Team continues quest for lost Hochelaga village

The hunt for the lost Hochelaga village is continuing this month, as digs are set to begin in three Outremont parks on Monday.

The excavations are part of the Hochelaga project, an initiative organized by Université de Montréal and funded by the city of Montreal and Quebec’s ministry of culture.

One of the three-year project’s objectives is to document the Indigenous presence in Montreal before the arrival of Europeans. The second objective, which archeologist Christian Gates St-Pierre says is less realistic, is to find the famous Hochelaga village.

In mid-July, the Hochelaga project searched Outremont and Pratt Parks. No Indigenous artifacts were found, but some 19thcentury ceramic, metal and glass objects turned up, Gates St-Pierre said.

Gates St-Pierre and his team of six or seven students are continuing the search in Outremont. Three parks — Beaubien, François-Xavier-Garneau and Oakwood — will undergo preliminary archeological surveys. The parks will remain open, as the searches will only require holes that are 50 square centimetres wide.

“Citizens are welcome to come see us dig, ask us questions. We’d be happy to answer,” Gates St-Pierre said.

Hochelaga village was home to the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, who lived in the region from the 14th century until about 1580. When Jacques Cartier came to Montreal in 1535, he wrote about finding a village at the foot of Mount Royal — but he was unspecific about where, exactly, it was located, Gates StPierre said.

“The European, or Euro- Québécois presence, or ‘white’ presence, is well-documented, but the Indigenous presence, much less,” said Gates St-Pierre, who teaches anthropology at Université de Montréal. “We want to correct that omission with this project.”

After the searches in August, the archeological team will spend the year analyzing their findings and will produce a report. Next year, the team will either return to the same sites or go elsewhere in their search for the Hochelaga village.

Gates St-Pierre said he hopes McGill University gives the group permission to search its campus because he said there is likelihood of finding artifacts there.