Editing Innu (section)

==Culture==
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2014}}
[[Image:20050607-092209 NatashquanQC TsehekapetishukNamatueminishuk.jpeg|thumb|"Buckle up your children" sign in Innu-aimun language, in the Pointe-Parent reserve near Natasquan, Quebec.]]
[[File:HIND(1863) LABRADOR-EXP. p364 A VISIT TO OTELNE IN HIS LODGE.jpg|thumb|Housing]]

===[[Ethnobotany]]===
The Innu people grate the inner bark of ''[[Abies balsamea]]'' (balsam fir) and eat it to benefit the diet.<ref>Speck, Frank G., 1917, Medicine Practices of the Northeastern Algonquians, Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Americanists Pp. 303–321, page 313</ref>

===Traditional crafts===
Traditional Innu craft is demonstrated in the [[Innu tea doll]]. These children's toys originally served a dual purpose for nomadic Innu tribes. When travelling vast distances over challenging terrain, the people left nothing behind. They believed that "Crow" would take it away. Everyone, including young children, helped to transport essential goods. Innu women made intricate dolls from [[Reindeer|caribou]] hides and scraps of cloth. They filled the dolls with tea and gave them to young girls to carry on long journeys. The girls could play with the dolls while also carrying important goods. Every able-bodied person carried something. Men generally carried the heavier bags and women would carry young children.

===Traditional clothing, style and accessories===
Men wore caribou pants and boots with a [[Buckskin (leather)|buckskin]] long shirt, all made by women. With the introduction of trade cloth from the French and English, people began replacing the [[Buckskins|buckskin shirts]] with ones made of cloth. Most still wore boots and pants made from caribou hide. Women wore long dresses of buckskin. Contemporary Innu women have often replaced these with manufactured pants and jackets. Women traditionally wore their hair long or in two coils. Men wore theirs long.

Both genders wore necklaces made of bone and bead. Smoke pipes were used by both genders, marked for women as shorter. If a man killed a bear, it was a sign of joy and initiation into adulthood and the man would wear a necklace made from the bear's claws.

===Housing===
The houses of the Montagnais were cone shaped. The Naskapi made long, domed houses covered in caribou hides. These days the [[hearth]] is a metal stove in the centre of the house.

===Traditional foods===
Animals traditionally eaten included [[moose]], caribou, [[porcupine]], rabbits, [[marten]], [[Groundhog|woodchuck]], squirrel; [[Canada goose]], [[snow goose]], [[Brant (goose)|brant]]s, ducks, [[teal]], [[loon]]s, [[spruce grouse]], [[woodcock]], [[snipe]], [[passenger pigeon]]s, [[rock ptarmigan|ptarmigan]]; [[freshwater whitefish|whitefish]], [[lake trout]], salmon, [[Arctic char]], [[Pinniped|seal]] (''naskapi'') [[Esox|pike]], [[walleye]], [[Catostomidae|suckerfish]] (''Catostomidae''), [[sturgeon]], [[catfish]], [[lamprey]], and [[smelt (fish)|smelt]]. Fish were eaten roasted or smoke-dried. Moose meat and several types of fish were also smoked. [[Bannock (British and Irish food)|Oat bannock]], introduced by the French in the 16th century, became a staple and [[Bannock (Indigenous American food)|Indigenous bannock]] is still eaten today. Meat was eaten frozen, raw or roasted, and caribou was sometimes boiled in a stew. [[Pemmican]] was made with moose or caribou.

Plants traditionally eaten included raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, [[wild grape]]s, [[hazelnut]]s, crab apples, [[Lilium lancifolium|red martagon]] bulbs, [[Apios americana|Indian potato]], and maple-tree [[sap]] for sweetening. [[Cornmeal]] was traded with other [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations peoples]], such as the Iroquois, Algonquin, and [[Abenaki]], and made into apon ([[cornbread]]), which sometimes also included oat or wheat flour when it became available. [[Pine needle tea]] was meant to keep away infections and colds resulting from the harsh weather.

===Buckskin===
Traditionally, buckskin leather was a most important material used for clothing, boots, moccasins, house covers and storage. Women prepared the hides and many of the products made from it. They scraped the hides to remove all fur, then left them outside to freeze. The next step was to stretch the hide on a frame. They rubbed it with a mixture of animal brain and pine needle tea to soften it. The dampened hide was formed into a ball and left overnight. In the morning, it would be stretched again, then placed over a smoker to smoke and tan it. The hide was left overnight. The finished hide was called buckskin.

===Mythology===

The oral traditions of the Innu are noted as similar to those of other Cree-speaking cultures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.native-languages.org/innu-legends.htm|title=Naskapi and Montagnais Innu Legends (Folklore, Myths, and Traditional Indian Stories)}}</ref> Of particular relevance is [[Tshakapesh]], a [[lunar deity|lunar]] folk hero.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.native-languages.org/tshakapesh.htm|title = Tshakapesh (Chakabesh), dwarf hero of the Innu and Cree}}</ref>
[[File:HIND(1863) LABRADOR-EXP. p222 MOSQUITO LAKE.jpg|thumb|Canoes]]
The spirits they believed in are [[Caribou Master]], [[Atshen]], and [[Matshishkapeu]].

===Film and television===
The Innu people were profiled in ''[[Carcajou et le péril blanc]] (Kauapishit Miam Kuakuatshen Etentakuess)'', a documentary film series by [[Arthur Lamothe]] which were among the first films in the history of cinema to depict indigenous peoples speaking their own languages.<ref>Isabelle Morissette, "Carcajou et le péril blanc/Kauapishit Miam Kuakuatshen Etentakuess" (pp. 29–30) in ''Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada'' (Peter H. Rist, ed.) [[Bloomsbury Publishing]], 2002. {{ISBN|9780313017254}}.</ref>

Other important later films set in Innu communities have included the narrative feature films ''[[Le Dep]]'', ''[[Mesnak]]'' and ''[[Kuessipan]]'', and the documentary films ''[[Innu Nikamu: Resist and Sing]]'' and ''[[Call Me Human]]''.