Whapmagoostui


Whapmagoostui is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River on the coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavik. About 906 Cree with about 650 Inuit, living in the neighbouring village of Kuujjuarapik. The community is accessible only by air and, in late summer, by boat. Whapmagoostui is about north of the nearest Cree village, Chisasibi.
Although the permanent cohabitation of Inuit and Cree at the mouth of the Great Whale River goes back only 1950, the two nations were rubbing shoulders in the area for a very long time, with the Inuit close to the coast and the Cree more in the interior.

History

The Cree have hunted and fished along the Hudson Bay coast long before the arrival of Europeans, it was not until 1820 when a Hudson's Bay Company trading post was built here, known variously as Great Whale River House, Great Whale River or just Great Whale. On maps of 1851 and 1854, the post is called Whale River House and Whale House. Protestant and Catholic missions settled there in the 1880s. In 1895, a weather station was set up by the Federal Government. Medical and police services began to be offered in the first half of the 20th century. Yet the Cree would not settle here permanently and only used it as a summer encampment.
In 1940 the Cree were forced to give up their nomadic way of life when the American army opened a military air base here. In 1941, the HBC post closed. After the World War II in 1948, the military base was transferred to the Canadian government. And in 1955, it began operating a Mid-Canada Line radar station. Though the radar station was not operational for long and closed in 1965, it established the village permanently.
In 1961, when the Quebec Government decided to give French names to northern settlements, the name Great Whale River was replaced with Grande-Baleine which itself was replaced a year later with Poste-de-la-Baleine. In 1979, the Cree Village Municipality, identified as Whapmagoostoo, was established. The Cree village itself was officially named Whapmagoostui in 1986, from then on replacing all other toponyms.
In 2013, seven young men from the community journeyed for "Nishiyuu", in support of Idle No More.

Demographics

Population:
The Cree School Board operates the Badabin Eeyou School, which includes the Meeyow Bee Nooquow School. In 1982, the school was built, and in 1989, the first high school class graduated.