Meductic

Mehtawtik, or Meductic, was a principal village of the Wolastoqiyik on the western bank of the Wolastoq. Its name means “end of the trail”: a portage from the village led to waterways reaching into the interior. The surrounding lands offered good hunting and fishing as well as fertile soil. Families came in spring to plant maize and returned for the harvest, an occasion for gatherings and ceremonies.

French visitors reached Meductic in the seventeenth century, and a Catholic mission and chapel were established in the village. During the colonial wars the Wolastoqiyik allied with France and built defensive earthworks here. In the 1780s, after Britain took control and Loyalist settlers moved into the river valley, many Wolastoqiyik began to leave their village and seek refuge elsewhere.