Tipatshimuna 
Journey from Mushuau-nipi to Emish
Travel with Shimiu and his family as they make their way from the barrens to the coast. Learn about the ancient ways of caribou hunting, visit the trading post, discover dog sledding, play target practice with slingshots, and enjoy a caribou feast in a shaputuan.
The people in this story are almost all fictional (not real names), but the places, activities, and events described are inspired by the real experiences of Innu people in the days before settlement.
Family members
- Kanikuen Pasteen (father)
- Shanimen (Mestenapeo) Pasteen (mother)
- Shimiu Pasteen (eldest son)
- Shushepin Pasteen (eldest daughter)
- Tanien Pasteen (youngest son)
- Shutit Pasteen (passed away from the measles)
- Pitshu (the dog)
- Nipishapui (another dog, Pitshu’s pup)
- Atika and Anitshishkueu (grandparents)
Other families
- Nui and Nishapet Pastiwet
- Antane and Munik Poker
Setting up a teepee. 1963. Photo courtesy of Ray Webber
Episode 1
Tshinuatapish Caribou Hunting
Dogs barked, people laughed, a steady pounding resonated nearby – thump, thump, thump, thump. The women and older girls at the camp pounded dried caribou meat into niueikanat1 which would be stored for eating later in the fall.
The thump, thump echoed back and forth across the lake. An early morning mist hung stubbornly above the water, but the hilltops peered through the mist every so often to reveal brilliant red flashes of Labrador tea and other bushes showing off their autumn colours.
Several tshinashkueutshuapa (teepees) were spread out across the point, surrounding a large shaputuan2 in the middle of the camp. Each family had erected a teshipitakan3 to dry meat and keep food and clothing away from the dogs.
Grandmother, Anitshishkueu, and the young children had gone off to pick uishatshimina (red berries) and the last of the inniminana (blueberries) before snow came.
Shimiu, his family, and other members of the group, had been at Tshinuatapish on Mushuau-nipi4 since early September.
“How wonderful it is here,” Shimiu thought to himself. “And it was so exciting to see the caribou herds crossing the narrows in front of the camp.”
Despite his contentment with life on the barrens, however, a deep sorrow continued to pull at Shimiu’s heart.
“Oh, how I miss nishim Shutit,” he mourned. “I miss the little brat terribly. She had such energy. She never complained when it was cold and made everyone laugh with her funny faces and teasing.”
Shutit had died of mikusheun (measles) the previous summer when they were at the trading post at Utshimassits, and Father O’Brien5 had helped them bury her in the graveyard there.
Old film footage of Innu people visiting the mission at Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet taken by or for Monsignor Edward Joseph O’Brien between 1921 and 1946. Footage courtesy Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Falls, Newfoundland, and The Rooms, Provincial Archives Division
Shimiu’s first caribou hunt with the men was about to begin, and his grandfather Atika6 had prepared him well for it.
“Grandson, your father will sit in the bow of the ut (canoe), and you in the middle. I will paddle at the back. We will steer along one side of the caribou, while Nui and Antane will come up the other side,” he explained. “When I give the word, your father will aim his shimakan (spear) at its back, between its shoulder blades.”
“But he must be very careful,” he continued. “He has to read the caribou’s body language. If it looks back at us, it will be thinking about how best to give us a good kick, or how to butt us with its antlers.”
At first Shimiu was a little shocked, when he saw his father thrust his spear into a caribou. A giant spurt of blood soaked his arms and even splattered onto his face. By the time they were finished the hunt, the front of the canoe was awash with dark caribou blood.
As they dragged the caribou to shore, Atika remembered an older time.
“Not long ago we used to kill lots of caribou to the east of here. We built manikan (corrals) that we would drive the caribou into so that they could be speared more easily. But we haven’t had to go there in recent years because we’ve been able to get enough caribou here at the narrows.”
Tshishenish (James) Pasteen. 1963. Photo by Hans Hvide Bang. Courtesy of Erik Sandberg Ingstad, Ingstad Archives and the Norwegian National Library
One night they celebrated the success of the fall hunt with a joyful Makushan7 held in the shaputuan. Grandfather Atika played the drum while everyone danced clockwise around the two fires in the centre of the dwelling. Shimiu’s mother Shanimen mimicked a partridge as she danced, flapping her arms up and down at her sides, gliding around the circle. His father Kanikuen shouted and laughed as he shuffled by, swinging his hands from one side of his body to the other as if he was sharing the caribou meat among the group.
