currently maintained by the same outsiders who make the decisions. For such communities a study of the Cree throws light upon the nature of decisions that can be made at a regional level, and the kinds of structures that are needed if those decisions are to be in the hands of local people and are to be carried out as the local people wish. Insofar as those structures were given legal sanction by the land claims settlement, (the JBNQA), it is a study of the changes resulting from the agreement; insofar as the changes represent an evolution from a village-band society to a regional society, they constitute a model of a social change that is potentially valid in many other areas. As an epilogue, a brief record is presented of the involvement of anthropologists in the events of the ten years. It has been a decade when anthropology (and indeed all the social sciences) have been called into question, as people have asked "How can social scientists be useful to society?" The body of the book should make it quite clear that it has been the Cree themselves who have taken the decisions that have resulted in what we describe. But the anthropologists listed have, in varied ways, fed information into those decisions, as well as into the decisions of Hydro-Quebec and of the governments of Canada and Quebec. Their analyses and expertise have stood the test of being "useful"; the proof of whether that use has been for "the good" or "the bad" is in the text itself. They have all worked with the Cree, instead of studying them as outsiders with no commitment to the Cree society. The particular roles they have played - as consultants, employees, advisers, technical workers, trainers of local experts, critics using comparative experience, or as friends offering other friends the opportunity to talk through problems - have rarely been the roles that are evoked by the stereotype of the early twentieth century anthropologist, notebook in hand, participantly observing "his people." I hope that the listing of what they have done may encourage the reader to examine more closely the question of the role of the social scientist in a modern world where states continue to become more heterogeneous, with ethnic minorities of different cultures expressing their distinctiveness, and where understanding and working with people of different cultures is a major problem for us all. The findings of social scientists, that too often have been condemned as being of value only to administrators, are in fact of crucial value to ordinary people - but only if they are made as readily available to ordinary people as they are to administrators.

PART ONE

TheCreein 1971

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CHAPTER ONE

Village-band Society in 1971

THELAND

As one flies north from Montreal or Ottawa the landscape soon changes to that of the Canadian Shield boreal forest - forests of maple and conifers, rock smoothed and left bare by the last glaciation, and myriads of lakes retained in the unevennesses of the striated rock; mile after mile of forest as the terrain gently rises towards the height of land dividing the region where the waters drain southward and eastward to the St Lawrence and the Atlantic from the region where they flow northward towards Hudson Bay. Unexpectedly one passes over a belt of green farmland dotted with small towns - the pastures and dairy farms of the predominantly mining region of Abitibi that developed after the construction of the northern Transcontinental Railroad between 1908 and 1915 - but boreal forest soon returns, now dominated much more by the dark spruce. Once over the divide - an imperceptible change as the land is now an undulating plateau, ranging between 900 and 1,300 feet above sea level, across which rivers zig-zag in their courses - one is in the land of the Cree. One hundred and fifty thousand square miles of it stretch northward for another 400 miles, with the forest gradually becoming stunted and sparser, until it gives way to the open tree cover of the taiga, and the treeless tundra. Eastward and westward the landscape also changes. To the east Lake Mistassini, over seventy-five miles long and ten miles wide, stretches north and east around the heights of the Otish Mountains like an inland sea. Westward the forest falls away to the depression of James Bay, where the rocks have been covered with glacial clays, swampy muskeg, and near the coast, alluvial sand that the ocean currents sweep and move in dunes and sand-flats. The divide between the plateau at about 900 feet, and

16 A Homeland for the Cree

the lands sloping to the coast is a north-south line running irregularly between 50 and 100 miles inland from the east coast of James Bay. THE PEOPLE

In this land, in 1971, lived 5,500 Cree, or one person for every twentyseven square miles. The population, after remaining stable or increasing only slowly for about one hundred years,1 began to grow markedly soon after 1940. Families increased in size (perhaps as a result of an increased birth-rate, perhaps because of a lower rate of infant mortality). The population grew (and was still growing in 1971) at the rate of 3 per cent per annum. Over half of the 1971 population was under the age of twenty. Bands On the registers of the Department of Indian Affairs, people were listed as the members of eight "administrative bands" - Great Whale River, Fort George, Old Factory, Eastmain, Rupert's House, Nemiscau, Waswanipi, and Mistassini - all named after Hudson's Bay posts. The first five were coastal posts, Ruperts House dating back to 1668 and Eastmain to 1719, but the others had been founded in the nineteenth century, as the fur trade in what is now northern Quebec stabilized and expanded. Located on estuaries of major rivers - Great Whale River, Fort George River (now renamed LaGrande River), Eastmain River, Rupert River - they could be supplied from the sea with imported goods, and could receive furs brought down by canoe by hunters from the huge hinterland. The last three were "inland posts," set up to facilitate trade with the interior in the nineteenth century, through the organization of "canoe brigades" of local Cree, who would transport the winter fur harvest down to the coastal posts in the early summer in massive freighter canoes, and then return upriver with the trade goods needed to supply the post and "outfit" the next winters hunt. The opening up of Abitibi in the 1920s, and the decline of the fur trade after World War II, with decreasing prices and increasing costs reducing profitability both for hunters and for the HBC, had altered the nature of the posts. By 1971 Nemiscau and Waswanipi HBC posts had been closed, largely because supply of these areas could more easily and cheaply be arranged from the towns and railheads in Abitibi, where Val d'Or was becoming the regional centre. The bands that had traded at these posts had retained their hunting territories in the areas that the posts had served, but had changed

17 Village-band Society in 1971

MAP 1 CREE BAND TERRITORIES, 1971

18 A Homeland for the Cree

the locus of their trading. Waswanipi band members had attached themselves to various small settlements that had grown up along the road joining Abitibi and Chibougamau, or at mining and lumbering centres such as Matagami; Nemiscau band members had attached themselves to Mistassini, Rupert's House, or Waswanipi trading centres. Old Factory had proved an inconvenient place for permanent residence (as turned out to be the case for other HBC post sites, as we shall see later) and the post had been moved to an attractive site a few miles north called Paint Hills (or Wemindji), where buildings had been erected on a protected bay, with a sandy beach, and with protective trees reaching down to the waters edge. Villages As previously noted, by 1971 there had been a massive shift to village residence. Before 1940 the population had been dispersed over the whole 150,000-square mile area for most of the year, gaining its food from hunting, and meeting its cash needs by selling the furs produced by hunting. People had lived in multi-family hunting groups of about twenty people during the winter, but had joined together in movable housing adjacent to the post for the summer. The land on which they lived near the posts had been recognized as "Reserves."2 By 1971 over a third of the population resided year-round in villages. Three of the bands lived in large villages. Mistassini and Fort George bands formed the largest villages, numbering almost 1,500 people each in the summer. Both drew hunters from vast ranges of territory that at one time had been served by subposts of the HBC, like that of Nitchequon to the northeast of Mistassini. Within the large villages the families that had earlier met at the subposts tended to form subgroups, erecting their tents near one another. At Fort George another subgroup of a small number of Inuit also lived within the village. In Great Whale the small Cree band formed a subgroup within a large village, where the majority group was composed of Inuit who used the coast and the northerly tundra. These three large villages also housed numbers of whites, employed for the most part by the government, the churches, or the HBC, to operate the services of the villages or the radar base at Great Whale. There were in addition three smaller coastal Cree villages Rupert's House, with a population of 850, Eastmain with 270, and Paint Hills with 550. Waswanipi band members numbering 650 had no villages of their own, but lived inland in several small settlements - Desmaraisville, Miquelon, Matagami, Waswanipi River - none of which was on Reserve land, but all of which were accessible by road.

19 Village-band Society in 1971

Very few Cree lived outside Cree territory. A few students at senior high school levels and about ten students taking university or technical courses lived away from the area. At any one time another ten seriously ill Cree might be found in hospitals outside the area, in Montreal, Moosonee, or Timmins. Fewer than ten had regular jobs that took them out of the territory, the best-known being Buckley Petawabano, the television star. A few from coastal villages travelled in the summer to southern Ontario for the tobacco harvest. A handful from inland groups worked in the mines of Chapais and Chibougamau and lived in those towns. Another small number, whose hunting territories included the site of Chibougamau, lived within the town boundaries or at a settlement nearby on Dore Lake, in preference to living at the Cree village of Mistassini fifty-six miles away. Some Cree from Mistassini, Nemiscau, and Waswanipi bands might be seen frequently in the towns of Matagami, Chapais, or Chibougamau shopping, looking for employment, or refreshing themselves at the hotel. Conversely, the number of non-Cree living in Cree villages was even smaller. About 200 non-status Indians, with some white (Scottish or Russian) ancestry, were not included in the official DINA registers, but otherwise lived, hunted, and were treated by all as part of the majority of Cree residents. .Quebec statistics for 1971 show 120 white residents in Great Whale, 150 in Fort George, and figures of 5 for Paint Hills, 7 for Eastmain, and 23 for Rupert's House. Another 50 should be added for Mistassini. But the towns and unincorporated settlements between Chibougamau and Abitibi housed about 17,000 whites on the fringe of Cree land, sending out prospecting teams for future mines, making preparations for logging operations to serve the Lebel-sur-Quevillon mill, and equipping sport fishing and survey parties testing for the feasibility of hydroelectric generation from the waters flowing off the plateau and into James Bay. HUNTING

Eloquent works (Tanner 1979, Feit 1979) have described the day-today life of hunting groups among the Cree around 1971. Sensitive films (Job's Garden, for Fort George, Cree Hunters of Mistassini, and The Cree of Paint Hills] have made the hunting life real for audiences who have never visited the forest in winter. I shall not try to match these portrayals, which bring out the religious symbolism, the traditional skills, the deep knowledge that hunters have of the environment and of the ways of animals, the hardship and work

20 A Homeland for the Cree

involved in living in the forest in winter, but also the predictability and security that deep knowledge can give - the knowledge that there are animals in the forest sufficient to provide for the needs of small human groups, that they will pass within range of a camp and be available for food, if one is ready and in the right place when they are available. Instead, I propose to sketch the place of hunting in the 1971 life of villages. For roughly 80 per cent of the families in the area the forest life was the main source of livelihood, and only 20 per cent were supported by full-time wage-work, though these proportions varied from village to village. Mistassini, though a large village, with many community projects and outside employment available in Chibougamau, had less than 20 per cent of its male workforce in wage-employment in the winter, though over 50 per cent of the workforce obtained some wage-employment at some time of the year - chiefly in the summer. In Great Whale and Fort George, where schools, the work on the dock, and the radar station at Great Whale provided more wage jobs, the proportion of year-round workers was higher, at 44 and 41 per cent respectively. But in the smaller villages the proportion of wage workers was lower, being less than 10 per cent in the smallest. The average overall was an involvement in hunting, full-time or part-time, by about 80 per cent of the families. Full-time Hunting Full-time hunting with no recourse to wage-labour was the way of life of about 40 per cent of families (again with differences between villages). Most family heads so occupied were over forty, and spoke no English. Typically they would be accompanied to the bush in the fall by older teenage children who had finished school (including those who were newly married), by young preschool children, and by elderly parents. Two or three such families would make up a hunting group, living together for the winter. Supplies and people might be flown in to the winter camp by light aircraft charter if the distance was considerable, though as we will see the cash costs of such chartering had already caused problems. The winter outfitting costs of a family might approximate $1,000. The timing of departure from the village to winter hunting territory varied between coastal and inland areas. Inland it was better to travel before freeze-up, to construct a winter house, and to secure immediately a reserve supply of meat. The rutting season of the moose provided the best and most abundant source of such a reserve, for each moose caught yields about 300 pounds of meat. Even if this meat is not supplemented by any catch of fish or rabbits, one animal

21 Village-band Society in 1971

suffices to feed a family for two weeks, even on a diet of three pounds of meat a person a day. Moose provided nearly half the diet of inland Cree in 1972-3, when they killed 891 animals. On the coast the fall goose hunt provided an equally important food source, that could be dried and stored as a winter reserve. Those people with coastal hunting territories, which were usually relatively unproductive of large game animals, moved only a little way inland when freeze-up ended the goose-migration. Those with inland territories carried their reserves with them on a longer trek. Once housed, with a food reserve, and with the ground frozen hard, attention could be switched to more predictable hunting - that of beaver, which provides both meat and furs. First, all the active beaver lodges in the hunting territory are located by systematic inspection of all lakes and streams over the area, which may range between 80 and 150 square miles. Routes are defined linking a number of lodges - each one is a "trapline" - so that the hunter can revisit the lodges systematically at intervals of three or four days, placing traps under the ice, and inspecting them to discover if beaver have been caught. When the first trapline is "trapped out," the hunter begins walking a second one. This ensures a steady harvest of animals, even if the work involved in snowshoeing for miles in deep snow, cutting through the ice behind each beaver dam, and hauling and replacing the traps on the pond bottom between the beaver lodge and the food stores of poplar and aspen, is more strenuous than most other work in modern society (Feit 1979: chap. 8). Each adult beaver provides about fifteen Ibs of meat and one of the most valuable furs for sale. A successful full-time inland hunter may, with the assistance of a teenage son, catch seventy-five beaver in a winter, providing a total of 1,125 Ibs of meat, and a cash return sufficient to pay for the outfitting for the winter. This figure is, however, above the average for the whole region, for beaver are less available further north, and nearer the coast. Nonetheless, beaver provide on average about a third of the meat supply of a hunter. While beaver trapping continues throughout the winter, it is supplemented by other food-getting activities. Snares are laid for other fur-bearers when traces of them are seen while walking the trapline. Rabbits may be snared, fish caught in nets under the ice, or ptarmigan shot, without going far from the camp-site. In January, when the snow is deep and has a thin crust, moose are immobilized in their trampled-down yarding areas, and remain stationary for the experienced hunter to shoot them easily, as he goes straight to the yarding areas he has identified while walking his trapline. Caribou were sometimes killed, especially in the northeastern Nitchequon area,

22 A Homeland for the Cree

and 1971 marked the reappearance of caribou in the Fort George territories, after many years when they had been uncommon. These other sources of meat provided the balance of about 25 per cent of what is eaten by hunters. Though accounts of hunting in the early years of the century (Rogers 1963) talk of having to move the camp location during the winter, as the result of an exhaustion of local game, this was by no means a universal practice in 1971. What was common was a visit to the village for the Christmas season, to sell the furs already caught at the highest price, to feast on the meat that hunters brought in, and to restock for the rest of the winter. In the spring the hunter must either return to the village, when planes can still land on lake ice or the snow is firm enough for land travel, or he must, before break-up, resign himself to waiting until the rivers are open for canoe travel or until float-planes can land on open lakes. During break-up, the ice is treacherous, snow is wet and soft, rivers are flooded or dangerous with floating ice, and bare ground becomes quagmire. Break-up is, however, the time of the hunt of returning geese, one of the major food sources for the coastal villagers, who scatter to sites along the sandy coastal flats and bays when the geese announce their return. The return is especially welcomed where the winter supply of meat is running short, for little else is readily obtained at this time of year. For coastal communities this is a time for stocking up on birds that are relatively easily dried, smoked, or preserved in a freezer. Then comes the summer period, when fish become the major game resource in most communities. Whitefish, suckers, walleye pike, and lake trout are the main fish in the inland lakes and rivers; sturgeon grow to great size, and spawn on the gravel of some lakes. On the coast the migration upriver to spawn of the whitefish provides more fish than can be eaten during a hectic two weeks in August, when everyone from Fort George congregates at the first rapids to haul out the fish. The summer, when all families lived close together near the post, was both a time for social interaction and a time for preparing for next winters hunting. Preparing equipment, collecting supplies, repairing old materials, and, above all, deciding who would form part of the next winter's hunting group took place at this season. Making the decision was in fact the task of the "tallyman" - the particular individual of the family "owning" each hunting territory who was deemed to be in ritual contact with the spiritual "Masters of the Animals" of the area, and whose name was usually recorded in the official Quebec Beaver Preserve registry. He could invite

23 Village-band Society in 1971

families to join him on his "ground/' or alternatively decide that the animals on the ground were being offended by overhunting, and that therefore he should "rest" the territory for a year and let no one hunt on it.3 The number of families hunting any particular territory was thus based on the tallyman's estimate of the productivity of hunting on a sustained yield basis - increasing if productivity were increasing, and decreasing if productivity were dropping tempered by the knowledge of how many families in the village needed a place to hunt for the following winter. Though no one asked directly for permission to join a particular tallyman, word circulated easily on the needs of everyone. The Part-time Hunter Roughly half of the hunters in 1971 (or about 40 per cent of the workforce) combined hunting with some wage-labour. Most simply this meant that a hunter who was hunting full-time in the winter obtained a wage-paying job during the summer, rather than fishing or constructing his own equipment for the following winter. Work for the HBC, transporting supplies from Ruperts House by canoe, had been the summer employment of many until 1927. Between then and the 1960s a smaller canoe brigade linked inland posts and the railroad. In 1971 unloading the barges that brought supplies from Moosonee to the HBC store in coastal settlements still provided a regular source of casual employment. But other activities were also common. Camps for fishermen, duck hunters, and big game hunters had been set up by outfitters, or by the provincial Ministry of Tourism, Fish, and Game, particularly near Lake Mistassini and on the coast near Rupert's House. These camps employed Cree guides to take the sportsmen to good fishing grounds, to set up their equipment, cook their catch, and ensure their safety. Cree with their own outboard motors and effective skills in dealing with white fishermen were in considerable demand and had a high reputation. A direct flight Pittsburgh-Hamilton-Montreal-Chibougamau by Nordair provided steel-industry executives with an easy and popular access to Lake Mistassini fishing every Friday afternoon, returning on Monday morning. The traditional bush skills of Cree hunters found other avenues for summer employment. Chibougamau has, since 1957, been a centre of mining and mine exploration. Ground survey teams, and teams clearing the trees along lines marking claims, employed groups of Cree. So too did the forestry industry that was pushing further northward from Abitibi, where Domtar had opened its automated

24 A Homeland for the Cree

Lake Quevillon mill in 1963. While logging, with the immense Timberjack machines that can strip whole trees of their branches in minutes, was the preserve of the trained operative, the traditional skills of Cree with axes and with chain saws - not to mention their ability to live comfortably in the bush miles from urban life - led to their employment in cutting timber in areas where the big machines could not operate. The part-time hunters taking summer employment tended to be somewhat younger than the full-time hunters. Critical here was the need to have some fluency in English, and this was a skill that had been taught in the local primary schools only since the 1950s. Few people aged over thirty had spent more than a few years in school by 1971, and few had learned more English than the minimum picked up from occasional visitors. Those with the best second-language skills often acted as the go-betweens for Cree with lesser skills, ensuring the employment of a group of friends by doing the talking with the employer, even if the work was equally shared among the group. Prospective employers in forestry or mining towns who needed a Cree team would pass the word around that they were looking for their familiar Cree contact person, and when that person checked in he would be asked to organize a team. Such contact persons were often called by the Cree word for "boss" - auchimau (LaRusic 1968). It must be added that although casual workers might work for a whole summer (or perhaps for only a few weeks), the salaries they received were at low levels, barely above the minimum wage. In the forestry industry the areas where manual cutting was appropriate, and where Cree teams would work, were the areas where productivity was lowest - and tree cutting was paid on a productivity basis. Skills beyond those of bush living were not acquired, except by new auchimau, and there was little likelihood that the Cree would ever be much more than the unskilled proletariat in an economy controlled by white businessmen. This part-year of casual wage-work in the summer was generally compatible with hunting for the winter in the bush and long before 1971 had emerged as a common pattern. It provided enough cash to purchase the supplies needed for the following winter, and since work was usually finished by early September, it did not conflict with setting up a winter camp. For the young man, trying to outfit for the winter for the first time, and having no past record of successful trapping to persuade the HBC to grant credit, summer wages were the only source of cash. Even the experienced hunter, whose past seasons fur catch did not provide enough cash for the following years outfitting, found casual wage-work a valuable way to meet the need.

25 Village-band Society in 1971

As demands for cash increased - to buy chainsaws, outboard motors, snowmobiles, or to pay the costs of an air-charter to fly the hunting group out to a distant camp-site, complete with supplies - so did the pressure to engage in summer wage-employment. Conflicts between casual wage-work and hunting were increasing steadily, especially when casual jobs continued after September. EMPLOYMENT IN THE VILLAGES

About 20 per cent of the adult workforce had regular wage-work within the villages, although this figure varied slightly from village to village. Most workers provided services to the local community. Each village's HBC post had by 1971 become a supermarket, and although the manager might be a southern Canadian, the store personnel - cashiers, stockmen, clerks, and even assistant managers - were usually local people. Again literacy and second-language skills were vital, though dealings with customers were mostly conducted in Cree. In some villages there were other stores, run locally. Paint Hills and Great Whale had cooperative stores, affiliated to the Arctic Cooperatives of Northern Quebec, which supplied them with central training and wholesaling but relied on local people to run the stores. In Fort George and Mistas.sini small local businesses had emerged. The supply of gasoline in Fort George had been granted to a local Cree by Shell Oil, and his business had become an important local centre, where all snowmobiles congregated for both fuel and repairs. In Mistassini a restaurant which combined some grocery sales and a pool table was also a social centre and a source of employment for local people. But retail businesses employed only a few people. Industry in the villages was less successful. The HBC had set up a canoe factory in Rupert's House at the height of long-distance transporting of goods by canoe brigades. It had exported its cedarplanked and canvas-covered canoes to enthusiasts for canoeing during the 1950s. But in the 1960s the decline in northern use of freighter canoes, accompanied by the change in sport canoes from wood and canvas to aluminium or fibreglass construction resulted in declining production. The Rupert's House canoe factory finally closed in 1977. Sawmills had seen a similar development. With active support initially either from the HBC or DINA, they had been set up in Mistassini and Rupert's House to use local wood, cut by local people, for local construction purposes. People had worked in the sawmills and had brought in some wood. But the mills did not operate efficiently; costs were high, and employment was intermittent and did not provide an incentive to take up full-time work. When the

26 A Homeland for the Cree

Mistassini mill caught fire and burned in 1969, no steps were taken to rebuild it. It was cheaper to import wood from the bigger mills in Chibougamau for construction purposes. In Fort George the Oblate Mission had organized its own cooperative, to operate a store, and had set up a business, manufacturing cement blocks for construction. It ran smoothly under outside management, supplying local demand, though the operation of what could well have been a profitable business caused some concern to the Fathers, who felt their role should be to encourage local entrepreneurs and to help solve local problems. The main source of village employment, even in 1971, was in government provision of services - in education, housing, health, and administration. Only the last of these employed Cree as senior personnel: the elected chief of each band was paid a half-time salary and he had under him a band manager/secretary who staffed the office. The primary schools in each village employed teachers who, with one or two exceptions, were white and did not live permanently in the community, though houses were provided for them. A program of introducing Cree materials into early schooling had begun in 1969, and a project to produce teaching materials in Cree, called "Creeways," was started in 1971 in Ruperts House. Creeways was assisted by researchers from McMaster University and by a training course run by Manitou College in collaboration with Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi and McGill, to upgrade the qualifications of Cree teaching personnel. Some teachers aides provided teaching in Cree within the communities. All schools had local janitorial staff. In the larger communities of Mistassini and Fort George (especially the latter), the schools were much larger employers. Not only were there schools teaching higher grades, but numbers of children from other settlements came to the schools in Fort George and Mistassini to take these grades. In Fort George a dormitory was operated at Sand Park School (operated by the Anglican Mission, but supported by a federal grant), employing not only maintenance and cooking staff, but also foster parents who could counsel and supervise the children. Not all away-from-home children stayed in dormitories. Many boarded with private families, who received an allowance to cover their costs. For many who were unable to hunt during the winter, boarding children from other settlements was an important source of income. In the case of the health services, nursing stations in villages and a newly opened provincial hospital in Fort George provided medical care through white professional personnel. But again to maintain

27 Village-band Society in 1971

the buildings local janitorial staff was used, and in the hospital the kitchens and the nursing orderly positions absorbed a number of local people, especially women. The operation of the physical plant of the villages had also become a significant source of employment. Garbage collection, operation of electric generators, collection of "honeybucket" sewage, and road clearing employed a small number in each village, though in unskilled jobs. A few of the services for the villages, notably, telephone service and air transportation, were provided by private companies and these companies did employ Cree agents for responsible tasks. The telephone network in each village used a radio telephone connection to the rest of the Bell Telephone system. Though local calls could be dialled, the local operator had to raise the Bell operator in Alma, Quebec, by radio for outside calls. Each time the conversation switched from the village speaker to the outsider speaker, he had to switch from "send" to "receive," and had to be warned by the speakers saying "over." In the smaller villages the operators were Cree, but in the large centres the operators were white. So too, in 1971 the only connection by a major airline to a Cree village was that from Montreal to Great Whale by Air Canada using Boeing 737s; Fort George was connected by DC3 service to Val d'Or three times a week by Fecteau Airways, and to Moosonee and Great Whale by Austin Airways. In addition, Austin Airways provided Twin Otter service between Moosonee, Ontario, Rupert's House, Eastmain, Paint Hills, and Fort George, while other air charter services connected Val d'Or, LaSarre, and Chibougamau airports with villages and bush camps, using a variety of float or ski-equipped planes. Austin Airways employed Cree staff in each village, acting as agents for all flights, both passenger and freight. The other airlines, located in the bigger centres, had white managerial staff and one or more local workers for ground operations. To this list of local service employment in the villages can be added a few businesses - hotels, stores, and restaurants catering mainly to outsiders - operated by whites who had settled locally. Some of these clustered along the road from Abitibi to Chibougamau, and each served as a focus for a small Cree hamlet nearby, supplying labour as needed, while also carrying on hunting. Others were located in Fort George and in Great Whale. These local businesses maintained close links with the Cree in the communities, the spouse of the owner often being Cree or Inuit, but the style of operation was that of a southern Canadian business, with management in the hands of whites and "help" in the hands of Cree. The overall average of 20 per cent of Cree males in regular wage-

28 A Homeland for the Cree

employment conceals the fact that in small villages the proportion was less than 10 per cent. In Fort George with its schools and hospital, and in Ruperts House when the canoe factory and sawmill were operating, the proportion was about 30 per cent. The employees had year-round jobs, but the number with any managerial responsibility or high level of manual skill was minimal. Most village workers were either clerical or unskilled. Even so their regular cash incomes made them well-off by village standards; they tended to live in substantial housing; they were the local "solid citizens/' The managerial employees, with their close interaction with other white managers and their link outside the community, constituted a core of important people whom any outsider contacted on arrival. There were about twenty of them in the whole Cree area in 1971. They were an elite, but an elite that did not isolate itself from other Cree. THE POLITICS OF VILLAGE BANDS

Local Micro-politics

The student of politics in small-scale societies could readily analyse the politicking that occurred within each village. The formal structure stressed by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs was that each of the bands was run by a chief and a Band Council, elected by open balloting at an annual election. The chief was paid a salary as a half-time employee (and this implied that he could not be a full-time hunter) and was assisted by a full-time paid band manager/ secretary who ran the office of the band - a one- or two-room structure in most villages, where the busiest days were those when welfare cheques were being distributed. Decisions were nominally made by resolution of the Band Council, at one of its regular meetings, and carried out by the chief and the manager. In practice meetings were irregular, most often being called on an emergency basis when a white official of DINA inquired what the band thought about a particular issue, and indicated that he was proposing to visit the band. When the District Office in Val d'Or, for example, was notified by Ottawa that the annual housing budget was being prepared, and requests had to be forwarded from the district, a request would be sent to each band, asking for its needs for housing construction for the coming year. In response the Band Council would meet, and an officer from the district would attend, bringing the figures on the cost per house permitted by the Treasury Board, and an estimate of what the expected district allocation (up 10 per cent

29 Village-band Society in 1971

perhaps on the previous year) would permit to be built in each village. While discussion by the council concerning the number of welfare cases, or requests to use village equipment, or the need to house teachers for a school expansion, might induce the officer to increase the estimate for a particular village from two to three houses, there was in fact little influence that the council could exert. It usually happened that someone would propose a resolution that stated what the district officer advised; discussion permitted much airing of dissatisfaction about various issues, but in default of these issues being formulated as resolutions, passed by a vote, and transmitted in writing to DINA, the discussion was mainly ineffectual. Where Band Council discussion could be effective was in deciding on issues of purely local concern - which individuals should be allocated new houses after they were built, or how the band could host a summer festival (or Pow-Wow) with canoe races, rifle-shooting contests, dancing, drumming, and guitar playing, and a feast of traditional foods. It is clear that some chiefs were more effective than others in obtaining the benefits (such as housing construction or expanded schools) that flowed from DINA through its District Office. Being known by the District Office, and trusted by the district officers, was obviously important, and favoured long-term chiefs who had become well known. Such a chief could perhaps talk with the visiting official in advance of the meeting, and persuade him that the meeting would go more easily if the draft resolution that the official brought with him incorporated more of what the chief wanted. Such chiefs knew which issues were dear to the heart of the officials, and which official "suggestions" had to be accepted enthusiastically, in order to persuade the official that some other item was feasible within the budgetary controls of DINA. Chiefs had to be bilingual, of course, and thus tended to be somewhat younger than the term "chief" might be expected to imply, but in general they were individuals who had shown themselves to be effective "brokers" or intermediaries in dealing with white officials. An effective chief, accorded prestige by officials, and effective in providing benefits to the band, was likely to be reelected for several years in succession. By contrast band councillors and band managers changed quite frequently. There was little that a councillor could do in the making of decisions, where most of the information came in English through the officials and the chief. A senior experienced hunter would rarely understand enough English to operate in a council discussion, or to be able to convert his knowledge of what the people of the band needed traditionally into the specifics of obtaining action through

30 A Homeland for the Cree

a modern bureaucracy. After a year of declining enthusiasm and increasing absences from meetings, most senior councillors did not stand for reelection. Other councillors were often elected because of their education and skills in English; band managers were almost invariably young and literate. Such councillors usually had no prolonged acquaintance with the bush life of 80 per cent of the villagers, and though enthusiastic for the ideas they had learned at school, were not skilled in persuading their more traditional colleagues to accept them. They either became disillusioned when their ideas could not be carried through (and so did not stand for reelection), or they offended influential senior villagers and were not reelected. The job of band manager, though salaried, was not a challenging one for most managers. Being present in the office, carrying out a small number of routine tasks, was the normal pattern of activity; being blamed when a crisis occurred, such as the electric generator failing or welfare cheques not being available, was often the fate of a manager. Even the important formal business (writing up band resolutions and transmitting them to the District Office) sometimes did not get done quickly by a young manager not too sure of his own skills and when the omission was discovered the manager would often resign before a fuss was made. The salary might initially attract a newly returned high-school graduate, but boredom, lack of supervision, and no challenge meant frequent changes in the position. Little expertise could be built up. The roles of chief and councillor did provide some prestige within village society, even if the Cree, like most northern hunting groups, traditionally had no formal authority positions. The leader of a hunting group had to provide leadership by example, never imposing his will on others since that would offend their sense of individuality and equality, but instead working harder, providing more meat from the hunt, and modestly offering wise advise. The redistribution of his surplus of food, and the presence of numbers of dependents in his household as a result of his effectiveness, were the signs of being a responsible, highly regarded individual The band chief who could act in this way was respected - but he had to use the same techniques of persuasion to get village action under his leadership, and never had the power to order others to do his bidding. Yet, as is widely reported for other societies where a colonial administration has worked through local appointees who did not have effective local authority, the chiefs were the focus for "transactional politics" (Silverman and Salisbury 1979). The benefits that they obtained from interaction with white officials could be allocated to followers who supported them; the annual elections became times

31

Village-band Society in 1971

when the supporters of candidates for chief (or councillor) could repay past favours (or could punish failures to provide favours). As has been suggested, in such matters as the allocation of housing and appointments to paid work for the band, as janitor or as manager, the chief s influence could be effective. Bands were often composed of "factions" - an establishment supporting the chief and benefiting from his favours, and other aggregates, complaining about the chief, especially if they received fewer benefits. These factions were frequently similar to local subgroupings that had existed before the village bands coalesced. Thus in Fort George families with hunting territories far inland camped together in one section of the village during the summer, while the more sophisticated "coasters" located themselves close to the HBC where they had built more permanent houses. In Mistassini the groups that had previously traded at Nitchequon or Nemiscau posts could sometimes be identified as a faction within the village on some issues. In Waswanipi the factions have been traced by LaRusic (1969) for many years, and in 1971 these reflected closely the separate settlements to which families had moved after the closure of the original HBC post. Band micropolitics often seemed a logical development within a small kinship-based society. But such analyses of micropolitics, while throwing considerable light on why effective combined political action was rare within a village, even within the narrow limits of decision making provided by the DINA bureaucracy, provide little insight into the political decisions that were being made regarding Cree society. These were largely the prerogative of DINA, which tended to regard the official structures of band government, and band administration, as a means by which district officials might tutor uninformed local Indian people in the mechanics of modern political administration, without granting any real authority to local structures. Small wonder that the structures taught little, except how to manipulate the distant white bureaucracy and to minimize its intrusion into local society. Village Politics - the Macro-level The place of native people in Canada in the 1960s has been characterized by Ponting and Gibbons (1980) as being in "irrelevance."4 DINA had a relatively small budget for the provision of services to native people ("status Indians" only), an obligation transferred to Canada from the British crown by confederation in 1867. The Indian Act of 1874 and subsequent treaties spelled out these obligations in some detail. The DINA budget was a small price - 0.3 per cent

32 A Homeland for the Cree

of Canada's GNP - for the Canadian public to pay for the comfortable feeling that it was fulfilling obligations to the first occupants of the country; the small conscience payment was rarely the subject of debate in Parliament, especially since the House Standing Committee on Indian Affairs seldom raised contentious issues. Instead, DINA was largely left to run itself, with career officials at its head, most of whom had seen service in the military or the RCMP. It was not a department that was seen as offering opportunities for a rising young deputy minister;5 operating it in a traditional way under long-term bureaucrats, with the least fuss, was seen as a benefit. Officials felt that they had come to know what Indian people wanted, and were protecting them from too violent a contact with the hectic changes occurring elsewhere in Canadian society. Weaver (1979) has painted a graphic picture of how the advent of the Trudeau government in 1968, with its watchwords of the "just society" and 'participatory democracy' conflicted with the earlier pattern of the DINA bureaucracy. Though much of the present work is concerned with how a somewhat sheltered "Indian society" has proved a successful mechanism for development (as indeed Weaver indicates was the Indian hope in seeking to maintain DINA and the Indian Act in 1969 against the "activism" of the young Turks of government), I would accept her description of DINA in 1971 as a relatively unchanging bureaucracy, operating slowly along time-hallowed lines. The Cree of northern Quebec were at the bottom of the bureaucratic hierarchy. Within DINA, Ottawa housed the policy-making offices for all the various programs administered by its Indian and Eskimo Affairs Branch (itself the junior branch of the department, being overshadowed by Northern Development and rivalled by National Parks). Here people made designs for houses for all Indian reserves, designed sewage systems, costed new administrative arrangements, planned curricula for Indian schools, suggested economic development schemes, conducted legal research or treaties and land rights, and prepared the budget request for the Treasury Board. Health services for native peoples were provided by the Health Services Branch of Health and Welfare. Each province had a regional headquarters administering all bands in the province, Quebec City being the regional administrative centre for the Cree, though only a few years previously the coastal Cree communities had been administered through Moosonee, Ontario. The majority of Cree villages formed part of the Abitibi District with a District Office in Val d'Or; Great Whale was in Northern Quebec District; until 1969 Mistassini had formed part of the Pointe Bleue District. Both Abitibi and Pointe Bleue districts included numbers

33 Village-band Society in 1971

of non-Cree bands located much closer to the District Office, and visited more often by the District Officer; in both districts the bands closer to the offices had higher educational levels, and more of the members of those bands were employed in the offices, albeit mainly at clerical levels. As we have seen, communications problems made travel between bands extremely expensive, and even travel from the District Office to individual bands a significant problem. In effect the District Office provided the centre, linking bands together, maintaining statistics on individual bands, overseeing expenditures, planning school enrolments, chartering planes to airlift students to school, and negotiating with the offices in Quebec or Ottawa to obtain what the District Office in Val d'Or felt was needed by the Cree. In two areas Indian policy in the 1960s had already moved towards facilitating greater participation in administration by the Indian people themselves in the Cree area. One chief from various groups of bands was named as a "regional chief," and there were three such chiefs among the Cree, one each in Fort George, Mistassini, and Rupert's House, with some degree of closer relationship with the District Office and responsibility for links with chiefs in small villages. There was also one well-educated former chief located in Val d'Or as an adviser to the District Office. These regional chiefs, and the district adviser (with other chiefs and councillors) will play important roles in our future narrative, and it would be invidious not to name them - Smally Petawabano of Mistassini, Billy Diamond of Rupert's House, John Mark of Wemindji, and Robert Kanatewat of Fort George. The other area of Indian political development in Canada during the late 1960s was the formation, with subsidy from DINA, of provincial Indian Associations. In Quebec the Indians of Quebec Association (IQA) was largely the creation of three groups, the Mohawk of Caughnawaga (Chief Andrew Delisle), the Huron of Loretteville near Quebec (Chief Max Groslouis), and the Montagnais of Pointe Bleue (Chief Aurelien Gill). By 1971 these sophisticated leaders had raised many issues of Indian rights, for example, the freedom from Canadian taxation of activities on reserves and of individuals working on reserves, and also the problems facing native people when arrested in urban areas. The IQA had hired a firm of lawyers to give it regular advice and to defend native clients in court. It was sponsoring the creation of an Institute of Native North American Studies (NNASI) in Montreal that would facilitate the entry of Indian students to the universities there, while also encouraging the teaching of Indian cultural subjects and the upgrading of the skills of native students.

