Treaty No. 9: Making the Agreement to Share the Land in Far Northern Ontario in 1905 9780773581357

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Tables
Foreword
Meegwetch
Introduction
PART ONE: Historical Context
1 Treaty-Making before 1905
2 Requests for Annuities, 1884–1905
3 Planning and Negotiating, 1901–1905
4 Ratification and Early Implementation
5 Treaty-Making Resumes
6 Sharing the Land
Conclusion to Part One
PART TWO: Historical Documents
Introduction
7 The Treaty Party and the Sources
8 Beginnings
9 Lac Seul (Obishikokaang)
10 Osnaburgh (Mishkeegogamang)
11 Fort Hope (Eabametoong)
12 Marten Falls
13 English River
14 Fort Albany
15 Moose Factory
16 New Post
17 Abitibi
18 Endings
19 The Last of the Indian Treaties
20 The Treaty Doctor’s Report
21 Education
22 Formal Treaty Documents
PART THREE: Trick or Treaty No. 9?
23 Making the Agreement to Share the Land in 1905
24 Parchments and Promises
Afterword
APPEDICES
Historiography
Terminology
An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs
Credits for the Figures
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y

Citation preview

t r e aty

No. 9

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Rupert’s Land Record Society Series jennifer s.h. brown, Editor

1 The English River Book A North West Company Journal and Account Book of 1786 Edited by Harry W. Duckworth 2 A Country So Interesting The Hudson’s Bay Company and Two Centuries of Mapping, 1670–1870 Richard I. Ruggles 3 Arctic Artist The Journal and Paintings of George Back, Midshipman with Franklin, 1819–1822 Edited by C. Stuart Houston Commentary by I.S. MacLaren 4 Ellen Smallboy Glimpses of a Cree Woman’s Life Regina Flannery 5 Voices from Hudson Bay Cree Stories from York Factory Compiled and edited by Flora Beardy and Robert Coutts 6 North of Athabasca Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Documents of the North West Company, 1800–1821 Edited with an Introduction by Lloyd Keith 7 From Barrow to Boothia The Arctic Journal of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease, 1836-1839 Edited and annotated by William Barr

8 My First Years in the Fur Trade The Journals of 1802–1804 George Nelson Edited by Laura Peers and Theresa Schenck 9 The Spirit Lives in the Mind Omushkego Stories, Lives, and Dreams Louis Bird Edited and Compiled by Susan Elaine Gray 10 Memories, Myths, and Dreams of an Ojibwe Leader William Berens as told to A. Irving Hallowell Edited and with Introductions by Jennifer S.H. Brown and Susan Elaine Gray 11 Letters from Rupert’s Land, 1826–1840 James Hargrave of the Hudson’s Bay Company Edited by Helen E. Ross 12 Treaty No. 9 Making the Agreement to Share the Land in Far Northern Ontario in 1905 John S. Long

t r e aty

No. 9 Making the Agreement to Share the Land in Far Northern Ontario in 1905

john s. long

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston

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London

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Ithaca

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McGill-Queen’s University Press 2010 isbn 978-0-7735-3760-6 (cloth) isbn 978-0-7735-3761-3 (paper) Legal deposit fourth quarter 2010 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funds have also been received from Nipissing University. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Long, John, 1948– Treaty no. 9 : making the agreement to share the land in far northern Ontario in 1905 / John S. Long. (Rupert’s Land Record Society series ; 12) Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-0-7735-3760-6 (bound). isbn 978-0-7735-3761-3 (pbk.) 1. Canada. Treaties, etc. 1905 July 12. 2. Cree Indians–Ontario–Treaties--History. 3. Ojibwa Indians–Ontario–Treaties–History. 4. Cree Indians–Ontario–Government relations. 5. Ojibwa Indians–Ontario–Government relations. 6. Indians of North America–Canada–Government relations– 1860–1951. 7. Aboriginal title–Canada. I. Title. II. Series: Rupert’s Land Record Society series ; 12. ke7715.l66 2010

346.7104'3208997

c2010-904356-1

kf5660.l66 2010

This book was designed and typeset by studio oneonone in Sabon 10/13 Frontispiece: Sahquakegick, or Louis Espagnol, chief of the Spanish River band (now Sagamok Anishnawbek), whose non-treaty members were admitted to Treaty No. 9’s Mattagami and Flying Post bands in 1906.

For Kelly, Weston, Shania, Kianna, Skylar, Raya, and all the people of Treaty No. 9

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Contents

Illustrations • xi Tables • xiv Foreword norm f. wesley Meegwetch • xvii Introduction • 3

part o ne Historical Context

part t wo Historical Documents

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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Treaty-Making before 1905 • 17 Requests for Annuities, 1884–1905 • 36 Planning and Negotiating, 1901–1905 • 48 Ratification and Early Implementation • 68 Treaty-Making Resumes • 84 Sharing the Land • 92 Conclusion to Part One • 105

Introduction • 107 The Treaty Party and the Sources • 109 Beginnings • 122 Lac Seul (Obishikokaang) • 137 Osnaburgh (Mishkeegogamang) • 157 Fort Hope (Eabametoong) • 175 Marten Falls • 193 English River • 203 Fort Albany • 214 Moose Factory • 227 New Post • 253 Abitibi • 272 Endings • 281 The Last of the Indian Treaties • 288 The Treaty Doctor’s Report • 299 Education • 307 Formal Treaty Documents • 315

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part three Trick or Treaty No. 9?

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appendices

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contents

Making the Agreement to Share the Land in 1905 • 329 Parchments and Promises • 354 Afterword pauline m.r. rickard

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Historiography • 381 Terminology • 385 An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs

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Credits for the Figures Notes • 415 Bibliography • 521 Index • 577

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Illustrations

I.1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 9.1 9.2 9.3 10.1

nan/treaty First Nation community locations • 11 Commissioners’ fleet landing at Long Lake, 1906 • 19 Feast at Mattagami, 1906 • 22 Some approximate treaty areas • 26 Jabez Williams • 39 Macrae’s map, 1901 • 45 Louis Espagnol, or Sahquakegick, 1906 • 46 Louis McDougall, 1906 • 46 Canadian jurisdictions, 1900–5 • 49 Transcontinental railways, c.1906 • 54 The camp barber at Flying Post, 1906 • 62 Surveying the Osnaburgh reserves, 1910 • 73 Esau Omakees and family, c.1907 • 77 Unceded land, c.1913 • 87 The commissioners’ map with the line ab, 1930 • 88 Andrew Rickard • 94 The official treaty party at Fort Albany, 3 August 1905 • 109 Sample page from Scott’s journal • 112 Sample page from Stewart’s diary • 114 Sample page from MacMartin’s diary • 116 Scott and Stewart at the source of Root River • 118 Poling on the Abitibi River • 119 Edmund Morris painting Chief Cheesequini at Chapleau, 1906 Scott and Stewart in canoe • 120 Jimmy Swain • 126 Harry Black • 126 At Ishkaqua Portage • 126 Isaac Ritch • 126 Dinorwic to Lac Seul • 127 Group at Lac Seul • 140 Old Wolf, Lac Seul • 143 Lac Seul to Lake St Joseph • 151 Chief Missabay • 157

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120

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10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 14.1 14.2

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illustrations

Lake St Joseph • 161 Approaching Osnaburgh House • 161 Signatures at Osnaburgh (Canada’s copy) • 163 Signatures at Osnaburgh (Ontario’s copy) • 163 Joe Carpenter and family • 165 Preparing for the feast at Osnaburgh • 165 Women and children at Osnaburgh • 166 Atikokiwam Lake to Eabamet Lake • 171 Moonias • 175 Signatures at Fort Hope (Canada’s copy) • 178 Signatures at Fort Hope (Ontario’s copy) • 179 Men and boys at Fort Hope • 181 Women and children at Fort Hope i • 181 Feast at Fort Hope • 183 Women and children at Fort Hope ii • 185 Men at Fort Hope • 186 Eabamet Lake to Ogoki Forks • 187 York boat and canoe on Lake Eabamet • 188 Two York boats and canoe on Lake Eabamet • 188 Marten Falls hbc post • 193 Signatures at Marten Falls (Canada’s copy) • 195 Signatures at Marten Falls (Ontario’s copy) • 195 Ogoki to Mammamattawa • 199 English River hbc post • 203 Gift-giving at English River • 206 Group at English River • 207 Mammamattawa to Fort Albany • 209 Elder, Albany River • 211 Miikiwaam, Albany River • 213 Signatures at Fort Albany (Canada’s copy) • 218 Signatures at Fort Albany (Ontario’s copy) • 218

illustrations

14.3 14.4 14.5 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 16.9 17.1 17.2 19.1 20.1 21.1 21.2 23.1 23.2 24.1 24.2

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Feast at Fort Albany • 221 Portion of syllabic message • 223 Western James Bay • 225 James Bay hunting territories, c.1880 • 229 Signatures at Moose Factory (Canada’s copy) • 233 Signatures at Moose Factory (Ontario’s copy) • 233 Outside the commissioners’ tent, Moose Factory • 235 Elders at Moose Factory • 236 Inside the commissioners’ tent, Moose Factory • 239 Moose Factory to New Post • 244 Crew from Moose Factory to Abitibi • 244 Young Smallboy • 245 New Post hbc • 254 Signatures at New Post (Canada’s copy) • 258 Signatures at New Post (Ontario’s copy) • 258 Sketch of Taquatagama Lake, or Big Lake • 258 New Post to Frederick House Forks • 262 Frederick House Forks to Lake Abitibi • 262 Granny’s Rock • 263 Daniel [Wascowin?] • 265 Chief Esau Omakees and New Post volunteers • 266 Abitibi hbc post • 272 Lake Abitibi to Mattawa • 276 Mrs Mooniahwenini and children • 296 Letitia Newnham Cottage Hospital, Moose Factory • 300 Bishop’s residence, Moose Factory • 308 Pre-treaty residential school and hospital, Fort Albany • 308 At the feast, Mattagami, 1906 • 341 The Treaty No. 9 territory • 343 The temporal or fidelity lens • 365 The changing relationships lens • 366

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tables

tables I.1 Nishnawbe Aski Nation/treaty affiliations in far northern Ontario and Quebec • 12 6.1 nan/treaty First Nation population (on- and off-reserve) • 103 18.1 Expenses for 1905 • 286 18.2 Expenses for 1906 • 287 24.1 The parchment versus the commissioners • 358 24.2 Implementing the promises • 359

Foreword

He sits stoically and motionless, casting glances at the unfamiliar surroundings of the large room, taking in what few of his people would ever see, only those who would be summoned by the chief factor on the matter of unpaid debt to the Company. Nine others are with him, “selected to represent the Indians of Albany,” to hear first-hand the words of the commissioner on the matter of the much-talkedabout treaty. The words that are spoken carry no new meaning to them. The ten assembled have heard previously from those upriver: “That the King … wished all … to be happy and prosperous … a tract of land … and money to be paid each year.” As two speak at length in response, his thoughts wander. What could this mean? How could this be wrong? Assurances that they can continue their way of life are a good thing, along with land where they will not be molested by the growing number of newcomers. This is my grandfather, Patrick Stephen, on 3 August 1905 at Albany Post, as I imagine him in the presence of commissioner Duncan Campbell Scott. Patrick is a young man just starting a family of his own. He has come in from his traditional grounds at Kinosheo (Pike) Lake, 70 kilometres inland from James Bay and 15 kilometres south of the Albany River, to trade his furs and restock a few supplies for the coming winter. Four winters later in February, in the month we know as the Great Moon, my mother will be born. What will this treaty mean to her and her children? I recall speaking to her once about the treaty and telling her that the reserve lands were in exchange for giving up all the land. I remember her response. She shrugged off the idea, saying, “How this could be? How would we live off such a small parcel of land?” The matter of the treaty has been a long-standing debate around the table of chiefs and government officials over the years. I can attest that, in my time as councillor and chief of the Moose Cree First Nation and as chairman of the Mushkegowuk Council, the matter of the treaty has been hotly debated and contested. We were, and continue to be, adamant that the treaty is a testament to our people’s understanding, which is to coexist with the newcomers, to be protected, and to grow and prosper. Elders have held steadfast to the words of Duncan Campbell Scott, holding them in the same high esteem as they did the Union Jack and the king whose promise was to see to our well-being.

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foreword

Some are likely to ask how that generation could have not known the depth and scope of what they committed our people to – “to cede, release, surrender and yield up … all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to the lands.” Aside from the reality that the likes of my grandfather lived in a different world, the real answer comes to light in this book. It will vindicate our grandfathers and validate our belief that the government of the day and those commissioned to seek treaty acted with deceit and deception. Treaty No. 9 is an in-depth look at the other side of this story: the prolonged negotiations between Canada and Ontario to come to terms on the wording of the treaty; a who’s who of the Treaty Commission and their journals; a witness to their inner thoughts on the rugged beauty of the land and their disdain of the people. John S. Long’s lifelong passion in searching out the truth about the treaty carries us to a new crossroad. Through the very words of Duncan Campbell Scott, he reveals their inner truths: the anxiety of the commission in the challenge to explain to the Cree and Ojibwe in a clear and succinct way, the desire to have the people relinquish title to a vast frontier so that the Dominion could grow and prosper. Since I met John in the 1970s as a fellow teacher, we have grown to become brothers over the years. He has earned the trust of many through his devotion and service to our people. I commend John as a brother and as a friend to many across the north for his new book Treaty No. 9 for unveiling the truth, especially about those who took pen to hand to make their mark of the cross, like Patrick Stephen, whose reassuring thoughts must have echoed in his mind: “What harm could this do to the generations to come?” Treaty No. 9 is a must-read for those who search for truth and desire to be taken back in time to experience and know the real story of what Treaty No. 9 meant to the other side. Gi-na-nas-ko-mi-tin (I thank you), John, for this gift to us. Norm F. Wesley grandson of Patrick Stephen, signatory to Treaty No. 9

Meegwetch

I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who have helped me to write this book. My recently deceased parents believed in post-secondary education and advised their four children that it didn’t matter what kind of work we did, as long as we helped people. They visited me in Moose Factory and Moosonee several times, frequently asked about my work “with the Indians,” and were always glad to meet my friends from Ontario’s far north. I am forever thankful to the people of Moose Factory and Moosonee for accepting me into their communities in 1972, at the start of my teaching career. When I worked for the Mushkegowuk Council, from 1986 to 1993, I was privileged to spend time and make friends with people in more northerly Cree communities, whose hospitality I will never forget. As a freelance researcher and consultant, I was fortunate to be able to work with several other First Nations in far northern Ontario. And I will always be grateful to the people of Kashechewan for inviting me into their community as high school principal from 1997 to 2000. Many Cree friends, too numerous to mention, have helped me to learn about Treaty No. 9, and other aspects of their history, over the years. The late Munroe Linklater, as chief of the Moose Band (now Moose Cree First Nation), generously wrote me a letter of authorization for my archival research. Chief Ernest Rickard and his council approved my request to begin recording oral traditions from their members, and Norm Wesley generously helped me to do it. I appreciate Alfred Carpenter’s generosity in sharing a windigo story that was recorded and translated in 1984 with funds provided by the Canadian Ethnology Service, National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization), whose support is also gratefully acknowledged. The staff of the Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre (where Alfred’s narrative is on deposit, along with many others) were always helpful; special thanks to executive director Diane Riopel for permission to publish a photo from their collection. Luke Hunter, director of treaty research for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (nan), found time to read a first draft of this manuscript and encouraged me to publish it. Lawrence (Logan) Jeffries provided helpful comments. Pat Ningewance Nadeau, chiefs Jonathan Solomon and Norm Hardisty, and former chief Dwight Sutherland generously provided comments, while Connie Gray-McKay permitted me to quote from her First Nation’s website; in other cases I relied on publicly available information. Meegwetch missaway (thank you, everyone).1

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meegwetch

My gratitude is no less to Richard J. Preston and Jennifer S.H. Brown, longtime colleagues, good friends, and valued scholars; I extend my thanks for their mentorship over three decades. (The method I use in this study was inspired by Preston’s own example of “think[ing] about it a lot.”)2 I also acknowledge many other scholars who, over the years, have helped me to understand – often at the annual Algonquian Conference – the histories, cultures, and languages of the peoples of northern Ontario. Any student of Treaty No. 9 is indebted to James Morrison’s pioneering research. I found Arthur Ray and Donald Freeman’s “Give Us Good Measure,” Ray’s Canadian Fur Trade in the Industrial Age, Richard White’s Middle Ground, and J.R. Miller’s Compact, Contract, Covenant especially useful. My grade eleven history teacher was so “deadly,” as my Moose Factory friends might say, that I didn’t ever want to take another history course. In the late 1960s I became interested in anthropology and then “Indians” when I attended courses taught by Tom Abler and Sal Weaver at the University of Waterloo. After teachers’ college and prior to that first teaching position, I had a summer job in Ottawa; when a member of the Moose Factory school staff wrote that the community’s tricentennial was approaching and asked me to see what I could find about its history in the archives, I discovered some of the records now examined in chapters 2 and 3 of this book. Later, I resumed my study of history under the guidance of Hesh Troper, David Levine, Allison Prentice, and others at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. I still vividly recall a guest speaker in Sal Weaver’s class who posed the rhetorical question, “When did we [Indians] join Canada?” It is a question that is central to this book: when did our hosts, and then our allies, consent to being wards or subjects and have their lives dictated by the Indian Act? In the late 1970s Munroe Linklater erupted in frustration at a Ministry of Education meeting designed to address school board governance in Moose Factory and Moosonee. One of the ministry’s legal advisers kept talking about “the Indians” in a detached way, until Munroe forcefully reminded him that the Indians weren’t hiding in the bushes somehere, but were “right here in the room” with him. What he meant was that instead of talking about the band, he could talk with the people and ask what they wanted. I use the term “Indian” in this book when the context refers to Indian status, for it is still a legal term today. According to section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, the “‘aboriginal peoples of Canada’ includes the Indian, Inuit, and Metis peoples of Canada.” Although there is still an Indian Act, I realize that my friends sometimes prefer to be called First Nations instead of Indians and First Nation citizens instead of band members, but this always depends on context. I use the words “Ojibwe” and “Cree” because the commissioners did and because these words are still used in everyday conversation in English in far north-

meegwetch

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ern Ontario. I employ the word “Indigenous” as an overall term because many object to the governments’ term “aboriginal.” I discuss terminology in the appendix on terminology – and hope that “coach” (as Munroe was affectionately known to some, acknowledging his youthful stint with an nhl farm team) would approve. I appreciate the support of Nipissing University in granting me the sabbatical leave that allowed me to focus on this book in 2007–8. Treaty No. 9 could not have been written without the assistance of staff at Library and Archives Canada, the Archives of Ontario, the General Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada (known prior to 1955 as the Church of England in Canada), Glenbow Museum Archives, the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, and Queen’s University Archives. Provincial archvist Miriam McTiernan generously granted me full access to file rg 1-273-5, meaning that the file did not need to be “prepared” before I consulted it. Doug Carr, assistant deputy minister, Land Claims and Negotiations, and his staff at the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and John Van West of the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs pointed me to the original 1905 Moose Factory “half-breed” petition. The Copyright Board of Canada, in cooperation with Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, issued a non-exclusive licence permitting me to reprint “The White Dog Feast” by Joseph Vanasse. Graphic artists Jeff Kielman and kas prepared the maps. Linguist John O’Meara provided scholarly advice on orthography and English translations (but readers are warned that native speakers of those languages may have different views). There is no standard orthography for writing Ojibwe or Cree words in English. In most Cree or Ojibwe words in this volume, the vowels are pronounced as follows: i (as in English “grin”), ii (“green”), a (“car”), aa (“cut”), o (“soot”), e (“rain”), and oo (“moon ”). I think that meegwetch is now used so commonly that it will soon be listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (as muskego already is); so I have not written it miigwech. Staff at the Canadore College–Nipissing University Education Centre Library, especially those responsible for interlibrary loans, were invaluable. Likewise, the university’s faculty and adminstrative support services personnel were always willing to help. Research assistants Nakato Mukasa and Tyson de Boer helped to transcribe some of the archival materials. I am grateful to McGill-Queen’s University Press (mqup) and to Jennifer S.H. Brown, director of the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies (crls), for considering this book for publication. These institutions continue the tradition, begun by the Hudsons’s Bay Record Society, of publishing documentary volumes about fur trade and native history. It has been a been a distinct pleasure working with managing editor Joan McGilvray, copy editor Elizabeth Hulse, and the entire production, design, and marketing team at mqup. Thanks are also due to two anonymous mqup reviewers and to crls reviewer Susan Elaine Gray. As with all books, the author is responsible for errors.

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meegwetch

I am especially indebted to two Moose Factory friends. Norm Wesley, a close friend, colleague, brother, and mentor since 1973, generously agreed to write the foreword to this book. Pauline Rickard, whom I knew as a student in the 1970s and became reacquainted with while preparing a public eulogy for her brother Andy, accepted the challenge of writing the afterword during a particularly difficult period in her life. With the anticipated royalties from sales of this book, I have established the Treaty No. 9 Award at Nipissing University. Finally, I acknowledge the love and support of Kelly and our amazing Weston, without whose patience and understanding this book could not have been finished. Thanks also to Valene, Raya, Skylar, Kianna, and Shania, whom we met as I prepared the final manuscript. When I showed Weston the cover of John Ralston Saul’s book A Fair Nation, he recognized the parliament buildings but didn’t get the turtle connection. I summarized the Anishinaabeg earth diver re-creation story and explained that Saul’s book was written for a lot of adults who don’t understand that Canada was built upon respectful relationships with the First Nations. Nine-year-old Weston thought this strange, for he immediately understood. “The natives were here first and it wasn’t fair for the Europeans to just take their land. I learned about that in grade three.”3 A note on cultural appropriation: I have tried to be respectful yet historically true, sometimes using now-pejorative or unpopular words in their historical context. In trying to be respectful, I may have made errors, which I accept the responsibility for in advance and pledge to correct in future (where possible). The Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario are often spoken of collectively in this book but are, of course, distinct nations and indivduals. I overcame an urge to write “even Mike Harris” in the dedication, for he too is one of the “people of Treaty No. 9” (see pages 11 and 363). When my employer awarded him an honorary degree in 2010 (mine being a dissenting voice) and named a building after him (when James Bartleman was honorary co-chair of fund-raising), I hope they truly understood the implications. Nipissing First Nation was rightfully insulted. An Anishinabek Nation press release said it would be more appropriate to name a rifle range for him. Such is democracy.

t r e aty

No. 9 Signed at Osnaburgh … after having been first interpreted & explained … Fort Hope … after having been first interpreted & explained … Marten’s Falls … after having been first interpreted & explained … Fort Albany … after having been first interpreted & explained … Moose Factory … after having been first interpreted & explained … New Post … after having been first interpreted & explained … canada and ontario, treaty no. 9

English River we arrived at 5 p.m. and forthwith proceeded to get the pay sheets in order, calling up the Indians who had assembled by families, carefully counting & paying them. diary of d. george m ac martin, 29 july 1905

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Introduction

Was it a trick or a treaty? Was treaty-signing in far northern Ontario simply a ruse, whereby the Indigenous signatories were fooled into signing a complex legal document that took away their rights? Or do their signatures signify their agreement to more general promises that constitute an oral agreement, misunderstood by most Canadians? What do the documents written by members of the official treaty party in 1905 tell us about Treaty No. 9? Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau famously questioned why one segment of Canadian society, a minority, should have a treaty with the majority. He considered treaties to be anachronistic “contracts” with “historical mighthave-beens” which “shouldn’t go on forever.”1 His government’s infamous 1969 White Paper recognized that land claims would need to be settled but expected “anomalous” treaties to be “reviewed to see how they can be equitably ended.”2 Canadian Indians’ rejection of the White Paper, followed by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Calder decision in 1973, convinced the prime minister otherwise.3 A decade later, Indigenous leaders induced Trudeau and other Canadian politicians to include “existing” treaty rights in a repatriated British North America Act. Treaties with Indigenous peoples in Canada now have constitutional protection through section 35(1) of our Constitution Act, 1982. The Calder decision held that aboriginal title predated the arrival of Europeans and was rooted in British common law by virtue of Indigenous peoples’ prior occupancy. While the Supreme Court of Canada (scc) split over whether that title had been extinguished, with a majority disallowing the Nisga’a claim,4 this case overturned many of the assumptions that would have guided treaty-makers. A century ago, treaties were often seen (although usually not by First Nations) as temporary political contracts that could be reinterpreted, revised, or simply ignored by governments acting in the their own interest or that of the majority, who (unlike Indians prior to 1960) could vote in federal elections.5 In 1905, when Treaty No. 9 was first signed, aboriginal title was considered to be an inconvenient annoyance. Frank Pedley, deputy superintendent general of Indian Affairs, referred, in his 1904 correspondence with Ontario commissioner of Crown lands E.J. Davis, to the mere “shadow of Indian title.”6 Pedley and his minister, Clifford Sifton, had already been advised by an Indian Affairs law clerk that the Indians’ interest was only a “personal and usufructory one dependent upon the good will of the Crown.”7

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treaty no. 9

Canadian politicians and senior officials had good reason in 1905 to view the rights of Indigenous peoples with what many of us would today regard as disrespect. Their assumptions flowed from what is now recognized as a flawed scc decision in the 1887 St. Catharines Milling and Lumber case. This decision assumed that Indigenous rights, acknowledged by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, were superseded by section 24 of the British North America Act. Confederation left Indians and their reserve lands subject to federal legislation, rooted in what became known as the Indian Act. (Métis and Inuit were left in legal limbo.) Indian title was characterized as a legal “burden” or “encumbrance” on ownership of the land, to which the Crown had underlying title.8 This burden had to be removed like topsoil, swept away by the Crown before the land could be acquired by others.9 Like feudal tenants, Indigenous peoples, according to this 1887 decision, had only a personal “usufructory” interest in the land. Indigenous peoples merely “occupied” the land until their interests were surrendered by them, through legal fact or fiction, or unilaterally extinguished by the Crown.10 What a difference a century makes. Since 1982 the scc has established that, as a result in part of the vulnerable minority status of Indigenous peoples, the Crown has a fiduciary or trust relationship with them and must act in “fairness and good faith … in the[ir] best interests.” Legal scholar Patrick Macklem notes that when an Indian band wishes to “surrender” (dispose of) reserve land today, the Crown has “a pre-surrender fiduciary duty to provide the band with all relevant facts and information about the band’s options concerning the surrender and their foreseeable consequences, in order to prevent ‘exploitative bargains.’” Nor is this obligation limited to reserve land; a similar duty of protection applies to “traditional tribal lands” to which a First Nation has aboriginal title.11 When interpreting treaties with Indigenous peoples today, Canadian courts are concerned with what was intended and understood by the more vulnerable participants at the time of treaty-making. Since 1982 the scc has held that treaties “should be given a fair, large and liberal” interpretation “in favour of the Indians.” In addition, despite the seeming finality of the treaties’ “technical” wording or legalese, courts now consider “the sense” in which “they would naturally [have] be[en] understood by the Indians” at the time of treaty-making.12 The scc has also interpreted the word “treaty” very broadly, concluding that “it embraces all such engagements made by persons in authority as may be brought within the term ‘the word of the white man,’” thus seemingly including both spoken and written assurances. In perusing the Treaty No. 9 commissioners’ journals, the reader may wish to weigh the scc view that “the sanctity” of the white man’s word “was, at the time of British exploration and settlement, the most important means of obtaining the goodwill and co-operation of the native tribes.”13 Section 35(1) is not the only source of protection for the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Constitution Act, 1982. Section 52(2) refers to a list of largely post-

introduction

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Confederation “Acts and orders,” one of which is the Rupert’s Land and NorthWestern Territory Order. One of the conditions of the 1870 order transferring the Hudson’s Bay Company (hbc) territory to Canada was that “the claims of the Indian tribes to compensation for lands required for purposes of settlement will be considered and settled.” Legal scholar Kent McNeil argues that the word “settlement” should have restricted the Crown’s authority; Canada may not have had the authority to negotiate treaties in the former hbc territory for purposes other than settlement (i.e., for mining, forestry, and hydroelectric development).14 In 1869 Canada made a promise to Great Britain. Once the hbc territory became part of Canada, “it will be our duty to make adequate provision for the protection of the Indian tribes whose interests and well-being are involved in the transfer.”15 McNeil argues that “the validity of treaties” such as Treaty No. 9 “might be challenged on the basis that the requirements set out in the Rupert’s Land Order for settling Indian claims were not adhered to. If a treaty were held to be invalid for this reason, then the aboriginal rights of the Indian signatories and their descendents would remain unsurrendered.”16 McNeil contends that the expression “Indian tribes” also includes the Métis.17 Patrick Macklem identifies four issues that should be examined when the legal validity of Treaty No. 9 is weighed: Canada’s promise, in the Rupert’s Land order, to protect the Indian tribes; the power differential at treaty time and any failure to fully explain the treaty’s ramifications; any abuse of trust and confidence; and non est factum, the principle whereby “a party is entitled to avoid a written contract where that party can prove that the contract is fundamentally different than what the party thought it signed.”18 Treaty No. 9 is by no means a legal analysis. Readers will, however, want to compare the way that the treaty was planned and worded in 1905 and how it was actually presented to the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario with the manner in which the scc views treaties today. In first crafting and then orally explaining Treaty No. 9, did Canada protect the Indian tribes (including the Métis) and safeguard their interests? Did the commissioners clearly explain the Crown’s intentions and the future implications of the treaty to the Ojibwe and Cree? Were the aboriginal rights of the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario extinguished (and with their consent)? What are their treaty rights? Is Treaty No. 9 a written or an oral agreement, or some combination of the two? Social conservatives such as Thomas Flanagan dismiss the post-Calder affirmation of Indigenous peoples’ unique, or sui generis, status as judicial intervention, historical revisionism, and a misplaced “aboriginal orthodoxy.”19 Indeed, many ordinary Canadians – to judge from reactions to the 2008 Atikameksheng Anishnabek, or Whitefish Lake First Nation, claim near Sudbury, Ontario – reject outright the very notion of settling aboriginal claims. When its $500 billion claim was announced, a number of angry, ethnocentric, and racist comments were posted anonymously on the Sudbury Star’s unmoderated website.20 In an editorial

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headlined “Working with Natives Offers Best Solutions,” the newspaper acknowledged that the “scale of this claim was shocking to many people,” but it optimistically hoped for “a spirit of co-operation and understanding.”21 After I began working at Nipissing University in 2000, my colleague David Calverley told me about the diary of treaty commissioner D. George MacMartin, located in the Queen’s University Archives. I began examining it as the centennial of Treaty No. 9 approached and wrote an article about how the commissioners explained the treaty to the Ojibwe and Cree in 1905.22 The article, expanded here as chapter 23 with the permission of Ontario History editor Tory Tronrud, used selective excerpts from the journals of the three commissioners (Duncan Campbell Scott, MacMartin, and Samuel Stewart), chosen by me, to support my interpretation. It was, as historian Michael Frisch says, “cooked,” a word used in the benign sense, meaning reduced for the reader’s ease of consumption (not falsified). This book presents the commissioners’ journals in their entirety, a format that Frisch calls “raw,” so that readers can make their own discoveries about what happened in 1905, reach their own conclusions, and track their own “path” through the documents as they weigh the evidence.23 Reading the raw sources is especially conducive to an accurate representation of Indigenous peoples, for it reduces the role of intermediaries.24 This book complements new websites such as Louis Bird’s “Our Voices,”25 which allows viewers to listen to his stories in either English or Cree and search keywords in the English transcripts without some “mediator” getting in the way. The writings of the official treaty party, presented in their entirety, have been made “shareable,” and the reader is invited to “explore, select, order, and interpret” them.26 It may seem like an insensitive and inappropriate exercise in “white privilege” (or even “white supremacy”)27 to publish the records of the treaty party. The authors – three treaty commissioners, a doctor, and a member of the Dominion police force – are, apparently, five white men (although one was actually a “Métis”).28 Why elevate the views of these five men – arguably perpetrators, oppressors, or colonizers – rather than those of Ojibwe and Cree “insiders” whose descendents were impacted most directly by or suffered the most from Treaty No. 9? From the perspective of the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario, the English-speaking men in the official treaty party certainly were strangers and outsiders. Their accounts are suspect, biased by their status as elite males from another culture which they presumed to be superior. They are also self-serving, for each had “a reputation at stake.”29 At least three of the authors, however, were inside the tent or house or storeroom when commissioner D.C. Scott explained Treaty No. 9 to the Cree and Ojibwe. “Travel,” concluded the humorist Samuel L. Clemens (better known as Mark Twain) in Innocents Abroad, “is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-

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mindedness … Broad, wholesome, charitable views … cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”30 Readers of the 1905 commissioners’ accounts will realize that their travels were no guarantee of cultural insight, fairness, and understanding. When travellers are separated by a chasm of language and blinded by the paternalistic cultural lenses of their own assumed superiority, they may simply confirm their ethnocentrism, ignorance, and prejudices. In cross-cultural situations the traveller usually needs to spend plenty of time and make a real effort to truly understand. Part way through Innocents Abroad, the author implicitly acknowledges this dilemma when he remarks that one “will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.”31 The written documents that are published and republished here must be critically examined (as oral accounts must be as well).32 When Samuel Stewart writes of encountering Indians whose “clothing was scarcely sufficient to cover their nakedness,”33 we must remember Laura Peers’s caution that non-aboriginal observers “tended to assume the superiority of their own culture and technology and saw Native people as impoverished without it.”34 The people Stewart observed may have been wearing clothing made from animal skins, rather than the shirts and pants he expected. Similarly, if they are described as “penurious and distressed people”35 who seem to have few resources, we can see them as pitiable victims utterly dependent on the authority of the hbc (as Ontario magistrate E.B. Borron did)36 or as people who continued to enjoy a kind of independence that allowed them to survive, “even if,” as Peers observes, “their strategies for continued autonomy did include reliance on the fur trade and traders.”37 We must also heed the caution of historians Arthur Ray, J.R. Miller, and Frank Tough, who point out that the published writings of senior Indian Affairs officials were “part of a deliberate and systematic campaign … to propagandize in favour of the government’s handling of relations with First Nations.”38 At times the commissioners’ accounts provide us with mere snippets of information, “filtered,” as Stan Dragland says, “through the words of white men who were not paying much attention.”39 When Stewart writes, “Suitable responses were made”40 by the commissioners, we want to know what was said. He and his fellow civil servants were bound to the industrial age even while travelling through far northern Ontario, often paying considerable detail to their watches – but not when we may wish they had. They carefully logged when they awoke and started travelling, but they seldom noted when treaty negotiations began or ended.41 At other times the reader can reflect on what the commissioners do not see or hear (more on this question in chapter 8). There is no one selling them cedar carvings, tamarac geese, or moosehide mitts, as we would expect today, for there was not much of a tourist market in far northern Ontario in 1905. The lack of Indigenous humour is no surprise, given the commissioners’ linguistic handicaps. My Cree friends frequently use humour to lighten the mood, sometimes in what

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others may consider poor taste.42 A close friend and notorious joker recently told me – in a genuinely concerned voice – about a recent encounter with a young man who requires regular dialysis. “Sometimes,” he told my friend, “I feel like giving up.” “If you do, can I have your computer – or would you take that with you?” my good-natured friend immediately replied. He didn’t want the computer. He wanted to lift the young man’s spirits and encourage Cree emotional selfdiscipline and right-thinking. It is understandable that there is no mention of alcohol, forbidden under treaty protocols and its sale prohibited under the Indian Act.43 After the treaty party departed, however, perhaps some homebrew was prepared. During his first year in the fur trade at Lake of the Woods, fifteen years after the signing of Treaty No. 3, fur trader Herb Williams found that carefully controlled drinking and gambling bouts were held following treaty payments.44 Men would also play the Ojibwe gambling game “Moccasin Attar-de-win” after being paid wages45 and during the fall wild rice harvest.46 By his second year in the fur trade, Williams scarcely mentioned such routine things.47 The commissioners’ cultural insights are, as we might expect, meagre. MacMartin wrote about “puny chiefs” (chapter 12), acknowledging the diminutive form of the Ojibwe and Cree words still used today to distinguish councillors from elected treaty chiefs (see chapter 1). We search in vain, of course, for evidence in the commissioners’ writings that, prior to their encounters with these vistors, the Ojibwe and Cree sought other-than-human guidance through dreams or fasting or the visions of a shaman. When the commissioners write of meeting Jabez Williams in at Osnaburgh in 1905 (or widower James Miller in 1906 at Mattagami),48 they consciously choose not to mention their Indigenous wives and children. Except in Scott’s professional writing (chapter 19), there are no “half-breeds”; there are only whites and Indians and, in the judgmental commissioners’ race-conscious eyes, good and bad examples of each. Scott considers the nightly prayers of his Cree voyageurs to be still somewhat “primitive,” for any Indigenous “advance” toward Euro-Canadian Christian habits was still accompanied by the threat of desertion or, in the case of Simon Smallboy Sr, alleged sharp dealing in an “affair of peltries.” Charles Wabano, “wild as a lynx,” was Scott’s ideal Indian (chapter 19) – a “good savage” who not yet become a “degenerate Indian.”49 Of course, Smallboy, like the others, was a complex individual; he led his men in nightly services, stopped for a tobacco offering at Granny’s Rock, and disapproved (in the 1930s) when his wife, Ellen, talked to anthropologist Regina Flannery about Indigenous practices.50 Scott probably misleads us when he tells us that the king was “the great father” of the Indians (chapter 19). The fictive kinship relationship that characterized early Indigenous-newcomer encounters (chapter 1) seems to have shifted by treaty time. William Goodwin’s 1905 syllabic message addresses the king as kich-okimaaw (“Great Chief”; chapter 14). Katchang’s 1909 syllabic letter also refers to

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gichi-ogimaag (“Great Chiefs”; chapter 4). Similarly, in 1920 Chief Moses Wesley writes to the “big chief” (chapter 24). Scott likely misleads us again when he uses the expressions “so long as ‘the sun shines and the water runs … so long as the grass grows’” (chapter 19). These phrases would have been well-known to Indian Affairs personnel,51 but a good interpreter would have used the Ojibwe word gaagige or its Cree equivalent, kakeekay (“forever”).52 We need to be aware that the commissioners’ ethnocentric “gazes” keep our focus on them, relegating the Indigenous peoples to minor “characters and fantasies in [the writers’] plots.” We can, alternatively, think of Indigenous peoples and newcomers as “actors and reactors, constructing their relations primarily in terms of the polarity of domination and resistance.” But this view also has its limits, for such dualisms simplify the rich texture of those relationships and the new patterns of “hybridity” that arose from these encounters on the turtle’s back (even if mikinak [“turtle”] reminds us again of Algonquian humour).53 The Cree and Ojibwe who adopted Christianity merged their Indigenous beliefs with those of the missionaries. So it was with treaty-making in far northern Ontario, which employed Indigenous and imperial symbols and practices, a “middle ground” of compromise and co-existence that was the product of centuries of fur trade protocol. We must remember that the Ojibwe and Cree and Euro-Canadians and those of multiple origins (sometimes referred to as Métis) – in 1905 and still today – are individual “men and women who participate in multiple worlds, either temporarily, moving back and forth, or more permanently through marriage or union.” We cannot, for example, assume that residential schools were universally rejected by all Ojibwe and Cree. Earlier encounters in North America were not between Indigenous primitives and European civilizations; this view perpetuates Victorian theories of cultural evolution. The Ojibwe and Cree were complex, sophisticated peoples with unique, not inferior, world views.54 As Amos Key Jr reminds me, Indigenous peoples were not just cultures; they too were civilizations. Scott’s journal tells us little, and Stewart’s is perhaps misleading, but MacMartin’s may be the motherlode that Willie Reuben was hoping for when he asked this question at a Cree elders’ meeting I attended in Kashechewan in November of 1987: “[W]hy do they always ask the Indian [about] things of the past? … They should also ask the commissioners what they said and promised … The things they said must have been written down.”55 Hosea Wynne of Kashechewan echoed this thought: “Everything that was promised should have been written there [in the official signed version of Treaty No. 9]. This is not a true treaty … We will not believe what was written in there, not until we see what was promised [to our grandfathers verbally] in writing.”56 Similarly, two weeks later in Attawapiskat, Gabe Spence observed, “Things went wrong because the natives did not keep a record of what the government promised,” adding, with a certainty that I did not share at the time, “I am positive that the agreement is in Ottawa today.”57

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In presenting the records of the 1905 treaty party, I am, in a sense, repaying Willie Reuben, Hosea Wynne, Gabe Spence, and many others who have taught me about Treaty No. 9. I read the records they thought might exist, and I found that the story told in those records largely conforms to what I have learned from Cree oral accounts. I expect that Ojibwe stories about 1905 are similar, but I have not been privileged to hear them. The story of Treaty No. 9 will not be truly recentred until we know these Indigenous accounts, and I hope this book encourages the First Nations in what Linda Tuhiwai Smith calls the “rewriting and rerighting” of their history.58 Hosea Wynne lamented that the young people in his community no longer seemed to care about Treaty No. 9: “Many times we, the elders, discuss this and we tell the young people of today. But they do not believe, just like the government doesn’t believe … But we don’t forget. I will not forget, for as long as I live. But I don’t know what it will be like in the future, if what our grandfathers passed on to us will be kept, or will it be lost.”59 I hope that that this book will be of some interest to the First Nations of far northern Ontario. The Nishnawbe Aski Nation (nan) is a political organization that represents the people of Treaty No. 9 and some of their Treaty No. 5 neighbours in the vast area which nan describes as 210,000 square miles, or twothirds of Ontario.60 Figure I.1 shows the location of the Treaty No. 9 and/or nan First Nation communities today. Table I.1 identifies them (but see also the Terminology section near the end of this volume). I realize, of course, that the treaty commissioners’ journals will rightfully hold much less interest for nan citizens than the stories told by their own elders.61 But this book is also written for the many non-Indigenous people who wish to understand and respectfully coexist with First Nations and do not have access to those Ojibwe or Cree oral traditions. Alan Cairns reminds us that Canada is largely a country of immigrants now, where Indigenous peoples comprise less that 3 per cent of the population.62 The First Nations have lived in the land we call Canada for countless generations. Some Canadians can trace their ancestry to distant colonial days, as Victoria Freeman has done in her excellent book Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America. My own grandparents seemingly had nothing to do with the 1905 treaty. My maternal grandmother, Geraldine King Parks, in 1904, at the age of fourteen, was the first of our family to arrive in Canada from her native Ireland. James Long and Winifred Syson were married in England two years after D.C. Scott and his colleagues drifted down the Albany River. Grandpa left England, where there was “too much class distinction,” but he remained a loyal citizen of the British Empire, enlisting for World War i service in Canada, just as he had volunteered during the Anglo-Boer conflict, and proud when my dad chose the Royal Canadian Air Force. Winifred joined grandpa in 1908. Robert Townsend, whom Geraldine married in Canada in 1914, was two

i.1 nan/treaty First Nation community locations (key on page 12)

years her junior, so he likely reached Canada about 1908 as well. The men, at least, had working-class roots and limited education, and they would have readily imbided the self-serving mythology of two founding nations; their wives were unable to vote. But Treaty No. 9, being a contract between Canada and the First Nations, was my grandparents’ treaty and my parents’ treaty, and it is my treaty too. The governments that still colonize many First Nations are our governments, and as a part of this treaty, we all have a responsibility to understand it and honour its promises. I hope that Treaty No. 9 will help to sustain interest in the treaty among the Ojibwe, Cree, and Métis youth of far northern Ontario and create some awareness among other Canadian youth as well. The records describe much more than treaty-making, and besides aboriginal leaders and their lawyers, the commissioners’ accounts will be of interest to anthropologists, geographers, historians,

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Table I.1 Nishnawbe Aski Nation/treaty affiliations in far northern Ontario and Quebec treaty no. 9 1 Aroland 2 Attawapiskat 3 Bearskin Lake 4 Brunswick House 5 Cat Lake 6 Chapleau Cree 7 Chapleau Ojibway 8 Constance Lake 9 Eabametoong 10 Flying Post 11 Fort Albany 12 Fort Severn 13 Ginoogaming 14 Hornepayne 15 Kasabonika Lake 16 Kashechewan 17 Kingfisher Lake 18 Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (not a member of nan) 19 Marten Falls 20 Matachewan 21 Mattagami 22 McDowell Lake 23 Mishkeegogamang 24 Missanabie Cree 25 Moose Cree 26 Muskrat Dam 27 Neskatanga 28 Nibinamik 29 North Caribou Lake 30 Sachigo Lake 31 Saugeen (not a member of nan) 32 Slate Falls

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Taykwa Tagamou Wahgoshig Wapekeka Wawakapewin Webequie Weenusk Whitewater Wunnumin Lake Abitibiwinni Anishinabeg (not a member of nan)

treaty no. 5 42 Deer Lake 43 Keewaywin 44 Koocheching 45 North Spirit Lake 46 Pikangikum 47 Poplar Hill 48 Sandy Lake james bay and northern quebec agreement 25 Mocreebec treaty no. 3 49 Lac Seul (associate member) robinson-superior treaty 13 Long Lake 58 (associate member) without treaty status 50 Beaverhouse

canoeists,63 and many others who wish to understand, visit, or revisit far northern Ontario. The book will also be of interest to teachers, nurses, doctors, and others who work in this part of Ontario and want to understand its history. Treaty No. 9 is presented in three parts, following Norm Wesley’s foreword and this introduction. The first provides some historical context for the general reader in six chapters and a brief conclusion. Here the reader will be introduced

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to the origins of treaty-making in Canada (chapter 1); the pleas for help that, in part, prompted Treaty No. 9 (chapter 2); the information-gathering, planning, and last-minute federal-provincial negotiations that preceded actual treatymaking with the First Nations (chapter 3); ratification and early implementation of the treaty by Canada and Ontario (chapter 4); a concise summary of the treatymaking that followed in 1906, 1908, and 1929–30 and ongoing treaty concerns (chapter 5); and an overview of some more recent events which show that Treaty No. 9 is still very much an issue for the people of nan (chapter 6). The second part of this book includes transcripts of the journals, official reports, and articles written by members of the travelling treaty party. There is a short introduction to the members of the party and the records they left (chapter 7). This is followed by another fourteen chapters, thirteen of which rely on the treaty party’s own accounts. We follow them out of Ottawa, through Ontario’s far north, and back to the nation’s capital (chapters 8 through 18). Numerous maps, contemporary photographs, sample images of the commissioners’ journals, and actual treaty signatures complement the transcripts. Also included in this part are an article later published by commissioner Scott (chapter 19), the treaty doctor’s report (chapter 20), and a report on education written by Scott and Stewart (chapter 21). The formal treaty documents (chapter 22) conclude part two. Part three contains a comprehensive analysis (chapter 23) of how treaty-making took place in the summer of 1905 and my brief conclusions (chapter 24). Pauline Rickard’s afterword provides a concluding First Nation perspective. It is followed by an essay on the historiography of the treaty and a section on terminology, where I define what I mean by the terms Algonquin, band, colonialism, Cree, far northern Ontario, hbc posts, Indians, Indian Affairs, Indigenous, Indigenous languages, Oji-Cree, Métis, Ojibwe, reserves, and the Treaty No. 9 region. The book ends with a description of the photos and maps, the notes for each chapter, a bibliography, and the index.

