Samaqua

The Samaqua flows south through the forests north of Lac Saint-Jean, running alongside the Mistassini for much of its course before joining it. Its name comes from an Innu word meaning “flattened” or “crushed”. The surrounding river country was travelled by Ilnu families moving between the lake and northern hunting grounds. On eighteenth-century French maps the larger Mistassini was shown as the Rivière aux Sables, leading towards the interior beyond Pekuakami.