The indigenous people, coming from the Great Lakes via the French and Mattawa Rivers, used the Dumoine as an alternate northern route to reach trading partners in the Mauricie, Quebec City and Atlantic regions. From portage to portage between the lakes and rivers, they would reach Lake "Caouinagamic" (probably modern-day Obedjiwan, which in turn became subsumed in the Gouin Reservoir), the source of the Saint-Maurice River, which would lead them in turn down to Trois Rivières on the St. Lawrence River, thereby avoiding the Outaouais region and Montreal, which were subject to raids by the Iroquois.