Île aux Basques

Île aux Basques is a Canadian island located in the lower estuary of the St. Lawrence River, about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Trois-Pistoles, in Les Basques Regional County Municipality of the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec. The island is part of the municipality of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. It is, since its acquisition by Société Provancher in 1929, a protected area as a sanctuary for migratory birds. From 1584 until about 1637 it was occupied several times by the Basques, after whom the island takes its name. Both the lack of space in the Basque Country and the abundance of whales in the St. Lawrence River led to the arrival of the Basque fishermen to the island. The Basque Country was divided between the Crown of France and the Crown of Spain since the 1512 Spanish invasion of the Kingdom of Navarre. A series of wars and invasions led seafarers to explore further inland from the Atlantic Ocean for seals, porpoises and whales. The Basques also practiced trade with the Iroquois and Algonquins, one of the first places where the legacy of these two cultures can be seen. These facts were confirmed by archaeological excavations in the 1990s at various locations on the island. The island is home to Basque and Indigenous sites, four of which are situated along its southern shore. These four sites, or shore camps, resemble similar sites scattered along the shores of the Gulf of

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