Text
French
ID: <
10.7202/1082096ar>
·
DOI: <
10.7202/1082096ar>
Abstract
The arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company, fur traders, in Eeyou Istchee (East James Bay Crees) and Nunavik (Inuit) precipitated a great many changes in the lives of the local peoples, among which was miscegenation, British men and Indigenous women, leading to several hundred years of mixed ancestry individuals. This cohabitation and hybridity occurred everywhere in the Canadian fur trade country and in two regions used as contrasts, the Red River and west James Bay, a new people emerged, first known as Métis in the Red River Colony. No such new society arose in the two Quebec regions. At the core of understanding the circumstances of this non-event is how the personal relations played out in the post communities among the local people, the Euro-Canadians and the hybrid population. No seminal distinguishing traits were discerned in Eeyou Istchee or Nunavik while other factors were seen to have caused the rise of a new people outside of Quebec.