Nitassinan
Nitassinan ᓂᑕᔅᓯᓇᓐ | |
|---|---|
| Time immemorial–1763 (as a State) | |
| Status | Unrecognized / former country |
| Common languages | French, Innu-aimun, English, LSQ, ASL |
| Demonym | Innu |
| History | |
• Established | Time immemorial |
| 1876 | |
• Disestablished | 1763 (as a State) |
| Today part of | Quebec & Labrador, Canada |
| Innu, Ilnu / assi "person" / "land" | |
|---|---|
| Person | Innu / Ilnu |
| People | Innut / Innuat / Ilnuatsh |
| Language | Innu-aimun |
| Country | Nitassinan |
Nitassinan (Innu: ᓂᑕᔅᓯᓇᓐ) is the ancestral homeland, or country, of the Innu, an Indigenous people of Eastern Quebec and Labrador, Canada. Nitassinan means "our land" in the Innu language. The territory covers the eastern portion of the Labrador peninsula. In the northern reaches of Nitassinan lies St'aschinuw (Naskapi: ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ), the Naskapi homeland.
The first interactions with Europeans were with the Vikings who referred to the Innu as the Skræling. Alongside Helluland (probably eastern Inuit Nunangat) and Vinland (probably Newfoundland), the Greenlandic Norse called the Labrador region of Innu Country Markland.