Tipatshimuna 
Description:
Model has rectangular wooden base with wooden pegs (approximately 2″ high; higher at back) glued into holes burned into base roughly 0.5″ apart, along three sides of base, tapering into narrow opening. Each peg is lashed with rawhide string to a thin strip of wood (approx. 1″ wide). At one side of opening a three-sided screen with a hole in one piece conceals a wooden figure representing a man.
References:
Eleanor Leacock and Nan Rothschild (eds). 1994. Labrador Winter: the Ethnographic Journals of William Duncan Strong, 1927-1928. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. MacKenzie Shoebox dictionary 2003. Naskapi dictionary.
Innu Narrative:
“And have you ever heard about the caribou corral? You take a bunch of trees, line them up, all the way around in a circle, and try to chase the herd into this corral (or menakan in Innu-aimun. The herd can run around inside looking for an opening. Even if one manages to slip out, the rest of the herd follows.” Pinashue Benuen
“A corral was built for trapping caribou. It was a huge place. Once the caribou went in, they couldn’t come out. Young trees and logs were used to make the fence. It was good because they couldn’t come out. There was no space to crawl under the logs. It could destroy it though. You watched it prior to killing it. The other caribou followed the leader, if it was not aggressive or threatened, it would follow the leader into the corral. When one felt threatened, it would try to break that trap anyway. It is inside of Mushuau-shipu. I suppose you could make it here, too, if you wanted to. You can use the snow too, especially with these high snow banks. Sticks, logs and young trees to make a fence-like corral. It was built so the caribou could not crawl under to get away.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“You started shooting it then with the bow and arrows. After the caribou was killed, you dragged it out without destroying the corral. You made a small exit to one side of the fence where you could take the caribou out.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“There was an entrance, then it gradually expanded into a circle. That’s what a menakan is. Yes, it [the caribou] came through the same path it used earlier. It didn’t go anywhere else. They always seemed to take the same path right into the corral.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“One time, there was a small child who ran towards the entrance while the caribou were going inside the corral. It tripped and fell right in the caribou’s path. They never stepped on the child. After the caribou had moved inside, they ran to the child and he wasn’t hurt. Everybody thought he was killed in the stampede, but he turned out to be all right.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“The caribou walked slowly, but when they were being scared, they walked faster, right into the trap. Once they got inside, they scattered around in the corral. Then the shooting began once they were inside. You could anticipate when the caribou were going to try and break free because they examined the fence [where they might escape] and that’s where it’s going to escape. They started shooting right away. If you waited, they would break free and get away. The fence was not very strong or secured really good, just trees and sticks. They just needed to give a good kick to destroy the trap.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“There’s another way that caribou would get killed. This way, they killed themselves. It happened accidentally when they walked off the cliffs or when swimming across rivers and getting swept away by the currents and into the falls.” Tshishennish Pasteen
“[Regarding the location of the corral], it was around that place where the caribou walked off the cliff. It’s a popular migration path for the caribou. They always used this same path over and over. When menakan were not being used, the Innu did not destroy the trap. They make another opening, like an exit, on the other end. They still used their path.” Tshishennish Pasteen
Other Info:
MacKenzie lists manikan and menakan as “corral for trapping caribou.”
The interview with Tshishennish Pasteen (21 March 2003) suggests that the location of the corral was near Tshinuatipish (aka Tshinutivish). Tshishennish says this place name “refers to a pointy piece of land at that place, and it shaped really weird, and narrow. Katshahitinass is close to that place, too.”
Citing his Innu informants, Akat Rich, Joe Rich and Edward Rich, William Duncan Strong reported that “A drive into a corral (menikan) was also used in winter. Women cut and hauled the sticks and men built the corral. Men behind [the deer] drove them into V made by the women and children. One man with a cloth to frighten deer runs behind them with a babiche line [once they were in the corral; this] keeps them in while the men shoot them with guns, bows and arrows. Sometimes as many as two hundred were caught, and sometimes there were so many caribou they couldn’t all get into the corral. Old corrals are still to be seen this side of George River well into the country. Akat helped at such drives, and Joe remembers seeing one when he was a little boy. Corrals were often put where caribou trails crossed the river (especially along George River), and the deer were driven from the river into the trap. Edward also reported seeing fences along the rivers.” Leacock and Rothschild (1994:115)