Waskaganish

Waskaganish stands at the mouth of the Rupert River, where its waters enter the sheltered southern end of James Bay. The name means “little house” in Cree, recalling a trading post that became a meeting place for the people of the coast and the inland forests. The river leads east through a country of lakes towards Mistassini, long part of a wider Indigenous network of travel and exchange.

In 1668 the English vessel Nonsuch reached Rupert Bay and its crew encountered Cree people before establishing Fort Charles. Trade in furs helped bring about the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. The post changed hands amid English and French rivalry and was largely inactive for much of the eighteenth century. When trade revived, Cree hunters supplied the post with food as well as furs. Competition with the North West Company later gave them opportunities to bargain between rival posts, until the companies merged in 1821.