Gatineau Valley Historical SocietyChelsea, Québec
The William Fairbairn House: A Witness to Change Along the Gatineau People of the Gatineau Valley
Book excerpt:
"As early as the year 1615, a Jesuit missionary, speaking of a trip up the Ottawa, emphasizes the kindly disposition of the Indians whom he met, and speaks of the small fields of corn and squash they cultivated, in imitation of the Hurons, and of their knowledge in the drying of berries, […].
The Indians who roamed the hills of the Gatineau were those whose trails led them north of the Ottawa and south-east of the Temiskaming, Mattawa and Demoine rivers. The social units comprising the bands were the families which consisted of individuals related by descent and blood, together with other women married to the men of the family. The family name provided a surname for the group. With each group there was a family hunting territory in which all the members shared the rights of hunting and fishing. These hunting lots were more or less fixed tracts of land, whose boundaries were determined by certain rivers, ridges, lakes or other natural landmarks, such as swamps and clumps of cedars or pines. […]. There was a comradeship between families; in many instances the more fortunate in territory conceding favours of fishing and hunting to the less favoured, or same privilege being recognized by a gift of meat or furs. The rights in the hunting territories were inherited paternally and were rigid and permanent, very few changes taking place within the range of tradition. They conserved the game of our forests and their wisdom in that line far surpasses ours. Game was kept account of closely, so that it was known how abundant each kind of animal was - and the killing regulated so as not to deplete the stock. Beaver was made the object of most careful farming. The number of occupants, old and young, to each "cabin" was kept count of. In certain districts moose were protected one year - in other districts the next year.
Marriage was determined by the old people of the families. The wife went to her husband's family and lived there, and the children belonged to the father's family and inherited their paternal rights and territory. The Algonquin Indians lived in bark houses, made with poles and formed in tepee fashion, around which long lengths of birch bark would be wound, working upward. These birch bark lengths could easily be taken down and rolled into smaller space for travelling purposes. Among the Algonquins of the Ottawa and Meech Creek Lake district there was little missionary work done until a late date. Anything that was done was in the nature of travelling with different bands and tribes to their hunting grounds and was often accompanied by great danger to the missionary. Later on there was a mission of Oblate Fathers at River Desert. The Ottawas were the first Indians from the Upper Lakes to trade with the French."
TASSÉ, Joseph: La Vallée de l'Outaouais. Sa Condition Géographique ; ses Ressources Agricoles et Industrielles ; ses Exploitations Forestières ; ses Richesses Minérales ; ses Avantages pour la Colonisation et l'Immigration ; ses Canaux et ses Chemins de Fer. Montréal, Eusèbe Senécal, Imprimeur-éditeur, 1873, 58 p.
Extracts, pp. 13-15:
"Le comté d'Outaouais est immense ; c'est incontestablement l'un des plus grands du pays. Il a une longueur d'environ 65 milles, et comprend plus de soixante cantons, florissants pour la plupart, et de nombreux villages, où règne beaucoup de vie et d'activité, et où se groupera d'ici à quelques années une population considérable.
[...].
Ses lacs sont immenses et peuplés à profusion des meilleures qualités de poisson d'eau douce. La truite, le doré, l'achigau y atteignent des proportions considérables. Aussi la pêche est-elle fort rénumérative [rémunératrice] pour les colons qui, non seulement en tire parti pour leurs familles, mais écoulent avantageusement de grandes quantités de poisson sur les marchés voisins. [...]. Le vison, la loutre, la marte, le castor, le chevreuil, le caribou et l'orignal rodent en grand nombre dans la forêt vierge, et les disciples de Nemrod leur font durant l'hiver une chasse incessante, souvent fort lucrative.
Philemon Wright ne laissa personne pour continuer dignement son oeuvre de colonisation, et pendant longtemps ce territoire resta stationnaire. "Jusqu'à ces dernières années," dit une lettre adressée en 1858 à Mgr. l'Évêque d'Outaouais, "la colonisation sur la Gatineau avait été assez peu importante, surtout sur le haut de la rivière ; c'était à peine si l'on trouvait quelques habitants échelonnés de distance en distance le long de la rivière. Mais l'élan général qui s'est manifesté partout dans ces derniers temps pour cette oeuvre importante, a beaucoup contribué à faire connaître ces contrées que les exploitants de bois seuls avaient parcouru[es]. On commence maintenant à y compter un bon nombre de familles, et je puis dire que la plupart des colons qui sont venus s'y établir s'y trouvent heureux et sont bien dédommagés des premiers sacrifices qu'ils ont fait[s] par les bonnes récoltes qu'ils ont recueillies."