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part one

Historical Context

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1 Treaty-Making before 1905 Eko maaka … “And so (it was) …”1

Treaties of peace, friendship, and coexistence between Europeans and Indigenous peoples have a long history in what is now far northern Ontario. Thanks to the pioneering work of Arthur Ray and Donald Freeman, we know that before 1821, when monopoly conditions altered the situation considerably, competition forced Hudson’s Bay Company (hbc) traders near the saltwater coast to deal generously with Indigenous peoples for fear they would trade with the French further inland. The First Nations became astute negotiators. The hbc was forced to adjust its gift-giving and the standard of trade at its factories (as overseas trading establishments were then called) in response to this competition.2 Indigenous peoples were also courted as military allies, for the Company attempted to form preemptive coalitions whenever attacks by the French were anticipated.3 After describing these historic fur trade alliances with the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario, this chapter summarizes the transition in treaty-making that took place in what is now southern Ontario (when settlers began to outnumber Indigenous peoples). We then examine the Robinson Treaties and numbered Treaties 3 and 5, made with neighbours immediately south and west of the northern Ojibwe and Cree who participated in Treaty No. 9. And we look briefly at Treaty No. 8, which, although it was further away, was (like its immediate successor) a northern resource treaty.

peace and friendship in far northern ontario In 1668 Captain Zachariah Gillam, accompanied by Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, sailed the Nonsuch through Hudson Strait to James Bay and wintered at a place he called Charles Fort (later Rupert House and now Waskaganish, Quebec). Gillam claimed to have made a treaty of peace and friendship with the people he encountered and to have purchased title to the Rupert River area.4 Similarly, Groseilliers is alleged to have “taken possession of Nelson River” in 1672.5 The hbc, which received an exclusive royal charter in 1670 granting it extensive powers,6 must have harboured doubts about the validity of such grand territorial acquisitions, however, judging from its instructions to Governor John

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Nixon in 1679. Nixon was told to continue making treaties with the Indigenous peoples, in order that “It might be understood by them that you have purchased both the lands and rivers of them, and that they had transferred the absolute propriety to you, or,” failing that, “at least the only freedom to trade.”7 Historian John Oldmixon, writing in 1708, claimed that the hbc “made such Compacts with the Captains or Kings of the Rivers and Territories where they had settlements, for the Freedom of Trade there, exclusive of all others, that the Indians could not pretend they had encroach’d upon them.”8 Clearly, all that the Company expected from these treaties (none of which have survived) is that they would would “in future times ascertain to us all liberty of trade & commerce and a league of friendship & peaceful cohabitation.”9 Unfortunately, we have no real evidence from the Indigenous peoples themselves – who had established trade and diplomatic relations with their neighbours long before Europeans set foot on North America10 – as to what these treaties may have meant to them.11 We know from anthropologist Edward S. Rogers’s work with early fur trade records that the Ojibwe considered sharing food and smoking the calumet to be important signs of good relations with others.12 Among the neighbouring Cree, historian Victor Lytwyn writes, a feast with traders might involve a “display of gifts” such as beaver tails, caribou tongues, and fat.13 Fictive kinship relations symbolized close alliances with Indigenous peoples; Pierre Esprit Radisson, for example, was “adopted” as a son.14 Lytwyn concludes that, in what is now far northern Ontario, trade with Europeans began “within a framework of delicate political alliances in which ceremonies, feasts, and gift-giving continued to be important.”15 To use a modern-day expression, First Nations agreed to share the land, so long as they were respected in and benefited from the arrangement. Oldmixon explains that early hbc “Compacts were render’d as firm as the Indians could make them, by such Ceremonies as were most sacred and obligatory among them.”16 hbc governor Nixon was instructed that any alliances were to be symbolized by “some act wch by the Religion or Custome of their Country should be thought most sacred & obliging to them for the confirmation of such Agreements.”17 The British considered their own flag an appropriate symbol of this bond between European traders and Indigenous peoples.18 hbc accounts of early contacts with the egalitarian First Nations of western James Bay and southwestern Hudson Bay use English words such as “king,” “captain,” and “lieutenant” to refer to those they classified as important Indigenous leaders.19 Some would have stood out, to European traders, as charismatic orators20 or very successful hunters, but among the Ojibwe and Cree, “a man’s authority usually did not extend beyond his own family.”21 Despite their use of English titles and symbols, the British clearly adapted their practices to Indigenous customs, merging these with their own. Ray and Freeman describe eighteenth-century gift-giving ceremonies whose purpose “was to

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1.1 Commissioners’ fleet landing at Long Lake, 1906

formally establish, or renew, alliances of friendship between the participants.”22 Adam Sherriff Scott’s wonderful 1948 painting Trading Ceremony at York Factory, 1780s gives us some idea of the pageantry of those days.23 Those whom the Europeans considered to be Indigenous leaders were given British flags to fly from their canoes as symbols of their status,24 and guns were fired at the fort to honour their arrival.25 Indigenous trading “captains” were presented with suits of clothing, along with gifts of food and alcohol; in return, the hbc factor received a token gift of furs. Only after more smoking and more speeches could the winter’s furs be bartered for the Company’s trade goods.26 Indigenous healers (described by British traders as “doctors”) and their wives were presented with western medicines. Lavish gifts were distributed to the trading captains before they departed from the post.27 The trade and its attendant ceremonies lasted just a few days, and then the Indigenous visitors left for their winter territories. Ray and Freeman note that Indigenous trading captains and hbc factors made formulaic speeches during a pipe-smoking ceremony in order to “come to general terms regarding the rates of exchange.” Indigenous spokesmen would remind the trader of the hardships they had endured during the past winter and ask him to “pity” them and give them “good measure.”28 Bruce White, drawing on documents from the Lake Superior fur trade, concludes that when Indigenous peoples asked for “pity,” they meant that they expected to receive help from a more powerful person if they were ever in need.29 Mary Black-Rogers explains that “pity” implies the impending “receipt of needed articles or benefits.”30 The Ojibwe and Cree of what is now far northern Ontario perceived the traders in their midst as people with great power. They accepted each trader as a leader –

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an okimaaw (in Cree) or ogimaa (in Ojibwe). But, like their own temporary leaders, such a person was in no way their boss.31 Among the Ojibwe, anthropologist Mary Black explains, their relationship with a trader was defined by his obligations to them, his responsibility for them.32 A foreign trader, like an Indigenous ogimaa, was expected to help his people when they were in need, thereby assisting them to become “self-sufficient.”33 It was the same for an okimaaw; Cree translator Greg Spence once told me that “a boss works for [looks after] you.”34 The Cree noun okimaaw is derived from a verb meaning “to give away.”35 At treaty time the British sovereign was, according to Scott, incorporated into the Ojibwe and Cree world views as a parent figure, according to Scott (see chapter 19). Not because “we think of ourselves as naïve, helpless children,” explains Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, “but [because] we respect leaders who take care of their people … [L]eadership … is not based on power but on caring.”36 (The British soverign, whom the Ojibwe and Cree never met, was perhaps more akin to their notions of a remote, unseen master of the animals than a face-to-face ogimaa,37 but I will use the other word and defer to experts such as Louis Bird for simplicity. And we do have indications in the historical record that by 1905 the treaty commissioners and the king they represented was considered an okimaaw or ogimaa.) We can speculate that a so-called trading captain was referred to by his countrymen, even in the eighteenth century, as an ogimakan or okimahkan (the suffix indicating that it was an ascribed role created by foreign traders). For fifty weeks of the year, when he was away from the trading post on the land, a trading captain’s fancy coat would guarantee him no status, for he was no longer a gobetween. Indigenous hunting parties delegated limited authority to a situational and task-specific ogimaa or okimaaw because this person had “[k]knowledge of the game and attendant hunting strategy.”38 Following the merger of the hbc and the North West Company in 1821, monopoloy conditions diminished the need – from the HBC’s perspective – for what it considered such lavish gift-giving and status-recognition.39 Such practices may not have ended entirely in the hbc territory, but they were greatly curtailed. Rogers notes that after 1821 the hbc began “dealing with individual trappers … at which time the use of the English terms ‘captain’ and ‘lieutenant’ practically disappeared” from its records.40 Even under monopoly conditions, however, some hbc traders still acknowledged a chief of the macroband that congregated at each post, hoping that relying on this person might convince the other hunters not to trade elsewhere.41 When powerful dignitaries such as hbc governors or churchmen visited a post, these important visitors flew flags on their canoes, cannons and guns were fired in their honour, and feasts were sometimes celebrated to symbolize historical loyalties or denominational alliances.42 The calumet may have become less important in their dealings with Europeans,43 but Indigenous people continued to appreciate a gift of tobacco.

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In 1883, for example, Ontario magistrate Edward Borron disembarked from his canoe at Fishing Creek, 50 miles upriver from Fort Albany, where “several Indian families were camped on the beach.” “We stopped,” he wrote, “as is the custom, to shake hands, and presented each of them with a small plug of tobacco, which was all, indeed, we had to give.” When Borron pushed on, “the whole lot of Indians, numbering some six or seven canoes,” followed him and camped close by that evening. “What they expected, I have no doubt,” he recorded, “was a good supper and possibly other presents,” but he had nothing more to share, and they left the next morning “in anything but a good humour.”44 Borron had a very simple explanation for his visitors’ behaviour: “the Indians on this river are among the poorest I have met with.”45 Notwithstanding the very real difficulties the northern Ojibwe sometimes faced in the period 1821–90, when large game practically vanished,46 fur trade protocol and Indigenous values were at work as well. (I wonder, too, if Borron had more to share than he wished to, and his visitors knew this – either from visible evidence or a conversation with his Indigenous guide.) By 1905, when Treaty No. 9 was first signed, the pre-1821 trade ceremonies, involving a combination of Indigenous and British symbols and featuring giftgiving and speech-making, flags, and tobacco, were much diminished but likely not forgotten in what is now far northern Ontario. They had their origins in the earliest years of the fur trade, having been used to first establish and then celebrate and renew the personal symbiotic relationships whereby the Europeans obtained furs and other resources in return for showing respect and offering a fair exchange. Fur trade symbols of peace and friendship signified a comparatively long and respectful period of compromise and common understanding between Indigenous peoples and newcomers, an era that Richard White aptly described as a “middle ground.”47 Under competitive conditions, respect and fair value had to be offered to the First Nations. Each allowed the other to not just survive – although this consideration was itself worthy of celebration – but to prosper, according to very different cultural references. The hbc prospered by amassing its wealth, the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario by redistributing theirs among kinfolk and friends. And when there was competition, liquor was freely traded; if one trader offered it, the other had to follow suit. When the hbc banned the distribution of alcohol in far northern Ontario in 1839, it made more southerly posts attractive. Some of the Ojibwe who had traded at Lac Seul, for example, went to Rainy Lake in order to obtain rum.48 We need a better understanding of the role of alcohol in the fur trade of far northern Ontario.49 Monopoly conditions did not automatically end with the surrender of the hbc charter in 1870. At Moose Factory, for example, monopoly generally held sway until 1903, when the Revillon Frères Trading Company appeared.50 At Osnaburgh, on the upper reaches of the Albany River, competition arrived nearby in 1901; it reached Lake St Joseph a year later. By 1905 all of the Indigenous peoples

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1.2 Feast at Mattagami, 1906

who would become participants in Treaty No. 9 were re-experiencing competitive trade conditions. It was not just Ojibwe and Cree hunters who benefited from this situation; hbc servants, including those with Indigenous ancestry, faced new employment opportunities.51 The historic ceremonies, symbols, and words of hbc compacts constituted an unwritten and informal treaty, perhaps in retrospect even a sacred relationship, for the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario. When Rupert’s Land, the hbc territory, was acquired by the three-year-old Dominion of Canada in 1870, the Indigenous inhabitants likely understood this transfer to mean (if they were aware of it at all) that Canada would somehow continue the long-established fur trade protocols governing immigrants’ interactions with the First Nations.

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Perhaps this was what Fred Mark was thinking when he stated, during the Treaty No. 9 negotiations at Moose Factory, “that they were satisfied that they would be better cared for and protected by the King.”52 Writing from Churchill, rcmp superintendent J.D. Moodie commented, “The natives have until the last two years been entirely under the control of the company, and it is difficult to get them to understand that the company’s orders are not the laws of Canada. If they were taken into treaty they would soon grow out of this idea.”53 In the world views of the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario, when the king (and his government of Canada) replaced the governor of the hbc (and his fur traders) as the powerful distant ogimaa or okimaaw, the Crown assumed a mantle of responsibility. After two centuries of fur trade experience, the northern Ojibwe and Cree would have now expected the Crown to protect them, helping them in times of need for an indefinite period – indeed, forever. As long as the British sovereign was their protector, his or her help could be counted upon, like that of an Indigenous leader.54 In good times they would not need this help; in difficult years they would expect it – not so they could be helpless, but so they could be relatively self-sufficient.55 Nor was this an unrealistic expectation, for we have seen that, with the Rupert’s Land transfer, Canada promised to “make adequate provisions for the protection of the Indian tribes whose interests and well-being” were affected.56 If the Ojibwe and Cree in what is now far northern Ontario expected White’s middle ground, the respectful reciprocity of their fur trade treaty relationship, to continue after their territories were acquired by Canada in 1870, they were not so much mistaken as misled. Eventually, sometimes decades after treaty-signing, they would learn that Canada had no such intention. Canada, the new ogimaa or okimaaw, would betray Indigenous expectations in far northern Ontario, as it already had among their Great Lakes neighbours. The middle ground would shrink and virtually disappear, its long-established and mutually understood system of exchange unilaterally abrogated by settler governments. Indigenous peoples might still expect to be treated as respected allies in a negotiated and balanced coexistence, but their former partners had moved on to a new paradigm of control and marginalization. The continent’s original inhabitants would no longer be considered partners. They would eventually be treated as alien and exotic “others.” Canadians would try to push them aside and impose a neocolonial relationship upon them.57

the transition period in ontario While Canada was part of New France, there was no need for an OntarioQuebec border. The French colony of Canada hugged the St Lawrence River, and the lands upriver to the west were known to the French as their pays d’en Haut. When Great Britain acquired Canada at the end of the Seven Years War, it was

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renamed the Province of Quebec by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The Quebec Act of 1774 greatly expanded Quebec to include what we now call southern Ontario (and south of the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River). After more name changes in 1791 and 1840, the politicians and lawyers who crafted Confederation provided us in 1867 with two provinces known as Quebec and Ontario. They were separated by the Ottawa River, bisecting the Algonquin homeland, and then by a line running north from Lake Timiskaming, stopping at the southern limit of Rupert’s Land. Three years before the Rupert’s Land transfer, the division of legislative powers at Confederation that assigned “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians” to the federal government acknowledged that a very different paradigm for managing relations with the First Nations had emerged in British North America. It replaced a respectful symbiotic relationship that was very similar58 to the one just described further north in the early days of the hbc, once Indigenous peoples were outnumbered by immigrants. The new nation of Canada, which annexed Rupert’s Land, sought to dominate First Nations in Ontario south of the Hudson Bay watershed through land-surrender treaties, where possible, and through the federal Indian Act, its programs of assimilation and control, and its contradictory goals of advancement and protection. The Royal Proclamation of 1763, now recognized in section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, set out several treaty-making principles (later expanded upon in the Dorchester protocols) for the British colonies in North America. Title to Indigenous “Hunting Grounds” could henceforth be acquired only by officials of the Crown at a “public Meeting or Assembly” of the Nations or Tribes … who [now] live under our Protection, [and] should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such parts … not having been ceded to or purchased by Us.” The proclamation, a covenant (chain) linking Indigenous and British peoples, acknowledged aboriginal title, on the one hand, while authorizing its orderly, state-sanctioned extinguishment, on the other.59 (Although Rupert’s Land was not then considered a colony, it is by no means clear that the Royal Proclamation should not apply to it.60 The 1973 Calder case established, however, that the Royal Proclamation was not the only source of aboriginal title, which did “not depend on treaty, executive order or legislative enactment.” It was essentially inherent where there was prior Indigenous occupation.)61 The 1794 Dorchester instructions, issued by Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, set out additional guidance for treaty-making.62 Using language reminiscent of early hbc communications, Dorchester decreed, “All Purchases are to be made in public Council with great Solemnity and Ceremony according to the Ancient Usages and Customs of the Indians, the Principal Chiefs and leading Men of the Nation or Nations to whom the lands being first assembled.” The governor of the province or two people appointed by him were required to be present. The superintendent general of Indian affairs (sgia) or his deputy, in “negotiating the purchase,” was to be joined by two others from the Indian department

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and a sufficient number of “Military Officers.” The sgia or his deputy was required to use “such Interpreters as best understand the Language of the Nation or Nations treated with.”63 Access to alcohol, discouraged by “every means,” would ensure that the Indigenous parties were “perfectly sober.” Treaties were to be signed in triplicate “in Public Council,” only “[a]fter explaining to the Indians the Nature and extent of the Bargain, the situation and bounds of the Lands and the price to be paid.” The Indigenous party was to be given one copy of the treaty, together with any “Descriptive Plans”; “by that means [they] will always be able to ascertain what they have sold and future Uneasiness and Discontents [will] be thereby avoided.”64 (Carleton had earlier instructed John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, to “suffer no Lands in dispute to be occupied until the Indians are perfectly satisfied.”)65 Meanwhile, during the American Revolutionary War, Indigenous allies in what is now southern Ontario had proved invaluable to the British.66 King George iii awarded medals to Indigenous leaders, and his officials wrote certificates attesting to their service.67 Some, notably the Six Nations, found refuge in the British colonies as Indigenous United Empire Loyalists.68 By the end of the War of 1812, however, increased immigration was rendering Indigenous and settler economies mutually incompatible in the south. British settler governments, no longer in need of Indigenous allies, saw giftgiving to symbolize peace and friendship with the now outnumbered and weakened First Nations as “an unproductive drain on the public purse.” Respectful reciprocity and informal treaties (including wampum belts signifying coexistence) and the ceding of narrow strips of land soon gave way to massive “displacement and dislocation” through much broader treaties of land surrender.69 Between 1783 and 1862, dozens of treaties were made in what is now southern Ontario.70 (Strictly speaking, only those concluded between 1791 and 1841 are the Upper Canada treaties.) Historian Donald B. Smith observes that the First Nations participated in these treaties in part to maintain the perpetual flow of presents to which they had become accustomed and increasingly relied upon for survival.71 By the 1830s, treaty-making in Upper Canada (as Ontario was known between 1791 and 1841)72 was characterized by three features: compensation or “payment for land” through a cash annuity; verbal assurances of “hunting, fishing and occupancy rights … in the unsettled areas”; and reserve lands (for the First Nations’ exclusive use and for the government’s “civilization programmme”).73 A real shift had appeared since 1783, when the Crawford purchase acquired the north shore of eastern Lake Ontario “back as far as a man can travel in a day” from the Mississauga, in return for one-time gifts.74 By 1819 the Rideau purchase from the Mississauga provided continuing cash payments.75 Both treaties included lands in the Ottawa River watershed, homeland of the Algonquins, who had not consented to the surrender.76 (More Algonquin territory would be involuntarily surrendered by the 1923 Williams Treaties.)77

1.3 Some approximate treaty areas. The Treaty No. 9 territory has never been surveyed and was arguably never surrendered. The Algonquin claim and the Wikwemikong islands claim in Ontario are not shown. Map based on Canada, nr, “Historical Indian Treaties,” and Canada, JBNQA , 1.

The Bond Head Treaty, made at Manitowaning in 1836, established Manitoulin Island and environs as a refuge. There Indigenous peoples from further south in Upper Canada could be relocated among the original Ottawa and Ojibwe occupants.78 Sir Francis Bond Head, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, justified the removal of Indigenous peoples from their valuable lands by arguing that farming was superior to hunting.79 Upon discovering the island’s rich agricultural potential, however, colonial officials would arbitrarily renege on this treaty. In 1862, long after Bond Head had returned to England, the McDougall Treaty was concluded with most of the Manitoulin Anishinabeg. Those from the Wikwemikong peninsula, proudly described today as “unceded,” refused to participate.80

the robinson treaties Treaty-making in Canada West (as Upper Canada became in 1841; see note 64) took several new turns in 1850. Treaty historian James Morrison notes that, unlike the earlier treaties, which responded to immigrants’ desire for homesteads

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(still an important concern for settlers at Sault Ste Marie in 1850), the making of the Robinson Treaties that year marked the first time that treaty-making happened “against a backdrop of large-scale resource development” (in this case, mining).81 More importantly, Morrison argues that the Robinson Treaties achieved, on paper if not always in practice, four significant improvements in settler–First Nations relations. They were thus very different from earlier treaties (and in some cases from the post-Confederation numbered treaties that followed). These Indigenous inhabitants would remain within their traditional homelands, no longer threatened with removal (as in the United States and even in Upper Canada under Bond Head’s proposal).82 They were promised that their annuities would increase as the resources of the Crown improved (the so-called escalation clause, which was activated twice, in 1874 and 1904).83 Their reserves were not “limited in size to an arbitrary formula imposed by the Crown.”84 And last but by no means least, their rights to hunt and fish for personal and commercial purposes “were not made subject to government regulations.”85 William Benjamin Robinson, who not only knew some of the Ojibwe in the region but also understood the needs of the mining industry, was appointed to negotiate for the Crown.86 On 1 September 1850 preliminary treaty proceedings began, with members of the Toronto Rifle Brigade stationed nearby and several chiefs (notably those from Long Lake and Temagami) absent throughout.87 Ten days earlier Robinson had begun meeting with the Ojibwe delegates, whom he provided with “flour, rough corn and pork, as well as tobacco, maple sugar, and tallow” for nearly five weeks. Negotiations began on 5 September and ended four days later. Morrison suspects that the Ojibwe followed their traditions of smoking tobacco, keeping a council fire burning, and reading wampum belts.88 By Robinson’s account, he offered an initial gratuity of 4,000 ($16,000) – as much as $4 to $6 per person – and perpetual annuities amounting to 1,000 ($4,000) on the first day. Morrison compares the gratuity for a family of five with “half to a third of the annual wage for an unskilled labourer.”89 There would be reserves, already chosen by the Ojibwe during consultations with surveyor Alexander Vidal and Indian agent Thomas G. Anderson a year earlier,90 and hunting and fishing rights on unoccupied lands. One chief responded favourably, but all requested an adjournment.91 On the second day, chiefs from the Sault Ste Marie area (the only ones experiencing significant incursions, as my friend Peter Archibald Sr prefers to call “developments” on Indigenous territories without their consent) pressed for higher annuities and large reserves. The others (more heavily involved in the fur trade economy and not immediately threatened by settlers) were satisfied with the annuities offered and with smaller reserves, so long as they could still hunt and fish over their traditional lands.92 Robinson did not increase his ante but reassured the delegates that, unlike their American neighbours, they would not be removed from their homelands. He considered their lands to be “barren and sterile” territories that would “never be

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settled except in a few localities by mining companies.” Morrison contends that the Ojibwe would have understood Robinson to mean this was a treaty of friendship; they would have expected newcomers “to co-exist with aboriginal people, rather than displace them.”93 Robinson capitalized on divergent opinions among the Ojibwe by splitting the treaty, arranging for the Lake Superior chiefs to sign theirs on the following day. Divide and conquer is a well-worn colonial practice. Lake Superior delegates signed the treaty, often referred to as the RobinsonSuperior, with an X (rather than a customary “clan or dodem mark”)94 on 7 September 1850. Morrison notes that some of the proceedings were held privately, not in “open council” as required by British treaty protocol. Robinson ignored Chief Shingwaukonse’s objections and announced that he would distribute annuity money to those who signed a second treaty. On Monday, the 9th, Shingwaukonse and Nebenaigoching resisted again. (They were participating in treaty negotiations under the real threat of incarceration, for they would not be pardoned until 1851 for their role in seizing the Mica Bay mine a year before Robinson’s appointment.)95 But ultimately they capitulated when it seemed that the choice was Robinson’s offer or nothing at all. They and the Lake Huron delegates present signed the second (Robinson-Huron) treaty. A week later five other representatives signed at Penetanguishene, perhaps following another ultimatum from Robinson.96 The territory covered by the Robinson Treaties was by no means defined with precision. Conventional maps show the surrendered territory conveniently stretching to the Quebec border.97 A “blanket extinguishment clause” referred to “all unceded lands within the limits of Canada West to which they have any just claim,” thereby excluding any Indigenous lands within the Hudson Bay watershed, the hbc’s Rupert’s Land territory. Bands such as Long Lake, whose traditional territories crossed the height-of-land, became divided into Robinson Treaty Indians, who received annuities, and non-treaty Indians, who did not98 (until the latter participated in Treaty No. 9 in 1906;99 a half-century after the Robinson Treaties, these Ojibwe would welcome the annuities, plus other gifts and protections that they had arbitrarily been denied when their kinfolk participated in the 1850 agreement).100 The Teme-Augama Anishinabeg (“deep water people”), who did not participate in Robinson’s negotiations, are still involved in land and resource claims.101 (This case is especially pertinent to Treaty No. 9; having accepted annuities, the Teme-Augama were deemed to have thereby accepted the treaty.)102 Legislation enacted three years after the Robinson Treaties left any dissatisfied post-treaty Ojibwe leaders without legal recourse. Lawyers who supported the Indian cause could face three to five years in jail for disturbing the peace.103 (Similarly, the Indian Act, under D.C. Scott’s aegis in the twentieth century, would forbid the raising of funds for legal claims.)104 As David Calverley has shown, the Ojibwe’s almost unfettered right to hunt and fish, guaranteed by the Robin-

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son Treaties, would be abrogated by Ontario’s 1892 Game Act and left virtually unchallenged by Indian Affairs officials.105 Until fairly recently, Ontario courts had little sympathy for Indian harvesting rights.106 In 1898, when members of the Nipissing band were found guilty of illegally hunting moose, one government official thought they might be assuaged by the possibility of future employment as guides for sportsmen.107 Indigenous adherents to the Robinson Treaties continued to defy what they viewed as the unfair enforcement of provincial game and fishing laws, and they endured decades of harassment before the treaty promises were honoured.108 In 1971 their right to fish commercially without a licence, as guaranteed by Robinson, was finally recognized by the courts.109 In its review of treaty relations in Ontario, the Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry observes that treaty rights were ignored in the province through most of the twentieth century. Nipissing First Nation now sells Lake Nipissing pickerel in downtown North Bay, but Ipperwash reminds us that these recent developments were achieved “only after years of turmoil and conflict.”110

treaty no. 3 Nearly a quarter-century after the Robinson Treaties, Treaty No. 3 was signed with the “Saulteaux, Woodland Saulteaux and Saulteaux of the Ojibbeway Nation,” occupying territory immediately west of the Great Lakes (in what is now northwestern Ontario and adjacent Manitoba). The Indigenous occupants enjoyed an enviable bargaining position, for their homeland occupied “the only feasible transportation route to the west,” known as the Dawson route. This was a region through which the federal government needed to build a road-waterway system,111 and soon thereafter a railway, to link the new nation of Canada.112 Treaty negotiations were complicated by Canada’s initial fears that the Ojibwe might join in the Red River rebellion and by the government’s corresponding need to negotiate safe passage through their territory for Colonel Garnet Wolseley’s113 military expedition of 1870 to establish control at Upper Fort Garry.114 During the first negotiations that year, Wemyss Simpson (retired hbc fur trader, member of Parliament for Algoma, and later Indian commissioner)115 rejected Ojibwe demands. They wanted perpetual annuities of $10 per person and an annual feast of “flour, pork, tea and tobacco” as compensation for the narrow transportation corridor alone. The following year Simpson and his fellow commissioners failed to negotiate a more extensive surrender of the territory immediately west of Lake Superior.116 He then proceeded to Lower Fort Garry, where he negotiated Treaties No. 1 and 2.117 In 1872 Simpson again failed to conclude a treaty with the Ojibwe west of the Great Lakes, who felt that annuities of $3 per person (as provided in Treaties No. 1 and 2) did not reflect the value of gold and silver deposits recently discovered

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in their territory. Later that year Simpson was authorized to make an enriched offer, but the Ojibwe had dispersed for the winter before he could advance the proposal.118 In 1873, with the Canadian Pacific Railway (cpr) expected to pass through that region within three years, troops from the Lower Fort Garry garrison escorted Alexander Morris, lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories, to the North-West Angle on Lake of the Woods, where he and two other commissioners tried again.119 They waited there for some 1,400 Ojibwe from eleven bands. When the Ojibwe asked to move the meeting to Fort Frances, Morris refused. He insisted that they meet on 25 September, but he was forced to allow additional time, in what Daugherty calls a “test of wills.”120 On 1 October Morris made his first offer: gratuities of $10 and perpetual annuities of $5 per person, reserves (using the formula of 1 square mile per family of five – quadruple the size of those under Treaties No. 1 and 2), schools, hunting and fishing on unoccupied territory, and $20 annually for chiefs. Next day the Ojibwe demanded gratuities of $15 and annuities of $10, with $50 for chiefs, $20 for councillors, and $15 for “soldiers.”121 In addition, they expected to receive “agricultural implements, farm animals, suits of clothing, guns and ammunition, twine for fishing nets, horses and buggies, carpenter’s tools, seed and provision such as flour and sugar, and household utensils including stoves.” The Ojibwe may have known that livestock and tools for farming had been offered as “outside promises” (that is, not actually written in the treaty) in Treaties No. 1 and 2. They were also aware of the more generous (but not perpetual) provisions of treaties south of the international border, for American Ojibwe attended the North-West Angle treaty proceedings (as they had also done for the 1850 Robinson deliberations).122 On 3 October 1873 Morris enriched his offer. Gratuities were increased from $10 to $12, but annuities remained at $5. Implements and seeds would be provided to any bands who farmed. Ammunition and twine would be distributed, to a maximum value of $1500. Before agreeing, the Ojibwe were successful in extracting several additional concessions: a new suit for the chief every three years, a box of tools for the band, and protection for inhabitants of their reserves (the control of liquor, in particular). They asked for and received confirmation that they would be exempt from conscription. A request for free passage on the steamboats and railway that would transform their homeland, was, however, denied.123 When Treaty No. 3 was finally signed in 1873, writes Wayne Dougherty, it ended “four years of exhaustive negotiations.”124 Treaty No. 3 had been authorized by an order-in-council that mentioned the “Saulteaux and Lac Seul Indians of the Ojibbeway Nation.”125 Sah-katch-eway, whose people summered “a day’s journey below the outlet of Lac Seul,” made his mark on the treaty of 3 October. During the first day of treaty negotiations, he

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broke ranks with his more southerly delegates and stated that he was in favour of Morris’s initial offer. His people had “little farms on English River,” where they likely grew potatoes, and they were eager “to get things necessary for these farms.”126 Eight months later a separate adhesion was signed at Lac Seul with the Ojibwe of Lac Seul and the Trout and Sturgeon Lakes.127 Following the signing of Treaty No. 3, the federal government had to “revise the terms of Treaties One and Two and honour the ‘outside promises’” made during the signing of those treaties.128 Treaty No. 3 thus became, Dougherty argues, “the definitive treaty, and all the subsequent numbered treaties in the Canadian west were based on it.”129 In it and successive treaties, unlike the Robinson Treaties, hunting and fishing were subject to (federal) government regulation.130 The “blanket extinguishment” clause returned in Treaty No. 4 and remained a feature of later numbered treaties.131 Morris, who also presided over treaties 4 through 6, published an account of these deliberations in 1880.132 When Canada granted a timber licence on Lake Wabigoon to the St Catharines Milling and Lumber Company in 1883, Ontario vigourously challenged its authority. For nearly a century, the fallout for aboriginal rights from this case would be devastating to Indigenous peoples, none of whom participated in the court proceedings. Ontario’s challenge reached all the way to Great Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Canada’s highest court of appeal until 1949. The province won its case in 1888. Indians were declared to have had no title to the land following Confederation. They were deemed to have only a limited right to use it at the pleasure of the Crown, and the burden of this circumscribed right was found to have been largely extinguished by treaty.133 The Crown had title to the land simply by virtue of claiming so. Once Treaty No. 3 was signed, rights to non-reserve land and to natural resources were declared to have passed to Ontario, and not to Canada.134 As historian David Calverley aptly observes, “Ontario’s victory in St. Catherine’s Milling … strengthened Ontario’s control over natural resources, degraded the status of treaties and the rights therein in relation to provincial power, and stung the federal government to such an extent that it became reluctant to challenge Ontario’s game laws.” The courts had “essentially removed Natives from the path of Ontario’s economic progress.”135 This situation began to shift only in the 1960s, when Canadian courts started to reassess treaty rights.136 Federal-provincial disputes over Treaty No. 3 did not end with St. Catherines Milling. In Ontario Mining Company v. Seybold, the province successfully argued that Indigenous peoples had no rights to the minerals on their reserve lands.137 Ontario acquired a degree of control over Indigenous lands and resources that was “unique among the provinces.” No other province would be as involved in treaty negotiation and implementation until the 1970s,138 although we will see that British Columbia had a limited role in Treaty No. 8.

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treaty no. 5 Treaty No. 5 was signed in 1875–76 immediately west of what would become the Treaty No. 9 territory in far northern Ontario. Canada’s priorities were acquiring a navigation right-of-way for steamer travel on Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River (and later a railroad), the need for limited settlement, and the region’s apparent mineral potential. Historian Frank Tough observes that “the government was willing to engage in a treaty process only according to its own timetable. This timetable was based on an assessment of external needs and not on a concern for the economic conditions of Indians.” Indigenous participants were motivated to participate “by a stagnant fur trade.”139 The terms were similar to those of Treaties No. 1 and 2, with the smaller reserve formula of 160 acres per family of five.140 In their report on Treaty No. 5, Ken Coates and William Morrison remark: “The haste and urgency with which the treaty commissioners negotiated Treaty Five left a great deal of room for misunderstanding. After 1876, there were numerous disputes over the location and size of reserves, the chiefs selected, and the payment of treaty promises. The problems also raised some serious questions as to how much the Native people understood the entire treaty process.”141 Ancestors of the people now known as the Pikangikum and Poplar Hill First Nations apparently participated in this treaty through the signing at Beren’s River in 1875 and at Grand Rapids the following year. Some were closely connected to Lac Seul and may have previously received annuities there.142 After the adhesions of 1908-10 extended Treaty No. 5 to the shores of Hudson Bay, the historic Deer Lake band (now the Deer Lake, Keewaywin, Koocheching, North Spirit Lake, and Sandy Lake First Nations) joined in 1910. A Treaty No. 5 commemorative website was launched on 5 May 2010. With the signing of Treaty No. 5, the Ojibwe of the upper Albany River were almost surrounded to the south and west by neighbours and kinfolk who received treaty annuities and other benefits which they did not. By 1905 some Ojibwe and Cree on the Albany River would have certainly known that their neighbours and kin received annuities, as well as farming tools, seeds, and other benefits. They likely knew, as well, that Treaty No. 3 had involved some serious negotiating. After three more treaties were signed further west and north, it would be their turn. Before turning to Treaty No. 9, however, we have one more treaty to examine.

treaty no. 8 James Morrison refers to the first seven numbered treaties as “settlement” treaties” and those numbered eight through eleven as “northern resource development” treaties.143 Treaty No. 6, which contained a unique medicine chest

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clause, was signed in what is now largely Saskatchewan and Alberta, beginning in 1876. Treaty No. 7 was signed in what is now southern Alberta, starting the following year. Treaty No. 8 was signed in northern Alberta and adjacent British Columbia, Sakatchewan, and Northwest Territories, beginning in 1899.144 The Lubicon Cree maintain that they never participated in this treaty.145 Dennis Madill reveals that, by the time of Treaty No. 8, two questions were being raised about the numbered treaty model: was the reserve system appropriate further north, and should long-term financial commitments be curtailed? In the north, Indigenous peoples were organized very differently from many of their southern neighbours. During the planning for Treaty No. 8, James A.J. McKenna (whom we will meet again in chapters 2 and 3) observed that, unlike the prairie tribes, where the “communal idea was strong,” those further north “act rather as individuals than as a nation.”146 The anthropologist Elman R. Service employed a typology to explain such situations, distinguishing bands from tribes, chiefdoms, and states. In what is now western Canada the northern Cree, unlike the Plains Cree, exhibited a “band” level of social organization entirely suitable to their subarctic homeland. Family ties are all-important in bands.147 And in bands, social distinctions are few and based on achievement, not ascription. The person acknowledged as a leader when several families were fishing at a particular rapids was not necessarily the person you wanted to take charge when a herd of caribou or geese was encountered.148 As discussed in this chapter, the hbc might acknowledge or choose someone to be a chief spokesman when many family groups converged at the trading post for a few weeks, but that person was a first among equals who had no real authority. (Social anthropologists’ technical use of the word “band” should not be confused with the Indian Act’s generic use of the term to mean any group of Indians defined by Indian Affairs officials for administrative purposes.) Social organization had important implications when it came to allocating reserves. McKenna considered the Treaty No. 8 lands unsuitable for agriculture and settlement and argued (like E.B. Borron) that common reserves were inappropriate for the hunters there, where small, family-sized reserves should be considered.149 Although it may not have occurred to McKenna, the acephalous nature of band societies had another implication: if there were neither chiefs nor headmen at treaty-signing, with whom would the commissioners conduct negotiations? A second issue concerned officials such as James Ansdell Macrae, whom we will meet again in chapter 2, who suggested that annuities be replaced with onetime cash payments. He warned that the increasing cost of annual payments might become an economic burden, since Indians were no longer “a disappearing race.”150 Macrae, an Indian Affairs employee since 1881, was an inspector of Indian agencies who served as a combination paymaster and treaty and scrip commissioner for Treaty No. 8 in 1900.151

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Sifton disagreed with both McKenna’s and Macrae’s advice. As Madill observes, “despite the fact that the Indian Affairs Department had received advice that the Prairie treaties could not be applied to the north, the written terms of [Treaty No. 8] were based essentially on Treaty Seven, with some changes reflecting local conditions.”152 Treaty No. 8, like its successor, would provide common reserves and perpetual annuities.153 Unlike Treaty No. 9, however, its predecessor specified that ammunition and twine would be provided, along with agricultural implements and suits of clothing. Treaty No. 8’s annuities were more generous as well: $25 for a chief (plus a silver medal and suit), $10 for a headman, and $5 per person for the others. The initial gratuities were even higher at $32, $22, and $12 respectively.154 Treaty No. 8, unlike its successor, addressed half-breed claims.155 As Dr Oliver Cromwell Edwards, a fifty-year-old member of Macrae’s 1900 party, explained, Indigenous people could identify themselves at treaty time as either Indian or half-breed. The latter had a choice of 240 acres of land or scrip worth $240 for each family member living at the time of the 1870 Rupert’s Land transfer. Money scrip, a kind of credit line with the federal government, could be sold at a discount to the speculators who followed the scrip commission. The head of a half-breed family of six might parlay his money scrip valued at $1,440 into a $400 cash windfall. Had he opted for treaty status, he would receive only $72 the first year ($12 per capita) and $30 annually thereafter. Faced with the choice of treaty or scrip, the latter option provided a tempting one-time bonanza. Some who initially identified themselves as Indians switched their choice to half-breed and, Edwards observed, following their spending spree, had nothing left.156 In a preview of the treaty that followed theirs, Indigenous peoples refused to agree to Treaty No. 8 unless they were assured that they would not be forced to live on their reserves and could continue to hunt, fish, and trap.157 Years later, anthropologist June Helm concluded that they could not possibly have understood the concept of surrendering their territories.158 (Readers are referred to René Fumoleau’s As Long as This Land Shall Last for a comprehensive account of this treaty.) This was perhaps the first of the numbered treaties supervised by the Canadian government, essentially overseeing its own actions without checks and balances. Solemn promises could now be made with impunity by treaty commissioners, so long as they brought back a signed treaty. To hell with negotiations and to hell with the protocols which guided earlier generations. (Treaties 1 through 7 had been nominally supervised by the Colonial Office in Great Britain and by the governor general himself,159 but the governor general may have stopped sending treaties to the Colonial Office earlier.160 Constitutional lawyers will have to decide what it means for the Rupert’s Land transfer requirement that “Any claims of Indians to compensation for lands required for purposes of settlement shall be disposed of by the Canadian Government in communication with the Imperial Government.”)161

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The two treaties also shared another notable feature, the involvement of a province. The western portion of Treaty No. 8 extended into the northeastern corner of British Columbia, so that province (averse to treaty-making for so much of the twentieth century)162 had to approve – or not oppose – the location of reserve lands within its borders.163 Ontario, however, had control of its natural resources, a power that the western provinces would not acquire until 1930.164 British Columbia had a very limited role in Treaty No. 8, for, as Arthur Ray has shown, it simply chose to ignore the reserve land issue.165 An aggressive province of Ontario would delay Treaty No. 9 for a year, as we shall see, and influence several of its provisions. Anthropologist R.W. Dunning, who conducted fieldwork at Pikangikum in 1954–55, concluded that Treaty No. 5 “was an unqualified benefit” for the ancestors of these people: “they lost nothing of value, and they gained recognition from the government, with the promise not only of annual treaty payments, but of an Indian Agent who would be responsible for them.”166 His assessment of Treaty No. 5 makes it sound scarcely different from the early fur trade alliances, the Indian agent being a new representative of a powerful, distant ogimaa. For many Indigenous participants, the numbered treaties may have seemed like age-old pacts of peace, friendship, assistance, and protection. Those who anticipated little change to their post-1870 fur trade economy were happy to have a little cash. Those whose homelands and economies would be disrupted by transportation routes, resource extraction, or settlement tried to squeeze out much higher levels of support and sometimes were able to do so.

2 Requests for Annuities, 1884–1905

The Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario asked for support and protection from the Crown, in some cases decades before the Treaty No. 9 commissioners paid them a visit. Their requests prompted government officials to turn their attention to this region and begin crafting a treaty (a process described in the chapter 3). Here we examine requests from the upper Albany River, where Treaty No. 9 was first signed in 1905, and from the headwaters of the Missinaibi and Abitibi Rivers, where treaty commissioners visited the following year. It is no coincidence that these demands came from the southern frontier of the former hbc territory, where the middle ground of the fur trade was disappearing.

osnaburgh We start with a request from the region known to early Great Lakes fur traders as le petit nord. The little north lay inland from the shores of Hudson Bay, where early hbc traders first established their posts “at the edge of a frozen sea.”1 Historian Victor Lytwyn defines le petit nord as being in “the Canadian Shield … north of Lake Superior and east of Lake Winnipeg.”2 This was not, as we will see, the first request for help in far northern Ontario, but we begin here, at the headwaters of the Albany River, where the commisioners and Ojibwe would begin signing Treaty No. 9 in 1905. In December of 1901 Hudson’s Bay Company clerk Jabez Williams sent a petition to Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Clifford Sifton (concurrently the minister of the Interior). It bore the names, but not the signatures, of several Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh post on Lake St Joseph, known to the Ojibwe as Mishkeegogamang (“at the swampy water”).3 His covering letter stated that these Ojibwe wanted an “extension of the Annuity system,” the annual cash distribution to which treaty Indians were entitled.4 Annual payments to the Ojibwe would mean more sales in the hbc store, so we need to be aware of Williams’s self-interest. Following Confederation, the hbc had occasionally been reimbursed for payments to sick and destitute Indians prior, but these amounts skyrocketed after treaty-making, rising by 2,000 per cent from $3.60 at Osnaburgh in 1899–1900 to $767.39 in 1905–6.5 All the same, it strikes me as entirely reasonable that the Ojibwe trading here would have wanted the money that their neighbours had been receiving for decades.