34 A Homeland for the Cree

It was responding effectively to the needs and problems of those Indian groups in Quebec that had for centuries been in contact with urban life. The IQA had annual meetings to which came two delegates from every band - the chief and one other delegate. A forum was thus in existence for the discussion of issues common to all native people, and for some contacts to emerge between the chiefs of closely related bands. In IQA meetings which I attended in 1971 and 1972, however, the floor was dominated by those who spoke fluent English or French, and who were concerned with issues relating to the needs of urban groups. If a chief from a nonmetropolitan group spoke, the issues that he raised were picked up by other speakers only if they fitted with the themes raised by the leaders. Even in 1972, when the Cree chiefs and delegates met privately during the annual meeting (held in Mistassini) there was the feeling that this was a group of people who were only now beginning to work together as colleagues who understood one another, and that they still had need of the IQA structure (and its legal counsel) to help them to achieve effectiveness. In short, a group of between seven and fourteen Cree had had some experience of modern political action or administration by 1971; as we shall see, they had the further link of having been to school together. By 1971 this group (augmented by perhaps fifteen Cree with experience as band managers or private business entrepreneurs) constituted an indigenous political and administrative elite. For these administrative tasks the salaries paid to all senior Cree administrators totalled about $15,000, and the band managers received about another $30,000. The DINA administrators resident in Val d;Or (excluding those located in Quebec City or in Ottawa) numbered about eighty people, overwhelmingly white, and about half of them may be attributed to Cree administration. Salaries of $20,000 each for senior administrators and $10,000 for more junior staff were indicated in Public Service salary scales. It is clear that Cree political administration, and the salary expenses involved therein were almost entirely the preserve of whites, rather than of the Cree. Village bands were local social aggregates, administered by white officials from Val d'Or, who, almost exclusively, provided the link between villages; the eight Cree chiefs and advisers were mainly the local spokesmen for this white officialdom. EDUCATION

The foregoing description of political decision making has shown the decisions about education being taken predominantly by white

35 Village-band Society in 1971

administrators in Val d'Or. The pattern of education among the Cree in 1971 shows how these administrators took seriously their commitment, during the 1960s, to raise the level of services provided to Indian people towards the level provided elsewhere in Canada but only gradually, starting from the extremely low level that prevailed up to 1960. As we shall see, the system planned by the administrators tended to reflect southern white views of "desirable schooling," rather than northern realities. The disjunction between schooling designed to fit middle-class southern Canadians into urban life, and children growing up in a northern Indian village, was a clear reflex of this administrative pattern. Before World War n the Anglican Mission had been giving Cree Indians formal schooling at its primary grade schools in Fort George6 (to which came pupils from coastal bands) and in Moose Factory for inland Cree pupils. DINA funds supported these schools and the student hostels. Enrolment rose steadily in the 1950s, even if few individuals persevered through the full period of six grades needed to graduate to high school, in the face of home-sickness and the frustration of studying at the age of eight or nine reading texts that were designed for five-year-olds in southern schools. Dick-and-Jane readings were not suitable for more mature northern children, denied an early schooling by the unavailability of schools in each community and handicapped by the need to learn in a second language. Other mission schools in Brantford, Ontario, and LaTuque, Quebec, also accepted Cree boarding pupils at the primary level during the 1960s, LaTuque becoming a major centre by 1966. By then, dissatisfaction with boarding schools, especially those where immersion in English (or French) was imposed on Indian pupils who came speaking nothing but Cree, was being widely voiced among educators. Sindell (1968) reported on the psychological problems suffered by such children, while the high drop-out rates, the alienation from education, and the high cost of boarding schools relative to their success had also been widely recognized. In 1964 the opening of a day school in Mistassini marked the beginning of local primary schools; the Sand Park school in Fort George steadily expanded the number of grades taught, so permitting more children from other Cree communities to delay their departure from a Cree-speaking community. The teachers in these schools were no longer missionaries, but increasingly during the 1960s were professional teachers, attracted by the experience of teaching for a short period in an exotic northern environment and paid extra "Northern allowances/' There was little opportunity to spend these allowances during the school year, since the teachers were housed in specially

36 A Homeland for the Cree

built apartments close to the schools, for which only a minimal rent was deducted from their salaries. The teachers' residences fell vacant the moment the term finished and the teachers flew south, to be reoccupied only the day before the next term began. The teachers were often young, adventurous, and open-minded about work in a native community, but their commitment to the community was limited, and their interaction with local people was restricted by their style of living, which remained that of southern apartment dwellers. They spent at most a few years in the north, saving most of their salaries as a nest-egg for a return south. By 1971 the rising number of Cree children, and the desirability of children staying at home when possible, had brought about the construction of a village school and one or more teachers houses in every village. It had become accepted that early teaching of children might be facilitated by kindergarten or preschool classes in the village, using both Cree and English (of French). A few Cree were employed as teaching aides for kindergarten classes, and in the smaller villages a one-room school provided for grades 1 and 2 as well. Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 were taught in Fort George and in Mistassini, and students going on to these grades from the primary schools had to become boarding pupils or live with foster parents in the village. Providing foster care and supporting the school had become the major source of wage-income in Fort George. The problems of expanding a school system where previously there were neither school buildings, teachers, adequate finance, nor a flow of children through schools were met by slow expansion at the top and a broader expansion at the base. The most obvious expansion was the addition of one or more new classrooms at each village school in most years, to cope with the inflow of young children. They could be taught by adding one or more teachers locally, sometimes even employing a Cree with high school training who took educational courses during the summer. At the top the few students who lasted the course and completed primary grades (even if at a later age than would be normal in urban areas) were found places in urban schools. The initial group went to Sault Ste Marie; later groups went to Hull, Quebec, and to Brampton, Ontario, and boarded with local families. Further expansion at the base came as the Direction Generate du Nouveau Quebec (DGNQ) provided teaching in French at local schools, starting at Rupert's House in the buildings of the Oblate Fathers' Mission. By 1972 this school taught a total of forty-three pupils in all grades up to grade 7. In 1972 the first local high school was established at Fort George. The dormitory facilities that had housed primary pupils from other

37 Village-band Society in 1971

coastal settlements were less needed for this purpose, since local schools offered more primary education in each village; the major dormitory (and foster parent) operations were turned over to housing the first two grades of secondary schooling. Fort George became the educational centre of the region. It can be seen from this sketch that it was never possible for villages to plan and provide for their own schooling; they controlled the resources neither to build the schools nor to recruit and hire their own teachers. More importantly, the planning - predicting how many children might go to school two years hence - and organizing of classroom construction were not feasible for local communities. And in any case, the critical growing point of the total school system - at the top - was not accessible to any single village where only one or two pupils might be eligible for the next higher grade, and no class could be formed for such a small group. In practice regional planning by white officials developed an entire system, utilizing the system of grades, curricula, and recruitment of teachers that was used across Canada in DINA schools. The size of the budget (negotiated, it is true, on the basis of village "needs" that could be quantified) determined the size of the total system expansion each year. Within those limits the particular village needs that were met were those that appeared most urgent. If the expansion was insufficient for all pupils, the individuals concerned had no alternative but to forgo schooling; if the Cree were not happy with the type of schooling provided, their only alternative was the same one of "dropping out/' In the area of teacher training the preparation of Cree candidates was under way, in programs that did make allowances for northern problems. By 1971 three Cree had begun courses in Montreal universities leading towards teaching diplomas, although the problems they faced in regular university courses in a large city, far from home and speaking languages that were second and third languages to them, were acute. With other Indian students they had combined to initiate the previously mentioned Native North American Studies Institute to help solve these adjustment problems and also to introduce more teaching about native American cultural, social, and historical matters into the universities themselves. They were active in the institute, though more tightly involved in their professional education courses than most non-Cree Indian students of NNASI. At the same time they were under pressure to return to their communities and teach, when a vacancy arose (as happened in most years), even if they had not yet completed formal teaching. A research group at McMaster University, under Richard Preston,

38 A Homeland for the Cree

had helped to establish the project, based in Ruperts House and initiated by the teacher there, John Murdock, called "Creeways." It recorded ethnographic material; it also turned that material into texts and other teaching aids for the Cree themselves, and trained Cree in how to convert their own local researches into history or language into material for children to study. Individuals working with the project were well prepared for training as Cree-language instructors of children acquiring literacy or as interviewers of older people called in to give courses in Cree culture. Both these programs were incipient in 1971. Over the next few years they fed into the main avenues for the supply of Cree teachers during the 1970s (before the flow of high school graduates reached "normal Canadian standards"), namely, local teacher upgrading through courses in specific skills such as second-language teaching and the analysis of Cree linguistics, or alternatively the following through of the regular (slightly compressed) program of teacher training by means of summer courses. Manitou College, the offspring of the NNASI, became the vehicle for both avenues, with Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi providing the certification and the staff for the courses given. It is worth noting the role that these teachers and these programs played. Off-beat and experimental in comparison with the orthodox system, and often criticized for not adhering to the standards desired by planners, the programs produced good results in many individual cases, making it possible for some villagers to get somewhat outside the system. As will appear, one of the challenges of the 1980s has turned out to be that of maintaining the impetus provided by these early teachers, at a time when the rest of the Cree system is attaining maturity - but also a degree of bureaucractic rigidity. The simplest way of indicating the degree to which Cree villages had become involved in schooling is to look at the proportion of each age group attending school (or university). In the academic year 1971-2 there were 607 children aged between four and nine in the coastal villages; of them 70 per cent were attending school, suggesting that even if a third of the parents delayed schooling until the age of six, because they wished their children to accompany them to the bush during the winter, about 85 per cent of all other children attended school. In the age group from ten to fourteen, 317 out of 433 children attended school - a rate of 73 per cent, indicating relatively little drop-out if the same proportion had started school at six. Among those aged between fifteen and nineteen the attendance was 173 out of 316, or 55 per cent - a figure indicating a remarkably low drop-out rate after the end of compulsory schooling and roughly

39 Village-band Society in 1971

comparable with that found in urban communities. Of the 280 aged between twenty and twenty-four, only twenty attended an educational institution, or 14 per cent. A low absolute figure, and a low rate, but one that would not have been exceptional among rural populations anywhere in Quebec about ten years previously. But if these figures show that most Cree had accepted the premise that schools were desirable, and that children ought to go to schools, and if, for some fifteen years, their children had indeed attended schools at an increasing rate, the results of that schooling were not as impressive. Cree children averaged over three years older in each grade, as compared to the Canadian average (or suffered an average grade-retardation of over three years), as a result of delayed entry into school, the need to master a second language before really beginning school-learning, and alienation from school. This alienation resulted from exposure to teachers who were strangers to the community or to the north, from curricula that seemed "irrelevant" in a northern environment (e.g., talk of flowers and plants that no northern child saw), and from lack of a sense of where schooling was supposed to lead, since children saw few local Cree pursuing careers which required education. Among teachers, nurses, and HBC managers there were few Cree who had attained these positions through prolonged regular education. One Cree with a high school education from Mistassini, Buckley Petawabano, had indeed become a TV star, and many Cree teenagers took him as a role model. In short, Cree education was neither intolerably bad nor commendably good in 1971. It was improving rapidly from an earlier period of neglect; it had reached the standard of rural school systems in southern Canada of perhaps ten years earlier; it was provided by white officials, through white teachers, in village schools. Involvement of Cree in the provision of that education, and in a concern for its quality, was restricted to a very small number of individuals. None had yet become involved in the regional structures outside the villages that supplied the village school. OTHER SERVICES

This pattern of education, in which the service itself is accepted as an integral part of village life but the provision of it is largely in the hands of whites, and the inter-village planning of the service exclusively so, can be seen in most other village services in 1971. Here I shall deal briefly with only four other services: health, retail trade, air transport, and telephone. The pattern described is common, and citing other examples would be repetitious, though these examples

40 A Homeland for the Cree

will also serve later as contrasts with the 1981 situation. Health Provision of health services for Indian people in the Cree area in 1971 was a responsibility of the federal Department of Health and Welfare (H&W). It discharged that responsibility by maintaining nursing stations in the villages of Mistassini, Paint Hills, and Rupert's House, by sending specialist medical and dental personnel periodically to visit those stations, and by providing hospital care for Cree patients in federal hospitals in Moosonee and in Montreal. The Quebec government had been extending its services in Northern Quebec shortly before 1971. It had recently built a hospital in Fort George, close to the Oblate Mission, while a provincial hospital was situated in Chibougamau. Indian patients from Fort George and nearby coastal villages would be treated in the Fort George Hospital, the costs being charged to H&w; patients from Mistassini would be sent to the Chibougamau hospital on the same basis. The health services were well used by native people, although the services were limited in scope by the travel involved in obtaining them and by limited personnel. Each nursing station was manned by two nurses and had regular clinic hours every day. Emergencies of all kinds within the villages automatically were brought to the nurse for treatment, while emergencies in the bush were brought in as often as proved possible. If the treatment that could be provided on the spot was unable to meet the problem, the nurses could phone out for help and advice (though as previously noted, telephone service by radiophone was not easy or reliable). If the case required only diagnosis, they could describe symptoms to a doctor at one of the hospitals, and he could make a tentative diagnosis and prescribe treatment to be provided by the nurses. If the nurses, having diagnosed, felt that the case was beyond the local resources of care, they could request permission to send the patient to the hospital for treatment. The doctor at the hospital could then approve either the dispatch of an emergency flight to the village to pick up the patient or the transporting of less urgent cases on the next commercial flight stopping at the villages. Though nursing stations could treat one or two bed-patients on a temporary basis, any treatment requiring prolonged bed-care had to be provided either by hospitalization outside the community or by family care at home with visits by nurses. The waiting rooms of the nursing stations were not ordinarily filled with emergency patients, however, although accidents from using axes are very common; the bulk of the patient load involved pregnant

41 Village-band Society in 1971

mothers and the care of young children. Every day the clinics took mothers for pregnancy check-ups, and well-babies for their periodic weighings, examinations, and prescriptions of vitamins or diet. Sick children with gastro-intestinal complaints, or colds and chest infections provided almost as many clients. With a high birth-rate of over 30 per 1,000 population and over 50 per cent of the population aged under twenty, child and maternity care both were in great demand, and had paid off in a vastly reduced infant mortality. The nurses in the communities were often French-speaking, having been recruited in Quebec, and often had a somewhat lonely if busy and challenging time in the villages. To relax in French with anyone other than the other nurse meant either a visit to the Oblate Mission, or to the house of the local representative of the DGNQ. Relaxing with other local people involved speaking English, but it also almost invariably involved some sort of professional consultation about health problems. The nurses are always available for a life-or-death emergency twenty-four hours a day, but to avoid being called out every day at all hours, for cases that are not really urgent, they maintain a firm rule of seeing patients only during clinic hours, and in practice jealously maintain their privacy when off duty. The role of the hospital is significant in every village, even if it is located far away. Several adult villagers had the childhood experience, when tuberculosis was being eradicated in the north, of being flown out of the community to spend years in a southern sanatorium or foster home, in an environment where no one spoke Cree. When they returned north they spoke English, and had knowledge of urban ways and friendships with white Canadians that were not shared by other local people. Most families had had one or more members who had been flown out for treatment in recent years. Moosonee Hospital (and even the hospitals in Montreal) were, at second-hand, familiar territory. There were always one or two Cree from other villages being treated there; the nursing staff, the social workers who chaperoned young patients during travel, and the medical staff, though English-speaking, were familiar with the problems of Cree-speaking patients in a strange environment, and did their best to provide a "home" atmosphere. In addition the Cree resident in the area of the hospital made a point of visiting patients even if they were not close relatives. In short, a stay in hospital outside the Cree area, though traumatic, was also an occasion for helpful behaviour by non-kin aimed at making the patient feel at home. Bureaucratic delays or problems over flights might negate those attempts, but in principle a stay in hospital outside the community was accepted as part of village life. The absence of bed-care facilities in villages means that

42 A Homeland for the Gree

hospitalization often was needed for illnesses that would not merit it in southern communities with medical care close at home, and most people had experienced hospitalization. The hospitals in Fort George and Chibougamau shared to some extent this sense of being an extension of the home village, but with some differences. Both were oriented to serving a general Quebec population (in contrast to H&w facilities designed, albeit by whites, with an Indian population in mind), and the fact that some patients were Indian was secondary. French-speaking medical and nursing staff could speak to Cree patients only through the intermediary of someone who spoke English, and Cree patients, even those who spoke English, could not understand what doctors and staff said about them in professional conversations. The hospitals appeared less welcoming to the Cree. By contrast the presence of larger numbers of Cree living in the community made the visiting of patients and the carrying of messages from patients to their kin an easier activity. Yet this still did not make the hospital seem like a home-from-home. The few Cree employed in the hospitals were working in a relatively menial capacity as cleaners or orderlies, subordinate to the white staff; the staff, under pressure from the potential volume of visitors, enforced stricter observance of rules regarding the number of visitors permissible and the hours of visiting. Cree employees, visitors, and patients alike felt "controlled" by a "foreign" staff. This ambivalent attitude towards the hospitals, in which acceptance of them as part of Cree life was accompanied by the feeling that they were run by "foreigners" even within a Cree community, is perhaps best brought out by the acceptance by Cree women of hospital delivery of babies. Even by 1971, and except in the case of unexpectedly premature births in hunting families delayed in returning to the settlements, almost all births took place in hospital. This clearly meant that many pregnant women had to travel by plane from villages like Paint Hills or Eastmain several weeks ahead of expected delivery to avoid any need for emergency flights when labour began. Their stay in Fort George or Chibougamau might be at the hospital, but if at all possible a Cree would prefer to stay with a related family and go into hospital only when labour began. Urgent deliveries often became apparent in Eastmain and Rupert's House just before the plane arrived on its flight to Moosonee, but only rarely before the flight to Fort George. In sketching this picture of health services from the point of view of villagers, I have focused so far on the acceptance by villagers of the services provided, even if these were provided by non-Cree and

43 Village-band Society in 1971

were often outside the village. It must also be stressed that the provision of the services was dependent on the communication links between communities, and that these too were the almost exclusive concern of non-Cree. The telephone system and the air transport system will be discussed in more detail later, but here what is significant is the control of these services by white medical staff. The unreliability of the radiophone system between communities and its cost have already been mentioned. Yet the regularity with which messages were sent between nursing stations and the medical centres meant that the medical staff were expert in coding messages to get them through with the minimum of distortion. Funds were used liberally to ensure that messages got through. In cases of medical emergency, (and even in cases where the emergency was somewhat less serious), an operator could be contacted, using the intermediary of the radio in a plane flying overhead, since reception at 10,000 feet was clear even if ground stations were inaudible because of static. Medical personnel in villages had a power of communicating outside that no other villagers had. So too with air transportation. Scheduled flights in 1971 had a probability of successful arrival at the destination of about 60 per cent. Weather conditions at the point of departure, insufficient bookings to make a flight feasible, or inability to land at the village airstrip or water area, could all mean "no flight coming in today/' Delay was normal. But additional nonscheduled flights - charters or additional flights on scheduled runs - were also common. Rarely were these at the behest of local people, who often had difficulty arranging a time for charters to carry them to their winter hunting locations. Yet for a medical emergency (as also for the visit of a government official) nonscheduled flights appeared to be easily arranged. And on a medical charter there would usually be space for others besides the patient concerned; to the villager both the flight and the additional space appeared to be available at the request of the nurse. In fact, of course, the decision concerning the need for a charter was subject to approval by a medical hierarchy outside the village; the arrival of a charter was subject to the availability of planes, and the state of the companies chartering planes in the region (not to mention the meteorological staff at airports and the maintenance of airports by the Ministry of Transport). Enough has been said, however, to indicate the degree to which the availability of services could be unpredictable for the villager, but apparently under a degree of control by the health personnel in the village, using their links with the world outside the village.

44 A Homeland for the Cree Retail Trade

Though the role of the Hudson's Bay Company had changed during the village-band period from one of "managing" the entire village economy to one of operating the village supermarket and department store, the HBC still played a particularly crucial role. It ran most of the supply system for the village to obtain manufactured goods; as already noted, it provided a significant part of the wage-employment within villages; it also controlled the village's access to new goods. If the HBC store was inactive (as had happened in old Waswanipi) the community was inactive; if the store was badly run, the community suffered; the presence of an active, community-oriented manager like the one at Mistassini could make the entire community feel active and prosperous. In the coastal villages and in Fort George the HBC transport system was the mainstay of the economy. Every summer after spring breakup, the barges would begin arriving from Moosonee, and would continue intermittently until freeze-up. From a late-spring low point of being out of all kinds of desirable products, the store after the arrival of the first barge would become a mecca for people seeking goods that they had been doing without for months. Though the first barge might not bring exactly what was needed, throughout the summer the HBC could always promise that "it will be on the next barge." Once the last barge had arrived in the fall, the village was essentially stocked for the winter. If the HBC manager, who had to make his predictions and send in orders at least by January of the previous year, made a bad judgment of what his needs would be, the community would suffer for it sixteen months later with shortages and hardship. It is true that air-freight was possible to all communities, but the cost made this method prohibitive except for very light articles or for emergencies. Cigarettes, even with a freight charge of 40 cents a pound to Fort George, were regularly flown in to all villages. In practice, a major part of the incoming air freight was items purchased through the mail, either from catalogues like those of Eaton's or Sears or through personal contacts in town. By a quirk of the Canadian postal system the coastal Cree communities were deemed to be in the same postal zone as Moosonee, and thus packages paid the rate for surface parcel post delivery to Moosonee, even if in practice mail was shipped by air from there and charged as air freight to the Post Office account. The snag for villagers in this method of ordering was that such parcels had a low priority in shipment from Moosonee, and months might pass before a heavy parcel moved from the cargo

45 Village-band Society in 1971

shed at the airstrip to a scheduled flight with space available. Clearly what was available at the HBC store depended on what the manager ordered. For most goods his knowledge was excellent, based as it was on over a hundred years of records in the store, on fairly stable consumer demands by the Cree villagers, and on a market that could be called "captive" since the HBC was often the only local source of supply. But for goods that had newly become available, the manager had to guess. Elberg describes (1976) the arrival of the first all-terrain vehicle in Paint Hills. The HBC manager thought that it might be suitable for use by villagers either locally or when hunting, and ordered one vehicle for the store, which he himself used to familiarize local people with its potentialities. Whether or not it could have helped in summer hunting, the vehicle was perceived by villagers as a recreational vehicle, and no rush to order others ensued. In 1970 snowmobiles had only recently become an item demanded by large numbers of villagers, after being featured for some years by the HBC. In the case of snowmobiles the model imported by the HBC became the standard model for all villagers. To recommend it there was the possibility of credit payment that the HBC made available to its clients; the knowledge that spare parts would be available; and the guarantee of service and advice permanently available in the village itself. But if the HBC could introduce new goods, some successfully and others unsuccessfully, and served as a channel for innovations for the benefit of each village, it could also delay innovation. Villagers listening to short-wave radio, visiting outside their communities, reading magazines or newspapers, or even receiving an Eaton's catalogue, were all aware that the local HBC store did not stock every article. Sometimes they would ask the manager for an unstocked article, which he would "special order," and perhaps decide to order a few more as a trial for future stocking. But experience with the costs of shipping expensive novelties to an isolated store, where they might never be sold, made managers hesitant to order in this way. More often caution prevailed, and the HBC then appeared to the villagers as a dull, conservative store, unwilling to experiment. To the villager with knowledge of the outside, the prices in the HBC store also seemed extremely high, especially when the village price of an article like a stereo set was compared with that advertised in the Eaton's catalogue. The costs of freight were part of the local price. So too were the added costs of doing business in the north - the relatively high salaries for managers and staff paid at northern rates, the large stock needed for the slow turnover, the costs of heating and repairs, and above all the problem of goods that do not sell and

46 A Homeland for the Cree

cannot be sent back to where they might sell because of the high cost of doing so. Prices in an HBC store might justifiably be double those in a southern store, but few villagers did not feel that they were being charged exorbitant prices by a monopoly. The importance of the HBC to the community as a source of goods and of innovation were evident and accepted. It employed local people, even up to managerial levels in smaller communities, and it operated bilingually in Cree and English. It was a social centre for the village. It was the only source of supplies needed for hunting and was the major channel for marketing furs. It could serve these functions only because of its links with Moosonee, with HBC headquarters in Winnipeg, with fur auctions in Montreal, and with other HBC stores in nearby villages. But these links were all beyond the control (or access) of villagers, though critically part of the village system. They were the source of ambivalence towards what was, in other contexts, seen as a northern enterprise. I have earlier mentioned the existence of Co-operative stores in Paint Hills, Fort George, and Great Whale, and the enthusiasm that, at one time or another, greeted these challenges to the HBC monopoly. Yet in reality the challenge was on paper only. The reliable supply system of the HBC, its long (and conservative) experience with ordering, its capital backing that made large inventory and slow turnover bearable, all showed their importance as the Co-op stores stagnated in the early 1970s. Huge piles of unwanted goods, ordered optimistically by an inexperienced local manager who felt villagers ought to buy what he felt they should; inability to correct inadequacies of supply during the winter or to rapidly replace goods in an emergency: reliance on mail service for ordering, when the HBC had its own private radio system - all these disadvantages made the Coops small enterprises, with few customers, struggling to keep alive (even with the support of the Provincial Federation of Arctic Coops) rather than effective competitors of the HBC. Air Transport As previously noted, the companies providing these services were Air Canada to Great Whale and to Val d'Or; Nordair serving Chibougamau; Austin Airways connecting all coastal villages with Moosonee and Timmins; Fecteau Airways linking Fort George and Val d'Or; all other flights were by charter companies. All employed white managerial staff and Cree manual workers, except in the case of Austin Airways where the agents and ground workers in all communities served were Cree.

47 Village-band Society in 1971

In all communities the arrival of a scheduled plane was a significant event. In small villages where a float (or ski-equipped) plane provided service, it overflew the village and inspected the landing area before pulling up (over water or over ice) to a centrally located dock. In Fort George and Great Whale, where the size of the airstrip meant that the airline buildings were on the outskirts of town, a procession of trucks would precede the flight's arrival, while everyone in town knew when the plane landed, as it came in low over town. In Fort George the flight-path lay directly above the Sand Park School, disrupting lessons. The waiting rooms at the major airstrips were always jammed with people for an hour before flight time, farewelling departing villagers or departing white officials resident in, or temporarily visiting, the community. In the villages a crowd would assemble in expectation at the shore, near the dock. When the flight came in the new arrivals would be effusively greeted, the mail and baggage would be unloaded and distributed, messages would pass between pilots and airline agents, and the new passengers and their baggage would be loaded on board. Within an hour, all would be quiet again. The activity at plane arrival and departure is only one visible evidence of intense involvement of the community in its air-service. Clearly preparations in households where a sick person is to leave for hospital, or children are coming back from boarding-school, long antedates the wait for the plane's landing and taking off. The wait for the delivery of goods ordered as birthday presents or to replace broken household appliances may last for several months. The arrival of an official, to update the list of pupils eligible for secondary schooling next year, is the focus of long planning or of anxious concern if planning is behind schedule. Everyone concerned wants to know in advance when the plane is likely to arrive, if it is indeed coming, and who or what is on the plane. People talk among themselves about this, and speculate endlessly about accidents and weather conditions. Those who are knowledgeable call the agent for the airline. The agent's job is thus vital in the community, particularly in the small communities where there is no airport where Department of Transport or Weather Service officials control flights. The agent, either at his home or at an office near the dock or airstrip, must prepare everything for the flight - the weighing of parcels, the passenger manifest, the warning of people if there is a change in flight plans. He has a radio that puts him in contact with the pilot in the air, and he provides information on ground conditions to the pilot. He can transmit emergency messages through the pilot, or through other agents and the ground control at the main airstrips.

48 A Homeland for the Cree

When the plane is on the ground he is the familiar of the aircrew, and can arrange for them to mail letters or pass on gossip. They too pass on gossip to him that is not publicly available over the radio. If the pilot insists that the weight limit would be exceeded by a planned load the agent must decide which passenger is "bumped" or which cargo is left behind. The agents are thus placed at the intersection of the airline system and the village system, being firmly located within the villages yet remaining dependent on their ties throughout the region, to planes and to other agents. In 1971 the contrast between Austin Airways, whose local agents were all Cree, and the other airlines, whose agents were all white, was dramatic. Familiarly people joked about Austin Airways, calling it "Wally's Airways," after the agent in Fort George where all flights called. It was viewed as the regional airline, considered as "ours" in the villages, even if the equipment, the aircrews, and the management were all in the hands of outsiders. The other airlines were all "foreign," controlled outside, run by outsiders, with little consideration for the convenience of local people, even if a large segment of village life centred on them. The nonscheduled airlines that were used for flying hunters to the bush in the fall and back in the spring on a charter basis fitted the same pattern. Here, even more clearly, the availability of a plane for a particular village depended upon the scheduling by the airline company; the decision on whether to fly a particular charter at any particular time was made by the pilot of the plane, in the knowledge of the size of the load and the local weather conditions. These constraints were accepted. But if the pilot had no means of communicating with his passengers, because his airline had no Creespeaking agent in the village, the convenience of the travellers received less consideration. Cree charters would be given second priority to charters by non-Cree companies or government agencies. Here was a situation that could provoke bad feeling. Where flying to distant traplines had become an integral part of the hunting economy, Cree control over this part of village life was weak, and a matter of ambivalence. Pilots were appreciated as people and as experts, but the air service as a whole was not Cree. Telephones As mentioned earlier, there were problems inherent in the telephone system for a villager wishing to talk with someone outside the community. The single channel radio limited free conversation as it necessitated only one party speaking at a time, and an operator

49 Village-band Society in 1971

switching from "transmit" to "receive" each time the party said "over." The frequency of poor reception of radio signals, and the inability to contact the main exchange in Alma, Quebec, compounded the problem of making outside calls. Nonetheless the telephone was integral to much of village life. In all villages except Paint Hills - where there were problems with water entering the undergound cables - roughly half of all houses were connected by telephone. Though visiting between houses was the major social activity that communicated news and information, before dropping in for a visit most people would check whether the person they wished to visit was at home. Children happily visited friends in other houses, with parents secure in the knowledge that if their son or daughter was needed at home, a few telephone calls would locate the child. People used the phone frequently and easily within the village, as part of everyday life. The problems with longdistance calls affected the government and business offices of the community, more than it did the homes. The Northern Quebec Telephone Company was a separate Bell Telephone affiliate. Its operators in villages were educated Cree, though its technical staff who came to villages to repair and connect phones were whites, flying in for a few days whenever the backlog of repairs or new connections justified the journey. Delays in repairs, unavailability of phones or parts, and repeated shelving of major improvements to the system were the constant subject of complaint in villages. Yet in another sense the radio-telephone unified the region. In each village the local operator listened in on all calls between villages, since the channel was kept open for the moment when the voice would say, "Calling Eastmain, calling Eastmain. Are you receiving me? Eastmain, over." Though the telephone exchange was a workplace, it was rare for the operator not to have company as he sat, waiting to be called. The message that Mrs Blacksmith of Eastmain had had her baby in Fort George Hospital would be heard in Paint Hills and Great Whale, and unofficially, passed on to relatives in the other communities. If there was an incoming call for Jimmy Rabbitskin, the operator not only knew the telephone number of the Rabbitskin house, but he, or one of the people present, would also know that Jimmy at that moment was visiting his cousin's place, where the phone would be rung. Outsiders, unused to the system, could inadvertently publicize their private affairs up and down the coast. Cree used the system circumspectly, but effectively. If they did not wish their message to be understood by non-Cree, in the person of the operator in Alma, they could always use Cree as the

50 A Homeland for the Cree

language of talk (though the village operators had to be able to understand). But what did most to make it a Cree institution was the fact that long-distance charges became due only when an interconnection was made with the Bell system lines, via the Alma operator. Calls handled solely by the Cree operators in the villages cost nothing - even if they could be made only during the hours when the operator was on duty. The regulatory process, the capital investment of the Bell system, the technology, the technicians, and the management of Northern Quebec Telephone were all essential to the existence of telephones in the villages. It is true that the operation of the telephones was substandard by comparison with southern telephones, and this could be blamed on the difficult conditions of the north. Yet the telephone itself, and the links it provided between communities, as well as the link it provided to the wider world of southern Canada, were vital components of village life. Individual Cree did some of the telephone-associated tasks within individual villages. But the management and planning that made the village operation possible were located outside the villages, and were in the hands of non-Cree. CONCLUSION

The use of the term "village-band society" in this study has been justified in terms of the traditional usage of the term "band" for small Indian groups, and in terms of the settlement of each administrative band in a village. Another connotation of the term band may now be added as a further justification. "Bands," in the popular mind, are parts of a wider unit - a "tribe," a "culture," or a "people." Villageband society is intended to suggest that the various village groups of the Cree were linked and in some sense formed a connected "society," even if the only grass roots political grouping to which people felt a loyalty was the administrative band. It is the nature of that connected society that has not, in our view, been analysed in previous studies of Indian villages. Studies of individual village-bands have, like this study, pointed up the continuity between the modern reserve village and its predecessors - in its hunting, its religion, its idioms of respect for personal autonomy, its patterns of leadership - and also in the degree to which modern practices and institutions have been taken up by villagers - the politics of Indian Affairs, the economics of wage labour, the indoctrination in schools, the dogmas of missions, and the leisure pursuits of country western music and pool-halls. But they have tended to emphasize the distinctiveness and isolation of each indi-

51 Village-band Society in 1971

vidual village, set against a background of a surrounding dominant society. It is a picture of passive villages of native people, at the mercy of a controlling society of whites. What the present analysis has tried to show has been the extent to which the spectrum of innovations from outside had in fact been incorporated by the Cree into their own village life; how village life could not operate as it did without those goods and institutions; and how the dissatisfaction expressed by local people about the goods and institutions meant that they did not yet work as effectively as local people felt they should work, not that they should be dispensed with. Village life, far from being reduced by the innovations, had been amplified and augmented by them. People wanted more of them, not less. Characteristically, what was wanted was the provision of improved services, involving individual villages in contacts with other villages or towns, and requiring some larger planning and organization at a level higher than the village. In 1971 the planning and organization of each service was in the hands of a different body, covering a different territory - Abitibi District of Indian Affairs, the provincial Ministry of Hunting, Fishing and Tourism, the Hudson's Bay Company, Austin Airways, Northern Quebec Telephone. All were white and all were based outside the Cree area. There was no single regional body to which the Cree bands felt attached, and from which they could expect planning and organization for their villages. Indian Affairs came the closest to providing a regional focus for the Cree, but the planning and organizational function remained a preserve of its headquarters at Val d'Or. The Cree themselves lived in village-bands; perhaps thirty out of 6,000 were involved in tasks where inter-village contacts were maintained. Such contacts were vital for the way of life of every village, but the Cree themselves were discouraged from participating in them in an official capacity.

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Interlude, 1971-1981

This section will present, with some explanation but limited comment, a chronology of events that occurred between 1971, the starting point of this study, and 1981, the period dealt with in chapters 3 to 7. The question of how best to explain the differences between 1971 and 1981 will be deliberately left open. Does the sequence of events, with its emphasis on actions by politicians and non-Cree, best explain the 1981 state of Cree society? Is the pattern of 1981 better seen as an evolution of trends in 1971 Cree village-band life? This outline chronology is intended not to predispose the reader to accept the first explanation, but to leave the reader in a position to judge for him/herself. This section must also serve to introduce the new actors that will appear on stage in the succeeding chapters - the various Cree corporate bodies, and the governmental structures for which the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (and its enabling legislation) provides a legal charter. It will not introduce many new individual Cree, however; almost all the members of the Cree corporate bodies and the Cree political actors of the decade are the same individuals, now wearing new masks, who appeared in 1971 as regional chiefs or as among the thirty or so individuals with contacts outside the area. 30 April 1971 Premier Robert Bourassa announces the James Bay Hydro project, expected to cost $5.6 billion, and tentatively planned to flood the major hunting territories of the southerly bands of Rupert's House, Nemiscau, Waswanipi, and Mistassini, though final decisions have not been made. Legislation is introduced setting up the James Bay Energy Corporation ("Energy") to build the hydro project, and the James Bay Development Corporation (JBDC) to control Energy and undertake regional planning.

