New York. When converted Catholic Mohawk moved to the Montreal area, they named the new settlement after their former one. The proximity of the Lachine Rapids also influenced their naming decision. Location Kahnawake is located on the southwest shore where the Saint Lawrence River narrows. The territory is described in the native language as "on, or by the rapids" (of the Saint Lawrence River) (in French, it was originally called Sault du St-Louis, also related to the rapids). This term refers to their village being located along the natural rapids of the St. Lawrence. But in the mid-20th century, the path of the river was changed with construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway canal and the people lost access to the river. The French colony of New France used Kahnawake as part of a southwestern defence for Ville-Marie (later Montreal) and placed a military garrison there. The Jesuits founded a mission to administer to local Mohawk and other First Nations. This was also a base for those missionary priests who were sent to the west. Jesuit records give a settlement date of 1719. Historical land claim Kahnawake was created under what was known as the Seigneurie du Sault-Saint-Louis, a territory which the French Crown granted in 1680 to the Jesuits to "protect" and "nurture" those Mohawk newly converted to Catholicism. When the seigneury was granted, the government intended the territory to be closed to European settlement. But the Jesuits assumed rights as seigneurs of the Sault, and permitted French and other European colonists to settle there and collected their rents. The Jesuits managed the seigneury until April 1762, after the British defeated France in the Seven Years' War and took over their territory east of the Mississippi River in New France. The new British governor, Thomas Gage, ordered the reserve to be entirely and exclusively vested in the Mohawk, under the supervision of the Indian Department. Despite repeated complaints by the Mohawk, many government agents continued to allow non-Native encroachment, and mismanaged the lands and rents. Surveyors were found to have modified some old maps at the expense of the Kahnawake people. From the late 1880s until the 1950s, the Mohawk were required by the government to make numerous land cessions to enable construction of railway, hydro-electric, and telephone company industrial projects along the river. As a result, Kahnawake today has only . In the late 20th century, the Mohawk