Weskarini

The Weskarini were an Algonquin people of the lower Ottawa Valley, whose lands included the watersheds of the Petite Nation, Rouge and Lièvre rivers. French visitors called them the Petite Nation, a name later given to one of their rivers. Their country stretched from the Ottawa into the forested Laurentian hills, where families travelled to hunting grounds and returned to the river for meetings and exchange.

In the seventeenth century the Ottawa route became a focus of war and trade among Indigenous nations and the French. Haudenosaunee attacks forced many Algonquin people away from the main river, and the Weskarini suffered heavily in the conflicts of the 1650s. Some families withdrew into the interior or joined other communities. The passing of the immediate danger allowed Algonquin people to return to hunting grounds in the Ottawa watershed.