Tipatshimuna 
Description:
Harness made from doubled strips of skin sewn with gut in such a way so as o form a collar that slips over the dog’s head and two side loops through which the front paws are passed and a back section. A braided rawhide tape is knotted to end of harness. Rope is coiled. A bone harness piece with two large holes bored through it is tied to other end of rope
References:
MacKenzie Shoebox dictionary 2003. James W. VanStone. 1985. Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi: the William Duncan Strong Collection. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.7. Lynn Drapeau. 1999. Dictionnaire Montagnais-français. Sainte-Foy: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Innu Narrative:
“Dog harness is called utapeapin.” Pinashue Benuen.
“Yes, all of us used dog teams. Every one of us had a team. It is only recently that we started using the snowmobiles.” Etuat Mistenapeo
“It is best to train them when they are still pups. They grow up to be very smart, especially when they are kept inside the tent. They are also really intelligent during stormy weather. One time when we were hunting caribou at Kaueshitinatshi, we got caught in a blizzard. The morning had started out very nice, but very suddenly, it turned really bad. We had killed caribou at around noon. Thomas Noah was with us. I was traveling with Charles Joseph and Tshishennish. We couldn’t see the track. You would not know where to go. It was so bad, it was like nighttime, and I was leading the hunting group. We took care of each other, keeping an eye out for the other. We could hardly see the dog team or their lines in front of us, or our friends behind us where it was bad. The leader of the dog team led us through the storm, following the easterly wind. This was my dog that had killed those porcupines I told you about. The dog brought us into our camp safely. It was really blowing hard and you couldn’t see a thing. The weather got better when we arrived home.” Etuat Mistenapeo
“We didn’t use a tow bar for with dog sleds. Twine rope was doubled and used with dog sleds. The leader of the pack has the longest line, and the line gets shorter for each dog. After you get your dogs ready and harnessed, then you start doing it like this, look [see diagram in “Innu dog team technology.doc”]. Never the same lines, because in deep snow, each dog would reach the next one and would start getting into each others’ way which would cause chaos.” Etuat Mistenapeo
“Pamaskupatakin – name for some kind of dog rope, trace, harness? Kanatustumuess – dog driver. As far as I can I remember, it was 1948 when we went to Nutak, and 1949 was the year we had our dogs. There were no dog teams in the past. Innu people went to Nutak to get the dogs. There were lots of dogs. We didn’t have dogs when my father and I went there. We came out with 9 dogs. In 1950 when Innu people started to move back to Davis Inlet and Natuashish, we stayed there at Nutak. There were a lot of komatiks and a lot of dogs. When we left to go to Nutak, we didn’t have anything to haul our belongings. On the way back every family had a dog team, and no one had to haul their belongings… Every time we travelled to Ashuapun (Border Beacon), we carried a lot more food for the dogs. But before we got to Ashuapun, we wouldn’t have enough food for our families because the dogs used up the food. We would get hungry. The dog teams were good, but they were a lot of work. There was only one man who had a dog team before we went to Nutak and that was Joseph Rich. He had 3 dogs. My father and I had one little dog that we used to haul our belongings. There were no komatiks as well.” Joachim Nui
Tshamaskai [tshimitshikan – short-tailed dog] is the name given to a newborn puppy that has had its tail cut off. We used to do it to our Inuit dogs. Back in 1963, I had two puppies, and I had to do the same thing to them. The reason we did it was only to name them Tshamaskai. My late son, Marcel Nui, had a dog that his grandfathers named Pisseuet, meaning “skinny person.” [MacKenzie lists tshimakateu and pisseueu as “she/he is skinny, thin”] My dog was named Katshatashit because Innu used to think I was a stingy man. Settlers and Inuit used the dog rope for their dogs, but hardly any Innu used them because there was no reason to. Pamaskupatakin is the name for dog rope. There are different kinds of rope that you had set up for the dogs. We usually had ten dogs. The ropes didn’t have to be of the same length. They all had to be a different length or else they would get tangled up. In the front, there was usually the oldest dog leading the younger ones. The lead dog was called the “Utshimau,” which means the “Boss.” Only the oldest dog could understand when it was being called by the owner, not the younger dogs.
Other Info:
Drapeau dictionnary lists utapaniapi as “corde servant à traîner le toboggan (rope used to pull the sled).”
Always quick to adopt new technology that would make travel and harvesting more efficient, the Mushuaunnuat (Barren Ground Innu) adopted dog teams and komatiks (atumtapashku) from the Inuit on the coast of Labrador. However, while dog teams and komatiks permitted the Innu to transport heavier loads to and from the interior barrens, they came with a price. The Inuit dogs had big appetites and had to be fed. Seal meat, caribou organs, and fish had to be obtained, and cornmeal transported into the barrens with the dogs. Those responsible for the dogs had to stay up late to feed them and to ensure they were tethered so that they could not get at the caribou meat or harm the children. Innu certainly had their own dog breeds, but these fox-like animals were used primarily for hunting small game, and had little if any role in hauling. Peter Armitage note
“As early as 1905 Wallace (1907, p.136) reported that the Davis Inlet Naskapi were beginning to use heavy, flat-bedded sleds pulled by dogs, both items having been borrowed from Eskimos on the coast of Labrador. At the time of Strong’s fieldwork, this form of winter transport was used exclusively by the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Indians. Dogs were harnessed to the sled in the typical Eskimo fan hitch.” VanStone (1985:20)