Wemindji

Wemindji (Cree: ᐐᒥᓂᒌ/Wîminicî) is a small Cree community on Paint Hills Bay off James Bay at the mouth of the Maquatua River in Quebec. The community has a population of 1238 people (2001 Canadian census).

Wemindji (Cree for “red ochre mountain”) gets its name from the red pigment found in the hills surrounding it. It has also been known as “Nouveau-Comptoir”.

Wemindji is a fairly new community comprising Cree families originally living at the trading post on an island in the Vieux-Comptoir River, known as Vieux-Comptoir or its English equivalent “Old Factory”. This post was founded in the seventeenth century and was alternately under British or French control. In 1959 the community was relocated about 45 km north to its present location. The current chief is Dennis Georgekish.

Wemindji is accessible by air and, since 1995, by car over a gravel road linking it to the James Bay Road.