AUCHAGAH (the name is written thus in La Vérendrye’s journal, but is sometimes spelled Ochagach or Ochakah, Ochagac), a Cree who frequented Fort Kaministiquia, fur trading establishment of Pierre Gaultier* de La Vérendrye; fl. 1729.

Questioned by La Vérendrye about means of reaching the fabled “Western Sea,” Auchagah sketched for him a map showing, among others, the Grand Portage–Nantoüagan (Pigeon River) route. He evidently held this to be superior to the Kaministiquia River route hitherto followed by the few European travellers who had ventured beyond Lake Superior.

Writing to Beauharnois* de La Boische, governor of New France, in 1729, La Vérendrye calls Auchagah “the man most capable of guiding a party and with whom there would be no fear of our being abandoned on the way.” Auchagah agreed to act as guide, though it is not known whether he did accompany La Vérendrye when he journeyed over the suggested route in 1732. The new route pleased the explorer and the Kaministiquia one was thereafter abandoned.

The route suggested by Auchagah thus became the great highway to the northwest. At its eastern end, long the fur traders’ rendezvous, there came into being Grand Portage, the imposing western headquarters of the North West Company. In 1783 the Pigeon River became a part of the international boundary, and the commerce of the Northwest reverted to the “all-Canadian” Kaministiquia route.

K. R. Macpherson