Location
Kahnawake is located at the southwest shore where the St. Lawrence River narrows. The territory is described in the native language as "on, or by the rapids" (of the Saint Lawrence River) (in French, it was originally called Sault du St. Louis, also related to the rapids). This term refers to the people's village that was along the natural rapids of the old river, before the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway canal.
The French colony in North America used Kahnawake to form a southwestern defence for Ville-Marie (later Montreal) and placed a military garrison there. The Jesuits founded a mission to administer to local Kahnawake, and provide a base from which to send missionary priests west. Jesuit records give a settlement date of 1719. Kahnawake oral tradition has accounts of an ancestral claim dating back some 10,000 years.
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