Eeyou Istchee is a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) of Quebec that is represented by the Grand Council of the Crees. On July 24, 2012, the Quebec government signed an accord with the Cree Nation that resulted in the abolition of the neighbouring municipality of and the creation of the new Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government, providing for the residents of neighbouring TE and Eeyou Istchee to jointly govern the territory formerly governed by the municipality of .
The total land area of Eeyou Istchee is , though the Grand Council of the Crees sees Eeyou Istchee as a much larger contiguous traditional territory and homeland of . The total population of the area was 14,131 in 2006, according to the 2006 Canadian Census, and the largest municipality is the Cree village municipality of Chisasibi on the south bank of La Grande River near the northeast shore of James Bay.
Eeyou Istchee TE was created on November 30, 2007. Its territory had previously belonged to the TE of . While most of Eeyou Istchee is enclaved within TE, the Cree reserved land (TC) and Cree village municipality (VC) of Whapmagoostui lie north of the 55th parallel north and are enclaved within Kativik TE.
Together with the TEs of and Kativik, it forms the region and census division (CD) of .
The TE of Eeyou Istchee is governed by the Grand Council of the Crees by the Cree Nation Government. It consists of the following municipal units:
Somewhat confusingly, the Commission de toponymie du Québec refers to the Cree reserved lands as "Cree villages" (village cri), as distinct from the "Cree village municipalities" (municipalité de village cri). However, from a practical point of view this makes sense, since the population resides in these reserved lands.
The above map indicates the Category I lands reserved for the Cree under the terms of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. Though formally designated as a TE for these areas in 2007, the term "Eeyou Istchee" has long been applied by Quebec Cree to refer to themselves and all their traditional hunting lands. In Category II lands, owned by the Crown-in-right-of-Quebec, hunting, fishing and trapping rights are reserved for the Cree, while forestry, mining and tourism development authority is shared. In Category III lands, some specific hunting and harvesting rights are reserved for the Cree, but all other rights are shared subject to a joint regulatory scheme. Roughly 14,000 km<sup>2</sup> fall into Category I, 150,000 km<sup>2</sup> in Category II, and 908,000 km<sup>2</sup> - almost 60 percent all land in Quebec - are in Category III.