The Innu (the singular form of Innut, meaning "people"), also known as the Montagnais (; French for "mountain people"), are an Indigenous Canadian people inhabiting northeastern Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to their traditional homeland as Nitassinan ("our land") or Innu-assi ("Innu land").
The ancestors of the modern First Nations were known to have lived on these lands as hunter-gatherers for many thousands of years. To support their seasonal hunting migrations, they created portable tents made of animal skins. Their subsistence activities were historically centred on hunting and trapping caribou, moose, deer, and small game.
The Innu language is spoken throughout Nitassinan, with certain dialect differences. It is part of the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum, and is unrelated to the Inuit languages of other nearby peoples.
The Innu are broadly divided into the Montagnais in the forested south and the Naskapi in the north. The groups differ in dialect and partly also in their way of life and culture. Today, about 28,960 people of Innu origin live in various Indian settlements and reserves in Quebec and Labrador.
Montagnais, Naskapi or Innu
The people are frequently classified by the geography of their primary locations: the Neenoilno, live along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Quebec; they have historically been referred to by Europeans as Montagnais (French for "mountain people", English pronunciation: ),Rogers & Leacock (1981:169) or Innu proper (Nehilaw and Ilniw – "people") The Naskapi (also known as Innu and Iyiyiw), live farther north, on the barren grounds of the subarctic, and are less numerous. The Innu recognize several distinctions among their people (e.g. Mushuau Innuat, Maskuanu, Uashau Innuat) based on different regional affiliations and speakers of various dialects of the Innu language.
The word Naskapi was first recorded by French colonists in the 17th century. They applied it to distant Innu groups who were beyond the reach of Catholic missionary influence. It was particularly applied to those people living in the lands that bordered Ungava Bay and the northern Labrador coast, near the Inuit communities of northern Quebec and northern Labrador. Gradually it came to refer to the people known today as the Naskapi First Nation.
All Innu groups were traditionally nomadic. The Montagnais moved within the forested south of the peninsula, while the Naskapi ranged over the barren lands of the north.
The Mushuau Innuat (plural), while related to the Naskapi, formed a separate group in the 1900s. They were subject to a government relocation program at Davis Inlet. Some of the families of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach have close relatives in the Cree village of Whapmagoostui, on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay.
Innu, which means "people" in Innu-aimun, has become the predominant term for the people as a whole; since about 1990, the Montagnais have generally chosen to be officially referred to as Innu, while the Naskapi have continued to use the word Naskapi.
Innu communities Labrador communities + Innu First Nations in LabradorPeoplesPopulation(2026)Reserve orSettlementOn reservepopulation (2026)Reserve area ha acre sq miMushuau Innu First Nation1,268Natuashish 21,164Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation2,094Sheshatshiu1,852
Quebec communities
Conseil tribal Mamit Innuat About 3,800 members + Mamit Innuat member communitiesPeoplesPopulation(2026)Reserve orSettlementOn reservepopulation (2026)Reserve area ha acre sq miInnus of Ekuanitshit741Mingan679Première Nation des Innus de Nutashkuan1,303Nutashkuan1,156Montagnais de Pakua Shipi (St-Augustin Indian Settlement)429Pakuashipi393Montagnais de Unamen Shipu1,298Romaine 21,212
Conseil tribal Mamuitun About 24,800 members + Mamuitun member communitiesPeoplesPopulation(2026)Reserve orSettlementOn reservepopulation (2026)Reserve area ha acre sq miInnu Nation of Matimekush-Lac John1,117Lac-John 902 Matimekosh 3Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam5,270Maliotenam 27A3,733Uashat 27Innue Essipit1,374Innue Essipit247Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation12,748Mashteuiatsh2,117Pessamit Innu Band4,331Betsiamites (Pessamit)2,869
Kawawachikamach + Naskapi Nation of KawawachikamachPeoplesPopulation(2026)Reserve orSettlementOn reservepopulation (2026)Reserve area ha acre sq mi Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach825Kawawachikamach(Kawawachikamach (Naskapi village municipality))716
History
The Innu at times clashed with the Inuit, the Haudenosaunee, the Mi'kmaq and the Abenaki, but scholars do not describe them as a warlike people, and at least some of these hostilities were a side effect of European contact. In the Tadoussac region, the Innu were military allies of the French in their wars with the British and their Indigenous allies, and the Haudenosaunee raided into Innu territory during the Iroquois Wars of the 17th century.
Innu oral tradition describes the original encounters of the Innu and the French explorers led by Samuel de Champlain as fraught with distrust. Neither group understood the language of the other, and the Innu were concerned about the motives of the French explorers.
The French asked permission to settle on the Innu's coastal land, which the Innu called Uepishtikueiau. This eventually developed as Quebec City. According to oral tradition, the Innu at first declined their request. The French demonstrated their ability to farm wheat on the land and promised they would share their bounty with the Innu in the future, which the Innu accepted.