Napeu (Edward Rich) playing the drum in a teepee. Emish. 1910. Photo by Judy-Pauline Hunter White. Courtesy of Alika Podolinksy Webber fonds and Library and Archives Canada
After the drumming and dancing were over, grandmother Anitshishkueu told stories about meeting Innu from the south, who had come to Mushuau-nipi to hunt caribou. They had traded snowshoes and meat with them in exchange for tea, tobacco and ammunition. Atika, on the other hand, told a story about three stubborn kakeshauts (White men) who had turned up late one September asking for directions to Nutakuanan-shipu8. They refused to listen to the sound advice given them, and Uncle Mishtauiapeu and Aunt Manishan had found one of their bodies near the trail to Mishta-nipi the following spring.
Joseph Piwas checking his net. 1963. Photo by Hans Hvide Bang. Courtesy of Erik Sandberg Ingstad, Ingstad Archives and the Norwegian National Library
Episode 2
Ashuapun-shipu Junction
After the fall hunt, the group had moved camp to the west side of Mushuau-nipi where there were more trees for firewood and better shelter from the biting, blustery winter winds. By March, the time had arrived to make the move towards the coast. Frozen fish, dried caribou meat, clothing, guns, axes, cooking pots and other belongings were loaded onto the shumin-utapanashkᵘ (toboggan), and tied with a pishakaiapi9 (skin rope). The caribou skins and canvas were stripped off the teepees and tied to the toboggans, leaving the skeletal frames standing as they trundled away across the snow.
Woman securing child and load onto a toboggan. 1928. The second Rawson-Macmillan Subarctic Expedition. Courtesy of Field Museum of Natural History (Anthropology). CSA61401
The route towards the rising sun was a familiar one. First Mushuau-nipi, then Meiapeu katshitaimatshet, then Ashuapun-natuashu, followed by a steep portage down into the valley where Ashuapun-shipu10 flowed to the sea. Shimiu pulled his own toboggan behind him, as he marched along behind his father. His ashamatsh (snowshoes) filled the tracks left by his father’s snowshoes almost perfectly, a sure sign that he was fast on his way to manhood.
“I bet I know this route by heart now,” he whispered to himself. “I’ll be leading the group one of these years.”
Often, in the early evenings, his mother, Shanimen, and sister, Shushepin , hunted uapineu (willow ptarmigan) and kakᵘ (porcupine) with atshapi (bow) and akashku (arrow) . The group had several guns with them but why waste valuable ammunition when the ptarmigan were easy to kill with bow and arrow?
In April, they decided to camp at the junction of Ashuapun-shipu and Kameshtashtan-shipu. The men fished at the rapids nearby, while the women repaired the webbing on some of the ashamatsh (snowshoes) that were badly worn from all the traveling. Pitshu and her pup Nipishapui had feasted on the lacing in one pair after they had been left accidentally on the ground overnight. These had to be laced all over again.
Woman working on snowshoes. 1963. Photo courtesy of Ray Webber
Early one afternoon Shimiu was in the woods cutting standing dead sheshekatikᵘ (spruce trees) for firewood, when he heard shrieks from down on the river.
“Come quickly! Mother has fallen through the ice,” a voice called out. “Tshinipik maku Innuat petutek! (Hurry, hurry, come) Before it’s too late!”
By the time Shimiu got to the river, Atika was already there.
“Stay calm, Shanimen,” Atika said. “Hold on a little longer. I will get you.”
Much to Shimiu’s amazement, grandfather took off his caribou hide coat and spread it over the thin ice beside where mother had fallen through. Walking carefully over the coat, he reached out to mother and grabbed her hand. Before she knew it, she was up, out of the hole and rushed off to the warm tepee to dry off and get warm.
Family travelling on komatik. 1928. The second Rawson-Macmillan Subarctic Expedition. Courtesy of Field Museum of Natural History (Anthropology) CSA61504
Boy playing with puppy. 1927-8. The second Rawson-Macmillan Subarctic Expedition. Courtesy of Field Museum of Natural History
Episode 3
To Trading Post
The mouths of some of the brooks were starting to open up by early May. Everyone wore ussishikukauna11 (snow goggles) to protect their eyes from the glaring spring sunshine reflecting off the surface of the snow. Shimiu’s father Kanikuen led the way across the short cut from Ashuapun-shipu to Kautatikumit-shipu where everyone stopped for a boil-up of tea and innu-pakueshikan (bannock).
Shortly thereafter they reached the trading post at Emish. The group set up their tshinashkueutshuap (teepees) on a flat, barren point just across from the post. Mishti Uait12 (Richard White) and Amos Voisey lived here for much of the year, where they traded with the Innu, ran a small sawmill and lived off the land like the Innu.
Trader Mishti Uait (Richard White) and two unidentified Innu at Emish, 1930. Photo Judy-Pauline Hunter White, Photo courtesy Winston White
Almost immediately Mishti Uait came over to the camp to greet them.
“Hello again my friends,” he said. “Long time no see. I hope you were all healthy this last winter. It was a hard one, I know. Very cold in January, then lots of snow in March. You all look strong and fit, so you must have done well by the caribou.”