54 A Homeland for the Cree July 1971 After months of uncertainty and lack of clear information a number of Cree leaders meet in Mistassini, thanks to financial aid from the Arctic Institute of North America. They decide to protest to the minister for Indian Affairs, via the Indians of Quebec Association (IQA). August 1971 Public outcry, mainly by ecological groups, but also by the McGill Programme in the Anthropology of Development, leads to the creation of a Federal-Provincial Task Force on James Bay Ecology. Its report, in December, indicates the undesirability of the southern project and the limited knowledge of problems involved in a northern project. December 1971 After delays until permission to communicate findings to the Cree is granted by JBDC, the McGill University Programme in the Anthropology of Development agrees to report on the social impacts of the project. January 1972 JBDC announces the change of the project to a northern one, damming the LaGrande River in Fort George Band territory, but also affecting territories of Mistassini (Nitchequon sub-band), Eastmain, and Paint Hills (Wemindji). It starts a "Communications program" providing information to Cree "communications workers" and funding their visits to communities to spread the information. May 1972 The Indians of Quebec Association (IQA), through its lawyers, starts court action to stop the project through a permanent injunction against damaging Cree land. Northern Quebec was federal territory from its cession to Canada by the HBC in 1871 until the Quebec Boundary Extension Acts of 1898 and 1912. These acts transferred the land to Quebec jurisdiction with the proviso that Quebec must negotiate treaties settling aboriginal claims to the land, in the same way Canada did. Quebec had not negotiated treaties and thus the aboriginal claims were still valid. If necessary the IQA could call upon Ottawa to revoke the Boundary Extension Acts and return the land to the Cree and Inuit. Such an action, coming at a time of constitutional disputes between Ottawa and Quebec, would clearly be a political bombshell which all parties would wish to negotiate to avoid. To stress its wish to negotiate the IQA formed its own James Bay Task Force to study ecological and social impacts. August 1972 The McGill social impact study reports. The IQA Task Force, using various ecological experts but McGill researchers on social impacts, works in the field, based on Fort George but also in Paint Hills and Eastmain. The legislation regarding JBDC and Energy is amended. Energy becomes the controlling corporation of JBDC, and reports to Hydro-Quebec. The president of JBDC, Pierre Nadeau, who had established a positive image in Cree communities, resigns. October 1972 The IQA Task Force reports, but negotiations based on the three impact reports become deadlocked in a confrontation between Energy's lawyers and the IQA. The Cree (as part of IQA) take JBDC and

55 Interlude, 1971-1981 Energy to court, asking for an urgent interim injuction to prevent irreparable harm to the Cree, if project construction continues unchecked until the hearing of the permanent injunction case. December 1972 The interim injunction proceedings start before Judge Malouf. The impact reports are tabled as evidence, but the Cree case is mainly presented by dozens of hunters - often unilingual in Cree testifying about their current use of the land. The hearings continue for four months. 1973 While the court sits, and the judge prepares his decision, Energy builds a major paved highway from Matagami to the site of the first and major dam - LG2 - thirty miles upriver from Fort George. An airfield with paved runway is built nearby, and a project townsite called Radisson, to house 1,000 executive staff and their families. The airstrip becomes the terminus of direct flights from Montreal, though a feeder line continues to Fort George. Energy installs its own microwave telephone system for the project. It later agrees to extend the road to Fort George, and eventually the new telephone system is also extended to Fort George. 15 November 1973 Judge Malouf declares in favour of the Cree and work on the project stops. Energy and JBDC appeal the judgment. 19 November 1973 Premier Bourassa announces his willingness to negotiate a settlement with the Cree and suggests generous terms. 22 November 1973 Judge Turgeon, on appeal, reverses the Malouf judgment, declaring that the inconvenience to Energy and JBDC because of their investment is much greater than the damage to the Cree of letting construction proceed. He basically rejects the scientists' and impact evaluators' evidence on the Cree involvement in hunting and the damage that the project would cause. 1974 The IQA (for the Cree) take up the premiers offer and negotiate for a settlement of their land claim. The federal government, in accordance with a policy that has emerged gradually since 1972, funds their land claim negotiation, but as a loan that will be repaid at the time of settlement. The Cree retain the option of appealing Judge Turgeon's judgment but only for twelve months until 15 November 1974. In the meantime construction presses ahead. The Bell Telephone system takes over the Energy microwave system, and connects Fort George to it, thereby disconnecting Fort George from the other villages' radiophones. August 1974 The Cree withdraw from the IQA and form the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec (GCCQ). Their negotiators believe that other IQA negotiators are trying to force Quebec to agree to proposals that have little importance for the Cree, and are thereby hindering the negotiations. The Cree want to arrive at a settlement in principle before the November deadline and so avoid a return to the courts. 15 November 1974 An Agreement in Principle is signed, and a year is

56 A Homeland for the Cree provided for negotiating the precise terms and details. Basically the terms are that the Cree will recognize Quebec's sovereign rights, will give up their legal action against Energy and JBDC, and will not base future land claims on "aboriginal rights," in return for Quebec's recognition of their right to hunt over the whole territory and to occupy particular sections of land. A major Cree role in the government of the area is envisaged, although Quebec would have the right to control development, subject to social and environmental procedures in which the Cree would be involved. The Cree would be compensated with $90 million for the settlement, including royalties for electric power installed but not for future mining developments. They would retain the right to all benefits provided by Ottawa to people of Indian status, but these would be channelled to them through Quebec government agencies. 1975 Construction of the LG-2 dam, and a diversion of the Opinaca River in Eastmain territory northward through Sakami Lake in Paint Hills territory, proceed apace. Television via Anik satellite comes to the north, though provision of service to Cree communities is delayed by Inuit protests. Fort George receives the first dish, and installation in other communities follows within a year. 11 November 1975 The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) is signed, after intense last-minute negotiation, and constant referral of each clause back to villages for discussion and approval by the Cree. The Inuit, who do not always get an opportunity for local discussion, face problems in villages, but the Cree obtain overwhelming approval in a referendum. When the final form of the agreement is presented to the Quebec cabinet for approval by John Ciaccia, the minister empowered to negotiate, there is a feeling that it is too favourable to the Cree. Nonetheless Quebec is too committed to withdraw, and signs. The legalistic formulation of the proposed measures constitutes a book of 455 pages. The only major change from the Agreement in Principle is that the Cree accept a payment of $45 million in four installments rather than a claim to royalties on future mining projects. In this way they intend to remove any temptation to encourage future mining, since they would gain no benefits from it. But the formulation in detail provides a rich new jargon for the future administrators. Cree "beneficiaries" include non-status persons with some Cree ancestry who register on the "beneficiary roll." The compensation is to be received in annual instalments over ten years until $45 million has been paid (in government bonds); the second $45 million is to be paid before 1996 in instalments determined by the power of installed generators. The land rights of the Cree are made precise in a "Land Regime," and areas are designated to which categories of rights apply. On "Category

57 Interlude, 1971-1981 1 land" the Cree have a title similar to that held by any Indian band to its own Indian Reserve, though on some portions of it Quebec retains some rights. On "Category 3 lands" the Cree retain the right to hunt everywhere except where buildings are located, much as they previously did on unalienated Crown land. Located near each reserve, however, is an area over which Cree have exclusive hunting rights - "Category 2 lands." But the agreement also spells out how those rights would be defended. Against sport hunters they are defended by limiting the species for which sport hunting permits can be issued, and specifying that even for those species permits can be issued only if the hunting needs of the Cree are met. Cree participation in the determination of needs, allowable catches, and conservation of endangered species is ensured by the creation of the joint Quebec-Cree Hunting Trapping and Fishing Coordinating Committee. Against the impact of development they are protected by participation in a mandatory environmental review process for all development other than that of the hydro project, as described in the agreement. Though the Cree bands (and provision is made for Waswanipi and Nemiscau bands to select new reserves as Category 1 lands) may each govern their own reserves as "municipal corporations," a Cree Regional Authority is set up to represent all Crees on government bodies, and to coordinate programs of wide scope for any band that gives its assent. It is an elective body, controlled by a council made up of two members of each band. To administer medical services in the area a Cree Regional Board of Health and Social Services (CRBHSS) is created, while the Cree School Board (CSB) administers educational services. Both are placed under the jurisdiction of the appropriate Quebec ministry, to be funded like other boards, though DINA continues to pay a standard amount for these services to native people, in the form of a transfer to Quebec. Perhaps the most innovative element is the method chosen to strengthen the hunting economy. It is in the form of an Income Security Programme for Hunters and Trappers (ISP), which guarantees full-time hunters a minimum cash income (indexed and variable by family size) each year, plus an allowance for each day spent in hunting. A Cree Trappers' Association is formed to promote the interests of trappers (e.g., in marketing), and encouragement is given to create similar associations to promote other economic and social enterprises. 1976 The programs agreed upon gradually come into operation, and all the Cree who have been involved in the planning and negotiations now find themselves drafted into staffing the many boards, agencies, and associations that come into being. ISP is paid retroactively for the 1975-6 hunting year, but for 1976-7 it is paid in the regular form of quarterly cheques. A program to monitor catches of game before these are affected

58 A Homeland for the Cree by flooding is started by the Joint Committee on Native Harvesting and Trapping. It is against its baselines that damages will be assessed when flooding begins. The methodology of collecting catch records reported by hunters themselves is a development of the surveying technique used by McGill researchers and Cree assistants in 1972. Registration of all individuals who are entitled to benefits is an early task. Legislation has to be passed by Canada and by Quebec to implement the agreement, including, for example, legislation to ensure that the 200 "beneficiaries" who were formerly "non-status Indians" are entitled to coverage by the Indian Act. Cree negotiators and officials still have to commute to Quebec and Ottawa on these legislative matters. Though the GCCQ headquarters were at its lawyers' offices in Montreal during the negotiations, a headquarters is opened in Val d'Or as the seat of both the GCCQ and the CRA. The former becomes, in effect, the Cree's political "party," while the latter is the administrative agency of the Cree. But the members of both are the same - the chiefs of each band and one other member from each band. Waswanipi Band selects a new site for its reserve, where route 113 crosses Waswanipi River, and construction starts on a new village. Energy, pushing ahead with construction, finds that the commitments to Fort George for remedial work during construction, and for the building of a bridge to the island, would cost $30 million. It offers to build a complete modern town, to be called Chisasibi, seven miles upriver, if it can be released from its obligations. Fort George Cree agree to the offer and collaborate with town-planners to design an appropriate northern town, with a large community-centre block and dozens of small neighbourhoods surrounded by trees. Construction of Chisasibi is in progress between 1978 and 1980. 1977 The CRBHSS takes over the operation of the hospitals and nursing stations of both the federal and provincial governments, and becomes part of the Quebec Ministry of Social Affairs. Construction of the main power dam of LG-2 is nearing completion, while site preparation for the upriver dams of LG-3 and LG-4 has been started. 1978 The CSB takes over operation of the schools of both the federal and provincial governments, and becomes part of the Quebec Ministry of Education. Nemiscau Band conducts a "consultation" and an impact assessment, for choosing a new reserve and building a village on Lake Champion, to be called Nemaska. This is the first time the environmental assessment procedures of the JBNQA are used, and the Cree are meticulous in doing so, to ensure that a precedent is set. 1979 A gastro-enteritis epidemic, caused by a new and not rapidly identified virus, hits Nemaska and Rupert's House, causing three deaths in Nemaska

59 Interlude, 1971-1981

MAP 2 THE CREE HOMELAND, 1981

60 A Homeland for the Cree and two in Rupert's House. Chief Billy Diamond charges that Quebec has failed to live up to commitments to provide sanitary construction and adequate medical services in villages. Quebec replies by placing the CRBHSS under trusteeship, accusing it of incompetence. At the World Health Organization meeting in 1980 Billy Diamond is a delegate, and in his speech on native health he uses this example to demand increased attention to problems of native health, and of substandard northern medical services. Subsequently the trusteeship is quietly removed, and remedial works are constructed at Nemaska. In short, between 1974 and 1978 the Cree found that face-to-face discussions with officials to implement the agreement (or to find ways around it) were highly effective. But as officials changed and procedures became set, it became more difficult to get things done. Some confrontations occurred, and the Cree reverted to the technique found useful in 1972 of a direct appeal to the wider public for support. 1980 Negotiations are started by Hydro-Quebec for building a second phase of the James Bay Project, on the Great Whale River drainage. In accordance with the environmental assessment procedure, initial impact statements are submitted by Hydro, but the Cree reject them as inadequate bases for setting up a review panel. Negotiations are prolonged. Though HydroQuebec, which has just completed construction projects on the North Shore, has its reasons for taking over the Great Whale Project, the Cree would prefer to negotiate with Energy. 1981 The Cree take steps to move the head offices of the various Cree boards to Cree villages. The Health Board moves first to Chisasibi where the hospital is located. Other agencies set up a legal head office in either Ruperts House or Mistassini, but in fact retain their existing offices in Val d'Or. The question of where to move the site of the CRA is the subject of long debate and reports from consultants, but no decision is made. Postscript: In 1982 the federal government agreed to contribute $61 million to upgrade the existing infrastructure of services, especially in the medical area, to general Canadian standards. The elections for the boards of the CRA and the GCCQ for the first time returned some different members for the two bodies, emphasizing the separation between administrative and political control of Cree affairs by the community representatives. Also in 1982 Energy started the review process for a third phase of the overall James Bay Project, on the southern rivers originally proposed in 1971. High interest rates and an oversupply of electricity in Quebec led to the abandonment of these plans in December. With more power flowing from James Bay than Quebec could use or sell in the immediate future the period of rapid construction was winding down. Construction sites were being abandoned (or flooded), and Cree society was settling down to a "steady state," though one in which the effects of flooding on the hunting economy began to be apparent.

PART TWO

TheCreein1981

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CHAPTER TWO

Regional Society in 1981

The visitor returning to Northern Quebec in 1981, after a ten-year absence, would receive mixed impressions - of a major continuity in what was going on, but at the same time of dramatic changes. To elucidate the nature of those dramatic changes is the intent of this study, and this will be done by progressively deepening the analysis of what has changed, starting from readily observable and specific phenomena, and proceeding to more fundamental, general, and less immediately observable changes. Let us start, as in the preceding chapter, with the landscape. In most ways it seems little changed as one proceeds north, as soon as one has passed the spread of Montreal and the air-traffic of Mirabel Airport. The Laurentian Shield seems unchanged, although the slash through the forest of the "energy corridors" of the power transmission lines from James Bay are discernible. Further north and west of the height of land, in a belt running from Mistassini past Waswanipi and Matagami, a more extensive area of forest has been logged. But further to the south, in the logged areas of 1971 near the Gouin Reservoir, across to Val d'Or, the forest is regrowing rapidly. Of the hydro-electric project itself there is little trace in the south, for it lies to the north and east of most Cree villages, and the scars of construction operations are beginning to fade, hidden under lakewater or regrowing vegetation. As one approaches villages, however, dramatic changes appear, with roads upgraded and even paved. Entering any village there is an immediate sense of affluence, of almost every house being new, of new stores with plentiful stocks of goods, of confidence and activity in band offices, and of people who are busy and involved in matters of personal concern. Few signs of traditional ways appear outwardly in the villages - no dogs or tipis, the old HBC store has given way

64 A Homeland for the Cree

to a modern construction of supermarket type, and few if any furs are to be seen, stretching on the drying frames outside the new houses. The superficial impression of change fades rapidly as one meets old friends, and gives way to a realization of underlying continuity again. There are indeed still bush camps with tents and tipis in the summer, but they are outside the orderly villages. The number of people now hunting is larger than it ever was, but the products of the bush are prepared in the bush and not in the village; fish can be frozen, rather than being smoked in a tipi; hunters can leave the settlement in the morning by truck or by snowmobile and hunt fifty miles away by afternoon. Cree is still the universal language for all age groups, though now a majority understand English, and a hundred or more also understand French. The Cree people themselves have changed little. A deeper level of change in Cree society gradually strikes home as one tries to participate in the activities of the community. In 1971 almost every activity could be understood, participated in, and accomplished within the framework of the individual village: those activities that were planned outside the community by white officials were relatively few in number and appeared "foreign" in the communities. By 1981 - and we shall henceforth use the present tense in reference to that year - almost every community activity is in some way part of the activities of a regional Cree organization. If an influential person is absent from the village, he is now less likely to be fishing or goose-hunting, than he is to be attending a meeting in Val d'Or or Montreal. If one asks about the way that the new houses are being built in one section of the village, one is told about the five-year housing plan, the funding by the Cree Housing Authority, and the organization of the work by Cree Construction, and of the importance of the Board of Compensation money in speeding up the rehousing of villagers by DINA. Hunters fund their winter travel to the bush through the Income Security Programme for Cree Hunters and Trappers, and submit reports on their hunting activities to ISP through local representatives. Marketing of local craft production is through the firm Cree-ations, and indeed courses are operated within villages by the CSB (Adult Education Services), training craftsmen and craftswomen in the finer points of making high-quality embroidered moccasins, snowshoes, or tamarack decoys. To understand how life is organized in the village demands a knowledge of the plethora of Cree regional bodies in which the village participates; only when these are known does the action within the community make sense. But, the reader may question, was not this true when regional activities were planned and organized by white bureaucrats, and only

65 Regional Society in 1981

the lack of awareness of outside control gave a false impression of village autonomy? In fact, there has been a fundamental change. Not only are villagers aware of their links to the other villages of the region, but they see the regional organization as their own - as a Cree organization working for the villages. The region is now seen as part of the villages. That is not to say that every action by Cree regional organizations is seen as good. There are complaints about programs that do not work, or where one village is seen as benefiting while others do not, but even those complaints argue that the organizations should work the way villagers want it to work. The Cree feel that their regional organization serves all villages together, and thus that they are part of a society wider than the village - Cree society.1 R E G I O N A LSTRUCTURES

The central Cree organization, formed by the Cree themselves in 1974, is the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec, presided over by its Grand Chief, Billy Diamond of the village of Rupert's House. Since its foundation it has been composed of the elected chiefs of each of the eight bands and one other elected representative from each band. It thus has the same membership composition as did the IQA in 1971. It is an offshoot of the IQA, formed when Crees felt that the province-wide body did not adequately represent their particular interests. It was "the native party" that signed the land claims agreement - the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975 - employing the legal advisers who had previously advised the IQA. It provides a forum for intervillage discussion of policies affecting all Cree. It authorizes its grand chief to speak in the name of all Cree - as he frequently does, with great effectiveness. Its Executive Committee meets each month, and its annual meeting, held in a village, is an occasion for great celebrations. It is thus the embodiment of Cree political unity. The Cree Regional Authority (CRA) is the chief administrative body of the region. Each village and its immediate "Reserve" areas (termed Categories IA and IB in the agreement) constitutes a "municipality" under the Quebec Cities and Towns Act, and the CRA combines these municipalities, "co-ordinating and administering all programmes" in the villages, with the consent of the villages. It has additional power over the exclusive hunting territories of villages (Category 2 lands) in collaboration with officials appointed by Quebec. It is composed of all band chiefs and representatives of band councils, and for five years these were identical with those who formed the GCCQ. In 1982

66 A Homeland for the Cree

the division between the political and the administrative functions of the two bodies was recognized by the election of a former administrator as chairman of the CRA and by a slight divergence in other membership. The CRA is located in the mining town of Val d'Or, not far from where the DINA District Office was situated. Its offices are in the buildings of a modern shopping centre (and adjacent buildings), and house almost one hundred workers, including employees of affiliated organizations like the CSB. Over half of these employees - both administrators and clerical staff - are white, but almost half of them are Cree, and the proportion is growing every year. The presence of the affiliated organizations makes the CRA office a hive of activity. In one room is that latest shipment of tamarack duck decoys, awaiting distribution to Montreal; in another room a group of village representatives are discussing the progress of their rehousing plan; the main CRA office is busy planning next year's program for economic development, relocation of the affiliated organizations to particular villages, and all the routine administration of current programs; expected in on tomorrow morning's plane from Montreal are the CRA lawyers to discuss legal negotiations with Quebec and Ottawa regarding health schemes, or with Austin Airways about the creation of Air Cree-bec (51 per cent Cree-owned), and today the secretariat is busy preparing documentation. The switchboard is constantly being asked if Sam or Jimmy or Fred is in town yet, coming to a meeting from one of the villages, and to pass on a message when he comes in. The nearby motel regularly has from five to ten Cree occupying rooms, even though all the Cree employees of CRA live in ordinary houses scattered through the suburban housing ofVald'Or. But the hive of efficiency is not necessarily a happy hive. The Cree administrators all come from villages, but have moved their families to Val d'Or. There are no Cree schools in Val d'Or, so their children must attend neighbourhood schools, where they have problems as a conspicuous minority group. Travel from Val d'Or to meetings in Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, or to any of the Cree villages is the constant burden of administrators. This has its own excitement and involvement for the administrator, but it imposes an additional burden on spouses or dependents, who are not involved in the tasks of the office but suffer isolation in a foreign milieu when the administrator is out of town. Underneath the hum of cheerful activity at the office, amidst people devoted to the welfare of the Cree, is the discordant creaking of disrupted home lives and the nagging insecurity of living far from home. It is a problem that the CRA is

67 Regional Society in 1981

trying to solve by relocating to a Cree community; meanwhile one notes a rapid turnover of Cree staff in Val d;Or. Yet such a solution would pose problems in turn, in getting the tasks of a regional centre carried out efficiently. Air travel is a prime need, between any Cree centre and Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, and every other Cree village. Though Val d'Or is not directly connected to all villages it is connected to all outside centres; no Cree village connects with more than one outside centre and a few other villages. Rapid access to manufactured goods - from typewriters and computer tapes to bulk supplies of washbasins for housing projects - is a reason for the existence of a regional administration to supply the villages; it is not available in an isolated village. Housing for skilled white personnel is available in Val d'Or at costs that are little higher than costs in Montreal; to build such accommodation in a northern village would cost many times as much, while higher salaries would be required by white staff who relocated in a village. In a nutshell, even in a society that has become integrated regionally, the apex of its political hierarchy, which must interrelate with groups outside the region, is torn between its ties to the home region and its need to participate in an even wider society. Efficiency demands that the latter be given priority; local loyalty, the former. The other regional tasks that were performed by white bureaucracies for the Cree in 1971 involved health and social services, education, and housing, together with such important but less prominent services as police and courts, conservation, environmental protection, and economic planning. In 1981 all of these services are provided throughout the Cree region (defined, as was the jurisdiction of the CRA, as comprising the local areas surrounding each village) either by Cree boards to which the CRA appoints members or by offshoot organizations affiliated to the CRA. The largest board is the Cree School Board. It employs sixty-two people in Val d'Or (fourteen of them Cree) to administer the school system of seven primary schools in every village except Nemaska (with grades 8 and 9 in Mistassini and Rupert's House), and a high school in Chisasibi - the newly relocated site of the former Fort George. The schools themselves employ 332 people in the villages, of whom 224 are Cree, but in fact almost all staff and maintenance people are Cree, while only 108 out of 229 teachers and trainee teachers are Cree. In other words, over three-quarters of the school administrators in Val d'Or are non-Cree, and over half of the teachers (and 30 per cent of the Cree teachers are trainees) are non-Cree, even if 90 per cent of the operation of the local schools as buildings is in local hands.

68 A Homeland for the Cree

The jobs done in Val d'Or include such tasks as planning special curricula, recruiting teachers, maintaining provincial standards, ordering equipment and new buildings, together with overall planning and policy. Long acquaintance with the operation of the Ministry of Education of Quebec (MEQ) is as important a criterion of effectiveness at the CSB as is awareness of Cree needs. In fact, since funds are provided for the CSB by the MEQ, just as for any other school board in Quebec, a knowledge of the method of obtaining favourable budget treatment, or favourable treatment of proposed programs, is vital if the CSB is to remain abreast of other boards. The CSB has a major advantage in that the JBNQA gives it powers, beyond those of other boards, to adapt to local needs the curricula, the school year, and the standards for hiring native teachers, to use Cree as a language of instruction, and to make direct arrangements with federal or university groups to help it in its task of adapting to local circumstances. The legislation says that the budget "shall take into account [these] unique characteristics" and provide for the costs involved, with the Quebec government providing 25 per cent of the cost, and the federal government 75 per cent. A determined effort has been made by both governments to ensure that this experiment of a separate native school board within a provincial education system, where all board members are Cree, one from each community, does not fail for lack of funding. The board had a 1981 budget of $21 million. The extent of its success will be discussed later. The Cree Regional Board of Health and Social Services is the second of the major boards. Its headquarters are not in Val d'Or but in Chisasibi, where its hospital is situated and its eleven administrators work, as well as the hospital and nursing station staffs. Every village also has a nursing station staffed with four to six nurses or auxiliary nurses. The board also operates the social services program, which in addition to providing the counselling and social care services found in southern communities supervises the foster-care arrangements for children whose families are hunting in the bush and must leave them in the village if they are to go to school. The CRBHSS has not advanced as far as the CSB in the process of adapting to become part of Cree society. All the eight physicians and professionals are non-Cree, as are all the registered nurses in the hospital, and half of the administrative staff. Although half of the nursing staff in the villages are Cree, they tend to be auxiliary nurses without the full qualifications of an RN held by the non-Cree. The Cree health system feeds into the wider provincial system more directly, in that patients from the Mistassini or Waswanipi nursing

69 Regional Society in 1981

stations are sent to Chibougamau hospital if necessary while Chisasibi itself cannot cope with many serious cases and must fly out patients for specialized care either to Montreal or to Quebec. The language of most of the non-Cree is French. This increases the difficulty experienced by Cree who speak only Cree and English, in having their needs met, either in diagnosis or in understanding proposed treatments. The non-Cree staff located in villages and in Chisasibi form a closely knit group and find support in their ties to the medical structure elsewhere in Quebec. The procedure for operating hospitals or nursing services has become increasingly standardized throughout the developed world, and it is to this medical culture that the non-Cree orient themselves. The Cree-ness of the Health Board is largely at the level of the board itself, but even there the eight community representatives are almost balanced by representatives of the hospitals and other services. The budget of the Cree Health Board is paid by the Quebec Ministry of Social Affairs (MAS) , based on contributions from the federal and provincial Governments, in the proportion of their expenditures on health locally in 1974-5. The budget for 1981 amounted to about $15 million. The third largest Cree organization is the Cree Housing Corporation (CMC), an offshoot of the CRA, which has its legal head office in Rupert's House, though in fact most of its staff is in Val d'Or. Though its president is Cree, all the other technical or administrative staff are non-Cree. After much work with town-planning consultants on the design of reconstructed villages in Chisasibi, Waswanipi, and Nemaska, and after the experience of trying to plan a long-term rehousing program for each village with DINA assistance in 1978, the CHC was created to continue the planning process under Cree control. Surveys, master plans of villages, studies of housing needs, and specifications for housing and such infrastructures as drains, sewage disposal, and water supply have all been prepared by CHC. This organization prepares the documents for tenders to be submitted by firms wishing to construct buildings that CHC has planned, and its technical staff of architects, engineers, an accountant, and others provide expertise to all Cree communities. The funds for the housing activity in part come from the same sources - DINA grants, CMHC loans, and the like - that have been available for many years. The big transformation occurred when the CRA decided that following the slow rhythm of gradual improvement of the housing stock would mean that most Cree would live their next fifteen years in crowded accommodation. Here was a field where a large capital investment was needed to improve standards, and as

70 A Homeland for the Cree

the Board of Compensation could loan the capital (to be repaid later out of the regular funding for house construction), a crash program of rehousing every village by 1985, with a house for each family unit, was decided upon. CHC, though perhaps a half-year behind schedule, in working effectively towards that deadline, spent $14 million in 1981 (though new needs appeared well before 1985, delaying realization of the full goal). The regional planning of housing and provision of expertise to Cree so that they can control the standard of what is built is only half of the contribution of CHC. It has also involved the region-wide development of a Cree-owned construction company, Cree Construction, capable of building and carrying out other construction jobs. Most of the work put out for tender by CHC is carried out by Cree Construction; even where this is not the case, the organization of tendering and bidding by CHC ensures that outside contractors have to give preference to local people with appropriate skills, when available for hire. Cree Construction, by employing Cree workers in the villages where it is completing a project, has both an economic effect and a training effect. Though even in the summer of 1982 the reconstruction of part of Rupert's House was supervised by two white foremen with special skills, the thirty-four local people who constituted the major workforce all gained experience in the skills which they had learned in courses conducted by Manpower Canada - carpentry, heavy equipment, plumbing, electrical wiring. To get employment with a non-Cree construction company in Quebec requires a certificate (carte de competence) proving that the applicant has both formal courses and experience in the skill concerned. Without Cree Construction, Cree trainees would have been caught in the Catch-22 situation of never being able to gain experience, because they did not already have experience. Now they are gaining experience, though so far Cree Construction has provided sufficient work locally to make it unnecessary to look for construction employment off the reserves. Cree Construction's employment-generating function is also socially important. In each village the summer construction program can be planned to generate a good proportion of the relatively unskilled jobs required by the part-time hunters of the village. If the number is sufficient for only, say, half of those looking for a summer cash income, Cree Construction can, by its village-controlled hiring practice, ensure either that all applicants are employed for half the time, or that the choice of those who get more favourable treatment is consistent with the village's wish to give preference

71 Regional Society in 1981

to the fathers of families, for instance, or the young, or those with no other possible source of cash income. Cree Construction is the most active and largest of the Cree regional enterprises, but a range of these exist. Some, like Cree-ations, the organization of craft producers, market the products of individual villagers or of village groups. Others are statutory bodies, like the Cree Board of Compensation, set up to administer specific provisions of the JBNQA or of laws deriving from it (in this case the administration of sums received by the Cree under the agreement which may be used only for specific purposes). Yet others are joint Cree-Quebec, or Cree-Canada organizations set up to regulate areas of potential conflict (such as the Environmental Advisory Committee which administers the provisions of the agreement regarding the^environmental and social assessment of new development projects). The Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Coordinating Committee (HFTCC) is another joint body, which makes recommendations directly to the appropriate government minister regarding catch limits, conservation, the number of hunting permits issuable to non-Cree, and most other wildlife questions in the region. A further set of organizations are those in which Cree have banded together voluntarily at the local level, but have felt that a regional organization can offer services to local groups. The Cree Trappers' Association best exemplifies such a regional body, coordinating political action by trappers in individual villages and organizing economic action like bulk buying of hunting equipment or two-way radios for an emergency radio network for hunters. The gamut of regional bodies is clearly vast. A check of the number of positions on regional bodies which are prescribed by the JBNQA shows that there were between 207 and 365 in the bodies already active by 1979 (LaRusic et al. 1979: 81). Most of the bodies rarely meet, and the individuals sitting on them occupy several positions. The band chiefs and the members of the GCCQ all have other positions as well. There has been a proliferation of formal organizations beyond the bounds of reason, though not beyond the reasons of lawyers and governments. Yet most of the organizations do something for the Cree in villages. They permit the activities that take place in villages to interact with the activities of larger bodies outside the region - the federal and provincial governments, mining companies proposing development, groups of sport hunters, and others - in a way that involves Cree at the policy-planning stage. As for those services to the village which the Cree themselves can provide, an overarching structure

72 A Homeland for the Cree

exists for the planning of such services on a long-term basis, for the benefit of the region and for the training of future service-staff. Finally, the Income Security Programme for Cree Hunters and Trappers (ISP) is a regional body that is distinctive to the Cree, unparalleled not only in Quebec but possibly world-wide.2 Under this formidable title operates one of the most important regional programs of the Cree, whose impact on their hunting economy will form the main topic of the next chapter. Here we are concerned solely with its regional structure. Three Cree, appointed by the CRA, and three representatives of the Quebec MAS constitute the board of ISP, which receives approximately $5 million a year from the ministry. This sum is allocated, according to procedures defined in the JBNQA, Section 30, and modified by decisions of the board, to "individual Cree who wish to pursue [a hunting, trapping and fishing] way of life" so that they "shall be guaranteed a measure of economic security/' In each village an experienced hunter, recommended by the village, is appointed as the ISP administrator. The administrator checks that people who apply for benefit are indeed eligible, ensures that they receive the quarterly cheques when due, and collects from the hunters the records of their catches and travel to the bush which they provide at the end of the year. The board's office in Quebec City issues cheques and houses the MAS staff, who closely follow the operation of what is a highly original and experimental program. But except for this operation, and some of the technical studies which the CRA commissions to help it push for improvements to the program at board meetings, the ISP is run by the local administrators and a staff of eight Cree in Val d'Or. The $5 million grant provides a payment averaging about $5,000 to each of 1,000 "beneficiary units," enabling them to pay the monetary costs of a winter's hunting in the bush, during which time they may kill game that will provide each of them with meat worth another $7,000, not to mention fuel and housing. Since they may also earn another $5,000 from casual employment in the summer, the program acts as a major support for the Cree economy. No one who is benefiting from ISP can also benefit from social welfare, so that the program has almost eliminated welfare as a source of income among the Cree, cutting the case-load to one-third of its former size, since all able-bodied Cree, male and female, can now hunt without the constraint of having insufficient money (or credit) to outfit for the winter. Whereas administering welfare took a major part of the Indian Affairs staff's time, and was accompanied by the constant feeling that every applicant was lazy and asking for charity,

73 Regional Society in 1981

the task of the staff being to weed out all but the hardship cases, ISP is seen as a Cree program supporting hunting as a Cree way of life. Its administration has the trust of local people, who see their benefits as "salary" for the hard work involved in hunting, and who collaborate in ensuring that there are no abusers of the system. This is the key to the extremely low costs of administering such a program. But the regional nature of the program is also important. ISP was proposed by the Quebec government for inclusion in the JBNQA at a time when minimum income programs were being tried experimentally in New Jersey and Manitoba. It is an experiment also, in that it was not known whether such a program would reduce the incentives to take paid employment, during periods when hunting was not worthwhile in the summer. That question has been answered conclusively, since there has been no reduction in paid employment despite the reduced program benefits received by people with wage incomes. A novel feature of ISP is that hunters receive - in addition to the guarantee of a basic minimum income if they are full-time hunters for a minimum of 120 days a year - an allowance (or per diem) for every day they spend outside the villages hunting. This, the Crees felt, would provide an incentive for families to stay together in the bush and help maintain the Cree way of life. To limit what might then have been a blank cheque for payments, the government insisted on a ceiling for the total number of man-days of per-diem payable. Though this ceiling has only once been breached (and then renegotiated), it is the guarantee for the government that the program is operated economically, and for the Cree it is the constraint ensuring that no communities or individuals take unfair advantages and so deprive others of benefits. The regional administration keeps a balance between communities and guarantees the efficacy of the program to the outside world. As will appear in the discussion of hunting, over half the population live in families drawing an income from ISP. All other families benefit from the meat, furs, and bush products that the hunters bring back to the villages and share with their relatives and neighbours. ISP is a regional program that affects everyone. It is so taken for granted now that it is hard to realize that it did not exist before 1976. OVERVIEW

This listing of Cree regional structures has not covered all of the existing bodies, but has indicated that there is some regional body that relates to almost every village activity, regulating it, funding

74 A Homeland for the Cree

it, and providing information, skills, and coordination to the local village operation. The two big changes over ten years have been the immense increase in the role that regional bodies play in the village - clearly there are more schools, more medical services, more housebuilding operations, more maintenance, and so on - and the fact that all these regional bodies are nominally under Cree control. Cree control means that the policy-making board for each activity is made up almost exclusively of Cree, either elected directly as representatives of villages or appointed by the CRA or GCCQ. A growing proportion of the staffs of all the regional bodies is made up of Cree, though different bodies experience different problems in increasing this proportion, and it will likely never involve 100 per cent Cree staffing. There is almost always some way in which villages can exert pressure on the regional body if the services it provides are inadequate and the village representative is not successful in remedying the problem. An example would be the school committees of parents in each village. This does not mean that the Cree have absolute control, however. The mandate of the regional body is given by the JBNQA (in most cases) or by legislation. But the agreement also establishes that each Cree body is responsible to a provincial (or in some cases federal) minister, either directly (as in the case of the Health Board), or through some committee or advisory board, on which there is equal representation of Crees and government. The presence of such a joint board makes it unlikely that the minister will override Cree wishes, clearly expressed, but the minister can indeed do so. The Cree bodies have become part - a special and distinctive part - of the Quebec government system. When the Cree in 1979 complained that the MAS was providing inadequate resources to the Health Board, and so causing the epidemic of gastro-enteritis, the MAS replied by placing the Health Board under trusteeship. Final power was clearly with the Quebec government, though the Cree outcry was widely heard and eventually persuaded Quebec to restore Cree control. One of the implications of the taking over of the administration of regional services by the Cree is clearly that those services are now more responsive to local needs. Another implication is that a large proportion of the Cree people are now engaged in running the regional administration. If one includes the local village activities - the schools and nursing stations, village construction programs, and police - over 1,100 people are employed by Cree regional bodies. If one considers only the central regional bodies, mainly located in Val d'Or, there are about 300 people employed. Over half of the staff of the regional bodies in Val d'Or is still non-Cree; less than one-

75 Regional Society in 1981

quarter of the village employees of those bodies are non-Cree. Although the Cree still employ about 350 non-Cree (mainly in skilled jobs), about 1,000 Cree work for those same bodies. Bureaucracy is now a major part of Cree society. In addition one must take into account the number of Cree who are policy-makers - the members, presidents, chairmen and directors of the various regional bodies. In calculating that between 207 and 346 positions were held by the Cree, LaRusic estimated that the number of individual Cree who actually occupy these positions is less than 100, as many Cree hold two, three, or even more nominal titles on boards that meet a few times a year. These 100 politically active Cree are highly active - overloaded with activity, one might conclude, if one looks at their flight schedules between one meeting and the next - and they tend to meet with close acquaintances on different boards that cross-cut one another. There is a rapid flow of information within this political group. Its members know what is going on; they know one another well (though close knowledge does not preclude antagonism or necessarily produce friendship); there is a sense of common effort in a common enterprise, among a closeknit regional elite. Regional government works for the Cree, especially because it is personal and face-to-face at the policy-making level.