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Historian James Morrison writes that the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh were “linked by trade and marriage ties to the nearby Nipigon [Robinson-Superior], Lac Seul and Sturgeon Lake [Treaty No. 3] bands … as well as to the people of the upper Berens River [Treaty No. 5].”6 Indian Affairs accountant and Treaty No. 9 commissioner D.C. Scott noted some of the connections at Osnaburgh in his journal in 1905: “No 17 Lac Seul one girl married at Osnaburgh No 16 … Wapunakeesic weshkung a woman came with 1 boy 2 girls. Said she was paid under this name at Nepigon, about 6 years ago.”7 In 1890 the hbc transportation and communication system had been reoriented, with Osnaburgh’s furs moving south through Lac Seul to Lake Dinorwic in the Robinson-Superior watershed, instead of along the old Albany River route and down to Fort Albany on James Bay. This change, writes ethnohistorian Charles Bishop, had “marked a turning point” for the people of Osnaburgh, who were now part of the Company’s Lake Superior district and supplied from Wabigoon Tank (later Dinorwic) on the Canadian Pacific Railway line.8 Thirty to forty men from Osnaburgh took the post’s furs south and freighted its supplies back north.9 Their kin would learn, by word of mouth, that those who received treaty payments also had access to Western medical care. The Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh were cautiously pragmatic, willing to supplement their Indigenous medico-spritual practices in order to survive. Their aging trading chief, Missabay (Misaabe, “giant”),10 visited Dinorwic in 1902 when his vision began to fail.11 The English words “survive” and “life” do not, however, adequately capture the meaning of the Ojibwe concept bimaadiziwin. Historian Michael Angel explains it as “the quest for a long life, free from hunger, sickness, and enemies,” or simply a “good life in this world.”12 The expression mino bimaadiziwin means, literally, “good life.” Ojibwe language keeper Muriel Sawyer of Nipissing First Nation says that bimaadiziwin refers to “our way of life, our laws and teachings,” which are fundamentally “connected to the land.”13 Among the Eastern Cree in what is now northern Quebec, the equivalent word pimaatisiiun can be translated as simply “living” or “alive.” But medical anthropologist Naomi Adelson, like Muriel Sawyer, notes that much more is entailed in a “good” life: Warmth, Cree food, and strength form the essence of “being alive well.” To be sure, there are other elements … for example, for some Cree it includes devotion to the Christian doctrine. Cleanliness, too, is one of the fundamental principles of “being alive well.” But Cree food, in particular, and warmth and strength, were pointed to again and again as the keys to “being alive well.” “Well” is firmly tied to the ideals of living a Cree way of life – more specifically, a way of life imbued with robust connections to the physical and spiritual northern landscape.14

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This is the same concept that the Cree of western James Bay refer to as (mino; Moose Cree, milo) pimaatisiwin.15 Some of the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh would have witnessed the annual treaty payments further south at Lac Seul or Dinorwic, and those who had not would have certainly heard about them. Jabez Williams’s brother Herb recalled, “Going to treaty was the picnic of the year for the natives, as they met relatives and friends they had not seen for a year and exchanged all the gossip accumulated since last payment.” Treaty time also coincided with ceremonial events, some of which had begun to serve as tourist attractions near settlements on the upper Great Lakes.16 Such gatherings were also a time for private religious rites such as the midewiwin,17 an Ojibwe healing ceremony that was apparently not practised at Lake St Joseph or further north.18 Some of the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh would have attended Indigenous religious and social events at Lac Seul, where the Treaty No. 9 commissioners interrupted a white dog feast in 1905, or on the Berens River. When the paper trail is largely written by white men, we have to read between the lines (or “beyond the words”)19 to ensure that we understand the very different world views involved in their encounters with Indigenous peoples. This is the crux of our challenge in understanding the making of Treaty No. 9 in far northern Ontario in 1905, as we recentre and decolonize the story.20 What were the Ojibwe and Cree told? What were they thinking? What did they say? What were their motivations, and (to some extent) what were the motivations of others? We need to keep two very different perspectives in mind. For Indigenous participants, treaty payments were social and cultural celebrations as well as financial transactions. But for Herb Williams and “those who had to look after the distribution of the contract goods, collect the treaty advances and look up the artful dodgers,” treaty time “was anything but a picnic.”21 In 1901 Herb Williams’s brother Jabez was newly arrived at Osnaburgh, following a one-year stint downriver at Marten Falls, but he was a seasoned hbc fur trader.22 For nineteen years he had lived and worked at Rat Portage, NorthWest Angle, White Dog, Fort Frances, and Lac Seul in the Treaty No. 3 area.23 He knew that the annual treaty money of $5 for every man, woman, and child represented a substantial amount of cash or credit. His brother Herb, a successful businessman in Fort Frances, later recalled how the Lake of the Woods Anishinaabeg “took their treaty money, paid the treaty debts to the Hudson Bay Company officer, who also had a booth near the paymaster that they had to pass on their way out, and then passed on to spend what was left among the other traders … those who had not paid up treaty advances in full to be black-listed until paid.”24 After arriving at Osnaburgh on 24 September 1901, Jabez, a forty-three-yearold widower, soon established close ties with the Ojibwe there.25 A year after his letter and petition reached Sifton, Williams’s housekeeper, young Clara Fanny, or

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2.1 Jabez Williams

Wuh-wih-yeh-chi-koh-nih-queh,26 bore the first of their ten children. As Rae Kiebuzinski, who interviewed one of their sons, observed, “an Indian wife placed a trader in higher esteem with his customers,” and this arrangement was also advantageous for her family.27 If he did not actually know Isaiah Poo-yah-way (booyawe, “young beaver”), “a Treaty Indian belonging to Lac Seul Band of Treaty # 3 – but whose residence is on Lake St Joseph,” Jabez Williams undoubtedly knew friends and relatives of the man.28 Poo-yah-way’s name is first on the petition and written, according to Williams, at his request. Williams also inscribed fifteen other names, including George Wah-we-aish-kung and John Skunk (zhigaag), who would become treaty signatories in 1905, and several others.29 The name of Missabay, their trading chief since 1876 (and a man whom the commissioners would describe playing a role in the 1905 treaty-making) was missing from the petition.30 He had likely left already for his winter trapping grounds. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada (gsc) took several pictures of Missabay at a summer feast during his 1885 visit to Osnaburgh.31 As with all Algonquian leaders, Missabay’s authority, as primus inter pares, was almost non-existent, but traders acknowledged him as a spokesman for the

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Ojibwe trading there. Was Poo-yah-way manipulating Williams so that he could get his Treaty No. 3 annuities at Osnaburgh, or was Williams exploiting him? Williams had worked at Lac Seul from 1894 to 1898, and he had just spent the summer of 1901 attending treaty payments at Dinorwic, Frenchman’s Head, and Lac Seul.32 How did he know to address his petition to the superintendent general of Indian Affairs? Had he asked the treaty paymaster he met during the summer of 1901? James Morrison reports that Jabez had a long-standing interest in mineral exploration and his “motives seem to have involved the usual mix of altruism and self-interest.”33 While at Lac Seul in 1897, for example, he had written to the gsc, asking about prospecting opportunities and recommending that a treaty be signed north of the height-of-land.34 Jabez and other hbc officers invested in mining projects, and shortly after dispatching the 1901 petition, he asked the gsc’s Robert Bell to provide him with information about Lake St Joseph.35 There are probably no disinterested white men in this story. On the other side of the territory that would be included in Treaty No. 9, in adjacent Quebec, Indian agent Adam Burwash was involved in a mining syndicate.36 Priests, nuns, clergymen, and bishops would benefit when their schools received federal financing.37 Williams wrote, using familiar terms from his own world view, of the Ojibwe being “desirous of releasing our rights in the lands situated in this section of His Majesty’s Dominions, and of having the benefits of the Annuity Grant extended to us – on behalf of ourselves and heirs.”38 While he would have understood that Indians only received perpetual annuities when they signed land surrenders, it is by no means clear that the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh understood how these two concepts were linked; during two centuries of the fur trade, they had received gifts simply for “sharing the land” (on a fairly small scale).39 We can assume that some of the Ojibwe who traded at Osnaburgh were asking for immediate assistance (gratuities). It is just as likely that they anticipated the need for protection from future resource development. Those who had travelled south to Dinorwic and seen the cpr trains and mining claims might well anticipate massive disruption, but they wanted to remain hunters. Arthur Ray suggests that, from their world view, the Ojibwe “hoped to improve their economic position in the fur trade economy. Annuities offered them the prospect of obtaining income they needed to purchase their hunting outfits without having to resort to the high-priced credit Hudson’s Bay Company traders offered.”40 Annuities could help the Ojibwe, and their Cree neighbours, through difficult times. In good times, however, annuities might mean that they traded fewer furs. It was a great concern to fur traders that, with higher fur tariffs, the Ojibwe and Cree often spent less time trapping. Economist Peter George and anthropologist Richard Preston refer to this phenomenon as “‘subsistence trapping’ for just the amount of trade goods they wanted for wintering in the bush; they made little effort towards a surplus, which was not only impractical to transport, but was contrary to traditional food-sharing principles.”41 Others needed the meat on

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those beavers. Most traders complained that their Indians were lazy; only the most perceptive realized that this behaviour was because “[t]heir main aim in life … was ‘not to make us rich but themselves comfortable.’”42 According to the petition, the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh had “held a council during October 1901 A.D. and decided to make formal request … and also discussed … the location of the land which we would like to reserve for the use of ourselves and descendants.” A meeting of the entire macro- or trading-post band would likely have been held in June or July, when they all returned with their furs. By October many of the Ojibwe who visited the post in summer would have dispersed to their fall fisheries, en route to winter trapping territories.43 Those who remained were likely employed by the hbc as fishermen, securing a winter supply of whitefish at one of four stations near the post. Fanny Williams’s fatherin-law was one of these fishermen; so were John, George, and Thomas Skunk, whose names were listed on the petition.44 How did the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh understand the concept of a reserve? Surely they did not want to retain just a small parcel of land at Lake St Joseph after signing a treaty. If they were to do so, it would mean they would no longer be able to make a living as hunters and trappers, and we have absolutely no indication that this was their goal. They grew potatoes, but they would not have wanted to live by farming alone.45 Some would have known about the reserve at Lac Seul, across the lake from the influence and interference of hbc officials and missionaries, and may have wished a similar summer gathering spot. Williams’s petition emphasized the Ojibwe’s concern that surveyors – who would have included men of the gsc as well as Ontario’s 1900 survey – and prospectors had begun exploring their traditional territories.46 Notwithstanding his own interest in freeing the land for exploration, the Ojibwe were likely concerned as well. In the Treaty No. 3 lands south of Osnaburgh, northwestern Ontario was becoming a new Klondike. In 1895 provincial geologist Coleman had reported that the “Golden Rod Mining Co. of New York” was “developing a property on the north shore” of Lake Minitaki, which drained north into Lac Seul.47 The Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh would have felt that their consent was needed prior to such developments on their traditional territories. Charles Bishop argues that at this time the northern Ojibwe had clearly established notions of rights to the land and its resources and that they deprecated trespass.48 Ownership, of course, is neither an Ojibwe nor a Cree concept. In the summer of 1900 Ontario premier George W. Ross’s provincial government dispatched ten survey parties north of the cpr line, “practically a terra incognita” to provincial geologists, “to take stock of the various kinds of natural wealth which existed there.” Immediately south of Osnaburgh, at Pelican Falls and at a miner’s camp in a bay across Pelican Lake, Ontario land surveyor (hereafter ols) James Robertson observed “many rocky exposures, which show recent marks of the prospector’s hammer.”49 Land and timber estimator Daniel McPhee reported “a small mine or prospect being worked about six miles from Big Sandy

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Lake Portage” (perhaps the same camp mentioned by Robertson) and a “few prospectors’ camps … along the shore” of Big Sandy Lake, 9 miles north by wagon road of Dinorwic cpr station.50 When Robertson, McPhee, and geologist John Davison visited Osnaburgh that summer, they found a survey post that had been planted at one of Lake St Joseph’s outlets in 1885 by gsc surveyor Thomas Fawcett.51 From their brief reconnaissance of the Osnaburgh region, they concluded there was “no timber in quantities fit for commercial purposes except fuel, and no tract of land fit for agricultural purposes” near Osnaburgh. hbc clerk Robert Wilson, who had lived at Osnaburgh for sixteen years, told Robertson that he “had not heard of there being any valuable timber in this direction … nor any mineral lands. Some little prospecting had been done about two years ago, but so far as known no discoveries had been made.”52 The area was just opening up to surveyors and prospectors, however. The Report of the Survey and Exploration of Northern Ontario would publicize the region at home and abroad. With accurate maps, later explorers would not become as frustrated as ols H.B. Proudfoot. His guides from Lake Nipigon had not heard of Lake St Joseph (“No one in the party knew the name by which the Indians called the lake, and ‘St. Joseph’ is an ‘X’ quantity to the Indians”), and Proudfoot would not have known it as Mishkeegogamang. When he finally arrived there, he searched for Fawcett’s survey post at the wrong outlet.53 Williams’s petition complained of trespass, on behalf of the Ojibwe, ending with more complicated terminology from his own world view: “As white men are already building upon land which we desire to retain, we feel it our duty to ourselves to bring the matter to the notice of His Majesty’s Government in whom we have full confidence to render justice to loyal subjects.” But Jabez Williams was just as concerned about these interlopers. Although competing fur traders had occasionally visited the area since 1870, Charles Bishop writes, “The real threat from opposition traders began in 1901, when the G.A. McLaren Trading Company erected … a store twelve miles east of Osnaburgh.”54 Competition was advantageous to the Ojibwe, for it placed them in a better bargaining position; it was Jabez Williams who was disadvantaged. In 1902 a rival post was built across the lake from the hbc post at Pedlar’s Path Bay.55 The petition confidently indicated that the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh were ready to meet meet government officials in the summer of 1902 and named Pooyah-way and Wah-we-aish-kung (not Missabay) as their spokesmen. All in all, it is a piece of evidence that must be read with caution. Jabez Williams clearly wanted a treaty. The Ojibwe apparently wanted annuities and were alarmed at the prospecting in their territories. But we have only Jabez Williams’s word that they were “desirous of releasing … rights in the lands.” In Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs secretary John D. McLean forwarded the petition to his minister, Clifford Sifton, along with advice from the department’s law clerk.56 Sifton, more concerned as minister of the Interior with devel-

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oping western Canada through immigration and settlement, returned it with his terse reply penned across the bottom. The matter should be referred to the Indian commissioner, former lieutenant-governor David Laird, and to Laird’s assistant, James McKenna. Sifton had already been briefed on the region, and a new new file would soon begin filling with plans for a treaty in far northern Ontario. This was neither the first Indigenous request for help from the federal government nor the first suggestion for a treaty in the area north of the cpr line. Despite Jabez Williams’s role as its author, the Osnaburgh petition should be considered a valid plea for assistance and protection, complicated by some highly questionable phrases. At its core, it was similar to other requests from further east. James Morrison reminds us that “a band’s interest in treaty relations with the government was, by 1901, generally proportional to its proximity to the railway line.” Those nearest the cpr sought help to cope with the rapid transformation of their way of life; those further north wanted to maintain their fur trade existence. In 1902 Williams worried that Katchang (who apparently traded at Attawapiskat Lake and who would reluctantly sign Treaty No. 9 at Fort Hope) was under the influence of the priests and opposed to “government control.”57 Similarly, the chief of the distant Cranes refused to allow a 1903 Geological Survey of Canada party to proceed north from Osnaburgh.58 Anthropologists Mary Black-Rogers and Edward S. Rogers note that Ochichaak (“crane”) and his brother were hunting north of Osnaburgh, “half way to Big Trout Lake,” when the hbc opened Osnaburgh post in 1786.59 Valerie Grant explains that “group identity names … [are] usually either 1) derived from the names of animals, 2) were the name of one or more of the group’s principal hunters or leaders, or 3) referred to the group’s place of residence.”60 Lest we assume the Cranes were closely attached to Osnaburgh, she emphasizes that the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario “employed a subsistence strategy in which varying size groups exploited territories that expanded and contracted with changes in resource availability … The groups were socially and spatially mobile, having substantial flexibility which provided for alternative ways of coping with a nonstable environment. With the advent of the fur trade economy, Indian trappers utilized this spatial mobility to trade at widely dispersed posts.”61 We can erroneously think of the Cranes or Katchang as belonging to a given trading post, but these posts were established only because the Indigenous peoples were already there in the first place. Trading post bands, like Indian Act bands, were constructs of non-Indigenous people. The trading posts were attached to the Indians, and the Indians were highly mobile.

missinaibie watershed Further east, at Brunswick and Missinaibi Lakes, the Ojibwe (and perhaps some Cree) had been even more concerned for almost two decades. If those near Osnaburgh, considerably north of the cpr, anticipated the disruption of their

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way of life, those further south and east, along the railway line, had already experienced it. The railway had crossed their territory and disrupted their trapping, prompting both treaty and non-treaty Indians to express their concerns to Indian Affairs officials on no less than four occasions. The northern limit of the Robinson Treaties was intended by British colonizers to correspond with the boundary of Canada West, an entirely “artificial boundary” imposed on the Ojibwe without regard to their more fluid zones of historical and cultural influence.62 Physical boundaries such as the height-of-land, seemingly more “natural” than geometrical ones such as the 49th parallel, appealed to colonizers and nation-builders who hoped to minimize survey costs.63 The treaty people of Sahquakegick, a Robinson-Superior treaty chief also known as Louis Espagnol,64 were suffering alongside his non-treaty people, although one received annuities to cushion the impact and the other did not. The arrival of the cpr brought competition from “white trappers” motivated solely by short-term rewards. Unlike the Ojibwe, these opportunists would take every beaver they could, leaving none for the following year. The cpr also meant easy access to alcohol and new epidemic diseases. Morrison reminds us that these were not new problems for the Ojibwe, and the number of people invading their lands was not large “compared to the Canadian west.” But the problems were real, and they “threatened the Indian way of life.”65 The law clerk’s memo to which Sifton had been referred responded to an earlier typed memorandum from J.A. Macrea, inspector of Indian agencies and reserves. Six months before Jabez Williams penned his petition, Macrae had notified the minister of a parcel of land, labelled “unsurrendered” on his accompanying map, located “north and north-east of the country surrendered by the Indians under the Robinson Treaties.”66 In 1899 Macrae, with accountant (and future Treaty No. 9 commissioner) D.C. Scott, had arrived at New Brunswick House to pay annuities and consider means of reducing expenditures, in response to Ontario’s objections to the spiralling cost of Robinson Treaty benefits.67 There they had met a delegation from the north, concerned “that railroads were projected through their country, and that already miners, prospectors, and surveyors were beginning to pass through it [in] such largely increased numbers that the game was disturbed, interference with their means of livelihood had commenced, and their rights were being trespassed upon.”68 Macrae and Scott indicated that help would be forthcoming and urged the Ojibwe to be patient. If the non-treaty Ojibwe conveyed the “nicest spirit of confidence,”69 as the officials reported, it must have masked profound frustration, for this was their third request. As James Morrison has shown, they had first expressed their concerns in writing fifteen years earlier. Their spokesman in 1884 was Sahquakegick (Louis Espagnol).70 They had also voiced their concerns to itinerant provincial magistrate and retired miner E.B. Borron at Missanabie71 in 1886, but he may not have notified federal officials.72

2.2 Macrae’s map, 1901. Near Chapleau the Canadian Pacific Railroad crossed unsurrendered territory in the James Bay watershed.

In 1906 at Biscotasing D.C. Scott would twice photograph Espagnol wearing his traditional garb, surrounded by other Indigenous people dressed in a more European style of clothing.73 Despite the summer weather, Sahquakegick had dressed carefully for his meeting with the Treaty No. 9 commissioners. His grandfather’s George iii medal signified that his people had been allies of the Crown long before the Robinson Treaties.74 His choice of clothing indicated that he was a traditional leader of his people. Espagnol was a man with a foot in two worlds, as comfortable riding the cpr as paddling a canoe. Scott’s fellow commissioner Samuel Stewart wrote of the 1906 encounter, “The train from the east brought in an old friend, Chief Louis Espaniol of [Pogamasing].”75 Espagnol was an “old friend” of Stewart’s in 1906 because they had met at Biscotasing five years earlier, when Sahquakegick had pleaded for help in a fourth request for annuities, framed by Stewart as a desire for treaty.76 Stewart’s casual reference to “other matters” alerts us to an important aspect of treaty-making and the subsequent annual gatherings for annuity payments. In the cultures of the Ojibwe and Cree, speech-making was a crucial part of ceremonial events. At treaty time Indigenous leaders spoke to affirm their treaty relationship and give thanks for the promises that had been made to them. In the years following treaty-making, their speeches reminded officials and onlookers of historic obligations and enumerated the hardships attributed to broken treaty promises.77

2.3 Louis Espagnol, or Sahquakegick, 1906

2.4 Louis McDougall, 1906

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abitibi Four days after the commissioners left Ottawa to begin their 1905 treaty tour in far northern Ontario, a request for help (in suppressing access to alcohol) came from leaders of the Algonquins at the Quebec border, at the headwaters of the Abitibi River. Louis McDougall (senior?), John Chechabesh, and the latter’s bilingual wife visited the Ottawa headquarters of the Department of Indian Affairs, where they do not appear to have been welcome.78 The Algonquins might have received a slightly warmer reception if their letter of introduction had not been delayed. Several days after their visit, a letter arrived from Indian agent Adam Burwash, stationed at North Timiskaming.79 Notice of these concerns would likely have awaited the treaty commissioners when they reached Abitibi.80 They would arrive there too late in the season to conclude a treaty in 1905, but their 1906 treaty-making tour would begin at Abitibi, where Scott would take two photographs of Louis McDougall.81 All of these requests for help – and help is arguably what a treaty meant to the northern Ojibwe and Cree – came from the frontier zone near the height-ofland. From the western end of far northern Ontario came the plea of the Ojibwe trading at Osnaburgh hbc post at the head of the Albany River. From further east came the repeated calls from Louis Espagnol, near the headwaters of one tributary of the Moose River. And from the Quebec border, at the headwaters of another tributary of the Moose, the Algonquins trading at Abitibi hbc post wanted protection and help. Like the canaries who warned miners of dangerous gases, these frontier bands were the first to experience the incursions and disruptions that would eventually impact their neighbours downriver.

3 Planning and Negotiating, 1901–1905

Although Canada did not control its foreign policy until the Statute of Westminster in 1931,1 the responsibility for Indian matters (and thus for domestic treaties) had been transferred to colonial authorities seventeen years prior to Confederation. By 1900 Canada had signed seven “settlement treaties,” numbered 1 through 7, plus the first of the “northern resource treaties.”2 But beginning with Treaty No. 8, as we saw in chapter 1, these domestic treaties were no longer supervised by the Colonial Office; Indian Affairs officials essentially oversaw themselves. The Osnaburgh petition became part of a growing file of correspondence that would lead to a second northern resource treaty being hastily engrossed on parchment. Indigenous peoples always shaped the course of treaty-making, and the federal government had to consider their views.3 But, as Ken Coates observes, “What mattered more was whether or not the area in question … was of any use to non-Natives, other than fur traders and missionaries.”4 The first rule of treatymaking: it is not an act of benevolence but a shrewd investment to be repaid in land sales, transportation megaprojects, or natural resources. This chapter follows five stages – an extension of the Robinson Treaties, a new numbered treaty, a failed first attempt, another attempt, and last-minute negotiations – none of which involved the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario.

an extension of the robinson treaties In notifying Sifton of Louis Espagnol’s concerns in 1901, Macrae acknowledged the Indigenous inhabitants’ “recognized and unextinguished rights” to the territory, through which a portion of the cpr already passed (near Chapleau; see figure 2.2).5 He drew his minister’s attention to the department’s lack of information about the other Ojibwe and neighbouring Cree of far northern Ontario and whether they were willing to enter into a treaty. This was prudent advice; it will be recalled from chapter 1 that two rounds of information-gathering, one by Anderson and a second by Vidal and Anderson, had preceded the Robinson Treaties, and there were several failed negotiations before Treaty No. 3 was concluded. Macrae also reminded Sifton discreetly of the Mica Bay incident in 1849 and a similar protest near Jackfish Lake in 1872.6 He recommended a factfinding visit north of the height-of-land.7

3.1 Canadian jurisdictions, 1900–5. Until 1912 Ontario’s northern boundary was the Albany River.

Even if his officers acquired a comprehensive understanding of the Indigenous peoples, however, Sifton could not unilaterally address their requests for annuities, for their ancestral lands lay in part within the province of Ontario. When commissioner Alexander Morris concluded Treaty No. 3 in 1873, the northern and western boundaries of Ontario were far from settled. Both Ontario and Manitoba vied for the territory west of Lake Superior, a boundary dispute that Ontario finally won in 1884.8 Until 1912, when Ontario’s boundary was extended to its present limit, the Albany River distinguished part of the province’s western flank from the Northwest Territories. The boundary outcome became further complicated by the St. Catharines Milling decision, mentioned in chapter 2. An emboldened Ontario proceeded to challenge the Treaty No. 3 reserve lands within its expanded boundary, and the result was a federal-provincial agreement in 1894 recognizing that Ontario’s “concurrence” would be required in “any future treaties with the Indians” of that province.9 Historian Rhonda Telford explains that the 1894 agreement (“confirmed by reciprocal [orders-in-council] but not Statute”), which Ontario later insisted on referencing in the context of Treaty No. 9, recognized that reserve lands included “the land covered with water lying between the projecting headlands of any lake or sheet of water not wholly surrounded by an Indian Reserve …, including islands wholly within such headlands.”10 Reginald Rimmer, Department of Indian Affairs law clerk, understood that provincial involvement was essential. Without it, he warned, Ottawa ran the risk of being responsible for all the costs of treaty-making, “while the Province receives all benefits.”11 Sifton heeded the advice; no treaty was to be made without

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the involvement of the provinces. If they were not “parties” to the treaty, they must at least agree to reimburse the department for any annuities.12 The second rule: without provincial concurrence, Ottawa was reluctant to engage in treatymaking. This disinclination gave the provinces real bargaining power. Sifton originally intended that the new treaty would stretch across the interprovincial boundary into northern Quebec, taking in the entire Ministikawatin Peninsula and reaching the Nottaway13 River (figure 2.2).14 Four years later his officials would abandon plans for the Treaty No. 9 commissioners to visit Rupert House and Waswanipi. In 1908 a separate treaty adhesion would be signed with the Abitibi Indians who wintered in Quebec. Stewart’s report of his encounter with Louis Espagnol reached the department in August 1901. Like Stewart, Indian Affairs secretary J.D. McLean was unable to find any record of earlier promises, and he notified the chief that “the Indians are evidently in error.” He also informed Espagnol that making a treaty posed serious and complicated questions, which required negotiations with provincial governments and would thus take some time to resolve.15 Apparently assuming that the chief spoke for non-treaty Indians in both Ontario and Quebec, McLean brought Stewart’s report to his deputy minister’s attention and suggested that both provinces be contacted to determine their willingness to “treat” (negotiate) with their non-treaty Indians.16 In January 1902 the Osnaburgh petition reached Ottawa. Within a week, Jabez Williams was sent a reply, addressed to the petitioners.17 It simply informed Pooyah-way and his fellow Ojibwe that “the subjects contained in the petition will receive consideration.”18 As we saw in chapter 2, Sifton referred the Osnaburgh petition to James McKenna. McKenna was the minister’s one-time personal secretary, a recently appointed assistant Indian commissioner, and chief inspector of agencies for Manitoba and the North-West Territories. As we saw in chapter 1, he was also involved in the planning for Treaty No. 8. He was thoroughly familiar with Canada’s first northern resource agreement, for he had been one of the treaty commissioners in 1899. The following year he also served as a half-breed claims commissioner, work that would continue to occupy him on a part-time basis until 1904.19 Instead of a new numbered treaty, McKenna recommended “an adhesion to the Robinson-Huron Treaty with any alterations which difference in conditions may make desirable.” He felt the adhesion should be confined to far northern Ontario and Quebec, excluding the Keewatin region north of the Albany River in order to prevent half-breed claim complications. McKenna reiterated Rimmer’s advice that the federal-provincial agreement of 1902 obliged Canada to have some sort of understanding with Ontario and Quebec “before extinguishing Indian title” to lands lying within their borders. In the case of Ontario, he suggested that such discussions take place during resolution of “the Indian matters now subjects of

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difference with that Province,” a reference to Ontario’s objection to assuming responsibility for annuities in the Robinson Treaties (and perhaps the ongoing dispute regarding Treaty No. 3 reserves).20 McKenna considered it unnecessary to send someone on a fact-finding mission to far northern Ontario and Quebec, proposing instead a less costly alternative which Sifton approved.21 On their annual travels to distribute treaty annuities, the department’s paymasters would be asked to determine how many Indians inhabited the unsurrendered tract, reassuring any who inquired “that the Government has the request for a treaty under consideration and that they will be advised later on of the decision.”22 The department’s northernmost Indian agents in Ontario were asked to gather such information the following year.23 Parry Sound agent W.B. Maclean reported that there were 400 Indians at Lake Abitibi who favoured a treaty and “a considerable number” at Mattagami (a post situated just south of the height-of-land in the Ottawa River drainage basin) whose intentions were unknown.24 Port Arthur agent J.F. Hodder provided a list of fourteen hbc posts in Ontario and adjacent Quebec and did a fair job estimating the total population at under 3,000.25 He cautioned that some posts might be missing from his list (as Matachewan was) and noted that “quite a number of Indians wander around and are not attached to any particular Post.” A few of the Osnaburgh and Marten Falls Ojibwe received annuities at Lac Seul and Lake Nipigon respectively, and many who had once traded at English River or Moose Factory were now to be found at Chapleau, Missanabie, or Montizambert on the cpr line.26 Like the other agents, Hodder found that “it was not possible to obtain boundaries of their hunting grounds from any person I came in contact with.”27 That would take the kind of investigative effort that Macrae had envisioned, the sort of detailed groundwork that Vidal and Anderson had undertaken prior to the Robinson Treaties. Hodder, whose district included Osnaburgh, added legitimacy to Jabez Williams’s petition when he stated that “each summer for a number of years I have been asked by Indians from the north if there was any talk of a Treaty[;] last summer I informed those with whom I came in contact that a Treaty was under consideration and that they would be informed later of the decision arrived at by the Government.”28 Sault Ste Marie agent William Nichols reported 700 to 800 non-treaty Indians at Mattagami, Flying Post, Biscotasing, Brunswick House, and Missanabie, “all anxious to make treaty. Many of these on account of bush fires[,] the encroachment of prospectors and fishermen find their hunting and trapping greatly interfered with and are in many cases reduced to sore straits during the winter season and are largely dependent upon the Hudson Bay Co’s posts for means of subsistence.” Nichols obtained some of his information from the hbc factors at Biscotasing, Missanabie, and Chapleau. But at Biscotasing, where he

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found the Indians were “mostly strapping intelligent fellows,” he also spoke directly with “nominal Chief Jimmy Espaniol[,] a very dignified old gentleman who gave me every assistance he could in obtaining information.” Nichols suggested that the best time to gather additional information from those along the cpr line would be in September, when they would be at the hbc posts (in his words, “at home”) prior to departing for their winter territories.29 Three years before Treaty No. 9 was first signed north of the height-of-land, word began to reach the non-treaty Ojibwe and Cree, through these Indian agents and the hbc officers and clergymen they consulted, that a treaty for far northern Ontario was in the works.

a new numbered treaty In early 1903 Macrae reminded a new deputy superintendent general of Indian affairs, Frank Pedley, of his 1901 report and recommended that Indians “who inhabit the country east and south of the Upper Ottawa” River be included in the treaty.30 A few months later Pedley revised his opinion and recommended ignoring the Indians of Quebec, arguing, “The Indian title in the Province of Quebec has never been recognized or surrendered as in the Province of Ontario, and, I presume, that it is not proposed to change the policy in that regard.”31 Prior to the 1970s, Quebec, like British Columbia, ignored treaty obligations (with Ottawa’s permission). Pedley understood the need for a treaty in the far north. Its prime purpose was not to respond to the Indigenous peoples’ pleas for support and protection. Its value to the minister of the Interior lay in “securing an extinguishment of the Indian title to lands … which may be considered to be necessary in view of railway construction, advancing settlement, etc.”32 He reminded Sifton that any previous impediments to a treaty had now been removed. McKenna had recommended waiting until half-breed claims in the Keewatin district were adjudicated; he was now finished that task. Ontario and Quebec, successors to the pre-Confederation Province of Canada, had grudgingly made a $205,000 one-time remittance to the federal government to fund increased annuity payments resulting from the escalator clause in the Robinson Treaties. This remittance had presumably established Ontario’s responsibility in any new treaty or adhesion.33 As we saw earlier in this chapter, the bilateral 1894 agreement was in place, resolving the issue of reserve headlands. The Treaty No. 3 reserves were still an irritant in federal-provincial relations, for they were not confirmed until 1915. But by the time the Newcombe-Blake agreement of 1902 had been reached, Ontario had abandoned its interest in precious metals within reserves. Rhonda Telford explains that the province “had little choice in this matter because … Ontario could not lawfully enter a Reserve and take the precious metals.” She also argues that “base metals belonged to the land in which they occurred.”34 (In 1915

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Ontario legislated away First Nations’ headland rights, and in 1924 it acquired a share of all on-reserve mineral revenue.)35 Pedley felt that a northern adhesion to the Robinson Treaties, with its problematic escalator clause, should be avoided. He preferred the post-Confederation numbered treaty model because the previous eight were more “well-defined and clear-cut” than the 1850 treaty. The new treaty, No. 9 or the James Bay Treaty, would offer annuities of $4 per person, an initial gratuity of $4 (“if it is found advisable to offer this inducement”), reserves “at points to be chosen by the Indians … as may be agreed upon,” and day schools when required.36 Ontario should be expected to either repay the treaty annuities annually or provide a one-time capital sum of perhaps $400,000 for that purpose. Reserves should be “free from all provincial interests,” to avoid “any dispute as to timber, minerals, etc.” Ontario should not, however, be a party to the new treaty. Instead, Pedley proposed setting out the responsibilities of each government in an agreement. The minister might wish to communicate with the province on this issue separately “or in conjunction with the other questions” (another reference to unresolved issues with the Treaty No. 3 reserves).37 Apparently accepting agent William Nichols’s advice, Pedley’s memorandum stated that “the best time to make the treaty is in autumn, in the month of September.” Treaty planners did not yet appreciate the vastness of the territory if they hoped to convene representatives from each of the far-flung bands at southerly locations along the cpr line. If the new treaty was scheduled for the fall of 1904, a host of hbc officers and the department’s own agents would need to be informed of the government’s intent. It was time, Pedley advised Sifton, to allocate funds for this treaty in the 1904–5 parliamentary estimates.38 Seven months later, in March of 1904, the department’s accountant and future commissioner, D.C. Scott, reminded Pedley that “if the James Bay Treaty is to be negotiated next fall … provision will have to be made in the supplementary estimates to meet the cost.”39 The minister, Clifford Sifton, initially decided that the matter “should stand over for future action.”40 A month later he abruptly changed his mind, providing Pedley with a letter written by prospector Thomas C. Irving41 of Toronto, across which he had scrawled, “The whole question of making treaty for northern country sh[oul]d be at once considered.”42 The letter, addressed to Liberal prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, informed him that the projected route of the National Transcontinental Railway (the eastern leg of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway) would pass through unsurrendered territory in far northern Ontario. A portion of the “project which you are fathering,” he wrote, “will run for some hundreds of miles through a portion of the country which does not appear to have ever been surrendered to the Crown by the Indians living thereon.”43 Railways meant better access for prospectors. He also alerted Laurier to the region’s mineral and forest wealth. For several years Irving had “been engaged in iron exploration work,” visiting Long Lake,

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3.2 Transcontinental railways, c.1906. By treaty time in 1905, construction of the National Transcontinental Railway (now cnr) was well underway in Ontario. In the east, Ontario’s Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway would intersect the ntr near Cochrane, in the headwaters of the Abitibi River; to the west, the Thunder Bay Branch of the Grand Trunk Pacific would meet the ntr near Sioux Lookout.

Flying Post, and Mattagami. “The country referred to,” he wrote, “is a very promising one, lignite, gypsum and promising iron-bearing formations having been found, and the spruce forests appear to be boundless. There are also occasional patches of splendid pine.” Irving was acquainted with Treaty No. 3 and the Robinson Treaties, but he could find no evidence that the rights of Indians in far northern Ontario, “if they may have any,” had been surrendered. “It would therefore seem important,” he wrote, “that if they have any rights that they should be surrendered and thus prevent future complications.”44

a failed first attempt Laurier’s intervention provided Sifton’s officials with the authority to proceed, in hopes of concluding a treaty in 1904. Two key players now had be involved – not the Ojibwe and Cree, but the government of Ontario and the Hudson’s Bay Company. A week after reading Irving’s letter, Pedley wrote to Elihu James Davis, an abstemious Methodist in the government of Liberal premier George W. Ross. As

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commissioner of Crown lands from 1899 to 1904, Davis had overseen the great northern Ontario survey of 1900 and been an avid promoter of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway.45 Pedley advised Davis that the federal government hoped to make a treaty to “remove the shadow of the Indian title” in far northern Ontario “at as early a date as possible.” He provided the minister with the terms of the proposed treaty and a list of hbc posts and their estimated Indian populations. Pedley suggested that Ontario bear the costs of treaty-making and provide the reserves. He asked Davis to consider the matter “as soon as possible in order that the preliminary steps may be taken to provide for the negotiation.” It was the spring of 1904, and Pedley wrote that he hoped “to meet the Indians sometime during the approaching Autumn.”46 He wrote concurrently to the hbc’s senior Canadian official, Commissioner Clarence C. Chipman, asking for confidential advice in arranging “a conference” to negotiate a treaty with the Indians of far northern Ontario and providing Chipman with the same census he had sent to Davis. He posed three practical questions: “Would it be best to assemble the chief men of each Band or locality at several central points? What would be the latest date upon which the Department could make definite arrangements with the Indians for a meeting? Would your Company be disposed to furnish transport for the officers to be appointed to treat with the Indians, in the same manner as was done for the Treaty 8 Commissioners?”47 Chipman was the first to reply to Pedley’s proposal. A month’s notice would be required to meet the Indians who traded near the cpr line. Rather than summoning them to a central point, however, he recommended that they be visited during the summer at whichever post they traded with. Some were employed at that time as voyageurs or guides; meeting with the treaty commissioners “would interfere with their work but not to any material extent.” For the few who would be unable to attend at all, “satisfactory evidence could be produced of their being unavoidably absent.”48 The consent of absentees was not considered a requirement for treaty-making. Arrangements could be made to pay them later. Much more notice would be required further north, however, where the Indians were hunters who visited a trading post after spring breakup and then returned “to their fishing quarters in the course of the Summer, some earlier and some later.” To meet the treaty commissioners between mid-June and mid-July, these Indians would need to be notified the previous Christmas or in March at the latest. The hbc would also need advance notice, so that it could secure enough flour to feed the northern Indians while they waited for the commission. “It is always a question of some anxiety to the Company’s Officials,” wrote Chipman, “to feed the people who persist in staying about the Post in Summer. They are earning nothing meanwhile and live on doles of Flour and Pork given them as charity.”49 (Flour was such an important staple that Borron had recommended distributing bags of flour instead of annuity money.)50 Such advance notice would

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also give the hbc an advantage over its competitors, who would have much less stock to exchange for the Indians’ treaty money. Chipman initially recommended that Pedley avoid a time-consuming side trip into Quebec. Any Ontario-born Cree summering at Rupert House or Waswanapi should be expected to travel to Moose Factory for their annuities. The many Ontario Indians who traded at Abitibi post should be gathered west of the post, at some convenient point lying within Ontario.51 This was an impractical suggestion. Treaty contracts represented a windfall for the hbc, so Chipman was delighted to furnish transportation and “all supplies and equipment necessary.” The Company’s logistical expertise was essential to treaty planners in Ottawa. The commissioner provided Pedley with a map and, once the treaty trip was authorized, promised to supply a schedule and route.52 Although Chipman mistakenly thought the Ontario-Quebec border posed no impediment to treaty-making, he felt the Ontario-Keewatin boundary along the Albany River was a different matter. If the treaty commissioners were only “to treat with those whose habitat is South of the Albany River,” he argued, it would “appear to the other Indians of the Post rather an arbitrary arrangement. No real distinction can be drawn between those South of the river and those North; they inter-marry, some have migrated Northward across the river, and others have travelled in the opposite direction.”53 Given what transpired later at Abitibi, where those from east of the Quebec boundary were admitted to Treaty No. 9 in 1908, Chipman’s advice seems sound. A more inclusive treaty would also benefit the Company, which would receive more treaty annuities – and presumably even more business once the territory was opened up for resource development. It might also be advantageous to individual hbc officers with an interest in mining claims.54 Chipman privately recognized that a contract to provide transportation for the treaty-makers would be a great advantage for the hbc in these post-monopoly times. If rivals supplied provided this service, they might obtain crucial “information … as to the trade and general conditions of the country”; such knowledge could then be “made use of to the prejudice of the Company’s interest.”55 By mid-May, Pedley realized that a treaty could not be completed with the more northerly bands in 1904. He acknowledged Chipman’s caution regarding bands who traded along the Albany River, but he was bound by his minister’s position that only Ontario Indians should be admitted to the new treaty. He asked Chipman to provide a tentative itinerary, a schedule of dates, and an estimate of costs, including “feeding the Indians … while the negotiations are going on.” Pedley also asked for Chipman’s “opinion as to whether it would be advisable to first negotiate” with the Indians near the cpr line in 1904 and then “take an adhesion of the more remote bands next summer.”56 Chipman agreed that Pedley’s objective could “best be accomplished by treating with the Indians of the nearer Posts first.”57 A four-week trip could begin at

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Biscotasing in August 1904 and then proceed to Flying Post, Mattagami, Missanabie, New Brunswick House, Heron Bay, and Long Lake. To reach the more northerly bands, the treaty commission should arrive at Dinorwic by 1 June 1905 and from there proceed to Lac Seul, Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, English River, Albany, and Moose Factory. They could then cross the Quebec boundary to Rupert House and Waswanapi, return to Moose Factory, and proceed to New Post and Abitibi – in all, a three-month trip. Chipman informed Pedley that he was in contact with officers along the southern route, “making enquiries (without disclosing the purpose in view) as to the exact number of days travel it should take to reach the various Posts from the Railway.” hbc men in far northern Ontario would have quickly guessed the reason for Chipman’s inquiries. The longawaited treaty was coming. With four members in the treaty commission, Chipman estimated the fourweek southern trip would cost about $700, while the twelve-week northern trek would run to $2,500.58 Feeding the Ojibwe and Cree during treaty-making would cost an additional $2,500. The trip could be made more economically, but Chipman advised it was better “to give the natives the impression of there being no stinting.”58 An okimaaw or ogimaa was expected to be generous. Chipman supplied the itinerary for an August 1904 treaty trip to the southern margins of far northern Ontario. He reminded Pedley that the Company had provided a transport officer for the Treaty No. 8 commission and offered to do the same this time.60 T.C. Rae would serve this function on the 1905 treaty tour. Aubrey White, Ontario’s assistant commissioner of Crown lands, had referred Pedley’s 30 April letter to his minister, Frank Latchford. The Executive Council of Ross’s government had directed Latchford to refer the matter to Æmelius Irving, renowned legal strategist in many of Ontario’s pivotal disputes with the federal government.61 At the end of May, White replied to Pedley, reminding him of their 1894 agreement requiring Ontario’s “concurrence” in “any future treaties” and of their more recent agreement in 1902, with particular reference to Ontario’s interests in surrendered reserve lands and their minerals.62 White then proceeded to aggressively question his federal counterpart, “Is your letter to be taken as an invitation to consider before hand the terms which it is fair and proper should be secured to the Indians? Or is it an announcement by your Department of the terms on which the surrender is intended to be made, Ontario bearing the burden without having a voice in determining the conditions?” He reminded Pedley that the provincial and federal governments were still in the midst of litigation over treaty matters in Ontario. Since the outcome of that legal action would have implications for the parties’ obligations under any new treaty, his government felt it “premature” to proceed at this time.63 A frustrated Pedley advised his minister of the situation on 10 June, arguing that “it is not advisable for this Government to hesitate longer in obtaining a cession of the Indian title, or to be too greatly influenced by obstacles set up by the

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Province of Ontario.” He asked Sifton to authorize another attempt to reach an agreement in principle with the province. Otherwise, it would not be possible to begin treaty-making in 1904, and since the litigation “will be appealed no matter in whose favor it is decided, a long interval is likely to elapse before a treaty can be made.”64 Ontario Mining Co. v. Seybold had been settled in 1903, but reserve lands would continue to be a source of intergovernmental conflict in the province for another two decades.65 Pedley was correct in his assessment: treatymaking would be held up indefinitely if this impasse was not broken. Pedley wrote to Aubrey White a second time on 23 June, assuring him that Ottawa sought the province’s concurrence prior to making this treaty. He reminded White that the “terms” (gratuities) contemplated for the new treaty were a bargain, being “in effect the same as those fixed by the Robinson treaty, and the Governments interested might be considered fortunate to cancel the Indian title at this time by considerations which were thought adequate in the year 1850.” If Ontario simply agreed that the proposed terms were the maximum it would approve, treaty-making could begin in 1904, and the pending litigation would either confirm or redefine Ontario’s liability in the new treaty.66 “Although no definite arrangements have been made,” he advised White, it would be possible to begin in August. Pedley asked for the province’s approval in principle by 1 July.67 He wrote again in mid-July,68 but the province simply refused to answer. Unknown to Pedley, White had been directed by Ontario’s attorney general to refer the matter again to senior legal counsel Æmelius Irving.69 Meanwhile, Indian agent R.S. McKenzie of Rat Portage, who had not been included in the information-gathering exercise two years earlier, reported a conversation with William McInnes of the gsc, advising, “Some of the Indians out near Assinburgh [Osnaburgh] and Cat [bizhiw, “lynx”70] Lake … are very desirous to come into Treaty.” He suspected that these Ojibwe would approach him that summer when he paid Treaty No. 3 annuities, perhaps at Lac Seul, and asked for instructions.71 McKenzie was told that “the question of negotiating a treaty with the Indians of Northern Ontario and Quebec is under consideration,” but in the meantime they “cannot be taken into treaty.”72 In early July the provincial government’s intransigence forced Pedley to notify Chipman that the 1904 treaty trip would have to be delayed.73 They would try again the following year. The long-suffering Ojibwe along the cpr line would have to wait another two years; their neighbours to the north would be the first to receive treaty annuities. In the meantime a provincial election would unseat the Ross government and hasten the treaty-making process.

trying again In December 1904 Pedley again pressed White for a reply. This time White immediately acknowledged the communication and promised an answer “in a few days.”74 A cautious Pedley apparently advised Chipman that the trip was still in

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abeyance.75 White briefed the commissioner of Crown lands and suggested that “it might be well to write Mr. Pedley explaining any delay that may occur.”76 Instead, Ottawa’s letter went unanswered. If Ontario had responded to Pedley’s first letter like an aggrieved “suitor,” as James Morrison observes, it was still playing hard to get.77 In the provincial election on 25 January 1905, George W. Ross’s Liberals went down to a stunning defeat, and James Pliny Whitney’s Conservatives were swept into office.78 A month after the 1905 election, Pedley wrote to White again, asking “whether any progress has been made.” Would Ontario “accept the terms” proposed ten months ago, or was there an alternative suggestion? “It will be necessary to give notice to the Indians of the dates of the negotiations before long.”79 Once again there was no response. Unknown to Pedley, however, White had prepared a briefing paper for his new minister, seeking political direction and advising him that the land in question, “on the Hudson Bay slope, through which the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is about to be built,” included “a considerable area … known as the Clay Belt of Ontario.”80 In mid-March accountant D.C. Scott warned Pedley that without a decision “within the next two weeks it would hardly be possible to make the treaty this year as the Indians will have to be notified almost immediately.” He reminded Pedley that that this was the second fiscal year in which funds had been budgeted for the treaty.81 The minister might be asked embarrassing questions in the House of Commons. Attempting again to break the impasse, Pedley immediately telegraphed White, “Highly important that opportunity be given to discuss new Indian Treaty Ontario. Kindly make appointment for me with Commissioner on Monday. Wire reply.”82 White met for an hour with Irving and the new commissioner of Crown lands, J.J. Foy, on 23 March.83 Like the northern rivers over which the treaty commissioners would soon travel, perhaps relations would begin to thaw. Maybe Ontario would realize that its Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (t&no) was projected to cross the unceded region.84 Ontario waited three weeks to wire an acknowledgment, indicating that a reply would follow.85 At the mouths of northern rivers, which melt from their source (unlike southward-flowing rivers), last-minute ice jams can sometimes block the anticipated orderly flow of events. Ontario was by no means softened up; there were still obstacles ahead. No reply was sent. At the end of March, Pedley asked Chipman for an updated northern itinerary and optimistically informed him, “It is hoped that the Department may be in a position within the next few days to carry out the preliminary arrangements to make this treaty.”86 Chipman wired him back to “recommend long [northern] trip first from [D]inorwic first July. Can complete the two [in] one season.”87 Visiting every one of the scheduled Ontario posts that summer was not just ambitious; it was completely unrealistic. Chipman cancelled the three-week foray to Rupert House and Waswanapi, suggesting that they “be treated with at some

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future time.” The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, a comprehensive land claim settlement, would not be signed until seventy years later.88 The hbc commissioner had travelled the now-shortened northern route before on one of his inspection tours, and he proposed a tight schedule for this leg of the journey. He felt this approach would still leave a month to visit the more southerly posts before the Indians returned to “their Winter camping grounds.”89 Although the party would depart from Dinoriwic on 2 July, a day later than Chipman’s schedule called for, they would not reach Abitibi until 30 August, nearly two weeks later than planned. Near the end of April, Pedley prepared a briefing paper for Prime Minister Laurier, who doubled as minister in charge of Indian Affairs after Sifton resigned from cabinet at the end of February.90 The brief correctly acknowledged that the treaty “was first taken up” by the Indians, but it used Jabez Williams’s words to distort the situation. As we have seen, we have no reliable evidence that the Ojibwe, in asking for help and protection, had “requested to be informed when their aboriginal rights would be extinguished.” The urgency of the treaty now, Pedley explained, was occasioned by Ontario’s plans for a railway in the northeast and federal plans for “a new transcontinental” (he omitted the embarrassing fact that cpr had already crossed non-treaty lands in the region).91 Pedley reminded Laurier of the 1894 agreement and the continued impasse with Ontario. He argued that any further delay was “not conducive to good Government,” for “the influx of white men naturally causes uneasiness amongst Indians and leads to extravagant demands.” He acknowledged the ongoing treaty litigation with the province and again advanced the notion that Ontario simply agree to “the maximum terms set forth in correspondence,” leaving the final determination of the province’s liability to the outcome of the pending litigation.92 To put this plan into action, Pedley supplied the draft of a federal order-incouncil and a duplicate for his provincial counterpart. With these two documents “approved by the proper authority of both Governments,” treaty-making could proceed.93 The joint orders-in-council, revised by the Justice Department, referenced the 1894 agreement and the need “to obtain extinction of the Indian title … in order to maintain the friendly relation which has existed between the Government of Canada and the Indian tribes and to promote quiet settlement and colonization, and to forward the construction of rail-roads and highways” in far northern Ontario. The orders noted that it was “expedient that negotiations should be had with the Indians inhabiting these territories for the cession of all their right and title thereto.”94 It was necessary, the document continued, “that authority be given for such negotiation and for the conclusion of a treaty with the chief men of the tribes interested.” The “land which is to be ceded” (within Ontario) was estimated to contain 90,000 square miles, “bounded on the south by the Height of land and