Two distinct versions of the oral history describe the outcome. In the first, the French used gifts of farmed food and manufactured goods to encourage the Innu to become dependent on them. Then, the French changed it to a mercantile relationship: trading these items to the Innu in exchange for furs. When the nomadic Innu went inland for the winter, the French increased the size and population of their settlement considerably, eventually completely displacing the Innu.
The second, and more widespread, version of the oral history describes a more immediate conflict. In this version, the Innu taught the French how to survive in their traditional lands. Once the French had learned enough to survive on their own, they began to resent the Innu. The French began to attack the Innu, who retaliated in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral territory. The Innu had a disadvantage in numbers and weaponry, and eventually began to avoid the area rather than risk further defeat. During this conflict, the French colonists took many Innu women as wives. French women did not immigrate to New France in the early period.
Champlain had formed an alliance with an Innu group in 1603, laying a foundation for later French–Indigenous relations. In June 1609 he set out with two other Frenchmen and a party of Wendat (Huron), Algonquin and Montagnais warriors, reaching the lake later named Lake Champlain in his honour. In late July, the party encountered a group of Haudenosaunee at Ticonderoga; according to the historian Marcel Trudel, Champlain killed two men in the engagement.
Historical bands The southern bands of the Montagnais-Naskapi were encountered by Europeans early in the seventeenth century while the northern ones, except for some on James Bay, were not well known until the nineteenth century.
The following are bands of the Montagnais-Naskapi in the 17th century:
Bersimis, around the Bersimis River Chicoutimi, north of Chicoutimi Chisedec, around Seven Islands and around the Moise River Escoumains, around the Escoumains River Godbout, around the Godbout River Mistassini, around Lake Mistassini Nichikun, around Nichikun Lake Ouchestigouetch, at the heads of Manikuagan and Kaniapiskau Rivers. Oumamiwek (or Ste. Marguerite), west of the Ste. Marguerite River Papinachois, at the head of the Bersimis River and east of it Tadousac, west of the lower Saguenay River By 1850, the Chisedec, Oumamiwek, and Papinachois had disappeared or been renamed, and many new bands in the north of Nitassinan were recorded:
Barren Ground, on the middle course of the George River Big River, around the Great Whale and Fort George Rivers Davis Inlet, south of the Barren Ground band Eastmain, north of the Eastmain River. Kaniapiskau, at the head of the Kaniapiskau River Michikamau, around Michikamau Lake Mingan, on the Mingan River Musquaro (or Romaine), on the Olomanoshibo River Natashkwan, on the Natashkwan River Northwest River, north of Hamilton Inlet and on the Northwest River Petisikapau, in the country around Petisikapau Lake Rupert House, around Rupert Bay and the Rupert River St. Augustin, on the St. Augustin River Shelter Bay, around modern-day Shelter Bay Ungava, southwest of the Ungava Bay Waswanipi, on the Waswanipi River White Whale River, between Lake Minto and Little Whale River and eastward to the Kaniapiskau River
Present status The Innu of Labrador and those living on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Canadian Shield region have never officially ceded their territory to Canada by way of treaty or other agreement. But, as European-Canadians began widespread forest and mining operations at the turn of the 20th century, the Innu became increasingly settled in coastal communities and in the interior of Quebec. The Canadian and provincial governments, the Catholic, Moravian, and Anglican churches, all encouraged the Innu to settle in more permanent, majority-style communities, in the belief that their lives would improve with this adaptation. This coercive assimilation resulted in the Innu giving up some traditional activities (hunting, trapping, fishing). Because of these social disruptions and the systemic disadvantages faced by Indigenous peoples, community life in the permanent settlements often became associated with high levels of substance abuse, domestic violence, and suicide among the Innu.
The flag of the Innu Nation was carried aboard the Artemis II mission that traveled further into space than any humans before this flight. Geological features of the Kamestastin crater in the nation's traditional hunting grounds was a training site for Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Labrador Innu organizations and land claims In 1999, Survival International published a study of the Innu communities of Labrador. It assessed the adverse effects of the Canadian government's relocating the people far from their ancestral lands and preventing them from practising their ancient way of life.
The Innu people of Labrador formally organized the Naskapi Montagnais Innu Association in 1976 to protect their rights, lands, and way of life against industrialization and other outside forces. The organization changed its name to the Innu Nation in 1990 and functions today as the governing body of the Labrador Innu. The group has won recognition for its members as status Indians under Canada's Indian Act in 2002 and is currently involved in land claim and self-governance negotiations with the federal and provincial governments.
In addition to the Innu Nation, residents at both Natuashish and Sheshatshiu elect Band Councils to represent community concerns. The chiefs of both councils sit on the Innu Nation's board of directors and the three groups work in cooperation with one another.
The Innu Nation's efforts to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of a mining project in Voisey's Bay were documented in Marjorie Beaucage's 1997 film Ntapueu ... i am telling the truth.
Davis Inlet, Labrador In the 1999 study of Innu communities in Labrador, Survival International concluded that government policies violated contemporary international law in human rights, and drew parallels with the treatment of Tibetans by the People's Republic of China. The study described the Innu as suffering the highest suicide rate in the world.