Pays Plat First Nation is a small

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

community located near

Rossport, Ontario Rossport is a dispersed rural community and unincorporated place in the Unorganized part of Thunder Bay District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It is on the north shore of Lake Superior in geographic Lahontan Township, and is on Ontario Highw ...

, Canada, about northeast of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

. The Pays Plat 51 Reserve is in the boundaries of the territory described in the

Robinson-Superior Treaty The Robinson Treaties are two treaties signed between the Ojibwa chiefs and The Crown in 1850 in the Province of Canada. The first treaty involved Ojibwa chiefs along the north shore of Lake Superior, and is known as the Robinson Superior Treaty. ...

of 1850. The community is located along Highway 17.

History

The

Ojibway The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

people living on the North Shore of Lake Superior (ancestors of Pays Plat First Nations people) survived by

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

trapping Animal trapping, or simply trapping or gin, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, the fur trade, hunting, pest control, and wildlife management. History Neolithic ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

, and gathering food. The area was heavily involved in the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

, and the ancestors living near what is now called Pays Plat were key in trapping for furs. Pays Plat was named by French traders and means ''flat land'', named after the fact that it is flat land between two mountains. In

Anishinaabemowin Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous language o ...

the community is known as ''Baagwaashiing'' which means "Where the water is shallow."

Chief and Council

External links

Official WebsitePays Plat (on Highway 17) - Ontario Highway 11 Homepage

References

First Nations governments in Ontario Ojibwe governments Ojibwe reserves in Ontario Communities in Thunder Bay District {{NorthernOntario-geo-stub