Mutual Assistance and Good Neighbourly Relations

In the case of First Nations, a tradition of mutual assistance and neighbourly relations continued on the ground despite the problems in dealing with public authorities. One only needs to look at the history of various regions of Québec to find examples.

In researching the traditional way of life in the St. Lawrence Valley, historian Jean Provencher was surprised to discover the mutual assistance and cooperation that existed between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in the days of timber rafting. (Provencher 2012) Throughout the 19th century, intrepid men transported logs by floating them down major waterways from Ontario and the Outaouais to Québec City. Provencher cites an article published in La Patrie on July 15, 1905, while stressing that it was the end of a golden era when the shipbuilding industry was at its height and timber was needed:

One of the leading figures of the time was without question Jean-Baptiste Canadien, called “Big John Canadian” (Raientonni), from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake. “Raientonni’s knowledge of difficult waterways, and especially the Lachine rapids which flowed past his village, made him an excellent raftsman for bringing down the cribs of timber, and one of the most famous steamboat pilots employed by various shipping companies on the St Lawrence between Montréal and Ontario.” (Ratelle 1998)

In his account of the adventures of Big John Canadian, Johnny Beauvais says that, from a young age, the famous Mohawk had looked up to Jean-Baptiste Taiaiake Rice, a fierce river pilot in the days when only a few people in Kahnawake knew the secret to steering a boat through the Lachine rapids. (Beauvais 1985, 11) 

Historian Pierre Frenette (1947-2011) related the deep friendship major figures in the history of the North Shore from its settlement after 1850 felt towards members of the Innu community: Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau, Robert McCormick, founder of Schelter-Bay/Port-Cartier then Baie-Comeau, and Henry de Puyjalon, to name a few. Henry de Puyjalon, an informed naturalist, hunter and nature lover, drew on the millenary expertise of the Innu and Naskapi peoples. Moreover, Puyjalon paid special tribute to them in his book Guide du chasseur de pelleterie:

Frenette went on to show how exploration and development of the hinterland was marked by the same mutual assistance. [TRANSLATION] “Albert Peter Low, the famous explorer and naturalist who worked for the Geological Survey of Canada and travelled and mapped large tracts of northern Québec between 1883 and 1904, relied on the knowledge of an Indigenous guide from Sept-Îles, Sylvestre McKenzie, to use traditional trails that connect the major rivers in the north shore, James Bay and Labrador regions.” In the late 1920s, Paul Provencher, a young forest engineer, used Innu guides when conducting his forest inventory of the Manicouagan, Rochers, Toulnoustouc and Outardes river basins. Frenette also underlined the vital contribution of the famous expert hunter and trapper Mathieu André mentioned in Chapter I, who, along with geologist J.A. Retty, played a key role in the discovery of high-grade iron ore on the Labrador Shelf in the 1930s. (Pierre Frenette 2010, personal interview)

It is this mutual assistance and friendship that is celebrated every year in Natashquan, a village in the Côte-Nord region where the Innu and descendants of Magdalen Island Acadians live side by side. Every August for over ten years now, the village hosts the Innucadie Stories and Legends Festival, which brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal storytellers. In 2006, year one of the festival, Innu poet and storyteller Joséphine Bacon gave an emotional account of the hospitality, interaction and mutual assistance that marked the beginning of the relationship between Innu and Acadians, an element deeply embedded in the oral tradition of the Nutashkuan Innu First Nation.

In the Abitibi region, the Algonquin Gabriel Commanda has recently become a symbol of the cooperation and friendship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The annual Gabriel Commanda Walk, an initiative of the Val-d’Or Native Friendship Centre, is the central event of the annual Awareness Week for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. A legendary figure, Commanda was born in 1891 in the Anishinabe community of Kitigan Zibi and was a trapper, fisher, guide and prospector. “In 1920 he was the first to report to prospectors the location of the famous Lamaque gold deposit, which was the origin of the gold rush in northern Québec.” (Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council 2016) Commanda died in 1967 and would be recognized many years later by the city of Val-d’Or“where he is now considered as one of the founders of the city.” (Idem.)

These are just a few examples of the mutual assis­tance and cooperation that were vital to human survival and the development of land in a shared and relatively recent history that we would do well to revisit.