CHAPTER THREE

Hunting in 1981

If the preceding chapter has conveyed the impression that all Cree have become bureaucrats, or employees of the government, this chapter will serve to disabuse the reader. If the discussion of the Income Security Programme did not make it clear that the administration of ISP is important for the villages, this chapter will serve to repair the error. In fact, in 1981, the traditional activity of hunting is more important in villages than it was in 1971. More people are hunting, for longer periods, and are catching more meat (though not more furs). Most of the descriptions of traditional hunting by village-bands of the 1960s still apply in 1981. The timetables of departure for the bush in the winter are still fixed in terms of winter freeze-up and the need to stock up with meat as soon as possible. In coastal villages the fall goose-hunt is still of critical importance, and the fall moose-hunt provides a supply of food for inland hunting groups. The return of hunters temporarily over the Christmas-New Year period, and permanently around break-up in the spring, with goosehunts on the coast again modifying the timing, remains as before. The regularity of the times of return may even have been enhanced, since there is greater certainty of cash being available: radio communications between bush camps and the villages make it possible to fix dates for aircraft to call in, and supplies are more predictable. The reliance upon fishing as the main food-producing activity during the summer is still the same. The number of hunting groups has increased markedly, however. In the first full year of ISP in 1976-7,1 1,012 families or single individuals ("beneficiary units" in the jargon of ISP) registered their intention to hunt regularly all winter, and received a payment in September to enable them to hunt. Members of these families

77

Hunting in 1981

(including children at school) numbered 3,960 individuals out of a total Cree population of 7,046. In other words, 56 per cent of the total population was primarily dependent on hunting and ISP in the winter of 1976-7. This contrasts with a figure of fewer than 600 full-time hunters plus their families in 1971. It has already been explained why there was a steady decline in the number hunting at that time, when the cash costs of travelling to the bush could less easily be met and credit was harder to obtain. Even the year 1975-6, when more money was available - though the ISP benefits were not determined until the year was over and were paid retroactively to hunters - saw only 708 families hunting. A 50 per cent increase in the number of families hunting occurred in 1976-7. Some of this was an effect of novelty, and the number who have continued hunting regularly has declined from the peak of 19767. Twenty-one families did not complete their full year as regular hunters in 1976-7. In 1977-8 there was a further dropout of 12 per cent of the families, reducing the number to 867, since when the number has approximately stabilized. In 1981 the number of beneficiary units was 875. This meant that 1,372 adults and 1,722 children benefited under the program, or 3,094 people in all, representing 41 per cent of the total Cree population of 7,600. It is the growth in size of the Cree population that has caused the percentage decrease in the importance of hunting; the number of people fed from hunting has roughly stabilized. The amount that these hunters produce has not grown quite as much as the number of hunters. There are reliable figures for the total amount of meat obtained by Cree hunters in 1974-6, when the amount averaged 1,850,000 pounds. Figures for 1972 are less accurate but suggest a very similar, or slightly smaller figure. More recent figures from Wemindji (Scott 1979) and from harvesting estimates suggest a 20 per cent increase in the overall amount of meat obtained by the larger number of hunters,2 following the introduction of ISP. This amount of meat, purchased at $2.25 a pound, would mean that the cash value equivalent of what hunters catch is now about $5 million. HUNTING TECHNOLOGY

Hunting has changed considerably over the decade. As we have seen, the shortage of ready cash to equip hunting groups in 1971 meant that hunters took minimal equipment and could not always afford to travel to distant hunting territories; sometimes a few men would

78 A Homeland for the Cree

use a territory for a brief period, leaving their families in the village, to avoid having to pay the costs of transport of the family and the setting up of a bush camp. In 1981 this squeeze of cash shortage has been greatly reduced. Flying-in of families, even to the most distant territories, is now the norm, and equipping the bush camps to make them as comfortable as village housing is the practice. Not only are more manufactured goods used in the construction of camps - for example, plastic for windows, metal, chain saws - but equipment to ease the day-to-day operations of camp life is brought in. For mothers with babies the time-consuming job of collecting sphagnum moss, and drying it, to provide traditional diapers for children has been replaced by the importing of disposable diapers - though it should be noted that laundering of cloth diapers also becomes a major task when water supplies must be fetched by hand and unfrozen for each wash. Hunting has also become more mechanized and less physically exhausting. Where ten years ago a hunter took two or three days to inspect a twenty-mile trapline, walking on snowshoes and having to carry the weight of the animals caught, almost every hunter now flies a snowmobile in to his winter camp. A longer trapline of forty miles can be visited in one day, with less fatigue but still taking long hours. The snowmobile can haul the meat caught, and although it may need parking at a distance from the beaver lodge, and may have to be man-handled past obstacles, it can also carry back other material to the camp. Killing a moose at a distance from the camp no longer means a major transportation crisis. No longer does a camp run out of firewood from a lack of dead trees within walking distance; a toboggan-load can quickly be hauled in from further away by snowmobile. Women can cut up the wood using chain-saws. Mechanization feeds into a process of sedentarization. The greater length of traplines means that more traplines can radiate from a single fixed point, and hunters do not need to change their base during the winter, when three or four lines are trapped out. The equipment all requires gasoline, and this must be shipped in drums and stored. The trails cut or improved to allow snowmobile travel from a base are a capital investment that encourages a return to the same base. If a camp is unlikely to be disturbed by visiting whites it may make good sense to leave heavy equipment in the camp over the summer, rather than transport it two ways by charter aircraft. Camps are becoming more permanent installations. Another factor that has affected hunting has been the building of roads. During the construction of the hydro project two main all-weather roads were built - one travelling from Matagami in the

79 Hunting in 1981

south to the dam at LG-2 and on to Fort George in the north, and another travelling 300 miles eastward from LG-2 to the sites of the dams LG-3 and LG-4 and beyond. These roads connected Fort George to distant hunting territories, and traversed the inland hunting territories of the Wemindji and Eastmain bands. It is both cheaper and more reliable to travel to a camp by road, rather than by charter aircraft, and within a short time of the opening of the roads those hunters who could use them rather than aircraft were doing so. Dropped off by a truck on the road, they could make camp far enough into the bush to avoid disturbance from the road, but close enough to avoid too much hauling by hand or snowmobile. Permanent camp sites accessible by road can now be found predictably, as camp sites at portages were predictable in the days of canoe travel. But all-weather roads are not the only roads; there are also temporary winter-roads and logging roads, particularly in the south. Temporary winter-roads, kept open wide enough for snowmobiles, now link Wemindji and Eastmain with the north-south LG-2-Matagami road, and with Fort George. Expanding the network, marking the problem areas, and improving the width and gradient have become ongoing projects for villages, especially Wemindji. There the main winterroad connection was initially constructed by Hydro, to compensate the village for the flooding of more of their hunting lands than had been originally foreseen, and the project has expanded. Logging roads, though initially levelled through areas of devastation, remain as routes for snowmobiles when the ground on either side has begun to revegetate. CORRIDOR HUNTING

But if technology, family convenience, and the presence of roads have led to a pattern of hunting from semi-permanent and well-equipped base-camps at a distance from villages, they have also helped other types of hunting along the "corridors" of roads: "commuter hunting' and "leisure hunting." By commuter hunting is meant a pattern where hunters locate their base camp neither in the distant bush nor in the village, but somewhere accessible by road. From such a spot it is relatively easy to drive (or hitch-hike) into a town if new supplies are needed or a break from hunting seems welcome. Though such a hunter is eligible for his ISP payment as being absent from the village, he is not in an isolated bush-camp. This growing pattern is still seen by the Cree as being regular hunting. Hunting territories crossed by a road are likely to be well used by their owner in this way, but owners are

80 A Homeland for the Cree

also likely to receive many requests for an invitation to use the territory. The housing is more "suburban" than in the distant bush. The roads also make it easier for leisure hunting by the residents of villages, who spread widely into the surrounding country on weekends or holidays, putting further pressure on the game resources of the areas on either side of the roads. In 1981 such use by the Cree implied hunting small game like rabbits or white-birds; beaver and moose were still left, as was traditionally the case, for the use of the resident hunters, though cases of poaching larger species are known. And in the long term taking large numbers of small game, having more humans present, and more hunting must interfere with the "intensive" hunters. If one-third of the winter meat supply that should come from small game is not available to a resident hunter, because of leisure hunting, then the whole winter hunt may be unviable for him. Leisure hunting also involves white hunters. North of Matagami there are few of these, and little competition for game, but along the road from Senneterre to Chibougamau that passes through Waswanipi, white hunters have ready access, and if they enter the logging roads on either side they can penetrate the bush. This is one of the prime areas for moose, and during the fall season white hunters kill about as many moose in this area as the Cree do. The competition for small game is equally great along these roads through Waswanipi territory. MAINTAINING HUNTING

The mention of competition between white sports hunters and the Cree, and of the encroachment of the forestry industry on Cree hunting territories, may give the reader cause to suspect that what is being described is a hunting way of life destined to disappear in a few years, after the current hunters die, as the encroachment of a modern economy makes hunting unproductive. Indian hunting rights, it may be feared, are destined to be as valueless to the Cree of the year 2000 as the rights given by the Indian Act of 1876 are now for groups in southern Ontario, where game is scarce and provincial regulations limit catches and seasons. When the Cree negotiated the James Bay Agreement they were particularly concerned that this not be the case. But assuring that they retained all their traditional rights in the context of a written agreement was difficult, and involved several considerations - conservation, control of catches, limitation of access, competition with development.

81 Hunting in 1981

Conservation as the government practised it in 1971 was a matter of the administration of rules by game wardens; Indians with moosemeat were always in fear of having it taken away, on the ground that it had been obtained out of season, or was more than was needed for personal consumption. In 1981 conservation had become the concern of the Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Coordinating Committee (HFTCC) on which the Cree have equal representation with government. Their right to harvest game for food or for traditional exchange is established by law over all the territory (except in towns or inhabited areas). Only a decision by the HFTCC that a species is endangered can limit this right. The Cree are involved in conservation, monitoring animal populations, collaborating with federal and provincial departments, and serving as conservation officers of those departments. Though formally the HFTCC only makes recommendations to the relevant minister, he or she must by law publicly justify any change from what the HFTCC recommends. In return the Cree accepted the principle that game in the area is indeed available for white hunters or fishermen, but only if the needs of the Cree are satisfied at present levels. Certain species are reserved entirely for the Cree, notably beaver, lynx, foxes, wolves, black bear, sturgeons, suckers, and whitefish. For moose, caribou, most other fishes, geese, ducks, and other migratory birds a number of permits can be issued to sport hunters, and catch limits set, provided that the Cree priority is satisfied. In some areas close to the villages (Category 1 and Category 2 land) no non-native hunting is permitted at all. Sport-hunting implies outfitting and camps. Existing outfitting camps owned by non-natives are allowed to continue operation, but new facilities can be set up only if the Cree do not want to operate them themselves. If a non-native person wants to sell his outfitting operation, the Cree have a first-refusal right. By 1981 the two Quebec government camps on Lake Mistassini, for example, had been transferred to Cree control. The Cree have run summer training courses for guides and operators of camps, while maintaining and even expanding the scale of sport fishing operations, and conducting major selling campaigns at tourist trade fairs. The Cree readily accept sharing their resources with sports hunters, provided that their own catches are assured, and that it is the Cree who control the access of hunters to the fish and game. The Cree, in trying to enshrine their traditional hunting rights in the form of written law, were, however, unable to fully control one area - development of mines, roads, forestry, hydro-electric projects, and the like. Where these exist (or will exist in future),

82 A Homeland for the Cree

subsistence hunting is not authorized. Provincial and federal laws apply regarding mining rights, existing third-party rights, and expropriation or use as a "servitude" for public purposes, and the Cree accept Hydro's right to proceed with its major power project as defined in the agreement. The defence of Cree rights is left to a process of environmental and social impact assessment. Again the Cree have equal representation on the advisory committee which establishes policy for assessment, and on the review committees which look at each separate project. The guidelines for such a review of projects stress that native rights must be given primacy, especially in the land close to settlements. If any of that land is expropriated for a project, the affected Cree may choose equivalent land elsewhere to replace what is lost. The process is slow, but so far has worked well, with both sides - proponents of projects and the Cree - making reasoned decisions. The Cree concern to maintain their hunting extends to the purchasing of supplies needed for hunting, the selling of furs and other products of the hunt, and the safety and health of hunters. Whereas in 1971 the HBC was the main agent for supplying hunter with trapping gear, shotgun shells, and equipment, and to some extent still operated on a credit basis, "staking" hunters, by 1981 most of the hunting supplies are bought cooperatively through the Cree Trappers' Association (CTA). The marketing of furs is done directly through public fur auctions. Emergencies and safety in the bush are now also taken care of by the village office of the CTA. Each group of hunters in the bush now takes with them a two-way radio set (and batteries), belonging to the CTA, and the radio frequency is monitored continuously by the village office. Originally introduced as a "remedial measure" for problems caused by the hydro project, the radios soon proved their value. Not only could helicopters be called up by an alerted village office, should it be necessary to evacuate a medical emergency in a camp, but more routine calls for assistance were possible. Dates could be fixed at the last minute for charter flights to pick up furs or to deliver supplies, and weather information provided. And since radios could receive signals from nearby camps, as well as from the village, listening-in at bush camps meant keeping in touch with the news of friends and relatives. The sense of being alone in bush camps has been broken; if an accident should occur lives can be saved, since neighbours can be alerted; if a fortunate catch has been made, others can be invited to share it. But how viable is a hunting way of life in the 1980s? How far are the yields of meat sustainable over the long term? And how ready

83 Hunting in 1981

are young Cree to take up a hunting life and to master the intricate skills and detailed knowledge that it entails? The previously mentioned stabilization of the number of Cree hunters at about 900 suggests that for that number there are indeed the animal populations needed to provide the amount of meat harvested at present. There might be room for some expansion say up to 50 per cent - of the number of hunters, and of the amount of game killed, but it would mean exploiting more distant areas, working harder to catch small game or fish, and generally reducing the productivity of time spent in the bush. At present it is the most productive areas that are used, it is the most effective hunters who hunt, and it is the animals providing the most meat that are harvested. The ecological limit has not been reached nor is it likely to be, but at the same time the resource is not grossly under-utilized, as it used to be. Instead the flexible limit on the number of hunters appears to depend on decisions by individuals concerning the attractiveness of hunting. For people with skills who have a full-time regular job the returns from hunting (even including ISP) are not enough to persuade them to continue hunting. This applies especially to those whose wives also have a career in the village that would be disrupted if the family spent the winter in the bush. For older people without special skills, or younger people who like the traditional life and are good hunters, the advent of ISP means that the hunter can expec to earn as much as or more than an unskilled worker in the village. For less effective hunters the returns from hunting may be less than from village work, and they may or may not actively hunt. Hunting is a healthy life, and one where a person is his own boss, but it is not the choice of everyone. There are inherent problems - chiefly those involved in balancing the need for schooling of one's children, and the desire of the family to live together, with the parental wish to hunt and to see their children become real Cree. There is no conflict if the children are below school age, or if all the children are young adults who have left school, but for those families in between - especially those with a large number of children - there is a serious problem. It is apparent in the pattern of family-size of those who receive ISP, which has gone down since 1976 from an average of 4.13 to an average of 3.71 in 1980. There are fewer large families, with six or more children, in the hunting camps, and more "families" consisting of a single adult or two adults and a child. These smaller units provide the answer to the question of whether young people are taking up hunting. Although many of them are composed of widowed parents or parents whose children have grown

84 A Homeland for the Cree

up, and constitute independent families, many others are composed of young adults. One season hunting with a parent is enough to establish a new hunter's eligibility for ISP, and many school-leavers spend such a year. If a school-leaver is happy hunting, he or she can be recognized as an independent "beneficiary unit" in the following year, although remaining part of the same hunting group. This is true for both men and women, since women are equally eligible for ISP. Marriages of bush-oriented children often happen, and there is no conflict over their children's schooling until the family contains three children, and the oldest is of school age. In short, a number of young people are continuing to hunt, probably enough to maintain the absolute number of hunters. They tend to be the children of hunting parents who are not continuing their formal education after the age of eighteen. Even so, not all such children choose to remain hunting, and in quantitative terms hunting is declining as a village activity. The total population of the villages has grown by 30 per cent in ten years, and is continuing to grow, so that the 900 hunters form a smaller proportion of the population; as the number of their dependents has declined, so the proportion of the population depending on hunting has declined even further - to about 40 per cent. Long-term stability for hunting cannot be assumed, but the Cree have established that given local control of the support systems for hunting - conservation, permits, supplies, marketing, transports, and so on - subsistence hunting can be an important element in a village economy. Compared to unemployment or welfare, it is not only cheaper, but it enables people to remain productive, doing something that gives them a sense of achievement and personal worth. Moreover, for groups other than the Cree, government money supporting subsistence producers may be a better way of minimizing unemployment, increasing food production, and offering a choice to those with the appropriate skills, than are other social programs. That the Cree program is run by the Cree themselves is an important element in its success.3 Modern hunting is not what traditional hunting was, but it is the Cree way of life.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Cree Economy in 1981

We have seen the vast increase in bureaucratic employment among the Cree over the decade, in regional bodies and in the village offices; we have seen how hunting has been modernized and stabilized at a higher level than was the case in 1971. Though these are now the two most important sections of the Cree economy, we must also look at other economic aspects of village life and how they have changed: employment with large industrial companies - mines, the Hydro construction, and forestry operations; employment within the villages either in manual work - construction, machine operation, sawmills - or in small business providing local services - stores, restaurants, taxis; the selling of local products to non-Cree, either through the tourist industry or as arts and crafts. INDUSTRIALEMPLOYMENT

Before 1971 sophisticated analysts (e.g., LaRusic 1969) thought tha the expectable future of the Cree was to become a proletariat of low-paid workers for mine or forestry companies. In 1971 the proposers of a hydro project that would need thousands of workers suggested that this undertaking would attract the Cree to wage work. Opponents of the project warned the Cree that the high wages for unskilled work on the project would last only a few years, and then they would be without jobs and without skills. Neither of these eventualities has been the actual result of a decade of change. Cree employment by mines and forestry companies in fact has stayed almost constant, or has even declined. A few individuals have regular jobs in the mining towns of Chapais, Chibougamau, or Senneterre. A larger number work in forestry, particularly in Waswanipi, but they most commonly work for Cree who subcontract

86 A Homeland for the Cree

the cutting of areas of forest from the big companies. The Cree do their own prospecting, and some have recently registered their own claims for copper deposits they have discovered. This lack of expansion of industrial employment is not because the Cree were attracted to work on the Hydro project. Few were, even though efforts were made to recruit them. Some, mainly from Fort George, did work for contractors clearing bush or preparing camp sites, in predominantly unskilled tasks, for short periods during the summer. A more regular employment of this kind began when the regional firm of Cree Construction was set up, and obtained contracts to do such forestclearing tasks. But these jobs could more appropriately be considered an adjunct to the casual summer employment that intensive hunters often took up in the 1960s, rather than a commitment to skilled industrial work. Cree interest in industrial employment has grown during the decade, but what is looked for is skilled employment. The prize industrial jobs are those of heavy-machine operator, be it a backhoe or bulldozer for mining or construction, a timber-jack machine, or a heavy trailer rig for forestry. Every year during the decade, Cree have asked for courses in these subjects, initially as training by Manpower Canada of people without employment, and after 1977 as Adult Education courses funded either by Manpower or by Quebec, but provided through the Cree School Board. By 1977 forty-nine Cree had taken courses in operating some form of heavy equipment, and thirty-eight had taken courses in operating and repairing smaller machines; thirty took courses in heavy equipment and twenty in smaller machines between 1978 and 1981. By 1981 at least 137 people had industrial training. Unfortunately the number of people employed and using the acquired skills was much smaller. In 1977 there were forty-four employed by mining or lumbering companies, or by companies working on contracts with the Hydro project; only fifteen of this number were in skilled manual jobs, the rest being unskilled. Threequarters of the people so employed came from the southern communities of Waswanipi and Mistassini, where contact with industry has been the longest. Even the twenty-nine Cree employed in the more traditional activities connected with industry - cutting survey lines in the forest and prospecting for minerals, guiding of such parties in the bush, or forest cutting - included twenty who had taken courses in the activity in question by 1977. By 1981 courses in mining, forestry, and guiding (although this is primarily guiding for tourist hunting camps) had become major components of the training program, which

87 The Cree Economy in 1981

seventy-nine native people attended (not all of them Cree, however). In short, there has been considerable Cree interest in training for industrial jobs, even if the number actually using their schoolroom skills in jobs is much smaller. If we look for the prime reason for the lack of jobs, it may be found on the lips of every trainee - "to get a job you have to have experience, but without a job you never get experience." Most employers of skilled labour are bound either by union contracts, or by the rules of the Association of James Bay Employers, to hire only people with formal qualifications, and within that group those with the longest experience are hired. Getting a foot inside the door under these conditions is doubly hard for the Cree trainee. The problems already discussed in relation to 1971 industrial work still exist - hiring is in towns where Cree do not live, the language of work in most companies in the area is French which very few Cree speak, and very few Cree have the network of personal ties to employers that is commonly used to get jobs within most small communities. Even those who had ties - the new auchimau of 1971 - find the competition severe. That there are derogatory stereotypes of Indian workers held by many employers - a propensity to drink, for instance, and to be absent from work unpredictably - is still unfortunately true, and few Cree workers who could prove the stereotypes invalid by regular work get the chance to prove themselves. The Cree trainee clearly is doubly disadvantaged. In one village a trainee graphically described a third problem he faced. Two graders were present in his village, both operated by an experienced villager, who, however, did not have the formal qualification of a course in grader operation. The volume of work, keeping the roads smooth within the reserve during the summer and removing snow in winter, kept the owner busy, though one of his machines was usually idle, kept as a back-up in case of breakdown. He had no need to hire any of the formally trained but inexperienced younger men to keep up with the local work for graders, and one can understand his reluctance to risk entrusting his machines to them "to give them experience." It would have made sense to do so if he could have contracted to do jobs on roads or for industrial projects outside the reserve land. But here the experienced driver had problems, since he did not meet the provincial requirements of formal qualifications and employment of drivers with experience that would allow his small company to make use of the equipment he owned; the young trainees in the village looked with envy at the graders, but accepted that the older man had earned his job as the one village heavy machinery contractor, even if he was unable, for lack of recognized qualifications,

88 A Homeland for the Cree

to expand his business and provide them with skilled industrial work. This example points up both the way in which industrial jobs could be created for Cree trainees and one of the reasons for the present Cree hesitation about industrial work. The problem would be resolved if villages could offer industrial work within the village. Work away from the villages is unattractive to most Cree, yet village control of industrial jobs - ensuring employment when standards are met, providing the different work schedules desired by villagers, and operating with a managerial style more acceptable to native people - is impossible if employment is not local. Can Cree firms be set up to do industrial work, firms that can not only work efficiently on the reserve but compete in the wider business world? The next section considers some relevant experience. MANUAL WORK WITHIN THE VILLAGES

It is in this area that there were indeed dramatic changes during the decade, reflecting both physical changes in the villages and attitudes to work. In 1971 Fort George was the only community in which the presence of large institutions - schools and a hospital - meant the employment of numbers of Cree as labourers on construction jobs and in maintenance. By 1981 all villages were equipped with schools (except for Nemaska), nursing stations, sewage systems, bigger band offices. All the inhabitants have been rehoused, and only a few of what were the best houses in the communities in 1971 now remain as little-wanted relics of the "old days." In 1971 most of the construction work was done by outside firms, contracting for each DINA project. In 1981 most of the work is done by Cree Construction, on contract from Cree Housing Corporation or through summer works projects where the band hires staff or conducts training programs. Over the decade, in short, the major part of the manual labour jobs for which salaries have been paid to village people has been in the construction (and later the maintenance) of the village buildings. Even in the summer of 1977, when the rebuilding project was only just beginning in most villages, thirty-four Cree were at work as carpenters, five as plumbers or electricians, and twenty-eight on house repair, for a total of sixty-seven people working on manual jobs in the villages. Precise statistics for all villages in 1981 have not been available, but in the four southern villages alone there were 242 Cree working for Cree Construction during that summer. By 1981 construction employment in Chisasibi had declined markedly,

89 The Cree Economy in 1981

the move from Fort George having been completed, but there were probably about 320 construction workers in all the villages at that time. As in 1971 a few of the workers were non-Cree. In Rupert's House in 1982 two non-Cree coordinated the work of thirty-four Cree, who did all the carpentry for the construction of new houses; in Mistassini a project to turn four cheaply acquired trailers into a building for Adult Education Services had been organized as a training project for a carpentry course. Two non-Cree were paid as instructors and supervised the group of young trainees, who received their allowance for attending a course, while doing the work. Construction was slow, but was being carefully done. Another Mistassini project was the building of a new sewage plant, made necessary by the growing number of houses and authorized by the CHC at an estimated cost of $1.3 million. The band was proud of the fact that only half of the specialized staff of twelve were non-Cree, and that the six Cree staff included all the heavy-machine operators in the village, who had moved all the earth involved. Maintenance of buildings has shown the same pattern of rapid employment growth (though less rapid than in construction), and of the replacement of skilled whites by local Cree. This is most evident in the school system, where in 1981 fifty-three local people took care of the school buildings and equipment, over half of them in Chisasibi, where the high school plant is the most complex. Only one non-Cree worked in a village at such a job, although the most skilled maintenance workers are administrative and highly specialized staff in the regional office in Val d'Or, where all are non-Cree. Every band also has its complement of workers to service its band-operated electrical systems (including, in Rupert's House and other coastal bands, the operation of an oil-fired generator), its garbage collection, its water delivery system, and the band buildings. The estimated number of regular workers employed as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, truck-drivers, and maintenance engineers in all villages would be ninety. Just as construction employment increased eightfold in four years (1977-81), maintenance employment increased threefold in the same time. Courses have been available, particularly in carpentry, in which thirty-seven Cree were enrolled before 1977, and another thirty-four between 1977 and 1981. Twelve Cree had gone away for courses in plumbing, electrics, and furnace operation before 1977. Here a word of caution must be added. Although construction is a major employer, it is a seasonal industry, especially in the north. If the concrete for basements or footings is not poured before freeze-

90 A Homeland for the Cree

up, there is no means of continuing with the job. Work with wood, and work on a protected site, may continue for some months after the first major frosts of September; inside work may be done where the structure is enclosed. But generally, all work is shut down before November, and no restart is possible before late spring, when the snow has melted, and the quagmires of wet clay have solidified. Of the 320 construction workers in villages in 1981, only about twenty would have been employed in the winter. By contrast, the ninety employed on maintenance tasks might even have increased as the winter made emergency demands on the village services. To put this in another perspective, in 1971 the majority of the casual unskilled labourers working for industrial firms were younger men who were intensive hunters in the winter. This provided them with a cash base to go hunting. In 1981 the major source of casual summer employment for intensive hunters is in village construction. They use their skills to good purpose as carpenters. Indeed, the first major village effort at house construction in Mistassini, in the early 1970s, employed so many of the skilled older men as carpenters during the summer, and then needed their skills for completion of the interiors in winter, that it caused a major decline, for one winter, in the number of families wintering in the bush. There is now no conflict between winter hunting and village construction in the summer. By contrast there is a conflict between hunting and taking a regular full-time job. Those who work for industrial firms tend to be fulltime workers; those who are skilled maintenance personnel in villages work for Cree agencies full-time. The pattern of most Cree manual workers working as casual labourers for non-Cree companies, that marked the beginning of the decade, has been decisively broken. The village, or the Cree regional body, now provides the cash base of casual labour for Cree hunters (in addition to ISP), and of regular jobs for most skilled Cree manual workers; it is a minority who go outside for employment, and they do so of their own choice. OTHER VILLAGE ENTERPRISES

In 1971 a few village enterprises already existed, providing goods and services to local people in return for payment. They were at that time completely overshadowed as enterprises by the HBC, although the HBC monopoly of earlier times had been clearly broken. Many more enterprises exist in villages in 1981, although, as has been indicated, the biggest expansion has been in enterprises

91 The Cree Economy in 1981

(especially the construction enterprise) owned and run by the bands themselves. Restaurants, grocery stores, and some form of hotel or motel now exist in all but the smallest settlements. The Co-op store in Wemindji has expanded its operations. In both Mistassini and Chisasibi, attractive grocery stores have been opened by individual band members in brand new buildings, with a stock and a physical appearance resembling those of a small supermarket or corner store in southern Canada. In the newly rebuilt Waswanipi village there is as yet no HBC store, so that the new store houses the post office as well. In Mistassini it is across the road from the HBC, and although it has prices slightly higher than the big supermarket, it competes by reason of its friendlier atmosphere, and more convenient and flexible opening hours, as do other corner stores in southern Canada. Cree restaurants do not yet offer gastronomic delights, since the sale of cooked "country food" is still not officially permitted even to Indian people, though there is pressure to permit this. In Rupert's House the restaurant is run by the band as an adjunct to the hotel, which has been set up by converting the large old Roman Catholic Presbytery. In Mistassini the restaurant is a separate enterprise connected to the snack-bar and pool-hall that have long provided a focus for the young adults of the village. In Waswanipi too, the restaurant is a separate enterprise. In both Mistassini and Waswanipi there is a steady traffic of local people (augmented by a number of non-Cree working in the community, who tend to eat out more often); teenagers, looking for junk food, are the major customers here as they are in Chisasibi. In Rupert's House the hotel and the restaurant are most used by visitors to the community - foremen on construction projects, advisers on various projects, or officials coming in for a meeting. In Chisasibi this has long been the pattern of Webb's Lodge, which had earlier catered to the extensive transient traffic of Fort George. The same type of clientele frequents the new Mistassini motel. The familystyle meals at fixed hours and the bunk-house style of rooms make these hotels a functional replacement for the older system of hospitality in local households. Visitors need not feel they impose on hosts, and some local employment is provided, but so far few visitors have been sufficiently attracted to stay as tourists. Banking was a major problem for villagers in 1971, and cash was often in physically short supply. Whereas whites paid one another by cheques on accounts in the south, Cree could only use cash; the single agency providing credit (and sometimes acting as the means

92 A Homeland for the Cree

of transferring cash to people in the community) was the HBC. Fort George was the first community to feel the effects of a large infusion of cash in the early 1970s. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce opened a branch there, in time for the boom in consumer buying that accompanied the inauguration of northern television in 1975 and the opening of the Matagami-Fort George Road in 1974. According to calculations by Elberg (1977), the amounts spent in 1975 and 1976 in Fort George on television sets, snowmobiles, and trucks alone exceeded the aggregate disposable income of the community, i.e., its total income less the cost of food and housing. This could hardly have happened without the presence of a bank, even though HBC credit was extended for purchases at their store. Other communities have felt the same need, but only Mistassini has so far set up a Caisse Populaire, affiliated with the Abitibi regional group. It operates, along with the Trappers Association, the post office, the housing office, and the social services agency, out of offices in the old log-construction Band Office building. It facilitates all the cashing of cheques in the community, collects the savings together, and makes local loans. Not only has the availability of funds been a boon to local enterprise, but the Caisse Desjardins movement has sent advisers to the local Caisse, who have got the banking operations running smoothly and have provided business advice to enterprises receiving loans. In addition to keeping funds in the village, the Caisse provides employment for three people. The absence of banking facilities has not prevented other villages from entering the consumer era during the decade, although less rapidly than has been the case in Chisasibi. In communities which are still inaccessible by road, and where goods are extremely expensive, the number of appliances and vehicles owned is much lower. In Waswanipi (and in Mistassini before the Caisse), the presence of easy road communications combined with the absence of any means of cashing cheques from, say, ISP or the Unemployment Insurance Commission meant that Cree would travel to the nearest town in order to cash them - to Chibougamau or to Lebel-sur-Quevillon. And with money in ones pocket the temptation to buy in stores in town could be irresistible, especially with their wider choice and their lower prices. Lack of a bank (or Caisse) is thus an added obstacle to the emergence of local businesses or stores selling consumer goods, and to the "leakage" out of the community of money that would provide employment locally. Handicraft production has also become big business in many communities. Rupert's House has long made duck and geese decoys of tamarack, but the discovery that these were saleable has been

93 The Cree Economy in 1981

recent. One of them - an unusually large one - formed the ceremonial presentation of the Cree to the premier of Quebec in 1981, when a fruitful meeting was held, and appropriate publicity use was made of the resulting pictures. The regional firm of Cree-Ations attends to distribution of such products to outlets across Canada, but in Rupert's House it is the local Co-op that organizes the producers and ships the decoys to Val d'Or. In 1981 the fifty-one producers, operating from their own homes, made $60,000 in commercial sales. Private sales to visitors to the community would add to that figure. In other communities there has been a revival of traditional production of leather and embroidery work - moccasins, jackets, mukluks, gloves. High standards and authentic traditional designs have been insisted on, the aim being to attract the discriminating buyer who can afford to pay the high prices such work involves, rather than to compete in the bulk market for tourist knick-knacks, where machine production is the only way to make the labour worthwhile. Cree-Ations, with local chapters in all bands, had 312 craftspeople producing in 1981, and together they earned $333,000. More commercial production of Cree specialties suffered a major blow when the canoe factory in Rupert's House closed in 1977, but in Mistassini there is now a Snowshoe Factory. It employs two regular workers, and produces not only the items for which it is named, but also produces canoe paddles, toboggans, and other articles used in traditional hunting, which can be purchased by non-Cree. THE ECONOMY AS MONEY AND AS JOBS

The earlier discussion of the 1971 economy provided descriptions of activities and only general estimates of the relative importance of what was then being done. To compare 1971 with 1981 it is necessary to be more quantitative. Table 1 does this schematically for incomes and table 2 for jobs. What is most striking overall is the growth in total income - an increase of over 400 per cent. That becomes less striking when we consider that inflation of 186 per cent has cut the value of the dollar almost by half between 1971 and 1981. Considering that the total number of Cree has increased by about 30 per cent over the same period, the real income of all Cree has gone up by about 83 per cent per capita during these years. They have indeed done better than most Canadians. The average Cree family income in 1981 terms is $14,366, within the range of most Canadian families. Their "doing

94 A Homeland for the Cree TABLE 1 Cree Incomes, 1971 and 1981

19711 ($000)

(%)

198P ($000)

(%)

