Responses to Television in Two Swampy Cree Communities on the West Coast of James Bay

This paper discusses broad features of the introduction of television in two Swampy Cree communities on the west coast of James Bay in northern Ontario, Canada. The first of these communities is Fort Albany, a village of about 580 Swampy Cree Indians located approximately 100 miles north of Moosonee and Moose Factory, Ontario. Fort Albany was founded between 1675 and 1679 as the third Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post in the James Bay area following the establishment of Rupert's House (Charles Fort) in 1668 and Moose Factory in 1673 (see Anick 1976:244-245; Baldwin n.d.:4-5; and Innis 1970:119). The second community examined here is Attawapiskat, a village of about 1,000 Swampy Cree located approximately 60 air miles north of Fort Albany. Originally a summer fishing site, the modern community of Attawapiskat was established in 1894 as a mission of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Roman Catholic order. In 1901 it became the site of a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post. (For historical and other information about these two communities, see Anick 1976; Baldwin n.d.; Honigmann 1956, 1961; Innis 1970; Maheu 1983; Molohon 1981, 1983; Molohon, ed. 1983; Toohey 1983; and Vezina 1978.)