Oka is a small village on the northern bank of the Ottawa River (Rivière des Outaouais in French), northwest of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Located in the Laurentians valley on Lake of Two Mountains, where the Ottawa has its confluence with the St. Lawrence River, the town is connected via Quebec Route 344. It is located 50 km (30 miles) west of Montreal. The area was first established in 1721 by Roman Catholic Sulpician Fathers as a mission to serve the needs of Mohawk, Algonquin and Nipissing converts as well as of French settlers. In 1730, the mission site was moved about 1.5 km west along the shore to Pointe d'Oka (Oka's Point) close to where the first stone church was built in 1733, and around which church evolved the village that eventually became known as Oka. The Mohawks had been assigned to a west-side village that eventually became known as Kanesatake whereas the Algonquins and Nipissings had been assigned to an adjacent east-side village. Kanesatake's status is as interim land base within the meaning of the Constitution Act, 1867, and not as indian reserve within the meaning of the Indian Act. History Pre-crisis habitation Oka is historically connected to the Sulpicians' two first Amerindian missions on Montreal island, the initial mission of La Montagne established in 1676 that was moved to Sault-au-Récollets mission established in 1696. This culminated in the King of France in 1718 granting the Sulpicians a concession named seigneurie du Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes with the view to relocating the Sault-au-Récollets Amerindian converts to new mission facilities located east of the Ottawa River at the confluence with Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes. The move from the Sault-au-Récollet mission to the Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes mission started in 1721 and was completed the next year. The Sulpicians' seigneurie du Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes was conditional on the Indians not abandoning the lands, failing which they would revert to the Crown, and was subject to the Sulpicians being indemnified by being given proprietorship of the land because of the need to construct a fort. Final concession was given in 1718. In 1721, under the direction of the Sulpician Maurice Quéré de Tréguron, Algonquin and Iroquois groups relocated on the north shore of Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes and on the east shore of the Ottawa River. The chosen site was advantageous for the conversion of the Indians and for their defense and that of the colony. To prepare their installation, the Sulpician M. Robert-Michel Gay, who