Extremely knowledgeable about a vast boreal territory, the Naskapi call their ancestral land “Nuchimiyuschiiy”. Historically, the Naskapis were nomadic and followed caribou herds over Nuchimiyuschiiy from Hudson Bay in the west to the Labrador Coast in the east, and from the southern coast of Ungava Bay in the north to the vicinity of Labrador City in the south. Today, there is one Naskapi village in Quebec, called Kawawachikamach, located in northern Quebec, about 15 Kilometres from Schefferville.

Naskapi (also known as ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ/Iyuw Iyimuun in the Naskapi language) is an Algonquian language spoken by the Naskapi in Quebec and Labrador. It is written in Eastern Cree syllabics. Naskapi is a dialect that has many linguistic features in common with the Northern dialect of East Cree and also shares many lexical items with the Innu language. Iyuw iyimuun remains unique and distinct from all other language varieties in the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula and the language is spoken by almost the entire Naskapi population.