Eeyou Istchee is a

territory equivalent to a regional county municipality An equivalent territory (, ), formally known as territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (), is a territorial unit used by Statistics Canada and the Institut de la statistique du Québec. Quebec is divided into 87 regional county m ...

(TE) of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

that is represented by the

Grand Council of the Crees The Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) or the GCC(EI) (ᐄᔨᔨᐤ ᐊᔅᒌ in Cree), is the political body that represents the approximately 20,000 Cree people (who call themselves "Eeyou" or "Eenou" in the various dialects of East ...

. 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, 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 The 2006 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The following census was the 2011 census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897. This count was lower t ...

, and the largest municipality is the Cree village municipality of

Chisasibi Chisasibi (; meaning Great River) is a village and Classification of municipalities in Quebec#Aboriginal local municipal units, Cree reserved land (TC) on the eastern shore of James Bay, in Eeyou Istchee, an equivalent territory (ET) in Nord-d ...

on the south bank of

La Grande River La Grande River (, ; ; both meaning "great river") is a river in northwestern Quebec, Canada, rising in the highlands of the north-central part of the province and flowing roughly west to its drainage at James Bay. It is the second-longest rive ...

near the northeast shore of

James Bay James Bay (, ; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is politically part of Nunavut. Its largest island is Akimiski Island. Numerous waterways of the ...

. 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 that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

d within TE, the

Cree reserved land The following is a list of the types of Local government in Quebec, local and Wiktionary:supralocal, supralocal territorial units in Quebec, Canada, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affa ...

(TC) and Cree village municipality (VC) of

Whapmagoostui Whapmagoostui (, "place of the beluga") is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River () on the coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavik. About 906 Cree with about 650 Inuit, living in the neighbourin ...

lie north of the

55th parallel north Following are circles of latitude between the 50th parallel north and the 55th parallel north: 51st parallel north The 51st parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 51 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, A ...

and are enclaved within Kativik TE. Together with the TEs of and Kativik, it forms the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

and

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the 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-level census geographic uni ...

(CD) of .

Communities

Nord-du-Québec (Census division)
/ref> The TE of Eeyou Istchee is governed by the

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 (, ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicizing Québec's place names and their origins according to th ...

'' 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 () is an Aboriginal land claim settlement, approved in 1975 by the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec, and later slightly modified in 1978 by the Northeastern Quebec Agreement (), through which Quebec's ...

. 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