Hunting In cash (furs) In kind (meat etc.)7 Income Security

300 3,864 -

4 57 -

Total, hunting

4,164

61

12,388

43

Salaries Government, industry, and local businesses

1,580* 23

14,891

52

Transfers Old age, family allowances Welfare Overall total income

3056 5 683 11 6,732 100

6423 2 5,700s 20 6,046 21

6005 8005

2 3

28,679 100

Sources 1 Salisbury et al. (1972a), table 8, except as noted. 2 Various sources. Village Profiles, compiled by villages, provided basic figures, but omissions were added in using figures in LaRusic (1982), Annual Reports of ISP, and Salisbury et al. (1982) 3 Figure is for 1980. 4 The figure for this item given in Salisbury et al. (1972a) is too low, being based on an underestimate of employment in Fort George. On the basis of field research reported in Salisbury et al. (1972b)/ a sum of $600,000 has been added to correct for the underestimate. 5 Official 1981 figures are not available for all villages, but the available figures have been extrapolated for the total Cree population on a per capita basis where census data was appropriate, and in terms of overall game harvest from figures in NHRC (1982). 6 No figure was given in Salisbury et al. (1972a), table 8. The figure given is calculated in terms of the number of children, or aged, multiplied by the appropriate allowance. 7 The estimated total Cree harvest of fish and game in each year is multiplied by the average price for meat in Cree village stores, 1971 and 1982. The total Cree harvest in 1971 is given in Salisbury et al. (1972a); in 1981 the figure is an estimate based on the 1978 harvest reported in NHRC (1982), modified to account for the change in the number of hunters between 1978 and 1981.

better' has enabled the Cree to catch up with families in the south. In regard to where the income comes from and how far the income from each sector has increased or decreased in real terms, taking inflation and population increase into account, the most dramatic change is the increase in salaries from 23 to 52 per cent of the total. While the absolute amount of dollars has gone up almost ten times, that represents a real increase of about four times as much as in 1971, for each family. As table 2 shows, the change is a reflection

95 The Cree Economy in 1981 TABLE 2 Cree Manpower, 1971 and 1981 1971

1981

Dependents Under age 5 Aged 5-14 Over 65

1,008 1,704 222

947 2,365 319

Labour force Professional, managerial White collar, sales Skilled manual Unskilled, full-time Part-time wages/hunting Hunting, full-time Domestic* Unemployed, sick In school, college, university

% 14 0.5 29 1.0 83 3.0 215 7.5 365 12.9 600 21.1 1,100 38.8 170 6.0 262 9.2

% 209 5.3 238 6.0 117 2.9 254 6.4 453 11.4 899 22.7 1,110 27.9 328 8.3 362 9.1

Total in labour force

2,838 100.0

3,969 100.0

Total population

5,772

7,600

Sources: For 1971 Salisbury et al. (1972a), especially table 12 and Appendix A, modified by employment figures for Fort George in Salisbury et al. (1972b). For 1981 Village Profiles compiled by each village, modified by figures for employment by Cree organizations in Rieger (1981), by figures for off-reserve employment and for unemployment in Salisbury et al. (1982), and by figures for hunting employment in LaRusic (1982). *This category is really a residual one. For 1971 it includes all adult women not in wage employment or at school. For 1981 it includes all women not in wage employment, at school, or registered with ISP as a full-time hunter. In 1981 domestically produced craft goods were sold by 312 individuals, but these may be included in any of the above categories.

both of higher salaries and more people employed. The hunting sector has diminished in importance in relative terms, though not absolutely. Increase in food production has in fact approximately kept pace with population growth, but the price imputed for meat has not doubled over the ten-year period, as other prices have, because reduced transport costs to the area have kept store prices from rising as fast as in the south. If they had done so, the value ascribed to meat in 1981 would have been considerably higher; the 20 per cent of income listed is an artificially low figure. To this 20 per cent we must add the value of ISP payments i 1981. If this is done, and fur income is also considered, the hunters now bring in 43 per cent of the total income, as against 61 per cent

96 A Homeland for the Cree

in 1971. Since the number of hunters now forms a lower proportion of the working population, the apparent decline does not indicate a worsening of the incomes of hunters, but rather a much greater increase in the incomes of salaried workers. Many people have characterized Indian societies in Canada as largely "welfare societies." The term is opprobrious in this context, inasmuch as, in its technical usage, 'welfare payments" are those given charitably to poor people solely because they are poor. "Welfare" is only one of many kinds of payments made to individuals by governments for specific reasons under particular programs - unemployment insurance, for example - for which the general term is "transfer payments." Even in 1971 it was not true that the Cree depended mainly on these; all transfer payments in this year, including old age, family allowance, and welfare payments, accounted for only 16 per cent of total income. This average, it is true, hides the fact that in villages with few paid jobs - the small coastal villages welfare, family allowances, and old age pensions contributed over 35 per cent of the cash income. But by 1981 all transfer payments other than ISP have become a very minor part of total income, amounting to only 5 per cent. The nature of salary payments has also changed markedly. Whereas in 1971 it was only in Fort George that the government - and that meant federal and provincial bodies - made a major contribution to the creation of jobs through service employment, in 1981 service employment by native-controlled bodies provided the major number of jobs among the Cree in all villages. In 1971 the jobs taken by Cree were predominantly unskilled and paid at low rates; by 1981 the jobs were at fairly high levels of skill or responsibility. The average village salary of over $11,000 for 1981 reflects this reality, although one must also note a deliberate Cree salary policy of not paying administrators at rates equivalent to those in non-Cree areas, in order to keep the differential between "chiefs" and "Indians" at a minimum. (The income-tax regulations which exempt Indians from payment of tax on moneys earned on a reserve make it easier to do this.) Perhaps even more dramatic has been the change in the nature of salary payments to casual workers, particularly hunters seeking summer wage employment. In 1971 these were most importantly provided by the HBC (and the Rupert's House sawmill and cano factory) in coastal villages, and by the mining and forestry industry in the inland areas. Guiding for white sport hunters was the other major employment source. In 1981 the number of jobs has increased, though not as dramatically as in the service sector, but the employers have changed from being whites to being local bands. The projects

97 The Cree Economy in 1981

that provide summer jobs can either be planned for by judicious use of regular budgets for housing, health facilities, and schools supplemented by compensation funds of the GCCQ - or can be made available by the "hustling" of band and CRA administrators to obtain special grants for summer works, training courses, upgrading of services, or community improvement. The effectiveness of administrators for the community can be demonstrated in this area, as it can by improving the quality of services provided. Though hunting remains highly important, and the hunters, on balance, produce more meat than they and their families consume, their cash income comes predominantly from the government-subsidized ISP. The payments are regular and substantial, and in 1981-2 amounted to $10,000 a household. For hunters, too, a regional society for the Cree has meant that Cree government has become the motive force for the economy, while at the same time the Cree government's relations with Ottawa and Quebec have become of critical importance in securing benefits for local people. In the area of local employment by local entrepreneurs there has indeed been a large percentage expansion in the number employed. Earnings do not appear to be high, but workers combine these jobs with hunting. But the absolute number of jobs remains small, and there is little sign of Cree private businesses employing more than one or two people each, in addition to the owner. They cater to a local market, not to a wider one. Despite dire predictions in 1972 of how the following ten years would produce an unprecedented number of Cree seeking jobs, as the baby-boom children of the 1950s reached employment age, and would produce unparallelled unemployment if jobs were not provided by industrial employment, the level of unemployment in 1981 was not unlike that in the rest of Canada. It was higher than it had been for some years, reflecting, in the Cree case, budget cuts in the service sector, but was not out of hand. It has to be remembered that the Cree have no manufacturing, and were affected only to a limited extent by the inactivity in forestry and mining that hit many Canadian resource towns in 1981, though the recession of 198283 may have changed this picture. In 1981 unemployment was concentrated in the 15-25 age group, although it was not clear whether any particular individual in that group was job-hunting, intending to continue studies, or temporarily living at home while deciding what to do. For the Cree living in their home villages the last alternative is clearly a practical one, which includes learning to hunt and taking up a traditional way of life as part of a large family. Continued schooling has, in short, been a major factor in solving

98

A Homeland for the Cree

what had looked like an employment crisis for the Cree, and at the same time it has opened up opportunities for the Cree to take professional jobs. From being something that was still foreign to the communities in 1971, schooling has become a central focus of the communities. Children see it as a most important part of their life, and the learning messages that the schools provide, regarding the desirability of doing well and of finding a white-collar professional position, are ones that children seem to have taken to heart, to judge by their play and leisure activities. For the Cree almost full employment has been generated by the taking over of regional government, and by acquiring a "white-collar" attitude to schooling, while at the same time remaining active in local subsistence hunting. THE E C O N O M Y AS CONSUMPTION

The incomes here described indicate an economy that has quadrupled in the level of its activity - in total incomes per family - over the ten years. What does this mean in terms of the goods and services that families receive in exchange for monetary income? They do not merely buy four times as many of the same goods; they have changed the types of goods and services sought, buying novel goods but also now obtaining goods, by purchase that might earlier have been obtained through interpersonal exchanges. Housing is perhaps the most obviously changed consumer good in the villages. Every village has now been substantially rebuilt in a modern style of housing, with electricity, water supply, and sanitation. Though houses remain crowded, with between seven and eight residents for each house of two or three bedrooms the norm everywhere, a contemporary life-style is universal within villages. Electric stoves, refrigerators, and television sets are found in every household, and the furniture, stereos, fittings, decorations would not appear out of place anywhere in a southern Canadian town. True, there are modifications called for in a northern environment - the snowmobile is more common than the car, and a series of outside porches that provide protection for winter entrance and a place to deposit gear, are more reminiscent of a rural farm than of suburbia. But the pattern is that of middle-class suburbia. The cost of such living conditions in the north is considerable. The houses are usually owned by the band, or the band is the guarantor of the mortgage, so that most Cree pay a form of rent to the band. For a house that is only two or three years old, with two or three

99 The Cree Economy in 1981

bedrooms, the average monthly rental is $240, including the cost of water and sewage services and garbage removal, at $32 a month. But this element of cheapness is exceptional. Other costs are higher than in southern Canada. The cost of fuel, even where electricity is linked to the electricity grid rather than generated locally, is very high, both because of the extreme cold and because of the high rates charged. To heat the standard twoor three-bedroom house in Mistassini in 1981-2 cost over $2,000, though Mistassini's power comes from the power supply of Chibougamau. In Ruperts House, where the power supply is provided by a local diesel generator, costs are twice as high. It is small wonder that Rupert's House is questioning the wisdom of central heating, either oil-fired or electric, and is reverting to wood-fired stoves. Elsewhere electricity has become the norm. The cost of housing for families in the bush is very different, provided that they do not at the same time have to pay for the maintenance of a house in the village. Modern houses cannot be left unheated, since modern plumbing systems cannot be drained of water, as used to be the case in small systems where each house had a water pump. With roughly half of the families absent in winter, the number of vacant houses is significant. But in the bush a wood stove has a constant supply of fuel nearby, dependent only on the labour to cut it, and the cost of gasoline for chainsaw and snowmobile use, cutting, and hauling. In short, for the year-round village resident the typical cost of housing, even though rents are cheaper because of band rentals, is $4,300, out of a typical income of $11,000, and this amount is paid for accommodation that is crowded though suburban in style. The family that lives in the village all summer, but can find another family to occupy their house in winter and pay the heat and rent, may spend only $1,200 on housing, but most families are caught in the heating cost crisis, even though they hunt in the winter. Food costs in Cree villages are high. Though improvements to roads and reduced freight charges have kept prices from rising as fast as elsewhere in Canada, what this has done is to make it only 20 to 50 per cent more expensive to buy store foods in Cree villages than in the south, rather than between 50 and 100 per cent more expensive. The villages off the roads - Ruperts House, Wemindji, Eastmain, and Nemaska - are now eagerly pushing for roads to reduce the differential. Groceries costing $80 a week for a family of seven in Montreal would cost between $100 and $120 in a Cree village, or between $5,200 and $6,240 for a year's food. The average income of a village family could easily be taken up entirely by food and rent.

100 A Homeland for the Cree

In fact, the country food from hunting and fishing plays a crucial role in the budgets of the community, both of those resident in the village all year and of those who are intensive hunters. The intensive hunters supply the residents with considerable quantities of meat, not through sale, but through gift-giving on returning to the village or through feast distributions that hunters undertake. Moreover, the food obtained by "corridor hunters/' fanning out from the villages for short periods of trapping small game, is an important part of the regular diet of village residents. Quantitatively the meat supplied by hunting provides approximately 1,800,000 Ib of food per annum, or 340 Ib for each consumption unit or adult equivalent. This constitutes over half of the food consumed by all people, with perhaps 75 per cent of the food of those in the bush provided by hunting, and 33 per cent of the food of those in the villages. For the village family this would reduce the average cost of food bought in stores to between $3,800 and $4,160 per annum. For the bush family, storebought food would cost between $1,300 and $1,560. These figures also indicate some change in diet since 1971. Homemade bannock, combining flour and lard, is still preferred to bread as a carbohydrate supplement to the basic meat diet, and the stores still stock flour in 50-lb bags, especially when families are equipping for the winter. Fruits and vegetables, all imported from the south (and even from Florida or Mexico), are expensive and treated as luxuries, although an increasing number of people buy them when they feel able to. Tea is still a major beverage, though instant coffee is now commonplace. The consumption of soft drinks, potato chips, and quick snack food has risen dramatically, both in the homes and in the restaurants in most villages. Baby foods, disposable diapers, Tang, and heat-treated liquid milk are all more expensive versions of goods that were consumed in the past but now come in convenient forms that have been widely accepted. The hunting family may save on store-bought food, but it incurs large expenses in obtaining the country food. The cost of equipping for a winter's hunting, buying and maintaining a snowmobile, and travelling to the bush on chartered aircraft can be estimated. Estimates by the Cree Trappers Association in 1977 were that the average costs were $1,255 for equipment, $650 for clothing, $1,048 for transportation, and $741 for the depreciation or replacement of major equipment like snowmobiles. Their total of $3,695 should be raised to at least $4,750 for 1981, since the cost of air charters more than doubled between 1977 and 1981. It should be noted that the corridor hunter also has expenses. Even if he does not have the transportation cost, and spends only half

101 The Cree Economy in 1981

as much on equipment and clothing, he must still replace his snowmobile periodically, though perhaps less often than the intensive hunter. As much as $1,500, including $500 for snowmobile replacement, could easily be spent by a corridor hunter based in the village. The last category of consumption that will be dealt with here at any length is that of large durable items - snowmobiles that have become essential equipment for families, trucks that have become numerous in those villages with roads, television sets that became widely owned almost overnight when service was provided by Anik satellite in 1975, stereo systems that every family with teenagers is being pressed into buying, even if they are by no means universal. A rough estimate would be that almost $4 million was spent by the Cree between 1971 and 1981 building up the stock of these items that were almost non-existent for them in 1971. There are about 200 Cree-owned trucks and cars, averaging $10,000 each. A stock of 1,200 snowmobiles that has been added to and replaced as part of the regular hunting expenses would have cost $1.25 million. Televison sets for every house cost over half a million dollars, and stereos at least $200,000. Spending on house furnishings of other kinds could easily increase the estimate much further. The investment of the average family in these items would amount to at least $2,600 - although it must be borne in mind that there are large variations here between the wealthy professional with a regular salary and the typical intensive-hunting family. In table 3 these estimates have been combined to present an economic picture of Cree family consumption. For the village resident earning an average salary, there is only a small margin between major basic costs and income. This margin must meet the costs of all entertainment, family gifts, emergencies of any kind, toys for the children, and any luxuries. The village resident earning less than the average is hard put to it to keep fed and housed, and may indeed not be able to go "corridor hunting" to obtain meat, since this requires spending cash. For the hunting family that does not have to maintain a house in the village, the cash situation may be favourable, but the same family with heating costs to meet would be overspending its income to meet even basic needs. Clearly the average villager is not able to afford many luxuries; for such a person the two most serious economic problems (other than finding employment in the first place) are the escalating cost of transport for hunting and the huge cost of heating during the winter. For the professional family earning more than the average, life in the village may yield a disposable income many .times greater. Yet in the village there are not the facilities - such as restaurants, theatres,

102 A Homeland for the Cree TABLE 3 Budget Estimates for Cree Families, 1981

Cash budget Income (average) Expenses Food Housing Hunting costs House equipment Total basic expenses Disposable income

Village Residents

Intensive Hunters

$11,000

$10,000

$ 3,800-4,160 $ 4,300 $ 1,500 $ 400

$ 1,300-1,560 $ 1,200-4,300 $ 4,750 $ 200

$10,000-10,360

$ 7,450-10,810

$ 1,000-640

$ 2,550-1-810)

Non-cash budget (produced and consumed, in $ equivalents) Housing $ 1,000 Food $ 1,500 $ 5,000 Total subsistence income

$ 1,500

$ 6,000

Note: These budgets are notional estimates based (as described in the text) on aggregate figures for expenses, divided by the number of families. Except for a survey of hunting costs in 1977, they are not based on surveys of individual households. The variation in food costs is between villages served by a road and those without roads; the variation in house costs for hunters depends on whether they must pay to maintain heat in a village house during the winter or not.

liquor stores, and expensive boutiques - that could quickly take up any disposable income in conspicuous consumption. Instead one finds that there is much more investment by the comparatively well-todo in household goods, in trucks and cars, and in improving the comfort of village living. A review of the Cree situation by the National Indian Brotherhood in 1982 called the Cree "Practically millionaires"; this summary of the village economy of consumption indicates only that most Cree have become "practically suburbanites," with the most affluent attaining that suburban standard. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE REGIONAL SOCIETY

The Cree economy of 1981 has so far been described and discussed from the point of view of the local population, and as a system in itself. This section will raise some questions that will be more extensively treated in the last chapter. How does the Cree economy fit into the larger Canadian and world economy? How viable is it

103 The Cree Economy in 1981

in its present form? Is it supporting itself? Who benefits most from Cree activity, and who is deprived by it? There will be no attempt to reflect philosophically on those issues at this point, but some of the data that bear on what has already been presented - especially the costs of the hydro project and the compensation paid to the Cree - will be cited. The obvious but erroneous answer to the first question would be that the Cree contribute little economic product to the Quebec or Canadian economies, but that the larger economies support the Cree economy through governmental subsidy of the services and hunting of the area. These governmental transfers provide 80 per cent of the salaries and 100 per cent of the transfer payments. This is an area that differs from other "have-not" areas only in that the Cree are themselves administering the subsidy, rather than accepting a hand-out with no say in how that hand-out is spent. This obvious answer would lead to a series of equally erroneous answers to the subsequent questions. The present situation would seem to depend on the willingness of the electorate to continue to support a policy of providing the same services to all citizens, regardless of the economic productivity of each region. Without subsidy the Cree economy would collapse; even hunting would be impossible without cash. The people who benefit are the Cree bureaucrats, and the Cree hunters who are the special object of ISP. The only people deprived are the other taxpayers of Quebec and Canada, since the Cree do not pay taxes to those governments on incomes earned on Cree land. The obvious answer omits two major considerations: The Royal Proclamation of 1763, which governs Canadian relations with its native people, and the James Bay hydro-electric project. The first stated that in return for their recognition of the sovereignty of the monarch, the right of the native peoples to preserve their way of life and to occupy their land, and to have the monarch's "protection," was recognized. If that "protection" in our modern constitutional state now includes unemployment insurance, health services, education, and pensions, it is nonetheless still a part of the contract which has been fundamental to the Canadian conception of fairness to the native peoples since 1763. The various specific modifications of this contract - the Indian Act of 1876, the specific treaties, and the modern reconsideration of native claims - have all taken the basic principle for granted. The subsidizing of services is in exchange for native acceptance of membership in the Canadian state and tolerance of Canadian immigration into Indian land. The James Bay hydro-electric project was constructed on Indian

104 A Homeland for the Cree

land that in 1971 had not been formally acknowledged by the native people, through the signing of a treaty, to be part of Canada. The project enables a price tag to be put on what the Cree have given up in return for "protection." Its first phase, exploiting the LaGrande River basin, was nearing completion in 1981. It was to provide 8 million kilowatts of generating capacity, or roughly 40 per cent of the electricity consumed in Quebec. All three phases of the project would provide 15 million kilowatts capacity. While the availability of this electricity already enables Quebec to export electricity elsewhere, principally to the United States, a money value (at 40 mil per kilowatt hour) can be put on the product of this capacity, amounting to $2.8 billion each year for the existing Phase 1, and of $5.2 billion for all three phases proposed for the future. In addition, the relative cheapness of James Bay electricity, as compared to that produced by oil-fired stations, is potentially a major factor in attracting industry and employment in Quebec. Thus the cash value of the electricity producible underestimates its real value for the Quebec economy. Only a portion of the value of the electricity can be attributed to the Cree land, for the construction of the dams, the generators, and the transmission lines for Phase 1 cost approximately $15 billion, and this capital investment needs some acknowledgement as contributing to the product. Quebec, however, received other benefits from the investment, notably ten years of employment for a major part of its construction industry. It is hard to grudge the original Cree land-owners their total incomes of $28 million a year, when the province gains an income of $2,800 million already, and possibly double that amount in the future. The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, signed in 1975, was essentially the treaty by which the Cree accepted the sovereignty of Canada, the administration of the region by the Province of Quebec, and the implementation of the James Bay project. In return the Cree obtained a permanent legal guarantee of services ("protection"), entrenchment of clear legal rights concerning hunting and residence, and compensation for damages. The exchange, though not its economic value, is explicit in the agreement. In addition to the provisions relating to services, the agreement provides for about $45 million to be paid to the Cree as compensation for the land used for reservoirs, roads, and towns; $45 million as a sort of royalty on the electricity produced, to be paid over a twentyyear period, and another $45 million as compensation for "future development." This compensation cannot be distributed to individuals

105 The Cree Economy in 1981

but must be used for the economic and social development of the Cree as a whole. The $90 million paid for the land occupied by the project may represent a southerners view of the value of the land, as compared to the $15 billion value of contruction. It is questionable whether the Cree accept this as the "value" to them of their land. Nonetheless, while the land base supporting the Cree economy has been reduced by the hydro project and by future mining activity, the Cree in return do now have the monetary capital to invest in creating additional economic bases. We have already seen how the Cree have used some of the interest from this capital sum to put their economy on a better footing. The funds provided the capital for the company, Cree Construction, and have helped speed up the housing program so that all Cree can benefit. In early 1982 the Cree bought shares of Austin Airways to create a subsidiary, Air Cree-bec, that would serve all coastal Cree communities. They are considering other potential industries that would be viable for the region. An opportunity to choose alternatives to relying on a subsistence and service economy is provided by this compensation. What the Cree will choose as their alternative must be a matter for the future. It is a future that they can look forward to optimistically.

CHAPTER FIVE

Local Politics in a Regional Society

Cree local politics in 1971 has been described in this study in traditional anthropological terms, as they have been used to deal with informal politics in a stateless society, factions and subgroupings negotiating, and important men exercising authority. The interaction between intraband politics and the government structure, conducted through the chiefs and the band councils, was analysed in less traditional terms as "brokerage." The important administrative decisions, reserved for non-Cree government officials, were not analysed in anthropological terms. In dealing with the situation in 1981 it is necessary to change the nature of the political analysis. Within villages the official band councils, school committees, co-ops, and chapters of the Cree Trappers Associations are forums in which there is public participation and village politics are conducted. There is more differentiation within the communities, in terms of education) employment, wealth, and orientation, and the divisions produced do not coincide with those of the kinship and microband groupings of earlier days. This development leads to a consideration of how far interest groups are important in Cree politics, both at band and regional levels, and how far the new differentiation is creating recognizable "classes" within Cree regional society. As we will see, the nature of Cree interaction with wider social units is apparent in the way Cree politicians interact with Quebec and federal politicians and the mass media, ^nd with other Indian groups within the Quebec Confederation of Indians and the National Indian Brotherhood. THE POLITICS OF LOCAL-LEVEL COUNCILS

The researcher is faced with an illustration of the effectiveness of

107 Local Politics in a Regional Society

band councils even before he starts work. He or she cannot legally enter a village to do research unless the band has given permission, and without such a permit (or the presence of Cree to vouch for him or her) the researcher will not be allowed past the Matagami checkpoint on the road to Chisasibi, where the road becomes a private one controlled by the James Bay Development Company. In 1979 the Mistassini Band Council, faced with six requests to conduct research there during the summer, decided that it could not show favouritism and therefore refused permission to all. The Band Councils have reserved this power to control access by researchers, even though the CRA is often in a better position to judge the bona fides of a researcher and the value of the proposed research. It is the band that is affected by the presence of a researcher, and the bands want to be able to control who comes in. The interests of the CRA, it is felt, might in some ways differ from the interests of a particular band. Nor is the obtaining of a permit to do research a mere formality. The subject is discussed in a Band Council meeting (perhaps with the applicant present to explain the request), and searching questions are asked by all council members. The band manager is the person who has attended to the correspondence and knows the background of the request; the chief chairs the meeting, always summarizes the issues involved and the options facing the council, using the Cree language, and then almost invariably stays silent while others present their views or questions. Only when each question has been answered by the band manager (or the applicant) does the chief present the conclusion of the meeting - usually arrived at by consensus rather than a vote. A negative decision is always possible and could be triggered at any level. If the band manager is not convinced of the value of the research, the matter may never reach the agenda of the council meeting, or if it does, the band manager provides the documentation and details to the council, and his information (and the council decision) will probably reflect his views. If the chief does not approve of the research, his views will appear in his summary of the issues, and it is probable that the council will follow his lead. If the council has recently had a problem with a researcher, does not know the applicant personally, considers the topic a sensitive one, or is alienated by the behaviour of the applicant (too pushy or verbose an approach is not approved of by the Cree), the decision may be negative even though the chief and band manager approve. This sketch of how the issue of research permission is discussed illustrates some characteristics of Cree politicking that are common

108 A Homeland for the Cree

to most formal councils in modern society and others that are peculiar to the Cree. There is an administrative staff at the village level, consisting of the band manager and (in most cases) a secretary, which supports the deliberations of the Band Council. The staff is usually paid a salary. The band manager works full-time in all villages, while the Cree Trappers' Association, the Cree School Board, and the ISP all have village employees who work for the appropriate committee on a part-time basis. The fact that all business must pass through the hands of the administrative staff, both before it comes to the attention of the council and afterwards, when letters and minutes must be written and documents signed, gives the staff a considerable role in influencing the decisions of councils. The people who have gravitated to the position of band manager in several Cree villages are no longer the young clerical workers of 1971, but people who have formerly been chiefs or senior officials in a regional organization. They are skilled in the ways of councils and bureaucratic systems. They can prepare a budget, and also know what that budget means in terms of a policy for, say, rehousing the village and for local employment next summer. They have done their stint of standing for election and of attempting to further band development by arguing for policies in public forums. They can be effective now in encouraging the efforts of younger elected officials, in providing the solid executive back-up that councils need, and in making their knowledge and experience available to the community at large. Respect for band managers is the usual attitude of Cree councils, not the ambivalence sometimes felt in councils that are asked to rubber-stamp decisions made by staff. Though the staff of other committees do not have the seniority or the prestige of most band managers, my impression is that now they too are people with long experience of the field they are in, who have the respect of the community in that field, and who see their task as the practical one of "getting the job done," rather than one of persuading people to support them. There is, in short, a useful niche in village life for the capable veteran of thirty-five to forty, who graduated as an effective worker during the era of rapid change between 1971 and 1981. The role of the chief has become more important since 1971, and makes demands on the incumbent that were unknown at that time. As we have seen, the chief behaves for the most part as council chairman, though one who can influence debate by quietly orienting it or by the way he recognizes consensus, rather than by active intervention. The techniques are much like those employed by

109 Local Politics in a Regional Society

important men in traditional informal politics, especially their patience in hearing out the views of others before enunciating a consensus that everyone then accepts. But the chief was elected, and he has taken on the job only because he is politically involved. He represents some interest in the community or has some policy which he hopes to implement, and he has already persuaded people to support that policy. He is also the elected representative of his community on the CRA and the GCCQ. Going to their meetings in Val d'Or may take him out of the community for part of a week in most months, at which time he is involved in continual debate around conference tables, drinking an inordinate amount of coffee and trying to defend his community's interests. His job is certainly not that of a ceremonial figure-head or of a broker in a bureaucracy. Chiefs tend to be younger people than the chiefs of 1971. All have a high school education and are fluent in English, while several have a knowledge of French. Few were influential figures during the era of rapid change, but have come into prominence subsequently. Some indeed have been elected because their village supporters felt unhappy with the way the regional organizations were concentrating power and acting in ways that seemed at variance with the wishes and interests of people in that particular village. Such chiefs may initially lack experience in working with an administrative bureaucracy, and may push single-mindedly for the political goals they championed when they were elected. As elsewhere in elective politics, however, in Creeland the politician, once elected, has to learn rapidly both how to negotiate his policies with fellow politicians trying to push their own and how to cope with administrators. If he does not, he proves ineffective. Not the least of the skills that have to be learned by the effective chief of a band, and president of a village organization, is that of knowing who to contact to get things done. The regionalizing of services, and the formal reporting by local committees to regional boards rather than to Band Councils and the chief, means that the particular people involved in any one issue may not be within the small friend/kinship circle of the chief or committee president, as would likely have been the case in 1971. The chief must, therefore, if he is to keep his village operating effectively, maintain relations with each committee chairperson and each official of regional bodies in the village. Only in this way can he be kept informed of what is going on. Given village factions, this is not necessarily an easy task. His interaction at the regional level, paradoxically, gives him a great advantage over other villagers at the local level. The frequent visits a chief must make to Val d'Or, and the fact that some members

110 A Homeland for the Cree

of each band are officials of various regional boards, mean that the chief soon has contacts not merely with other chiefs but with the senior people on various regional boards. He can then facilitate business for a village committee president by referring him or her to the right person in Val d'Or. Among the politically active Cree the ties of acquaintance, and the indirect links of kinship (and marriage or affinity) that have become activated, now make Cree political society appear a single entity, based in its politics on informal ties and communication of information, as much as it is on the formal organizational chart described in chapter 3. CLASS DIVISIONS

Much of what has been said suggests that there is emerging a division between a Cree political elite and the large mass of Cree society. Clearly there is an incompatibility between being a full-time (or even half-time) employee of a Cree government body, and being a fulltime intensive hunter spending seven months in hunting camps. Living in a village (or in Val d'Or), with a salary that is above the mean, provides the wherewithal to equip one's house comfortably, to buy store-food, and to cultivate a middle-class suburban life-style. This life-style is open most easily to those with high school education, and, as is common elsewhere, parents with education encourage their children also to obtain an education (and can pay for them to go away for tertiary education). The question here is whether these differences in wealth, in lifestyle, and in sphere of activity, which unquestionably now exist among the Cree, constitute class differences. Do the people who have a similar income, life-style, or sphere of activity feel they are separate from those with whom they do not have this common ground? Do the existing differences create cleavages across which people oppose each other, feeling that their interests do not coincide? Are the dividing lines becoming institutionalized, for example, as the children of officials in their turn become officials, and the children of hunters become hunters? The final answers will not be available until another generation has passed, and the children of today's leaders have shown whether they have maintained, enhanced, or lost the positions of leadership held by their parents. But some indications are at hand, and these suggest that class divisions are being avoided. The decision by Cree political leaders to limit the salaries of village officials in order to minimize divisions has already been mentioned.

Ill

Local Politics in a Regional Society

This has been accompanied by strong assertions by officials that they are deeply concerned to maintain Cree culture, and particularly Cree hunting as the core of Cree thinking, Cree religion, and the relationship between the Cree and the land. This was brought out in the injunction hearings in 1973, where the testimony of older monolingual Cree and Inuit hunters was most impressive. Though the cynic could argue that the statement by the hunters themselves of Cree tradition was a lawyer's tactic for impressing romanticallyminded southern Canadians, I see it as making explicit something that the Cree had always felt but had rarely expressed to outsiders. The recognition given in the courtroom by the judge and the public to the value of this testimony has encouraged the more open expression of a deeply felt Cree cultural identity. The leaders can maintain their credibility among their own villagers only if they express the common ideology and show by their actions that they sincerely adhere to it. Policies that support hunting receive greater political attention than any others. Leaders are not isolated from other villagers. The families of all leaders - including their brothers, cousins, in-laws, and parents contain individuals who are hunters. With only rare exceptions every Cree leader or official has devoted some time to working within his own village and also to hunting; none have become career officials exclusively. Officials who have spent relatively long periods outside their villages, travelling to meetings or negotiations, are acutely aware of the problems a bureaucratic career causes for marriages and for their children. Their periodic return to village life has been seen as a time for recuperation and normality, the reward for an official who has stood up to the strain, the less desirable food, and the hurry and rush of white society. On returning they make a point of involving themselves in the hunting activities of their parents, their in-laws, or their cousins, though their frequent absence makes it unlikely that they will ever attain the level of hunting expertise of those who are full-time hunters. The exchange between village dwellers and hunters has been most fully documented for Wemindji (Scott 1983). To put it simply, the hunters provide meat for the community residents; the salary earners provide purchased goods for the hunters. But the exchange is not a crudely commercial one. The distribution of food by hunters follows traditional patterns stressing equality. A portion of a large animal is sent to every household to which the hunter has ties; if a bear is killed everyone is invited to the feast. A life-cycle ceremony is the time for a distribution, as is a seasonal event such as the return from the winter camp or the spring goose-hunt. What is given is

112 A Homeland for the Cree

not a direct gift, in exchange for a specific return, even if the relative to whom you give a quarter of a moose has minded your village house during the winter and housed your school-age child while you were in the bush. Nor is a return in the form of purchased goods a direct one. It is likely to occur if a major purchase is needed by a hunter - a new outboard for a canoe, a skidoo, or a truck to carry supplies to a camp that is accessible to the road. When the need becomes known the required article may then be jointly purchased by the village-dweller and the hunter, or the village dweller may buy the article - the truck, for example - for himself, but let the hunter use it as required. Exchange is carefully treated as a widely generalized activity, where no one is patronizing another, and where gifts are made as marks of generosity, friendship, and lasting relationship. This is possible because the people who produce the different services and goods that are exchanged are not, as yet, divided into distinct groups. The concern to maintain Cree traditions, even those that had often lapsed, and to ensure that they are treated with due respect is also exemplified by the formation of a Cree Council of Elders. When crucial issues are at stake, the elected politicians do not have to decide in terms of expediency or their personal opinions. A repository of traditional wisdom is there to be consulted. In 1982, for example, when the possibility arose that ISP might become more of a welfare program to provide an income for villagers who were unemployed as a result of the recession, a meeting of the council was called, at which the elders spoke out clearly. What was important, they said, was the maintenance of hunting; non-hunters, though meriting respect as persons, and support by hunters through exchange, should be denied eligibility for subsidy by ISP, if there was a possibility of exceeding the ceiling on numbers of beneficiaries agreed upon with Quebec. Support for non-hunters should not endanger the viability of real hunting, which was an activity to be carried out seriously, even reverently. Though the politicians would implement the decision, negotiating with Quebec officials, the political preference given to hunting rather than universality could be seen to be an expression of traditional Cree wisdom and values. Young people see the respect paid to the grandparental generation by the current leaders; they see that the Cree language is a respected medium for making political decisions; they see that participation in a traditional life is no bar to mature thinking about modern politics. More pragmatically, the differences in wealth in villages do not reflect a split between village-dwellers and full-time hunters. The analysis of the budgets of households of each type in chapter 4

113 Local Politics in a Regional Society

suggested that the average hunting household (taking account of subsistence products and of fuel and housing in the bush) has a slightly higher total income than has the average village household, though the expenses of hunters are also higher. In fact the range of incomes within each category is wider than the difference between averages. There are poor and rich hunters, and poor and rich villagedwellers, even though discrepancies between poor and rich are underplayed by the Cree. Thus, in choosing those whom the band will employ on summer projects, preference is given to spreading the work as widely as possible, so that all the needy may earn something, and to ensuring that people who have numbers of dependents are employed. Each village has its own Outreach officer, funded by Canada Manpower, seeking out new employment possibilities and ensuring that the right person, in terms of need as well as of qualifications, is made aware of any job that comes up. There is, in fact, a commitment to minimize differences in wealth. Two sets of individuals are, however, recognized to be better off than others: the older tallymen who control hunting territories and those who operate businesses within villages. The former, always good hunters, can select those who may "visit" their territory next winter, and so can organize the group that will hunt there. They are assured of their own choice of traplines within the territory. Though they will distribute the fruits of their hunting success to the less successful, they are also certain to receive additional contributions or gifts from other hunters, especially those who have "visited" with them all winter. It is possible that a tallyman, receiving a stipend from ISP for collecting the catch figures from the hunter on his territory, may not himself have hunted that winter. He is likely to receive gifts from all those who have visited, but to give few in return. It is unlikely that he would be poor, but his comparative affluence is not a matter of jealousy, except perhaps on the part of a hunter who has been unable to obtain an invitation to visit on a territory. The men owning the businesses in the various communities the gas station in Chisasibi, the restaurant, the earth-moving and taxi operations in Mistassini, the forestry contracting and the grocery store in Waswanipi, and the many other smaller businesses - are well known. All villagers can see the equipment and the buildings they own, and everyone jokes about how wealthy they are. But the owners all behave modestly within the community, showing no arrogance and not seeking to isolate themselves. They speak in meetings, perhaps with more self-deprecating humour than others do, but participate as equals, often making greater contributions than

114 A Homeland for the Cree

others to village activities. They work hard; they are responsible family men; they help others; they are pillars of the local community - even if what they are doing is not a traditional activity. They do not form a class: they are a set of distinctive individuals. Although the present analysis has tended to minimize the significance of economic splits within villages, there are nevertheless splits of other kinds. To some extent there is a split between the "traditionalists," who regard the preservation of Cree traditional values as more urgent than the creation of a new, prosperous, and modern Cree community, and the "modernists" with the opposite priority, though the two groups agree that both aims are important. This split has been expressed at band elections during the decade, as successive communities have voted against modernist chiefs - often people who were involved in the negotiation of the agreement, and who are felt to have moved too fast in changes and to have become more involved with the Cree regional structures than with the more traditional interests of villagers. Yet there are opposite cases, where a modernist has returned after a period of office with a regional body, and has been either elected as band chief, replacing a traditionalist, or has been appointed as band manager. As indicated earlier, incoming traditionalist chiefs, determined to stand up for the interests of their particular communities within the Grand Council of the Cree, in short order find themselves working in a modernist way within the new structures. Similar factional differences have been widely reported for other Indian groups, since Titiev's (1944) classic study of the Hopi, but the present analysis of the Cree villages indicates that in their case the division is a dynamic one, based on a respect for individual differences, that is not an expression of incompatible ideologies and is unlikely to result in rigidly crystallized divisions. There is argument over the best way to proceed; villagers are willing to let newcomers try to do better than the incumbents have done, but they continue to recognize the merits of those they have voted out of office, and to use them in village services. Relative priorities vary, but within an agreement that Cree society is paramount. The other split in villages that all Cree now talk about is the religious split. During the 1970s conversion to Pentecostalism became common, sometimes with ceremonies of mass baptism. In most villages the converts built churches that rival in size and in prominence of location the long-established Anglican churches. (Roman Catholic Oblate missions continue to attract few Crees, despite the impressive size of their churches and associated buildings.) Most villages contain approximately equal numbers of Pentecostals and

115 Local Politics in a Regional Society

Anglicans. Candidates at elections are typed according to their religion, and in private the Cree will give their opinion - always an unflattering one - of the politics of the adherents of the other religious group. Yet in practice there is wide religious tolerance. Within families and kindreds, some may be Pentecostal and some Anglican, and what is deplored is that religious arguments may break up marriages. About chiefs of a different religious grouping, band members may say, "He is a pretty good chief. You would hardly know he is a (naming the other denomination)," or, "Although half the council is , we get on very well together." There is universal concern about some of the emerging problems about which the Pentecostals speak out most forcefully - intemperance, the breakdown of family life, lack of a strong moral code; there is disagreement about the ways of ensuring a prosperous future for the Cree, whether it is through religious or through secular means. Nor does the split coincide with the traditionalist/modernist distinction made earlier. On some issues a Pentecostal position may be a modernist one (e.g., regarding strict discipline in schools), while in others it may be traditionalist (e.g., stressing equality rather than efficiency in administration). Obversely, an Anglican position may be traditionalist in supporting practices familiar for a century (like syllables), and modernist in supporting, for instance, the structures that have emerged with the agreement. To return to the original question of whether the politics of the Cree are becoming polarized in terms of class, with the village bureaucrats ranged against the hunters, the evidence is that the Cree are aware that such a polarization could occur, and so far have taken effective steps to preserve unity by collectively asserting Cree values and to prevent such a division. The divisions noted here are divisions of opinion on how best to preserve those values. They are divisions that are all-important for the interaction of the Cree among themselves, and are likely to represent a continuing dialectic of political debate for them. But in interaction with the outside world, the Cree are united, and support the Cree. THE ROLE OF FORMAL POLITICS

But even if there is little evidence that village politics revolve around the issues, parties and ideologies common in the wider society of Canada, the importance of the change between 1971 and 1981 must be underlined. Band members are now closely and widely involved in the decisions that Band Councils (and other village organizations)

116 A Homeland for the Cree

make. The discussions of such bodies are seen as important, and as leading to decisions that will be implemented and will affect individuals in the village. Complaints about what is done can be readily expressed. If action is needed, people throughout the village know who is the person to call upon - the chairperson of the School Committee, the Outreach officer/the band manager, the secretary of the Cree Trappers' Association, the band councillors. The matter will soon be discussed in the relevant body, and followed up in action for the most part. True, there may be delays because the band manager is in Val d'Or or the Trappers' Association secretary is out fishing, but the structure exists, and it is actively used. There may be some tendency for a complaint by someone who is close kin to those empowered to act, or who shares their religious or political views, to be taken more seriously than would a complaint from an unrelated person; or for the head of an organization to appoint to a job someone with whom he has a close relationship. But in general the formal political structure has become a part of the village, rather than a part of DINA, and remains under village control rather than controlled by outsiders. And through their elected officers the villages have a say in the policies of the regional bodies which affect the villages. All Cree can now participate in the political process of the Cree homeland.

