Wemotaci (designated as Weymontachie 23 until 1997) 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 north shore of the

Saint-Maurice River The Saint-Maurice River (, ; ) is one of the main tributaries of the St. Lawrence River, after the Ottawa River, Ottawa and the Saguenay River, Saguenay Rivers and drains an area of 42,735 km2. It touches the Lac Saint-Jean, Lake Saint John waters ...

at the mouth of the Manouane River in the

Mauricie Mauricie () is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making tourism in Mauricie popular. The region has a land area of 35,860.05 km2 (13,845.64 sq mi) and a popu ...

region of Quebec, Canada. Together with the Obedjiwan and the Coucoucache Indian Reserve No. 24, it belongs to 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. ...

First Nation.Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - Aboriginal Community profile
Wemotaci First Nation
/ref> The reserve, an enclave within the city of La Tuque, is bordered to the west and south by the Saint-Maurice River, whereas its eastern boundary is about long, and its northern boundary is . It is accessible by gravel road from La Tuque's town centre through the hamlet of Sanmaur that is on the opposite shore of the Saint-Maurice River. Also at this location, the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

crosses the river and has a siding at Sanmaur.

Economy

The local economy is based on the art and craft, shops and services, forestry, trapping, construction, tourism, transport and outfitters.

Etymology

Like many other native names, Wemotaci underwent many spelling variations over time. The oldest reference to the toponym is from 1724. In 1827, it was written as ''Montachene'', and in 1829 as ''Weymontachinque'', in 1830 as ''Waimootansking'', in 1832 as ''Weymontachingue'' and ''Warmontashingen'', in 1837 as ''Warmontaching''. The 1932 spelling of Weymontachingue on the map of John Arrowsmith became the most common form until 1986, when it was replaced by ''Weymontachie'', as demanded by the local band council. 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 Wemotaci, which was made official in March 1997.

History

The area of the upper Saint-Maurice River had long been the homeland and hunting grounds of the Atikamekw indigenous people. Some sources claim that the

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

had already established a trading post at this place between 1770 and 1780, but this remains doubtful. Confirmation of the existence of a trading post at Wemotaci came in 1806, when Jean-Baptiste Perrault built the first structures for fur trading. In 1821, the post was taken over by 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 ...

. In 1851, the Government enacted the allotment of of land as reserves for the use and benefit of the "Indian" tribes residing in Lower Canada. Two years later, these lands were distributed among the Atikamekw, Algonquins, and Abenakis by

John Rolph John Rolph (4 March 1793 – 19 October 1870) was a Canadian physician, lawyer, and political figure. As a politician, he was considered the leader of the Reform faction in the 1820s and helped plan the Upper Canada Rebellion. As a doctor, h ...

, Commissioner of Crown Lands. On August 9, 1853, this was made official by the Governor General in Council.Natural Resources Canada - Legal Surveys Division, Historical Review
Wemotaci
/ref> But the Atikamekw didn't give up their nomadic life and settle on the reserve. And it wasn't until 1895 that the reserve was surveyed. The construction of a dam and the

National Transcontinental Railway The National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) was a historic railway between Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Moncton, New Brunswick, in Canada. Much of the line is now operated by the Canadian National Railway. The Grand Trunk partnership The completion o ...

led to the growth of the Sanmaur settlement, which in turn attracted the Atikamekw to the reserve at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1939 however, the Hudson's Bay Company left Weymontachingue and due to lack of funding for maintenance of the village, its population stopped growing after 1950, when its inhabitants began to leave and settled either in Sanmaur or in other nearby villages. In the 1970s, the village revitalized. A new village was built closer to its namesake mountain. In 1971, the

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

bought the lands of the Hudson's Bay Company and these were subsequently added to the reserve. In May 2010, many residents of Wemotaci were evacuated as a

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...

threatened their homes.Quebec forest fire force 1,300 from homes -
/ref>

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 ...

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 ...

census * Population in 2016: 1213 * Population in 2001: 1042 * Population in 1996: 856 * Population in 1991: 708 Mother tongue: * English: 0% * French: 3.4% *

: 96.2% * Other: 0.4%

Education

There are two schools on the reserve: * École Seskitin, Pre-Kindergarten to Secondary grade 1 * École Waratinak Nikanik, grades Secondary 1 to Secondary 5

References

External links

Conseil de la Nation Atikamekw
{{authority control Atikamekw Communities in Mauricie Designated places in Quebec Indian reserves in Quebec Hudson's Bay Company trading posts La Tuque, Quebec