Quebec's eleven Indigenous nations

You already live in the middle of these cultures, whether or not you know it.

The word Québec comes from an Indigenous language. The maple syrup you eat at the sugar shack rests on know-how that the Government of Quebec itself describes as a legacy of Indigenous peoples. Dozens of town and river names around you come from Algonquin, Innu, Abenaki or Mi'kmaq.

And yet most newcomers spend their first years here without ever getting a clear introduction to any of it.

This guide fills that gap. It does not claim to tell the history of Quebec's Indigenous peoples, nor to speak for them. It does something more modest and more useful for someone who has just arrived: who the eleven nations are, where they live, what languages they speak, which words to avoid, which dates matter, and where to start if you want to know more.

Everything below comes from official sources, listed in full at the end.

The two figures to remember are eleven and fifty-five.

The Government of Quebec refers to « les 11 nations autochtones du Québec ». Tourisme Autochtone Québec — the sectoral tourism association recognized by the ministère du Tourisme — writes for its part that Quebec's Indigenous people, grouped into « onze (11) Nations », are spread across « cinquante-cinq (55) communautés distinctes ».

These two sources are independent of each other, and they agree.

We checked the second figure ourselves, by adding up the number of communities the government lists on each nation's own profile page: 2 + 9 + 3 + 9 + 9 + 14 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1. The total is exactly 55.

One point of vocabulary, because it comes up everywhere. The word Autochtones (Indigenous) is the generic term used by the Government of Quebec. It covers two distinct realities: the First Nations, ten of them here, and the Inuit, who form the eleventh nation and who are not a First Nation. Saying « the First Nations of Quebec » to mean the whole is therefore inaccurate, since it leaves the Inuit out.

Here are the eleven nations as the Government of Quebec names and describes them, using each nation's official spelling. The populations shown come from the Government of Quebec's per-nation profile pages and should be read as orders of magnitude.

The nations' official names have shifted toward the names the nations use for themselves, rather than the ones Europeans gave them. That shift is still under way — and you can watch it happening live on the Government of Quebec's own website.

Take the ninth nation in our table. The title of its official profile page reads Wolastoqiyik. But the web address of that same page still ends with the word « malecites » — the older name. The content has been updated; the address has not.

It is a technical detail, and it is also the clearest picture we can give you of where things stand: the name has changed, the infrastructure is catching up behind it.

The practical rule for you is simple. Use the spelling shown in our table in section 2, because that is the one the Government of Quebec uses today. If you see a different name elsewhere for the same nation, it is most likely an older appellation.

Here is a fact almost nobody explains to newcomers, and it says a great deal about the history of the territory. The second language is not the same from one nation to the next.

For some nations, it is French. The government writes that among the Attikameks, Attikamek — called Nehirowimowin — is the first language, and that French is used as the second language. Same for the Innus: Innu, called Innu Aimun, is the first language of most members, their second language being French.

For other nations, it is English. Among the Mohawks, the government writes that the language of use is English, and that many speak Mohawk, called kanien'keha. Among the Naskapis, Naskapi — called iyuw iyimuun — is spoken by the whole population, and English is the second language.

The Inuit of Nunavik have their own language, Inuktitut.

Why the difference? This guide will not give you a historical explanation, because we cannot source one properly. But hold on to the fact itself, because it has a very concrete consequence: in Quebec, the language of contact with an Indigenous community is not automatically French. If you write to an organization or visit a community, check rather than assume.

Every time you say Québec, Chicoutimi, Témiscamingue or Manicouagan, you are pronouncing a word that came from an Indigenous language, transcribed centuries ago by European mapmakers who did not speak those languages. The Commission de toponymie du Québec, the official body that manages place names, acknowledges this itself.

We are not redoing the etymology work here: our guide on pronouncing Quebec place names covers it in detail, with the Commission's explanations for each name.

What we want to point out here are two official resources almost nobody knows about:

• An interactive map of Indigenous place names in Quebec, published by the Commission de toponymie
• Even more interesting: a page where the Commission posts audio recordings of Indigenous place-name pronunciations, made by members of the communities concerned

That second one is probably the only place where you can hear these names said by the people whose language they are, rather than in a French approximation.

Two days come around every year, and they are not the same kind of day at all.

June 21 is the Journée nationale des peuples autochtones (National Indigenous Peoples Day). It falls on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The Government of Quebec devotes communications and activities to it. It is the most accessible date for a newcomer who simply wants to see something: public events are held across the territory.

September 30 is the Journée nationale de la vérité et de la réconciliation (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation). It is commemorative in nature, not festive. It is also the one that causes the most practical confusion, for a reason explained just below.

To find out what is happening near you on those dates, we are not giving you a list: events change date, place and organizer every year, and a list written today would be wrong in twelve months. Check the Tourisme Autochtone Québec website instead, which keeps an up-to-date listing.

If you want to go beyond reading and actually go and see, here is the official starting point.

Tourisme Autochtone Québec describes itself as « une association touristique sectorielle reconnue par le ministère du Tourisme et par ses pairs » — a sectoral tourism association recognized by the Ministry of Tourism and by its peers. It is the reference body for Indigenous tourism in Quebec, and its site exists in French and English.

It lists two things in particular:

• Museums and cultural centres, founded and coordinated by each nation
• Pow-wows, the annual gatherings open to the public

Good geographic news for many newcomers: you do not need to travel to the Far North. The government places Wendake right next to Québec City, and the three Mohawk communities — Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanesatake — are in the greater Montreal area. Odanak and Wôlinak are in Centre-du-Québec.

One method tip before you go: an Indigenous community is a place where people live, not a freely accessible tourist site. Go through the community's own official website or through Tourisme Autochtone Québec to find out what is open to visitors and on what terms, rather than turning up unannounced.

The questions that come up most often: the difference between First Nations and Autochtones, whether you can visit a community, the status of September 30 at work.

These related guides may be useful:

• Pronouncing Quebec place names — the detailed etymology of Indigenous-origin names, with the Commission de toponymie's own explanations
• Public holidays in Quebec — the eight provincial days and the additional federal ones, September 30 included
• The sugar shack and maple season — a tradition the government itself describes as a legacy of Indigenous peoples
• Quebec etiquette and cultural codes — the unwritten rules worth knowing before any gathering here

All the information in this guide comes from the sources below.

• First Nations and Inuit — Government of Québec
• Profile of the nations — Government of Québec
• Innu profile — Government of Québec
• About — Indigenous Tourism Québec
• Map of Indigenous place names — Commission de toponymie du Québec (French only)
• Pronunciation of Indigenous place names — Commission de toponymie du Québec (French only)