Iroquoian vase of about 700 years old found by Jean-Louis Courteau during a dive in Lac-des-Seize-Îles in 2014.photography : Guy Couture, Centre de conservation du Québec.
This territory would have known its first inhabitants, the Bouclerians, nearly 6,000 years ago. The Cree, Algonquin, Anishinabe and Innu Indigenous peoples are the direct descendants of the Bouclerians. Thanks to recent archaeological excavations, we are beginning to sketch a portrait of the presence of the First Nations before colonization. Thus, 20 kilometres away, in Lac-des-Seize-Îles, Iroquois and Huron vases, dating back 500 and 700 years respectively, have been found, precious witnesses to the region's settlements at that time.
European culture, the fur trade, and the exploitation of forest resources, not to mention evangelization, have had a significant impact on the way of life of the Indigenous peoples and the traditional occupation of their territories. The consequence was the abandonment of semi-nomadism by the people who wentup the Red and North rivers in the fall. The history of human presence in the township before the arrival of the first Irish settlers at Lac Echo in 1848 remains to be discovered.