Apitipi Anicinapek Vision
PREAMBLE
Apitipi Anicininpek vision for the next 7 generations
The Apitipi Anicinapek achieves sovereignty wholistically and provides security and protection in a self-sustaining way. We do this to support our sovereignty and the collective Algonquin Anicinapek Nation sovereignty for the next seven generations.
The Apitipi Anicinapek which belong to the Algonquin Anicinapek Nation have the inherent right to govern themselves; to pursue their own traditional, political, cultural, social, and economic development initiatives that evolve through time. We govern our own reserve lands and territory as responsible stewards.
The Apitipi Anicinapek govern our nation according to our own customs and laws.
The Apitipi Anicinapek promotes sustainable business development and the personal wealth, success, and fulfillment of our membership.
The Apitipi Anicinapek create and govern by our own traditional, political organization, history, social, language, economy, health and culture as a proud Apitipi Anishinapek people.
In summary, the Apitipi Anicinapek, having the authority of governance, govern these lands and territory by our design; we are entrusted as leaders with the authority to shape our future, maintain our sovereignty and prosperity moving forward. The AAN government does so with the memory of our ancestors in mind, the spirit and intent of the responsibility to secure and protect our nation, our membership, lands, waters, air, laws, tradition, culture, social, health, wellbeing, education, history, and economy for the next seven generations. We are the caretakers of this sacred duty and include all other nations that live among us to join in our efforts to create a community that is all inclusive of human beings, and human rights, to respect and eliminate social justice issues stemming from colonialism such as race, gender, religion, and language.
As the AAN, we acknowledge our duty to the greater world as a whole with respect to the rights written under the Charter of the United Nations:
United Nations Preamble: We the People of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of a human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions in which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better living in larger freedom.
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History
Algonquian or Algonkian
The term Algonquian people used by early colonial researchers and for them it is a term that covers the Montagnais (today, Innu, Ilnu), the Naskapi, the Cree (today Eyou Eenou along the Quebec James Bay Coast and the Mushkegowuk along the Ontario James Bay Coast), the Ojibwa, Algonquin (today Anicinape), Têtes de Boule (other name given to the modern Atikamekw people), Penobscot, Micmac and Wabanaki (Speck, 1915). According to Rhodes and Todd (Rhodes et al,1979) It refers to a group of different nations speaking similar dialects. Per example, the languages of the Subarctic Shields except for the northwest sector belongs to two of the branches of the Algonquian (ãl’gŋkēǝn) language family. The northern branch was the Cree, comprising the Montagnais (Innu, Ilnu), Naskapi and the southern branch, called Ojibwe.
Other well-known descriptions for the Algonquins (Anicinape) demonstrate the continuity of this territorial organization in the second half of the 19th century ( Latulippe, 1902). These descriptions are identical in every respect to the descriptions reported by anthropologists who studied this territorial organization among the Algonkians (also spells Algonquian) at the beginning of the 20th century (Davidson 1926; Davidson, 1928; Frenette 1993; Jenkins 1939; Leroux et al. 2004; MacPherson 1930; McGee 1950; Moore 1982; Speck 1915a, 1915b, 1929 and more generally among the Algonkian nomads of the Subarctic and The Middle North (Speck and Eiseley 1939)
Anicinape
Anicinape or in plural Anicinapek is the term used to refer to itself by members of the Algonquin/Anicinape people who lives on either side of the Ottawa River and further north, around Lake Abitibi (Also known as Apitipi Lake) and the Harricana River. The members of the Ojibway people also refer to themselves as such but write it Anishinabeg. The plural of Anicinape is “Anicinapek.” Some Anicinape and Ojibway communities use Anishnaabe or Anishnaabeg or Anishinabeg (Kistabish, 2021; Inksetter, 2017; Bousquet, 2016; Saint-Arnaud, 2009; Davidson, 1926). This group is also known as the Abitibi ánicenàbi (Davidson, 1926). The Apitipi Anicinapek Nation, however, because of its historical proximity to Pikogan uses the term Anicinape/Anicinapek and it is this identifier that will be used in this document.
They also use Anishinaabeg, Anishnabe to refer to the Odjibway
Apitipi Anicinapek
Refers to the original band members belonging to Apitipi. The term Anicinapek is used to mark the plural. These were eventually separated in 1906 and were known as the Abitibi Ontario Band for the Ontario group and Abitibi Dominion Band for the Quebec group. They changed their names for Wahgoshig First Nation for the first group ( 1979)6 and the Abitibiwinni First Nation on August 16, 1979, for the latter group7 On March 27, 2022, Wahgoshig First Nation changed the community name to Apitipi Anicinapek Nation.
Apitipi Language
AAN members speak Anicinapemo8in (Algonquin Anicinape), English (cakanacimo8in) and/or French (8emitikocimo8in). Historically, the AAN people were a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers.
Band
The band which is composed of various constituent families is an organized group whose cohesion being more traditional, habitual, and social is also of political in nature. The political activities of a band concerned its relations with other bands in the country and by the resistance to the numerous invasions of certain other nations on their territory (Davidson,1926).
