Mécatina

The Mécatina country stretches from the wooded northern interior to the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. An Innu word associated with the name describes a great mountain, while the Little Mécatina River is also known to the Innu as Nataukamiu Hipu, the river of broken waters. In 1740 the French granted a coastal concession at Petit Mécatina for trade and seal hunting, adding a European enterprise to a region long used by Indigenous peoples.