With that, he took out a large tshishtemau kapitauakanit (tobacco bag) and proceeded to hand out tshishtemau (tobacco) to all the men and women, starting with Grandpa and Grandma.
“Come and see me when you’re ready,” he concluded. “We’ll get down to business soon enough.”
Atika and the other men spent several hours that evening trading with Mishti Uait. They haggled over how much the kakeshau would give them for their fox furs and caribou hides, and how much they still owed him from the previous summer when they had purchased tea, flour and ammunition from him.
Sunday was a day of rest. Mishti Uait paid them another visit, this time in search of Grandma, Anitshishkueu. Mishti Uait’s Innu-aimun was not the best; he sounded like a child when he spoke, but at least one could make sense of what he said. “Nituss (my aunt),” he started. “I know that you are the best maker of innussina (moccasins) in Northern Labrador. Would you make some for me? Look I’ve brought you some colourful beads to use in the design. I’ll pay you the same as last year.”
Anitshishkueu had made many things for Mishti Uait – it seemed that he wanted to send them to someone far away. Last year she made him a pishakanakup (caribou hide coat), and painted it with beautiful, double-curved designs. Mishti Uait often supplied the paints, but she always had her own supply of unaman that she carried in a small bone pot. No one had worn one of these painted coats for years, not since Ussinitshishu14 passed away before Shimiu was born. However, most Innu still wore caribou fur jackets during the winter.
Painted pishakanakup (caribou jacket), possible collector Mishit-Uait (Richard White). Unknown artist. Unknown date. Photo courtesy of the Rooms, Provincial Archives Division, Newfoundland and Labrador
“What’s that you have there, my son?” Mishti Uait asked Shimiu.
“It’s a tapanikan (pin and boughs game), Shimiu replied. “It’s a toy. Look, here’s how it works.”
Mishti Uait looked puzzled.
“The boughs are going to dry up and only the sticks will remain,” Shimiu told him. “I know that already. I’ll give it to you for a package of gum.”
“It’s a deal,” retorted Mishti Uait, who took it and hung it up on his counter at the post. Eventually it did dry up, and the needles fell off. All that was left were the sticks.
Shimiu had a good laugh whenever he thought of the “fire starter” he traded to Mishti Uait in return for some gum.
Tapanikan. Pin and boughs/cup and pin game. Bundle of fir twig is tied with string to make the cup. The Rooms. Provincial Museum Division. Newfoundland and Labrador
Episode 4
Emish
Shimiu and Shushepin were playing on the ice in front of the camp one morning, each taking turns at target practice with their uepanishinan (sling).
“Take aim at that rock over there by the shore,” Shimiu shouted.
Shushepin wound up with all her force, swinging a large rock around and around furiously. The rock went whizzing through the air right towards Shimiu. SMACK!
“Kamatshishit (you devil)!” Shimiu cried out in pain.
Shushepin had landed a real bruiser on his jaw, and it started to swell up immediately. They were both afraid of what mother would say when they got home, so Shimiu covered his jaw with a scarf.
“Shimiu,” his mother demanded later that day. “What are you hiding under that scarf? Petute (come here)! How did you get that bruise?”
When Shimiu explained that it was an accident, all she could say was “You children are going to kill yourselves one of these days if you’re not more careful.”
Marcel Nui, Thaddeus Rich, Elizabeth Nui, Cajetan Rich and Matthew Rich with sling shots. 1966. Photo by Georg Henriksen
That evening, the family ate pakueshikan and fresh char that Kanikuen and the other men caught in nets they’d placed under the ice. Shimiu had almost finished his meal when he heard a noise outside the teepee, coming from further down the bay.
“Eiuk, eiuk, eiuk, eiuk!” (Go straight, go straight!) Everyone piled out of the teepee to investigate the source of the strange sound.
Far in the distance they could see two lines of dogs racing towards them, with little stick men sliding along behind them.
“Eiuk, eiuk, eiuk,” the men commanded the dogs. Shimiu was utterly amazed at the speed they were traveling at, even though there was now some slush and water on the ice.
Kids and dogs at trading post. Around 1920. Emish. Photo by Judy-Pauline Hunter White. Courtesy of Alika Podolinksy Webber fonds and Library and Archives Canada.
It wasn’t long before Shushepish15 and his brother drew up in front of them, along with their dog teams. Pitshu and Nipishapui ran for cover in a teepee, as they had every reason to fear the larger, semi-wild dogs. Shushepish’s huskies immediately got into a big racket over a rotting seal carcass they found on the ice, and it was a good while before he was able to untangle their atim-utapaniapi (dog harness).
Shushepish was married to Shanimen’s sister, and he had come up from Utshimassits to trade with Mishti Uait. He was extremely happy to see his wife’s relatives again, and many hours were spent sharing news about all that had happened since the last time they had seen one another.