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the northern boundaries of the territory ceded by” the Robinson Treaties, on the east and north by the province’s legal boundary, and on the west by “the territory ceded by the North West Angle Treaty No. 3.”95 Three “fair and just” benefits would be “offered, and, in the event of a treaty being signed, to be granted to the Indians” (suggesting that rejection was an option): perpetual annuities of $4 per person, with a one-time gratuity of $4; “reserves at points to be chosen by the Indians” (now using the formula of 1 square mile per family of five); and “day schools when it is thought necessary to establish them upon reserves.” In order to satisfy the 1894 agreement and obtain Ontario’s concurrence, federal authority would be contingent upon passage of a provincial order-in-council indicating its “consent.”96 Pedley persuaded E.L. Newcombe, federal deputy minister of Justice, that the joint orders offered a way out of the impasse.97 On 8 May 1905 Pedley wrote to Ontario’s commisioner of Crown lands, J.J. Foy, referencing his unanswered wire a month earlier. He enclosed a copy of the joint orders, which, he argued, would allow treaty-making to proceed. “We are convinced,” wrote Pedley, “of the wisdom of concluding the treaty before the Indians come into closer contact with white people, as they are apt to be easily influenced to make extravagant demands” (which would only increase Ontario’s liability). He asked for a quick reply and offered to meet Foy in Toronto.98

last-minute negotiations Three weeks later, a month before the commissioners were due to arrive at Dinorwic, provincial treasurer A.J. Matheson notified Pedley that Ontario demanded three changes to the terms. Treaty No. 9 reserves would have to be “at points to be chosen by the Commissioners negotiating the said Treaty, one of the said Commissioners to be appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario in Council, and said selection [of reserves] to be subject to the approval of the LieutenantGovernor of Ontario in Council.”99 Pedley accepted the conditions at once. At this late date, he would have approved almost anything. On 1 June, Pedley sent Matheson a draft copy of the James Bay Treaty, asking as always for a speedy reply.100 He also briefed his minister on the terms demanded by Matheson. “In other words,” he explained to Laurier, “instead of allowing the Indians to arbitrarily select reserves, the selection must be made by arrangement at the time of the treaty.” In Pedley’s view, this requirement did not “exclude the Indians from a voice in the selection of reserves.” He optimistically suggested that the Indians’ “wishes and the views of the Commissioners shall be made to harmonize during the negotiations. It seems to me probable that the presence of an Ontario Commissioner will tend to render more satisfactory whatever decision is made with regard to reserves, and I would accordingly suggest the adoption of Ontario’s amendment.” Pedley also alerted his minister to another

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detail: “I take it of course that the Ontario Government will pay their own Commissioner, although nothing is said upon that point.”101 On 5 June, Pedley notified Matheson that Ontario’s terms had been approved. Canada would proceed with the order-in-council, and Ontario was asked to do the same; each would then exchange copies with the other. He asked for the name of Ontario’s commissioner and announced that the treaty party would proceed north from Dinorwic in a little more than three weeks, during the first week of July.102 That same day Pedley telegraphed Chipman, “Confidential can now negotiate treaty. Your offer for transport etc, accepted. Party of seven. See yours twenty ninth March last arrange dates and send notifications to posts, provide transport officer.”103 With two passengers to a canoe, seven was an awkward number for the treaty party. If Scott planned to bring along a personal secretary, as he would in 1906, he must have changed his mind. There would be six in the 1905 treaty party. Chipman cautioned that the time frame might be “exceeded by a few days, depending on weather and whether the party will object to travel on Sundays.” He also added “one more man, to cook for the officials of the party.” The treaty party would travel “in one large canoe, provided that the Commission leave out all unnecessary impediments such as frame beds, mattresses, folding chairs and such like.” The transport officer and his crew would be ready to depart Dinorwic on 1 July.104 The hbc commissioner also stressed the need to travel light.105 Pedley immediately wired back, advising Chipman not to be too spartan with the arrangements. At this point he still hoped “to make both trips this season.”106

3.3 The camp barber at Flying Post, 1906

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On 12 June, Pedley sent Matheson a revised copy of the text of Treaty No. 9, asking for his approval of “the clause with reference to reserves.”107 Four days later he notified Matheson that the party was scheduled to leave Ottawa on 28 June. Ontario’s commissioner would only need to bring “personal baggage.” Repeating his request of 5 June, Pedley asked for the full name of Ontario’s commissioner (who would have to be appointed by federal order-in-council).108 As with all legal instruments, the treaty had to be “engrossed” – written in calligraphy on vellum (calf- or lambskin). When Pedley wired Matheson to request “approval of text of treaty which must be engrossed,”109 Matheson replied immediately, “Indian treaty matter has been referred to a Committee of Council cannot answer until next week.”110 Two days later a frantic Pedley sent a repeat telegram, “Kindly wire approval of text of treaty which must be engrossed.”111 On Friday, 23 June, five days before the commissioners were scheduled to leave Ottawa, Pedley advised Matheson by wire that the federal order-in-council had passed on 9 June and sent him a copy by mail. Understandably anxious, he again asked for approval of the treaty text and sent Matheson a copy of the commissioners’ itinerary.112 On the evening of the 23rd Matheson wired, “Am mailing you tonight an agreement in connection with treaty which counsel advises to get executed. Will see you Tuesday or Wednesday at Ottawa.”113 In a letter received in Ottawa on Saturday, the 24th, Matheson apologized for the delay and explained that Ontario now wished to have a clearly defined bilateral agreement setting out the province’s liability, in order to “to prevent future litigation.” He provided a draft of an amended order-in-council, along with the draft agreement. Matheson confirmed that he would be in Ottawa on Tuesday, the 27th, and Wednesday, the 28th, returning that night. Should the order and agreement be approved by Ottawa, he could have them passed by Ontario on Thursday, the 29th. Once both governments approved the order, he suggested, “the agreement could be subsequently engrossed and executed” (in other words, after the treaty was concluded). Ontario also wanted the text of the treaty amended a fourth time to refer to the new agreement. In essence, the agreement provided that the province pay the annuities and “agree to the setting aside of reserves,” with “all further payments and expenses … at the expense of the Dominion.”114 Saturday was a busy day at Indian Affairs headquarters. Pedley immediately forwarded the agreement to lawyers in the Department of Justice, requesting that it be reviewed by early Monday, 26 June.115 He informed Scott that “Dr. A.G. Meindle, North Bay, is to be appointed as Medical Attendant”116 and telegraphed Meindle, telling him to be in Ottawa “without fail” on Monday.117 The doctor apparently left for Ottawa on Saturday. He did not purchase medical supplies (with his $200 cash advance) until the following Friday, however, suggesting that right up to the last minute the whole venture was still in some doubt.118

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That same Saturday Pedley prepared a second order-in-council recommending that Indian Affairs employees Duncan Campbell Scott and Samuel Stewart be appointed commissioners “to represent the Dominion of Canada to negotiate the said treaty” and that they each be paid $5 per day.119 The two men were apparently chosen for their expertise, though this was rather limited. They were familiar with problems along the height-of-land and were prior acquaintances of Louis Espagnol, whom they still hoped to meet in 1905. The order stated that a third commissioner “to negotiate the said treaty representing the Province of Ontario” would be “hereafter named and appointed.” This second order also extended the authority of the first, directing Scott and Stewart (but only these two “Commissioners representing the Dominion of Canada”) to “use their discretion in allotting reserves within the District of Keewatin and in admitting to treaty any Indians whose hunting grounds may cover portions of the District of Keewatin.” The order was approved on Monday and immediately executed.120 It is surprising that making treaty with the Indians north of Albany River was so suddenly approved, when it had been rejected by Sifton thirteen months earlier. Reversing that decision at the last minute may have been a determination by the new minister, Frank Oliver, or perhaps by Laurier himself (although officials such as Pedley often ran the department).121 Whatever the reason, it illustrates a third rule of treaty-making: Indigenous territories seldom conform to the boundaries of the state. On Monday the acting deputy minister of Justice suggested some “unimportant verbal changes” to the new agreement.122 Pedley briefed Oliver (whose appointment relieved Laurier of the added responsibility for Indian Affairs), advised him of Matheson’s letter of 23 June, and informed him that the second order had already been executed.123 Matheson’s proposed bilateral agreement committed the province of Ontario to paying the annuities and setting aside reserves, adding a significant new proviso that “no site suitable for the development of water power exceeding 500 horse power shall be included within the boundaries of any reserve.” Pedley considered this to be “a reasonable provision, as it is not desirable to have the Indians located near the large centres of population which usually grow up around large falls where the water power can readily be utilized for commercial purposes.”124 Here we see the contradiction in an Indian policy that aimed to protect and advance. A century later there is a new paradigm: First Nations are increasingly co-owners of hydroelectric developments in far northern Ontario. This addition was of special interest to Adam Beck, the future head of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario and a member of Whitney’s cabinet,125 but it is entirely consistent with the province’s Waterpower Regulation Act of 1898.126 On 5 July 1905, while the treaty commissioners were travelling through far northern Ontario, the provincial government would in fact create the power commission.

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The federal government would be responsible for any costs of surveying the reserves and making the treaty, including a per diem allowance of $10 for Ontario’s commissioner. Since the proposed agreement had now been approved by “the law officers of the Crown” in the Department of Justice, Pedley recommended that Oliver approve and sign the agreement.127 That same day, the department’s assistant secretary (and future Treaty No. 9 commissioner), Samuel Stewart, sent the undersecretary of state the text of Treaty No. 9 “to be engrossed on parchment at as early a date as possible.” The document, he noted, contained “certain omissions for which blanks should be left to be afterwards filled in.”128 One of these blanks was for the name of Ontario’s still-unnamed commissioner.129 Another space had been left for the date (five months later) when the bilateral agreement was actually signed by Frank Oliver and Francis Cochrane, Ontario’s minister of Lands and Mines.130 If the treaty was engrossed (without attached agreements) prior to the commissioners’ departure from Ottawa on 30 June 1905, this was apparently accomplished by paying a bonus to an employee of the undersecretary of state – a private “arrangement” for the rush job, in contravention of the Civil Services Act.131 Scott produced a typed copy of the treaty, with MacMartin’s name filled in and the word “Crees” added, about 26 June, leaving a few days for the engrossing.132 On Tuesday Frank Oliver prepared a third order-in-council, essentially replacing the first one, for “the extinction of the Indian title” through “negotiations … with the Indians inhabiting these territories for the cession of all their right and title thereto.” This order would provide the commissioners with “authority for such negotiations and for the conclusion of a treaty with the chief men of the tribes interested upon the … terms and conditions which are the maximum terms and conditions held to be fair and just, and to be in accordance with the draft of [the new] agreement” with Ontario. The boundaries of the “land to be ceded” were still within the province of Ontario, as stated in the original order, and still amounted to some 90,000 square miles “more or less.”133 Annuities and reserves would be “offered, and, in the event of a treaty being signed … granted to the Indians … as a maximum.” This provision again suggests that the Ojibwe and Cree had the option of not accepting the offer and not signing the parchment. The order specified that reserves would be “at points to be chosen by the Commissioners negotiating the said Treaty, one of the said Commissioners to be appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor-of-Ontarioin-Council, and said selection to be subject to the approval of the LieutenantGovernor-of-Ontario-in-Council.” This third order also recommended “that the authority to so negotiate and to conclude any such treaty be subject to the passage of an Order of the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council expressing the concurrence of the Government of Ontario and its consent to the conclusion of a treaty upon the above terms.”134

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Scott advised Pedley that once this third order was approved, it too would need to be engrossed, signed, and “afterwards attached to the treaty,” where it would “form part of the official document.”135 The order would not be approved until 3 July, while the commissioners were en route from Dinorwic to Lac Seul.136 On Wednesday, 28 June, the scheduled departure date, Pedley wired Chipman to announce a two-day delay.137 During his visit to Ottawa, Matheson apparently provided Pedley with the name of Ontario’s commissioner; perhaps he even visited MacMartin on the way to Ottawa. On Thursday Pedley prepared a fourth order-in-council recommending the appointment of “Daniel George MacMartin of the town of Perth … as a Commissioner to negotiate the said treaty,” to be paid $10 per diem.138 We will continue to refer to Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin as commissioners, but we could also consider them “Indian agents,” a general term in the Indian Act for “any officer acting under the instructions of the Superintendent General” of Indian Affairs.139 This fourth order amended the second, removing the notion of discretion, so that the federal commissioners’ “authority … to set aside reserves be extended to that part of the North West Territories lying between the Albany River, the District of Keewatin and Hudson Bay, and to admit to Treaty any Indians whose hunting grounds cover portions of that District.”140 It was approved on 6 July,141 six days before Treaty No. 9 was first signed at Osnaburgh. At 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 29 June, Matheson wired Pedley to report that provincial “Orders in Council have been passed approving of agreement with Dominion as to Indian treaty No 9 and appointing D. George MacMartin Commissioner on behalf of Province. Council wish precious Minerals reserved and reserves be made as small as convenient with Provisions for connecting settlers roads where deemed absolutely necessary by provincial Gov’t through reserves.”142 The order may have been passed, but it was not offially approved until 3 July.143 To assuage Ontario and bow to this latest demand, the schedule of reserves compiled by the commissioners after a summer of treaty-making concludes with the sentence “The reserves are granted with the understanding that connections may be made for future settlers’ roads wherever required.” A similar phrase was included by Stewart in the introduction to his journal (see chapter 8). As we will see, however, there is absolutely no mention of this detail in the commissioners’ records of deliberations at each signing; it would be mentioned years later to surveyor Dobie (see chapter 4). Confederation’s division of powers gave Canada responsibility for “lands reserved for the Indians,” and the Indian Act gave federal bureaucrats wide-ranging powers. The treaty also included the standard phrase “such portions of the reserves and lands … as may at any time be required for … roads … may be appropriated for that purpose by His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada, due compensation being made to the Indians for the value of any improvements thereon, and an equivalent in land, money or other consideration.”144

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The treaty made no mention whatsoever of mineral rights. A reference to “the timber thereupon and the base and precious metals therein” was apparently considered at the last minute but not added.145 Both Scott and MacMartin refer to precious minerals in their journal entries for 13 July describing the reserves at Osnaburgh, but we cannot assume that this detail was actually mentioned to the Ojibwe (see chapter 11). Ontario’s nominee for third commissioner, Daniel George MacMartin, “Mining Expert,” arrived at the Department of Indian Affairs on Friday morning, signed a power of attorney granting Perth station agent Allan Grant the authority to receive his salary,146 and left for the cpr station with fellow commissioners Scott and Stewart. Scott signed a receipt for “thirty thousand dollars in small notes,” which Joseph Vanasse and James Parkinson, the police constables accompanying the commissioners, would take turns guarding.147 None of the commissioners had any experience with treaty-making, and treaty planners had given no consideration to translating the treaty into Ojibwe or Cree.148 As we saw in chapter 1, this was a key requirement of the Dorchester protocols. Ojibwe was spoken by those trading at Osnaburgh, as well as at Fort Hope and Marten Falls (although these two are today considered transitional communities sharing some features with the Oji-Cree149 further north and west). Cree was spoken by those trading at English River, Albany, and Moose Factory. There were a few Cree-speakers at New Post, where the first language of most was the Algonquin dialect of Ojibwe. Many Indigenous people in what is now far northern Ontario would likely have been bilingual (Ojibwe and Cree) a century ago. The number who had even a rudimentary knowledge of English is unknown, but we can likely assume that some did. From their past experience at posts along the height-of-land, Scott and Stewart would have known that an hbc man could always be relied upon to interpret for them on the spot. The commissioners, however, had no appreciation of the challenges involved in interpreting the complex legalese of Treaty No. 9 for the Ojibwe and Cree – if they ever intended to do so.

4 Ratification and Early Implementation

What actually happened that summer – the commissioners’ journey and the treaty “negotiations” – will be described in detail in part Two and summarized in chapter 23. This chapter will examine how the parchments known as Treaty No. 9 were ratified by Canada and Ontario and implemented by them in the years immediately following 1905. Specific legislation was not required; the federal Indian Act (and provincial game, fishing, forestry, and mining laws) were already at hand. J.G. Ramsden was appointed itinerant treaty inspector and paymaster. The Cat Lake and Attawapiskat peoples were treated like bands but not formally recognized. The claims of the Métis, then known as half-breeds, were acknowledged but not resolved.

ratifying the treaty: federal orders-in-council In the fall of 1906, following his second summer of treaty-making, Samuel Stewart sent “a completed copy” of the engrossed treaty to provincial treasurer A.J. Matheson, requesting that he attach to it the parchment copy of the 1905 agreement that Matheson had received the previous year.1 In his explanatory memorandum to Privy Council, Minister Frank Oliver submitted Canada’s parchment original, as well as a certified copy to be retained by council.2 Treaty No. 9 was ratified soon afterwards by order-in-council 1906–2499,3 dated 12 January 1907, a near-verbatim recitation of Oliver’s explanatory memorandum.4 Today, when modern land claims agreements are signed, they are implemented through specific pieces of legislation.5 Thus, we have the James Bay and Northern Quebec Native Claims Settlement Act of 1976–77,6 the Cree-Naskapi (of Quebec) Act of 1984, the Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act of 1986, the Gwich’in Land Claim Settlement Act of 1992, the Nisga’a Final Agreement Act of 2000, and many more.7 Similar legislation was not enacted in 1906, for the federal Indian Act (and, for Ontario, its game, fish, forestry, and mining legislation) was considered adequate for this purpose.

implementation: the indian act The Indian Act arose from pre-Confederation treaty obligations and was initially focused on Indian lands and who could make use of them. Onto this benign skele-

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ton an increasingly oppressive and authoritarian assimilative system was grafted – without the consent of Indigenous peoples. The Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario began to experience it in 1906 when J.G. Ramsden started visiting them to pay annuities.8 (Even today, an Indian Affairs official is referred to in far northern Ontario as a money “boss” or distributor, usage that can likely be traced to Ramsden and the commissioners.)9 The agent or paymaster that they had been promised at treaty-signing was not simply issued a strongbox full of currency and a list of eligible payees. He was also told to familiarize himself with the Indian Act and to inquire into the Indians’ morality and sobriety. “The Indian Act,” wrote Harold Cardinal, “instead of implementing the treaties and offering much-needed protection to Indian rights, subjugated to colonial rule the very people whose rights it was supposed to protect.”10 It was perhaps only after they had experienced reserve life and the Indian agent’s tutelage that people understood (in retrospect) what treaty-making was in the government’s eyes.11 J.D. McLean, assistant secretary and deputy superintendent general of Indian Affairs, told the manager of Revillon Frères that “all Indians whether residing on or off a reserve are subject to the laws of the Province in which they reside, as well as of the laws of the Dominion, except in so far as they may be restricted by the terms of the Indian Act.”12

implementing the treaty: inspector ramsden In the spring of 1906 the thirty-eight-year-old Methodist J. George Ramsden of Toronto received a patronage appointment to the position of paymaster and Indian inspector for Treaty No. 9, at an annual salary of $1,500 plus travel expenses.13 Ernest Riddell of Baldwin, Ontario, was appointed “canoeman, etc.”14 These two were joined by Dr J. McCormick and Indian Affairs clerk H. McKay.15 Ramsden was instructed to visit seven “bands of Indians,” the six who had signed Treaty No. 9 in 1905, plus English River. As the commissioners had that summer, he would first go to Lac Seul, where he was to pay “Noah Wesley, No 202 of Fort Albany Band” and any other Treaty No. 9 Indians whom he might find there. He would pay annuities of $4 per capita to each “head of a family.”16 At Osnaburgh, Ramsden was to take any Cat Lake River Indians into treaty, essentially as a new band, paying them at the $8 rate and adding them to the Osnaburgh pay-list, but denying them the additional $4 to which they would have been entitled had they been present in 1905. He was to also determine whether the Osnaburgh reserve should be enlarged to include the Cat Lake people, unless they wished to have a reserve of their own.17 There was a puzzling arbitrariness to this recognition of new bands or quasi-bands. Cat Lake might deserve its own reserve, but there was no suggestion that its representatives needed to sign the treaty, that annuities would be paid there, or that members would have their own chief.

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At Fort Hope, Ramsden was told to pay any who had been absent in 1905 the $8 gratuity plus $4 for 1906. In the case of absent family members, he was to verify their claims and make payments, in order to avoid outstanding annuity obligations.18 The 1905 treaty commissioners had apparently revised their assessment of English River after speaking with hbc officials at Fort Albany, for it was no longer considered part of the Fort Albany band. Although its representatives had not signed the parchment, Ramsden was told to hold an election for chief and present a flag. He was to determine whether band members could be paid their annuities at the mouth of the Kenogami River in future, saving him the trip upriver to their unsurveyed reserve. He was also directed to inquire into a specific case, “the wife of No 10 English River Band,” ensuring that she and her husband receive any annuities to which they were entitled.19 At Fort Albany, Ramsden was to pay arrears to the many absentees and investigate the feasability of paying annuities at Attawapiskat, some 60 miles (100 kilometres) to the north, in future.20 To this extent, the Attawapiskat Cree were seemingly acknowledged as a band in their own right. Since the election of “chiefs” had been postponed in 1905, Ramsden was to ensure that one was chosen and presented with a flag.21 There was no suggestion here that the Cree trading at Attawapiskat were entitled to their own reserve, as was contemplated for Cat Lake, or that they would necessarily have their own chief (as implied in 1905).22 When Ramsden held the election, Anglican clergyman R.J. Renison of Fort Albany jubilantly reported, “An election for chief was held and a Protestant Andrew Wesley23 was elected by 32 majority over the Roman Catholic candidate, as Head Chief of the whole Albany District. Five councillors were elected and a sub chief Patrick Spence.”24 Attawapiskat essentially had its own chief. Although not officially recognized as a separate band for another twenty-three years, it was treated as one from the outset.25 There were no particular instructions regarding Moose Factory, aside from the half-breed issue (discussed below), or New Post. Ramsden was to adhere to the schedule provided. If any of the Indians inquired about their reserves, he was to tell them to be patient. Pay-lists were to be carefully balanced, every dollar accounted for.26 Ramsden was not just a paymaster; he was also an inspector. His instructions called for him to investigate the “habits of the Indians as regards intemperance and immorality generally” and “report to the Department … the best means … to re-press” such behaviours. A copy of the Indian Act would provide him with some guidance, but when in doubt, he was to seek advice from Indian Affairs officials in Ottawa.27 He was also supplied with “50 copies of Treaty 9” and asked “to distribute them amongst the Chiefs and Head-men.”28 Ramsden and his successors only visited for a day or two annually, but hbc traders or clergymen kept tabs during the rest of the year. Federal police officers

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could be summoned north to investigate especially egregious cases.29 Eventually, Indian Affairs offices and rcmp detachments would ensure closer scrutiny and redoubled efforts at tutelage. By the 1930s, full-time Indian Affairs officials were stationed at Moose Factory and Sioux Lookout.

implementing the treaty: ontario ratifies the reserves and the treaty Treaty-making resumed during the summer of 1906 (see chapter 5). That fall MacMartin visited Toronto and met with Francis Cochrane, Ontario’s minister of Lands, Forests, and Mines. The two men “went over the Reserves selected.”30 Shortly afterwards, deputy minister of Lands and Forests Aubrey White provided Pedley with duplicate copies of a provincial order-in-council dated 13 February 1907, “approving and confirming the selection of the Reserves described in Schedule so far as they relate to Ontario.”31 As well as the 1906 reserves, four of the reserves allocated by the 1905 commissioners were approved: “Osnaburgh, an area of 20 square miles[,] English River an area of 12 square miles[,] Moose Factory an area of 66 square miles [, and] New Post an area of 8 square miles,” as set out in further detail in the commissioners’ official report.32 The same provincial order also ratified “so far as may be necessary the Treaty entitled the James Bay Treaty No. 9.”33

implementing the treaty: surveying the initial reserves In 1909 surveyor W. Galbraith of Bracebridge was assigned the task of laying out the 1905 reserves for a fee of $8 per day plus expenses. He was provided with an assistant, who was paid $3 per day, and instructed to engage four others, one of whom would also act as cook.34 Galbraith started north from Dinorwic, arranging with the hbc there for supplies and guides.35 He was given some latitude in carrying out the surveys north of the Albany River, where provincial concurrence was unnecessary.36 But it was essential, Galbraith was informed, that he involve local men to ensure that the reserves were surveyed to the Indians’ satisfaction.37 On 29 July he reached Osnaburgh, where the complications began.38 With Jabez Williams serving as his interpreter,39 Galbraith met with Chief George Wahwaashkung, councillors David and John Skunk, and other leading men. From them he learned that the description in the official schedule of reserves was problematic. Osnaburgh had been assigned two reserves in 1905 (and, arguably, the land under water, from headland to headland). We may think of one being on provincial land (block C in figure 4.1, already approved by the 1907 order-in-council)

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south of the Albany River and one on federal land to the north (block A). Once designated as reserves, of course, they would both fall under federal jurisdiction, via the Indian Act. On the north side of the Albany, the Ojibwe wanted their reserve to run east of the hbc post (block B) – “extending down the Albany River” – not continuing to the west, as described in the schedule. Treaty witness Jabez Williams agreed that the schedule was wrong. The area west of the hbc post had been recently burned over, and much of it was “wet swampy country.” To the east it was “fairly well timbered with spruce, balsam, poplar, tamarac &c.”40 On the south side the schedule was correct, but the Ojibwe now considered the area undesirable. It too had been burned over, and they wanted “a greater frontage on the lake with less depth” (block D), because of the extensive muskeg found inland. They actually preferred two blocks of land, the other one a camping site 7 to 8 miles from the post (block E).41 There were no buildings or clearings on any of the proposed reserve lots, aside from a school on the approved Ontario tract. “The Indians camp during the summer on the most desirable points and islands.”42 Galbraith concluded that it would be “unsatisfactory to the Indians” to survey the reserves described in the schedule, but in regards to the reserve in Ontario, he was not convinced that it would be “in the best interests of the band” to survey the two separate blocks of land.43 He completed a track survey of the lake but did not survey the reserves.44 Although he had authority to modify the reserve north of the Albany, he apparently considered it prudent to resolve both reserve locations concurrently. In Ottawa, Indian Affairs’ chief surveyor consulted with Scott and Stewart, who approved the eastern site north of the Albany River (block B) preferred by the Ojibwe: “in fact it was [the former commissioners’] impression that this was the locality desired.” They felt it “not desirable to make any change,” however, in the Ontario reserve (block C).45 It was not desirable for federal-provincial relations; the needs of the Ojibwe were less important. At Fort Hope, the ailing chief was away in Fort William, so Galbraith met with former chief Katchang and some headmen, with C.H.M. Gordon interpreting. He noted that the Ojibwe had constructed three unoccupied log homes on the reserve and cleared some land, “but … I did not observe any effort being now made to cultivate the soil.”46 The land on the north shore of the lake, near Kitchesagi (see figure 10.9), was “low and wet and not desirable for camping.”47 “Instead of making Kitchesagi the western boundary,” Galbraith wrote in his diary, “the indians now ask to have the reserve limits moved somewhat farther east and as there appears no conflicting interests I accede to their wishes.”48 As this reserve was not situated in Ontario, his instructions granted him this latitude. Since the 1905 commissioners had left the size of the Fort Hope reserve indeterminate (an issue now complicated by the admission of the Cat Lake people in

4.1 Surveying the Osnaburgh reserves, 1910. The Anishinaabeg were erroneously assigned block A in 1905 and successfully argued for block B. Their request to substitute blocks D and E for block C, however, was denied. This reserve arguably included the adjacent underwater lands joining the headlands of blocks B and C.

1906), Galbraith was asked to investigate (like Ramsden before him). He determined that a reserve of 100 square miles was required, and he plotted an unfinished survey with incomplete boundaries.49 Katchang, who had reluctantly signed Treaty No. 9 in 1905, was disappointed that the survey was not finished. He sent a syllabic communication to the Indian Affairs department, drawing attention to the band’s hardship and asking for help, a conventional Ojibwe oratorical style.50 Katchang was troubled by the “great many orphans” who needed to be “look[ed] after.” (Some , if not all, of these orphans – Ojibwe boys such as Erland Vincent and Johnny Carpenter – would fill the quotas of the Fort Albany or Moose Factory residential schools.)51 He was still unclear about about the purpose of the reserve.52 By the end of his first and only season, Galbraith had completed only one partial survey. “There is so much muskeg in that country,” he complained, “that I could not get men to continue the work.”53 “On starting from Dinorwic,” he reported, “I expected that at least five of the men would remain through the trip but for one reason and another one of these left at Osnaburg and another at Fort

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Hope and it appears to be difficult to get men that will work steadily on a survey in a wet country.”54 In the end, Galbraith refused to do any more survey work north of the height-of-land, lest it lead to “rheumatic trouble.”55 The muskeg was only part of the problem. Galbraith’s diary reveals that “all the willing indians can get work with the trading companies freighting supplies and they prefer this work to surveying in the woods.”56 In 1910 a second surveyor, James Dobie of Thessalon, was contracted at $10 per day to complete the remaining surveys. He was instructed to “take in a party of six reliable men … so that you will not be dependent on the help you may be able to obtain at each point.” Once again “one or more of the principal Indians of the band” were “always to be engaged in the survey of their own reserve.”57 Dobie was authorized to modify reserves north of Albany River “only when urgently requested … by the Indians.” Within Ontario, however, the reserves were “not to be changed” but followed “as closely as possible.” He was instructed to “exclude … from all reserves where water-powers occur on a main river, a tract of about eighty acres,” using his “judgment as to the depth and length that may be required to utilize the water power.” He was also instructed to “let the Indians know that the Crown reserves the right to lay out roads for the public use across their reserves when they become necessary.”58 This would be the first time they would hear of this significant detail – if he told them even then, six years after treaty-signing. We saw in chapter 3 that Ontario wanted this proviso inserted in Treaty No. 9 at the very last minute, likely after it had already been engrossed. Dobie too found the country to be “one vast swamp … impossible to pack through.” He surveyed the reserves at Osnaburgh, leaving the Ontario tract unchanged (and the Ojibwe “chiefs and councillors … greatly disappointed”),59 but moved the northerly one to the east side of the hbc post, finding “the Indians[’] request to be quite reasonable.”60 Provincial Surveys Branch staff were confused by Dobie’s Osnaburgh survey and unable to pinpoint “exactly where this Reserve is situate.”61 On arrival at Fort Hope, Dobie was unable to hire anyone to take him to the reserve site, “as the Indian Agent was expected to arrive any day to make the annual treaty payment. As this event is the Indians[’] yearly holiday, no inducement will persuade them to miss it.”62 This problem caused a five-day delay, but eventually Dobie finished the survey (see figure 11.9). The Fort Hope reserve was “very low and wet and unfit for agricultural purpose.” It had some good trees, but most of them were small, and much of the reserve had been burned over. There were no “improvements” within the reserve, but it had two small lakes, where the Ojibwe fished in the spring.63 Dobie found the Marten Falls site described in the schedule of reserves to be “absolutely useless.” It had “no timber of any description on it and [was] … so wet that it would have been a very difficult matter to make a survey at all, as there is not a place to camp except near the river.” It would also be flooded by

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any development of the “valuable water power” there. Dobie reported that the Ojibwe were “very anxious” to change the location.64 Even their preferred site was, in his opinion, “bad enough as far as the swamps are concerned,” but all in all, he considered it an “entirely reasonable” alternative.65 There was good timber along the 20-40-foot-high riverbanks, but most of the plot was “covered with scrub spruce of no value whatever.” Dobie felt that the clay below the “low swampy land” might be suitable for agriculture if drained.66 He completed the 1911 season glad that he had brought his own men, for he found “the local help in there … absolutely useless, except for packing, and not much good for that.”67 Meanwhile, seven years after the 1905 treaty-signing, the two easternmost bands were urging that their reserves be surveyed. When annuity payments were made in the summer of 1912, treaty paymaster W.J. McLean (Ramsden’s successor) advised the department that the New Post Indians were “very anxious to have their reserve surveyed and described for them. They stated that White settlers are now approaching their section of the country, and they felt apprehensive that some one or more might settle upon the land that was intended for their reserve.”68 A few months earlier a request had been received from Angus Chum, Fred Mark’s successor as chief of the Moose Factory band, asking that its reserve be surveyed. He also complained that for three years he and his councillors had asked the annuity paymaster to compensate them for their responsibilities, and he gave notice of resigning his position.69 The extra payment for chiefs and headmen and even a suit of clothes for the chief, manufactured in Kingston Penitenitary,70 could easily be provided by government policy, if not by explicit treaty obligation (although such distinctions could certainly become blurred in the eyes of the Cree and Ojibwe).71 The t&no and National Transcontinental (later Canadian National) Railways greatly simplified the first part of Dobie’s trip to English River in 1912. He took the t&no from North Bay to Cochrane and the Transcontinental from there to the Nagagami River, west of present-day Hearst. English River hbc post was reached, after a three-day canoe trip downriver, on 1 September 1912, and the 12square-mile reserve was completely surveyed in nine days.72 From English River post it took a day to descend the Kenogami River to the Albany and another day to reach “Ghost (Cheepay) [chiipaay, ghost] River Post.”73 Three more days downriver, much of it in heavy rain against a strong headwind, brought the party to the head of Albany Island. Perhaps to lighten the load, as his “small chesnut canoe” was shipping water in the rough waves and tide, Dobie sent his men on to the post while he “walked across Albany Island, knee-deep in water all the way.”74 Postmaster Donald Gillies, whose descendents still live in the area, let them stay overnight in an hbc house and loaned the party a larger canoe.75

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The 140-square-mile Fort Albany reserve included a saltwater shoreline of tidal mud flats (see figure 13.6). Dobie found the survey there “very difficult … on account of the very wet nature of the country on the north boundary for fourteen miles.” Chickeney Creek, however, provided “a navigable stream for canoes.” Dobie used it to travel within the reserve and camped alongside it at night; otherwise he would have had to wait until winter to complete the survey.76 Delayed by cold weather, heavy rain, gales, thunder, and snow, Dobie and his party were occupied from mid-September through mid-October in surveying the north shore of the Albany (which Dobie calls “North River”) and the other boundaries of the reserve. At times they walked through “water knee-deep all the way.”77 The skies were undoubtedly full of migrating geese and ducks, for this reserve is an important staging area for migratory waterfowl, but Dobie made no mention of this phenomenon. The reserve at Fort Albany had been selected on the north shore in 1905, not only because it was an important waterfowl harvesting area but undoubtedly because Ontario had not then decided whether its t&no Railway terminus would end at the harbour there or at Moose Factory (or perhaps even at Hannah Bay).78 On 14 October 1912 Dobie settled his accounts at Albany and employed a guide for the dangerous canoe trip to Moose Factory (see figure 14.5).79 While he was engaged in his summer of surveying, Anglican bishop John G. Anderson had forwarded a request to the Indian Affairs department from Chief Richard Wamestigoosh and councillors David Cheena, Simon Cheena, and Fred Mark of the Moose Factory band. The Cree leaders asked to move their reserve from the site chosen in 1905 to the coast of James Bay, north and west of Moose River, another prime area for hunting migratory birds.80 Having no authority to change the location, Dobie surveyed the reserve agreed upon in 1905.81 He was delayed at Moose Factory by rain and waiting for supplies to be unloaded from the hbc steamer, although he did obtain some supplies from the Revillon Frères store across the river (at present-day Moosonee). He was able to send a progress report to Indian Affairs, as “Mr McMillan of the T & N.O. Engineering Corps” was “going out” the next day with a packet of mail. The surveyors’ canoes were now at the end of their usefulness, and Dobie acquired snowshoes and toboggans from the hbc as winter approached.82 The 66-square-mile Moose Factory reserve was located upriver about 8 miles, on the east side of the Moose River, between South Bluff Creek and French River. On 22 October Dobie and his men proceeded to South Bluff in snow flurries.83 He completed a traverse of the river boundaries before freeze-up, but after surveying just 3 miles inland, he found it too “so wet that it was impossible to work in it.” He waited in camp for the first freeze, meanwhile swapping the snowshoes at Moose Factory for some frames, which he and his men proceeded to lace to pass the time.84 The party thus equipped, “there was no difficulty … the muskegs, while not frozen were covered with enough snow to support a man on snow shoes.”85

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After surveying the Moose Factory reserve, Dobie cached his canoes86 and procured more supplies at Moose Factory for the snowshoe walk to New Post. With the weather alternating between heavy snow and heavy rain, he and his men marched up the French River to Niven’s Line and then followed “a trapper’s trail” to New Post through slush and soft snow, expecting to find the supplies he had ordered at Cochrane the previous year.87 The hbc supply vessel from Montreal had been late reaching Moose Factory that year, however, so he was unable to acquire enough food to sustain his men. The New Post survey had to be postponed until 1913. Postmaster John McLeod of New Post issued Dobie “Barely enough” supplies to get his crew south to the railway line.88 Breaking trail and hauling their toboggans through slush for ten days, they reached Cochrane and arrived home just in time for Christmas.89 In 1913, perhaps having acquired canoes from hbc manager Hugh Conn in Cochrane,90 Dobie was glad that he again took his own men from Thessalon and Garden River. (“I was only able to get one man at New Post.”)91 In July of 1913 the reserve at “Tahquatagama Lake” was surveyed, eight years after the New Post band had signed Treaty No. 9. Dobie’s party, accompanied by Chief Esau Omakees, reached the lake after two days of portaging and packing from a chain of “Little Lakes” near the Abitibi River. In extreme heat and a thunderstorm, they surveyed the last of the reserves selected in 1905.92

4.2 Esau Omakees and family, c.1907

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treaty implementation: commutation and enfranchisement The Cree and Ojibwe who received band membership cards when Treaty No. 9 was signed (see chapter 23) became unwittingly enmeshed in a complex, external legal framework. By 1905 that fifty-five-year-old framework included provisions for “enfranchisement,” whereby an Indian (and, if a male, his wife and children) relinquished Indian status. Indian status was traced through the male line. Indian women who married non-Indians lost their status, as did the children of such unions.93 Loss of Indian status would mean no annuity. The parchment made no mention of future restrictions on eligibility, promising the treaty money “annually afterwards for ever” (see chapter 22). These issues had been ignored in the intergovernmental planning that preceeded Treaty No. 9. Inspectors or paymasters distributed annuities, but Ontario then reimbursed the federal government – so long as the recipients were residents of the province (or, in some cases, so long as they traded in Ontario).94 When an Indian woman lost her status through marriage to a non-Indian, her annuities were supposed to be commuted; this provision meant that she was entitled to a one-time lump-sum payment. Similarly, an Indian who was enfranchised was entitled to a one-time cash payment (and also gained the federal franchise, or right to vote). But the federal-provincial agreement on Treaty No. 9 did not specify that Ontario was responsible for such one-time costs. As a result of this oversight, Indian women who married white men or halfbreeds were temporarily kept on the Treaty No. 9 pay-lists in the years immediately after 1905. A mechanism had to be found so that Indian Affairs could delist them. The issue quickly arose at Moose Factory, where the Archibalds, Careys, McLeods, Moores, Morrisons, Taylors, and Udgaardens were excluded from Treaty No. 9 in 1905 (see chapter 15). If a woman from the Moose Factory band married one of these “half-breed” or Métis men, she lost her Indian status (but was not dropped from the treaty pay-list). In the first decade after treaty-making and exclusion, several Cree women married into the “half-breed” community at Moose Factory: Emily Hardisty (William McLeod Jr’s wife);95 chief Fred Mark’s daughter, Beatrice (Tommy Moore’s wife); Annie Cheechoo (Tom Taylor’s wife); Annie Smallboy (George Carey Jr’s wife); Emily Alisappi (Henry Moore’s wife); and Ellen Cheechoo (T.C. Moore’s wife). It might have seemed an easy matter to convince Ontario to replace annual payments of $4 for a woman’s lifetime (and those for her descendents) with a one-time ten-year commutation payment of $40. When Indian Affairs officials broached this subject with their provincial counterparts in 1933, however, the Ontario Cabinet stated that “Indian women … would be better off in receipt of the small annuity than if their annuities were commuted.”96 Indian Affairs officials persisted, arguing that paying the lump sum “to an Indian woman married

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to a white man may assist in the process of her assimilation into the white population by removing the last tie with the band of which she was formerly a member.” They also pointed out that commuting the treaty annuity “would be financially profitable to the Province of Ontario” over a woman’s lifespan since “generally, Indian girls marry when very young.”97 This issue was seemingly resolved after World War ii. Those who wished to relinquish their families’ Indian status through enfranchisement would receive cash payments of $80 per person for each family member.98 Historian Robin Jarvis Brownlie observes that Indians sought enfranchisement in order to “make a life for themselves” off-reserve and minimize “job discrimination,” but she adds that this “may well have had more to do with rejecting the reserve system and subordination to [Indian Affairs] than with accepting assimilation.” She also notes that the one-time payment was a “bribe … in which they received their own money in exchange for their Aboriginal rights.”99 When Bill C-31 changed the Indian Act’s eligibility requirements in 1985, the late Beatrice Mark-Moore’s three adult children, by then elders, were able to apply for and receive the status denied them for most of their lifetimes. Different rules arbitrarily applied to their half-sister and half-brother. G.T. (Tommy) Moore, one of the “half-breeds” denied admission to Treaty No. 9, was the father of all five. (D.C. Scott photographed G.T. Moore, skipper of the hbc steamer Inenew, at Fort Albany in 1905.)100 Tommy’s son George was born to his first wife, Jesse Ann Fraser, who died in childbirth. George’s male descendents have been unable to prove an entitlement to Indian status. Tommy Moore’s daughter Emily, however, had Indian status until she married. She was his reputed first child, born to twenty-two-year-old Louisa Wascowin of the Moose Factory band of Crees.101 Louisa’s father was Daniel Wascowin Jr, cook for the men who paddled, poled, and portaged the Treaty No. 9 commissioners from Moose Factory to Abitibi in 1905.102 Orphaned when Louisa died of tuberculosis, Emily had only two acknowledged close kin –an aunt, fourteen years her senior, who was attending the the Elkhorn Indian Industrial School in Manitoba, and a younger brother Roderick, who later drowned while attending the Moose Factory Indian residential school.103 A vulnerable Emily was eventually taken by canoe to Chapleau, likely by either Anglican clergy or the treaty paymaster. In 1911, at the age of three, Emily was living at Moose Factory’s Indian residential school,104 for these institutions served as children’s aid societies until the 1950s.105 In 1914 she was admitted to the Chapleau Indian residential school, where she became known as Emily Donald.106 Her band membership was later transferred from Moose Factory to the Chapleau Cree band. As Emily’s only daughter observed, “residential school was the only stable home that Mother would know and the staff her only parental figures or role models.” Emily graduated from high school in Chapleau. She was considered “too small and skinny,” at 5 feet 2 inches, to become a nurse, so she began

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teaching Pottawatomi children at then-remote Moose Deer Point on Georgian Bay. There, as Brownlie has shown, Emily resisted Parry Sound Indian agent John Daly’s attempt to make the young woman save for (or perhaps repay) her professional schooling. She attended North Bay Normal School in 1928–29, inspiring other young Indian women to become teachers and incurring Daly’s enmity. Emily lost her Indian status, however, when she married the Métis Louis Jerome Sharette.107 This one family illustrates the arbitrary manner by which treaty entitlements ebbed and flowed through the membership provisions of the Indian Act. By one recent estimate, intermarriage with non-Indians (by reducing the “Indian” blood quantum) could eliminate Indian status in a few generations.108

implementing the treaty: “half-breeds” On 12 September 1905, three days after coming back to Ottawa, commissioner D.C. Scott returned $15,000 in outstanding annuity and expense money. The accountant likely met with A.G. Meindl as well, when the doctor returned the balance of his own cash advance.109 The “half-breed” petition presented to the commissioners at Moose Factory (see chapter 15) would not likely have been as pressing a concern for Scott as other matters that had arisen while he and Stewart were away from the office for more than two months. Officials in Indian Affairs headquarters were soon finalizing plans for Treaty No. 10 – prompted, as Ken Coates has shown, by “half-breed” demands.110 Nine days after the commissioners’ return, Indian Affairs secretary J.D. McLean transmitted the Moose Factory petition to Ontario treasurer A.J. Matheson, who had travelled to Ottawa and met with Indian Affairs officials the previous June and was familiar with the Treaty No. 9 negotiations.111 Matheson was apparently out of the office, however, and the petition was mistakenly returned to McLean at the behest of the province’s attorney general, C.A. Matthews. His letter stated that “although the petition mentions the Government of Ontario, the petitioners probably mean the Government of the Dominion.”112 McLean sent it back to Matthews, explaining that the petition “was properly addressed to the Government of Ontario and was advisedly forwarded to the Provincial Treasurer. If you will kindly hold it until Mr. Matheson’s return, there is no doubt that he will consider it.”113 Frank Pedley asked Scott for additional information and advised Matheson that the “half-breeds” at Moose Factory had been “refused treaty by the Commissioners on the ground that they were not living the Indian mode of life.”114 This was a respectable argument in Canadian courts at the turn of the twentieth century.115 D.G. MacMartin would likely have known nothing about the federal Indian Act before the summer of 1905. The petitioners were probably rejected by him at the urging of his fellow commissioners. Scott and Stewart were undoubtedly

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familiar with the legislation and shared the cultural assumptions of contemporary jurists.116 Indians were not supposed to remain Indians forever. Through enfranchisement, as Robin Jarvis Brownlie has shown, they were expected to become sober, ambitious, reliable, self-sufficient, and modern.117 As the spring of 1906 approached, McLean again wrote to Matheson, stating that “in all probability when the Inspector [J.G. Ramsden] next visits Moose Factory he will be asked by the half-breeds how your Government proposes to deal with their application.”118 Matheson quickly replied, stating that the province was willing to offer the half-breeds 160 acres of land, with several conditions attached. He added, as an expression of goodwill, “The only object that can be obtained at present is to satisfy these men that the Government is prepared to give them reasonable consideration of their claims to this extent.”119 Pedley promised that “the intention of the Government of Ontario as set forth in your letter will be transmitted to the Petitioners.”120 Prior to his first tour of far northern Ontario, Ramsden’s instructions had alerted him to the fact that several “half-breeds at Moose Factory [had] petitioned the Ontario Government, through the Treaty 9 Commissioner [MacMartin].” Ramsden was apprised of Matheson’s offer, useless though it was at Moose Factory, where no suitable land met the province’s requirements.121 In 1908 one of the Moose Factory petitioners, William Archibald, asked Ramsden to add him to the treaty pay-list. Ramsden was not authorized to do so; instead, the paymaster Archibald was again reminded of Matheson’s offer.122 William’s son Sydney married Esau Omakees’s daughter Bella, and their son Peter became a member of the New Post band. After Bella’s death in 1918, Peter was raised by Thomas and Annie Sutherland and took their surname as his. Sydney apparently acquired Bella’s band number123 and succeeded his father-in-law as chief until his own death by drowning in 1948. The department’s agent in Kenora, R.S. McKenzie, received a letter from James Louttit of Dinorwic, asking about half-breed scrip.124 When McKenzie forwarded the request to headquarters for advice, Samuel Stewart advised him of Matheson’s offer.125 There was heightened attention to racial matters in scientific circles in the late nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. A.P. Reid, having spent perhaps a year at Red River, enumerated nine varieties of racial mixture when he spoke to the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in 1875.126 Canadian census enumerators in 1901 were recording skin colour and racial origin, with subcategories for English-, French-, and other kinds of “breeds.”127 Mathematical assumptions about heredity were still popular in the 1920s when anthropologist R. Ruggles Gates was studying racial mixing at Temagami. Using geneticist Francis Galton’s terms, Gates employed fractions to compare characteristics among supposed blood quanta, such as half, onequarter, one-sixteenth, and eleven-thirty-second Indians.128

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I began publicizing the “half-breed” claim when I arrived in Moose Factory in 1972. The issue was later advanced by descendents of the “half-breeds,” who began to call themselves Métis (which rhymed with “Betty” among the elderly). Lawyer Shin Imai took an interest in the claim in the 1980s and early 1990s. Meetings were held, and correspondence was exchanged with government, much of which I was aware of or involved in. I hand-delivered a communication from Wilbert McLeod, grandson of petitioner William McLeod and his wife, Ellen (sister of treaty chief Fred Mark), to the minister of Natural Resources (and minister responsible for Native Affairs), “Bud” Wildman, when my friend Norm Wesley (then chief of the Moose Cree First Nation and Wilbert’s brother-in-law) advised me that I could not raise the matter on Wilbert’s behalf when the chiefs met with Wildman in Timmins in 1990. As a council employee, I worked for the chiefs. The Moose Cree First Nation was not sympathetic to the Métis claimants. The line drawn by the commissioners in 1905, between Indians and half-breeds, still sometimes separates the community of Moose Factory.129 As far as I know, Wildman (himself a Métis, according to David McNab) never replied to the letter. For decades I naively wondered why the provincial government took no steps to settle this well-documented claim. I now know, after reading David McNab’s inside account of how land issues were resolved (and not resolved) in Ontario during this period. I learned that one affable official, Ted Wilson, whom I met on several occasions, was the gatekeeper who only allowed a very small number of claims to proceed, even under Bob Rae’s ndp government. (Rae’s government signed a symbolically important Statement of Political Relationships with Ontario First Nations in 1991, but it was never really implemented.)130 For the many other claims that were received, Wilson and his staff merely operated what McNab calls a post office.131 Ontario had no policy framework for dealing with Métis claims. This situation has, hopefully, begun to change since the 2003 Powley decision, which held that the Métis around Sault Ste Marie have an aboriginal right to hunt for food and that their right was contravened when Steve and Roddy Charles Powley were charged under Ontario’s Game and Fish Act.132 The century-old claim of the “half-breeds” (now an offensive term) of Moose Factory remains unresolved to this day. The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975 avoided the Indian Act’s archaic focus on blood quanta, substituting a territorial residency requirement. Anyone with Indigenous roots in the territory can receive jbnqa benefits, so long as she or he maintains residence in the region.133 The case of Mocreebec also reminds us that tripartite treaty agreements are not enough. The jbnqa arguably violates Mocreebec members’ rights to mobility under the 1983 Charter.134 When Quebec Cree leaders visited Moose Factory prior to the jbnqa negotiations, they apparently asked residents there to touch the pen and authorize

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them to negotiate. Mocreebec members might argue that Canada and Quebec (and their own chiefs) failed to recognize their unique needs for pimaatisiiun (“being alive well”) as former Quebec Crees living across the Quebec border.135 To summarize, federal and provincial governments ratified the parchment versions of Treaty No. 9. Reserves were surveyed, and some changes were permitted, if a reserve was situated north of the Ontario boundary, and approved by the federal government. Inspector Ramsden began making annual visits as treaty paymaster and inspector, armed with a copy of the Indian Act. He was authorized to admit the Cat Lake people, most of whom were absent at treaty-making, to Treaty No. 9, but they would have to wait until 1970 for their own reserve. Ramsden held an election at Fort Albany, acknowledging the Attawapiskat Cree (most of whom were not present at treaty-signing in 1905) as a distinct group as well. The Ontario government did not reply to the half-breed petition presented to the commissioners at Moose Factory in 1905, relying on Indian Affairs personnel to relay an inappropriate offer of land. Provincial game and fish laws were eventually be imposed on the Ojibwe and Cree, although these impacts (and most of the mining, forestry, and hydroelectric incursions) have not yet been documented in the Treaty No. 9 region.136

5 Treaty-Making Resumes

Treaty-making in far northern Ontario continued during the summer of 1906. A little-known adhesion was signed with the Quebec-Abitibi Algonquins in 1908. After Ontario was expanded north of the Albany River, another adhesion sought to further extend the reach of Treaty No. 9 into that region in 1929–30. Treaty rights and unfulfilled treaty promises remained concerns among the Indigenous peoples of Canada throughout the twentieth century.

