Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the results of a collaborative research conducted among the Pekuakamiulnuatsh ("the humans of the flat lake") from 2014-2016 and aiming at a current and intergenerational overview of their connection to their ancestral territory by focussing on the participants' discourse.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents the results of a collaborative research conducted among the Pekuakamiulnuatsh ("the humans of the flat lake") from 2014-2016 aiming at a current and intergenerational overview of their connection to their ancestral territory. Located in an industrialized and urbanized area, the Mashteuiatsh First Nation is involved in a comprehensive land claim since 1979 with the Quebec and federal governments and actively works on the revitalization of their local dialect called nehlueun.

By following an emic approach based on the participants' words and perspectives, this research reveals how the concept of territory is put into words among the different generations of Pekuakamiulnuatsh and to which extent the territorial bond also becomes an asset in the affirmation of political and cultural identity.

Indigenous place names constitute a linguistic expression of the connection to land and represent written records of an orally transmitted tradition, thus recognized as proofs of occupation in the context of a land claim process. Toponyms in the innu language, systematically collected through local research projects over the last years, helped to document and disseminate the cultural heritage of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh. Above all, these toponyms strongly supported the comprehensive land claim negotiations leading to the signature of the Agreement-in-Principle of General Nature in 2004, agreement that defines the rights and interests of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh with regard to land and natural resources and sets the basis for a modern treaty potentially to be implemented in the near future.