Manawan (named Manouane until 1991), officially named ''communauté Atikamekw de Manawan'' ( French for "Atikamekw Community of Manawan"), is a

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

reserve on the south-western shores of Lake Métabeskéga in the

Lanaudière Lanaudière (, ) is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population ( 2016 Census) of 494,796 inhabitants, an increase of 4.9% over the 2011 census. Geogr ...

region of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. It belongs to the Atikamekw of Manawan

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

of the

Atikamekw The Atikamekw are an Indigenous people in Canada. Their historic territory, ('Our Land'), is in the upper Saint-Maurice River valley of Quebec (about north of Montreal). One of the main communities is Manawan, about northeast of Montreal. ...

Nation.Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - Aboriginal Community profile
Manawan First Nation
The by reserve is an enclave within the Baie-Atibenne unorganized territory, approximately north of Saint-Michel-des-Saints. It is accessible by gravel road. The reserve takes its name from the Manouane River that has its source nearby. The standardized writing of the

Atikamekw language Atikamekw (endonym: ''Atikamekw Nehiromowin'', literally "Atikamekw native language") is a variety of the Algonquian language Cree and the language of the Atikamekw people of southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is spoken by nearly all the Atikame ...

spells it as Manawan, and this form was adopted on January 8, 1991. It means "place where they gather eggs".

Toponymy

"Manawan" means "place where we gather eggs" in

. The real name of the location of the village of Manawan is ''Metapeckeka'', which means "where swamps emerge" or "savannah that emerges from a bay".

Geography

The Indian Reserve of Manawan is an enclave within the Baie-Atibenne unorganized territory in

. It is located at northeast of

Mont-Laurier Mont-Laurier () is a town and incorporated municipality in western Quebec, Canada, located on the banks of the Lièvre River (''Rivière du Lièvre''), a tributary of the Ottawa River. Known as the "Capital of the Haute-Laurentides", the motto o ...

and it covers an area of . It is linked by a gravel road to Saint-Michel-des-Saints to the south which is the closest service centre. The main city the closest to the village is

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

History

At least since 1850 and probably earlier, the shores of Lake Métabeskéga were a gathering place for Atikamekw families from

Wemotaci Wemotaci (designated as Weymontachie 23 until 1997) is a First Nations reserve on the north shore of the Saint-Maurice River at the mouth of the Manouane River in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. Together with the Obedjiwan and the Couco ...

. This location, near their winter hunting grounds, was known in the 19th century as Metapeckeka, meaning "swamp coming from a bay" (from the fact that the lake is often dotted with floating plant debris that winds blew of the banks). Around 1870, logging companies moved into the area, prompting several families to permanently settle on the site. A year later, the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

opened its post. But damming of Kempt, Manawan, and Châteauvert Lakes in the early 1900s inundated the old village. A new village formed downstream at the current site. Establishing a reserve for themselves proved difficult for the Atikamekw. The repeated requests of Chief

Louis Néwashish Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * ...

for this portion of their territory were rebuffed by the Canadian Government, saying that the Maniwaki reserve, created in 1850, was reserved for them. The Atikamekw refused to go and live there. The federal government still declined to establish a reserve, arguing that Wemotaci was also for them. After years of correspondence followed by numerous trips in birch-bark canoe to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and lengthy negotiations for federal services, the government agreed. On August 29, 1906, the Manouane Reserve was officially founded with of land and having some 50 inhabitants.Natural Resources Canada - Legal Surveys Division, Historical Review
Manawan
The Hudson's Bay Company general store closed circa 1941. The village experienced further growth in the 1950s when more families settled down as a result of growing forest exploitation and the construction of large dams. In 1973, Manawan was connected by road to Saint-Michel-des-Saints.

Land history

* 1861-01-31: Act of 1861, aside land not exceeding for the use of Indians. * 1906-05-25: Surveying land for reserve Manowan. Undivided land. Area: . * 1906-08-29: Order in Council 532, transfer of the management and administration of the

Government of Quebec The Government of Quebec (, ) is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. The term is typically used to refer to the executive of the day (i.e. Minister of the Crown, mini ...

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

. Undivided land. Area: . Current Situation * Lands undivided, land acquired under the 1861 Act Transferring the management and administration of the

by Order in Council 532 (1906-1908. - 29). Area:

Demographics

Historic populations:Statistics Canada:

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

census * Population in 2021: 2000 * Population in 2016: 2060 * Population in 2011: 2073 * Population in 2001: 1646 * Population in 1996: 1416 * Population in 1991: 1224 Mother tongue: * English: 0.2% * French: 2.4% *

: 97.1% * Other: 0.2%

Education

There are 2 schools on the reserve: * ''École Simon P. Ottawa'' (Simon P. Ottawa School), pre-kindergarten to Elementary grade 6 * ''École secondaire Otapi'' (Otapi High School), grades Secondary 1 to Secondary 5

References

External links

100 year anniversary of the Manawan reserve

Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw
{{authority control Atikamekw Communities in Lanaudière Indian reserves in Quebec Hudson's Bay Company trading posts 1870 establishments in Quebec