This region was populated by the largest group of indigenous people known as the Algonquins before the white man arrived. But there was also the Hurons and Iroquois in the south, the Cree in the north and the Ojibway in the west. They were a semi-nomadic tribe who lived from Lake Temiskaming into Algonquin Park and along the Mattawa and Amable Dufond rivers. They used the Mattawa River as an important transportation corridor for many centuries. They were not a very large tribe because many were scattered through this area. They came to fish, hunt, and trap. Many settled in this area after the arrival of the white man.