La Grande Hills

The La Grande Hills lie in the inland country of the La Grande River basin, east of James Bay. The river's Cree name, Chisasibi, and its French name both mean "great river". It rises in the highlands of north-central Quebec and flows roughly 900 km west to James Bay, linking the interior hunting country with the coast. Trading posts reached this country only late in the period. The Hudson's Bay Company operated Big River House on the river between 1803 and 1824, and in 1837 it established the larger post of Fort George on an island at the river's mouth. Before then, the Cree of the James Bay region lived a nomadic life, moving across the hunting grounds of the basin.