Family Hunting Territories
A family hunting territory is the stem ‘’anoki’’ in anicinapemo8in may correspond to ‘’wabanaki ‘’alo’ke’’ [work] hence [the working land ] (Davidson, 1926). Each family had its own family hunting territory (Cooper, 1939; Jenkins, 1939). When a man died, his land was passed on to his widow or eldest son (Davidson, 1926)
Traditional Territory
A Traditional Territory is the geographic area identified by a First Nation (modern day of saying a group of bands, a Nation) as the land they and/or their ancestors traditionally occupied and used (Wilson, 2018). The traditional Territory is comprised of several family hunting territories regrouped together that belongs to a band.
Portrait of Apitipi Anicinapek Nation
Apitipi Anicinapek Nation is part of the Anicinape Nation. It is politically affiliated with the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council in Quebec (AANTC, 2021) and the Political Territorial Organization, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Ontario NAN. The Band is composed of a population of 234. Lake Abitibi was the site of an important Hudson Bay Company Trading Post in the 18th Century since its closure in the mid 20th Century. The Abitibi Anicinapek historically one band, are now composed of two communities. Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (Ontario) and Pikogan (Quebec). The Hudson Bay Post mentioned above was located at a Point called Abitibi Matcite8eiak located on the Quebec side of the lake.
Origin of the Algonkians, Algonquins and Anicinapek
For several decades, the origin of the Algonquin was the subject of various interpretations, based on oral tradition, which testified to an occupation on the edge of the sea. (Frenette, 1988; Speck, 1929). Some authors have spoken of the Atlantic Ocean (Frenette, 1988; Couture, 1983; Quebec, 1984) and according to information obtained by (Day and Trigger, 1978) their occupation would be located further east in the St. Lawrence Valley before contact with Europeans.
In addition, ancient legends tell that the ancestors of the Algonkian Nations first occupied the territories located in the northwest of the continent. About 90% of them later migrated east from 1397 and occupied the territories we know today. (Frenette, 1988:33; Wake, 1894) Other research indicates that for 500 A.D. (about 1,500 years ago) the valley was occupied by a cultural complexity identified by archaeologists as Algonkian. The occupation of this generalized cultural group of Algonquians extended from Quebec to northern Saskatchewan; their material culture, and their socio-political culture, was distinct from that of the Iroquois people, Athapascan of the Plains and the Neighboring Mi’kmaq/Maliseet (Holmes, 1993, Vol. 1A: 2). The peoples identified as descendants of this Algonkian culture are the Chippewas, the Mississauga’s, the Cree’s, the Ojibway, the Algonquins Anicinapek proper, as well as the Innu (Montagnais) (Ibid, 1993, Vol. 1A: 2).
According to (Frenette, 1988) archaeological excavations conducted before 1988 show that the Anicinapek are descendants of the Indigenous groups of the Archaic Shield. A little later, during the initial Silvicultural period, new populations from the south would have come to join them to give birth to the Laurellian culture, from which comes the ceramics recently found by archaeologists (Ibid, 1988).
The Anicinapek later centered part of their occupation on the Ottawa Valley and beyond the St. Lawrence Valley. However, it is unclear when exactly this migration took place. However, when Champlain arrived in 1613, he met the Anicinapek in and around the Ottawa Valley. The Algonquin Anicinapek had already occupied and controlled these territories for over one thousand years. (Frenette, 1988; Hessel, 1987)
The Anicinapek are known through time in diverse ways from various sources. The main synonyms of the Algonquins are:
- In 1603, at Tadoussac, Champlain is said to have heard Algonquins, Montagnais and Maliseet celebrate among themselves a victory against the Iroquois. The Maliseet nicknamed the Algonquins by the term “Elagomogwik” which means they are our relatives or our allies, of whom Champlain would have transcribed “Algoumequin”. (Frenette, 1988; Day and al, 1978)
- In 1613: Algoumequin “they are our relatives or our allies” by Champlain.
- In 1632: Algonquain “they are our parents or our allies” by the Jesuits.
- In 1632: Aquannaque “nation of unknown language” by the Hurons.
: Atirotaks “tree eaters” by the Mohawks.
: Wesogonak “? ” by the Abenaki.
: Omamiwininiwak” the people of the bottom of the river” by the Nipissings
: Anicenabe “the real men” by the Algonquins
(Frenette, 1988)
Other terms were identified a little later. This time, it is at the level of the specific bands located on the upper basin of the Ottawa River.
- In 1613, at the time of the French: Kitchesipirini (Allumette/Morrison’s Island) by Champlain: Weskarini (Petite Nation, Lièvre, Rouge) by Champlain
- Kinounchepirini (Keeinoouche on the Ottawa river, downstream of the Allumette) by Champlain
- Matouweskarini (Madawaska River) by Champlain: Ottagoutowuemin (Ottawa, upstream of the Allumette) by Champlain
- In 1763 : Arundacs (Algonquins and Nipissings)_by S William Johnson (Holmes, 1993: Vol.1A)
- In 1659, known as the Outabitibek (the Abitibis) by the Jesuites
- In 1613, the Omàmiwinini (Algonquins of Ontario: Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and al) by Champlain
(Hanewick, 2009)
Around 1760: Omamiwininiwak (The people of the downstream, that is to say of the lower Outaouais basin) in reference to the Algonquins of Lac des Deux-Montagnes by the Nipissingues (Savoie et al, 2013)
In 1872: Wana8aians “the Indians of Lake Wanawaya (Longue-Pointe) by the missionaries In 1896: Matajan “? (Longue-Pointe) ” by a missionary (Savoie et al, 2013)
