It covers an area of 80,000 sq km.[1] On 8 September 2014, the Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw declared unilaterally the sovereignty of the Atikamekw Nation on the Nistaskinan.[2][3][4][5] The objective of this is mainly to obtain a right of review for the projects exploiting the natural resources and to highlight the Atikamekw's identity. Nistaskinan means "our land" in the Atikamekw language. From a legal perspective, according to the Indian Act, the Atikamekw have self-administration on three Indian reserves, Manawan, Obedjiwan and Wemotaci, but the Nitaskinan covers an area much wider.