As daylight turned to dusk, the sounds of honking geese drifted across the bay. The candles in the teepees were lit, and the bedding laid out around the edges of Shimiu’s teepee.
“If we are quiet and respectful, perhaps our grandfather, Atika, will tell us an atanukan16 tonight,” his mother told him.
And that is exactly what happened. The dry spruce logs crackled and popped as they burned in the hearth, the candlelight cast flickering shadows on the walls of the teepee, and everyone tried not to giggle too much as Atika recounted another one of his stories.
Which story did he tell? Was it the one about that crazy Kuekuatsheu, the heroic Tshakapesh, grandfather Mishtapeu, or the invincible Kaianuet? We’ll save the answer to that question for another day.
Footnotes
1 Niueikanat refers to caribou meat that has been dried and ground into powder.
2 The shaputuan is a large multi-family dwelling containing 2 or more hearths. The Innu built these dwellings for feasting and to dry large quantities of meat which would be hung from poles hanging from the ceilings. The remains of many a shaputuan have been found at many archaeological sites in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula.
3 A teshipitakan is a platform built a couple of metres off the ground, on top of 3-4 tree stumps, or as a kind of teepee structure, only without a covering. teshipitakan(s) are still important to the Innu – every camp has at least one – because they keep food away from the dogs and various wild scavengers. In the old days, however, they were no match for the wily kuekuatsheu (wolverine) who could climb them easily and break into the strongest caches. Sometimes, teshipitakan(s) are placed on islands to keep the supplies away from the black bears.
4 Mushuau-nipi translates in English as “Barren Ground Lake.” The official name for Mushuau-nipi in French is “Lac de la Hutte Sauvage,” while in English it is “Indian House Lake.” Until recent times, it was an extremely important meeting place for many Innu groups, who traveled there to intercept the migrating George River caribou.
5 Monsignor Edward Joseph O’Brien was born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, in 1884. He started to work as a missionary among the Labrador Innu in 1921.
6 Atika and his wife, Anitshishkueu, are the names of real Innu people, but their relations to the people in this story are fictional or made-up.
7 Makushan is the name of the traditional Innu feast involving atiku-pimi (marrow from the caribou leg bones) and caribou meat.
8 A group of Innu met Herman J. Koehler, Fred Connell (both from New Jersey, U.S.A.), and Jimmy Martin (the guide from Cartwright) on the George River late in September 1931. As told by the late Tshishennish Pasteen, who was present for the meeting, the leader Herman J. Koehler had a gold tooth, and refused to accept Innu instructions to travel to the coast by way of Emish (Voisey’s Bay). The small ponds had already frozen, and the visitors were not properly equipped for cold weather. Mr. Koehler seemed fixated on traveling to the coast by way of Nutakuanan-shipu which is un-navigable in its upper reaches below Kanakashkuaikanishit. As a result, the Innu nicknamed Koehler, “Nutakuanan.” All three men were never seen alive again, and only two bodies were recovered in later years.
9 A more precise term for this cord is uashpishtapaniapi which refers to the rope used to attach baggage onto a toboggan or sled.
10 Nowadays, the Innu call this river Emish-shipu, named after Amos Voisey who homesteaded at Voisey’s Bay. However, William Brooks Cabot originally recorded the name as Assiwaban River, a corruption of the Innu place name Ashuapun. The official government name for the river is Kogaluk River, but it has also been called Frank’s Brook.
11 Failure to protect the eyes in this way could lead to snow blindness which is very painful.
12 Mishti Uait is the Innu name for Richard White, an independent trader originally from St. John’s. Born in 1878, he moved to Labrador in the early 1900s. In 1920 he married Judy Pauline Hunter, an Inuk woman from Nain. They operated stores at Emish (Voisey’s Bay), Nain, and Kauk. He purchased many objects from Innu and Inuit in Northern Labrador and resold them to museums, and anthropologists, including Frank Speck, for whom he was an important source of information about the northern Innu.
13 Unaman is the Innu name for “ochre,” a reddish, soft rock that was good for making red paint when mixed with oily fish eggs.
14 This is the famous Innu utshimau (leader) whom William Brooks Cabot had met at Mushuau-nipi in 1910. Richard White believed that he died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. He was buried overlooking Sango Bay, near the community of Natuashish.
15 This is the name of a real person. Shushepish, also known by the names Shushep Rich or Joe Rich, was born in the Utshimassits (Davis Inlet) area. He was well known to anthropologists, William Duncan Strong, Alika Podolinsky Webber and Georg Henriksen. He was renowned as a great storyteller and expert in Innu culture.
16 In general Innu stories are divided into two categories : tipatshimun and atanukan. Tipatshimuna concern the real life events of Innu people, living or dead, whereas atanukana recall the creation of the world and events which transpired during a time when humans and animals could communicate and have social relations with one another.