Uashat

Uashat, an Innu name meaning “great bay,” lies on the North Shore of the Saint Lawrence at Sept-Îles. Innu families spent winters in their respective inland hunting territories and returned to the coast in spring, travelling by rivers including the Sainte-Marguerite and Moisie. Their summer gathering at Uashat brought together religious practices, festivities, fur trading and preparations for the autumn return inland.

French fur traders established a post at Sept-Îles in the seventeenth century. François Bissot is associated with its early settlement in 1661 and received a concession covering Sept-Îles and other places in 1668. The trade relied on pelts obtained by Innu hunters, while competition between French and English powers exposed the post to attack and reconstruction. British control followed in 1760, but Indigenous travel and labour remained central to the trade.