La Vérendrye

A trader named Pierre La Vérendrye had built the fort with his sons, before going on to explore and claim the western half of Canada for New France.

On the afternoon of July 5, 1983, three adult supervisors and a group of youngsters set up camp at a popular spot beside Lake Canimina in the fragrant pine forests of western Quebec, about eighty miles north of Ottawa, in a park called La Vérendrye Provincial Reserve.

It must be remembered, however, that there has been considerable contention among historians, not only over the route of the de la Vérendrye brothers, but over the identification of the Gens du Serpent.

In 1742 the de la Vérendrye brothers undertook an expedition into the northern plains of the United States and reported upon the ferocity of a people known to them as the "Gens du Serpent," presumably the Snake, or Shoshone.

Although de la Vérendrye's "Gens du Serpent" can only be presumed to be Shoshone, there is little doubt that the "Snake" of whom Thompson's Blackfoot informant spoke were Shoshone.