CHAPTER SIX

Cree Education

SCHOOLS IN THE COMMUNITIES

In the villages, with the exception of Nemaska where no school had been established in the new village by 1981, the school (or schools) is the most impressive large building. With the band office, it is the principal focus of village life, both because almost every household has children attending school, and because the school buildings the auditorium, the sports facilities, and the classrooms - are the locus of other activities, from community meetings to adult education courses. Waswanipi village, it is true, used prefabricated housing modules for its school, during its haste to establish residence on the new site, and is eagerly anticipating the time when it can build a better structure with appropriately designed buildings and use the existing structures for residential purposes. But in other communities the schools all occupy large buildings, constructed since 1970, the date of Mistassini's construction of its new school. The massive expansion of the school system can most simply be related to the growth of the school-age population. In the early seventies the educational planners of DINA could anticipate the need for new classrooms, particularly at the primary school level, and authorized a program of construction that managed to approximately keep pace with the population increase. After 1976, when Fort George was relocated to Chisasibi, and when Ruperts Houses two schools (federal and provincial) came under the control of the Cree school board, major reconstruction could be planned to cope with the local situation. But there have also been two other kinds of expansion of school clienteles - pre-school teaching has expanded and, at the other end of the school career, the proportion of children completing secondary

118 A Homeland for the Cree

education has increased. The first expansion has been easier to meet at the local level, as classroom space and local teachers became available. The second expansion, one that was not as easily predictable, has caused some problems. Though there has been some teaching of grade 8 and 9 pupils in Rupert's House and Mistassini, the majority of all Cree secondary school students attend the high school in Chisasibi, either as day pupils if they come from Chisasibi itself or as boarding pupils if they come from elsewhere. At a time when, traditionally, young adults were learning adult skills, trapping or organizing household tasks as assistants to their parents, they are now living for many months of the year in the town of Chisasibi. Though teachers may supervise their hours of school work, and foster parents or residency supervisors may exercise some control over their leisure hours (though this control is limited), the presence of hundreds of teenagers from small villages, grouped together in what is for the Cree a large town, without parental direction, and without activities available at every hour of the day, tends to create problems. Interviews with local parents in Fort George regarding their attitudes to the schooling of their children were compiled by Conni Kilfoil in 1977. Though they were pleased that the education did include courses in Cree language and in Cree culture, and felt it important that the schools relate to community needs, they were also concerned that their children were in fact being offered a substandard education of watered-down courses. Their fears were compounded by their concern over disciplinary problems. The style of teaching (especially by young white teachers emerging from universities in the late 1960s) was seen as a permissive one, putting little pressure on children, when compared to the detailed memory learning and homework many parents remembered from their youth. Some teachers, in their off-duty time, smoked, drank, and enjoyed themselves in ways that few of the mission-school teachers did in earlier days; they did not, parents thought, set good examples for the children, and in fact might lead some pupils into bad ways. The community problems of teenagers "hanging around" in the village, vandalism, and unmarried pregnancies were seen as in some sense the result of a lowering of standards in the school. In the 1980s parents in other villages whose children are boarding in Chisasibi express the same fears as those of local parents, augmented by the fear that absence from home will cause their children to fall into bad ways which the parents cannot thus indirectly persuade them to give up. It may be a good thing, they feel, to get to know children from other Cree villages, especially as this could lead in the future to invitations to hunt on distant territories when

119 Cree Education

local ones are unavailable, but if the choice of a long-term partner by an adolescent Cree is guided only by the experience of being class-mates at high school, it is unlikely to be a good choice for the long term. Heaven knows what might happen if a marriage should be planned without parental guidance! Many students from Waswanipi and Mistassini villages attend the high schools in Chibougamau, Chapais, or Val d'Or, with the white (and Cree) students who live in town. The number includes the children of band members who are resident all year round in these towns (the Dore Lake sub-band of Mistassini, for example), but also includes children whose parents reside in the villages and who board with families (Indian and non-Indian) in the towns. Such children, if they transfer from a village school at grade 8 or 9, have not only the problems of young adult adaptation already mentioned as present in Chisasibi, but also the problems of living in towns that are predominantly non-Cree and of transferring from schools where the curriculum and methods were geared to Cree needs to schools which follow exactly the curriculum and methods prescribed for all schools in Quebec by the Ministry of Education. Delays that their education in a second language (English or French) has caused usually mean that they are older for their grade than the rest of the class. In addition, many find themselves placed in the same grade as the one they have just completed (i.e., essentially are forced to repeat a grade). But in interviewing parents about their children's school attendance in nearby white communities, the impression one receives is that the parents believe the schools are providing a good education. It is a tough education, tougher than the students have been used to in the villages, and one that will prepare them to compete as equals with whites in all activities. Parents who themselves had to go away to boarding school at primary grades, and lived lonely lives with foster-parents as far away as Sault Ste Marie, but who completed their schooling nonetheless, feel that village schools provide a less rigorous education, with lower standards, than they had received. Many of them send their children (from Waswanipi particularly) to a French-language school, specifically because the knowledge of French is seen as important in enabling one to compete equally with whites in the open labour market of northern Quebec, and to aspire to a role in the Cree regional administration. As would be expected, there is a tendency for parents who have achieved a higher level of schooling to urge their children to pursue their education at a still more advanced level. The importance of the schools in the communities can thus be put in a double perspective. Absolutely, as table 4 shows, there are

120 A Homeland for the Cree TABLE 4 Cree School Populations, 1971 and 1981

1971

1981

On Off Reserve Reserve

Kindergarten, 1-2 Primary, 1-6 Secondary, 7-8 Secondary, 9-11 Postsecondary Total

Total

On Off Reserve Reserve

Total

194 876 193

20 194 202 73 5

214 1,070 395 73 5

371 1,371 337 297

10 111 35 64 74

381 1,482 372 361 74

1,263

494

1,757

2,376

294

2,670

Sources: For 1971 DIAND Statistics, Quebec Regional Summary 1970 and 1971. Figures given for federal and provincial schools on Cree reserves have been augmented by an estimate for Great Whale, where Cree and Inuit numbers are not given. Off-reserve figures are compiled from attendance of Cree at schools in Chapais, Chibougamau, Matagami, Senneterre, etc., and by estimates of attendance at boarding-schools elsewhere. For 1981-2 the figures for on-reserve schooling are those of the CSB as reported to the MEQ. The number of Cree from Waswanipi and Mistassini attending school in Chibougamau and Chapais has been estimated from the bandlists, considering children of the appropriate ages resident in those towns as school-attenders. Postsecondary education for 1981-2 is based on the list of names of Cree planning to attend, compiled in the spring of 1982 by the CSB.

now almost twice as many Cree children in school as there were in 1971, with students spending many more years of their lives as school attenders than was the case in 1971. Parents are concerned to secure a good education for their children, one that involves disciplined learning and the acquisition of the knowledge that will fit them for a world that is shared with whites, and where a Cree must be fully the equal of a white. Their fears that the local Cree schools are not providing such an education is an indication not of opposition to the schools and a feeling that schools are taking the children away from a bush life, but rather of a desire to make the schools better. As for the students, in listening to them playing in the schoolyard, it is hard to differentiate them from a comparably aged group in a southern school; they certainly do not discuss the calibre of education, but the performance of teachers, the events of school, the behaviour of other students all feed into the play and conversation. School life (during term-time at least) is the focus of day-to-day existence. The people one interacts with at school are second in importance only to one's family. NONFORMAL EDUCATION

Before it is concluded that the schools have become the only

121 Cree Education

institutions of education in Cree communities, some caveats must be rapidly entered: there is a continuing family-based educational system oriented towards traditional skills, and there is clearly a peergroup educational system that has parallels among the youth culture in southern Canada but retains a distinctive Cree emphasis in the villages. Moreover, adults in Cree villages are also educating themselves through many agencies - remedial school courses and vocational and professional courses organized by the Adult Education Services of the Cree School Board in collaboration with groups such as Manpower Canada, industry groups, and cultural agencies. The family-based teaching of traditional skills has already been mentioned in the discussion of modern hunting in chapter 3. Before children are of school age it is common for young parents (unless they are employed full-time in a professional or white-collar job) to take their children with them to the bush. The parents have themselves acquired hunting skills as young adults, prior to marriage, assisting in their own parents' "beneficiary units/' With the guarantee of ISP support after the first year in the bush, a young couple can easily begin the bush education of its first children. The presence of grandparents in the hunting camp is clearly important, for it immerses the children in the extended kinship network of cousins, aunts, and uncles that creates links permeating each village. Later on, boarding with kin living in the village, while parents hunt in the bush, is not a dramatic change for a six-year-old who is, in effect, living with well-known cousins of a similar age, in a house that is headed by an aunt or uncle. In such a house the lessons of family living are still being learned, even if not the day-to-day skills of bushliving. In no Cree family are the cultural messages of the bush ignored, for the desirability of country food, the activities of fishing, hunting, skinning, cooking, providing hospitality, and collaboration with others are learned both within the home and on the innumerable excursions into the surrounding country. Nevertheless, the attenuation of learning in the bush during the years between the ages of five and fifteen, as compared to the past way of life, when every day was a new training experience of some kind, is undeniable. How far young adults can compensate for this loss by an "immersion" experience after the age of fifteen, and how far it can be compensated for by briefer periods of bush-living during holidays from school or by modifying the periods of school attendance - for example, postponing school opening until after the fall goosehunt, which all pupils can participate in, and continuing later in the spring - these are questions that the Cree themselves are seeking to answer. They are experimenting with alternatives to continuous

122 A Homeland for the Cree

school, and with inclusion of northern bush-knowledge (e.g., of animal behaviour and weather conditions) in schoolroom teaching of science or Cree culture. The Cree School Board has the authority to modify its own curriculum in this way. The older people carefully watch the hunting performance of the young adults and discuss whether it is better or worse than in the old days. Clearly the new technology, as we have already seen, has changed many aspects of bush-living, and the new technology is indeed something that the modern youngster is prepared for by his or her school education. The figures on meat production from hunting do not suggest that the new generation is performing significantly worse (or better) than their parents. Rumours of the death of Cree hunting are greatly exaggerated, but, just in case it might become sick, everyone is paying attention to the health of its training system. Within the villages the peer-group education system underwent major changes over the ten years between 1971 and 1981. Satellite television via Anik arrived in 1975, with dramatic immediate effects. After school, instead of the slow percolation of students back to their homes with excursions on all sides to play, to visit, or to talk, there occurred the rapid disappearance of students from the outdoors. All immediately raced for home so as not to miss the next episode of "Forest Rangers," with the crisis being made all the more urgent in that programming comes from Newfoundland, and as everyone in central Canada knows, a program transmitted at 4:30 P.M. Newfoundland time is heard at 3:00 P.M. Eastern Time. The distance from school to TV determined how much of the program was missed. In short, TV generally reduced outdoor and community activities, such as attendance at movie shows, replacing them with viewing at home or at the houses of friends. Some other changes have likewise tended in the direction of decreasing group activity, while a few have operated against the trend. The greater availability of stereos in the improved village housing, and the greater use of short-wave radios has increased, if anything, the interest of younger Cree in country western and pan-Indian music - and with it an increase in the home activity of 'listening to recordings." In the other direction the availability of more restaurants, pool halls, depanneui grocery stores, and public places within villages (and particularly in the community centre of Chisasibi) have provided more locations for teenagers and young adults to "hang out" that are not out-of-doors. Cree youth culture has indeed incorporated many features of youth culture throughout North America, yet it is a culture which includes strong elements stressing an Indian identity, the distinctiveness of

123 Cree Education

the Cree, and a sense of unity with age-mates in the same community. Again the long-term implications of these changes are closely watched by the Cree themselves, as older Cree seek to know whether the changes are for the better or not. Pessimists look to what they consider the better days of the past, and optimists stress how well the young adapt to change; the answer is not clear-cut, but it is not clear-cut anywhere. The role of adult education which has been mentioned in connection with industrial training, deserves fuller treatment here. Before the Cree School Board took over responsibility for organizing courses, training courses had been provided to villages mainly under the auspices of Manpower Canada. People unable to get employment because they lacked skills could enrol for Manpower courses and be paid allowances while undergoing training. The 77 who had taken courses related to industrial employment before 1977 were only 20 per cent of the total of 378 who had taken some form of course in the previous five years. The largest group taking courses were the 136 studying to obtain "personal skills/' including high school diplomas as well as craft skills of various kinds and "language skills/' Though the ages of the students are not available in the published records, the majority appear to be those who left school in the sixties, for whom there was a major upgrading of educational skills. In addition, 74 had obtained training in a specialized profession (policeman, social worker, and so on), 37 had received secretarial training, and another 86 training in various manual skills other than those categorized as "industrial" - carpentry in particular. Between 1977 and 1982, 1,581 adults registered for courses with the Adult Education Service. Of them 892 registered for educational upgrading or sociocultural courses (including physical education), 356 attended "professional courses" (which included handicraft skills), 176 learned a manual skill - carpentry, mining exploration, heavy machinery, small machinery repairs being the most sought-after courses - and 62 learned a secretarial skill. It is noteworthy that since 1977 there has also been an attempt to provide skills directly related to Cree life, and the courses have included manufacture of snowshoes, economic development of bands, tourism and the operation of outfitting camps, local administration, game wardenship, and others. Ninety-five people (including four non-Cree) have been trained in courses in northern skills. As the latter examples show, the Adult Education Services can respond to requests by bands for training in a particular field, and can organize both finance and teaching staff to provide what is needed. The tourism and outfitting courses, for example, were requested by

124 A Homeland for the Cree

the Mistassini Band, which had taken over fishing camps on Lake Mistassini previously operated by the Quebec government. The courses have been run at the camps themselves and have enabled the camps to operate successfully while training new staff at the same time. Other bands have expressed interest in sending people to the courses in future summers, thereby improving the Cree tourist economy. That the Cree use not only the procedures of the School Board and the facilities of the schools, but also the other resources of their villages and their land, to teach skills related to the band economy suggests how far they have incorporated the idea of schooling into their own informal educational system. THE D E M O G R A P H Y OF CREE EDUCATION

The school attendance figures given in table 4 present only a snapshot at one moment in time of the schooling that is provided for Cree children. It is important to place these figures in a historical perspective, and to consider what they imply about the degree of education possessed by Cree of all ages, and how this level of education has changed over time. In 1971 the number of Cree who had graduated from high school was extremely small, the six who constituted the first cohort of high school graduates having returned from Sault Ste Marie as recently as 1967. Their names were Billy Diamond, Albert Diamond, Philip Awashish, Peter Gull, Buckley Petawabano, and John Mark. Thirty more had achieved this level by 1971, but all of the high school graduates were still under the age of thirty at that time. A much larger number had attended high school but had dropped out before completion. I would suggest that a hundred Cree fitted this category, though no exact figures are available. Most of the young adults between twenty and twenty-five, and the best educated of those under thirty-five, belonged to this category. The vast majority of the population, including almost all of those over thirty and some of the younger Cree, had either had no schooling or had gone to primary school only, less than half of those who did so finishing that stage. The average number of grades of schooling of the Cree population was probably about five, the younger people having completed about eight grades and the older ones about three. By 1977 the number of high school graduates had reached at least 140, and of this number 26 had gone on to some kind of postsecondary education. These figures, from the Cree Human Resources Survey

125 Cree Education

(Salisbury et al 1979), are incomplete, since only about 85 per cent of the young adult population responded to the survey, while among older Cree, especially older women, the response rate was of the order of 60 per cent only, but the figures provide an approximation and can be compared to other figures from the same survey. Thus 347 of the respondents had had some high school education, representing the majority of the remainder of the recent school-leavers, together with the hundred or so for whom a complete high school education had not been feasible in the 1960s. The number who had attended only primary school - almost all over the age of thirty-five - was 683, and 510 reported having had no schooling. The mean number of grades attended was still only about 5.5, with almost all those aged under thirty exceeding eight years - some by many years since they had had postsecondary schooling, but the older population having had markedly less and often none. There are no comparable survey figures for 1981, but an approximation can be obtained by adding to the totals for 1977 an estimate of the schooling of the 400 who left school in the four intervening years. In general, half of them acquired some high school education but did not complete this stage; half of them completed it, and of that half, about one-quarter went on to postsecondary education. The educational levels of the population aged between sixteen and sixtyfive, as estimated above, are tabulated in table 5, with the comparable percentages in earlier years also shown. The fact that the rising generations of school-attenders are so much bigger than the age-groups over forty-five is a major reason for the rapid decline in the proportion without any high school education. The even more rapid increase in the absolute number of those with at least some high school education is because the numbers in each year of school are so large, and because in 1971 the base proportion of highly educated was extremely small. Though the figures have not yet reversed themselves from that year, when 90 per cent had no secondary education and only 10 per cent had some, by 1981 the proportions have become closer at 55/45; by 1991 they will certainly have reversed themselves to 10/90 if the present massive push for education continues. There has clearly been an educational revolution among the Cree; the Cree are not only staying longer in school, they have accepted the idea that schooling is vitally important. The question of language spoken is clearly linked to the question of education. Those with little or no schooling - the generations over thirty-five in 1971 - are those whose fluency in English was very small, and in French almost zero. The proportion speaking only Cree had dropped in 1977 to 32 per cent, consisting of those with

126 A Homeland for the Cree TABLES Educational Level of Cree Population, Aged 16-65, 1971-1981 No schooling Some primary school Completed primary school Some secondary school Completed secondary Some university

1971

1977

1981

42% 27% 21% 7% 3% -

30% 22% 19% 21% 7% 2%

20%

19% 16% 28% 14% 4%

Note: 1977 proportions are from Salisbury et al. ( 1979), table Q8. 1971 and 1981 are estimated as described in the text.

the least formal education. Almost all those who had been to school spoke both Cree and English, that is, 66 per cent of the population. The proportion of adults speaking Cree and French was 7 per cent of the population surveyed, or roughly the same proportion as had completed high school. The figures total more than 100 per cent because most of the French speakers also spoke English as well as Cree; only 1.5 per cent of the population spoke Cree and French but no English; 0.4 per cent spoke only English; 99.5 per cent spoke Cree. But painting the linguistic demography of 1981 is not to paint a picture of stability. Over half of the Cree children in preschool classes in 1981 studied in French; over a third of those in primary school and a quarter of those in secondary school also studied in French. By 1991 the proportion of Cree unilinguals will have dropped to less than 10 per cent of the total; the proportion speaking English and Cree will likely be above 75 per cent and the proportion speaking English, French, and Cree over 40 per cent. By the end of the century the Cree are likely to have the most varied linguistic education of any group in Canada. This outline of the demography of educational change in Cree villages, and of the intense concern of Cree for education, must be read in connection with the earlier discussion of Cree politics and the Cree economy. The small number of high school graduates in 1971 consisted of people who had had to fight for their education, and who had had to persevere through difficulties. They constituted a nucleus of able, educated young men, who were beginning to play a political role as chiefs or as band managers. When the challenge arose of doing something in reply to the threat of the James Bay project, these high school graduates felt that they should fight, even though most Cree initially were somewhat fatalistic, believing that nothing could be done to withstand the force of the Quebec govern-

127 Cree Education

ment. They were known to each other, having attended school together; they had contacts with officials and with university researchers; they had experience in organizing village affairs. Though young, they were crucially placed, and highly motivated to organize what became a political movement. The movement grew most importantly by the recruitment of those who were more recent high school graduates. When the IQA Task Force recruited assistants in the coastal villages to conduct interviews about hunting activities, they recruited among this group. The interviewing involved older hunters, and the court hearings also heard the testimony of older unilingual Cree, but the ability of the best educated to understand the world of research, planning, and organization made the high school graduates the main activists in the villages during the long period of activity in support of the negotiation of the James Bay Agreement. In Montreal and in Quebec the negotiators were the core of the earliest high school graduates. The signing of the agreement in 1975 did not terminate the need for highly educated Cree, or reduce the demand for them to the number of places for teachers in the expanding school system. Suddenly, with the opening of the Cree Regional Authority, the Cree Regional School Board, and the large number of organizations envisaged under the agreement, there were jobs for each and every Cree high school graduate. Those who had obtained jobs outside the region were contacted and invited to come back; those who were training for professional careers - as teachers or lawyers, for example - had to make the hard choice between preparing for the future needs of Cree society and coming back home to help solve the crisis of staffing the Cree bureaucracy. It was not until the early eighties that a balance began to emerge between the number of jobs requiring secondary (or higher) education in Cree society and the output of trained young people. Even then, it was evident from the number of positions still occupied by whites (under the direction of Cree), as noted in chapter 3, that a period of several years would elapse before a full balance could occur, with the Cree carrying out all the management in Cree society. If one compares Cree society during the 1970s with the picture painted of many other Indian communities - places without jobs and without incentives for children to remain in school, since education did not lead to a place in society and therefore seemed irrelevant to the student - the contrast is extreme. Though the role of the skilled hunter had great prestige, and that prestige is stressed in all the political rhetoric and religious ceremonial of Cree society, the political tasks, the important village activities, and the main

128

A Homeland for the Cree

cash income of village and regional society were monopolized by the educated. Education was not irrevelant for the Cree; it was the key to success as a Cree. The involvement of the young in education and the increasing tendency not to drop out, but to complete at least a high school education, become highly understandable. THE CONTENT OF CREE SCHOOLING

As previously noted, the stereotype of northern education treats it as irrevelant to northerners, because of its slavish copying of southern models - its use in textbooks of Dick and Jane, of streets and railroads, unfamiliar flowers and farm animals - when the northern reality is entirely different. The alienation from school produced by teaching entirely in English (or French) and making success in school dependent upon adoption of southern Canadian styles of interaction and identities has been described by Sindell (1968) in relation to the Cree of the 1960s. The Cree who succeeded in graduating, and in becoming political leaders, succeeded in spite of these handicaps, and developed a "modern Cree" identity that was neither "white-oriented" nor traditionally "Indian-oriented." How far has the modern Cree school been able to overcome the curriculum problems and to teach for this "modern Cree" identity? The problem of students going away to school, in a strange environment where English was the language of the teachers, has been solved, as stated earlier, by the extension of primary schooling to every village (except Nemaska). Children speak Cree in the community, even if the school adds a second language. Over half of all young children, as table 4 indicates now take part in some form of preschool activity, where a majority of the teachers and teacher's aides are now Cree. Though the children may appear in the Ministry of Education statistics as being in "immersion in French/ English," the reality is that the second language is being learned in a warm environment, with no rejection of the Cree language. In the primary grades the same pattern continues, even if formal education in the second language is the official rule. There is a place for formal acquisition of literacy in Cree, however, as shown by the number of hours set aside each week for Cree language studies. Though the final decision on the approved Roman orthography for all dialects of Cree is still in the hands of the linguists, the use of both the old syllabics1 and the new Roman orthography by Cree regional bodies provides meaningful reading material for young and old that had earlier been lacking.

129 Cree Education

Texts using animals, activities, and scenes familiar to the Cree were made available by the research group Creeways, based in Rupert's House, starting in 1972. They have been supplemented by readings of myths and stories from many villages and by writings about everyday modern events. Teachers now have at their disposal a sizeable, though not large, body of readings for children who have achieved literacy in Cree. Most of the teachers and analysts of the Cree language between 1972 and 1979 spent at least one month a year in the program for Cree language teachers, organized initially for Manitou College by the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi. Though the courses were instructional, and upgraded the qualifications of Cree teachers, the linguists who ran the courses also learned the complexities of Cree (and Naskapi and Montagnais) dialects. A lasting contribution has been made to Algonquian linguistics, at the same time as teachers have been trained, diagnoses have been made of problems faced by Cree speakers, and a model of collaboration has been established for community-university relations. The courses continue, alongside the regular teacher-training courses that McGill University operates under contract with the Cree School Board. Cree cultural content in higher-level courses is also a regular part of instruction, with five periods a week being provided in grade 5, reduced to two periods by grade 11. The classes are taught by older Cree, who are part-time members of the teaching staff of each school. They have been provided for enough pupils to be regarded as part of the regular curriculum, and are linked to the course offerings that form the more "southern" curricula provided by the Ministry of Education of Quebec. The community itself has considerable influence on the suitability of the curriculum to village needs. All schools in Quebec must establish a "School Committee" of parents; within the Cree School Board the committees are active bodies, much more so than is the case in most southern schools. The parents know one another, hear news of events in the classroom from their children, and the news circulates. A group may decide that a particular teacher is not teaching their children appropriately, or that a particular subject is not being taught the way they would like. They do not hesitate to make their feelings known to the school principal, and there have been several cases where a teacher's (even a principal's) contract has not been renewed, following a dispute with parents. This degree of intervention by parents in school affairs is impossible in southern schools, where the teachers are covered by a union contract which a parents' committee cannot influence, but in 1981 there was no union for Cree teachers (or principals). This would, one would anticipate, result

130 A Homeland for the Cree

in non-Cree teachers refusing employment with the Cree School Board, but at a time of high unemployment for teachers this is one of the few school boards in Quebec which is expanding. There has been no problem in recruitment so far. In matters of curriculum development generally, however, the power of the southern teaching profession is as important as Cree wishes. Support staff for the Cree attempts to schedule curricula in line with northern needs is composed largely of professional educators, familiar with the Ministry of Education programs, and with pedagogical thinking. Those working for the Cree School Board welcome the challenge to create new programs, at a time when their southern confreres are confined closely by the existing ministry programs. They throw themselves into the planning process, but in the end often run into the same problems that beset school innovators everywhere: the need to get programs approved by a hierarchy, and the need to obtain parents' reactions before implementation. The parents intervene to a considerable extent in curriculum matters. The "immersion" of Cree children in English or French at the preschool and primary levels is an issue concerning which opinions have differed widely among parents and among communities. In the mid-1970s the use of the Cree language at the preschool level, with some introduction of a second language, and second-language immersion in primary school, was the rule of the School Board. Voices began to be heard, saying that the immersion was insufficiently strict, and that fluency in the second language matching that of white Canadians would require total immersion from the start. The board moved to implement this policy, only to be met with a chorus saying that to preserve Cree cultural identity in schools it was necessary to achieve literacy in Cree right at the start, and to introduce the second language only gradually. The School Board, caught in the dilemma of not knowing which parents to heed, called for a study. An outsider anthropologist (Adrian Tanner), who had worked for many years with Cree from Nitchequon, was asked in 1981 to survey all villages. He found (Tanner 1982), in brief, that the coastal villages where the impact of outside influences on village life was less obvious, were the most ardent advocates of "catching up to the whites by total immersion"; they felt that there was no threat at all to the ability of the children to learn to be Cree in their home life. By contrast, in those villages where second-language abilities are already high, but where the threat to Cree identity is most obvious, the need to reinforce the importance of Cree at school was felt to be a priority. Responding to the parents' wishes was then a matter for the School

131 Cree Education

Board to legislate, as it could do under the schooling provisions of the James Bay Agreement. CONCLUSION

Education has been a key to the emergence of Cree regionalism. Without the education that provided Cree leaders at a crucial time, there would have been no movement to set up the organization that has become the Cree Regional Authority. Without the expansion of the school system in the late sixties and early seventies, there would not have been the trained personnel to staff the new regional bodies. The schools now absorb a major part of the energies of each community, and are a focus for Cree concern. The Cree want their schools to produce future generations who will be Cree, who will maintain standards and traditions, but who will be able to defend Cree institutions in the way in which they were defended in the early 1970s. Parents are worried as to whether the schools are doing their job, as they see signs of things not being as they used to be "when I was young.;/ What is clear is that Cree education is not training young Cree to enter a society that is unchanging, nor is it training them to live in urban southern Canada away from their roots. They are being trained to live in a modern, literate society, with access to information from the whole world through all the media. Yet at the same time people are concerned to maintain the identity of their children as Cree, and to maintain a degree of continuity with traditional Cree culture. Though schools are the main vehicle for this education, informal education has not been sacrificed, and mechanisms are in place for influencing the formal school system so as to make it a means of fulfilling the hopes of the Cree. In the rapidly changing world of today it is too early to say whether those mechanisms are the right ones, and are being used effectively, but the problem of educating children for a place in a changing regional society has been squarely faced by the Cree.

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PART T H R E E

A Cree Homeland

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Emergence of a Regional Society

The reason for merely sketching the events of 1971-81 between chapters 1 and 2 should now be apparent. If this study had begun with the spelling out in detail of the history of the announcement of the James Bay Project in April 1971, the protests and court case, the Malouf judgment of 1973, and the negotiation of the James Bay Agreement of 1975, it would have been taken for granted that these events were the cause of the observed changes and fully explained them. By showing what the changes have been, at a fairly empirical level, it has been possible to leave open the question of explaining why the changes occurred, and why they took the form they did. Thus it may be that the increase in population and in education among the Cree, and the steady change in federal policies towards Indian groups during the 1970s, were causing an evolution towards the present situation which would have occurred even without the project, the protest, and the agreement. It would certainly not have had the same legal form, but a "Cree region" might have become an administrative unit in any case. It may be that the distinctive features of Cree society - its linguistic and cultural homogeneity in a defined geographical area where the Cree form a majority population - have determined the success of regionalization, though the advent of regionalization is explicable as "historical evolution." Such theories, as that Indian treaties are a way of creating "reserve armies" of manpower, quieting dissident groups while the state (or private capital) takes over the real power, can be critically weighed by using the evidence of Cree employment and dissent, without having to consider evidence of the motives of the Quebec government or the intentions of Hydro-Quebec. We can ask ourselves whether the regionalization of other areas of Canada, or of other native groups, would be beneficial or harmful to them, as well as asking whether,

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A Homeland for the Cree

to produce effective regionalization, the historical events leading to the emergence of Cree regional society and its legal charter in the JBNQA would need to be replicated elsewhere. R E G I O N A L S O C I E T Y AS A STRUCTURE

Before trying to answer any or all of these wider questions let us first move somewhat beyond the descriptive level of presentation that has been adopted so far. What are the ways in which Cree society has really changed? In material goods, in wealth, in housing, in technology, the observable changes have been dramatic, though an observer of both periods would see real continuity in how people used the technology. He would consider these observable changes as superficial and as representing material change. Whether they indicate social change would be decided on other grounds. It is in terms of the personnel in villages and in offices in centres like Val d;Or that the other most dramatically observable social change would be noted. The Cree have become a majority, replacing the whites. Where in the past travel was difficult between villages and urban centres, and the frequent travellers were almost exclusively white, travel has now become much easier, and a majority of the people who do move between one environment and the other are Cree. The change is a real and not a superficial one. It is undoubtedly a social change, insofar as the people operating society have changed. But is it more than merely a change of the people running a society whose structure has not changed? Indeed, the change in the structure of regional society is of a different kind from a change in the personnel of the society. It is not that villages and towns had no links in 1971, and do have links in 1981. The description of 1971 showed that the present links between villages and town all existed at that time; that organizations like the airlines, the HBC, and DINA all carried out village activities that formed part of a wider regional structure of relations between "branches" of each organization in different villages, and between the village branches and a regional "head office." In 1981 the set of organizations looks very similar to the 1971 set, though the regional head office of each 1981 organization is more often responsible to a provincial rather than a federal agency. The Cree have taken over the regional head offices from the whites, while the Province of Quebec has taken over the apex of the overall structure from the federal government. The Cree have greater control of their own segments of the total structure, but, one may ask, has the structure itself changed, other than in language and name?