1906 The three commissioners backtracked over the Quinze Lake route they had followed in 1905, reaching Abitibi on on 4 June 1906. Louis McDougall Jr signed Treaty No. 9, was photographed by Scott, and was elected chief of the AbitibiOntario Indians.1 Abitibi hbc post lay east of the Ontario-Quebec border. Indians who wintered in Quebec were refused admission in 1906 but promised future consideration. Then it was south to Matachewan hbc post, in the Ottawa River watershed, which the commissioners reached on 19 June, and the treaty signed.2 Several members of this band wintered in the Hudson Bay watershed near present-day Timmins.3 The treaty concluded at Matachewan, the commissioners pressed on to Mattagami hbc post, arriving on 7 July for a third treaty-signing.4 From Matagama Station, they took the westbound cpr to Biscotasing, where they briefly met and photographed Louis Espagnol. The treaty party disembarked for a fourth signing at Flying Post, near presentday Timmins, on 15 July.5 They returned to Biscotasing and paid annuities to those they deemed to be Flying Post and Mattagami band members there.6 The commissioners then left by train for Chapleau, accompanied by the artist Edmund Morris of Perth, son of treaty-maker Alexander Morris. At Chapleau they paid Indians they considered to be from “Moose Factory, English River, and other points” who were gathered there.7 The cpr may have attracted northern Algonquians with the hope of finding work, but freer access to alcohol was likely an important factor as well.8 And northern Algonquians were always highly mobile. Then it was on to Missanabie cpr station, where the federal commissioners demanded that the hbc and Revillon Frères stop the sale of intoxicants to Indians.9 Here too they met “old friend” Daniel Wascowin Jr, one of their 1905 crew

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members.10 It was a short canoe trip from the station to New Brunswick House, on Missanabie Lake, where the treaty was signed a fifth time.11 Returning to Missanabie station, the commissioners paid the Indians gathered there, many of whom they considered to be from Moose Factory.12 The treaty party travelled by train to Heron Bay, near present-day Marathon, and there met some families they deemed to be from English River.13 The sixth and final signing of Treaty No. 9 in 1906 was at Long Lake, where the commisioners’ fleet of seven canoes arrived in style, flags flying (see figure 1.1).14 When these Ojibwe were admitted to Treaty No. 9, David McNab’s notion of a “circle of time” reminds us that Louis Espaignol’s persistent pleas on behalf of non-treaty Indians along the cpr line were finally answered. Long Lake’s Robinson-Superior chief, Newatchigigswabe, “said that the Indians who had been receiving annuity money for years were glad that their brethren were now placed on an equal footing with them.”15 The treaty party returned to Heron Bay, admitted several Indians living at Montizambert (whom they considered to be members of English River band), and took the eastbound cpr to Ottawa, ending the formal 1905–6 treaty-making process.16 Regrettably, MacMartin’s 1906 journal has not survived. Only one commissioner’s journal remains, that of the unreliable Stewart. Scott’s friend Pelham Edgar served as journal-writer, freeing the accountant to attend to photography and poetry. In his November 1906 article in the journal Canada, Edgar wrote, “conceded the Indians … all the hunting … privileges … they have ever possessed.” Language problems would have been a continuing challenge in 1906 as well. And it was not just the commissioners’ accounts that were sometimes selfserving. At Long Lake, for example, Edgar writes that the “chief makes a speech which is curiously twisted in the interpretation by [hbc clerk Peter] Godchère. The speech was to the effect that the Indians would like the price of furs at H.B.C. to be higher & the price of goods lower, that they should be permitted to trade where they pleased. Godchère said that the chief was very pleased with the way that the H.B.C. treated the Indians & was glad that the H.B.C. & the Government were working together!”17

1908 Three years after his first visit to Abitibi post, Samuel Stewart was dispatched there again, to fulfil the commissioners’ 1906 promise to hold a conference with the Quebec Indians. He arrived by t&no train at Matheson, where he spent the evening “visiting in the tents of the McDougal [sic] Indians.” Stewart learned that they possessed “a License of Occupation granted by the Ontario Government to eighteen acres of land within the limits of the Town of Matheson.”18 This McDougall family belonged to the Ontario-Abitibi band.19 Stewart’s party took the Black River, a tributary of the Abitibi, “from the foot

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of the hill on which the Indian houses are grouped, and from near the falls after which the place received its former name of McDougall’s Chutes.”20 At Abitibi post, an adhesion was signed21 whereby the Ontario Indians agreed to share their reserve with those from Quebec. The Quebec Indians supposedly surrendered their territory and began accepting annuities of $4 per person.22 Unlike the arrangements with Ontario, Ottawa received no reimbursement from Quebec.23 This was a one-man commission, so we only have Stewart’s self-serving account. He returned to McDougall’s Chute, where he “paid seventeen Indians … including those known as the McDougall Chute Indians.”24 His solo mission accomplished, Stewart returned to Ottawa. In 2006 chief Harry McDougall of the Abitibiwinni Nation announced that this treaty was a sham.24

1929 Ontario’s boundaries were extended north of the Albany River to their present limit in 1912. A map prepared about 1923 showed the entire region north of the Albany to be “unsurrendered.”26 Today, online Treasury Board maps and those of most scholars still show the 1905-6 treaty covering only the lands to the south and east of the Albany.27 Rhonda Telford’s adjective “unTreated” is preferable to “unceded” or “unsurrendered,” for, despite the words on the parchment, the Indigenous signatures on Treaty No. 9 arguably did not signify consent to cede, release, surrender, or yield up their lands and rights.28 That was not the view of government officials a few years later, when the 1929–30 adhesion was signed by commissioners Walter Charles Cain, representing the province, and Herbert Nathaniel Awrey (a minor clerk at Indian Affairs when Treaty No. 9 was first signed), representing Canada. They asserted that the 1905 surrender also included lands south and east of an imaginary line ab, which would have included the Cat Lake and Attawapiskat bands. The commissioners described the line as follows: “roughly drawn from the Northeast Angle of Treaty No. 3 in a north-easterly direction to a point on James bay approximately midway between the mouth of the Attawapiskat river on James bay and that of Winisk river on Hudson bay.”29 The line ab was not concocted in order to benefit the Cat Lake and Attawapiskat bands, however, or any other Ojibwe or Cree hunting north of the Albany River. This imaginary line, like the adhesion itself, was designed to serve Ontario’s interests. The adhesion was clearly necessitated by “the spectacular interest and activity in the mining industry.” It would, the commissioners hoped, “extinguish the rights of those Indians resident north of the line ab” and “confirm the cession made in 1905, by those Indians in the territory between line ab and the Albany River.”30 The Ojibwe near Lac Seul and Osnaburgh were already reeling from massive incursions, just like those at Matachewan and Flying Post; in the east, as Kerry Abel has shown, waves of immigrants had been attracted to

5.1 Unceded land, c.1913. This is apparently the map that Treaty No. 8 inspector H.A. Conroy sent to D.C. Scott on 21 February 1913. The triangle extending into Manitoba is labelled separately from the portion in Ontario, both shaded red. Conroy intended that the two areas would be addressed through separate adhesions to Treaty No. 5 and 9 respectively. Scott apparently sent a copy of the map to Ontario premier G.H. Ferguson on 27 November 1923 and on 7 June 1926, without mentioning the two treaty areas affected (lac, Adhesion). This omission has contributed to a cartographic error, for example, in Canada, nr, “Historical Indian Treaties.”

the mining boom and had displaced the First Nations from their traditional lands near Timmins.31 Following the 1912 boundary extension, Ontario met the full cost of Treaty No. 9 annuities, for there would no longer be any Dominion Indians, but had not yet approved the reserves surveyed by Galbraith and Dobie on the north side of the Albany River. Cain and Awrey’s report states that the Indians north of the line ab “should be admitted to Treaty under the same conditions as applied to

5.2 The commissioners’ map with the line ab, 1930. The cartographic confusion that began with the 1913 map was compounded by the Manitoba triangle appearing at the top of this one.

those covered by Treaty No. 9,”32 but the adhesion was worded very differently from the 1905 parchment to which it referred, not least by including the phrases “land, and land covered by water” and “including all islands, islets and rocks, waters and land covered by water.” The area ceded by 1929–30 adhesions was defined as “bounded on the South by the Northerly limit of Treaty Number Nine” (see chapter 22). The commissioners flew to Big Trout Lake, where the adhesion was signed on 5 July 1929.33 About 50 other Indians whom the commissioners considered to belong to this band were paid annuities at Lansdowne House.34 Three reserves were allotted for this far-flung band, one at Trout Lake and the others at Sachigo and Wunnumin Lakes. A Treaty No. 5 reserve was also established at Sandy Lake Narrows, within the Treaty No. 9 region on the Severn River watershed.35 The chief and each of his councillors received an “official badge, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty.”36 The adhesion, like the 1905 parchment, made no such provision, and no badges were distributed in 1905 or 1906. The badges first distributed in 1910 were cheap enamel brooches, not the fine medals awarded in earlier treaties.37

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Unable to find the gas cache at Nibinamik Lake, the aircraft Moth, low on fuel with commissioner Cain aboard, made a forced landing at an unmapped lake and camped “in the wilds.” There the party providentially met a band of “Crees,” whose chief, “much to the amazement of Commissioner Cain … very unceremoniously extracted from his pocket a letter.” It was “written by Dr. D.C. Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, in January, 1929, directing him as Chief … to appear at Trout Lake for treaty negotiations.”38 At this lake, “which name he does not know, though the Indians call it something like ‘Nikip,’” Cain had encountered the Cranes, who had refused to allow a gsc party into their territory in 1903 (see chapter 2),39 and they had waited for treaty since 1906 (see chapter 10).

1930 Next summer the commissioners flew to Windigo River, “about one-half mile above the point of its entry in Nikip lake … a point which is the most inaccessible of any Indian post in the province.” There the adhesion was signed a second time.40 At Fort Severn, on southwestern Hudson Bay, on 25 July there was a third signing.41 And at Winisk the adhesion was signed for the fourth and last time.42 New reserves were established at North Caribou Lake, Beaverstone River (Fort Severn), and Asheweig River (Winisk). A reserve was also allotted at Ekwan River for the Attawapiskat Cree, formally recognized as a band the previous year.43 The size of the Attawapiskat band may have increased as well; a 1927 census showed only a third of the families trading there were receiving annuities, but variant spellings of Cree names such as Oguima (Okimaw, Hookimaw) and Aitel (Iahtail) indicate that the number already enrolled on a band list was higher.44 At Winisk the commissioners “hoped to conclude the work” in a single day and happily reported that treaty “discussions were shorter and explanations fewer.” Indeed, by the commissioners’ account, the Winisk Cree “possessed more knowledge of the terms and conditions of Treaty No. 9 than many members of other bands who had been admitted to treaty twenty-five years ago.” The interpreter was interrupted by eager Crees who stated, “We know perfectly all about this treaty.” They were eager to sign.45 In stark contrast to this version of events, twenty-seven years later one of the Cree signatories at Winisk had no recollection of a written agreement. David Sutherland recalled that people had agreed to what they heard, showing their consent by waving hats or scarves and yelling their approval. The treaty was all about supporting their way of life, which relied on the land and its resources.46 If the Winisk Cree understood “perfectly all about this treaty,” I suggest it is because four of twenty-six families trading there, including David Sutherland’s, were already eligible for treaty annuities as members of adjacent Indian Affairs bands.47 Similarly, one-sixth of those trading at Fort Severn – one family, the

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wives and children in two others, and a grandchild in a fourth – were already on a treaty paylist.48 At the conclusion of their two summers of treaty-making by airplane, Cain and Awrey provided a congratulatory report on the health of the Indians of far northern Ontario,49 part of an ongoing public relations campaign to silence critics such as Dr Peter H. Bryce, Indian Affairs’ chief medical officer. (Bryce’s revelations about the need for healthier conditions in residential schools angered the church officials who operated then and the penny-pinching Indian Affairs officials who underfunded them. In 1913, when D.C. Scott became deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs, he stopped publishing Bryce’s reports. In 1922 Bryce published his exposé The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921.)50 They advocated more self-reliance among the Indians, expecting them to take up agriculture and avoid congregating at hbc posts, towns, or villages during the summer months.51 The commissioners recommended confirmation and approval of the supposed 1905 surrender north of the Albany River, including the reserves at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Fort Albany.52 They noted that any mining claims within the new reserves were subject to Ontario legislation chapter 13, 14 George V, “in which the rights of the Indians under well defined conditions are protected.”53 With this adhesion, Treaty No. 9 became one of the largest historic treaty regions, second only to Treaty No. 11 in 1921 (see figure 1.3).54 Cain and Awrey’s 1930 report boasted incorrectly that they had extinguished Indian title “to the last remaining area unceded in the province of Ontario, if not in the whole of Canada.”55 Much of the Yukon, British Columbia, Quebec, the Maritimes, and the Northwest Territories was still not covered by treaty. In Ontario, the Algonquins south and west of the Ottawa River had been overlooked as well.

ongoing treaty concerns Indigenous peoples began forming modern political associations in Canada long before World War ii,56 but it was following that conflict, in which many Indigenous peoples volunteered (while others resisted),57 that Canadian politicians seem to have begun listening to Indians’ concerns. The Canadian House of Commons and Senate established a special joint committee in 1946 to conduct an investigation of Indian matters, including “Treaty rights and obligations,” education, and revisions to the Indian Act.58 A revised act was introduced in the House of Commons in 1950.59 Treaties received a measure of protection in section 87 of the 1951 act, which held that provincial laws of general application were subordinate to “the terms of any treaty.”60 In 1968–69, in an unprecedented series of seventeen hearings across Canada, Indians were asked for their thoughts on revising the federal Indian Act once

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again. From the outset, they insisted that a host of other issues should be addressed. They voiced their concerns about taxation, land rights, fishing and hunting, medical services, education, water rights, offshore rights, and treaties.61 Indian delegates to a national conference held in the spring of 1969 demanded that treaty and aboriginal rights be recognized more explicitly, either in the Indian Act or in the Constitution of Canada. They demanded that treaty and aboriginal rights be acknowledged by the provinces and receive protection from future provincial legislation. Delegates soon sensed that their priorities were not being addressed in the so-called consultations. The National Indian Brotherhood proposed that an Indian Act incorporating the various treaties be drafted by Indians. This idea received the delegates’ enthusiastic approval, and they left the conference feeling relatively optimistic.62 Many were convinced that a new era of partnership had begun. Just fifty-four days later, on 25 June 1969, minister of Indian Affairs (and future prime minister) Jean Chrétien announced the government of Canada’s “White Paper” on Indian policy. Officially titled Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, this document was a proposal to repeal the Indian Act, have the provinces provide all services to Indians, provide substantial funding for economic development, eliminate the Indian Affairs bureaucracy within five years, appoint an Indian claims commissioner, and permit Indians to control their own reserve lands.63 As noted in the Introduction to Treaty No. 9 the White Paper viewed treaties as unecessary historical anomalies. It met with almost total rejection from Indians across Canada. The formal response from the chiefs of Alberta, Citizens Plus, insisted that the Indian Act be retained and revised, but only after their treaty issues were settled. The Alberta chiefs demanded that treaties be recognized and entrenched in the Constitution of Canada.64 The National Indian Brotherhood made minor adjustments to Citizens Plus before adopting it as its own position.65 The Trudeau government subsequently abandoned the White Paper. In order to promote future consultation, it provided funds to the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations), the Union of Ontario Indians, and several other provincial or territorial organizations.66 Government policies were developed to deal with comprehensive and more specific claims. The era of modern land claims agreements began when Canada and Quebec signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement with the Cree, Naskapi, and Inuit in the 1970s.67 The number of claims that remain unresolved in Canada today, however, is staggering.68

6 Sharing the Land The 1920s and 1930s were a time of destitution … since the fur market crashed and most of the fur and food animals had been hunted out. Some [people] migrated … to try for jobs … For the majority who remained in their home region, death by starvation was an occasional fact and a frequent threat. When Canada instituted universal family allowances in 1945, it made a big difference to … economic security … In the mid-1950s day schools and nursing stations were established in most of these northern villages, and one result was that many families were reluctant to leave their children and go into the bush, preferring rather to stay in the village and exist on a mixture of transfer payments, local hunting, and a few wagelabor opportunities.1 The shift from a portable home within an ecological range, to housing in sedentary settlements is a radical change.”2

The Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario continue to resist Indian Affairs control and provincial authority over their lands and other resources, always attempting to implement the oral agreement and promises that they ratified at treaty-signing. This chapter will examine the following topics: the political life of an influential Cree leader named Andy Rickard, one of the founders of Grand Council Treaty No. 9 (now known as the Nishnawbe Aski Nation); some of the political issues that the people of far northern Ontario confronted in the final decades of the twentieth century; and the treaty commemoration activities held in 2005–6. These provide insights into what Treaty No. 9 means today to the Indigenous leaders in far northern Ontario. We will also acknowledge some of the new relationships that are emerging a century after 1905.

can we do that? Andy Rickard (1942–2006) was the first of ten children born into a traditional Cree family created when Abraham Rickard, from Akimiski Island, married Mary Sutherland, from the Missinaibi region (where Abraham may have also had

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ancestral roots through his father, Frank Rickard).3 Andy’s happiest memories were of his early years in the family harvesting area near the Smoky Line.4 Cree cultural values were deeply instilled in him at this time, and they guided him in his sometimes turbulent adult years. Abraham and Mary moved to Moose Factory in the 1950s and lived there year-round, pushed from their land by the pulp and paper and hydroelectric industries. In Andy’s words, “faced with the bleak prospect of declining wildlife, my father, hoping there would be alternative opportunities for his children, moved us to the Moose Factory reserve.” This was an extremely “painful transition period.”5 In 1973 Andy’s seventeen-year-old brother, John, was one of Moose Factory’s first youth suicides, when such acts of desperation were much rarer than they are today. The Indian agent was a powerful man who often acted with impunity when Andy was growing up in Moose Factory.6 About 1960, when Andy learned that the agent was using government aircraft for personal fishing trips, he complained to the chief, who counselled non-interference. A kind of passive resignation was one way of coping with life under the Indian Act. (When the chief and counsellors complained about the drowning of boys at the Moose Factory residential school in 1920, their grievance was ignored.)7 Andy did not heed the chief’s advice. He borrowed a typewriter from Oblate father Arthur Bilodeau at the Roman Catholic mission and naively wrote a letter of complaint to the minister of Indian Affairs in Ottawa. Such letters, even today, are intercepted by officials in the minister’s office and usually returned to regional or district offices for comment and resolution.8 Andy was called into a back room at the local Indian Affairs office and intimidated by two burly officials. They asked him who he thought he was and told him he would never amount to anything. He walked home in tears. But after lunch one of the men came to Andy’s house, driving one of the few vehicles on the island, and asked him to go for a ride. Andy could smell alcohol on the man’s breath. Apparently realizing that he had gone too far and this problem was one of his own making, the man asked if Andy’s father needed some lumber for his house or whether Andy would like to go “out” to high school. The man’s career was safe. The problem had been contained. The complainant had been pacified, or so it seemed. A few years later, when Andy became chief of the Moose Factory band, he asked Sinclair Cheechoo (the band’s only employee) to schedule a morning meeting with another local Indian agent.9 When Sinclair returned from arranging this task, for there were no phones on the reserve, Andy surprised him. “When he comes here for the meeting, tell him I’m busy and he should come back after lunch.” “Can we do that?” asked an incredulous Sinclair. The agent attended the first meeting of Moose Factory’s newly elected chief and council, expecting to chair it as he had in the past. Andy told him that his presence was no longer required.

6.1 Andrew Rickard

Andy did not finish his two-year term as chief (a decision some community members held against him). He left to become involved in the political tidal wave that lashed back at the Trudeau government’s 1969 termination policy, the infamous White Paper. One Canada Day, Andy and several other Indian leaders seriously mused about literally taking over the country, seizing airports, and kidnapping cabinet members. They concluded that their numbers were too small and the government too powerful. Andy expressed concern at the decline of Cree and the shift toward English in his home community,10 and he lamented the loss of community members during the sixties scoop by child welfare officials. In 1973, when the chiefs of far northern Ontario broke away from the Union of Ontario Indians and formed Grand Council Treaty No. 9, Andy became its first president, or grand chief. Later, on 7 July 1977, he stood in front of Ontario premier Bill Davis’s cabinet to announce the Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski. Four days later the same message was delivered to federal politicians: We … declare ourselves to be a free and sovereign nation. We bring you a declaration of independence … Your government has failed to live up to the terms, and the spirit of the treaty … We agreed to share. We lived up to the terms of our agreement. We kept the peace, paid honour to the European sovereign, allowed the white man to

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settle and live according to his laws, and permitted his religions and cultures to be introduced to our people. You agreed to share. You said our rights would never be lost. You did not live up to the agreement.11 The declaration’s list of ten rights included the “right to re-negotiate our treaty as understood by our people.” The Grand Council’s opposition to Reed Paper’s plans to cut some 19,000 square miles (50,000 square kilometres) of forests in northwestern Ontario prompted Davis to appoint a Royal Commission on the Northern Environment (rcne).12 It was not that the Ojibwe and Cree were “opposed to all development,” wrote Andy, “but we are opposed to being offered the so-called choice between massive development schemes which will ruin our land and our life-style, or the equally unacceptable choice of welfare dependence. This is like being asked which method of suicide we prefer.”13 In 1977–78 Andy was the Pied Piper who led Justice Patrick Hart, the first rcne commissioner, to community hearings in far northern Ontario. He and other leaders such as Harvey Yesno from Eabametoong (now president and ceo of the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund)14 inspired an entire generation. But we must recall that even charismatic Indigenous leaders are first among equals, deriving their authority from the communities they represent.

the people and the land The Reed Paper campaign bankrupted Grand Council Treaty No. 9. After including the Treaty No. 5 First Nations with reserves in Ontario, the political organization became known as the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, from the Ojibwe (a)nishinaabeg (“Indigenous people”) and the Cree askiy (“land”). During these years the harvesting rights so important to the Ojibwe and Cree at treaty-signing began to be recognized by jurists. In 1978 an Ontario District Court judge found that Ontario’s Game and Fish Act violated Treaty No. 9 by virtue of section 88 of the Indian Act. The same court also determined that Ontario had not been a party to that treaty.15 My first exposure to treaty harvesting issues occurred soon after I started teaching in Moose Factory in 1972. On my first overnight goose-hunting trip to James Bay, the teachers who were my hosts camped on a ridge of land just outside the Moose River Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Next day a helicopter landed with an rcmp officer, whose daughter, Alexis, was in my class, and his Cree special constable. A heated discussion with Bobby Vincent, chief of the Moose Factory band, convinced the police officer that hunters could legitimately camp there and retrieve wounded birds inside the sanctuary (so long as they did not carry a gun when they went inside). Bobby relied on oral traditions he had heard from his

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father, Erland, and other Crees who remembered when the sanctuary was created in the 1930s. I was still far from aware of such issues, however. One September, when I was going to renew my hunting licence, I asked Norm Wesley if he was going to do so. He just looked at me and calmly said, “No.” I realized much later that treaty Indians do not need to purchase such licences and can hunt year-round. The western James Bay Cree became a political force to be reckoned with when the Muskegog Cree Council (renamed Mushkegowuk Council in 1987) was revived in 1986. When overzealous officials of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources charged Treaty No. 9 members with offences under the Migratory Birds Convention Act in the late 1980s, Mushkegowuk Council chairman Norm Wesley’s son Michael designed a white ball cap to be worn in protest during the spring hunt. Norm and the Mushkegowuk chiefs successfully lobbied Attorney General (and the minister responsible for Native Affairs) Ian Scott to have the charges stayed.16 In the early 1990s, when officials of the Canadian Wildlife Services refused to admit Roseanne Archibald to a meeting about aboriginal waterfowl harvesting, the grand chief of the Mushkegowuk Council forced her way in.17 Fort Albany chief Ed Metatawabin hosted a painful reunion for former students of the Ste Anne’s Residential School, whose allegations led to criminal charges being laid against former staff. In 1997 the council, led by Grand Chief (and Juno Award-winning singer) Lawrence Martin, successfully challenged the Mike Harris government’s workfare legislation on constitutional grounds. The Ontario Superior Court found that the provincial initiative “offend[ed] the spirit of the current and evolving reality of aboriginal peoples in Canada.” The draconian changes of a neo-conservative government (which critics charged was “open for business, closed to people”) could not be imposed. They required “meaningful consultation” with “and explicit concurrence” of “band councils.” Martin hoped the ruling would support an economy based on sharing the revenue from off-reserve “resource extractors.”18 In 2003 the Mushkegowuk Council launched a suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice arguing that two federal laws (the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Indian Act) and three provincial statutes (the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, and the Mining Act) violated the 1870 Rupert’s Land protection pledge.19

commemoration In 2005–6 the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation and those of its constituent First Nations who consider themselves original signatories commemorated the signing of Treaty No. 9. The official nan logo featured a circular Union Jack.20 In July of 2005 the federal government’s parchment copy of Treaty No. 9 was displayed at Mishkeegogamang, where it was first signed a century earlier. The Archives of Ontario

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mounted an online exhibit titled “The James Bay Treaty Turns 100.” nan published its own bilingual account of Treaty No. 9, For as Long as the Rivers Flow, in English and Cree, Ojibwe, or Oji-Cree. nan grand chief Stan Beardy hoped that the commemoration events would initiate “a dialogue about Treaty 9, its relevance, impact in the last 100 years and more so on the next 100 years.” A newspaper summarized nan’s interpretation of Treaty No. 9: it was “an agreement to a peaceful co-existence, the sharing of natural resources, and a share in wealth generated on their traditional lands.”21 Deputy grand chief Alvin Fiddler of Muskrat Dam First Nation was quoted as saying, “Our forefathers never agreed to give up their lands when they signed those treaties, but the governments have taken the position that they own the lands. So now, we are looking forward to the next 100 years where the terms of those treaties will be fulfilled in a way that was understood by our people during the original signing.”22 On the eve of treaty commemoration, nan contemplated launching a waterrights test case. Stan Beardy was quoted as saying, “There is no mention of water in Treaty 9, therefore the water still belongs to the people of nan.”23 Plans to distribute bottled water bearing the commemoration logo were scuttled, wisely deemed politically and culturally inappropriate.24 Queen Elizabeth received a moosehide invitation to attend the Mishkeegogamang event.25 Ontario lieutenant-governor James Bartleman, a respected diplomat and a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation, hosted Prince Edward and Stan Beardy at a pre-commemoration reception at Queen’s Park.26 Bartleman’s appointment to Queen’s Park, days before Mike Harris resigned from the Ontario legislature, can be seen as Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien’s public repudiation of the Harris regime. Three months after the election of the Harris Conservatives, an opp officer shot and killed unarmed Ojibwe protester Dudley George. Harris opposed the peaceful occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park, apparently convinced that government had “tried to pacify and pander to these people for too long.” One of the first acts of Premier Dalton McGuinty, after Liberals replaced the Conservatives in the 2003 general election, was to announce the Ipperwash Inquiry under Justice Sydney Linden. (Our new library will be named after Harris, philanthropist Seymour Schulich having bought the rights for $1.5 million – and a big tax deduction: “99% of what he did was good,” said the benefactor. It is a number that Harris, who felt vindicated by Linden’s report, might consider too low. But as Peter Edwards, author of One Dead Indian, commented, “If that [was] a vindication, I’d hate to see a condemnation.”)27 Commemoration grounds were prepared at Mishkeegogamang, a site unused for many years.28 There on 12 July 2005 Beardy asked federal and provincial government officials in attendance to sign a document, provided to them in advance, “reaffirming their will to uphold the contents of Treaty 9.” The Treaty 9 Commemoration Statement included six sentences:

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we are gathered to honour our ancestors and to acknowledge and affirm the Treaty of peace and goodwill which they entered into with the Crown 100 years ago. we acknowledge and affirm that Treaty No. 9 was founded on the mutual desire of our Nishnawbe-Aski ancestors and the Crown to live in peace and friendship. we acknowledge and affirm that our ancestors agreed to ahare their land with the newcomers. we acknowledge and affirm that the newcomers agreed to respect the Anishinabek and Mushkegowuk values, traditions and our use of our land and resources. accordingly today we recommit to honour the spirit and intent of the Treaty. accordingly today we recommit to strengthen and improve and to implement our relationship of peace, sharing and goodwill as we begin the second 100 years of our treaty relationship.29 Both governments declined to sign the document, stating that they had not been given sufficient time. Chief Ronald Roundhead of Mishkeegogamang, who was given a pipe prior to the event,30 took the politicians’ rejection as “a slap in the face.” A hundred years ago, he responded, the commissioners “only gave Chief Missabay, who was blind and didn’t know what was written in the treaty except for what was told to him by a translator, one night to think about it … Now they are telling us they want a year to work it out.”31 It was a sincere effort to have the oral treaty acknowledged. It was also fine political theatre, and symbolically important. But the outcome was surely predictable. The governments had been set up. To save face, both Canada and Ontario later committed themselves in writing to working collaboratively with the First Nations to develop a joint statement by 2006, when the two-year commemoration would end. Paul Martin’s Liberal minority government was on its last legs in Ottawa, and when it was replaced by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in early 2006, there was no chance that any statement would ever be developed. An Ontario official was reported as declaring, “Ontario has a different interpretation of the treaty … Ontario’s viewpoint conflicts with the First Nation interpretation of sharing.”32 Stan Beardy lamented the nan First Nations’ suicide rate, unemployment levels, poverty, and housing conditions. Ronald Roundhead remarked, “There were two packsacks, one belonging to the people of Mishkeegogamang and the other belonging to the governments when our people came together to the sign this Treaty … Today, Mishkeegogamang’s packsack is still empty. Meanwhile, the governments’ are full. When we signed that treaty in 1905, it was with the intention that we all would benefit from it.”33

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Chief Glenn Nolan, members of his Missanabie Cree First Nation, and others from Slate Falls First Nation traced the commissioners’ 1905 route in five canoes that summer. When they reached Ottawa, they symbolically returned the treaty. Nolan was quoted as saying that “we are in a treaty that didn’t live up to its promises … Had we benefitted by it, we wouldn’t have the level of violence or poverty that we see in our communities today, nor problems like inadequate housing.”34 By August of 2006, when treaty commemoration events ended, Canada and Ontario had still not signed nan’s 2005 treaty statement, and the parties had been unable to agree on an alternative text. The two-year commemoration had not succeeded in resolving a long-standing grievance: “When Treaty 9 was first signed 100 years ago, Native signatories were given one day or less to reflect on a document written in a language they did not understand.”35 The federal government is still funding nan’s treaty activities. Luke Hunter of Weenusk First Nation is nan’s director of treaty research, and Lawrence Jeffries of Moose Cree First Nation manages its participation in the nan–Canada treaty discussion forum (where nan is represented by Mike Cachegee of Chapleau Cree First Nation). Two evenings were set aside during the August 2008 meeting of nan chiefs at Constance Lake to promote community awareness and discussion of Treaty No. 9. There is a growing consciousness among nan leaders of not only the commissioners’ journals but the importance and urgency of recording elders’ recollections of treaty-making, ratification, and implementation. In 2010 nan launched Treaty No. 5 commemoration activities. Among the people of Treaty No. 9 there is an increasing realization that there were at least two treaties in 1905. One was hurriedly fixed on parchment, the result of negotiations between Ontario and Indian Affairs officials. The other was negotiated between the commissioners and the heads of families, who signed their names as ogamug and okimaawak, sometimes in agreement and sometimes under duress, to what was orally interpreted and explained. Excepting, of course, those at English River and Cat Lake (and many at Attawapiskat), who were not even shown that courtesy.

new relationships? One hundred years after the first signing of Treaty No. 9, the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario are witnessing a number of positive developments. nan First Nations own new businesses such as Wasaya Airways, CreeWest, and Five Nations Energy Inc. New relationships are especially evident in the hydroelectric and mining sectors.36 Many of the Ojibwe First Nations on the upper Albany have settled their historic hydroelectric development grievances. Mishkeegogamang First Nation won its settlement in 1998, Marten Falls First Nation in 2004, and Lac Seul First

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Nation in 2006.37 Preliminary discussions are underway with the Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations, Crees whose riparian rights at the mouth of that river were affected by incursions upriver.38 On the upper Mattagami River, Mattagami First Nation settled in 1995.39 Taykwa Tagamou Nation resolved its historic grievances along the Abitibi in 2007.40 Two years later Moose Cree First Nation approved a settlement paving the way for partnerships on the lower Mattagami River. Chief Norman Hardisty Jr expressed the view that such partnerships were “what the Treaty signatories envisioned when they agreed to share the land and resources with settler governments.”41 North of Sioux Lookout, Goldcorp Canada Ltd operates the Musselwhite gold mine under a 1992 agreement with several First Nations.42 West of Attawapiskat, De Beers Canada runs the open-pit Victor diamond mine. De Beers entered into a memorandum of understanding, a feasibility partnership agreement, an interim agreement, and then a still-controversial impact-benefits agreement (iba) with the Attawapiskat First Nation. The company also negotiated a working-relations agreement with the Taykwa Tagamou Nation, through whose traditional territory the augmented transmission lines to serve the Victor mine will pass. As well, it concluded an iba with the Moose Cree First Nation, and another with the Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations.43 North of the Albany River, Webequie was a thriving centre for base metal exploration in 2007.44 More recently the Neskatanga First Nation signed an early exploration benefits agreement with Northern Superior Resources and a letter of comfort with International Nickle Ventures. Chief Peter Moonias was quoted as saying, “It’s about negotiation, not domination.”45 In stark contrast, Donny Morris, the chief of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (the preferred name for the Big Trout Lake band, which signed the 1929 adhesion), four councillors, and a band member were fined and sentenced to sixmonth jail terms on 17 March 2008.46 Platinex Inc., a junior exploration company based in Markham, Ontario, had sought an injunction to prevent ki from interfering with access to its 221 mining claims and 81 leases at Big Trout Lake. It also sued the band for $10 billion in damages. Platinex later reduced its claim for damages against ki to $10 million and announced a $70 million claim against the province.47 (This story continues in chapter 24.) The incarceration of the ki leaders, widely viewed as unjust, drew attention to Ontario’s archaic Mining Act. Passed in 1873, “at a time when picks and shovels were used for mining,” it gave “the mining industry and others free access to lands in its search of minerals regardless of who owns the surface rights.”48 The Ontario government was criticized for not becoming involved in the ki dispute sooner. Many felt that, post-Ipperwash, the government should have been more supportive of First Nations.49 In particular, the Ontario government is thought to have failed to “consult” with and “accommodate” the needs of the ki before allowing Platinex to proceed. The Supreme Court of Canada in 2004 held that this was a continuing duty, extending post-treaty (“beyond formal claims resolution”).50

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The ki leaders were freed by the Ontario Court of Appeals after spending 68 days in jail, their sentences reduced to time served, their fines dismissed, and the cost of their appeals awarded.51 The appeal judge later explained that the sentences had been unduly punitive and inappropriate for aboriginal protesters. He called on Ontario to negotiate with First Nations.52 A week later the Ontario government announced plans, ostensibly in response to climate change, to protect at least 225,000 square kilometres of boreal forest in far northern Ontario. Under the “far north planning initiative,” the province pledged to work with all stakeholders, including the First Nations and Métis. It promised that new forestry and mining developments in the far north would require “early consultation and accommodation with local Aboriginal communities.”53 It is a policy that would have been unthinkable to the treaty planners and commissioners of 1905, but not surprising at all to Missabay, Moonias, Yesno, Katchang, William Whitehead, William Goodwin, Arthur Wesley, Fred Mark, John Dick, George Tappaise, Esau Omakees, and those for whom they spoke. Premier Dalton McGuinty explained the policy in words that might have been readily interpreted and understood by the Ojibwe, Cree, and Métis a century ago. Ontario’s announcement was a belated response to their century-old requests for help, protection, and consideration. And it is exactly what D.C. Scott had promised them 103 years earlier. As reported in the Toronto Star, McGuinty explained to reporters, “‘We get to say to our aboriginal communities: if there is some mining exploration here, and you permit that, you get a piece of the action,’ … adding that the government would give them a cash down payment this fall.”54 Promising as this announcement sounded in 2008, the proof would lie in the final details. The Ontario Mining Association voiced concerns about long-term implications.55 Ontario’s new legislation did not resolve the ki standoff, and in journalist Peter Gorrie’s view, it promised more than it could possibly deliver to First Nations.56 nan grand chief Stan Beardy felt it did not measure up to article 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007 (which Canada, Australia, and the United States voted against).57 First Nations have reason to suspect that “consultation” with them will simply become a “‘box checking’ exercise.”58 A day after the amendments received third reading in the Ontario legislature, Grand Chief Beardy stated that the changes did not go far enough: “Free, prior and informed consent means that no prospecting, staking, exploration or mine development can proceed without a written agreement in place with the First Nation … That is the standard expressed in Article 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That is the standard we expect Ontario to meet.”59 My Cree friend Lawrence Jeffries identified the fundamental mistrust that goes with government initiatives when he posed the rhetorical question “What if another government gets elected?”60 Another unilateralist like Mike Harris, who simply ignored the Statement of Political Relationships signed by his ndp

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predecessors, may some day reject McGuinty’s plan (just as the federal Kelowna Accord, signed in November 2005 by Prime Minister Paul Martin, was repudiated by Stephen Harper, his socially conservative and unilateralist successor).61 Indeed, Harper’s neo-conservative government has proposed changes to the federal Navigable Waterways Protection Act without consulting First Nations.62 In December of 2009, on the eve of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the Manitoba government announced plans to protect its own boreal forest. News accounts emphasized that mining, logging, hydroelectric development, and oil and gas exploration would be banned, welcome news for the polar bears, beluga whales, caribou, and birds that live there. Only later, if at all, did news accounts mention that Indigenous and treaty rights would also be protected in the region – indirectly acknowledging that First Nations not only lived there but were still attached to the land.63

nishnawbe aski nation nan is comprised of forty-nine constituent First Nation communities (see figure I.1), with an aggregate population of 45,000 living both on- and off-reserve. About 20 per cent of nan’s population is from Treaty No. 5 and the remaining 80 per cent from Treaty No. 9 (although that distinction was an arbitrary one made by officials in Ottawa and not by the people themselves). Slightly more than a third of nan First Nation members live off-reserve. Aroland, Flying Post, and Missanabie Cree, for example, are entirely off-reserve. The proportion residing off-reserve is much higher for Treaty No. 9 (43 per cent) than for Treaty No. 5 (12.5 per cent), but there is much variation, as the table below indicates. Table 6.1 was constructed from public documents, which are only as accurate as the source data. Abitibiwinni has a membership of 915, 35 per cent off-reserve.64

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Table 6.1 nan/treaty First Nation population (on- and off-reserve) nan First Nations

On-reservea

Off-reserve

Total

2,590 0 1,683 438 180 537 83 22 782 1,333 0 503 168 ? 925 465 953 320 39 170 22 1,038 0 1,606 212 320 332 764 474 72 9 125 140 382 50 684 257

1,515 325 1,391 422 473 106 287 8 722 942 164 132 605 ? 38 35 428 294 500 308 31 579 360 2,192 182 88 108 220 316 134 60 251 143 13 17 92 270

4,105 325 3,074 860 653 643 370 40 1,504 2,275 164 635 773 ? 963 500 1,381 614 539 478 53 1,617 360 3,798 394 408 440 984 790 206 69 376 283 395 67 776 527

Off-reserve (%)

treaty no. 9 Albanyb Arolandc Attawapiskat Bearskin Lake Brunswick House Cat Lake Chapleau Cree Chapleau Ojibway Constance Lake Eabametoong Flying Post Fort Severn Ginoogaming Hornepayne Kasabonika Lake Kingfisher Lake Kitchenamaykoseeb Marten Falls Matachewan Mattagami McDowell Lake Mishkeegogamang Missanabie Cree Moose Cree Muskrat Dam Neskatanga Nibinamik North Caribou Lake Sachigo Lake Saugeen Slate Falls Taykwa Tagamou Wahgoshig Wapekeka Wawakapewin Webequie Weenusk

37 100 45 49 72 16 78 20 48 41 100 21 78 ? 4 7 31 48 93 64 58 36 100 58 46 22 25 22 40 65 87 67 51 3 25 12 51

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Table 6.1 (continued) nan/treaty First Nation population (on- and off-reserve) Whitewater Wunnumin Lake

90 521

60 93

150 614

40 15

18,289

13,904

32,203

43

treaty no. 5 Deer Lake Keewaywin Koocheching North Spirit Lake Pikangikum Poplar Hill Sandy Lake

976 362 40 423 2,169 467 2,327

183 310 30 40 84 16 300

1,139 672 70 463 2,253 483 2,627

16 46 43 9 4 3 11

subtotal

6,764

963

7,707

13

25,053

14,567

39,910

36

subtotal

total a

Includes on own or other reserve or Crown land. Includes members of the Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations. c Includes members from Long Lake 58 and Fort William First Nations (1850 Robinson-Superior Treaty). b

Conclusion to Part One

In chapter 1 we examined the fur trade protocols that symbolized a period of compromise and coexistence (Richard White’s middle ground) in what is now far northern Ontario. We also briefly reviewed the origins of the 1850 Robinson Treaties and eight post-Confederation numbered treaties. We looked, in chapter 2, at the pleas for help from Indigenous peoples north of the cpr line, at the headwaters of the Albany, Missinaibi, and Abitibi Rivers. In chapter 3 we retraced the information-gathering, planning, and last-minute intergovernmental negotiations that preceeded treaty-making in far northern Ontario. Chapter 4 outlined the ratification and early implementation of the 1905 parchment by Canada and Ontario. Treaty-making resumed in 1906, 1908, and 1929–30, and treaty issues remained important throughout the twentieth century, as we saw in chapter 5. Chapter 6 looked at the rise of an advocacy organization representing far northern Ontario, some of the issues and symbols associated with treaty commemoration, and new relationships. In the next section we meet the treaty party. Part Two reproduces their writings, reports, and several photographs, together with the formal treaty documents.

