August 25, 2013:

The Petite Nation Seigneury was founded during the French Regime in 1674 but white settlement did not begin 
until the early 1800's. Before this time, the territory was used exclusively by the Algonquin Nation and during the 
fur trade, French voyageurs and natives used the rivers as transportation corridors. 

The Algonquin band along the Petite Nation River was called the Weskarini. When Samuel de Champlain made his first voyage up the 
Ottawa River in 1613, the chief of the Weskarini was named Iroquet. (Source: Peter Hessel, The Algonkin Nation).
In 1624, the Recollet missionary, Gabriel Sagard, visited the Weskarini on his way downriver from Huronia. Here are his comments
about the Weskarini First Nation:

 September 21, 2013:
Source for text below is Sagard's Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons, page 263.



An archaeological site exists at where the Petite Nation River joins the Ottawa River near the village of Plaisance, Quebec. 
The family of Louis Joseph Papineau acquired the entire Petite Nation Seigneury in 1801 and constructed their manor at Montebello. 
European settlement began immediately and the western timber rights were rented to Thomas Mears from Hawkesbury. 

In later years, heavy emigration from Petite Nation sent hundreds of French families across the Ottawa River to 
settle in Ontario Townships along the north shore of the Ottawa River. See for example Plantagenet Townships. 
Several French speaking families from Petite Nation came to Bytown in the late 1820's to work at construction of the 
Rideau Canal and also in the lumbering industry and later to farm there. 
My Irish Burns family are related to the Potvins who lived at Dow's Lake in the 1830's.
Both of these families became neighbours in Osgoode Township in the 1840's.

Many of these families, mostly French, are recorded in the registers of Notre Dame Cathedral in downtown 
Ottawa. Here is an example:

1 July 1846
After two publications of banns, marriage of Edouard Brule of Bytown, adult son of Alexis Brule and Genevieve Thomas 
of the Petite Nation, to Zepherine Brunet, minor daughter of Janvier Brunet and Narcisse Pilon of Bytown.
Witnesses: Thomas Brule, brother of the groom, & Janvier Brunet, father of the bride
Source: transcription of Notre Dame records by Ellen Paul.



August 26, 2013:
There is much confusion regarding the names and territories occupied by the Algonquin and Iroquois nations at different times
in the history of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. Sometimes there are Iroquois in the area of the St. Lawrence River downriver 
from Montreal (at the time of Jacques Cartier). Then they disappear completely and re-appear in the Georgian Bay area of Ontario,
but they are called Hurons by then (in Champlain's time). Their main base becomes Upper New York State, USA, in the Finger Lakes 
area south of Lake Ontario.

The earliest references appear in the Jesuit Relations in the 1600's. Some of these entries are unclear and have been refuted by later 
contemporary explorers as well as by twentieth century scholars. 

What we do know is that we think that the Weskarini, Algonquins, of the Petite Nation (the Montebello area) were there in 
the earliest days.

But here's the question: What relationship (if any) did they have with the aboriginal people who lived along the south side of the Ottawa River,
in, for example, Plantagenet  and Alfred Townships. Were these folks Algonquins or were they Iroquois who had spread north along the Scotch River and 
the Nation River. (See Indian Lands on our page at Glengarry Township . There is an archaeological dig near the village 
of Pendleton . This site is called the Lamoureux Site (BiFs-2). 
Are these remains Algonquin or Iroquois? This is prime farmland, perfect for the Iroquois agricultural way of life. As you can see
in the photograph above, the Petite Nation Seignory was more suited to a hunting and fishing society of the Algonquins.

I'll have more questions on this subject over the next while. All of the tributaries of the Ottawa River supported aboriginal bands.
For example, west of the city of Ottawa, the Matouescarini inhabited the lands along the Madawaska River.





1. The Roman Catholic Church called "Notre Dame de Bon Secours" is located at Petite Nation. Very early Catholic records exist 
for this church which was originally a mission church of Montreal. This church sent missionaries to places as far west as 
Fort Coulonge before the arrival of Philomen Wright at Hull in 1800.

2. Lac Simon (probably named for the Algonquin family named Simon (married into the Algonquin family named Bernard).
This lake was formerly called "Lac des Sables". There was a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur trade post at Lac des Sables well into the 1840's. 
Lac des Sables can be easily accessed by canoe from the Ottawa River by either the Petite Nation River or by the Lievre River. The Lievre 
River drains into the Ottawa River at Buckingham, Quebec.

3. Why did the Hurons (supposedly Iroquois) join with Samuel de Champlain and the Algonquins to fight the Iroquois in up-state New York?

4. The following picture is of Lawrence Burns, my grandfather's brother. Where was he trapping in the 1920's to acquire the two fox pelts?
   The Burns had a long history of going to the lumber shanties on the Lievre River.



Reference Works: 
History of the Outaouais, by Chad Gaffield, Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture,
Published by Institut quebecois de recherche sur la culture, 1997, ISBN 9782892242713. This is a terrific book!

"Of Poverty and Helplessness in Petite Nation", in Canadian Historical Review 52, 1971.

The Algonkin Tribe: The Algonkins of the Ottawa Valley, An Historical Outline, by Peter Hessel, Kichesippi Books, Arnprior, 
ISBN 0-921082-01-0




"Aux Origines de l'industrie forestière en Outaouais: l'exemple des travailleurs embauchés par Robert Fletcher en 1809 pour travailler 
dans la Petite-Nation", article in Construire une capitale - OTTAWA - Making a Capital, edited by Jeff Keshen and Nicole St-Onge, 
University of Ottawa Press, 2001, (article written by Isabelle Charron and Nicole St-Onge), pages 39-58.

Robert Fletcher was one of the very early lumberers in the Ottawa Valley. He came from Vermont, USA, and aquired timber rights to the
western part of La Petite Nation. By 1809 he was hiring men to work in the bush and on the rafts.

The Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society Library contains the early church records from Notre Dame de Bons Secours but
some of their records are also recorded at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa. See the publication "Mariages de L’Outouais (Vol. I and Vol. II), 
Montebello(1815); St-Andre-Avellin(1851); Papineauville(1853); Angers(1864); Thurso(1864); Perkins(1883); Masson(1887); 
St-Sixte(1891); Val-des-Bois(1891). See the OBOGS Library Catalogue.