137 Emergence of a Regional Society

A closer analysis of the 1971 data suggests what the crucial change in the structure has been. In 1971 the various regional head offices of the wider organizations had little close contact with one another. The school system, the medical system, the airline system, the retail supply system, the telephone system all operated almost independently, as each planned what to do with its own branches in the villages. It is small wonder that villagers felt impotent in relation to the outer world, even if they were formally "looked after; by their chief trustee, DINA. In 1981, though a few such systems (e.g., the telephone system) do not have a Cree regional office, the vast majority do, and this means that there is much greater interconnection within the region. Thus, although there is no guarantee that the Cree School Board will talk with the Cree Trappers' Association about the teaching of biology, the probability is much greater that it will. A trapper on a School Committee may try to persuade both the board and the association to interact officially, and eventually trappers familiar with the locality may be teaching aspects of northern biology to students in the schools. Let us express these changes in the most abstract language of "levels" of society, consisting of national, regional, and local or village levels. At the level of the national structure, in 1971 the national and provincial governments (and organizations of church or business) administered the Cree through sub-branches of their various functional departments, and a "Cree region" had no identifiable existence within the functional departments; there were only links from village to department directly, or from "village" to a variety of different "regions" defined differently for each functional department and all including non-Cree villages. By 1981 the "Cree region" has been recognized as a single unit, defined consistently, in almost all of the functional departments, which now have "Cree" units. There can now be interaction between functional departments dealing with the same region, since the personnel concerned live in the region and can maintain constant ties with their local colleagues. Local colleagues, now mainly local Cree, can freely express local loyalties. The Cree region has become a discrete unit for most functions within the national structure. It has become the Cree homeland of our title - at least in theory. At the level of the internal structure of villages within the region, the changes portrayed here are less clearly marked; they are not categorical changes from one pattern to another, but changes of degree. In 1971 villages were relatively homogeneous, simple, and unspecialized communities, in which the basic occupation was hunting, with everyone sharing the corpus of knowledge of the hunting

138 A Homeland for the Cree

technology. The Cree with the special traditional skills of shaman, of tallyman, or even of chief were relatively few in number. As in hunter-gatherer societies around the world, the traditional specialists were rarely full-time specialists. Grafted on to a hunter-gatherer society of traditional simplicity were a few nontraditional specialities - using the skills of a store operator, a car driver, or an airline agent. The complexity of Cree life in 1971, evident in such important activities as school construction, snowmobile repair, and medical treatment, was provided by people outside Cree society - the whites. Canadian society at large was complex, and the Cree participated in that complexity, though their own segment remained relatively simple, since Cree were excluded from many important skills. By 1981 the complexity of Canadian society at large has shown little increase, but the segment within Cree villages has become much more complex. It includes a division of labour into a wide spectrum of jobs, from the professional to the unskilled, as well as all the shared traditional jobs of 1971. Individuals have become specialized in their abilities, and have become more tightly knit together. The interchange between Cree with different specialities has become important. In Durkheim's terms, the mechanical solidarity of a traditional small-scale society has gradually given way to the organic solidarity of a larger-scale society, in which there is a division of "the labour of society." It may be noted briefly at this point (the question will be examined later), that the Cree do not control all the complex structure that supports their way of life. For example, they do not (and clearly never could) control the full process of manufacturing the snowmobiles that they use so well, a process involving not only machine shops, metal pressing, research and design facilities, and world marketing divisions, but also, stretching further back, the production of steel and the mining of coal and iron ore. The Cree might produce more timber products for themselves and for the outside world; their existing fur production might be made more valuable by producing more of their own fur garments. But for the majority of the manufactured goods which they now use they are likely always to depend on exchanging for them the products of the Cree land that are now exported - furs, wood, electricity, and minerals - and for which they receive payment either directly or through the medium of government compensation or royalties. Cree society is inextricably linked to the industrial world, exporting to it and importing from it, and incapable of existing without that exchange.

139 Emergence of a Regional Society R E G I O N A L S O C I E T Y AS A SERVICE ECONOMY

It is most dramatically in the field of the provision of services that Cree society has become more complex internally, with only a small increase in specialization in the field of the production of material goods. The figures indicate that 35 per cent of the Cree work-force is now employed full-time in a specialized field that provides services to other Cree. It is in this field that local control has proved feasible; the Cree demonstrate that there is no apparent reason, other than that of historical accident, why any regional population should not itself provide most of its own services if a ten-year period of apprenticeship is available. The historical accident that doctors, teachers, and administrators had not been trained in northern Quebec before 1971 was an accident that could have been overcome earlier if an attempt had been made to do so. The sooner that locally trained people are available, the sooner regionalization can be effective. But even in the service field the Cree will never entirely control their own services. A group of 7,000 people cannot ever hope to operate its own university to train doctors or teachers, and to control the curriculum of that training. Even if it financially controls the airline giving local service, it cannot manufacture its own planes or provide the meteorology, maintenance, and research services without which a local airline cannot operate. In short, a regional society that controls the provision of services that go to its own members on an exclusive basis, must always coordinate its service activities with the wider national society that provides even more specialized services. These services go to only a small number of the members of any one regional society, but also go to people from other regions. The presence of a population of sufficient size to justify an exclusively Cree high school and a Cree hospital sets the conditions for the existence of a Cree regional society. Compatibility and interdependence with the wider Quebec health and educational systems is, however, a condition for the viability of each smaller regional system. Regional systems of 10,000 people can exist, but only within larger systems of more than a million people. If one asks whether the employment of large numbers of Cree in the service industries came first, or whether it was the provision of services that led to the employment of the Cree, one risks posing a chicken-or-the-egg problem. The Cree have long wanted better health, better housing, more varied leisure activities, better education;

140 A Homeland for the Cree

as they have obtained their wishes, their economy has become one in which a larger proportion of their time and energy has had to be devoted to the provision of those services. The high cost of service provision was masked in 1971, in that most services were provided by transient whites, and their salaries formed part of the budgets of government departments. Though there have been increases in those budgets - increases that have exactly matched the increases in the Canadian GNP (Salisbury and Bougie 1983) - the notable change has been that by 1981 salaries were paid increasingly to local Cree. Local Cree have been able to provide markedly more local services at a cost that is not significantly greater - greater, that is, to the taxpayers. Regionalization thus appears to be an economical way of providing services in regions like that of the Cree. Moreover, not only are more services provided for a similar expenditure, but the fact that local people are receiving the salaries for providing those services has a vitalizing effect on the whole society. Since these salaries mean that larger numbers of local people demand goods that are commonplace in wealthier communities, supplying them in local stores becomes another service industry that can be provided by the local people themselves. In economic terms, the regionalization of the local service industry has a "multiplier effect" on the local economy. A regional society, when the service industry has been localized, becomes a wealthier community by that fact, and it becomes a more attractive place to live in as the services proliferate from their own dynamic. This is not a phenomenon that is in any way peculiar to the Cree. Communities to which older people retire provide an instructive example. The existence of retirement communities is not a matter of climate alone, but also of the presence of medical services; once a community is known as a retirement community, better medical services develop. The finance for the community largely derives from the pensions that the retirees bring with them or the Canada Pension Plan provides. The bulk of the medical income comes from the government health insurance. Yet it is not merely the government services that makes the communities attractive. A much larger proportion of local income is spent on services like libraries, golf courses, leisure activities, gifts for grandchildren, and even bingo games than occurs elsewhere. That there are things to do is a major attraction of a service-oriented community. Another is that the provision of services locally on a universal basis is an efficient way to provide them, making it cheaper to live in such a community than in one where the services are provided by distant specialists. Yet the contrasting pattern - of rural society depending for its

141 Emergence of a Regional Society

services on specialists who live in distant urban areas, and who are often themselves transients (or expatriates) originating in an even more distant metropolis - is the more common one in the world today. It is the prevailing pattern in the Third World, where the advent of independence and the modern nation-state among societies that were predominantly rural has meant a flood of people to the cities. Rural society has become the backwater of poverty, without access to education, health services, and the bright lights and social mobility promised by the big city. It is a self-perpetuating pattern, in that the city, even if at first it lacks services, does become the place in which it is economic to provide services more cheaply than in the country - to locate hospitals, universities, electricity distribution systems, and television cable networks there - and so the city becomes even more of a magnet and the rural area seems even more of a backwater by comparison. The city becomes the place where the providers of services live, and thus it benefits from all the multiplier effects of the service economy. The rural populace is deprived of adequate services as long as it is felt that services can be provided only by the educated people originating in the cities. For rural people, as we have seen, the services provided in this way tend to be supplied inefficiently, at relatively high cost, and inappropriately for meeting local needs. The key to efficient services is for them to be provided by local people themselves, but rarely does this occur. The governments of developing societies generally face the chickenor-the-egg question that was posed earlier: "What is the first step in producing a wealthy society, where the services resemble those of the developed world? Is it to provide services to the people, or to create employment for people who can then demand services?" The answer suggested by the Cree example is that enabling regional societies to develop and provide their own services, using local people, is the way around a problem that is falsely posed. Within regional societies, the service industries can be the dynamic for the economy. THE POLITICAL ECONOMYOF REGIONAL SOCIETIES

But, the reader may ask, who pays for the Cree regional society? Is it not the Canadian (and Quebec) taxpayers who foot the bill, while the Cree live a life of ease? How far can one generalize from this single case of 7,000 people, living within a wealthy society of 25 million people which can afford to support dependent groups? There are many answers to such questions. The first is that to

142 A Homeland for the Cree

pose the questions in this way indicates a misunderstanding of the nature of Canadian and Cree society. The "cost" of the services that the Cree receive is not the dollars that appear in the accounts of the Treasury Board or of the Cree Regional Authority, but rather the other potential uses of the resources that must be forgone as a result of using the resources to provide services. The Cree do not live in idleness, but work hard both in their hunting life in the bush, and in their village life. They are an integral part of Canadian society; they contribute to it, and are not "dependent" on something foreign. The service economy of modern Canada, in order to operate both effectively and at least cost, requires that most services be available equally to all citizens - particularly medical and educational services, but also information, legal, employment and other services. Though measures may be needed to prevent misuse or over-use of the services, the Cree, as we have seen, still do not enjoy a level of service provision equal to that of the population of urban Canada, and so cannot be said to be over-using services. They, like the elderly people previously mentioned as another example of a group focused on the service economy, do require services that are slightly different from those of the average urbanite, but they have the same entitlement to receive needed basic services. Dramatic evidence exists of the cost of not having services available to all. The lower level of medical services generally available to northern populations is correlated with death rates (particularly infant and youth mortality) that are much higher than the Canadian average (though much lower than those of most of the world). The "cost" of deficient health services here is the death of northern Canadians. The reason why average Canadian death rates are appreciably below those in the United States (and Canadian life expectancy is longer) is to be found in the comparatively limited access to medical services in the United States for less prosperous (and minority) groups The "cost" of inadequate education appears in groups experiencing unemployment, poverty, and other social problems, as a consequence of the young people of those groups not being prepared in school for the demands of modern society. It is the Canadian and European experience that it costs less to make services universally available than to provide them on a limited basis, and much less than to repair the damages caused by nonuniversality. The other huge cost of making services unavailable became evident during the 1981-3 depression when many governments decided to cut services. A decline in the income of service providers has the immediate effect of reducing the demand for other goods and services throughout the economy. What starts as a drive for greater cost-

143 Emergence of a Regional Society

efficiency in a sector that governments can readily control easily leads to a full-scale recession that affects all sectors of the economy. Unemployment may reach dangerous levels, and require herculean efforts to reduce - including the injection of more money into such remedial services as welfare, unemployment benefits, counselling, retraining - than would probably have been needed to keep needed services operating smoothly in the first place. Unemployment itself, or the failure to use available human resources, is a major "cost" of a nonuniversal service economy. Employing the unemployed to provide additional services reduces the cost of unemployment and increases the total well-being of everyone. A national service economy of the type discussed here involves over 35 per cent of the gross national product being spent in the service sector, over 35 per cent of the GNP being paid in taxes to government, and then being spent by government, and over 35 per cent of the labour force being employed in the provision of services. The 1981 Cree economy described in this study typifies the national economy in all these respects. What we see is not the wealthy urban majority of Canadian society "giving" services to the Cree, but the Cree participating equally (or nearly so) in the general economy of Canada, as both service consumers and service providers. But are they also paying taxes? Are not the transfer payments which now bulk so large within the Cree economy provided by the wealthy sectors of Canadian society, and "transferred" via governments to the Cree? Again the accounting for transfers is more complex than the questions suggest. The case of the elderly pensioners, already referred to, is again illuminating. Though pensions are now being transferred to these people in dollar amounts that exceed the contributions that were made during the pensioners' working lives, no one disputes the need to maintain (or even improve) the present pension system. The problem of dollar disparities is attacked at one level by accountants trying to adjust nominal contributions in the light of actuarial tables of life expectancy or survival rates. But the problem is made much more complex by unpredictable inflation rates (which mean that a dollar in the year 2000 will not be the same as the 1981 dollar). Changes in the ratios of wage-earners to pensioners, due to demographic shifts, make for further unpredictability. "Balancing the books" precisely, in dollar terms, is technically an insoluble problem. But what is clear is the widespread acceptance of the proposition that, in return for a lifetime of hard work, between the ages of twenty and sixty-five, a Canadian has the right to expect not to have to fear poverty. The dollar accounting for this "exchange" may be difficult, but the principle is that there is a recognized "fair

144 A Homeland for the Cree

exchange" over time between basically incommensurable "prestations." Though a worker may be giving apples today, it is fair for a pensioner to receive oranges in return when they are in season. What then is the "exchange" that provides services to the Cree? It has been examined in dollar terms in chapter 3 by comparing the payments to individual Cree with the amounts earned by James Bay electricity. For an answer involving incommensurables it is necessary to look again at the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. In it, as other Indian groups did earlier through treaties, the Cree gave up certain rights to their land, and formally recognized the sovereign control of the Canadian and Quebec governments. In return the agreement confirmed their government 'protection" as spelled out in the Indian Act, and gave them the specific rights to land, programs, and money that form the bulk of the agreement. Whether the relinquishment of most of Canada's land surface, on which most of Canada's taxpayers live, is a fair exchange, either for Native or for immigrant Canadians, for the freedom from direct taxation on Indian lands, and for the free provision of the services that all non-Indian Canadians receive in return for paying taxes is the real question. A recent study (Salisbury and Bougie 1983) has shown that the total budget of the Indian Affairs branch of DINA since 1970 has regularly constituted less than 0.30 per cent of the total Canadian GNP. Few people would consider that this is a overpayment of the "price of fairness" to Canada's native people. The more specific bargain between Quebec and the Cree that constitutes the bulk of the JBNQA is one that will need even more complex accounting procedures to see if it balances in strict dollar terms. In dollar terms, as stated earlier, Quebec gained the right to proceed with the $15 billion James Bay Project, and rights to other resource developments in the area; the dollar-costs were the compensation to the Cree, and the annual cost of such special programs as ISP and the statutory advisory committees on environmental and other matters. The cost of administering basic services at the same standard as for the rest of Quebec cannot be considered as flowing from the agreement. With the value of hydro-electricity in Quebec increased by an immense windfall with the OPEC crisis in 1974, it is hard not to conclude that economically Quebec benefited enormously, even if the annual cost of the Cree School Board and the Cree Board of Health and Social Services to the taxpayers is about $33 million, (as noted in chapter 2) over half of which is paid by Ottawa. If we now share Indian lands we should now also share the use of universal social services.

145 Emergence of a Regional Society

The political gains to Quebec have also been immense. They include the fact that the Province of Quebec gained "territorial integrity/' that Quebec gained a reputation for generous treatment of native peoples, that it experimented (relatively cheaply on a small group) with an innovative social program of income security. The good relations established between Quebec bureaucrats and the Cree are a social plus, as is the conversion of a formerly low-income area into a component element of a growing and socially aware province. This book has tried to spell out how far the Cree have also benefited - while also spelling out some of the ways in which changes in Cree society have involved them in inexorable further changes that may not be so beneficial. It is the balance arrived at after assessing all the intangibles and incommensurables on the Cree side, and on the Quebec side, that is perhaps of most importance in understanding the political economy of the regional society. Both sides have gained, though which has gained more is not so clear. THE POSSIBILITIES FOR REGIONAL SOCIETY

Even if the balance sheet of the emergence of Cree regional society is generally a favourable one, it remains to consider whether their experience is one that provides a precedent for future use, either by other native groups, by other politically powerless regions, or by central governments wishing to be more effective in delivering services to outlying areas. What are the external conditions that were necessary, and without which the emergence of Cree regional society could not have occurred? What were the crucial steps in the process of emergence that made it a success? One clear external condition was the good will of the Canadian and Quebec governments, and their readiness to decentralize governmental powers to a region. Such good will towards a distinct minority, and the readiness to hand over both jurisdictional powers and finance to be administered by a minority group, is, sad to say, rare in the world. Europe provides some examples of decentralization (notably the Swiss Confederation), but recent European history abounds with instances in which a central government has made a very limited and grudging response to the demands of a secessionist minority for "devolution." Centrally planned societies boast of the presence of "autonomous" regions within their borders, but the few glimpses social scientists have obtained of such regions suggest that local autonomy is extremely limited by central economic planning, and by the presence of a highly centralist bureaucracy, few members of

146 A Homeland for the Cree

which belong to the minority. In the Third World, as has been stated, the central national governments are most often so concerned with establishing themselves as the only power-base having legitimacy within national borders, that regionalism is usually anathema. Even where diversity is officially sanctioned, the fact that education, capital investment, and high technology all are concentrated in the big cities makes it difficult to promote programs intended to provide rural services. The presence of a large number of vocal urban poor a short distance from the doors of the national legislature is a strong incentive for politicians to stress the well-being of the urban centre rather than that of the regions. Yet clearly this condition is not an absolute one. Even some readiness by a central government to decentralize powers to a region could serve to encourage further decentralization, should it prove effective. It is to be hoped that the Cree experience may help teach the lesson that decentralization can work, and that regionalization is an effective way to create a modern service economy. A second possible external condition is that the Cree, in 1981, appear as a unified, culturally homogeneous group, which constitutes an overwhelming majority of the population under the jurisdiction of the regional government. Technically that jurisdiction is restricted to Category 1 lands, with partial jurisdiction over Category 2 lands, so that the only non-Cree receiving services from the Cree government are the few who are resident (or working) with Cree permission in the villages. Non-Cree working on the hydroelectric or other projects in the James Bay region do not receive services from the Cree, except on an ad hoc basis (e.g., for emergency cases at Chisasibi Hospital). But the same is true for the Cree, who receive similar ad hoc service if they fall ill in Val d'Or or Montreal. It is at least plausible that Cree cultural homogeneity, and the near-exclusivity of their occupation of their territory, were conditions that made regional government a possibility. It is questionable, however, whether the prior existence of these two attributes is a necessity for any other region wishing to follow the Cree example. As we have seen, in 1971 the homogeneity of the Cree villages was not nearly so self-evident, nor was there a strong sense of being a region. These attributes of the region in 1981 can fairly be said to have emerged in the course of successful regionalization, as the consequences rather than the causes of decentralization. So too, although the territorial exclusivity of the Cree in 1981 is legally entrenched by the agreement, and by the categories of land, in reality they are eight villages, widely separated, with the land between them (and the roads that link them) largely occupied

147 Emergence of a Regional Society

by non-Cree. A road trip from Mistassini to Waswanipi passes through the towns of Chapais and Chibougamau; to get to Chisasibi by road necessarily involves passing through Matagami town. Delineating the jurisdictional boundaries of the Cree homeland was not the simple recognition of a discrete contiguous area. A similar "region" of scattered Indian communities could be delineated in many other parts of northern Canada, where non-Indian resource communities also exist. The same pattern, of the Indian regional government providing services for non-Indians within the communities, and of the pragmatic exchange of other specialized services by neighbouring jurisdictions, would be feasible elsewhere. It would likely have the same effect of sharpening the clarity of "boundaries" between communities, so that visitors become much more aware of the fact that they are in an "Indian" (or a "non-Indian") village. Yet experience shows that in 1981 there is less difficulty, or sense of being an intrusive "stranger from outside," in living as a non-Indian in a Cree village than there was in 1971. Clarifying jurisdictional boundaries has made them less contentious and conflictual. In sum, though various 1971 conditions were favourable to Cree unity and exclusivity, they were not necessary conditions for the emergence of regionalism. It was the process by which regionalization emerged that was most important, for it produced the conditions that now make Cree unity appear self-evident. For regionalism to exist, as it did by 1981, and as it did not in 1971, a dramatic change was needed. People had to become conscious of regional unity, to feel that they were "Cree," and to feel that they had common interests. The crisis of 1971, notwithstanding the fact that it was unpleasant and could have been followed by the death of Cree society if things had gone differently, is the obvious factor that created regional unity. It created unity because, for the first time, an issue emerged in which the interests of the previously fragmented Cree villages were all alike. The crises opposed this unitary common interest to an external threat, and it used a highly valued traditional symbolic language, that of the animals, the land and the hunter, to articulate that opposition. Without a crisis it would have been impossible for the Cree to rise above factionalism and the everyday problems of existence, and to proceed to the creative and innovative activity which ensued. It in no way detracts from the abilities of the outstanding leaders who preached Cree unity and the need for action, rather than passive acceptance of the James Bay project, to say that they responded to a crisis. Their abilities have become manifest - but without the crisis theirs would have been voices crying in the wilderness. If the crisis

148 A Homeland for the Cree

had occured ten years earlier, or ten years later, then different leaders would have emerged, for crises have the characteristic of provoking the emergence of visionary leaders. Without a dramatic crisis and an identifiably external threat, it would be hard to visualize the achievement of regional unity and a regional government. But a sense of regional unity alone would not be enough to create the viable regional society with an effective regional adminstration described in this study. The critical feature here was the availability of personnel. These workers enabled a movement with a vision of regional unity to evolve into a practically effective body. By concretizing for the general population what the vision meant in practical terms it also established its legitimacy as the Cree political body concerned with regional unity. It should be noted that "availability of personnel" for the Cree did not mean that there was in 1971 a full complement of bureaucrats with the technical academic qualifications to run a government. As we have seen, there existed at that time a nucleus of between six and thirty people with high-school education, several of whom had experience with band administration. To fill many technical jobs there were also skilled non-Cree who were ready to contribute to Cree activity, without demanding that they be in charge of it. During the period between 1972 and 1976 many other Cree with some schooling were able to learn, on the job, how to administer or to conduct research - and they proved effective. The personnel proved adequate to the tasks. The message for any attempt to replicate the Cree experience is thus a triple one: first, do not underestimate the ability of people without formal qualifications to rise to a challenge and to learn on the job; second, be aware from the start that the hectic experiences of crisis must serve to train as wide a spectrum of people as possible for future leadership, and so always stress training; and third, to take advantage of the skills offered by outsiders, but always use them for purposes defined by the regional movement, and insist that the outsiders train local people in their skills. A further requirement in the emergence of a regional society is that the personnel should be local. This has been implicit in the preceding argument; here it is made explicit. The reasons are many. In the early stages of regional unity it is mainly local people who share the vision, and are imbued with the readiness to work unstintingly to realize it, though outside visionaries may also be involved. But at later stages, when villagers begin to question the legitimacy of the leaders and administrators, a leadership made up of visionaries from outside the region itself would become highly suspect. Finally, when the vision of unity is realized in a regional government, it

149 Emergence of a Regional Society

becomes economically (as well as politically) important that the administrators are local people. In that way the full multiplier effects of the service economy described earlier can be felt throughout the region. But the service economy alone is not sufficient to support a successful regional society. The Cree example suggests that a viable local subsistence economy is important - and this is also the finding of Salisbury (1971) regarding the developmental role of service industries in New Guinea. If service industries and transfer payments are the sole support for the people in a region, then it is likely that the number of people seeking to gain employment in those industries will be excessive. Productivity and efficiency will drop, and what will emerge is an administration which is concerned not with efficiently providing services, but with seeking to channel as much money as possible from higher government to its own constituents, regardless of the effectiveness of services provided. Patronage and welfarism are likely to be rampant. A viable subsistence (or basic) economy, employing about half of the population, and providing incomes that are comparable with, or better than, what can be earned from unskilled manual wage-work, implies that people have a choice open to them of what work they will do. In economic terms, there is a "positive marginal productivity of labour." Effectively it means that if the proportion involved in service rises as high as 35 per cent, then there will be full employment in the region, and people will be attracted only to the most productive tasks. Yet another corollary must be noted. The Cree leaders actively supported a strengthening of the basic Cree hunting economy, and did not focus exclusively on either the service sector or the involvement of the Cree in work outside the local economy. There is indeed a major diversification of the Cree economy into these other sectors now under way, but it has come, not from initially focusing on industries that would produce for "export" to Canadian markets, but from a strengthening of the base economy at home. This in turn has meant that the benefits of the new regional society have beeen widely spread, as we have seen, and have not been concentrated exclusively in the hands of the administrators or political leaders. The Cree regional administration, broadly speaking, has come to be viewed as effective, as worth supporting, as legitimate, and not as self-seeking. The occasional instance of political opposition to the leadership (noted in chapter 4) has been provoked by situations where the leadership was not seen as supporting the basic economy of the villages. The final factor to be cited in analysing the success of the Cree

150 A Homeland for the Cree

experiment is predictability. Though in some ways the ten years were a period of dramatic change and innovation, in most ways a logic of development was consistent throughout the period. The programs that were formulated politically in the discussion of possible action between 1972 and 1974 were enunciated in legal, implementable terms in the negotiations between 1974 and 1976, and have been carried out since 1976 thanks to the enshrining of them in the agreement. In particular, the existence of regular programs has made annual budgeting an operation in which most elements have been known well in advance, though admittedly variations are possible. The energies of the Cree administrators have not been consumed in nervously trying to justify a base budget, or planning for programs that may never eventuate if the budget is not provided from on high. They have been able to look ahead, with a secure knowledge that regular operation of services is assured. In such a climate innovative grantsmanship - based on the feeling that if a new program is worthwhile, a sponsor can be found to support it, as in the cases noted of Band Works programs and adult education - becomes possible, and new and more effective programs become common. But not every regional society is likely to sign a James Bay Agreement to make predictability the norm for its relationship with higher governments and for its budgets. The situation elsewhere is likely to be that higher-level governments will retain their right to modify the budget provided to a regional government, and to approve or disapprove of programs suggested by the regions. For such situations the message of the Cree experience is that, if regionalization is to work, the power of the higher government to change ground-rules must be sparingly used. A minimal guarantee of support for a program by a region over a five- or ten-year period is worth many times as much as a generous initial funding followed by capricious and unpredictable cuts and windfalls. It enables the regional government to plan, and to make its own programs, tailoring them to fit its own needs. Only when the regional government can do just that, and when local people feel they have control of at least a major sector of their own lives, within a wider society over which they have less control, can regional society really work. If it works, it constitutes an efficient and effective way to run a service economy. Within such a society people can feel satisfied and "at home/' For the Cree that feeling is indeed pleasant. There has emerged a "homeland for the Cree."

Epilogue:

Anthropologists and the Cree

The involvement of anthropologists in the changes in Cree society between 1971 and 1981 cannot be discussed without reference to the work of researchers in the decades before 1971 - E. Rogers in Mistassini; }. Honigman, A. Balicki, W.K. Barger, and A. McElroy in Great Whale; A.J. Kerr, R. Knight, and R. Preston in Rupert's House together with the McGill Cree Project in Waswanipi and Mistassini. The work of these scholars made available an ethnography of villages as they changed from being predominantly temporary dwellings of tipis and tents around relatively few permanent structures to being predominantly permanent structures. Applied emphases were rare. The McGill Cree Project, headed by Norman Chance, did have a more applied focus. It considered the expected deleterious effect on villages as industry and communications moved into the Villages, and turned them into residences for unskilled part-time workers, who were losing their skills as hunters and being deculturated through inappropriate education. Thirteen anthropologists did field studies during the project, and these are listed in Chance (1968:106). Three effects stand out. First, studies of traditional hunting by H. Feit and A. Tanner showed its vitality despite the decline of the importance of fur trading; second, studies by I. LaRusic and R. Pothier of the political organization of communities documented the interpenetration of "modern" and "traditional" institutions in contemporary village life, and third, studies of education by P. Sindell and R. Wintrob, showing the cultural handicap produced by entirely English-language boarding-school education, led the Cree to demand Cree-language kindergarten teaching and more local schools, in a presentation to the Standing Committee on Indian Affairs in Ottawa. To apply its findings the project submitted a report to the federal government, which was then deciding on its

152 A Homeland for the Cree

regional economic development policy; it also held local meetings in each village, where findings were communicated to villagers in Cree. LaRusic, Feit, and Tanner were conducting field research in villages in the summer of 1971 when rumours of the James Bay Project became known, and their presence enabled individual Cree to find channels for obtaining information and funds for the meeting of July 1971. Feit and LaRusic also persuaded the present writer, the new director of the McGill Programme in the Anthropology of Development (PAD), to protest to the Quebec government the absence of either environmental or social impact studies. In July 1971 the PAD was asked by the minister of the environment to undertake a social impact study, and I was invited to join the Federal-Provincial Task Force on the Environment. The PAD insistence on Cree involvement in social impact assessment delayed the JBDC'S signing of a contract for the study until December 1971, when hiring of Cree "communications workers'' by the JBDC and the full communication of all results to the Cree were made part of the contract. The report was discussed at the 1972 IQA annual meeting in Mistassini. At that meeting the plans for an iQA-Cree Task Force were developed. John Spence, a biologist, had begun planning environmental parts of the Task Force; I was invited to organize the social aspects. The published material on inland villages having been reviewed already (Salisbury 1972a), the collection of hunting catch data from Fort George, Paint Hills, and Eastmain was seen as the most important work a month of field work could accomplish. N. Elberg, J. Hyman, and K. Hyman organized teams of Cree assistants in each village, who interviewed hunters, using a questionnaire designed on the basis of Feit's research on Waswanipi hunters. The study, carried out in August 1972, established the proportion of village food and cash income that came from subsistence activities, and was submitted in October 1972. It is perhaps not inappropriate to note that anthropologists R. Pothier and J. Trudeau were working in DINA and the Privy Council Office respectively when funding of this IQA-Cree research was an issue. For testimony in the court case, regarding the importance of hunting to the Cree, the Cree lawyers decided to rely on Cree hunters, and on three anthropologists only, Tanner, Feit, and LaRusic. Feit joined Spence as a regular adviser to the Cree in 1973, and remained in that capacity (though on a part-time basis) until 1981. In the sphere of education, anthropologists were involved in several ways. In 1971, the Creeways project, assisted by McMaster University anthropologists under R. Preston, began collecting narratives and

153 Epilogue

myths (starting in Rupert's House) for publication as reading material for use in Cree schools. Linguist M. Mackenzie began work on transcription of interior Cree dialects for school use. A group of Indian students in Montreal, with advice from P. Sindell and M. Lefevre, set up a Native North American Studies Institute to teach about Indian culture, and to provide support for Indian students in Montreal. Toby Ornstein Morantz compiled for NNASI a digest of all 1971 statistics on Indians in Quebec. Cree teachers were trained in the Institute, and when, in 1973, it obtained the old Bomarc base of Lamacaza as its site and changed its name to Manitou College, it formed the locus for upgrading the teaching skills of Cree assistant teachers. R. Savard was also active in these courses. G. Miller directed Manitou College for two years. C. Kilfoil studied the impacts of the college, and investigated parental attitudes to education in Fort George. During the period 1973-5 attention in the Cree villages was focused exclusively on the negotiation of the James Bay Agreement. Harvey Feit and the other advisers were almost constantly accompanying Cree negotiators in Montreal or Quebec, or helping them on their return to the villages to give information and receive feedback from villagers. Several junior anthropologists, for example, C. Kilfoil, J. Hurley, M. Power, and M. Weinstein, were employed by the Cree for short periods to do specific studies needed for the negotiations and to support the growing Cree research staff. Whenever Cree negotiators were in Montreal they met and talked to friends within the Montreal anthropological community. Most Montreal researchers felt close to the progress of the negotiations. One research group did manage to continue basic research in a different field - that of communications - even though communities generally felt "over-researched." A group at McGill, consisting of N. Elberg, H.A. Raymond, G. Valaskakis, and myself, felt that the arrival of satellite television was an important event, and that communities should become aware of and should prepare their responses to television's arrival. They obtained funding for studies comparing the impact of the new communications on an isolated community (Paint Hills) and a "central" one (Fort George). The studies document all the communication links of the two communities, and underline the importance for the Cree of developing their own production mechanisms in a highly popular communication medium. Their contribution to the thinking of the present book, regarding villageregion links, is obvious. Cree activity in communications, including such programs as that linking bush camps and villages by radio, has by no accident increased markedly since 1976.

154 A Homeland for the Cree

The signing of the agreement in 1975 marked a further stage in the Cree use of anthropologists. They now employed a varying number for research studies of all kinds in support of decisions to be taken by the emerging Cree bureaucracy. The Native Harvesting Research Committee (on which Feit was the member for the Cree and W. Kemp the anthropologist for the Inuit) collected statistics on hunting catches by species over three years, to provide a baseline against which future land productivity can be measured. The final report of the Committee (1982) is a gold-mine of figures on species and yields by locality that will take years to mine for scholarly information. The Income Security Programme, analysed in 1977 by C. Scott for his McGill MA thesis, was the subject of reports each year by LaRusic (for the Cree), and of a major study by Feit and Scott (for the Quebec Ministry of Social Affairs); LaRusic's overview of the ISP for DINA has argued for the extension of similar programs to other Indian groups elsewhere in Canada. T. Brelsford, who studied, along lines set by LaRusic (1968), the combining of hunting and wage-work at Nemiscau (for an MA degree at McGill in 1983), went on to examine the possibility of subsistence hunting income support in Alaska. A. Penn organized many studies, especially of fishing and pollution. Town planning became important to the Cree when the relocation of communities became feasible. The Waswanipi band consulted anthropologists before choosing its village site. The Nemiscau band, before settling on their new village site, organized an on-site group "consult" attended by a number of anthropologists who gave specialist advice. Among them was D.A. Stewart, who had studied Cree in Chibougamau in the McGill Cree project, and who had written on urbanization in the 1972 social impact assessment study. LaRusic served as administrator of the Nemiscau impact assessment statement, which K. de la Barre then evaluated. The planning of the new town of Chisasibi for Fort George, by Daniel Arbour Associates, adopted the present writer's advice to retain trees around house sites, and to group them in neighbourhood clusters, so that expanding families could build new houses within the same cluster. For a study which would recommend the best location for the CRA within Cree territory, the Cree hired I.J. Chin-yee. Other anthropologists were hired by the Cree for other tasks. R. Cuciurean worked on the remedial works program, SOTRAC; B. Craik helped to formulate Cree responses to environmental and social impact statements of future Hydro projects (at Great Whale and in the southern region); P. Wertman headed the Cree group collecting economic planning data; C. Mallory compiled studies of moosehunting. Students did applied research in support of Cree village

155 Epilogue

activities as fieldwork experience. K. Schaefer looked at forestry in Waswanipi; S. Marshall at Cree medical practices in Fort George and Mistassini; Y. Ternar collected the ethnohistory of Cree in Chibougamau; M. Hogue compiled early vital statistics for Paint Hills, while reconstituting lost baptismal records. D. Wong-Rieger investigated identity problems of Cree office workers in Val d;Or; F. Rieger looked at Cree regional organizational structures; Brelsford, Marshall, and L Goldberg, under my direction, processed the questionnaires on Cree employment that Cree workers had collected in 1977. But it should not be thought that only anthropologists worked for the Cree, to help in data collection. Town planners have been mentioned as another group of specialists employed by the Cree. Peat, Marwick were used to set up their financial systems, McGill University Education Faculty to advise on teacher training and curriculum planning, and an international panel of scientists to supervise a neurological study of methyl-mercury effects. In brief, one would say that the Cree, after a period in which they employed a disproportionately large number of anthropologists and lawyers as advisers, have acquired the skill and the competence to employ specialists of all kinds, for jobs where Cree are currently not available. Three incidents may perhaps indicate the current relationship between the Cree and anthropologists. First, in 1979 six anthropological groups applied to conduct six different studies in Mistassini village. The band council considered which to accept and which to reject, since it believed the community would not accept the presence of so many questioning outsiders at the same time. Some were researchers conducting a restudy, and others were newcomers with interesting subjects for study. The eventual decision, intended to avoid showing favouritism, was to refuse permission to any group to come in. One group, which had been informally promised admission earlier, objected to the new decision, and on their objection they were admitted. Among the rest, the rejection was accepted. The second incident concerned an evaluation of the operation of the James Bay Agreement commissioned by DINA in 1979 and conducted by LaRusic, S. Bouchard, A. Penn, J.G. Deschenes, and myself. The Cree were highly interested in this evaluation, and made extensive documentation available. The study clearly pointed out the bureaucratization of Cree society, and the problems of splits emerging between senior administrators and villages; it also commented candidly on the role that consultants had played in Cree decision-making. It did not present a uniformly optimistic picture of developments, although the overall stance was positive. Cree administrators and politicians took the implied criticism seriously

156 A Homeland for the Cree

(in fact it preceded major changes in Cree administrative procedures), but remained on good terms with the authors. They observed, "of what value is comment by friends, if it is not honest, and you know that it is honest if it says some things that are unpalatable at first." The third incident involved a study of the prospective social impacts of the NBR hydro project conducted by the present author in 1982. The CRA accepted that the study take place and recommended that communities admit fieldworkers, with the comment that though it rejected the hydro project on principle, it was desirable that the study be the best study possible, in order that the best decisions about the project could be taken. That could occur only if all the facts were available. In practise collaboration was excellent in all communities, with all fieldwork done by experienced anthropologists. The entire study was made available to all communities. The Cree know that anthropologists vary: that some do better studies than others. They know that the knowledge that anthropologists collect is useful knowledge - for all the work of the past decade has been used by the Cree. The Cree are confident that they can now collect their own useful knowledge, for their own purposes, but it has been the experience of working with anthropologists that has given them that confidence. The relation of trust that they have worked out, of willingness to use anthropologists for appropriate tasks, and of collaboration with studies by outsiders if the studies seem relevant, is one aspect of Cree confidence in their dealings with the wider world. Anthropologists can feel happy at the role they have played in the emergence of a regional society - the Cree homeland.

