Jean-Sebastien Boutet
Coordinates 
Office: SN 2005
Telephone: (709) 864-8998
Fax: (709) 864-3119
E-mail: jeansebastien.boutet@mun.ca
Co-supervisors
Dr. Arn Keeling (geography) and Dr. John Sandlos (history)
Supervisory member , Dr. Kelly Vooden (geography)
Education
B.Sc. (Mathematics, environmental sciences): McGill University, 2000-2005
Thesis title (Preliminary)
Iron mining in northern Québec: a historical geography of industrial wage economy and traditional Innu and Naskapi livelihoods, 1954-82.
Research interests
Canadian history; environmental history; mining history; labour history; political economy of natural resources; Indigenous studies; traditional livelihoods; oral tradition.
Research project
In this project I will use archival and oral history techniques
to gather indigenous perspectives on the history of iron mining in
the Schefferville region, northern Québec.
In Canada the opening of the northern frontier to industrial
development in the late 19th and early 20th century has generally
been justified in terms of exploration, economic development,
colonization and nationalism. Indigenous perspectives regarding
this form of development, in particular in the context of
large-scale mining activities, have not been systematically
documented. Despite the fact that the social, economic and
environmental costs of mining activities and their abandonment have
been borne disproportionately by northern indigenous communities,
few case studies documenting their experiences with mineral
development have been undertaken.
In Schefferville, the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOCC) operated a
large iron mine on traditional indigenous land, between 1954 and
1982. The winding down and post-closure phases of the mining
operations were devastating for the local settler economy of
Schefferville. However, little is known about the Innu and Naskapi
mining experience, from the resettlement to Schefferville in the
mid-1950s to the operating, winding down, and post-closure phases
of the IOCC operations. In particular, the changing relationship
between a mining wage economy and traditional Innu and Naskapi
livelihoods has not been investigated. This research will hopefully
contribute to address some of these historical shortcomings, in
particular in light of the contemporary projects that are currently
being developed by New Millennium Capital Corp. and Labrador Iron
Mining Limited to re-open and expand the extraction of iron ore
deposits in the region.
