The Power Of Names
OUR NAMES, OUR STORIES, OUR LAND
When you visit a place, do you ever wonder how it got its name?
People from every culture all over the world give names to the lakes, rivers, mountains and other places on their lands. These place names are called “toponyms” and they record a culture’s history on the land. “Goose Bay” is a place name, as is “St. John’s,” “Karachi,” “Beijing,” “Winnipeg,” “Paris” and “Pakua-shipu.” Place names help us answer the question: where do we come from? They give us a sense of place, of belonging. Imagine trying to tell people how to drive from Sheshatshiu to Montréal without using place names. Place names guide us.
The Name Is The Map
For the Innu, naming places throughout Nitassinan has happened since time immemorial.
These place names were passed down from countless generations of Innu through oral tradition. The names connect us to our ancestors, spirituality, language and stories. Our place names show the vast territory our people have travelled, hunted, fished, gathered and lived for centuries. Even today, despite many changes to our way of life, we remain connected to the land. Using Innu place names keeps our language, culture and history alive. It is also a way to assert Innu rights and presence on the land.
Innu place names are brimming with all kinds of information. They describe landforms, travel routes, hazards, currents, camping places, fishing and hunting grounds, ecosystems, plant and animal habitats, gathering and ceremony sites, beauty and danger. They are story maps—guiding people from place to place. In the past, mapping was oral: the name was the map. People knew every bit of land they walked, every turn of the rivers they paddled. Instead of paper or digital maps, people carried detailed pictures in their mind of different places. Elders, hunters and parents taught younger travelers by pointing out features of the land and telling the stories connected to them. What do you need a map for when you carry in your mind a lake, river, mountain, waterfall, nesting ground, a caribou crossing, a grave, the place where a baby was breastfed or people starved, a berry patch, an evil spirit?
For example, Ashuapun tells where to wait for caribou; Minai-nipi is the place to fish burbot. Amishku-nipi is where you’ll find beaver and Penipuapishkᵘ warns of falling rocks. Ashtunekamiu marks the place to build a canoe and Ushkashipiss remembers where the last Kushpatshikan (shaking tent ceremony) was held. Manitu-utshu, known as Muskrat Falls, is connected to the powerful water beings called Uenitshikumishiteuat, giant otter-like spirits said to travel through water, ice and rock. Before the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric development, the Elder Pien Penashue warned government and industry leaders that these beings would destroy the proposed dam.
No single map contains all the Innu names for our land. This shows the depth of Innu knowledge and the intimate relationship between people and territory. As stories continue to be shared, new names also emerge. Sometimes places have more than one name. Churchill Falls is known as Mishta-Paushtiku (Big Falls) and also Patshishetshuanau (Place Where the Current Makes Clouds). Emish (Voisey’s Bay) used to be called Kauipushkatsh shipish (Burning Spot Brook). Names change as stories change—but meaning remains rooted in the land.
The Power in Place Names
There is power in naming a place—and power in renaming it.
Who gets to name a place really matters. Long before European explorers and settlers arrived, the Innu had already named places across Nitassinan. These foreigners saw themselves as the “first” to arrive to “undiscovered” territory, imagining it as empty, unknown, uncivilized, and wild—a space for the taking. One of the first acts of colonization is always to map the territory and name places in the language of the colonizer. Huge swaths of Innu land were renamed over the last few centuries, according to the whims of explorers, adventurers, pilots, mining companies, outfitters, surveyors and politicians of the day. These names were made official on government maps and Innu place names were mostly erased or ignored.
For example, Atatshi-uinipiku was renamed Lake Melville after British politician Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville—a person accused of delaying the abolition of the slave trade in the 1790s. Sometimes a place was named after a family member, for example, Mina Hubbard named Hubbard Lake after her late husband. Some places were given meaningless names like Banana Lake for Kamishikamat, Whiteys Pond for Mishtashini and even Noname for Pepaukamau. Sometimes an official name may have borrowed from the Innu, for example Minipi-Lake borrows from Minai-nipi, but how many people know its meaning—Burbot Lake? Geographer Bernard Nietschmann pointed out that “more Indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns.” Maps became tools of dispossession, allowing governments and industries to claim land for mining, forestry, military use and hydroelectric development without Innu consent.
Today, new generations of Innu learn about places through both traditional travel and modern tools like paper maps and GPS. GPS can help during storms or at night, but it cannot replace the knowledge gained by walking on the land and hearing its stories. A written name on a digital screen cannot carry all the teachings, memories and relationships that come from experience.
When Innu place names disappear from maps, more than words are lost. Language, stories, spirituality and sovereignty are weakened. Restoring and using Innu place names is not just about correcting geography. It is about reclaiming identity, history and rights. The name is the map. And the map tells the story of who we are.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Article 13
Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
Taking back our names
Can an Innu place name erased or forgotten for generations be reclaimed?
After decades of researching Innu place names, the Innu Nation submitted over 450 traditional names to the Newfoundland and Labrador Geographical Names Board. In 2015 the board agreed to make these names official. Where there is no other name, the Innu name stands alone. Where a colonial or official Inuit name already exists, both names are now recognized. Today highway signs across Labrador show names such as Mishta-shipu (Churchill River) and Patshishetshuanau (Churchill Falls), Tshiashku-paushtiku (Gull Island) and Tshenuamiu-shipu (Kenamu River).
Across Canada many Indigenous nations are reclaiming their traditional place names. Like the Innu, they have become expert mapmakers. The Geographical Names Board of Canada is working with Indigenous organizations and communities to register traditional place names. The names appear on a map that not only documents — as does this website — their spellings and meanings but also includes sound files with their correct pronunciation. In 2022 Innu place names from this website were added to that Indigenous place names map, which can be viewed on the federal Natural Resources Canada website: Indigenous Geographical Names Data.
