Innu defended hunting as the core of their identity and language

Evidence

And so they walked into the bush and took their animals. In April 1987, the Innu were charged with hunting violations. Ben Michel stood before the judge in Goose Bay to defend what the Innu were doing. “We are a hunting people,” he declared. “It is this form of living which lies at the core of our identity as a people, which gives expressiveness to our language, which animates our social relationships, and which for thousands of years breathed life into our people. Without exception those who have categorized our hunting existence as primitive are those who have not tried to live it.” — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 323

Categorization

• DEFINE: Michel articulates what hunting means in an Innu worldview — identity, language, social relations, not mere subsistence.
• XREF: Connects to the ch7 claim that hunting is the most sustainable economy for northern ecosystems, and to eco-justice reading of subsistence cultures. — connects to: Canada banned Innu hunting while tolerating pilots killing caribou for antlers — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 321; Hunting is the most sustainable economy for northern ecosystems — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 284; Cultural identity for hunting peoples is defined by kinship relations with specific animals — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1648

Broader Connections

• Cultural identity for hunting peoples is defined by kinship relations with specific animals #corroborates (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1648