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part two

Historical Documents introduction This section first introduces the 1905 treaty party, their writings, and their photographs (chapter 7). The journals themselves and the official report are divided chronologically over the next ten chapters, so that readers can more easily compare what the writers said about each stage of their summer of treaty-making: the journey from Ottawa to Lac Seul (chapter 8), Lac Seul and the trip to Osnaburgh (chapter 9), Osnaburgh and the route down the Albany River to Fort Hope (chapter 10), Fort Hope and the voyage to Marten Falls (chapter 11), Marten Falls and the trip up the Kenogami River to English River (chapter 12), English River and the journey to Fort Albany at the mouth of the Albany River (chapter 13), Fort Albany and the trip across James Bay to Moose Factory (chapter 14), Moose Factory and the route up the Moose and Abitibi Rivers to New Post (chapter 15), New Post and the trek to Abitibi hbc post (chapter 16), and the commissioners’ return to Ottawa (chapter 17). Chapter 18 includes the schedule of reserves that the commissioners attached to their official report. Constable Joseph Vanasse’s article “The White Dog Feast” is reproduced within chapter 9, while D.C. Scott’s “The Last of the Indian Treaties” stands alone as chapter 19. The treaty doctor’s report is given in chapter 20, and Scott and Stewart’s report on educational needs in chapter 21. The final chapter in this part (22) reproduces the texts of the vellum versions of Treaty No. 9; the 1905 agreement, which is referred to within the treaty document; the 1902 accord referenced in that agreement; the 1908 adhesion signed at Abitibi post; and the 1929-30 adhesion.

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7 The Treaty Party and the Sources

7.1 The official treaty party at Fort Albany, 3 August 1905. Standing: Joseph L. Vanasse (left) and James Parkinson (right) of the Dominion Police Force; seated: commissioners Samuel Stewart (left), D. George MacMartin, and Duncan Campbell Scott (right); foreground: hbc chief trader Thomas Clouston Rae (left) and Dr A.G. Meindl (right)

Five of the seven officials who posed for a formal photograph at Fort Albany on 3 August 1905 left at least some records of their adventure that summer in far northern Ontario. Travelling together “in relative harmony,” Stan Dragland observes, the federal and provincial government officials, Dominion police, and an hbc representative mirrored “the institutions they represented … interlocking and for the most part mutually serving.”1 Missing from the 1905 photo, of course, are the changing cast of churchmen (Sanderson, Fafard, Richards, Holmes, and Holland) and women, who represented not only their respective houses of worship but the residential schools funded in the wake of Treaty No. 9. MacMarten stands for the provincial game wardens who came later and the miners, loggers,

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commercial fishermen, and other resource “developers” who would make (as my friend Peter Archibald Sr reminds me) “incursions” into Indigenous lands and waters in far northern Ontario. In this chapter we learn more about D.C. Scott, Samuel Stewart, D. George MacMartin, and Joseph Vanasse, whose writings comprise chapters 8–19 and 21. We meet A.G. Meindl, the treaty doctor, whose report is reproduced as chapter 20. We also hear about T.C. Rae and James Parkinson. Readers are cautioned about the limitations of their records, a topic introduced at the beginning of this volume, and I explain how I transcribed the commissioners’ journals. Finally, we are introduced to the photographs attributed to Scott; for a complete listing of those from 1905, see “An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs” near the end of this volume.

duncan campbell scott The senior official who represented King Edward vii and the government of Canada during treaty-making in the summer of 1905 was the youngest of the three treaty commissioners. A clergyman’s son, Duncan Campbell Scott began working in the federal civil serice in 1879 at the age of seventeen.2 By treaty time in 1905, he had risen from clerk in the Accounts Branch to chief clerk and then secretary in the Department of Indian Affairs.3 He earned an annual income of $2,500.4 Scott was a nominal Christian, an occasional drinker, a poet and pianist, a man who seldom if ever swore or lost his temper, a penny-pinching bureaucrat.5 He would later be promoted to superintendent of Indian education and deputy superintendent general of Indian Affairs, in the latter capacity serving as the department’s senior administrator from 1913 to 1932.6 Impressive as these achievements may appear, Brian Titley argues that Scott’s day job (“where he seldom came early, and never stayed late”)7 allowed him to pursue his true avocation: “It provided him with the means to indulge in his real interests, the arts.”8 Stan Dragland, however, overlooking Scott’s ruthless treatment of his chief medical officer, Dr Peter H. Bryce, finds this to be a caricature, and he presents a much more nuanced view.9 Scott was retired involuntarily in 1932 and died in 1947 at the age of eighty-five.10 Several literary critics, foremost among them Dragland, have examined the “Indian” themes and other aspects of Scott’s poetry and other works.11 Biographer Titley argues that it is Scott’s narrative prose that reveals the man.12 Dragland emphatically disagrees with Titley. Scott’s non-fiction, he contends, is of uneven quality, and Scott frequently reuses passages from one work to another.13 In Floating Voice (the title is a translation of Scott’s Mohawk name) Dragland argues, “When all of Scott’s writing on Native subjects is interrogated, the conclusion is nearly inescapable that his opinions about Indians, how he really felt about them,

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are simply not to be found anywhere in his work.”14 More recently, in his introduction to a compendium of Scott’s prose, Dragland finds that while those materials may help “to nuance our sense of the man and his work,” they fail to unravel “the enigma of sensitive poet/racist civil servant … As a benign or sinister spirit, Scott continues to haunt us.”15 In 1905, to judge from his published work (see chapter 19), Scott was a gradualist who firmly believed that intermarriage with whites and a sustained paternal program of tutelage by missionaries and government agents would eventually lead Indians from “savagery and superstition” to Christianity, civilization, and settled agrarian life.16 If Scott seems like the quintessential white villain in this story, however, historian David McNab argues for a very different perspective on the man. He states that Scott’s mother, Isabella Campbell McCallum, came from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake and was the daughter of his namesake, senior Indian administrator Duncan Campbell Napier, and an Onondaga woman.17 Our committed assimilationist apparently had Indigenous ancestry. Scott’s 1905 treaty journal, once housed in the Indian Affairs library, is now held by Library and Archives Canada (lac) in Ottawa. It is a notebook comprised of 38 bound, unnumbered, lined pages measuring 11 by 17 centimetres with writing on both sides. There is also a loose map of “Lake Taquattagama or Big Lake” (figure 16.6). Scott’s 1905 journal is continued by the 63-page journal written by Pelham Edgar during the 1906 expedition. Scott’s handwriting varies in quality and is sometimes very difficult to read. At times he writes in sentences. More often his comments are much briefer. There is very little evidence of later editing, and this is probably the rough journal he kept that summer. After leaving Fort Hope in late July on his daughter’s birthday, for example, he wrote: Sat. 22 Elizabeths birthday. heavy wind &rain. in camp all day. in the night tent blew down. rained all night. As this excerpt demonstrates, Scott’s journal, like the diaries kept by Stewart and MacMartin, is small. If the line endings were indicated by the use of a solidus, this example would read as follows: “Sat. 22 / Elizabeths birthday. heavy wind / &rain. in camp all day. in / the night tent blew down. / rained all night.” The result would be disruptive for the reader without adding to his or her understanding of the writer’s intentions. Line endings have therefore not been indicated in the transcriptions that follow. While compelling arguments can be made for omitting “words crossed out that do not add to or change the meaning of a sentence” and correcting “obvious

7.2 Sample page from Scott’s journal

spelling errors,”18 I have not done so. In a work such as this, bearing on treaty and aboriginal rights, I think some readers will want to know what the original authors changed and what they left alone (recognizing that they chose what to include and what to omit even before putting pen to paper; there is no mention, for example, of washing dishes or shaving). I have placed inserted words and phrases in the sentence where the original author intended them to go, but I include carets before and after. Numbers in square brackets refer to my pagination of the unnumbered pages. I suspected that Scott kept a second journal, and I am grateful to Stan Dragland for confirming the existence of this “three-by-five-inch notebook in which he had since 1899 made drafts of poems.” Dragland notes that there were a few entries in 1905, when Scott also kept his treaty journal, but “a poetic explosion” in 1906, when he was relieved of this daily drudgery and accompanied by his friend Pelham Edgar.19 His scant creative output during the 1905 treaty tour, where it is legible, contributes nothing to our understanding of how Treaty No. 9 was explained, and I have not included it here.20 Scott published a much more expansive and revealing but sometimes misleading account of the 1905 trip in Scribner’s Magazine in 1906. I have chosen to keep

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it intact as chapter 19, rather than placing the sections describing Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Fort Albany, or Moose Factory in chapters 10, 11, 14, and 15. Likewise I have kept the little-known education report that Scott co-authored with Samuel Stewart together as chapter 21, even though it deals with Moose Factory and Fort Albany. The education report and the commissioners’ well-known collective official report are held by lac. The official report was published in the 1906 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs and then in 1931 and again in 1964 as The James Bay Treaty: Treaty No. 9 (made in 1905 and 1906) and Adhesions Made in 1929 and 1930. It is also available online.

samuel stewart Samuel Stewart, at fifty-three, was ten years older than Scott in 1905 but junior in rank. He was a Presbyterian of Irish ancestry, born in Ottawa.21 A schoolteacher’s son, he too had begun his career as a government clerk, in his case in 1878 at the age of twenty-six. By 1905 he had been promoted from “Keeper of the Records” to “Assistant Secretary in the Secretary’s Branch” in the Department of Indian Affairs,22 earning $2,100 annually.23 He was married to Isabel Blyth and retired in 1919.24 Stewart’s diaries for 1905, 1906, and 1908 are also held by lac. The 1905 volume, entitled “The James Bay Treaty, Treaty 9. Places Visited by the Commissioners Summer of 1905,” was donated by his sister, “Mrs J.C. Whyte age 94, of 48 Gilmour St. Ottawa.” It is comprised of 175 numbered pages, each measuring 12 by 18.5 centimetres, written on both sides and bound. Stewart’s penmanship is the best of the three commissioners, and this journal was clearly rewritten from earlier notes. His comment on the partial solar eclipse (“On reaching Ottawa we learned that that [sic] we had been more highly favoured than had numerous parties sent out to take observations” [August 30]) tells us that he rewrote it after his return. It shows clear signs of editing (some of it, perhaps, by Scott), and where possible, the transcription demonstrates this feature. We can see that he used the phrase “beautiful and bright” to describe the weather on 30 June and 3 and 5 July, erased it for 6 July, and then used it again on 9 and 26 July and 11 August.25 If he used a caret before inserting interlineal text, I used one before and after ^like this^. If he erased something that is now illegible and wrote over it, I underline it like this. If he crossed something out or erased it but the original is still legible, I strike through it like this. If he crossed something out and revised it, I strike through and show his edits like this: crossed out revised. As with my transcription of Scott’s records, the endings of lines are not indicated. None of the commissioners explained why he kept an official journal; did Stewart, for example, hope to publish his account? It is often difficult to know when Stewart is beginning a new paragraph. When a line does not begin flush with the left-hand margin of his journal and is a new

7.3 Sample page from Stewart’s diary

topic, I show it as a new paragraph. When he leaves a long space between the end of one sentence and the start of another on the same line, I treat this as the same paragraph. It is equally difficult to know when Stewart is writing the time as “A.M.” or “a.m.,” so I standardized the references with lower-case letters but kept his inconsistent punctuation. Finally, it was a challenge to know when he intended a comma and when it was just a stray mark; I used my best judgment. Some commas seem to have been added later, as they are in a lighter shade; I included these but did not distinguish between which may be original and which later ones. The official report signed by Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin in 1905 draws heavily on the wording in Stewart’s diary, except that a schedule of reserves was added (perhaps from a draft that has not survived).

daniel george m ac martin At sixty-one, D. George MacMartin was the oldest of the 1905 treaty commissioners and the oldest in the official treaty party. He had been named after his father, lawyer Daniel MacMartin (or its contraction McMartin), whose house at 125 Gore Street in Perth, Ontario is now a National Historic Site,26 but he went by his middle name. His mother was Charlotte Matilda Morgan, an American.

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By 1905 MacMartin had been married to his second wife, Janet Grant, for a dozen years.27 At thirty-nine, she was twenty-two years younger and, like her husband, belonged to the Church of England.28 MacMartin’s paternal grandparents being “Loyalists from the Morrisburg area,”29 his family was not unknown to Premier James Whitney, who had established a law office in Morrisburg.30 Daniel MacMartin Sr lived across the street from two of “the most prominent Conservative politicians from Perth … Alexander Morris (the Treaty Commissioner, later leader of the Opposition at Queen’s Park) and his father William Morris.” It was a patronage appointment.31 MacMartin was an experienced miner. In 1888, at the age of forty-four, he had been extracting mica from a mine in North Burgess Township, Lanark County.32 By 1901 he was earning a respectable $700 a year.33 D. George MacMartin died in 1923 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Perth.34 His incomplete 1905 diary is now located in the Queen’s University Archives. It was donated to the archives by the poet Wallace Havelock Robb, who received it from an unnamed relative of MacMartin.35 The diary consists of 106 legible pages, lined and bound, each measuring about 10 by 16.5 centimetres. I transcribed this journal in the same manner as the other two. It is often difficult to tell whether MacMartin is capitalizing or not, and his periods resemble commas (or he wrote long, complex sentences). He sometimes left spaces where he intended to insert information later, such as the name of a geographical feature, a number, or a translation of Powassan’s name (“fruit falling off the stem or branch”).36 At other times he simply left some blank lines so he could begin the next entry at the top of a page. Like the others, he was selective in what he wrote, recording only “the pith” of Missabay’s speech at Osnaburgh.37 His journal for 1905 ends prematurely on 21 August after describing the New Post reserve at “Taquahtagama or Big Lake.” The following pages are very faint, for they are erasures. MacMartin’s journal was written in pencil, perhaps from an earlier draft. The most remarkable feature of this miner’s diary is the absence of detailed comments on minerals and water powers. Did he have a copy of the gsc reports and find adequate such descriptions as Robert Bell’s – “Hugh’s Creek portage, on the north side, 460 paces long, with a descent of ten feet in the river. The rock is here dark green, fissile, hornblende schist, stiking N. 65˚ W., nearly vertically … Two miles below Hugh’s Creek portage, a light pinkish grey granite makes its appearance on the points and continues for nine miles”?38 Or did he keep a separate record which has not yet surfaced?

alexander george meindl The youngest in the official treaty party, A.G. Meindl was a twenty-three-yearold physician, the son of a master tailor turned liquor merchant in the village of Mattawa, east of North Bay, Ontario.39 He was at least the fifth of ten Ontarioborn children in the large Roman Catholic family of Francis (Frank) Meindl and

7.4 Sample page from MacMartin’s diary

his wife, Angela, who had immigated from central Europe in 1872.40 By 1906 the doctor was living in Winnipeg, where, five years later, he had a wife and daughter.41 Meindl’s typed medical reports for 1905 and 1906 are held by lac.42 A copy is also located in the Archives of Ontario.43 They were edited prior to publication in the annual reports of the Indian Affairs department.

joseph l. vanasse In 1905 Constable Joseph L. Vanasse was thirty-six years old; a Roman Catholic, he was un Canadien français de Québec. He resided in Ottawa and earned an annual income of about $660 as a Dominion police officer. His wife, Virginie, was five years his senior. Their children, Joseph Jr, Adelard, and Bertha, were thirteen, eleven, and nine years old respectively. Vanasse would be absent for his daughter’s tenth birthday.44 He returned for the 1906 season, doubling as canoeman.45 That same year he acquired two hundred acres of land near Ville Marie, Quebec, on Lake Timiskaming, later becoming an insurance agent in Montreal.46 Five years later he was an insurance agent in Montreal. Vanasse’s report on the

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treaty party’s visit to Lac Seul, “The White Dog Feast,” originally published in the Canadian Magazine in 1907, is reproduced in chapter 9.

james parkinson James Parkinson was a forty-six-year-old Irish-born Dominion police officer. He lived in Ottawa and earned about $600 annually. Both he and his thirty-one-yearold wife, Ella, were adherents of the Church of England.47 Constable Parkinson apparently left no records of the 1905 treaty deliberations, and he did not return for the 1906 treaty tour.

thomas clouston rae T.C. Rae was about fifty-two years old, a Presbyterian,48 and only months away from retiring to Vancouver after a thirty-seven-year career with the hbc. Born in the Orkney Islands, he had risen from apprentice clerk to chief trader, spending thirty-two of those years at Fort Albany, Osnaburgh, Matachewan, Mattagami, Biscotasing, and Kenogamissi. In 1901 Rae took charge of the Mackenzie River district, based in Fort Simpson, where he was later assigned general office duties.49 Like Jabez Williams, he invested in mining ventures.50 It is not known whether Rae had a family. He served as the treaty party’s transportation officer in 1905 and apparently left no records of the deliberations. Rae did not return for the 1906 expedition. Scott may have been relieved, for he seems to have not appreciated Rae’s choice of food.51

the photographs Among D.C. Scott’s 1905 expenditures was $27.50 to buy a Kodak camera and $16.50 for film from William J. Topley of Ottawa. The following year he was reimbursed $9.41 for supplies and $7.80 to develop the films.52 Almost 200 photographs of the commissioners’ 1905 and 1906 treaty-making trips to far northern Ontario have survived as the Scott fonds. They are split between lac and the Archives of Ontario; in many cases, the ao has copies of those in lac, but each institution apparently now has its own unique collection (see “An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs” later in this volume).53 Scott appears in some of the photos in the fonds, so we know he did not take all of them. One, perhaps taken by MacMartin, shows Scott wearing a mosquito net. His eyes are closed, and a leather camera case hangs from his neck. Scott and fellow commissioner Samuel Stewart have left Lac Seul and are en route to Osnaburgh. It is a beautiful composition, the men reflected in the water, with poles and camp gear nearby. They are standing near the source of Root River, having crossed the height-of-land separating the Winnipeg River drainage basin

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from the James Bay watershed; half a century later, Root River would be diverted south to provide hydroelectric power in Manitoba. The photograph leaves us with unanswered questions: Is Scott’s camera inside the case? Did MacMartin bring his own camera, or did he borrow Scott’s? The camera case hanging from Scott’s neck in figure 7.5 suggests he was using a folding camera, perhaps a brand new No. 1 Folding Pocket Kodak Model C. It used no. 105 roll film, then a relatively new invention, capturing images that measured 2.25 by 3.25 inches. The camera required the user to manually choose an aperture setting and a shutter speed.54 In Scott’s Kodak folding camera, a simple aperture setting of 1, 2, or 3 determined how much light was allowed through the lens diaphragm to the film (resembling the way that our iris lets less light into our eye when we are outside on a bright day and much more when we are inside in limited lighting).55 Shutter speed controlled the length of time the light entering the aperture was allowed to reach the film. Scott’s camera had a choice of two or three shutter speeds: I for “instant[aneous]” snapshots, T or B for longer, timed exposures.56 If too much light was allowed in, the image would appear washed out; with insufficient light, the image would be too dark. Many of the photographs help to balance the masculine bias of the commissioners’ journals and allow the Ojibwe and Cree to occupy “centre stage,”57 even if their voices are largely mute and it is one of the commissioners who framed the

7.5 Scott and Stewart at the source of Root River

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7.6 Poling on the Abitibi River

shot. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin say little about women and children, for they focus almost entirely on those they travelled with, the hbc men they encountered at each post, and the Ojibwe and Cree they met with to discuss the treaty. Captions also framed the image: a photograph taken at English River (reproduced as figure 13.3) is captioned “Distributing Tobacco” by lac and “Scrambling for Canadies” by the ao. The commissioners refer casually to the men poling or tracking the canoes upriver. The Scott collection’s still photographs provide some idea of what was involved58 but do not convey the drama and appreciation that Selwyn Dewdney includes in his account of poling between Norway House and Big Trout Lake two decades later.59 Stewart refers to tracking as “pulling the canoes up by means of ropes.”60 Dewdney again gives a better appreciation of what was involved.61 At times, the commissioners rode the canoes through smaller rapids, apparently avoiding the frightening experiences that others (such as missionary and, later, bishop Joseph Lofthouse) describe.62 Others did the work, hauling goods over portages and paddling or poling the watercraft, while the commissioners sat in relative comfort. Confederation’s division of powers was mirrored in the travel and sleep arrangements. The commissioners travelled down the Albany River in three canoes, two of them Peterboroughs.63 The largest one, covered in birchbark, carried Scott and Stewart; MacMartin travelled separately, allowing him to capture an image of his friends from Ottawa (see figure 7.6). Scott’s extensive photograph collection makes up for his brief journal jottings in 1905 and provides a rich body of illustrations that complement the other commissioners’ accounts, just as O.C. Edwards’s Treaty No. 8 pictures from 190064 complement the elders’ accounts in René Fumoleau’s As Long as This Land Shall Last. Like Peter Geller, in his important book on photographs of northern Canada

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Top 7.7 Edmund Morris painting Chief Cheesequini at Chapleau, 1906 Bottom 7.8 Scott and Stewart in canoe

during a later period (and Daniel Francis in his Copying People), I encourage readers of Treaty No. 9 to “read” these photographic “outsiders’ views” critically as “a complementary essay to the text,” bringing “your own understandings” and asking “your own questions about what is seen and not seen,” including “the motivations and intentions of the photographers.”65 Geller reminds us that reading such photographs involves a focus on context, recognizing “three interrelated aspects: production, circulation, and reception.”66

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The Scott fonds are situated in a long tradition of preserving and “presenting the exotic.” His carefully posed photos of Louis Espagnol, Louis McDougall, and others “freeze” them as “noble representatives of [their] race, captured for casual contemplation.”67 This approach is taken to the extreme in 1906, when Scott photographs the artist Edmund Morris painting Chief Cheesequini (perhaps from jiisakiiwinini, “seer who uses a shaking tent”).68 Like the (conflicting) information so carefully crafted in the treaty commissioners’ journals and other writings, each of these images of treaty-making, depicting the people and places of far northern Ontario, was chosen for someone’s purpose as “part of the production and circulation of knowledge … whatever its relationship to the reality represented.”69 Many of the Scott photos were transformed into glass slides, to be projected as magic lantern shows for countless Ottawa audiences. Nine were published in his 1906 article, “The Last of the Indian Treaties.”70 Today, these images are much more accessible to descendents of the Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Cree, Algonquin, and Métis who were present with the commissioners in 1905; they will bring their own bittersweet “messages”71 to Indigenous viewers.

8 Beginnings

Samuel Stewart’s notebook begins with a short summary of the terms of the official treaty. The first section of the collective official report provides a concise historical and political context for the treaty. I have included MacMartin’s very brief introduction in the section “Ottawa to Dinorwic” here, even though it was an entry for 30 June. None of the commissioners explained why he kept an official journal. Scott’s apparently remained with the Indian Affairs department. The other two were held in family hands until they were donated to archives. Stewart The James Bay Treaty Treaty 9 In accordance with an understanding come to with the Government of the Province of Ontario, arrangements were made in the year 1905 for negotiating a Treaty with the Ojibeway, Cree and other Indians, inhabiting that portion or tract of land lying and being in the Province of Ontario, bounded on the south by the height of land and the northern boundaries of the territory ceded by the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, and the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850, and bounded on the east and north by the boundaries of the said province of Ontario, as defined by law, and on the west by a part of the eastern boundary [2] of the territory ceded by the North West Angle Treaty, No 3, the said land containing an area of ninety thousand square miles, more or less. Authority to negotiate the Treaty was conferred upon Duncan Campbell Scott and Samuel Stewart of the Department of Indian Affairs, Ottawa, representing the Dominion of Canada, and Daniel George MacMartin of Perth, Ontario, representing the Province of Ontario. The Commissioners were instructed to meet the Ojibeway, Cree, and other Indians inhabiting the district above defined and negotiate a Treaty with them, by which they would cede, release, surrender and yield up, to the Government of the Dominion of Canada for ever, all their rights, titles, and privileges whatsoever to the lands above mentioned and to all other lands situated in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, the district of [3] Keewatin; or in any other portion of the Dominion of Canada. In consideration thereof, the said Indians be paid eight dollars in cash each;

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and annually afterwards forever the sum of four dollars; the Government agreeing to lay aside a reserve for each band, the same not to exceed in all, one square mile for each family of five, or in that proportion for larger and smaller families; to pay such salaries of teachers to instruct the children of said Indians, and provide such school buildings and educational equipment as may seem advisable to the Government; also to present to each chief after signing the Treaty a suitable Flag and a copy of the Treaty for the use of his band. If at any time, portions of the reserves are appropriated for public roads, buildings, railways or roads of whatsoever nature, [4] due compensation to be made to the Indians for the value of any improvements thereon, and an equivalent in land money or other consideration for the are[a] of the reserve so appropriated. The above Treaty to be known as “The James Bay Treaty” or “Treaty 9.” Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin The published version of the commissioners’ report is nearly identical to the typed original, which is reproduced here.1 It states very clearly in the fifth paragraph that the commissioners were to communicate the text that the two governments had agreed upon – the words on the parchment and nothing else (see also the ending of their report in chapter 18). It also states, like the orders-in-council, that the Ojibwe and Cree apparently had the option to reject the parchment. Ottawa, 6th November, 1905. The Honourable The Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, Ottawa. Sir, – Since the Treaties known as the Robinson Treaties were signed in the autumn of the year 1850 no cession of the Indian title to lands lying within the defined limits of the Province of Ontario had been obtained.2 By these Treaties the Ojibeway Indians gave up their right and title to a large tract of country lying between the Height of Land and Lakes Huron and Superior. In 1870 [1873], by the North-West Angle Treaty, (Treaty No. 3) the Saulteaux Indians ceded a large tract east of Manitoba, part of which now falls within the boundaries of the Province of Ontario. The first-mentioned Treaty was made by the old Province of Canada, the second by the Dominion. Increasing settlement, activity in mining and railway construction in that large section of the Province of Ontario north of the Height of Land and east of the Albany River rendered it advisable to extinguish the Indian titles. The undersigned were, therefore, appointed by Order of His Excellency in Council

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on the 29th June, 1905,3 as Commissioners to negotiate a Treaty with the Indians inhabiting the unceded tract. This comprised about 90,000 square miles of the provincial lands drained by the Albany and Moose River systems. When the question first came to be discussed it was seen that it would be difficult to separate the Indians who came from their hunting grounds on both sides of the Albany River to trade at the Posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to treat only with that portion which came from the eastern or Ontario side.4 As the cession of the Indian titles in that portion of the North-West Territories which lies to the west of the Albany River would have to be consummated at no very distant date, it was thought advisable to make the negotiations with Indians whose hunting grounds were in Ontario serve as the occasion for dealing upon the same terms with all the Indians trading at Albany River Posts, and to add to the community of interest which for trade purposes exists amongst these Indians a like responsibility for Treaty obligations. We were, therefore, given power by Order of His Excellency in Council of the 6th July, 1905,5 to admit to Treaty any Indian whose hunting grounds cover portions of the North-West Territories lying between the Albany River, the District of Keewatin and Hudson’s Bay and to set aside reserves in that territory. In one essential particular the constitution of the Commission to negotiate this Treaty differed from that of others which undertook similar service in the past. One member6 was nominated by the Province of Ontario under the Provisions of Clause 6 of the Statute of Canada 54–55 Vic. Chap. V [1884] which reads “That any future treaties with the Indians in respect of territory in Ontario to which they have not before the passing of the said Statutes surrendered their claim aforesaid shall be deemed to require the concurrence of the Government of Ontario.” The concurrence of the Government of Ontario carried with it the stipulation that one member of the Commission should be nominated by and represent Ontario. It is important also to note that under the provisions of Clause 6 just quoted, the terms of the Treaty were fixed by the Governments of the Dominion and Ontario; the Commissioners were empowered to offer certain conditions but were not allowed to alter or add to them in the event of their not being acceptable to the Indians.

ottawa to lac seul Friday, 30 June, to Wednesday, 5 July The commissioners and constables began their summer adventure in Ottawa (mile 118 on the cpr’s Montreal-to-Vancouver main line).7 They travelled on the “Imperial Limited,” the railway’s luxury summer service, departing at 1:15 on a Friday afternoon.8 The Imperial Limited did not stop for every station, unlike the

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cpr’s year-round Pacific Express. Six hours and thirty-two stations out of Ottawa, they reached Klock (mile 304) and Mattawa stations (mile 316), where Meindl joined the party.9 Perhaps they dined together before retiring for a few hours of rest in their Pullman car, the last bit of relative comfort for many weeks. They rocked to and fro, but at least they were not plagued by mosquitoes and black flies, a recurrent theme in the commissioner’s journals.10 From Mattawa it was on to Eau Claire, Rutherglen, Bonfield, Nosbonsing, and North Bay, then Yellek, Beaucage, Meadowside, and Sturgeon Falls. Nine stations later, shortly after midnight, they reached Sudbury (mile 440). By 6:00 on Saturday morning they had passed Matagama (mile 512, near Mattagami), Biscotasing (mile 529), and eighteen other hamlets to arrive at Chapleau (mile 612). By 7:00 on Saturday evening, after another twenty-six whistle stops, they would be nearing Port Arthur (mile 992) and Fort William (mile 995). Then it was on past thirty-three more stations until they reached Dinorwic station (mile 1189) in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Here they said goodbye to the porter in their sleeping car. Charles Robinson was undoubtedly a man of colour, who had provided them with “miles of smiles.”11 Dinorwic cpr station, near Lake Dinorwic, was named after a town in Wales in 1897, eleven years after steam locomotives began running regularly between Montreal and Canada’s west coast.12 With western grain travelling along the cpr main line to the Lakehead, it was a tiny but bustling railway depot with an agent, his assistant, and a night operator. It boasted a boarding house, a billiards room, and a restaurant that doubled as a speakeasy. During the building of the more northerly Canadian National Railway, it was a headquarters for Foley Brothers Construction.13 Dinorwic was also, of course, a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and distribution centre. Dinorwic hbc post, known as Wabigoon until 1901, supplied Lac Seul and was part of the Company’s Lake Superior district.14 By 1905 fur trading was “a secondary consideration here” and miners the prime customers.15 Local treaty payments amounted to $400. Dinorwic was maintained as a trading post “to keep local dealers from extending their connection with the Interior Indians.” It received some furs from the nearby Wabigoon reserve, but Dinorwic was an important “entrepot for the Interior posts,” supplying Lac Seul, Osnaburgh, and Fort Hope.16 A few Ojibwe travelled here to trade, attracted by the higher prices, but this practice was discouraged. McLaren and R.S. Robertson competed at Wabigoon Lake, and there were other free traders along the cpr line.17 Here Scott that learned Chipman’s plan had changed. He would not be able to meet Louis Espagnol until the following year. The party did meet three members of the crew who would paddle, portage, track, and run the rapids for them as far as Fort Albany. These men deserve more than a footnote. There was head guide and fiddler Jimmy Swain, a Scots-Cree “half-breed” and likely the oldest member of the party; he was days away from his sixty-fourth birthday.18 The youngest,

Clockwise 8.1 Jimmy Swain 8.2 Harry Black 8.3 At Ishkaqua Portage 8.4 Isaac Ritch

8.5 Dinorwic to Lac Seul

perhaps, was Isaac Ritch, a twenty-one-year-old Scots-Cree “half-breed” from Fort Hope.19 Ritch spoke fluent Ojibwe, served as Meindl’s assistant on the Albany River, and was the official treaty interpreter at Fort Hope.20 Harry Black of Missanabi would satisfactorily fulfill the role of cook and return as a member of the 1906 treaty party.21 Stewart distinguished between the “seven white men” in the party (three commissioners, the constables, Meindl, and Rae) and the “eleven Indians” (“halfbreeds” Ritch and Swain included). Throughout the trip, social distinctions were signalled by whether or not a person was named or referred to by first name or as Mr, Miss, or Mrs.22 Plans for the National Transcontinental (later the Canadian National) or Grand Trunk Pacific Railway were already well advanced. By 1909 it would reach Hudson, 18 miles south of Lac Seul, and the cross-country trek from Dinorwic would fall into disuse.23 Sioux Lookout would rise from a surveyors’ camp to be incorporated as a town in 1910.24 The commissioners apparently passed “Sioux Outlook” (a cape with a modest rise, now officially known as Sioux Lookout Point but expansively referred to locally as Sioux Mountain) without remarking on it.25 Similarly, they failed to mention the extensive wild rice beds near Frenchman’s Head.26

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Scott Friday June 30 1905 Left Union Station Ottawa by C.P.R. @ 1.15. Party S. Stewart, D.G. MacMartin Dr. A.G. Meindl, Police Constables Parkinson & Vanasse. Arrived at Dinorwic at 1.10 on Sunday morning July 2 Found Chief Trader Rae of HBCo in charge of transport. Spent Sunday morning in looking over goods and discussing arrang[emen]ts and routes with Mr Rae. He strongly advises against any attempt to make the trips to Flying Post, Metagami New Brunswick House or Long Lake this season [2] He says that we would likely be caught by ice upon some of the inland lakes w[hic]h freeze very early. We practically decided to go to Matatchewan after we leave Abbitibi, route to be de left to Mr Taylor of HBCo Mattawa. We also propose about the middle of May to assemble heads of families from Metagami & Flying Post at Biscotasing, and pay them there. To visit Chapleau and pay all non-treaty Inds there, to go to Missanabi & pay non Tr Inds there Mr [Sam] King27 of Dinorwic [3] will give me a [detailed?] list, send also for the Missanabi Montizambert Indians to come to Missanabi Thence go to N B House [three double apostrophes to repeat the words “Thence go to”] Heron Bay and Long Lake. This can be done in about 30 days and a clean sweep shall have then been made of all non Tr Inds of that District, & those on the line of Railway. July 3 Monday Up at 5.30. Struck camp. Left at 7 sharp. 3 teams with dunnage. Long portage. 9 miles. rough road. corduroy. stones. stands ^sand^. arrived Sandy lake 10.05 Looked at canoes. 3. 2 Peterboro. 1 large Birchbark [4] Had tea waited for St[eame]r w[hic]h was to take us across Lake. Began to pack canoes at 12 st[eame]r not having made its appearance. Inds here had shot 2 moose. were lazing about gorging themselves on it28 H.B.Co. fur catch from Lac Seul 32 packs. at 100 lbs weight [each]. Left at 1. crossed Sandy Lake arrived at 3 oclock. then a short portage ^Black Rock Face Ptg^ perhaps 1/3 of a mile. then Lake Minnitaki.29 Upon the shore Messrs Sangster & Johnston were building a stopping place. They had put a steamer on the Lake in anticipation of G.T.P. trans construction. Minnitaka [5] a beautiful clear- water lake the shore- green & well wooded with poplar, here & there [illegible] [illegible], a few signs of fire. An abandoned miners location with 3 or 4 homes. Had a snack. Embarked & left at [five?] travelled 17 miles. began to rain. located a good camp ^Burnt Isl[an]d^ & came ashore. continued rain. supper & [illeg] in a down pour our tent was, in the dusk, pitched over a lovely little rose bush full of blooms. July 4. Up at 5.00 bathed & had coffee. ^Left 6.^ heavy rain. slept. rain slackened had dinner. Left at 12.45. Landed on rocky point at 1.20. arranged load. [6] portage ^point^ covered with twin flrs.30 under way again at 220. Until six when we arrived at Pelican Falls we traveled thro the great expanses of the Lake. One, the finest, had higher shores & Several round dome shaped islands. at five rain set in and we landed in a soft misty downpour not sufficient to hide the shore, but only to veil them and bring out their beauty, with the peculiar

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glint of the rapids at the distance of a mile, only the waves that leap highest catch the light & flash for a second. Portage of about 1/2 mile. muddy. went down to shore to see big canoe run the rapids. Continuous rain, very heavy at night. Just after we arrive [7] Portage 3 York boats31 with 25 men rowing, & [illegible] a sail on each, came around a bend & swept up to the landing. July 5. Up at 6.00. still raining. Breakfasted. Left at 8. Paddled until 11.30 to Ishkaqwa32 [ishkwaakwaa, “remains of a wooded area”] Portage Passed Frenchmans Head [a Treaty No. 3 reserve] had a chat with James Bunting,33 Head-man. Six Inds came after us to help us over Portage. Dull weather & cold. Ishkaqwa Portage 1 1/3 mile mostly wet & slimy. Pyrollas & Twin Flowers everywhere along the portage. Left at 3.30. Weather clearing up. Arrived at Marshy P[or]t[a]g[e]. 4.15. at other side heard a Conjurers drum. This is a low marshy portage of about 1/4 mile, with low shores around the Lake. [8] Hundreds of tons of blue ^Joint^ grass34 on this Portage. Left Marshy Portage 5.15. Sun at last! Lac Seul beautifully calm. Camped on point 6.40. Showers of rain at night. July 6. Stewart The Commissioners left Ottawa at 1.15 p.m. on Friday the 30th June, 1905, by the “Imperial Limited” with Joseph L Vanasse and James Parkinson, Dominion Policemen. At Ottawa ^Mattawa^ they were joined by Dr. Alex. Geo. Meindl who accompanied the party as medical officer. The weather was beautiful and bright, and the journey to Dinorwic was much enjoyed. Particularly was this the case while travelling along Lake Superior where many points of interest were to be seen. The 1st July being a holiday, all [5] the towns we passed on that day were in holiday attire. Excursion parties also boarded the train at a number of stations. Previous to reaching Fort William we were informed that our train did not stop at Dinorwic, and that we would have to stop off at the former place until the following day and wait for the local. The divisional Supt. at Fort William, however kindly instructed the conductor of the “Limited” to have the train stop to let us off at Dinorwic. During our journey to Dinorwic we were much amused and entertained by the Porter of the Pullman Car, Charles Robertson by name, or as he called himself “Harry the Tetrarch”. Charles kept the whole car in good humor by his witty sayings, as well as by the efforts put forth by him for the comfort of those under his charge. He also proved himself to be a sleight-of-hand performer of no mean order [6] and amused both old and young by his clever tricks. In return for the entertainment afforded us, we collected among our party the sum of six dollars, which we presented to Charles just before reaching Dinorwic. We parted from our friend with many expressions of good will both given and received. We reached Dinorwic, 1073 miles from Ottawa, at 2.10 am. Sunday morning, and were met at the Station by Mr. Thomas Clouston Rae, Chief Trader

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for the H.B.Co, and were informed that he had been appointed by the Company to accompany us as supply officer. Mr H. A Tremayne, district-Inspector of the H.B.Co.,35 was also at Dinorwic to meet us, he having come there to see that no hitch had occurred in perfecting arrangements for our journey north. We were glad to find that our [7] tents were ready to be occupied by us, and it was not long before we were in dream-land. Sunday July 2nd was a very hot day. The mosquitoes and black flies were also very numerous, so that we began to experience what we had been informed would be one of the unpleasant things we should make up our minds to encounter on this trip. We were all, however, fully convinced that the pleasure to be derived from our travels through an interesting country would more than outweigh such drawbacks as the one we were now experiencing. Hearing that there was to be a service in the small English Church in the village, several of us decided to go and hear the last sermon we would probably have the chance of hearing for several weeks. Three of the Indians who were to be members of our crew also attended [8] the service. One of these, “Jimmy” Swaine, we were informed, was to be our head guide, another was our cook, Harry Black from Missanabie, and the third was Isaac Rich; a stout built halfbreed who had been over the route to James Bay along with Mr Chipman, Commissioner H.B.Co.36 The sermon was preached by a Mr Sanderson, an Indian student, who acquitted himself very well indeed.37 After lunch we were glad to accept an invitation to occupy the office of the H.B.Co. store. The day was exceedingly hot, and the store and office were about the coolest places we could find. We made use also of the opportunity to write to our friends, this being the last chance we expected to have to mail letters for a number of weeks. I should have mentioned that [9] the officer in charge of the H.B. store at Dinorwic was Mr. S.A. King, formerly of Missanabie and an old acquaintance ^of two of the Commissioners,^ Mr King had engaged Geo. Elsen [Elson] for the Hubbard-Wallace Labrador expedition, and we had an interesting conversation with him regarding that matter.38 He showed us a number of letters that had been written to him by Hubbard and Wallace and allowed us to make copies of several of them. Monday 3rd July We were all up before 5 a.m. eager to start on our journey northward. Our baggage when all together looked quite formidable, altho’, under advice from Mr. Rae, we ^had^ left out many articles we had thought indispensable. Our party numbered in all nineteen persons, seven white men and eleven Indians, and the provisions alone for that many persons for a period of [10] three months, with the apetites [sic] such a trip would give, made a large sized load. Then there were our tents, tarpaulins, beds and bedding, clothing etc. These all made three wagon loads to be taken over our first portage of eight miles to Sandy Lake

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By 7 a.m all the goods were on the wagons, and after saying good bye to Mr King and his assistants we began this stage of our journey. The morning was beautiful and bright, a good part of the way was thro’ the woods, so that but for the attentions paid us by the black flies and mosquitoes the walk would have been enjoyed by us all. These little creatures, however, caused us considerable annoyance, and took greatly from the pleasure of this part of our journey. [11] We arrived at Sandy Lake about 10 a.m. where we expected to have been met by a steamer owned by Sangster and Johnson, and conveyed across the lake a distance of six miles. The boat was not there, however, and after waiting till after 12, we decided to cross the lake in the canoes that had been brought to this place for us. These canoes were three in number, one large bark, 29 feet long, by 5 feet-wide, and two large Peterboroughs. Before leaving, we saw the wagons that brought us over loaded with fur that had been brought down from Lac Seul and posts on the Albany River. There were thirty bales in all, containing otter, mink, martin & beaver skins. The bales weighed from eighty to one hundred and twenty pounds, and were valued at from $1500 to $ 2000 per bale. Previous to leaving, we took a light [12] lunch, and after a paddle of about two hours we reached “Black Face Portage” about 1/4 of a mile in length. At this portage we were met by Messrs. Sangster and Johnson and were provided by them with a team of horses and a wagon to convey our goods to the shores of Minataka Lake where they were loaded on a steamer owned by these gentlemen. Sangster and Johnson haved great anticipations of benefits to be derived from being ready for the survey and construction parties connected with the Transcontinental railway. They expected to be kept busy in the near future transporting supplies from Sandy Lake to the foot of Minataka Lake, and haved therefore a steamer on each of these lakes. They were also busily engaged in erecting an hotel for the accommodation of [13] survey and construction parties. By 5.00 p.m. all our goods were loaded on the steamer, and we went on board to resume our journey. Shortly after leaving “Black Face Portage” clouds began to gather, and it was evident that we were going to have a wet afternoon and evening. Minataka is a beautiful lake about 25 miles long, dotted with many pretty islands. The first part of our sail was much enjoyed but about an hour and a half after leaving the portage the rain began to come down in torrents so that we were obliged to take shelter in the small cabin. After travelling about an hour in the rain, it was considered advisable to land and put up our tents, as the boat was too small to afford shelter for all the party. We, therefore, went ashore on “Burnt Island”, 17 miles from Black Face portage where we camped for the night [14] about 32 miles from Dinorwic.

