A group of Algonquin demonstrators is accusing Quebec police of hurting a man and a little girl while breaking up a peaceful highway blockade on Monday, even as police accuse the protesters of violence that made tear gas necessary.

About 50 protesters of all ages from the Barriere Lake reserve, about 300 kilometres north of Ottawa, shut down Highway 117 for most of the day near Grand-Remous, where the highway joins du Lac Rapide Road in La Vérandrye wildlife reserve.

The highway is the sole direct route between the Abitibi region and the rest of Quebec. Riot police used tear gas to break up the protest late in the afternoon.

Quebec provincial police spokeswoman Melanie Larouche said police used tear gas only after giving protesters a verbal warning.

"We did a line in front of them and they became very violent at that time," she said. "They took cement blocks and they broke them on the road, and they took the pieces of cement in their hands."

Michel Thusky, a spokesman for the protesters, maintained that police were not being provoked when they began launching tear gas at the group, which included children, the disabled and the elderly.

Protesters said a three-year-old girl was hurt when she was hit by a tear-gas canister, as was a man who had to be hospitalized. Others required oxygen treatment, they said.

The group was protesting because they say the Canadian and Quebec governments are not respecting economic development and resource management agreements within their territory. They were also demanding that the federal government appoint an observer to oversee the selection of a new chief for the reserve, and said the blockade would continue until those demands were met.

Thusky said Tuesday that protesters were forced to reopen the road because their children were being hurt, but he added that the community will keep using pressure tactics until the provincial government agrees to meet with them.