Innu Tshishennu ethics and the need for respect

Peter Armitage & Tony Penashue

the world is not divided into the social versus the 

natural, nature versus culture

cannot speak of different realms of knowledge such 

as religion, politics, environment, economics

no words in Innu‐aimun for these concepts

Innu do classify animate and inanimate entities, 

processes, activities – but differently

Different worldviews

Western versus Indigenous worlds(from Tim Ingold. 2000. The Perception of the Environment. p.46‐48).

• Western thought drives an absolute division between humanity and animality.

• aligned with other divisions such as persons and things, reason and instinct, society and nature.

•personhood as a state of being is not open to non- human animal kinds.

• human existence is conducted at two levels: social level of interpersonal relations & the natural ecological level or organism-environment interactions.

• animal existence is confined within the natural domain.

• humans are both persons and organisms, while animals are all organism.

• Innu, Cree and other Indigenous peoples categorically reject this view.

• Personhood is open equally to non-human animal kinds as well as non-animal kinds.

the world is populated with human & many other‐

than‐human beings

Innu have social relations with these beings

the other‐than human beings must be respected

relations of sharing with these beings

e.g. proper treatment of animal remains, offerings, 

etc.

people are given animals in return

Kanipinikassikueu (Katipenimitak, Papakashtshihku)

Missinaku

Uhuapeu

Kakuapeu

Uapishtan‐napeu

Anik‐napeu

Matshishkapeu

Mishtapeu

Tshiuetinishu

Katshimaitsheshu

Memekueshu

Utshakanue 

Atshen

Meminiteu

Uenitshikumishiteu

Kuekuatsheu, Tshakapesh, Kaianuet, Mishtapush, Meish,Mishta‐amishku…

Nimushumat (‘my grandfathers’)

atanukan / tipatshimun

sentience / intelligence

atshaku

dreams (puamuna)

scapulimancy (mitinikanishaueu)

oracles (kukumess

jaw‐bone, beaver pelvis)

drum (teueikan)

burning offering (matushtueimatsheun)

ceremonial robe (mishtikuai)

moral principles relating to how to behave in 

the right way, how to treat other beings  properly, what is right and wrong

wrong to disrespect all beings, whether they 

are human or not

wrong to waste animals, to needlessly kill 

animals when they have not been given to  you

breaks the proper cycle of sharing

disrespecting or threatening other‐than‐human 

beings has serious consequences

cut‐off – no more animals provided –

starvation

death, disease, suicides, catastrophic events

therefore, a hydro project that floods many 

animals = assault on the moral universe

significance? high, adverse

First appears in print as “Manito Watchee”

‐

Henry Connelly’s 

manuscript, July 1844

Uenitshikumishiteu(at)Uenitshikumishiteu(at)

Memekueshu‐nipi

Petshishkapushkau

Kameshtashtan

Is it possible to make the animal masters and other beings less angry about the flooding and disturbance?

• responsibility lies with Nalcor

• communication is possible

• Mishta‐shipu• Eastmain/Opinaca• Grassy Narrows• Ninaistakis (‘Chief Mountain’)• Kluane• Ts’yl‐os• Klamath Falls• Six Rivers• Black Mesa• Sinakara / Ausangate

Some useful references re. Indigenous worldviews

Bird-David, N. 1999. “ ‘Animism’ Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology.“ Current Anthropology. 40:S67-S91.

Brightman, Robert. 2002.Grateful Prey: Rock Cree Human-Animal Relationships. Saskatchewan: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina.

Cruikshank, Julie. 2005. Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. Vancouver: UBC Press.

de la Cadena, Marisol. 2010. “Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes: Conceptual Reflections Beyond ‘Politics’.” Cultural Anthropology. 25(2):334- 370. “

Hallowell, A. Irving. 1960. “Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View.” In S. Diamond (ed.). Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin. New York: Columbia University. pp. 19-52.

Henriksen, Georg. 2009. I Dreamed the Animals: Kaniuekutat, the Life of an Innu Hunter. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Ingold, Tim. 2000. The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. New York: Routledge.

Kelley, Klara Bonsack and Harris Francis. 1994. Navajo Sacred Places. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Nabakov, Peter. 2006. Where the Lightning Strikes: the Lives of American Indian Sacred Places. New York: Penguin Group.

Nadasdy, Paul. 2003. Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power, Knowledge, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Southwest Yukon. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Nelson, Richard K. 1983. Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Preston, Richard J. 2002. Cree Narrative: Expressing the Personal Meanings of Events. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2nd edition.

Speck, Frank. 1977[1935] Naskapi. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

Tanner, Adrian. 1979. Bringing Home Animals. St. John’s: ISER.