Tipatshimuna 
Description:
Narrow curved hook made from bone, tapering at both ends to a point. Hook is pierced approximately 1″ from lower end through which a needle-shaped piece of bone is inserted to form the barb. Other end is grooved to join hook to line and has a mall piece o rawhide still attached.
References:
Nutshimiu-atusseun. nd. Akuanutin Nutshimiu-aimun. Sept-Iles: Centre de formation Nutshimiu Atusseun. James W. VanStone. 1982. The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture From the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.5. 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. Lucien M. Turner. 1979[1894]. Indians and Eskimos in the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Quebec: Presses COMEDITEX. MacKenzie Shoebox dictionary 2003.
Innu Narrative:
These were made too – the hooks (kushkan). My grandfather called these kapemitukutetshi. He made these too – Matinen (Rich) Katshinak.
This is fish kushkan (hook). These kind of kushkana (hooks) are used in the country. These are nutshimit kushkana – Pinamen (Rich) Katshinak.
This is kuskun (hook). katitapapetet – special type of fish hook I heard this kind never caught smaller fish, but bigger fish instead. This is called katitapapetet. I heard that this kind of hook can catch big kukumesh (lake trout) – Uniam Katshinak.
This is how we survived. We would go hungry if we didn’t make things for our survival. We fished, and we lived off the fish and caribou and bear. We lived on wild meats. We didn’t have any store-bought food. When we went to Emish [Voisey’s Bay] for supplies, we would go back to Mushuau-shipu [George River] even when we didn’t get anything from the store. We would go back empty-handed. When fish was caught, then we would eat the fish, and when caribou was killed, we would eat that. This would be in the spring only – Uniam Katshinak.
Other Info:
Nutshimiu-atusseun (p.155) provides a diagram showing kushkanapitaku (fish hook), matitinapan (sinker) and kushkaniapi (fish line). MacKenzie Shoebox dictionary lists kusseiu and kussean as “bait placed on a fish hook;” kusseiapi and kushkeapi as “fishing line.”
kamakapitet is the name for the old fish hook, according to the late Pien-Joseph Selma (Peter Armitage, personal communication).
“Fishing equipment of the Naskapi appears to have been limited, consisting primarily of hooks used with set lines. Gill nets and spears were also used. The Strong collection contains 11 fishhooks, four of which have wooden shanks and antler barbs. The shanks are split at the distal end for insertion of the barb at about a 30 deg. angle. Babiche has been used to bind the end of the split area of the shank and to secure the barb to the shank…With the possible exception of the European style hook, the barbs or gorges in the Strong collection were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Pike or other large fish swallowed the hook, which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills” – VanStone (1985:14-15).
“Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. The shank is split at the distal end for insertion of the point at about a 30 degree angle. Commercial two-ply twine was used to bind the split area of the shank and more twine was secured about the center of the point and then about the shank. There is a knob at the proximal end of the shank to which is fastened a short piece of caribou skin which served as a leader…Two metal fish hooks are also composite in design. Large commercial steel hooks are lashed to iron spikes with heavy twine. Lighter twine binds the point of the hook to the distal end of the shank. At the proximal ends of both specimens are leaders consisting of short strips of moose hide to which are attached lengths of two-ply twine fish line” – VanStone (1982:6).
“The fish-hook shown in Fig. 129 has a barb of steel or iron. It is on the smaller hooks made of one of the ribs of the larger trout” – Turner (1979[1894]:156).