Nemiscau (or Old Nemaska) is a semi-permanent

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

settlement in northern Quebec, Canada, on

Lake Nemiscau Lake Nemiscau (in French: ''Lac Nemiscau'') is a freshwater lake, located in the municipality of Eeyou Istchee James Bay, in the administrative region of Nord-du-Québec, in north-western Quebec, in Canada. The lake Nemiscau is crossed by Rupert R ...

. During the mid-twentieth century, Thomas Nelson Dodd Jr., PhD, an American professor of chemistry from St. Peter's College in New Jersey, encountered the Cree people living at Nemiscau as he was canoeing in the nearby waterways. He developed a friendship with the people, and returned every summer as a kind of one-man peace corps. During his years with the Cree, he documented their spoken dialect which had never been written, as well as their customs and habits. He persuaded the Canadian government to build modern housing for the Crees, and Dr. Dodd's work was substantial enough to merit a federal grant of $15,000 from the American Philosophic Society in 1961. Dr. Dodd returned to Nemiscau every summer until July 1965, when he perished in a plane crash en route to Nemiscau. Nemiscau is the former site of a Hudson's Bay Company post until 1970. The settlement was abandoned in the mid 1970s when

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by the ...

proposed hydro-electric development on the Rupert River, which would have resulted in the flooding of the area. Its residents were dispersed to Waskaganish and Mistissini until the new community of

Nemaska Nemaska ( cr, ᓀᒥᔅᑳᐤ/Nemiskâw, meaning ''underwater point,'' but commonly associated with the word ''namesiskâw'', meaning ''many fish''.) is a small Cree community located on the shores of Lake Champion, in Quebec, Canada. It is a sm ...

was built. Since the development plans have been canceled, the Cree originally living here have started to return to Nemiscau, using it as a summer encampment. There are only a handful of year-round residents in Nemiscau.

Climate

Nemiscau has a

warm-summer humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

( Köppen climate classification Dfb) with mild to warm summers with cool nights and freezing cold winters lasting half the year.

External links

*http://www.ottertooth.com/Native_K/nemaska.htm *http://www.nemaska.com Cree villages in Quebec Hudson's Bay Company trading posts {{Quebec-geo-stub