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Tuesday 4th July. The rain continued all night, and appearances indicated a wet day. We therefore decided not to go aboard the steamer, but to depend upon our canoes for the rest of the voyage. The boat therefore left ^us^ as it had to convey some goods to the foot of the lake At 12.30, altho’ it was still raining, we concluded to go on to Pelican Falls about 18 miles distant. Our goods had gone forward to that point, or rather to “Abraham’s Chute”, on the Steamer, and one of our men had also gone on to look after them. Mention should have been made of the wild flowers along the shores of the lake and on the islands. The vicinity of our camp on “Burnt Island[“] was a blaze of wild roses, and even in our tents there were [15] quite a number of these flowers. The pleasure of our trip to Pelican Falls was marred by the rain which continued to come down all afternoon. “Abraham Chute”, the first rapid we had come to, was reached about 3 p.m., and here the Indians insisted upon our landing and walking to the foot, saying that the rapids were much more dangerous than those who were un [sic] unacquainted with them would imagine. The Indians, however, ran them with the loaded canoes without any misadventure. Shortly after 6 p.m. we arrived at Pelican Falls, and here all the goods & ^the canoes^ had to be carried over by the men. On arriving at the portage we saw further indications of the changes already being wrought by the Transcontinental Railway[.] A large log house had been built by a French Canadian trader named Baulue39 [16] in the anticipation that it would be used as a stopping place by members of the survey and construction parties. The Indians proved themselves to be adept at the work of portaging. From their youth upwards, they are trained to carry heavy loads by means of pack straps. From 200 to 300 lbs is the usual load for man, but some Indians carry nearly double that amount. The portage was in a bad condition owing to the heavy rain of the two past days, but the condition of the road does not appear to make any particular difference to an Indian. The mosquitoe[s] were also very bad on this portage. On crossing the portage we were greeted with an interesting sight. In the distance could be seen three large boats, known as York boats, coming towards the point where we were about to camp. [17] The boats were each manned with eight oarsmen and in addition there was a foreman in charge of the party, making twenty-five men in all. They were on their way to Dinorwic from Lac Seul, and the large boats, each capable of carrying over three tons weight of goods, had to be dragged over the portages, a task that appeared almost impossible. On landing the boatmen immediately prepared to camp where our tents were being put up, and the men all working together of made a lively scene. The rain continued to come down all evening, so that we were glad to occupy our tents as soon as they were put up. Our cook Harry Black exerted himself to the utmost to give us a good meal. He was also assisted by Mr Rae and Mr

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Scott and their united efforts led to results that were much appreciated. [18] Our head guide Jimmy Swaine came to the front in a new role at this portage. He had brought a fiddle with him of which he was inordinately proud. With this he laid himself out to entertain both whites and Indians by playing Red River Jigs, and other dance music, as well as hymn tunes with many variations of his own. It was far on in the night, and most of us were asleep, before Jimmy was allowed to put aside his fiddle and roll into his blankets. Wednesday 5th July Rose at 6 am. to find it still raining heavily. We however decided to go forward as the camp ground was a miserable one and the mosquitoes something fierce. ^Before leaving^ Wwe saw the way the HB boatmen brought the big boats over the portage. Some of the men harnessed themselves [19] into their pack straps which were attached to the boats, and with a number of the men pulling and the remainder pushing, the boats were drawn and pushed along the path through the woods. It was no easy task, but it is all in the day’s work with the H.B.Co. Indians. We left Pelican portage at 8 am. and after travelling about six miles reached Frenchman’s Head Reserve, so called from the fact that a head supposed to be that of a Frenchman killed in one of the early wars was found on an island opposite the reserve about 100 year ago. The reserve is situated on both sides of the river, and some of the houses built by the Ind[ian]s. looked neat and clean. Most of the Inds. here live in tents, many of which were seen along the shore. There is an Anglican Church and mission [20] house on the reserve. Some neat gardens could be seen in which the principal vegetable grown appeared to be potatoes. We landed near the house of the Chief James Bunting, and on his learning our mission, he offered us the services of a number of his Indians to assist in carrying our goods over a long portage a few miles ahead. The offer was gladly accepted, and after a short time spent in conversation with the Chief we proceeded on our way. Iskaque portage was reached at 11.30 and it was decided that lunch should be our first order of business. By this time the weather had cleared and the day was beautiful and bright. While we were engaged in refreshing the inner man, several canoes from Frenchman’s Head arrived containing [21] men, women, children and dogs. These had all to be fed, after which the work of portaging the goods was vigourously entered upon. Our old guide Jimmy Swaine proved himself to be the equal if not the superior of any of the men at this work. The old man, for he had passed his sixty sixtieth year, made about double the number of trips across the portage than was made by any of the younger men. The quantity of goods taken by him each load was also fully equal to that taken by any of the other men. One of Jimmy’s peculiarities we learned was, that he preferred to travel bare-footed, let

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the portage be ever so rough – Stones, sticks nor brambles made any ^no^ impression on his feet, which had been rendered callous by years of such use. At Iskaque portage is a mile [22] in length, it would have taken our eleven men the most of the afternoon to get our goods over the portage, but as we had the help of thirteen men from Frenchman’s Head, we had everything over and were ready to resume our journey by 2:30 p.m.. A present of tobacco was made to our Indians friends before saying good bye to them and we parted with mutual expressions of good will. Our next run was through a shallow marshy stream, which finally ^ended^ in a stream where the water was so low that the goods had again to be portaged for a distance of about 200 yards. Our canoes were next launched on a beautiful lake, and as the afternoon was beautiful ^fine^ and bright we enjoyed our sail very much At 6.40 we landed on an island recommended as a good camping ground. We found the island to be all that was said of it. It had in addition a [23] beautiful outlook, but unfortunately the mosquitoes and flies were here also. We thought that the island looked to be the kind of place from which it might be well to throw out a line, and on making a trial we were rewarded by catching several large pike. MacMartin 1905 June 30th Friday. In accordance with instructions rec’d from Col. Matheson, Prov. Treasurer to proceed to Ottawa, to meet the Domn Commrs who had been empower’d by the Dom Gov’t to make a Treaty with the Indians, “styled Treaty No 9.”, I left Perth on CPR train at 7.50 June 30th on arrival of train at Ottawa, 9 45. I called upon Mr Pedley, Depty Sup’t of Indian Affairs, who introduced me to Mr Scott and Mr Stewart both of the Dept of Indians Affrs, who had been appointed by the Dom. Gov’t as Com’s to negotiate the treaty, No 9, with the Indians. In company with these Gentlemen and two Dom Policemen, who had been assigned to accompany the Commission, I left Ottawa via ^U. Stn^ C.P.Ry. at 1.15 p.m. On arrival of train at Mattawa Dr Meindl joined [2] the party. July 1st Dom Day was celebrated by travelling on the CPR. and at 1 10 a.m. Sunday, July 2nd reached Dinorwick where/ we went into camp ^No. 1^. Tents having been pitched for our accomodation by Mr Rae, chief Trader, H.B.Co who has charge of all transportation arrangements. Remained in camp Sunday Monday 3rd struck camp and when luggage supplies &c were packed in three wagons, left for Sandy Lake. Portage for Sandy Lake, over a rough and rocky road, a distance of 9 miles, the trend being a little N. of East. Arrived at shore of Lake at 10.20 a.m. the After the boats, provided by Mr Rae, 1 bark canoe (5 fathom) and 2 large Peterboros were loaded by the 12 Indians provided for the purpose, left the shore taking an ^north^ northerly [3] course for 6 miles to

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Black face portage a quarter of a mile in length ^over a high ridge of sandy soil, Norway Pine in quantity^ to Minetaka Lake, when the supplies &c having been placed on board the Minetaka at the dock a small steamer ^plying on the lake,^ owned by the ^Johnston^ Sangster Co. left at/ 5 p.m. and reached ^following a course N. of East to^ Burnt Island 17 miles distant which we reached at 7.50 pm. and went into camp ^No 2^. during the last 7 miles it rained incessantly and continued most of the night. Timber quite ^good pine wood^ Tuesday 4th still raining at 12 45 pm struck tents, and when canoes were loaded left ^Camp No 2^, taking a course N of East for 7 miles to Abraham Shoot. Some of the party walked over a rough Portage 1/8 of a mile, boats ran the rapids. embarking at foot of Shoot & & passing thro’ a chain of lakes seperated [sic] [4] by narrow passages presenting scenery of the finest, striking a course n of east to portage, running [illegible] at Pellican Falls, named Black-foot, reached at 6.50 p.m. crossing this muddy and nick ^named^ portage ^1/4 mile^ the rain falling continuously camped on shore of Lost Lake[.] A few minutes after our arrival three York Boats from H.B.Co. Post at Lac Seul hove in sight [illegible] [illegible] propelled by sweeps and sails and carrying in all 25 Indians, arrived at the portage. Wednesday 5th Left ^Camp No 3^ Pelican Island Falls at 8.10 a.m. called at 10 am at Indian reservation ^named Frenchmens head^ where Councellor Jim Bunt[ing] came to shore and interviewed the Dom Comrs kindly offering to assist in portaging [5] the luggage over Ishkaqua portage at wh. we arrived at 10.30 am. After partaking of refreshments, crossed the portage 1 mile long and at 3.25 pm. again started on our journey, after running for two miles up the lake we turned entered a marshy a creek running thro’ marshy ground, in places choked with Moose grass arriving at ^and at 4.15^ a portage caused by low water at [illegible] encountered and terminating in ^on account of the low state of the River in a grassy bank, and^ a Blue joint marsh, over wh. for 1/8 of a mile a portage was necessary ^necessitating a portage of 200 ‘ into Canoe^ left the ^Lake on east side of wh we^ portage at 5.15 p.m and reached a camping ground at ^camped^ at 6.50 p.m. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin After the preliminary arrangements were completed, the Commissioners left Ottawa for Dinorwic, the point of departure for Osnaburg, on the 30th June, and arrived there on the 2nd July. The party consisted of the undersigned, A.G. Meindl, Esq., M.D., who had been appointed to carry out the necessary work of medical relief and supervision, and James Parkinson and J.L. Vanasse, Constables of the Dominion Police Force. At Dinorwic the party was met by T.C. Rae, Esq., Chief Trader of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who had been detailed by the Commissioner of the Hudson’s Bay Company to travel with the party and make arrangements for

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transportation and maintenance en route. Mr. Rae had obtained a competent crew at Dinorwic to take the party to Osnaburg. The head man was James Swain, an old Albany River guide and mail carrier who is thoroughly familiar with the many difficult rapids of this River. The party left Dinorwic on the morning of 3rd July and after crossing a long portage of nine miles, first put the canoes into the water at Big Sandy Lake. On the 5th of July we passed Frenchman’s Head Reservation and James Bunting, Councillor in charge of the Band, volunteered the assistance of a dozen of his stalwart men to help us over the difficult Ishkaqua Portage, which was of great assistance as we were then carrying a great weight of supplies and baggage. On the evening of the 5th the waters of Lac Seul were reached and on the morning of the 6th the party arrived at Lac Seul post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. [paragraph continues]

9 Lac Seul (Obishikokaang)

Thursday, 6 July In 1803 the hbc established a post at Obijikoka Lake (“Lake of White Pine Narrows”), also known as Upishingunga or O-be-she-ko-kank Point (“a pinecovered point that makes a narrow place”; Pine Ridge) and better known in English as Seul, Sal, or Lonely Lake.1 Today the Lac Seul First Nation calls the lake Obishikokaang.2 In 1905 Lac Seul was part of the hbc’s Lake Superior district. The clerk in charge was thirty-five-year-old James D. MacKenzie, a sixth generation fur trader (with both Indigenous and European roots) and a brother-in-law of Jabez Williams.3 Lac Seul maintained outposts nearby at Mattawa, Minnitaki Lake, Ghost (Frenchman’s) Head, and Wabaskang, as well as one at Sturgeon Lake (closer to the Savanne hbc post).4 Christian Dahm, a shopkeeper at Rat Portage, competed at Lac Seul. McLaren had men based at Mattawa and Sturgeon Lake. Despite these interlopers, the hbc received “the great bulk of both the Hunt and Treaty money.” Aside from the Treaty No. 3 annuities, business was conducted largely through the debt system, as in the rest of the far north. The Ojibwe were “generally well off.” Some of them owned cattle, and potatoes were grown by many.5 By 1899 there was “a good deal of prospecting” underway and two mines under development, leading an hbc inspector to predict, “It is not unlikely … that before long the character of the trade may change very much.”6 The fur trade at Lac Seul had bounced back from the lean years earlier in the century, but it would not survive the changes that lay ahead.7 Apparently Henry Kawazie (akiwenzi, “old man”),8 chief of this Treaty No. 3 band, alone had obeyed an order to meet the commissioners.9 Most band members were attending a white dog feast on the Lac Seul reserve, across the lake at Keesic Bay. The absence of the others may have annoyed or angered Scott and Stewart, who would have assumed that the meeting had been “agreed” upon.10 Under the Indian Act, whether he was elected or a “life chief,” Kawazie could be arbitrarily “deposed … for dishonesty, intemperance, immorality or incompetency,”11 since the act was predicated on a system of indirect rule from Ottawa. Those who clung to the old traditions were seen as obstacles to Indian Affairs’ program of “civilization” (assimilation).12 Scott proudly noted there was “no visible line of demarcation” distinguishing Iroquoian and Euro-Canadian farms

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along the Grand River a century ago (see chapter 19). In 1924 he imposed an elected system of Indian Affairs governance on the Six Nations of the Grand River, hardening the factions represented in the standoff at Caledonia today (even though elections had been requested by some band members).13 The treaty party had heard, from some distance, what Scott called a “medicine drum.” This would likely have been a mide (midewiwin practitioner) water drum, whose sound carries a great distance.14 They had heard, as well, that a white dog feast was being held. The event may have been scheduled to coincide with the Reverend Sanderson’s absence, but it was normally held at this time of year. Two of the largest celebrations in the region took place at Lac Seul and Berens River.15 This was not, however, the main reason that the treaty party had taken this route, as Scott suggests in his Scribner’s article. It was the only practical way to reach Osnaburgh.16 Historian Michael Angel, whose thorough and respectful account of the midewiwin has informed my understanding of Ojibwe culture, notes that when observers focus on a single detail, such as the white dog feast, it is difficult to understand what was really happening.17 We need more context. Archaeologists have found evidence of dog feasts throughout much of North America.18 White dog offerings and feasts were certainly an established part of the Ojibwa midewiwin, or “grand medicine lodge.”19 They were also consumed when a drum dance (bwaani-niimi’idiwin, “Sioux dance”) was held.20 At Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, in 1910, dog feasts were held without a drum dance.21 Vennum calls the consumption of dogs “a vestigial warrior’s rite.”22 Mention of a lodge, in the case of the midewiwin, or “an open-air enclosure or dance hall,”23 in the case of the drum dance, would help us to contextualize the 1905 white dog feast at Lac Seul. An all-night event, a hand-held drum, or the use of fire would suggest the waabanoowin (society of the dawn) ceremony.24 A shaking tent, used after dusk, would imply a shaman or jiisakiiwinini drumming and singing to communicate with the manidoog (spirit-persons; in Cree, manitoowak), with the help of mikinak (the great turtle).25 (During a shaking tent performance, the practitioner – sometimes called a conjuror, and not always disparagingly – crouched inside a small purpose-built tent, surrounded by seated observers. The latter would soon overhear the voices of spirit-persons, visually confirmed by the tent waving to and fro, not shaking, in conversation with the practitioner. Onlookers could ask questions of, and receive answers from, the spirit-persons.)26 The white dog feast formed only a small part of multi-day midewiwin healing and initiation rites. This important religious and social complex involved the acquisition and/or application of herbal knowledge. Sanderson, like some theologians, may have opposed the very notion of aboriginal healing, arguing that seemingly benign herbal medicines were inextricably linked with “charms or conjurations.”27 Or perhaps, like my Cree friend pastor Mervin Cheechoo, he

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thought deeply about how he could respectfully share the Christian message and still remain true to his Indigenous legacy. With the midewiwin, individual participants could receive spiritual blessings and gifts of power necessary to achieve the health, well-being, and right-living state known as bimaadiziwin. It also served to reinforce ethical standards, through recitation of sacred stories or aadizookaanag (in Cree, aatanoohkaanak; Moose Cree, aataloohkaanak).28 Scholars have been divided as to whether the midewiwin predated contact with Europeans or developed afterwards, but an archaeological site near Lake Temagami suggests it is an ancient Ojibwe religious complex.29 The drum dance, which originated among the Indigenous nations of the Great Plains, was adopted by the Ojibwe south of Lake Superior in the 1870s and had made its way to the nearby Berens River by 1900.30 From Vanasse’s account, the 1905 white dog feast at Lac Seul appears to have been part of a midewiwin ceremony. There was a small drum (likely a midewakik, or mide drum), not the larger dance drum. There was a large tent, perhaps a midewigaan (midewiwin lodge), not a dancing ground. His mention of “senior students” who pass through three years or degrees also suggest the midewiwin, which had four levels.31 The medicine tent may have been a sweat lodge.32 The treaty party apparently saw none of the wiigwaas (birchbark scrolls) which served as mnemonic aids.33 Any hint of payment for services was a cause of great concern to Indian Affairs officials, but these gifts were intended for the manidoog, not the mide, and may have been redistributed among the participants.34 Fasting and the vision quest need not have been associated with any particular ceremony. A young man fasted, not for the name of a clan (into which one was born), as Vanasse suggests, but to receive blessings from his bawaaganak (guardian spirits or dream helpers; in Cree, powaganak), who might also visit him in dreams. It was not only the mide, as Vanasse implies, who could predict the future; this could be revealed to any Ojibwe (or Cree) through dreams. Ojibwe women did not need the blessings of the vision quest, but bawaaganak did sometimes visit them in dreams and bestow blessings. Women were already powerful, especially during menstruation.35 The commissioners set out with the chief and at least one of the Dominion police officers to investigate. They arrived that afternoon with a dramatic flourish, Vanasse brandishing the Union Jack, Scott hoping that the police would create a “wholesome fear of the white man’s law.” When the other Indian participants refused to acknowledge the presence of the mide Neotanaqueb, the chief apparently identified him.36 The canny Neotanaqueb defended himself, explaining that he acted under the direction of another mide named “Pow-wa-sang” (the inspiration for Scott’s poem “Powassan’s Drum”). Powassan was a well-known chief and mide priest in the Lake of the Woods area, who had been a spokesman and signatory to Treaty No. 3.37 According to Herb Williams, when Louis Riel was making his plans for

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9.1 Group at Lac Seul

the 1885 resistance, his emissaries came to the North-West Angle with a message for Powassan, asking the Lake of the Woods Indians for their support. Powassan and his council, upon asking the local hbc trader for his advice, decided to remain neutral.38 Scott delivered a stern lecture and then invited the Indians to prepare a feast at the hbc post, with food provided by the treaty party. Scott then became ill and was unable to eat supper – coincidence or curse? The commissioners listened to what they referred to as the chief’s “complaints” about medical care and railroad surveyors. They likely spent some time with MacKenzie that evening as well, exchanging stories and griping about Indians, as new arrivals in First Nation communities often still do today.39 Vanasse is not entirely correct in asserting that tobacco use was occasioned by fear of bad spirits. German writer Johann Georg Kohl, who spent the summer of

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1855 among the Ojibwe in northern Wisconsin, wrote, “Tobacco they sacrifice and strew everywhere: on all stones, boulders, masses of copper, graves, or other places to which they attach a holy significance.” These gifts of tobacco were left to please the manidoog (whom Europeans often assumed to be devils) by giving thanks or asking for pity. Michael Angel explains that some manidoog were masters of plant and animal species, while others resided in the four cardinal directions. Some were thunderers, while others were underwater panthers. Windigos and flying skeletons were manidoog as well. Tobacco “was also smoked during trade and political negotiations,” he notes, “since it was important to have the support of the manidoog at these times.”40 There was no mention of the white dog feast, or any other traditional ceremony, in the official version of Treaty No. 3. But, like Treaty No. 9, it contained the standard reference “that they will in all respects obey and abide by the law.” No wonder Vanasse writes that the Lac Seul Ojibwe were surprised at the treaty party’s visit. The meaning of a treaty often became apparent only years afterward, when it was applied (or in this case threatened) without warning. The Indian Act (MacMartin’s “Treaty laws”) sought to criminalize any ceremony involving harm to an animal or the payment of fees, and the applicable section of the act cast a wide net: Every Indian or other person who engages in, or assists in celebrating or encourages either directly or indirectly another to celebrate any Indian festival, dance or other ceremony of which the giving away or paying or giving back of money, goods or articles of any sort forms a part, or is a feature, whether such gift of money, goods or articles takes place before, at, or after the celebration of the same, and41 every Indian or other person who engages or assists in any celebration or dance of which the wounding or mutilation of the dead or living body of any human being or animal forms a part or is a feature, is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months and not less than two months.42 The act did not, as Vanasse suggests, provide for fines in this situation. This may have been a form of intimidation on Scott’s part. Section 70 of the Indian Act allowed the governor-in-council to manage the Indians’ income from their land or timber, “or from any other source.” Sections 72 and 73 allowed annuity moneys to be suspended if a man deserted his wife and children, in which case they would be redirected to the wife, or if a childless woman left her husband to live “immorally with another man.” Section 81, however, stated, “No presents given to Indians … shall be liable to be taken, seized or distrained for any debt, matter or cause whatsoever.”43 We cannot assume that the Euro-Canadian notion of law was understood by the Ojibwe. The Ojibwe root onaakon-is translated today as “judge someone,”

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“decide on someone,” or “place a sentence on someone.” There is also a derived word, onaakonige, today glossed as “judge things,” “plan things,” “decide on things,” or “be in court.” The noun derived from this word, onaakonigewin, could have been used to explain “law” or (with missionaries) “commandment.”44 Vanasse’s account shows the Ojibwe to be adept at manipulating an embarrasing situation to meet their own needs, by complaining about the lack of medical service. Although they apparently promised to stop practising the midewiwin, they continued to practise it for at least another quarter-century. By blaming the absent Powassan, the mide is indirectly asking, “Why can we not practise our traditional rites when he can?” He is also using a classic Algonquian defence: blaming an absent other. Nearby, at Red Lake, gold had been discovered eight years before the commissioners’ visit. In 1924 provincial geologist E.L. Bruce remarked, “Several falls and rapids along the English river could be utilized for water power. The available ones in this upper section of the river are the double chutes at Ear falls and Manitou falls, also Maynard falls and Oak falls.”45 Two years later geologists referred to recent gold discoveries and extensive prospecting but observed, “All of the streams draining into Red Lake are so small that the volume of water is insufficient to produce much power.”46 Nearly a quarter-century after the commissioners’ visit, construction would begin on a regulating dam and hydroelectric power plant at the Lower Ear Falls outlet of Lac Seul.47 The Lac Seul band was never consulted before the lake level was raised a dozen feet to create a reservoir.48 Thousands of acres of reserve land were flooded, along with dozens of houses and a school. Thousands of acres of wild rice beds were also destroyed, and fishing and trapping disrupted. About one-third of the Lac Seul First Nation’s members now reside in three settlements on the reserve, a new Frenchman’s Head, Kejick Bay, and Whitefish Bay.49 Selwyn Dewdney, who was a young student missionary50 at Lac Seul in 1929–30, during the construction of the Ear Falls dam, states that the band scattered soon afterwards. The water drum and the white dog feast were apparently seen there no more.51 In 2006 the Lac Seul First Nation and Ontario Power Generation (opg) reached an agreement that provided financial compensation for past impacts of the generating stations at Ear Falls and Manitou Falls (and the the Root River diversion project). It also laid the groundwork for a positive commercial relationship in future developments.52 opg erected a plaque formally apologizing for its historic grievances, and Lac Seul First Nation acquired a 25 per cent interest in the Lac Seul Generating Station.53 Similar negotiations have taken place with other First Nations within the Treaty No. 9 area.54 The Ojibwe and Cree continue to revise and revive their traditional ceremonies, defying attempts to eliminate them. A century after 1905, a variation of the sun dance of the Plains Cree, with four days of fasting, is becoming established in the

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9.2 Old Wolf, Lac Seul

Treaty No. 9 territory.55 Proponents of the sun dance hope to strengthen pride in self-identity and provide a healing alternative to alcohol, drugs, and suicide among Indigenous youth. Louis McDougall of Abitibi would surely have agreed with this goal. Some dismiss this development as pan-Indian and not “authentic,”56 but the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario were always open to new ideas.

commentary Author and Ojibwe language keeper Patricia Ningewance Nadeau reviewed an earlier draft of this chapter and generously granted me permission to share her thoughts with readers:

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I cried reading about the mentions of Mide ceremonies and how Lac Seul used to be well-known for its Mide activities. Now the island where Mide ceremonies used to be held is officially called “Devil’s Island.” Its name in Ojibwe was always Manidoo Minising, which is God Island or Spirit Island. It is so difficult trying to bring those ceremonies back to the people, but we will.57 Scott [July 6] Broke camp at 7 6.45. up at 5. bath in lake. lovely morning. Reached Lac Seul Post at [blank] Very few Inds. Had breaskfast with Mr MacKenzies in charge of the Post. Smoked whitefish. Learned that Inds were having a dance & making medicine on the Res[erve] about 7 miles away went down in canoes Mack[enzie], Rae & the party. Long conference [9] with old medicine man, cunning old devil with swollen Jaw. Powassan the head medicine man had sent them word to make the medicine. Can speak with McKenzie about this. Warned [illegible] Inds not to dance. they promised to do what they could to stop it, but we must speak to Powassan Returned about [space] very hot. taken ill. Stewart Thursday 6th July. Rose at 5:00 am[.] We had a shower during the night, but the morning was beautiful and bright ^all that could be desired^. Our course for several miles was thro’ a marshy stream, after which we came to Lac Seul, and were soon greeted with the sight of the Post in the distance. Flags were then attached to poles provided for the purpose, and one placed on ^the^ front of each of the canoes. The three canoes were then brought in line the large one in the centre, and in that order we came in to the post at almost racing speed ^arriving there at 8:30 am.^ On arriving at the H.B.Co. wharf we were received by Mr. J.D. McKenzie [24] in charge of the Post and invited to come to his house near by and have some refreshments. This kind invitation was accepted and at the house we had the pleasure of meeting Mrs McKenzie and her sister Miss Mitchell, both of whom gave us a very cordial welcome. Before arriving at the post we had heard the sound of a drum some distance up the lake, and we now learned that this was a medicine drum that was being used at a “Dog Feast” ^which was^ being held on the reserve about 8 miles distant. As certain of the proceedings connected with the feast are contrary to the law, we decided to go to the reserve and endeavour to put a stop to them. Henry Kewazie Chief of the Lac Seul Band, who had come to meet us, informed us that he had used his influence to the utmost to prevent the feast from being held but that the majority of the band was [25] against him in regard to this matter. Accompanied by the Chief and Mr. McKenzie we left about noon for the reserve and arrived there about 1 p.m. Our approach to the

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reserve created no little excitement among the Indians who were assembled on a hill overlooking the lake. This excitement was to a great extent occasioned by seeing the two policemen in uniform in the canoes, and also from the fact that we formed a rather large party evidently intent upon important business. On landing Mr Scott speaking for the Commissioners demanded to see the Conjurer. For a time the Indians professed ignorance as to the wherabouts [sic] of this important personage, but the Chief at last located him for us[.] He was a short, stout built Indian, and it was soon very evident that he had all the Indians well under his control. He was very diplomatic in his answer [26] to the questions asked him, and would not commit himself by a promise to discontinue the practice of conjuring. We learned that his name was Neotanaqueb, and that he was considered to have great skill in driving out the evil spirits from those afflicted with any kind of disease. We heard that Neotanaqueb made a good living by his conjuring, but he professed to be giving his services free and out of compassion for those who were suffering from various ailments. The goods and money received by him wasere used to appease the evil spirits that were tormenting those for whom his services were called into requisition. He also said that he was acting under instruction from Pow-wa-sang the head conjurer of the district who would visit him with divers [27] pains and penalties if he neglected to hold these Dog Feasts. Neotanaqueb showed great diplomacy in the manner in which he conducted his case. We could not but be surprised at the wisdom shown by him in the replies given to certain questions, and the manner in which he avoided to answer^ing^ others. We gave the Inds. a lecture on the folly of their conduct and told them that their actions for the future would be carefully watched. Afterwards we invited them all to come to the post in the evening where a good meal would be given them. We arrived back at the Post at 4 pm and found that Mrs. McKenzie had an excellent dinner ready for us. We were sorry that Mr Scott was not able to partake of the good things provided, ^which included a roast of Curiboo,^ as he was somewhat indisposed. Miss Mitchell, Mrs McKenzie`s sister, assisted in entertaining us, and we were well looked after. [28] In the evening we met with the Indians and obtained the names of those of the Cat Lake Inds. ^band^ who trade at Lac Seul We also heard Chief Kewazie on the subject of certain complaints made against their medical officer, and also in regard to certain buildings put up at Frenchman’s Head by Railwy survey parties. The feast was also held in the evening and was apparently much enjoyed. MacMartin Thursday 6th ^Camp No 4^ Struck camp at 6:50 a.m. passing thro a creek very crooked narrow and winding, coming out into [lake?] [6] [page heading:] Keewatin Dist such a large and beautiful sheet of water at 7.45 am. The boats were

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lined up ^with^ the canoes in ^[comers?]^ which the Do`m Comrs in the center. The [Factors?] canoe on the abreast and with flags flying proceeded up the lake at 7:45 ^am^ against a heavy wind and swell, arriving at the H.B. Post at 8.00 a.m. where we were welcomed by Mr. McKenzie and staff, ^and were called upon by Chief Kewazie.^ The Dom Comrs having learned that a dog dance was taking place at the reservation across the Lake, after having dinner at the Factor’s residence we left for Indian reservation at 11 50 a.m. accompanied by Chief Kewazie, ^Police, Dr Meindl, Mr Rae &^ who came displaying ^Mr McKenzie as interpreter,^ his medals started and arrived at reservation ^5 miles distant^ at 1 p.m. Mr Scott had the Indians called [7] together numbering about [blank] and impressed upon them the necessity of giving up Dog dances and other ceremonies contrary to the Treaty laws. His handling of this delicate matter, thro’ Mr McKenzie as interpreter, who has a thorough command of the language and rendered valuable assistance & also in the manner he conveyed the utterances clearly worded sentences of the is deserving of the highest praise[.] Kewazic ^[Neeohamaguet?]^, Medicine man replied in a very cunning way at last promising conditionally that if the Dom Comrs would [illegible] ^[consult?]^ Powassan [short space] Chief Medicine/ Man and [illegible] ^have him advise them^ [8] [illegible] that he approved of ^their^ giving up the dances that he and the band present would give up the barbarous practice. Friday 7 I regret to record that Mr Scott was taken ill suddenly this Ev[enin]g. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin Here the Commission met with marked hospitality from Mr. J.D. McKenzie in charge of the Post who rendered every assistance in his power. He interpreted whenever necessary for which task he was eminently fitted by reason of his perfect knowledge of the Ojibeway language. The hunting grounds of the Indians who traded at this Post had long ago been surrendered by Treaty No. 3, but it was thought advisable to call at this point to ascertain whether any non-treaty Indians had assembled there from points beyond Treaty No. 3 but adjacent to it. Only one family, from Albany River, was met with. The case was fully investigated and the family was afterwards attached to the new treaty.58 The afternoon of the 6th was spent in a visit to the Lac Seul Reserve in an attempt to discourage the dances and medicine feasts which were being held upon the reserve. The Indians of this Band were well dressed and for the most part seemed to live in a state of reasonable comfort. Their hunting grounds are productive. Joseph Vanasse Vanasse’s account of the white dog feast follows.

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The White Dog Feast Relating an incident of the visit of the James Bay Treaty Commission to the Ojibway Indian Reserve. This being the third day of the White Dog Feast, as practiced by the Ojibway Indians at Lac Seul, it was consequently the most interesting. As we approached, we could hear easily in the distance the beating of the drums at the camp. We had been seen coming, for the natives were then standing on the crown of the hill, lining the shore. They were quite amazed with our presence among them, as they did not suspect that we would go to them. In order to impress them all the more, I picked up the Union Jack which was waving over our canoe and carried it up the hill, to the camp, marching in the footsteps of the Commissioners. About twenty tents and wigwams were pitched on top of the hill. We visited them all. Here was a centenarian couple sitting on the ground under the tent; there was a four-year-old boy stretched on a blanket on the ground, the poor little fellow was dying of consumption. Most of the tents were empty, their occupants being part among the crowd, gaping at us. We also visited the large tent adjoining the medicine tent, but found nothing else there than a small drum. By request, one of the young braves went for the old conjuror, who came out of his shack shortly afterwards. We then drew up the crowd in a semi-circle facing us; and the Commissioners gave them a reprimand, telling them that their great Father the King would be shocked if he knew of their conduct. Instead of holding their illegal feast, they should all have been at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fort, (for they had been long in advance that the Commissioners were coming with a doctor, and it had been agreed that the Indians would meet them at the fort). What they practiced was against the law and in direct contravention of the treaty they had signed with the Government. They were liable to be arrested and put in jail, and the Government could suspend their annual pay; since they had broken the agreements of the treaty, the Government would be justified in doing as much; but our mission was one of peace, and if they promise faithfully to stop the objectionable practice they would not be molested. If they would come to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fort, they would receive rations of food and tobacco. The old conjuror was very cunning and non-committal, and answered but equivocally at first. The chief and some of the braves also spoke. They excused the conjuror, saying that he was not wholly to blame; it was they who had brought their sick and begged him to cure them. They did wish to disobey the law and saw no harm in what they practiced. They represented to the Commissioners that the doctor appointed by the Government was very slow in coming when they needed him, and very often he ignored them altogether. The white man could have his doctor whenever he pleased, but it was different with them.

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This was why they had recourse to the conjuror, in whom they placed great confidence. The old conjuror, who at first asked for a few minutes’ time in which to frame his reply, explained that his ancestors used good and bad roots, and herbs, but he made use of the good ones only. His ancestors were very superstitious, and their descendants, the present generation, had inherited many of these superstitions. They still believed, for instance, that the spirits had a great influence over their fate. This is the reason why, in dispensing his medicines, he sacrifices a dog to the evil spirits, to pacify them, so that they would not prevent his medicines from producing a good effect on the patients. He also declared that he was only obeying a superior conjuror, living about fifty miles distant, and whom he feared to disobey, as this superior conjuror was very wise and mighty. However, he was well disposed towards the Government, and would not like to displease his great Father the King. As the natives then promised to do what we asked of them, a general hand-shaking took place between the Commissioners and the Indians. The “White Dog Feast” is celebrated yearly, when the natives bring their sick friends to the medicine man or conjuror, and beseech him to cure them; but the conjuror cannot be made to do something for nothing; he must be paid, well paid, and paid in advance. He tells them that he must have so many pounds of raisins, sugar, syrup, etc., or sometimes clothing, of a value of from five to ten dollars for each sick person, in order to induce him to make a feast, to which he will invite the spirits dwelling underground. These spirits are supposed to be evil, and the authors of all the natives’ ills and reverses. Accordingly, the natives stand in great awe of them, and will do anything to render themselves agreeable to them and to thereby appease their wrath. The good spirits are honored and respected, but not feared, as they are above doing any harm whatever to anybody; therefore, they are never feasted nor made the recipient of any present. After the friends of the sick have brought over all that is asked of them, the conjuror and his family treat themselves to the best, but keep a small portion of it to lay in the medicine tent, where the evil spirits will come out of the ground to treat themselves also; but this is only for the sake of appearance, as in reality the conjuror and his family take everything. This part generally goes on for two days. On the third day the sick person’s friends must bring more goods, either eatables or clothing, according to the conjuror’s expressed wish, or rather, according to his needs. These goods are all to be deposited at the door of the medicine tent. If the friend of a sick person cannot buy the goods required, he will make a tour among his friends and acquaintances; he will borrow, beg or steal if need be, but he will get the goods by hook or crook. This may sometimes take a couple of weeks; nevertheless the conjuror will do nothing until he has been paid. At last, when the goods have been secured, the conjuror, or conjurors (for

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sometimes the old conjuror has two or three senior students with him), enter into a large tent adjoining the medicine tent and there deposit the patient on the ground in the centre and strip off all his clothing so as to be able to feel him all over and find out what ails him. According to his case, a patient is made to drink, or is rubbed with the juice of a root suitable for his illness, the root having been boiled and cooled in advance. Then each of the conjurors take a little drum, which he manufactures himself, and dances around the patient, beating the drum and singing a song appropriate to the case, for each case has its particular song. This dancing is kept up for a couple of hours; then the conjurors rest a little, and dance again for a few hours; and so on, keeping this up for three days. On the third day, the old conjuror sends a young brave for a dog which has been fattened for the occasion. As a rule, the dog is white in colour, but it is not absolutely necessary that it should be so. The dog is killed in any way except by hanging or shooting, is roasted and carved, and the company, which is generally numerous, enters into the large tent where the ceremony was performed, and all treat themselves to a piece of dog flesh. Very often the detail of cooking the dog is overlooked, and it is eaten raw. Whoever refuses to partake of it had better keep miles away from the beginning to the end of the feast, as all those who are present are compelled to eat some of it, which act pleases the evil spirits very much and helps the medicine to cure. Whatever remains of the dog is buried in the ground, to feed the spirits who dwell there. These ceremonies have a great attraction for the natives, who will come from all parts of the reserve and stay for weeks. The Indian’s fear of the evil spirits is revealed in all actions; thus, before starting on the big hunt he will not fail to procure a couple of pounds of tobacco, which he will bury in the ground, so as to render himself agreeable to the bad spirits. Likewise, if he fears a storm when about to cross a large lake, he will throw tobacco into the waters. The Indian has also a boundless confidence in the wisdom and might of the conjuror, who, on his part, takes great precautions to surround all his actions with mysteries, so as to mystify the band as much as possible. This is in his interest, for he subsists by mystery. It is mystery that brings all the necessaries of life for himself and his family, and he knows how to charge a high fee for the least of his services. The conjuror is also a prophet at times, and predicts mostly about the weather. If his prediction comes true, the band proclaims him highly; if otherwise, they easily forget his mistake. As I have mentioned a medicine tent and a large tent, I must explain that a conjuror must have two tents apart from his place of abode. In the case cited here, the conjuror had paid himself the luxury of a little log shanty, one story high, with a birch-bark roof. His supplementary tents were a wigwam opening into a large canvas tent which adjoins the former. The entry into the wigwam

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was forbidden to all but the conjuror himself, and to the spirits which he convenes to feed and beseech them to not put any obstacle to the recovery of his patients. When a young brave has the ambition to become a conjuror, he must make it a point of duty to attend at the “White Dog Feast” every year for three consecutive years, and render himself agreeable to the old conjuror by making him numerous presents. Then the latter will teach him the medicinal properties of different herbs and roots, and initiate him into the mysteries of jugglery, conferring on him a degree every year for three years, the length of his studies. Then the student goes away into the bush, far from any camp, and passes there nine nights, that is to say, ten days, in communion with the spirits. He is entirely naked, except for a rawhide belt, two or three inches wide, which he carries around his waist. He is armed with a bow and arrow that has no stone, bone or iron point. During those ten days he will eat nothing but herbs and whatever game he can kill with his arrow. The game he must eat raw. At night he must sleep on an elevation of at least nine feet from the ground and direct all his will-power towards dreaming. The subject of his dream then becomes his patron saint. For instance, should he dream about beavers, he will never eat of the flesh of that animal, nor will he ever trap or in any way try to kill it; he will adopt its name, becoming thereby the founder of a new family, namely, the beaver family. His descendants may not intermarry except with very distant relatives. However, if the sister of a brave of the beaver family marries a brave of, say, the deer family, the former may marry his sister’s daughter, if she has one, and it will not be considered that they blood relationship, seeing that they belong to families of a different name.

lac seul to osnaburgh Friday, 7 July, to Monday, 10 July On Friday the commissioners wrote more letters home and set out by canoe and sail. Next day they reached the end of Lac Seul and walked along the shore at Pickerel Rapids, while the Indians poled and hauled the canoes up to Root River.59 Past Root River, across the height-of-land, they reached the Albany River watershed. Joseph Carpenter and his family were the only people encountered on the way to Osnaburgh, yet the Cat Lake band has a tradition that near Root Portage several canoes of their people met and camped beside some white people [who] … said that they were on their way to Osnaburgh to make a treaty … The commissioner talked about the treaty and asked the people to think about it and give him their decision by the following morning. Our people were very reluctant to give an answer to such a serious question. Usually these matters were considered for a very long time, at least five years.

9.3 Lac Seul to Lake St Joseph

The following morning, although the Cat Lake party could not give their answer to the signing of this important paper, the commissioners gave them their first treaty payment from a chest of money. The commissioners then headed for Osnaburgh and our people continued on to Kenora. When Missabay signed the treaty in Osnaburgh he did so on behalf of all the people from Cat Lake area.60 This passage likely recounts a meeting with paymaster J.G. Ramsden in 1906. The Cat Lake people were also among the first to experience the Canadian criminal justice system. Their canoes were at Root portage because “a mysterious death” had occurred, occasioning a visit from a Kenora police officer, who “took back with him ten to twelve canoes of our people who knew of what happened.” This is a reference to the alleged murder of Peter Peetwaykeesicouse, whose sister was living with the suspect, Tuzhwaykee.61

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Scott July 7 Weak but much better. Had breakfast in tent. Wrote Belle62 a line. Started at 10.30. slept in canoe. Strong breeze, lake rather rough. slept in canoes [10] Camped at 6.45 for supper had a pickerel cooked in Indian fashion.63 July 8 Sat. Left at 5.45 cold, clear. very cold all morning. wind. dinner 11.45. Reached rapids (Pickerel) 5.03. in Root River. camped on Isl[an]d at 7. July 9. Sun Started 5.45. Day warm with light fleecy clouds. Engaged with the many portages of the Root Rivr At last it degenerates into a creek nowhere more than 20 feet wide and torturous as a corkscrew. On one side Ont. on the other N.W.T. In one place one of the Indians [11] leaped across. camped at Owl rock Ptg. 7.10 6.55 July 10 Mon Up at 4.45 over ten ptgs, the last about 2/3 mile from the height of land. after a few minutes in a narrow stream we came into the lake. [All?] [day] Nearly all day we sailed with a fair wind S or S.W, a perfect day, hot sun, few clouds Lake St Joseph in parts beautiful and throughout its length much more interesting than Lac Seul wh is forbidding. St. J. has many well-wooded islands. its about 70 miles long. After a brisk run from 12.30 to 7 we found an ideal camping ground a [sunny?] Sand beach. [12] golden brown water, a lovely shore, soft with moss, mounds of dwarf cornel blossoms, roses twinflowers, princes, pirea, & mosses. took a swim with Rae. a good supper then sleep finished a perfect day. Stewart 7th July. Mr Scott who had been ill most of the night reported himself well enough to travel, and so after reloading our canoes and saying good bye to our kind friends at Lac Seul, we left at 10.30 am. for Osnaburg. Mr McKenzie had told us that he would be sending out some mail in few days and kindly offered to send out any letters we might desire to have mailed. We gladly took advantage of this [29] opportunity to send word to our friends of our adventures up to this time. Among those who saw us off were some members of the Transcontinental railway survey party. Messrs Ronan, Bailey and Greenwood by name, and also Mr [John Horden] Vincent of the H.B.Co. son of Archdeacon [Thomas] Vincent.64 The day was fine and bright with just enough breeze to make it pleasant. Our journey was up Lac Seul with its wide stretches, miles on either side of us, so that everything tended to our enjoyment. At 12.20 we landed for lunch at a rocky point, evidently an old camping ground. In front of us was an island

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with shoals ^extending^ far out in the river. Everywhere around us were wild flowers in great profusion: Pyrollas [sic], wild roses and sun flowers. We left at 2.15 after a hearty meal, both whites and Indians all in the best of spirits and all thoroughly enjoying the delightful sail[.] [30] In the afternoon we made good progress and after passing Wolff’s narrows camped at 6.45. Big camp fires from this time ^onward became one of the features of the Evening and the light and heat from them added much to the comfort of the members of the party^. 8th July Leaving Camp at 6.30, we finished the crossing of Lac Seul, and arrived at Pickerel Rapids at 3 p.m., where all but the Indians were required to walk along the shore while the canoes were being poled or pulled up the stiff current. We next ascended a narrow river known on the maps as Root River, but which the Inds call Canoe River ^or rather or Kanooshayoo65 Seepee or Jack Fish River^ It is not much of a river anyway being a narrow, desolate stretch of water. We camped at 7 p.m. on an island covered with wildflowers and were all ready for a good night’s rest. 9th July We left camp at 6.30 a.m. and ascended the river a distance of six miles to Rocky Rapids where a [31] portage was necessary for a distance of about one hundred feet. The river was not very wide at this point but the scenery was pretty, including both that of the rapids and falls and also along the shore. Five miles above the fall we came to Lynx Portage, where we took lunch, after the baggage had been carried over the portage, about the same length as the previous one. We had all thoroughly enjoyed this morning’s journey as the weather was beautiful and bright and everyone in the best of health and spirits. Leaving again at 1[?].40 we soon reached Flour Rapids. Before arriving at this point the occupants of ^the^ foremost canoes had the pleasure of seeing three moose swimming across the river, but no attempt was [32] made to secure them. A short distance above Flour Rapids we came to two more rapids known a “Along the Rocks,” and “Boulder,” both of which necessitated short portages. A mile beyond this last rapid brought us to a “Marshy” lake, which having crossed we entered a narrow, crooked stream, called by the Inds Root River. Although so narrow that one could about step across it at many points, this river is the dividing line between Ontario and the North West Territories It might well be called Corkscrew Ditch from its many twists and windings. To add to the difficulty of piloting the canoes thru’ this stream, it was found in many places to be full of drift wood, which had to be got [33] rid of before a passage could be secured. At 5.15 p.m. we reached Pigeon Rapids, which we portaged, a distance of about five thousand yards. Half a mile farther on we came to Owl Rock Rapid,

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about the same length as the previous one. At the foot head of this rapid we put up our tents on Monkey Island about 7 p.m. 10th July Up at 4.45 and at 5.45 were on our way northward. A run of about half a mile brought us to Sandy, or Gravel, Hill Portage This was soon crossed as it was only a few acres in length. Another short run brought us to the head of Root River and to the foot of Height of Land Portage. This portage is about half a mile in length, and it was 9.10 a.m. when we resumed our journey on a [very?] narrow stream [34] which however soon began to widen out to a good sized river which flows into Lake St. Joseph. The latter is a beautiful stretch of water it being fifty-seven miles long. ^We were now in the waters which flow toward James Bay^ There being a favorable wind, no time was lost in putting up sails, and by means of these good progress was made. At 11. a.m. we landed on an island for lunch, to which we all did full justice. At 12.35 we again set sail and the afternoon proved to be one of the most enjoyable that could well be imagined. The day was beautiful, warm and bright, the crew naturally in good humour, as they had no paddling or portaging to do, and the scenery of the lake was a picture worth looking [35] at; so that everything combined to give the utmost pleasure to all the members of the party. We continued our journey until 7 p.m. when we landed on an island with a delightful camping ground. The outlook from this island would be difficult to surpass, and in addition it had a nice sandy beach ^sloping gradually far out into the lake^ of which we nearly all took advantage by having a plunge in the clear, cool water. MacMartin Friday 7th ^Camp No 5^ Mr Scott is much better this a.m. Bidding adieu to the Factor & his family, left the Post at 11 30 am taking an easterly course for 1/2 an hour, then bearing to the N. East, heavy, wind and [illegible] swell, was encountered had dinner at 12.40 pm. and after [illegible] ^Again^ the paddles again struck the water at 2.15 p.m. carrying us along at 4 miles an hour. Timber poor. Camped at 6.50 pm. [9] Saturday 8. ^Camp No 6^ Up at 5 am. 30 minutes later had breakfast and at 6.30 am again started on our journey facing a strong n. wind and bumpy water. Morning very chilly[.]66 Was obliged to use H.B. blanket as a shawl to keep warm wh. greatly amased the Indians, as they imagined they had a squaw67 aboard. Had dinner at 11.45 am. (ran 16 miles) left at 1.30 p.m. Wind still fresh and cold ki[c]king up quite a dust on the Lake, and causing the canoes to dance about on the wave crests and at times to ship quite a little water, at 3 15 pm. Reached Pickerel Rapids^’ds^ or Falls, over wh. The Indians with the aid of

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tump lines and hauling, they drew the canoes into deep [illegible] Safely to the Hdead water at head of [10] the Falls. Left the F’ls at 3.30 pm. running up a River named Deep River and altho’ presenting some very fine scenery with its banks fringed with moose grass and in places the scr[aggy?] timber rearching to the water. Timber, mineral and agricultural land foreign to this section 6 30 p.m. passed out of Deep River Sunday 9th into Burton Lake wh. Derives its name from a Mr Burton who died and was buried on a ^high^ point near the entrance to the Lake. 6 40 p.m. tied up and camped on an Island opposite the entrance of Root River. Sunday 9th ^Camp No 7.^ Up at 5.15 am. Left at Island at 6.40 taking an easterly course to Root River which we enter at 6 50 a.m. River varies in width [11] from 100’ to 150’. very little current and as the alders reach the water on both banks, the stream is winding and fringed on both banks by Alders. At 8.35 a.m reached portage round rapids over the rocks. Reached Rapids No 2. named Lynx at 11.20 a.m. Crossing the trail over the portage at 1.40 pm. we again struck off in the canoes and reached Flour portage at 2.30 p.m. taking to the canoes again at 3. pm and reaching portage No 4 at 3.10pm. named the “Current that goes along the rocks” crossing portage started from shore at 3.35. p.m. and reached Boulder Rapids at 4. p.m.[illegible] ^taking^ to the canoes at 4.15 pm [12] after running across a lagoon entered at 4 30 pm entered a narrow winding stream the Indians named Root River. the Alders almost choke the stream in places. at 5 15 pm. Reached Pigeon Falls. Portage No 6. over portage and off on our journey again at 16 [sic] 15 p.m. at 6 45 pm came to rapids [short space] Portage No 7. luggage, canoes &c having been portaged we camped for the night. Monday 10 ^Camp No 8^ Called at 4.30 am Breakfast at 5. am. again we start leaving the portage behind at 5.5[0?] a.m. [or?] 6 a.m. camped after crossin[g] Portage, named “Night Owl Rapids,” taking its name from ^the^ rock surrounding rock [13] at 6 pa.m. reached portage No 9. Named Sandy Hill, or great divide, over a slight elevation, a considerable part of wh. runs thro a tamarac & spruce swamp over wh. a pole walk has been placed by the Hd’s Bay Company, coming in sight of the waters that flow into James Bay at 9.10 a.m. we started on a small creek, the entrance to Lake St Joseph, in a short distance it expands into a wider channel with con- siderable with considerable marsh for some distance, taking advantage of a fair wind, we utilized a quilt for sail and spinning down the Lake, wh. in some of the reaches was very rough and bumpy, we tied up at for dinner at 11 40 p.m. [sic] leaving at 12.40 p.m. hoisted the improvised sail and [14] started at a spinning rate, the wind still being steady and strong, reaching a camping ground, named [space] after a thrilling experience in [illeg] ride reached and rough [illegible] reach that the high wind had lashed into a high running sea to the point forming [illegible] at 7.05 pm.

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Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin The party left Lac Seul on the morning of the 7th July en route for Osnaburg passing through Lac Seul, and reached the Height of land, via Root River on the 10th July. Thence by the waters of Lake St. Joseph, Osnaburg was reached on the 11th.

