The community is serviced by a health centre, a community centre, a church, a school, a community store, a youth centre, a community radio station, an inn, municipal water and sewer system, fire station, and an indigenous police force.[2]
Pakuashipi is the Innu name of the Saint-Augustin River and means "shallow river", from pakua ("drained" or "dried up") and shipi ("river"). The inhabitants of this settlement are identified by other Innu groups as the Pakua-shipiunnuat, and are considered the most traditional, the most conservative Innu band, in terms of both culture and language.[5]
History
The area was originally home to nomadic Innu and Inuit tribes. Most of them, however, were displaced once Europeans began to exploit the area. In July 1949, the Government of Quebec offered to the Innu population land with an area of 1.3 ha (3.2 acres) in order to create a reserve. But this was refused by the Government of Canada who deemed its population too small to justify such a decision. In the early 1960s, in order to provide essential services, the federal government decided to incorporate the Saint-Augustin group with the band at La Romaine reserve and relocated them there. But during the night, in a storm, the group returned to their ancestral land.[5]
On June 4, 1971, the Quebec Ministry of Lands and Forests authorized the Government of Canada to build houses for the First Nations people of Saint Augustin on the current site. On July 27, 1987, the Saint Augustin Band changed its name to "Pakua Shipi Montagnais Band".[6]
Demographics
As of July 2021, the band had a registered population of 401 people.[2] The number of private dwellings occupied by usual residents is 65 out of a total of 90. As of the 2016 Canadian censusmother tongues spoken are as follows:[3]
There is only one school on the settlement, École Pakuashipish, that provides pre-Kindergarten to Secondary grade 4, and had an enrolment of 88 students in 2008-2009.[2]
