The Project: History

ᑭ ᐋᒋᒧᐏᓈᐣ

We, the Nayhenaway Ininewuk, are a Cree people descended from the original inhabitants of what is now called Northeastern Manitoba. Since time immemorial, we have lived, travelled, and raised our families  throughout our vast territory in Northern Manitoba. Our ancestral homelands encompass the Churchill area to the north, stretches down to Bird near Gillam in the south, east towards the Ontario border and all the way up to the Hudson Bay coast. We have always governed our territory under our own laws, customs, and beliefs, and exercised our culture through hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, and harvesting.

For as long as we can remember our people have practiced our own form of stewardship by distributing our harvesting efforts, letting resource areas rest as needed, and following cultural customs. We show respect and reciprocity and use all the gifts given to us from Askiy.

In the 1600s, European explorers and traders arrived in our territory. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) established the York Factory Depot at the mouth of the Hayes River / Apiht Seepee, and our lands became a hub of the North American fur trade – an economy that was built on the knowledge and skills of our people. It was the Ininewuk who were able to harvest animals, prepare furs, secure food, and navigate the waterways of our territories. While our people continued to travel and harvest over a broad area, York Factory became a settlement and a gathering place. In summers and at Christmas time, families travelled 100 km or more from seasonal settlements to gather, celebrate, trade news, and spend time together.

After 1850, people began to gradually move inland, away from York Factory as the fur trade began to decline. Between the 1850s and 1950s, the communities of Split Lake, Bird, Shamattawa, and Ilford were formed where our people settled at fishing lakes and work sites away from York Factory. In 1957, the federal government forcibly relocated the people still living at York Factory to the shores of Split Lake. The new site had no more than a marker in the ground, but has since been built into the modern community of York Landing.

Once one people, we were divided into the five First Nations through the Indian Act and Reservation system. Today, we are reuniting through this project to celebrate our shared ancestry and protect our homelands together.