Fort Severn 89 | |
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Indian reserve | |
Fort Severn Indian Reserve No. 89 | |
Coordinates: 55°59′N 87°38′W / 55.983°N 87.633°WCoordinates: 55°59′N 87°38′W / 55.983°N 87.633°W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Ontario |
District | Kenora |
First Nation | Fort Severn |
Area | |
• Land | 44.09 km2 (17.02 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 334 |
• Density | 7.6/km2 (20/sq mi) |
Website | fortsevern.firstnation.ca |
Fort Severn First Nation is a Cree First Nation band government located on Hudson Bay and is the most northern community in Ontario, Canada. In 2001, the population was 401, consisting of 90 families in an area of 40 square kilometres. The legal name of the reserve is Fort Severn 89, with the main settlement of Fort Severn.
The town is linked by winter/ice road called the Wapusk Trail the winter to Peawanuck, Ontario in the east, and Shamattawa and Gillam, Manitoba to the west.
Fort Severn is policed by the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service, an Aboriginal-based service.
This area was inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. At the time of European contact, the historic Swampy Cree, and Algonquian-speaking people, lived in the area.
In 1689 the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Severn at this site; it was one of the earliest English fur trading posts in the New World. After years of international competition between the English and French, with their wars playing out in North America, the French attacked the outpost and pillaged it in 1782 when they were allies of the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War.