ST. JEANS LAKE
St. Jeans Lake is the French name for the lake which was the summaer gathering place of the Algonquin people. In summer, tepees dominated the horizon. The lake became the summering place of villages from the James Bay shores and the Gaspé region. On the plain beside the lake stood the tepees of seventeen tribes each with their own cluster of family clans.
The families from southeast James Bay rowed eastward up the Nemiskou river. Then, portaging southeast, they crossed a divide and followed the water to St. Jean's Lake. The families from the Gaspé region on the St. Lawrence rowed up the Saguenay River.
Cartier tried, and failded, to reach the "Kingdom of Le Saugenay" north of the Hoxhelaga River , which he renamed to be the St. Lawrence.