Notes and Bibliographical Review

INTRODUCTION

1 The Quebec Boundary Extension Acts of 1898 and 1912, which transferred jurisdiction over the area from the federal government to the Province of Quebec, made negotiation of native claims a condition of the transfer. Quebec was obligated to negotiate in the same way in which the federal government was obligated until that time. 2 Indian Affairs in 1971 was part of the responsibility of the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development; in 1981 the relevant department was that of Indian and Northern Affairs. I shall use the term "Indian Affairs" or the acronym DINA to refer to the variously named federal departments that have had jurisdiction over Indian Affairs, even though this is not technically correct for earlier periods. 3 Even if the rate for native peoples is about 30 per 1,000, this is well below that of almost every country outside the most developed industrial countries. Canada's overall rate, of about 11 per 1,000, is among the lowest in the world and is lower than that of the United States. 4 By 1981 some villages had begun to use their Cree name for the village site, e.g., Wemindji for Paint Hills, Chisasibi for Fort George. 5 Many of these reports were produced by the students and staff of the McGill University Programme in the Anthropology of Development, either as theses or as commissioned reports, and these were published by the PAD. Other documents were prepared for the Cree Regional Authority. I wish to acknowledge here the work of these colleagues, and to plead their forgiveness should I inadvertently fail to quote any particular report among the hundreds involved, since all formed the topic of general discussion. Chapter 8 will, I hope, make individual contributions clearer, in what has been a collaborative project lasting over ten years.

158 Notes and Bibliographical Review CHAPTER 1 Bibliographical review. Much of this chapter summarizes Salisbury et al. (1972a, 1972b). The former synthesizes the large preexistent literature about Cree hunting and the economy of particular Cree villages, and about Cree education and urbanization, as a prelude to predicting the impact of the James Bay hydro project on the Cree. The latter provides hunting and economic data for the (until then) relatively unstudied communities of Fort George, Paint Hills, and Eastmain, collected by the IQA Task Force. Feit (1971) is a virtually complete bibliography of the pre-1971 studies of the Cree of all villages, and was a basic tool for the 1972 synthesis of those studies. Feit (1973) and his long doctoral study (1979) are more recent definitive studies of Cree boreal forest hunting; Tanner (1979) gives a picture of hunting near the taiga zone, where caribou are a part of the system; Scott (1978) gives a portrayal of coastal goose-hunting. More extensive treatment of extra-village links is provided for Paint Hills by Elberg and Salisbury (1976), and for Fort George by Elberg, Visitor, and Salisbury (1977). A picture of village politics, principally in reference to Waswanipi, is contained in LaRusic (1968), and in comments in later publications by the same author (e.g., 1979). Unfortunately LaRusic's data are not yet fully published. These studies, combined with the author's own fieldwork, have been used to round out a picture specific to 1971. 1 There is current discussion among many historical demographers about the effect on native populations of epidemic diseases introduced by whites. For the Cree a decline of population during the nineteenth century is probable, though not proven. A likely population scenario is that an overall slow increase of 1 to 2 per cent per annum was offset by periodic dramatic declines resulting from ecological disasters like forest fires that produced starvation, or from epidemics like influenza, producing an overall approximate long-term stability (cf. Helm 1980) 2 These "Reserves" were not the result of treaty negotiations, as was the case generally in Canada. This would have made them federal Crown land, held in trust for native people. Instead they had the anomalous status of unceded Crown land under Quebec jurisdiction, that had been legally declared "Reserves for the purposes of the Indian Act." The Quebec government did not formally acknowledge them as being federal land, and even when the Dorion Commission reported in 1971 on their anomalous status, they remained an issue of dissension between Quebec and Ottawa. Quebec sought the "integrity of its territory," and to diminish federal ownership of land within Quebec's boundaries. 3 Another game management strategy was to divide a territory into two

159 Notes and Bibliographical Review halves, and to alternate the use of halves, either from one year to the next or between September-December and January-April. 4 This decade is also the time when Ponting and Gibbons (1980) see Indian Affairs as emerging "out of irrelevance." It is this emergence that is the subject of this book, in relation to the James Bay Cree. 5 Though John Ciaccia, who entered Quebec politics after being deputy minister of Indian Affairs, was in fact rapidly rising. He later represented the Quebec government in negotiations with the Cree. Gordon Robertson and Arthur Kroeger are other former deputy ministers of Indian Affairs who subsequently occupied prestigious posts. 6 This outline draws heavily on Filion's study in Salisbury et al. (1972a: 105-9) INTERLUDE

Bibliographical review. The fullest analysis of the history of this period is contained in LaRusic et al. (1979). The reader wishing to obtain other views is referred to Bourassa (1972), Richardson (1972), Rouland (1977), and NIB (1982). CHAPTER 2

Bibliographical review. Rieger (1981) has written the most comprehensive analysis of Cree regional structures in about 1981, portions of which have been expanded in ssDcc,Inc (1982). The review by LaRusic et al. (1979) of the emergence of bureaucratic structures among the Cree presents an analysis close to that presented here. LaRusic (1978, 1983) gives the broadest reviews of the operation of ISP, though Scott (1978) contains the most intensive study of its operation in a single village - that of Wemindji (Paint Hills). Annual reports of the various Cree agencies, especially those of the Income Security Board, provide current data, though with about a year's delay. WongRieger (1980) has analysed the psychological problems faced by "minority" workers - Crees in Val d'Or and non-Cree nurses in Chisasibi. 1 Consideration will be given later to the question of the extent to which their regional organization is, in fact, controlled by even wider societies at the provincial or national level, and of the extent to which the Cree feel themselves to be participating in wider Indian, Quebec, or Canadian society. 2 Though the Cree experience is being studied in Alaska, the Yukon, and the NWT for its implications for programs there.

160 Notes and Bibliographical Review CHAPTER 3 Bibliographical review. Major studies of Cree hunting emerged during the decade. The definitive quantitative study of game harvests is the final report of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Native Harvesting Research Committee (1982) entitled The Wealth of the Land. Technological change in hunting is mentioned for particular groups in the theses of Feit (1979), Scott (1978), and Brelsford (1983) and in the reports of Elberg et al. (1976, 1977). Feit has made an intensive study of the mechanisms by which conservation can be ensured in a modern society, and has published extensively on his work. Feit (1982) gives an introduction to the problem, but see also Feit (1980a, b, ND). 1 The first section of this chapter essentially summarizes information in Scott's (1978) report on ISP in Wemindji, and in a series of annual report on ISP, commissioned by the CRA or by DINA, and written by Ignatius LaRusic (1979, 1981, 1982, 1983). The figures here cited appear in several reports, and no specific reference is given for each figure. Discussions with Scott, LaRusic, and Feit underlie the interpretation I make of their data; discussions with Feit, Scott, and Brelsford have been seminal for the present treatment of the role of a subsistence-oriented, family-based way of life within a commercial economy and a welfare-state system. 2 The question of how far this harvest remains below the "maximum sustainable yield," of how far it could be increased as the Cree population grows, and of how far increases over the "sustainable yield" can be temporarily tolerated, remains an open one. But the Cree are aware of the issues raised, and are trying to collect the data needed for an answer. Briefly, much of the increased yield comes from the use of distant hunting territories in the northeast tht had been rarely used in the 1960s. Greater air and road accessibility has permitted their use. However, Lake Caniapiscau and the lake behind dam LG-4 now affect these territories and reduce yields; fish populations are increasing following flooding. More generally, the apparent stabilization of the active hunting population at about 900 "beneficiary units" suggests to the author that the present "intensity" of the effort involved in hunting is the limiting factor. Game is plentiful enough to yield a sustainable yield with current inputs of time, equipment, and investment, but to catch more through increasing inputs would lower the game population. Even if slight decreases of game populations caused in this way did not threaten their long-term existence, they would make it harder to catch even the present harvest. The Cree are opting for a strategy of nonintensification, even if larger catches would be sustainable biologically. They recognize that some situations of overhunting already exist close to villages and roads, but are of the opinion

161 Notes and Bibliographical Review that the solution to these problems does not lie in the use of traditional resource management techniques. 3 The roles of the Quebec government ISP office (in the Ministry of Social Affairs) and of consultants are spelled out by LaRusic (1982). Though these outsiders are important for monitoring (and for the issuance of cheques), they do not play a large role in administering the program. CHAPTER 4 Bibliographical review. The central data for the analysis in this chapter are provided by Salisbury et al. (1979) which, in its turn, is based on a survey conducted by the CRA in 1977. More up-to-date figures are contained in ssDcc Inc (1982) and in Rieger (1981). Studies of potential industrial activity and of manpower availability are being conducted by the CRA. A study of Waswanipi involvement in forestry was made by Schafer (1981). Income and consumption figures for particular groups and activities are found in diverse works. Most useful for the present discussion have been the economic material on Paint Hills and Fort George in Elberg et al. (1976, 1977) and on the costs of hunting and maintaining a family in LaRusic (1978, 1979). CHAPTER 5 Bibliographical review. The work of Rieger (1981) on the structure of Cree government, and of LaRusic et al. (1979) on the evolution of those structures provide basic data. The latter work raises many of the present questions about how the structures are responding to the internal differentiation and the increasing size of communities. The theses of Scott (1983) and Brelsford (1983) discuss ways in which Cree ideologies of egalitarianism act to counter the differentiation that is present empirically. Internal reports of the CRA (for example, on its restructuring and on its decentralization) constitute an archival source that will be valuable in the future. The topicality of the issues makes it necessary to preserve the confidentiality of the documents, and they have not been used for the present chapter. The fact that discussions are under way is, however, no secret. CHAPTER 6 Bibliographical review. The work of Rieger (1981) is the most valuable compilation of data in this area: ssDcc,Inc (1982) contains additional material and greater detail on the four southern villages. Insight into the operation of medical services in Cree villages is provided by the work of Marshall (1980) and Wong-Rieger (1980), and in the report of the McGill Methyl Mercury Study (1981). Annual reports of the Cree School Board provide

162 Notes and Bibliographical Review ongoing figures on the state of Cree education, both in schools and for adults. Kilfoil (1977) and Tanner (1982) report on parental attitudes to education, the former for Fort George, and the latter regarding attitudes towards the language of education. 1 The syllabic system devised by the Anglican missionary at Norway House in 1840 was known by almost all Cree adults before 1900, but the only reading materials available in it were church-related - bibles, hymn books, prayer books, and so forth. Use of the script for everyday communication was relatively rare, and was not encouraged by ready availability of other reading materials. Individual Cree were technically "literate," but "literacy" had not come to characterize the culture outside of church contexts. Since the syllabics were based on a Cree phonemic system, it was usually possible in the case of dialects other than the original Norway House one to use the same orthography to transliterate the dialect. The interchangeability of texts among dialect groups has become more difficult with romanization of the orthography, since the pronunciation of individual letters is now tending to approximate that of English. Standardizing the roman orthography for Cree, Naskapi, Montagnais, and Ontario Cree has become an issue for discussion among Algonquian groups. CHAPTER 7 Bibliographical review. Feit (1983) and LaRusic et al (1979) constitute the most detailed evaluations of Cree relations with the surrounding social system, the Province of Quebec, and the federal government of Canada. Feit's work and that of Scott (1983) have been focused on a comparison of many hunting and gathering groups within modern nation-states. Dyck (1985) and Leacock and Lee (1982) provide summaries of this approach. The wider approach to how modern nation-states deal with aboriginal minorities in their midst has become best known through the work of the International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) in Copenhagen, and Cultural Survival in Boston. The problems of cultural survival under conditions of affluence are discussed in a comparative framework in Salisbury (1985). The work of Barth (1969) on how ethnic groups actively define their own "boundaries" - starting from work with the Lapps or Saami of Norway has clearly been seminal to the present discussion, but is so widely known that specific reference to the work is not needed. A study by the National Indian Brotherhood (1982) of how relevant Cree experience is to the general problems of Indians in Canada bears on the present study. The general discussion of the relation of distinct cultural groups to the nation-state has become so much a part of the Canadian identity since the Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and subsequently the amendment of the

163 Notes and Bibliographical Review Canadian Constitution, that it too needs no specific bibliographical reference here. EPILOGUE Bibliographical review. For anthropological work with the Cree before 1971, Feit (1971) is comprehensive. Some subsequent studies are listed in the present work. Perhaps the most valuable guide to current work in the area is provided by the journal Recheiches Amenndiennes au Quebec and the volumes of proceedings of the annual Conferences of Algonkianists. LaRusic et al. raised the issue of whether or not the Cree depended too much on "consultants," including lawyers in that term. A debate ensued between Trudel (1983), Salisbury (1983), and Feit (1985), the first claiming that anthropologists "interfered" with and dominated the Cree, the second spelling out what was done by whom, and the third stressing the dominant role played by the Cree leaders.

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References

Bourassa, R. 1973. James Bay. Montreal: Harvest House. Brelsford, T. 1983. Hunters and workers among Nemaska Cree. MA thesis, McGill University. Chance, N.A., ed. 1968. Conflict in culture: Problems of developmental change among the Cree. Ottawa: Canadian Research Centre for Anthropology. Driben, P., and Trudeau, R.S. 1983. When freedom is lost. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Dyck, N.D. 1985. Indigenous people in nation states: Fourth World politics. ISER Papers. St John's: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Elberg, N., Salisbury, R.F., and Visitor, R. 1976. The end of the line: Communications in Paint Hills. PAD Monographs no. 8. Montreal: McGil University. Elbert, N., Visitor, R., and Salisbury, R.F. 1977. Off-Centre: Fort George and the regional communications network of James Bay. PAD Monographs no. 10. Montreal: McGill University. Feit, H.A. 1971. Bibliography, native peoples, James Bay region: Part A Ethnology. Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec 2( 1 ):5-42. - 1973. Ethnoecology of the Waswanipi Cree. In Cultural ecology, ed. B. Cox. Carleton Library no. 65. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. - 1979. Waswanipi realities and adaptations. PHD thesis, McGill University. - 1980a. Political articulation of hunters to the state. Etudes Inuit Studies 3(2):37-52. - 1980b. Negotiating recognition of aboriginal rights. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1(2) 159-72. - 1982. The future of hunters within nation-states: Anthropology and the James Bay Cree. In Politics and history in band societies. See Leacock and Lee 1982.

166 References - 1982b. Protecting indigenous hunters: The social and environmental protection regime in James Bay. In Indian SI A, ed. C. Geisler. Natural Resource Sociology Lab Monographs no. 3. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan. - 1985. Two dimensions of representation of a Fourth World people: Legitimation and autonomy in James Bay. In Indigenous people in nation states. See Dyck 1985. Helm, J. 1968. The nature of Dogrib socio-territorial groups. In Man the Hunter, ed., I. Devore and R.B. Lee. Chicago: Aldine. - 1980. Female infanticide, European diseases and population levels among the Mackenzie Dene. American Ethnologist 7:259-85. Kilfoil, c. 1977. A survey of community attitudes toward curriculum content in Sand Park School Fort George. PAD Brief Communications no. 42. Montreal: McGill University. LaRusic, I.E. 1968. The new Auchimau: A study of patron-client relations among the Waswanipi Cree. MA thesis, McGill University. - 1969. From hunter to proletarian. In Developmental change among the Cree Indians of Quebec, ed. N. A. Chance. Report of the McGill Cree Project. Ottawa: Dept. of Forestry and Rural Development. - 1979. The Income Security Programme for Cree hunters and trappers. PAD Monograph no. 14. Montreal: McGill University. - 1981. The shadow of bureaucracy: Culture in Indian Affairs. Report to DINA, Research Policy Division. Montreal: ssDcc, Inc. - 1982. La securite de revenu de la chasse au subsistance: Un rapport concernant les cinq premieres annees. Ottawa: DINA, Research Policy Division. LaRusic, I.E., Bouchard, S., Deschenes, J.G., Brelsford, T., Penn, A., and Salisbury, R.F. 1979. Negotiating a way of life. Report to DINA. Montreal, ssDcc, Inc. Leacock, E., and Lee, R.B. 1982. Politics and history in band societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McGill Methyl Mercury Study. 1981. Methyl Mercury among the Cree. Report to the Donner Foundation, Health and Welfare Canada, and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Quebec. Montreal: McGill University. Marshall, S. 1980. Children's health and curing strategies among the Cree in Fort George. McGill Centre for Northern Studies. National Indian Brotherhood. 1982. Practically millionaires: A report on the James Bay Agreement. Ottawa: National Indian Brotherhood. Native Harvesting Research Committee. 1982. The wealth of the land: Wildlife harvests by the James Bay Cree, 1972-9. Quebec, James Bay and Northern Quebec Native Harvesting Research Committee. Ornstein, T.E. 1973. The first peoples in Quebec. Montreal: Native North American Studies Institute.

167 References Paine, R.W. 1979. The White Arctic. ISER Papers no 7. St. John's: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Ponting, J.R., and Gibbons, R. 1980. Out of irrelevance. Toronto: Butterworth. Richardson, B. 1972. James Bay: The plot to drown the north woods. San Francisco and Toronto: The Sierra Club and Clarke Irwin. Rieger, F.H. 1981. Cree cultural values and the structure of their formal organisation. PAD Monograph no. 19. Montreal: McGill University. Rogers, E.S. 1963. The hunting-group hunting-territory complex among the Mistassini Indians. Bulletin 195. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. Rouland, N. 1977. Les Inuit du Nouveau Quebec et la Convention de la Baie James. Quebec: Universite Laval, Centre d'Etudes Nordiques. Salisbury, R.F. 1969. Vunamami: Economic transition in a traditional society. Berkeley, University of California Press. - 1971. Development through the service industries. Manpower and Unemployment Research in Africa 4:57-66. - 1983. Les Cris et leurs consultants. Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec 13:67-9. - 1985. Affluence and cultural survival. Proceedings, American Ethnological Society Spring Meetings, 1981. Washington, DC: American Ethnological Society. Salisbury, R.F., Filion, F., Rawji, F., and Stewart, D.A. 1972a. Development and James Bay: Social effects of the hydro-electric project. PAD Monograph no. 4. Montreal: McGill University. Salisbury, R.F., Elberg, N., Hyman, K. 1972b. Not by bread alone: The use of subsistence resources by the James Bay Cree. Montreal: Indians of Quebec Association (also as PAD Monograph no. 5, McGill University). Salisbury, R.F., Brelsford, T., Goldberg, L, and Marshall, S. 1979. Training and jobs among the James Bay Cree. PAD Monograph no. 15. Montreal: McGill University. Salisbury, R.F., Rieger, F.H., McDonnell, R., Pothier, R., Chin-yee, I.J., and Schafer, K. 1982. The impact of the NBR Project on native communities. Interim Report to SEBJ and Cree villages. Montreal: ssDcc, Inc. Salisbury, R.F., and Bougie, P. 1983. The price of fairness. Paper presented at the McGill-Duke symposium "Policy in an age of restraint." Schafer, K. 1981. The forestry industry in Waswanipi. PAD Brief Commun ications no. 46. Montreal: McGill University. Scott, C.H. 1979. Modes of production and guaranteed annual income in James Bay society. PAD Monograph no. 13. Montreal: McGill University. - 1982. Cree stories in Wemindji. Ottawa: National Museum of Man. - 1983. The semiotics of material life among Wemindji Cree hunters. PHD thesis, McGill University. - 1985. Between original affluence and consumer affluence. In Affluence and cultural survival. See Salisbury, ed. 1985.

168 References Silverman, Mv and Salisbury, R.F., 1979. A house divided! Anthropological studies of factionalism. ISER Papers no. 9. St. Johns: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Sindell, P.W. 1968. Some discontinuities in the enculturation of Mistassini Cree children. In Conflict in Culture. See Chance, ed., 1968. ssDcc, Inc. 1982. Les retombees socio-economiques du Projet NBR sur les communautes autochthones. Rapport soumis a la Societe d'Energie de la Baie James. Montreal: ssDcc Inc. Tanner, A. 1979. Bringing home animals. London: C. Hurst and Co. - 1982. Community reactions to native language teaching and second language immersion among James Bay Cree. Paper presented at the CES Annual Meeting, Vancouver. Titiev, M. 1944. Old Oraibi. Peabody Museum Publications in Anthropology, vol. 22, no. 1. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University. Trudel, P. 1983. Les Cris et les structures administratives de la CBJ. Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec 12:230-3, 13:61-6. Weaver, S. 1979. The making of Indian policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Wong-Rieger, D. 1980. Self-identity and adaptation to social change: Cree Indians in a French-Canadian town. Canadian Ethnic Studies 13: 12743.

Index

Abitibi 15, 16, 18, 19,23, 32 Administration 4, 7, 11, 26, 31, 34, 58, 65, 73, 84, 96, 104, 108, 127, 148, 150, 155 Administrative bands 8, 9, 16 Air Canada 27,46 AirCree-bec 66, 105 Aircraft 4, 20, 22, 25, 27, 40, 42, 43, 76, 77, 82, 100 Airlines 44,46-8,55, 198 Alcohol 87, 115, 118 Anthropologist's role 12, 151-6 Arctic Co-ops of Northern Quebec 25, 46 Arctic Institute of North America 54 Assimilation 6,9, 128, 151 Austin Airways 27, 46, 48, 66, 105 Awashish, P. 124 Balicki,A. 151 Band Councils 28-9, 65, 106-10, 155 Band manager 26, 28-9, 34, 107-8, 116 Bands 16-17,31,34,50, 57, 98-9 Banking 91-3 Barger,W.K. 151

Barges 44 Bear 81, 111 Beaver 21,77,81 Beneficiaries 56, 58 Bilingualism 5, 24-5, 29, 39,46,64,69,119,1256, 128, 130 Bouchard, S. 155 Bourassa, R. 53, 55 Brelsford,T. 154,155, 160-1 Bureaucracy 4, 10, 30-2, 43, 60, 74-5, 103, 10910, 127, 145, 154-5 Business 25, 71, 90-3, 97, 113-14 Canoe brigade 16, 23 Canoe factory 25, 28, 93, 96 Caribou 21-2,81, 158 Cash economy 5, 85-98, 152 Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation 69 Chance, N. A. 151 Chapais 19,85,119,120 Chibougamau 18-20, 23, 26, 27, 40, 42, 46, 69, 80, 85,92,99, 119, 120, 1545 Chiefs 3,9,26,28-31,34, 58,65,71,106-9,114, 116 Chin-Yee, IJ. 154

Chisasibi 58, 60, 67-9, 88-9,91,107,118,122, 154, 157, 159. See also Fort George Chretien, J. 3 Churches: Anglican 5, 9, 26,35, 114-15, 162; Oblate Fathers 5, 26, 368,40,41,91, 114; Pentecostal 114-15 Ciaccia,J. 56, 159 Class 106, 110-17 Communications 33, 43, 67, 151, 153, 158 Compensation 56, 64, 97; Board of 70,71, 104-5 Conservation 57, 67, 71, 80-2, 160 Construction 7, 26 Consultants 12, 19, 91, 148, 154-5, 161 Consumption 6, 44, 45, 77, 92, 98-102, 140, 1423, 161 Craft work 64,66,71,92, 93 Craik,B. 154 Cree-ations 64,71,93 Cree organizations: Cree Construction 64, 70, 71, 88, 105; Cree Housing Corporation 64, 69, 70, 88; Cree Regional Authority 4, 57-8, 60, 65-7, 69, 72, 74, 97, 107,

170 Index 109, 127, 154, 156-7, 1 60- l;Cree Regional Board of Health and Social Services 57-8, 60, 68-9, 74, 144; Cree School Board 57-8, 64, 66-8,108,117, 122-3, 127, 130, 137, 144, 161; Cree Trappers' Association 71,82,92, 100,108, 137 Creeways 26,38, 129, 152 Cuciurean, R. 154 Cultural continuity 10, 38,51,63,76, 110-11, 131, 136, 146, 151 Curriculum 68, 119, 122, 128-31, 155 DelaBarre,K. 154 Decentralization 145-6, 161 Delisle, A. 33 Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DINA) xii,3,5, 16, 19,28-9,315,51,57,66,69,72, 117, 120, 137, 144, 152, 1545, 157-9 Desmaraisville 18 Development 66, 80-1, 104, 123, 141, 150, 152 Diet 6,21,99,100, 152 Direction Generate du Nouveau Quebec (DGNQ) 35,41 Discipline 115, 118 District Office 28-30, 32-3, 36 DoreLake 19, 119 Drop-outs 35, 37, 39, 125, 128 Eastmain 16,18,27,42, 54,56,78,99,152,158 Education 34-9, 67, 82, 117-31, 151-3, 158, 162; adult 64, 123-4; high school 35, 37-8, 67, 109, 110, 114, 118-19, 124, 139, 148; informal 1204;pre-school 36, 117-18,

130, 151; primary 67, 117-18 Elberg,N. 45,92,152-3, 158, 160-1 Employment 67-8, 70, 72, 74-5, 88, 93-8, 143; fulltime 20, 25-8, 82 Energy (James Bay Energy Corporation). See HydroQuebec Ethnic strategy 11,32, 147 Evolution 53, 136-8, 161 Exchange 111-12, 138, 143-4, 147

18,20,25,27,32,46-7, 60, 151, 154 Groslouis, M. 33 Guiding 23,81,96 Gull, P. 124

Hare 20, 80 Head offices 136 Health and Welfare Canada (H&W) 32, 40, 42 Health services 4, 9, 26, 40-1, 60, 66-7, 138, 140, 142, 161 Hogue,M. 155 Honigman, J. 151 Hospitals 19,26-7,40-2, Factions 31, 106, 109, 47, 58, 60, 68-9, 88, 139, 114, 147 141 Family relations 66, 71, Hotels 27, 66, 91, 92 73,77,82,83-4,110-11, Housing 5, 20, 26, 28-9, 115,118-19,121-2 31, 63-4, 67, 69, 72, 77, Feit,H.A. 19,21, 151-4, 88, 98, 105, 136 158, 160, 162 Hudson's Bay Company 5, Fieldwork 156 9,16,18,22-5,31,44-6, 63-4, 82, 90, 92, 96 Filion,F. 159 Fish 20-2,64,76,81, 160 Hunting 5, 19-25, 56-7, 64, 73, 76-84, 95-7, 103, Forest 15,20,68 111,122,149,151-2, Forestry 5, 18-9,23,79158, 1680; commuter 81,85,96-7, 118,154, 79-80; corridor 100-1; 161 groups 9, 18, 20; partFort George 16, 18,20-2, 25-8,31,33,35-6,40,42, time 90; sport 81 44, 46-7, 54-6, 58, 78, 88, Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Coordinating 92,94-6, 117,152-5, Committee (HFTCC) 71, 158, 16 1-2. See also Chi81 sasibi Foster parents 26, 36, 37, Hurley,!. 153 Huron 33 112,118-19 Hydro-Quebec 54-6, 58, Fuel 77, 99 60, 79, 104-5, 135, 144, Fur 22, 24, 46, 82, 95, 138 156 Gastroenteritis 4, 41, 57- Hyman,J. 152 Hyman, K. 152 8,74 Geese 21-2,76,81,111, Identity 6,7, 11,35,65, 158 69,82,117-31,151-3, Gill, A. 33 158, 162 Goldbloom,V. 152 Income Security ProGrand Council of the gramme (ISP) 57, 64, 72, Crees of Quebec (GCCQ) 78-9, 82, 95, 97, 103, 55,58,60,65,71,74,97, 108,113,145,154,159, 109, 114 160; beneficiaries of 78, Great Whale River 16,

171 Index 83-4,112, 121, 160 Incomes 23,34,93-4,161 Indian Act 8,31,56,58, 80, 103, 144, 158 Indians of Quebec Association (IQA) 3, 33-4, 54-5, 65, 106, 127 Indian-white relations 8, 10, 19,24,27,42,48,52, 66,69,80,81,119,136 Industry 25, 85-8, 105, 138, 151, 161 Inuit 10, 18,54,56, 154 James Bay Agreement (JBNQA) 53, 55-8, 65-6, 68,71-2,74, 127, 131, 136, 144, 150, 153-5 James Bay Project 3, 10, 53, 58, 82, 103-5, 135, 147, 158, 161 Kanatewat, R. 33 Kemp,W. 154 Kerr;A.J. 151 Kilfoil,C 118, 153, 162 Knight, R.K. 151 LaGrande dams 54, 79 Land claims 3, 12, 54-6, 65, 144, 157 Land rights 56-7 Language, Cree 5, 7, 25, 36, 38, 41, 48, 55, 64, 107, 112, 118, 129-31, 135, 151, 153 Language, English 5, 20, 24,29,30,34-6,41,64, 109, 125-6, 128 Language, French 5, 34-5, 41,64,69,87, 109,119, 125-6 LaRusic,I.E. 24,31,71, 75,85,94-5, 151-2, 1545, 158-62 Lawyers 33, 54, 58, 65, 66, 111,127, 152, 155 Leadership 30, 54, 107, 110-1, 127, 131, 147-9 Lefevre,M. 153 Literacy 25,30,38, 128 McElroy,A. 151

McGill University 26, 1 53; Education Faculty 155; Methyl Mercury Study 161; Programme in the Anthropology of Development (PAD) 54, 58, 151-2, 157 Mackenzie, M. 153 McMaster University 26, 37, 153 Mallory, C.W. 154 Malouf, Judge 55 Manitou College 26,38, 129, 153 Manpower Canada 70, 113,121, 123 Mark,J. 33, 124 Marshall, S. 154-5,161 Matagami 18,55,68,77, 80, 107 Meat 72, 76-7, 82, 94-5, 100,111-112, 122 Media 4, 74 Miller, G. 153 Mincome 73 Mining 5, 18-19,23,56, 71,81-2,85,96-7,138 Ministry of Education, Quebec (MEQ| 68, 119, 120, 129, 130 Ministry of Social Affairs (MAS) 69,72,74, 161 Miquelon 18 Mistassini 3, 15-16, 1820,23,25-6,31-6,39,40, 44, 53, 54, 63, 67-9, 8992,99, 107, 113, 117-19, 124, 151-2, 155 Mohawk 33 Montagnais 33 Moosonee 19,23,27,32, 35,40-1,44,46 Morantz,T.O. 153 Multiplier 140-1, 149 Murdock, J. 38 Nadeau, P. 53 National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) 102, 106, 159 Native Harvesting Research Committee (NHRC) 154, 160

Native North American Studies Institute (NNASI) 33,37,38, 153. See also Manitou College Negotiation 10, 55, 58, 60, 109, 112, 127,153 Nemaska 4, 16, 18, 19,31, 53, 57-8, 60, 67, 69, 88, 99, 117, 154 Nemiscau See Nemaska Nitchequon 18,21,31,53 Non-status Indians 19, 58 Nordair 48 Nurses 39-41, 88, 159 Nursing stations 26, 40, 43, 58, 68, 88 Old Factory See Wemindji Outfitting 23,57,81, 123 Pachanos, W. 48 Paine, R. 8 Paint Hills See Wemindji Peat, Marwick 155 Penn, A. 154, 155 Periphery 4, 6-7, 9, 140-1 Petawabano, B. 19,39, 124 Petawabano, S. 33 Planning 32, 37, 39, 53, 64,68,70-2, 117,127, 150, 154 Pointe Bleue 32 Politics 4, 28-34, 106-16, 126, 151, 158, 161 Population 16, 18, 36, 38, 41-2, 77, 82, 84, 97-8, 117, 120, 124-8,135, 142-3, 157-8 Postal service 44, 48 Pothier,R. 151-2 Power, M. 153 Preston, R. 37, 151, 152 Proclamation of 1763 103 Ptarmigan 21, 80 Quebec Boundary Extension Act 32, 157 Quevillon 19,24,92 Radio 6,45,47,76, 122,

172 Index 153; two-way 71, 82 Radisson 55 Railroad, Northern Transcontinental 15 Raymond, H. A. 153 Regionalism 4, 7, 8, 1112,63-75,90,97-8,1025, 108, 114, 131, 135-50, 153, 155 Religion 22-3, 111 Research 127, 139; permits 107-8, 155 Reserves 18,32-3,57,65, 158 Restaurants 25, 27, 91, 101, 113, 122 Rieger,F. 95, 155, 159, 161 Roads 4-5, 18,55,63,7781, 99, 148 Rogers, E.S. 22, 151 Royalties 55, 138 Rupert's House 16,18, 25-8, 33, 36, 38, 40, 42, 53, 59, 60, 65, 67, 69, 70, 89,91-3,96,98-9, 11718, 129, 151, 153 Salisbury, R.F. 30, 94-5, 124-5, 140, 149, 152-3, 155, 158, 161 Satellites 5,56, 122, 153 Sault Ste Marie 36, 119 Savard,R. 153 Sawmills 25, 28 Schaefer, K. 154, 161 School committees 129, 137 Schools 58,88, 117-20. See also Education Scott, C. 77, 154, 158-61 Service economy 11,105, 139, 142-3, 146, 149 Service industries 26, 31, 51,96 Sindell,P. 35, 128, 151, 153 Snowmobiles 6, 7, 24-5, 45, 64, 77, 79, 92, 98, 100-1, 138 Social impact study 54-6, 71, 152, 154, 156, 158

Spence, J. 152 ssDcc, Inc. 159, 161 State-minority relations 11,31,71,74,97, 102-6, 115,126,135,140-6, 150, 159 Stereos 45, 98, 101, 122 Stewart, D. A. 154 Stores 44-6,91, 113, 122, 138; Co-operative 7, 256,46,91 Suburbia 98, 102, 110 Syllabics 128, 162 Tallyman 22, 113,138 Tanner, A. 19, 130, 151-2, 158, 162 Taxes 103, 140-1, 143 Teachers 35-7, 39, 67, 118, 127-9, 153, 155 Telephone 27, 48-50; Bell system 49-50, 55; microwave 5, 55; operators 49; radiophone 4, 27, 40, 43 Television 7, 56, 92, 98, 101, 122, 153 Ternar, Y. 155 Terrain 15, 63 Timmins 1 9, 46 Titiev, M. 114 Tourism 123-4 Town-planning 58, 69, 154 Tradition 7-8, 68, 80-1, 84, 110-11, 121, 128; vs modernism 114-15 Training 70,72,81,86-7, 89, 121-12, 131, 139, 148 Transactionalism 30 Transfer payments 6,m 9, 11,72,96,103,143 Traplines 7,21,57,71,77 Treaties 103-5 Trucks 64,92, 101, 112 Trudeau, J. 152 Tuberculosis 41 Turgeon, Judge 55 Unions 87, 129, 130 Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi 28,38, 129 Universities 19,33,37,

68,97-8,125,127,139, 141 Unskilled labour 5, 24, 28, 42, 70, 82, 85, 88, 90, 96, 149 Vald'Or 4, 16,27-8,33-5, 46, 58, 60, 63, 66-9, 74, 93, 100-10, 119, 155,159 Valaskakis, G. 153 Village-band society 8 Villages 8,9,18-19,38, 50, 60, 63, 72, 90, 137, 151 Visitor, R. 158 Waswanipi 16, 18-19, 31, 44, 53, 57-8, 63, 68-9, 80, 85,91-2,117,119,152, 154, 158, 161 Weaver, S. 32 Weinstein, M. 153 Welfare 72, 96, 149 Wemindji 18,25,27,33, 40, 42, 48-9, 54, 56, 77-8, 91,99,111,152,155, 158-9, 161 Wertman,P. 154 Wintrob,R. 151 Wong-Rieger, D. 155,159, 161