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State-based planning in Canada has contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous peoples through the creation of Indian reserves and other forms of territorial management. This paper offers a critical approach to the concept of land use planning defining it as a key mechanism of social control within the European colonial enterprise. It argues that the colonial roots of spatial planning are currently being challenged in Canada by the implementation of co-management structures shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors. It highlights, however, the uneven character of these social transformations, comparing two distinct situations in the province of Quebec: the Cree First Nation on the east coast of James Bay who have, since the 1970s, benefited, from the legal recognition of their rights over their ancestral territories thanks to the signature of a modern treaty ; and part of the Innu First Nation who, as they are still awaiting the conclusion of such a treaty, have to contend with the decisions of mainstream society regarding the management of their ancestral territory “off reserve”.