Eeyou Istchee , crj, ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔅᒌ or , all meaning 'The People's Land'; ) is a

territory equivalent to a regional county municipality An equivalent territory (french: territoire équivalent), formally known as territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (french: territoires équivalents à une MRC), is a territorial unit used by Statistics Canada and the Institut de la ...

(TE) of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

that is represented by the Grand Council of the Crees. On July 24, 2012, the Quebec government signed an accord with the Cree Nation that resulted in the abolition of the neighbouring municipality of and the creation of the new

Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government (french: Gouvernement régional d’Eeyou Istchee Baie-James, cr, ᐄᔨᔨᐤ ᐊᔅᒌ ᒉᐃᒥᔅ ᐯᐃ ᐊᔅᒌᐤ ᑎᐹᔨᐦᒋᒑᐎᓐ, italic=no ) is a local municipality in the (TE) in ...

, providing for the residents of neighbouring TE and Eeyou Istchee to jointly govern the territory formerly governed by the municipality of . The total land area of Eeyou Istchee is , though the Grand Council of the Crees sees Eeyou Istchee as a much larger contiguous traditional territory and homeland of . The total population of the area was 14,131 in 2006, according to the 2006 Canadian Census, and the largest municipality is the

Cree village municipality The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy and compiled by the Ins ...

of Chisasibi on the south bank of

La Grande River La Grande River (french: La Grande Rivière; cr, Chisasibi, script=latn; both meaning "great river") is a river in northwestern Quebec, Canada, which rises in the highlands of north central Quebec and flows roughly west to drain into James Bay. ...

near the northeast shore of

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...

. Eeyou Istchee TE was created on November 30, 2007. Its territory had previously belonged to the TE of . While most of Eeyou Istchee is

enclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

d within TE, the

Cree reserved land The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree or ...

(TC) and

(VC) of

Whapmagoostui Whapmagoostui ( cr, ᐙᐱᒫᑯᔥᑐᐃ/Wâpimâkuštui, "place of the beluga") is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River (french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of Hudson Ba ...

lie north of the 55th parallel north and are enclaved within Kativik TE. Together with the TEs of and Kativik, it forms the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

and

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

(CD) of .

Communities

Nord-du-Québec (Census division)
/ref> The TE of Eeyou Istchee is governed by the Grand Council of the Crees by the Cree Nation Government. It consists of the following municipal units: * the

s listed above (with code = TC, ''terre réservée crie''): * the Cree village municipalities listed above (with code VC, ''municipalité de village cri'') Somewhat confusingly, the ''

Commission de toponymie du Québec The Commission de toponymie du Québec (English: ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicize Québec's place names and their origins according ...

'' refers to the Cree reserved lands as "Cree villages" (''village cri''), as distinct from the "Cree village municipalities" (''municipalité de village cri''). However, from a practical point of view this makes sense, since the population resides in these reserved lands.

Definitions

The above map indicates the Category I lands reserved for the Cree under the terms of the

James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (french: Convention de la Baie-James et du Nord québécois) is an Aboriginal land claim settlement, approved in 1975 by the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec, and later slightly modified in 1978 by th ...

. Though formally designated as a TE for these areas in 2007, the term "Eeyou Istchee" has long been applied by Quebec Cree to refer to themselves and all their traditional hunting lands. In Category II lands, owned by the Crown-in-right-of-Quebec, hunting, fishing and trapping rights are reserved for the Cree, while forestry, mining and tourism development authority is shared. In Category III lands, some specific hunting and harvesting rights are reserved for the Cree, but all other rights are shared subject to a joint regulatory scheme. Roughly 14,000 km² fall into Category I, 150,000 km² in Category II, and 908,000 km² - almost 60 percent all land in Quebec - are in Category III.

Notes

References

Sources

Database
of the geographical code of Quebec

Regional maps of municipal and RCM/TE boundaries from the Ministère des Affaires municipales et des Régions. As of January 2008, the Nord-du-Québec map shows Jamésie territory as it was before the creation of Eeyou Istchee.

External links

Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) official website

''« Eeyou Istchee » : terres des Cris'', Archives de Radio-Canada

Eeyou Istchee Tourism site
{{coord missing, Quebec Eeyou Istchee (territory), Territories equivalent to a regional county municipality Cree reserves and territories 2007 establishments in Quebec States and territories established in 2007 Enclaves and exclaves