Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams on Thursday defended a decision to send eviction notices to Quebec Innu who have cabins in western Labrador.

The provincial government sent out notices in late May demanding the removal of at least six cabins built by Innu living near Sept-Îles and Schefferville, Que. The cabin owners say they don't need permits to build in western Labrador because of the Innu's traditional ties to the area.

Williams said there's been a recent surge of cabin-building that may be a bid to bolster the Quebec Innu's claims on Labrador and its resources.

"Anytime anybody squats on land or asserts rights, we as a government have to deal with that," the premier said.

"If, in fact, it's positioning or posturing to establish claims, well then the proof of that will come out in the eating."

A leading Quebec Innu activist is threatening that Labrador cabin owners could see their properties go up in flames if Newfoundland and Labrador enforces the eviction orders.

'You know this movie called Mississippi Burning? It's going to be Labrador burning — that's what's going to happen.'—Armand MacKenzie

Armand MacKenzie, a lawyer and activist who lives near Schefferville was given an order in May to tear down his cabin within 60 days. He said some Quebec Innu are prepared to take direct action in Labrador if the Newfoundland and Labrador government cracks down on the Quebec-owned cabins.

"There won't be a single cabin from whoever in Labrador if they destroy our cabins," he said.

"You know this movie called Mississippi Burning?" said MacKenzie, referring to the fictional 1988 movie about race-based hate crimes in the southern U.S. in the 1960s.

"It's going to be Labrador burning — that's what's going to happen."

The cabin issue is linked to a broader claim that Quebec Innu have been making for several years over aboriginal rights in Labrador.

Claim involves 'everywhere in Labrador'

Lawyers for the Newfoundland and Labrador government were scheduled to argue in Federal Court in Montreal Thursday against a claim by 22 Quebec Innu that effectively makes a claim to land on the other side of the Quebec-Labrador border.

Among other things, the plaintiffs claim "the right to hunt, fish and trap and to carry on related activities, including the right to move freely everywhere in Labrador and the right to access the natural resources of Labrador."

Tensions between the two sides were heightened by eviction notices sent to 25 Quebec Innu families with cabins in Labrador.

MacKenzie, who claims he was born on the Labrador side of the border and has family roots there dating back centuries, said the cabins support the traditional hunting of as many as 5,000 Innu with ancestral ties to Labrador soil.

"We don't care if it's Quebec or Labrador. We don't recognize that border," MacKenzie told CBC News.

"The fact is we are indigenous to the land … and then suddenly to receive a notice from the government of Newfoundland telling us that we are strangers in our homeland?" MacKenzie said.

"That's a total piece of … it's an insult to our people, it's an insult to our family, because we are the rightful owners of that land."

Labrador is home to two communities of the formerly nomadic Innu: Sheshatshiu, in central Labrador, and Natuashish, on Labrador's northern coast. Robert Coulter, founder and executive director of the Indian Law Resource Centre in Helena, Mont., said the Newfoundland and Labrador government is in the wrong.

"This appears to be an outrageous effort by the government to evict indigenous peoples from their homelands," Coulter told CBC News.