La Maison amérindienne

Stroll along the maple interpretation trail, step into the vegetable patch, where you can see the Iroquois "Three Sisters” – corn, beans and pumpkins – growing together and helping one another, and visit the wild berry garden, sure to whet your appetite … For the Native meal you reserved before heading out?

Long before Europeans arrived, Natives had discovered how tasty and sweet maple sap could be. Visit the permanent exhibition and learn all about traditional maple syrup making.

In the Salon Riopelle, you can admire artwork and other objects donated to the museum by painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, who was a great outdoor enthusiast and faithful friend of the museum and of the First Nations.  

There are all kinds of fascinating activities to keep you coming back all year long.

• A free festival where you and your family can canoe or kayak down part of the Richelieu River. You’ll be invited to take breaks from paddling along the way and enjoy some “heritage moments”. It’s a terrific way to learn about the role played by the “Iroquois river.”
• Fascinated by New France? During the fur trade fair re-enactment, tents and tipis are pitched in the maple stand. Come meet a host of characters, from Natives to coureurs des bois, a tanner, shoemaker, herbalist, candlemaker, innkeeper, habitant farmer...  
• Once the mercury drops and the trees are ablaze with their fall colours, reserve for a very special Native meal. Learn how the recipe for the cassoulet you’ll be served might well have been invented by the Iroquoians of the Richelieu Valley, who used to simmer beans and duck in clay pots!