Reclaiming Innu place names is also reclaiming Innu knowledge and land. Saying the names out loud helps keep our language alive. On the part of governments, making these names official shows respect for the First Peoples. It honours our ancestors and historical truths about our lands. Mapping Indigenous place names is important for healing, reconciliation and restoring relationships.
“Place names are very important to our people because they are a gateway to our history on the land. Many younger Innu never learned these names in school. We hope that the Pepamuteiati nitassinat website will help them learn about their culture and history. Over thirty years of research with our Elders went into this website. It’s a gift from our Elders to younger Innu people. It’s part of our Elders’ legacy. It will also help educate people about the richness of our history and traditions.” Mark Nui, Innu Nation Grand Chief (2008)
The Pepamuteiati nitassinat website story
In 2008 the Labrador Innu made history by launching Pepamuteiati nitassinat (As We Walk Across Our Land)—the first website dedicated entirely to Indigenous place names.
It documented 574 Innu place names across Nitassinan, encouraging both Innu and the public to learn their meanings and how to pronounce them. Oral tradition could no longer be counted on to pass on place names to young people who were spending far less time on the land. They could no longer learn them through travel and experience. This website attempts to convey some of this knowledge related to place names and ensure they are not forgotten.
Pepamuteiati Nitassinat is the result of 40 years of research that involved geographers, anthropologists, linguists, and first and foremost the Innu themselves. It began in the mid-1970s with the Naskapi Montagnais Innu Association, which later became the Innu Nation. The research was started to document Innu land use and occupancy for land claims negotiations with the federal and provincial governments. The work brought Elders and young people to work together. Over 80 Innu shared their knowledge and stories. The full list of Innu people who contributed to the research can be found in the Credits section.
The biggest source of place names came from a 1980 Innu Nation LAMAP research project. Over 500 maps at 1:50,000 scale were cut and taped together to form two giant maps. One map was laid on the gym floor at the Peenamin McKenzie School in Sheshatshiu and the other in the parish hall in Utshimassits (Davis Inlet). Older hunters and Elders walked across these maps, identifying old travel routes, camp sites, caches, birthplaces and good hunting and fishing places. Nearly 1600 place names were recorded and entered into a large database.
Two other research projects (INNUTOP and LABTOP) followed to verify the place names, their meanings, what geographic features they referred to, and their spellings. Researchers involved in leading the research included José Mailhot, Peter Armitage and Marguerite Mackenzie. A lack of funding prevented researchers from covering the entire geographic area occupied by Sheshatshiu and Utshimassiu Innu, so the research was restricted to Labrador east of Churchill Falls.
“Right now it’s not too many people who have knowledge, especially the young people,” said the late Atuan Penashue, a translator involved in the research. The work was urgent. Few people still knew the land deeply, and Elders were passing away. The research was helping to preserve their knowledge before it was lost.
The place names collected from the different research projects were compared and located on computer maps. Using GIS technology, the exact location of each place was determined to meet the standards of the Geographical Names Board of Newfoundland and Labrador. Problem names and locations were validated with the help of Innu co-researchers Pashin Penashue, the late Atuan Penashue, Napess Ashini and Ishpashtien Piwas. The researchers also worked with Innu Elders and place name experts, many who have since passed away: Etuat Mistenapeo, Ishpashtien Benuen, Ishpashtien Penunsi, Mani-Aten Penashue, Mishen Jack, Napaien Mollen, Nishet Penashue, Nui Penashue, Pien Penashue, Pinashue Penashue, Puniss Nuke, Shapatish Malec, Shuashem Nui, Tshani Rich and Zacharie Bellefleur.
Some names in the old databases could not be validated. No one knew what the names meant, or were unsure exactly where to find the mountain, lake, river or marsh that had been labelled. Trying to figure out what and where these places were, what the name meant, was impossible because the Elders who shared them had passed away. Sadly, these names are lost forever in the mists of time.
(Almost all place names on this website were verified during these different research projects. These names were assigned a LABTOP number which is included in the index. Names from the Quebec side of Nitassinan that were added to this second edition of the website were not part of the Innu Nation research. They do not have a LABTOP number.)
The New Website
Building this website was originally a project of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation with the support of the Innu Nation. In 2022, the site was no longer secure and the technology was outdated. Mamu Tshishkutamashutau – Innu Education was given the job to coordinate a redesign of the website to make it secure and more user-friendly. Given the global movement of reclaiming Indigenous place names, the content was also updated. New places names from the Quebec side of Nitassinan were added to demonstrate that the Innu territory transcends the Quebec/Labrador border. The MTIE Curriculum Advisory Committee members provided direction in the re-design of the website. Their names are included in the credits page.
Another Map Project
In 2019 Mamu Tshishkutamashutau – Innu Education created an illustrated Nitassinan map, drawing on the website and Innu Nation research.
Two versions of the map were produced as educational puzzles for different grade levels. Posters and floor maps were also created. The maps were made to help Innu children learn their geography and how Innu have used the land over millenia.
Interviews to gather information for the maps were carried out by Jolene Ashini and Chelsee Arbour. Etienne and the late Janet Pone, Napess Ashini, Jodie Ashini, the late Angela and Etienne Andrew, as well as Apatet Andrew participated in interviews in Sheshatshiu, while the late Joachim and Mary Jane Nui, the late Akat Piwas, Damien Benuen and Sebastien Piwas were interviewed in Natuashish. Three open houses were also held with over 20 people attending and sharing their knowledge. People were asked to identify important place names. The idea was not to identify all place names, but rather significant places people thought Innu children should know about. The maps’ images of Innu activities, related to land and animals important to the Innu way of life, were created by Jolene Ashini.
References
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