Hunters of the Boreal Forest - Ecosystem Dynamics in Relation to Aboriginal Territoriality: Subsistence Patterns and Strategy of Adaptation of Mistassini Indians

Abstract

The aim of this study is to construct a model of the dynamics of the boreal forest ecosystem of the Mistassini region on the basis of the ecological data available from the subarctic zone, and to draw a series of conclusions from it about the subsistence patterns, population dynamics and land utilization patterns of Mistassini Indians in the period immediately preceding White contact. In particular, the purpose of the Mistassini model is to examine: a) the claim for the aboriginality of the family hunting territory system in the eastern subarctic; b) the assumption, made by a large number of Algonquianists who do not support this claim, that large animals were the permanent primary base of subsistence for the Aboriginal populations of the eastern subarctic; and, c) the assumption made by both proponents and opponents of the claim for aboriginality of the family hunting territory system that land could be permanently productive for human subsistence, and that resource catastrophes did not occur.