10 Osnaburgh (Mishkeegogamang) M[i]ssabay the blind chief … delivered an oration to wh[ich] the Band listened attentively … the white men were their friends, were good, had assisted them giving money and lands for their benefit, that the H.B.[C.] was good to them and that they could not get along without the white men & they must be good and obey the laws, they were poor and needed assistance and could only expect help by proving themselves good. m ac martin diary, 12 july 1905

10.1 Chief Missabay

Tuesday, 11 July, to Thursday, 13 July In 1786 the hbc had established Osnaburgh House at Miskeekagamy or Maskegwaganak1 (“Swampy”) Lake, which it dubbed Osnaburgh Lake, hoping to reduce the number of furs going to the North West Company’s post at Lake Nipigon. The hbc eventually absorbed the nwc, but its competitor’s name for the lake, St Joseph, persisted among English-speakers.2 The staff in 1901 was comprised of clerk in charge R.C. Wilson, boat builder Henry Lawson, his brother Alex, and John Kouvie (“trades with Indians”). A

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fifth man, Joseph Carpenter, was in charge of the Cat Lake outpost, ten days distant. There was also an unnamed female housekeeper, likely Fanny (who would marry widower Jabez Williams). Inspector Alex Milne recommended that fur prices, unchanged for a decade, be increased. Even though the Ojibwe trading here appeared “much less exacting than Indians elsewhere in this part of the Country,” he thought it prudent to provide them with a raise, given the recent visit of one of Christian Dahm’s traders. Beaver should be valued at 5 “made beaver” (mb, a unit of exchange equivalent to the value of the prepared skin of an adult beaver in prime condition) instead of 3, castorum at 4 a pound instead of ¼, and silver fox at 75 instead of 30, for example. In Milne’s view, trade could be increased if a “reliable man of good character” was in charge.3 At the time of the commissioners’ visit, Osnaburgh was part of the hbc’s Lake Superior district. Our petition writer, the diminutive Englishman Jabez Williams, was now in charge.4 Unfortunately, we do not have MacMartin’s account of how the terms of the treaty were explained here by Scott, through his interpreter. We do know, however, that the questions asked by the ogimaag revealed genuine concerned about the effect of this treaty on bimaadiziwin. Would they be forced to live on the reserve that would be established? No. Would their fishing or hunting be restricted? No. They “could continue to live as they and their grandfathers had done,” apparently with an ambiguous caveat: “they could make use of any lands not disposed of by the Govt.”5 Williams undoubtedly informed the commissioners that there were more Indians at Cat Lake (as they knew from inquiries at Lac Seul) and beyond. Scott’s journal entry “At Cat Lake there are 30 families of Crane6 Indians. Oombash will try to get these into Tr next year” suggests that he pre-approved such action, although the Cranes are not specifically mentioned in paymaster Ramsden’s 1906 instructions.7 In the fall of 1906 Williams reported that they wished to enter treaty the following summer, but it was now too late.8 If they had been able to reach Osnaburgh when the commissioners were there in 1905 or during Ramsden’s 1906 visit, the Cranes and perhaps even the far-flung Trout Lake Ojibwe might have been admitted to Treaty No. 9 and paid, either at Osnaburgh or at Cat Lake.9 By the fall of 1906, however, the commissioners’ work had been concluded, the treaty ratified, and the parchments filed away. Chipman was informed that the treaty commissioners had been authorized to negotiate only with “Indians residing in the province of Ontario or to those whose hunting grounds are in the Northwest Territories close to the boundaries of the province of Ontario and who trade at Posts frequented by Ontario Indians.”10 Those further afield were later referred to by Indian Affairs as “Bands, who, owing to their remote location, were not dealt with when the Treaty was made.”11 They would have to wait for the 1929–30 adhesion.

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One-third of the Ojibwe who received gratuities (113, including treaty signatory George Wahwaashkung) were classified as Ontario Indians. The majority (262, including signatories Kwiash, Missabay, Thomas Missaby, Nahokeesic, Oombash, Thomas Panacheese, David Skunk, and John Skunk) were listed as Dominion Indians.12 There were estimated to be 49 absentees, one-eighth of the band (see chapter 18). Chipman had provided good advice when he stated that discriminating against the northerners made no sense. They were enrolled as nuclear families, but anthropologist Charles Bishop estimates that there were some twenty commensal units, which would combine in the winter as nine to twelve co-residential hunting groups.13 The location of the Osnaburgh reserves, as we saw in chapter 4, was not necessarily agreed upon in 1905. Changes were coming. A dozen years after treaty-signing, the Ojibwe at Lake St Joseph began bartering fish with a free trader.14 Gold was discovered north of Osnaburgh in 1928.15 Prospector Bill Smith “discovered” gold at Onamun or Shonia Lake (Shonia reported to mean “meaning ‘money’ lake in their language”) that year, but the real credit must go to “one of the Cat lake Indians.”16 The Ojibwe word zhoon’yaa and the Cree shooniyaan (Moose Cree, shooliyaan) are glossed as “money” but are apparently derived from the Proto-Algonquian word shooliyaawa (“silver”).17 When commissioners Cain and Awrey visited Osnaburgh the following year, they paid treaty money, but the primary purpose of the visit was to allow Ontario to see first-hand the reserve on the north side of the Albany River. The commissioners also organized “a program of sports with suitable prizes.” There was “running, jumping and stone putting,” a “Baby Beauty Show,” and recognition of “the most successful hunter.” Cain and Awrey “listened to certain alleged grievances the Indians had with regard to hunting and fishing” and explained the game and forest fire laws.18 Later, one of their aircraft crashed and sank there, killing Sandy Morrison.19 Cain and Awrey returned in 1930, when “Pursuant to the practices of the white man in dealing with Indians under Treaty No. 9, the commissioners declined, though requested by some, to pay annuities on Sunday, but met the Indian worshippers on their reserve on the south side of the river and with Dr. Day delivered addresses applicable to Sunday service.”20 With the discovery of gold due north at Pickle Crow in 1928, the fate of Lake St Joseph was sealed. The Indians’ bimaadiziwin would be threatened. Provincial geologist M.E. Hurst noted that at Pickle Lake A few families of Ojibway Indians gain a livelihood by trapping in the area during the winter months. They make no attempt at agriculture and are dependent on hunting and fishing for subsistence. Their camps are located near the west end of Kapkichegimaga lake, on Pickle lake, and on Bades-

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dawa lake. They spend much of the summer season travelling to and from posts on Lake St. Joseph where they trade their furs and obtain supplies for the following winter.21 Mines require enormous amounts of hydroelectric power. Hurst found “no sites favourable for the development of hydro-electric power on Crow river.”22 The few Ojibwe were forced to yield to the needs of the many non-Indigenous Canadians. Beginning in 1934 the Hydro-Electric Power Commission (hepc) applied to the provincial government for water rights, a licence to occupy a plot of land adjacent to the water power, authority to cut timber to assist in dam construction, and a right-of-way for its transmission line. Root River was transformed to create easier access, with dams at Nattaway, Lynx, and Flower portages. Warehouses were erected on the Osnaburgh reserve, and so were wharves and landing areas, all without prior consultation with the Ojibwe.23 In 1934 the reserve was flooded by the Rat Rapids dam without prior warning to the Ojibwe, ruining “21 shacks” and the band’s council house, disturbing graves, and destroying timber resources. Trapping was much harder, islands were submerged, and it became difficult to set nets or travel along the shore of the lake. The traditional economy was forever changed. Band members were forced to seek bimaadiziwin through wage employment, if they could, or rely on social assistance.24 In 1936 a road was built through the Osnaburgh reserve without the consent of the band. In these early years, Janet Armstrong observes, the “hepc and the government of Ontario aggressively pursued their own agendas: to assist private mining interests in the region and to proceed even if the proper legal authority had not been secured. The needs of the aboriginal people were singularly ignored, or at best, considered the responsibility of the Department of Indian Affairs.”25 In 1950, when Ontario issued a commercial fishing licence to a white man, the Ojibwe began to suffer from competition for the fish of Lake St Joseph. Armstrong notes that this licence, like the dams and diversions, violated the headland-to-headland principle which Ontario and Canada had incorporated in the parchment version of Treaty No. 9 when they included a reference to their 1894 bilateral agreement. The waters between the two Osnaburgh reserves should have been recognized as part of the reserve, and the Ojibwe should have had an exclusive right to fish there.26 Following the discovery of mercury pollution from a Dryden pulp mill, commercial fishing operations at Whitedog and Grassy Narrows reserves were closed, and what was left of the commercial fishery around Osnaburgh declined as well.27 During the 1950s the hepc (later known as Ontario Hydro) looked to the headwaters of the Albany River to meet the electricity demand of mines at Lynn Lake and Thompson, Manitoba. The Root River diversion would allow Lake St Joseph to flow into Lac Seul, increasing the flow of the English and Winnipeg

Top 10.2 Lake St Joseph Bottom 10.3 Approaching Osnaburgh House

Rivers and compounding the earlier environmental, social, cultural, and economic effects on the Osnaburgh band. Complaints from the band went unanswered.28 In 1959–60 the band relocated to New Osnaburgh, on Dog Hole Lake, apparently as the result of a unilateral decision by their Indian agent.29 In 1993 the Osnaburgh band asserted its “real name,” Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation. According to the Mishkeegogaming First Nation’s website, 900 of its 1,400 members today live at several locations on-reserve.30 The historic hbc post where Treaty No. 9 was signed in 1905 is now home to The Old Post and Village Inc., a fishing resort.31 The people of Mishkeegagamang have mapped their traditional lands – or, as they assert, their “permanent tribal homelands” – and posted them to the internet.32

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I am grateful to chief Connie Gray-McKay for permission to include the following commentary: The people of Mishkeegogamang … have always been in this area, placed here by the Creator … In earlier times the people were not organized into bands as they are today. They migrated … travelling in family groups of 12-30 people depending on the circumstances, season, and availability of game … Until around 1850, the family groups were often also clan groups … Treaty Number Nine … It is important to note that the people who were there were not a “band.” They were merely a cluster of family groups who customarily traded at Osnaburgh House and who happened to be gathered there for the summer … The commissioners promised the people … that their traditional lands, a vast territory surrounding the reserves, would be theirs to use indefinitely … The 1990s and the first years of the new millennium have been times of rebuilding and hope, although many problems remain. In 1999 Ontario Hydro settled with the band for $17.25 million for the damage caused by the flooding of Lake St. Joseph. The band now deals systematically with threats to its traditional homelands; government, and the lumbering and mining companies increasingly are seeing the wisdom of dealing with the band before, rather than after, the fact.33 Scott Tuesday July 11 Up at 4.45. Left 6. Paddled until 11.15 dined. came in to Osnaburg arrived 4.30, intensely hot.34 at 5.30 had conference with chief men Oombash from Cat Lake River David Noowayah[,] Skunk John Snap [space] & others all of whom afterwards signed Treaty. ordered a feast. prepared paylist with Williams [13] Wed July 12. Fine day but very hot[.] Copied paylists. Indians had feast Missabys speech. Signed Treaty. Paid in afternoon 278. Elected chief & presented flag. At Cat Lake there are 30 families of Crane Indians. Oombash35 will try to get these into Tr next year. a nice church here. Inds held service this Evg. Note. No 17 Lac Seul one girl married at Osnaburgh No 16. wrote RSMcKenzie about this Wapunakeesic weshkung a woman came with [14] 1 boy 2 girls. Said she was paid under this name at Nepigon, about 6 years ago. Look up paysheets pay arrears & transfer her to Osnaburg.

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Thursday July 13. 05 Wet morning, heavy storm last night. Paid a few Indians. Settled with Chiefs as to Reserves, as follows. In the Province of Ont beginning at the western entrance of the Albany River running westward a distance estimated at four miles as far as the Point known as Sann [sic] Point at the eastern entrance of Pedlars Path Bay following [15] the shore of this point Southwards and around it across the narrow Entrance of a bay to a point on the East shore of the outlet of the Paukunjee- senaneseepee, thence due south the total to comprise an area of twenty square miles. In the N.W.T. beginning at a point of the centre of the foot of the first small bay west of the HBCo Post thence west a frontage of ten miles and with sufficient distance to give a total area of fifty ^three^ square miles including the [space] precious metals.36 [16] Started at 5. high wind heavy water compelled to turn back having shipped seas. 3 Inds came in to be paid. Slept in HBCos house.

Top 10.4 Signatures at Osnaburgh (Canada’s copy) Bottom 10.5 Signatures at Osnaburgh (Ontario’s copy)

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Stewart 11th July Up at 4.45 and off at 5.45 The wind for a time was again favorable, but soon vered [sic] round so that the sails had to be taken down. At 8.40 we came to the “Grand Traverse” so called from the fact that it is the widest part of the Lake, being about ten miles wide. During the morning it had been [36] cloudy and we anticipated a heavy shower. By 11 am however, it began to clear up and by noon it was bright and fair. The afternoon was excessively hot without a breath of wind to give relief. While taking lunch at noon on an island we were joined by Joe Carpenter, his wife and five children from Osnaburgh,who informed us that the Indians had been waiting for us at that place for the past three days, and that as they had little or no provisions he had come out to catch some fish to keep his family from starving.37 Joe and his family accompanied us to Osnaburgh, which place we reached about 4 p.m. We were welcomed by the whole population of the place, men, women, children [37] and dogs. Several members of our crew, including Oombash the dandy of the party belonged to Osnaburgh, and were welcomed by their friends.38 Mr Jabez Williams the H.B. officer in charge of the post at once put his house at our disposal and during our stay showed us every possible attention Osnaburg was the first point at which treaty was to be made and we felt some little anxiety as to how the Indians would receive our proposals[.] The first step taken by us was to request the Indians to appoint representative men to confer with the Commissioners. These having been selected, eight in number, a meeting was held at which the terms of the treaty were made know [sic] to them. The Indians asked several questions as to whether they would be compelled to live on the [38] reserve to be set apart for them, and as to whether their fishing and hunting privileges would be curtailed. On being informed that they could continue to live as they and their forefathers had done, and that they could make use of any lands not disposed of by the Govt they appeared to be satisfied, but asked to be given to the following day to enable them to talk over the terms of the agreement with their members of the band, which request was at once agreed to.39 They were also informed that a feast would be given to the Indians, and that the material for the same would at once be provided. On the morning of the 12th July the Inds. notified the Commissioners that they were ready to give their answer to the proposals made to them, and [39] on the meeting being again convened Chief Missabay, speaking for the Inds. said that after giving the subject full consideration they had decided that it would be much to their advantage to enter into treaty. The other representative[s] having expressed their concurrence with the remarks made by the Chief the treaty was signed and witnessed with all due formality, and payment of the

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Top 10.6 Joe Carpenter and family Bottom 10.7 Preparing for the feast at Osnaburgh

gratuity was at once proceeded with.40 ^We paid in all nearly 350 which number included an Indian[,] his three wives and seventeen children.^41 The next order of business was the feast for which preparations had been going forward from the previous day. The good things supplied include[d] bannock plain and with rasins, [sic] bacon, pork & tea. A plentiful supply of pipes and tobacco was also provided, and to all these good things ample justice was done by [40] old and young. Before partaking in the feast the old Chief Missabay, who it may be stated is totally blind, but whose wisdom is admitted by all the band, made an eloquent speech expressing the thanks of the band for the generous manner in which they had been treated, and giving advice to the young men as to their future conduct.

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The Indians had been informed that they had the privilege of electing a Chief and two Councillors. Missabay was at one [sic] named for the first position, but endeavored to have some one else selected, as he said that his affliction would prevent his performing the duties in a satisfactory manner The Inds. however including Missabay’s son who appeared devoted to his father, and who paid him every possible [41] respect and attention, urged the old man to accept the office as his wisdom would be of great value in directing the affairs of the band. The young man said that his eyes would be at the service of his father as they had been in the past. Finally Missabay finally agreed to accept the office of Chief much to the apparent satisfaction of the Indians, and was at once declared elected. John Skunk and George Wawawshkung were chosen as Councillors and at the close of this business a twelve foot Union Jack was presented to Missabay much to the delight of all the Indians. One of the most conspicuous buildings at Osnaburgh is the Church Missionary Society edifice, and we were pleased to notice that services [42] were held in it each evening that we were at the post. Oombach [sic] one of our boatmen took a prominent part in these services,42 and we were pleased to see that the people joined heartily both in the singing and in the responses. All the members of the band did not confine themselves to devotional exercises, as a dance was also held in one of hbc. buildings, at which many of the young people were present. The dancing master had evidently not visited Osnaburg recently, as the movements of the dancers were neither varied nor graceful.43

10.8 Women and children at Osnaburgh

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Dr Meindl assisted by the two policemen and Isaac Rich one of our boatmen was busily engaged during all the time we were at the [43] Post vaccinating 107 Inds. Principally women and children. The doctor also treated about forty patients who were suffering from diseases of various kinds.44 We had many evidences presented to us that Osnaburgh is an old post that has passed through many stirring scenes. Mr Williams showed us a number of blunderbusses which he had picked up along the shores of the lake. There is a high picket fence around the dwelling, store and storehouse within which the Inds. are not allowed to come without permission ^notwithstanding that [any arm{ed}?] attacks by the Inds or others have long since passed.^ The post is situated on a hill which commands a view of the lake as well as the surrounding country in the other directions. 13th July During the past day and night there had been heavy showers of [44] rain, but we were able to conclude the payments on the 13th and also to have a decision come to us as to the location of the reserve for the band Having concluded all our business at this post, we made our preparations for a departure. The Indians old and young took great interest in the loading of the canoes, and were ready to lend their assistance conveying our goods to the shore. Everything being ready at about 5.30 p.m. we made a start after many bon jours ^from the Inds^ and many good wishes from Mr Williams. On getting out into the lake, however, the high wind which prevailed was found to be so high, that the canoes were in great danger of being swamped by the heavy waves It was therefore decided to return to Osnaburgh, and with difficulty the [45] canoes were turned, and headed for the shore. We shipped a good deal of water before reaching the shore, but were thankful to have got ^back^ safely without any more serious mishap. One Indian was apparently glad of our return as he had just arrived, and as it was found that he was entitled to $7200 he was paid that amount We were not required to put up our tents as Mr Williams kindly gave us the use of his house for the night. MacMartin Tuesday 11th Camp No 9. Broke camp and resumed our journey at 5.50 a.m. and at 8.45 a.m. entered the Grand Traverse the widest part of the Lake, fortunately the wind had died down, permitting the crossing of this part of the Lake wh. is 10 miles in width and [stretching?] out on our course N. by N. East as far as the eye could ^can^ reach. [15] at 11 30 a.m. tied up for dinner, again starting off at 1 p.m. thro the narrows ^extremely warm, in fact almost^ formed by islands [illegible] and reaching ^unendurable^ Osnaberg at 4. p.m. at 3.30 rounding a low sandy point, the Hd’s B’y Post came in view ^of Post^, lining the canoes up ^with flags flying^ we moved on abrest to the landing at Osnaberg, landing at 4 ^30 pm^ p.m. w we were received by Mr Williams the

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Agent and at once proceeded to shake hands with the Indians who had assembled for the purpose of meeting the Commission shortly afterwards , a conference with the following leading Indians was held in one of the Agents rooms, OOmbash David Skunk [16] George Wawaashkung Maissabay, chief (blind) Thomas Kewooshiss Nahookeesheck Kwaish Patequash John Skunk Mr D.C. Scott having stated the object of our coming so long a distance to meet them, thro Jim Swaine as Interpreter and having ordered a feast same as ^similar to that^ as held yearly, the Indians departed, shortly afterwards sending word thro’ the Agent, Mr Williams, that they that they would ^give a^ reply the following morning Wednesday 12th Camp No 10 [Indians] [16] at 12 n. the H. B. bell tolled announcing the Feast was prepared. Chief Massabay accompanied by the leading men of the Band approached the H.B. House (Agents) being requested to take seats, and asked if they had any thing to say. Chief Massabay said, “Whatever you say we will do.[”] Mr Scott thanked them and asked if they were ready to sign the Treaty, which they did by making their mark,45 departing immediately after to the “Feast Ground” in front of H.B. Store where the band encircled the ample supply of provisions afforded for the occasion. Massabay the blind chief, moving up and down on the plank walk crossing part of ground delivered an oration to wh. the Band listened attentively,46 the pith [18] of his speech, being that the white men were their friends, were good, had assisted them giving money and lands for their benefit, that the H.B. was good to them and that they ^could not get along without the white men & they^ must be good and obey the laws, they were poor and needed assistance and could only expect help by proving themselves good. At the conclusion of the Chiefs address the Band seemed to thoroughly enjoy the Feast prepared for them. At 2.30 pm the Indians were called up by Families and every man woman and child found eligible was given a present of $8/xx. I carefully counted the no[.] of in families and checked the pay list. At 7 pm. [19] just as payment was suspended for the day, the leading men of the Band advanced to the Dom. Comrs Tent and announced that they had chosen Massabay for chief George Wawaashkung and John Skunk as councilors. on being presented with a large Union Jack as promised and the ^usual handshaking having taken place,^ left for their Tents evidently very much pleased; during the night, a very heavy

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thunder shower accompanied by high wind occurred and the Indians were seen to be moving their flag from place to place endeavouring to protect it from wind and storm.47 Thursday 13th Resumed paying the Indians this a.m. and closed up the Pay list at 12 p.m. during the morning the Chief and Councillors present a [20] conference was held re apportioning the respective Reserves, and agreed that that part of the Band that hunted in Ontario should have the Reserve as follows, In the Province of Ontario beginning at the western entrance of the Albany River running westward a distance estimated at four miles as far as the point known as Sand point at the Eastern entrance of Pedlars Pass Bay following the shore of this point Southward and around it across the narrow entrance of a Bay to a point on east shore of the outlet of PauKunKee Scepee, thence due south a total to comprise [21] an area of twenty square miles and on the north shore, the following, In the North West Territory. Beginning at a point in the centre of the foot of the first small Bay West of the Hd’s B. Post, thence west a frontage of ten miles and North sufficient distance to give a total area of Fifty three [square] miles, including precious metals. I examined the Ontario Reserve as carefully as time and circumstances permitted, & confirm the information given by Mr Williams Agent at the Post that the timber is small and of little value, the land unfit for Agricultural purposes. Dr Mendle, paid a visit to the Indian Encampment, attending [22] to all cases presented and before leaving vaccinated 107 of the Band The Indians were carefully counted by families the N West Ty. No [blank] Ontario 113. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin This was the first point at which Treaty was to be made48 and we found the Indians assembled in force, very few being absent of all who traded at the Post. Those who were absent had been to the Post for their usual supplies earlier in the summer and had gone back to their own territory in the vicinity of Cat Lake. Owing to the water connection with Lac Seul, these Indians were familiar with the provisions of Treaty No. 3, and it was feared that more difficulty might be met with at that point than almost any other on account of the terms which the Commissioners were empowered to offer not being quite so favorable as those of the older Treaty.49 The annuity in Treaty No. 3 is $5.00 per head and only $4.00 was to be offered in the present instance. The proposed Treaty did not provide for an issue of implements, cattle, ammunition or seed-grain. As there was, therefore, some uncertainty as to the result, the Commissioners requested the Indians to select from their number a group of representative men to whom the Treaty might be explained. Shortly after, those nominated

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presented themselves and the terms of the Treaty were interpreted. They were then told that it was the desire of the Commissioners that any point on which they required further explanations should be freely discussed, and any questions asked which they desired to have answered. Missabay, the recognized Chief of the Band, then spoke expressing the fears of the Indians that if they signed the Treaty50 they would be compelled to reside upon the reserve to be set apart for them and would be deprived of the fishing and hunting privileges which they now enjoy. On being informed that their fears in regard to both these matters were groundless, as their present manner of making their livelihood would in no way be interfered with, the Indians talked the matter over among themselves, and then asked to be given till the following day to prepare their reply. This request was at once acceded to and the meeting adjourned. The next morning the Indians signified their readiness to give their reply to the Commissioners and the meeting being again convened the Chief spoke stating that full consideration had been given the request made to them to enter into Treaty with His Majesty, and they were prepared to sign as they believed that nothing but good was intended. The money they would receive would be of great benefit to them, and the Indians were all very thankful for the advantages they would receive from the Treaty. The other representative[s] having signified that they were of the same mind as Missabay, the Treaty was then signed and witnessed with all due formality and payment of the annuities was at once proceeded with. The election of Chiefs also took place, the Band being entitled to one Chief and two Councillors. The following were elected:- Missabay, John Skunk and George Wawaashkung. After this the feast which usually accompanies such formalities was given by the Indians. The presentation of a flag, one of the provisions of the Treaty, which was to be held by the Chief for the time being as an emblem of his authority. Before the feast began this was presented to Missabay, the newly elected Chief, with words of advice suitable for the occasion. Missabay received the flag and made an eloquent speech in which he extolled the manner in which the Indians had been treated by the Government; advised the young men to listen well to what the white men had to say and to follow their advice and not to exalt their own opinions above those of men who knew the world and had brought them such benefits.51 Missabay, who is blind, has great control over his Band, and he is disposed to use his influence in the best interests of the Indians. At Osnaburgh the civilizing work of the Church Missionary Society was noticeable. A commodious church was one of the most conspicuous buildings at the Post and the Indians held service in it every evening. This Post was in charge of Mr. Jabez Williams who rendered great service to the party by inter-

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preting whenever necessary. He also gave up the commodious residence of the Post-master for the use of the party. On the morning of the 13th July the question of the location of the reserves was gone fully into and the Indians showed great acuteness in describing the location of the land they desired to have reserved for them. Their final choice is shown in the Schedule of Reserves which is annexed to this report.

osnaburgh to fort hope Friday, 14 July, to Monday, 17 July Scott 14 July Friday Up at 5, left at 7, lovely calm morning. Pooyack No 71 Lac Seul wants to be transf[erre]d to Osnaburgh B[an]d & Names of points on the Albany Pull & be Damned rapid, Hughies Creek52 Lick at the ^hole^. Deep & Shoal Lake. Camped at 7.00 after a long day. 15 July Sat. Up at 5.45. ^Left 6.^ Saw a Lem[m]ing. caught a trout grey day threatening rain. [17] Passed thro Elbow Lake53 11.30 to 12. heavy sea. met a filthy Indian Family. Poplar Rapid 4.40 White Cariboo Rapid 6.10. Camped Cow Byre Ptg 7.10. Sunday July 16 Up at 5 ^4.45^ Started at 7. Shakespere’s Rapid 7 30 ran all day. very hot. Spoon Lake, 2. camped as the 2nd Snake Portage54 about 6. Monday July 17 Up at 4.45. (Left at 6.20.)55 3d Snake Portage at 6.45. Lake Miminiska,56 10.20 Fair wind sailing. After dinner paddled Sandy Narrows Lake. Camped 7.15.

10.9 Atikokiwam Lake to Eabamet Lake. This 1935 map shows the Fort Hope reserve already surveyed.

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Stewart Friday, 14th July. The weather conditions being much more favorable, we made another start at about 7 am and were again in the Albany River at about 7.25 am. We encountered several small rapids, one of these being known as “Pull and be damned rapids.” We reached Hughie or Hugh’s Falls at 8.15 where a portage had to be [46] made of the baggage and small canoe. The two large canoes were run down the rapids by the Indians at apparently considerable risk both to themselves and the canoes. We had not gone very far after leaving this portage when a black bear was seen swimming across the river ahead of us. There was at once great excitement among the Inds. and an effort was made to head off the animal. The bear, however, was too quick for us and soon was on shore ^where^ it took to the woods and was lost to sight. We ran a succession of rapids, which while giving us a little excitement, were not at all dangerous. We also crossed several lakes known as Deep and Shoal or Deer Tent[.]57 The morning was an ideal one – [47] warm and bright. Large sturgeon were seen to jump out of the water close to our canoes, and doubtless this is a favorite place for the Inds as several houses or huts, now unoccupied, ^were seen^ along the shore. An Indian grave58 on an island [erased] testified to ^the^ fact that trouble also visits these out of the way places just as it does to more settled districts. The scenery on this portion of the river was very picturesque, but the day was so excessively hot that we could not appreciate it as much as we we [sic] otherwise would have done. We camped for the night beside one of the many rapids, some members of the party feeling pretty well used up from the effects of the heat. 15th July. We started at 5.45 am and again had the pleasure of [48] running a number of rapids[.] The first of our portages this day is known as “Lickit the Hole,” from the fact that a keg of rum was allowed to fall ^on the rocks^ here, and some of the contents ^being^ were saved by the Indians in the manner indicated by the name. We also crossed Cow Byre portage, so called from its unvarying dirtiness, and soon came to Shakespear[e] Fall where a portage again had to be made[.] Some of the rapids we ran gave us some exciting moments, as the element of danger seemed to enter to a considerable extent On Elbow Lake we came across some of the most miserable looking Indians we had yet seen. They were living on the fish which are plentiful in this lake, but their clothing was scarcely sufficient to cover [49] their nakedness. We gave them a good dinner of biscuits, canned goods and tea, of which they partook in a manner to prove that they had great confidence in their digestive organs.59 16th July. Up at 4.45 and had a good bath in ^a^ natural bathing house.

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The day was fine and warm and at 7.45 we left, and soon encountered a series of portages. The mosquitoes which were here in millions, gave us a hearty welcome, in fact their attentions caused us no little annoyance[.] The weather was also much too warm for comfort, but to make up for these discomforts, the lake and river scenery was very fine indeed. Early in the evening we came to the ^[Five?]^ Snake Rapids, & falls, three in number, and by the time [50] our goods were portaged to the foot of the first ^second^ fall, it was time to put up our tents for the night[.] This was certainly an ideal camping ground. The scenery could scarcely be surpassed for beauty. The falls and rapids are magnificent, and the hills which form the back ground were a blaze of wild flowers, forming a picture well worth seeing. In addition to the beauty of the scenery, we had also the great comfort derived from the fact that there were very few mosquitoes here to trouble us. The Snake rapids received their name from the fact that two Inds of that tribe60 were carried over the ^second^ falls and drowned. 17th July Up at 4.45 after a good night’s rest, and were on our way at [51] 6.30 am. Another beautiful, bright day. Reached last of the Snake Rapids at 6.35. Sturgeon are said to be very plentiful at the foot of these falls, but we did not make any attempt to prove whether this is a fact or not. A short run brought us to Mimi^ni^ska, or Berry Lake, and the wind being favorable we soon had our sails set and were carried along at a good speed. At 12.15 we were across the Lake and into the narrows, and at 12:30 we landed at at [sic] a rocky point for lunch. A short paddle brought us to the Upper Kwiwoocho [?] rapids where a portage had to be made. This brought us to a narrow river with ^high^ clay banks on which we journeyed till 7.15 when we camped for the night. MacMartin Friday 14th Left Post at 7 a.m, crossing the Lake to the mouth of the River wh is divided by an Island into two Channels, banks, low and swampy. running down the river reached portage over Hughie’s Creek Rapids. here, some thirty years ago an atrocious murder was committed by the Snake Indians, they having tied a man and woman back to back threw them into the rapids. leaving the portage and running down the river came to [23] Deep and Shoal Lake, a beautiful sheet of water stretching out a distance of 4 miles in length. leaving the Lake the river is shallow and full of boulders, owing to the low state of the water; after running several rapids tied up for dinner high sandy Bank denuded of timber by fire at 11 30 a.m. here the channel is divided by Islands, at the foot of wh. the opening into Terrible Tent Falls running down same reached portage No 2 over Smooth Rock Falls on cutting off bend of River on wh there are said to be Three Falls. taking to the boats again ran Whirlpool Rapids and camped at 7 00 p.m. on bald rocky bank. very warm all day. [24]

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Saturday 15. Broke camp at 5 a.m. passing down the River thro’ the rapids at 6 30 a.m. crossed Lick in the hole portage over High Rock Falls. Here the first Trout was caught by Dr Mendle. crossing two portages over rapids and running then over Canoe Lake which was lashed into fury by the high wind, rendering the passage very dangerous. tied up for dinner at 12:10 pm. taking to the canoes and running a series of rapids. Camped at foot of Cow Byre rapids 7 10 [25] Sunday 16th Broke camp at 6 30 am, the river as is usually the case, at head and foot of rapids is divided into two channels by an Island. Timber as usual of little value, small Spruce, Poplar, Birch & Jack Pine. tied up for dinner 11.30 ^a.m^ resuming our canoes at 1.20 pm passed down the ‘River’ for a short distance passing down a small Lake, and running several rapids, crossed two portages over upper and middle snake rapids, tied up for the night at 7 pm on the latter portage [26] Monday 17th Breakfast 5.15 am. Broke camp 6.15 am, reaching lower snake portage. over rapids 6 45 am the Falls have carved their course thro’ and over slate beds. while crossing the portage I noticed some small quartz stringers thro’ the slate, shewing no pyrite, only indicating the possible existence of mineral in the [27] locality. the river below the Falls is rapid for some distance, then entering Lake Miminiska passing up down same tied up for dinner in the river at 12 n. Immediately after resuming our course passed thro’ a small Lake came to portage over Sturgeon & Bullrush Falls. the portage 1 mile long over a fairly good trail. large spruce, Poplar and Cotton wood are found. up to this point with a rare exception the banks of the river and Lakes are low and marshy timber small and of no commercial value. leaving the portage the channel of the river runs thro’ [28] a narrow gorge, formed by the high clay banks, into Sandy Narrows Lake passing over about 8 miles of the Lake. the guide having gone off the regular route, tied up for the night at the foot of a low marshy Bay at 7.10 p.m. Weather fine and excessively hot. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We left Osnaburg on the morning of the 13th July and entered the Albany River which drains Lake St. Joseph and, after passing many rapids and magnificent lake stretches of this fine River, we reached Fort Hope at five o’clock on the afternoon of the 18th. [paragraph continues]

11 Fort Hope (Eabametoong) Mo[o]nias, said, I should like to consult with my Aunts and cousins. if I buy as small an article as a needle I have to pay for same. you come here offering money we have not asked for[.] I do not understand, and should like to have it explained. after an explanation, he along with the others signified his assent and the Treaty was signed. m ac martin diary, 19 july 1905

11.1 Moonias

Tuesday, 18 July, to Thursday, 20 July In 1894 the hbc had established Fort Hope at Eabamet1 Lake, and by 1900 it operated a northern outpost, known as Lansdowne House, on Attawapiskat Lake. The 600 Ojibwe, comprised of “127 heads of families … on the Company’s Books,” who traded here came from a large surrounding area. Supplies were “advanced to an influential Indian to trade at the headwaters of the Atha Wapiscut River.” The clerk in charge at Fort Hope made occasional trips there in winter

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to “collect the hunts and carry some necessaries to the Indians there, thus encouraging them to persecute [sic] the hunt more vigorously and also with the purpose in view of securing for the Company the hunt as it is killed.” This practice limited the number of furs traded, at a higher tariff, at Lake Nipigon, only four days distant by canoe.2 It also discouraged the Ojibwe from going there for summer employment “as guides and canoemen to prospectors, tourists and others … If Indians once go on this employment they will be very likely to go again.”3 At the time of the commissioners’ visit, Fort Hope was part of the hbc’s Lake Superior district.4 Charles Gordon, a thirty-nine-year-old Scotsman, was in charge.5 By the turn of the twentieth century, the hbc was trying to economize. Company inspector Alex Milne found that the post had been “conducted with some extravagance in every detail … Mess,6 Servants, Expenses, Indian Labor, Gratuities, all appear too high.” Imported goods were “abused in the payment and rationing of Indians employed unremuneratively in Summer and in conducting the freight at too great expense.”7 The commssioners met the highly skeptical Moonias and ten other ogimaag, who were “very much concerned as to what they were expected to give up for the benefits they were to receive.”8 Oblate father F.X. Fafard,9 visiting from his headquarters at Fort Albany, is reported to have explained that they were being asked “to surrender their title to their unused lands.”10 (Indigenous clergyman the Reverend Edward Richards,11 although stationed at Fort Hope, arrived after treatymaking had concluded.) Stewart also reports that the ogimaag were “informed that by signing the treaty they would acknowledge themselves to be subjects of His Majesty the King, and their willingness to embrace the laws made by him.”12 Moonias said, “I should like to consult with my Aunts and cousins,” but the mistake made at Osnaburgh would not be repeated. MacMartin reports that the ogimaag were refused time to discuss these matters with others and reach consenus. The commissioners had no time for delay if they were to make treaty at Mattagami that summer, as Scott hoped. MacMartin makes no mention of surrendering lands, becoming subjects, or observing the law. By his account, the commissioners were simply sent by the king “to see how his people were and to enter into a Treaty with them … to help his subjects and see that they were happy and comfortable.” Apparently satisfied that they would receive money and a reserve (“for their sole use and benefit a tract of land 1 square mile to each family of 5 that no white man should put his foot on with-out their permission”), the ogimaag indicated they were ready to accept the treaty. A twelfth name was added the next day when Katchang, who had been absent when the other ogimaag met with the commissioners, grudgingly “touched the pen.” He reluctantly accepted treaty money after being chosen ogimaakaan and was pressured by the commissioners to sign, unsuccessful in his attempt to negotiate a chief’s annuity of $8.13 Almost all of these Ojibwe who received gratuities (355, including treaty

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signatories John Ashpanaqueshkum, Abraham Atlookan, Wenangasie Drake, Joe Goodwin,14 Katchang, Moonias, Noah Neshinapais, Harry Ooskineegish, George Quisees, and Yesno) were Dominion Indians who spent the year north of the Albany River. A much smaller number (35, including signatories George Namay and Jacob Rabbit) wintered in Ontario.15 The commissioners estimated that 244, more than a third of the Ojibwe on the hbc census, did not appear at treaty time (see chapter 18). Within five years of treaty-signing, their bimaadiziwin was threatened, judging from a statement in the Fort Hope baptismal register: John Boyce came here last night and asked if he could write to the department of Indian Affairs regarding the Game and Fisheries Laws which is seriously colliding with the Indians and does not conform to the promises made to the Indians as it was interpreted to them in their first treaties with his band. I think he has a good case if he follows it as the Indians should always be allowed to hunt for food.16 In a few years Boyce’s premature death left his wife and four children without support.17 In 1929 commissioner H.N. Awrey paid annuities at Fort Hope and at Lansdowne House, where half the members of the Fort Hope band were gathered; he considered several others at Lansdowne House to be members of the Big Trout Lake band. The Lansdowne House people elected two of the Fort Hope band’s four councillors that year.18 By this time, provincial geologists were referring to the “Fort Hope gold area.” Fort Hope was no longer supplied from Fort Albany. After the completion of the National Transcontinental Railway, freight came and went by way of the Ombabika River route to the south. Later, supplies arrived by horse or tractor power using a winter road from Tashota, on the same line, by this time part of the Canadian National Railways. Fort Hope had also become a provincial air base, complete with radio communication; it was established by the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests to fight forest fires in the region.19 In 1930, when Awrey again paid annuities at Fort Hope, he and commissioner Walter Cain encountered some “pagan” Indians (“Less careful in their dress, cleanliness and manners than the Christian Indians”) and had one of their pontoons damaged by “Indians and half-breeds who were racing in outboard motor canoes.” The commissioners refused a request from the Lansdowne House people for a separate reserve.20 The Fort Hope band is now known as the Eabametoong (“reversing of the waterflow”) First Nation. The Lansdowne House people were later recognized as a separate band, now the Neskatanga First Nation.21 Eabametoong chief Lewis Tate provides this commentary:

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Four communities [Eabametoong, Neskatanga, Nibinamik, and Webequie First Nations] have formed a collaborative relationship relating to unprecedented levels of mining activity in their traditional lands … The chiefs of the communities said the partnership was necessary to ensure that future generations inherit a safe and healthy environment … This new partnership will see that our communities will share long-term benefits of community economic development and ensure a collective approach that reflects the shared responsibilities of each First Nation to allow access to their shared traditional territories.22 Scott Tuesday July 18 Up at 5 4.45 Left 6.15 High wind. Rain for an hour [18] Arrived at Fort Hope. 5. Wed. 19 July ’05 Up at 7. Wet & cold. Signed Treaty in the morning. Made pay-lists. Paid in afternoon. C.H.M. Gordon in chg of this Post. Thursday 20 Up at 7. Fine day. Paid in the morning. Indian[s] Feasted & Elected Chief &c. Arranged reserve, as follows. In the N.W.T beginning at Kitchesagi on the north shore of Lake Eabamet extending Eastward along the shore of the Lake ten 10 miles; lines to be run at right angles from these points to contain sufficient land to provide one sq mile for [19] each family of five upon the ascertained population of the Band.

11.2 Signatures at Fort Hope (Canada’s copy)

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Stewart 18th July. Suffered a good deal from [52] mosquitoes during the night. The morning was windy and cool, and not at all pleasant. We got off at 6.15 a.m. crossed Wahpatanga or Whitebank Lake,23 sometimes called Peesketang^a^ or Broken Bank Lake. This lake is about 4 miles across. We next came to a narrow reedy river and shortly after 8 am reached a rapids & here our goods had to be portaged[.] It was now warm and fine, but it soon clouded over again, and we travelled in a shower of rain for about half an hour. We had next an exciting run down a pretty swift piece of water, which brought us to Tom Richard’s24 Falls, our last portage before reaching Fort Hope. These falls received their name from one Richards having in bravado induced the crew of his boat, containing five men besides himself, to run the falls, the result being that five men were drowned, Richard’s himself being the only one to reach the shore in safety. We resumed our journey at 4 p.m. and having crossed another lake,25 we again entered a narrow stream which opened out into a river flowing out of Lake Eabamet. We had next to ascend a difficult rapid after which we entered the Lake. A furious storm had meanwhile come up and we were in the midst of a scene grand to look upon, but which contained elements of danger as well. Dark angry clouds were to be seen overhead, and one flash of lightening [sic] succeeded another with very short intervals between. The waves too, were tossing and troubling our canoes so that [54] it was with difficulty they could be guided towards Fort Hope harbour which we could see in the distance. We were very thankful indeed when we reached shelter at about 5 p.m. We received a very hearty welcome from Mr ^C.H.M.^ Gordon who was in charge

11.3 Signatures at Fort Hope (Ontario’s copy)

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of the post, and who with a number of Indians had been watching our struggles to prevent being swamped by the high waves. Fort Hope is an important post of the HBCo., it ^being the^ meeting place of a large number of Inds whose hunting grounds are on both sides of the Albany, and as far as the head waters of the Winisk River Here, as at Osnaburg, we asked the Indians to select representative [55] men to meet the Commissioners in order that the terms of the treaty might be explained to them. 19th July Met with the Indian representatives in the HBCo.’s house. Father ^F.X.^ Fafard of the Roman Catholic Mission at Albany also being present. Very full explanations were asked by the Indians present, they being very much concerned as to what they were expected to give up for the benefits they were to receive. It required some time to convince them that there was not something behind the terms of the agreement set forth in the treaty, for as Moonias, one of the principal men of the band stated, they were not giving up very much for what they were to receive, and it had never been his experience to receive something for nothing. Father Fafard, fully explained to the Inds the nature of the treaty, and [56] the reasons for asking them to surrender the title to their unused lands. They were also informed that by signing the treaty they would be acknowledging themselves to be subjects of His Majesty, the King, and their willingness to observe the laws made by him Several of the Indians spoke expressing their pleasure that they were to receive annuity money and also at the fact that they were to have lands reserved for their own use The Indians then signified their willingness to sign the treaty, which was accordingly done. The remaining portion of the day was occupied in preparing lists of the Indians, making out pay tickets,26 ^paying certain of the Inds^ and in arranging for the feast. We We also visited the RC. Church, and [57] were much struck with the decorations which were done by ^the work of^ one of the priests or lay brothers with very little material at his disposal for the purpose.27 We also visited the English Church28 which is reached by quite an extensive bridge which was built by Rev Mr Richards, with the assistance of members of his family[.] As might be expected the greater part of the night was occupied by the Indians with the inevitable dance in which our canoe men took a prominent part. 20 d[itt]o A beautiful, bright day. During the day we were engaged in the duty of paying those of the Indians who had not been paid on the previous day The feast was also held and gave great satisfaction to those who shared in it. During the feast elections for the positions of Chief and Counsellors were held resulting in the choice of Katchang, [58] Yesno, Joe Goodwin, Benj Ooskinegish and Geo. Quisees.29 These all spoke expressing their pleasure that the

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Top 11.4 Men and boys at Fort Hope Bottom 11.5 Women and children at Fort Hope i

treaty had been made with them, and promising to faithfully adhere to the conditions contained therein. A decision was also arrived at as to the reserve to be set apart for the band, and this concluded our business at this place. It may be said that the HBCo. did a big business after the treaty money had been paid. From appearances nearly all the money paid out by us was soon in the hands of the Company.

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Here as at Osnaburgh, the doctor had been a very busy man vaccinating the women and children, and in prescribing for many of all ages who were in need of his services [59] MacMartin Tuesday 18th Broke camp at 6 a.m. facing a strong east wind proceeded down the Lake. (this lake is of larger proportions than Lake Miminiska) crossing portage over rapids [29] the River below the roughest part of the rapids has still a very strong current for a short stretch to Lake named by Indians Little Elbow Lake, passing across same reached portage at 11 a.m., over rapids named Tom Richards Rapids he alone escaping from drowning out of a party of six who attempted to run the rapids, 30 years past. After dinner at 12 50 p.m. pulled out passing down a chain of small Lakes and running up a small but rapid River entered Lake Ebamet, a beautiful sheet of water that might be styled an inland sea, passing in an Easterly ^Westerly^ direction, with canoes lined up [30] and flags flying, expecting any moment to be driven ashore by the heavy wind that had sprung up and was lashing the waters of the bay into foam, causing the canoes to ship water, touched the still waters of a small creek winding its tortuous course to the dock where we were welcomed by Mr Gordon the Manager of the H. B.C. Post. A number of the Indians having assembled on our arrival after the usual hand shaking had been gone thro’ with, we retired to the Agents House. Camps pitched in the yard in front of the House at 6 pm.[31] This Post in addition to H.B.Coy. buildings has two churches, R. C. and English. Father Fafard, the missionary who resides at Albany arrived this p.m. The English missionary is at present absent at Martens Falls[.] I visited both churches. in the Episcopal church maps with the Indian alphabet30 hung upon the walls as the Edifice being used at times as a mission school. [short space] the missionary assisted by a boy [short space] has built a substantial Bridge to the Church, situated on a ^peninsula^ across the creek from the Fort. morning and ev’g service is held by the resident Indians [32] Wednesday 19th This morning the representative Indians who were not absent from the Fort assembled and a conference was held Mr Scott thro’ an Interpreter (Sinclair Ritch) stated to them that the King had sent the Commission to see how his people were and to enter into a Treaty with them, and that the King wished to help his subjects and see that they were happy and comfortable, giving them as a present this year $8. per [33] capita and an annuity for ever of $4. per annum. also setting aside for their sole use and benefit a tract of land 1 square mile to each family of 5 that no white man should put his foot on without their permission. the Indians were then asked if they had any thing to say. “Yesno,”

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replied that he was willing to enter into Treaty and advised the others to act likewise. Monias, said, I should like to consult with my Aunts and cousins. if I buy as small an article as a needle I have to pay for same. you come here offering money we have not asked for I do not understand, and should like to have it explained. after an [34] explanation, he along with the others signified his assent and the Treaty was signed. After handshaking they departed to prepare for their Feast and to talk over the election of Chief and Councillors. In the afternoon the pay lists having been completed, Mr Scott commenced paying the Indians who were called up in families and carefully counted the Indians received their present of money with that stolid indifference characteristic of their race, sometimes smiling as they looked at the bills and received their ticket numbered for future use and identification, some of them one or two returned the money [35] thinking that they had not received their just due, not being able to distinguish between one and two dollar bills, but in every instance it was found to be correct and they turned away perfectly satisfied. lists were closed for the day at 610 pm. Thursday 20th Resumed paying at 9 a.m. and continued until 12 n when the feast was announced and the Band encircling the [36] the [sic] provisions wh. were piled up in the centre of the plot facing the H.B. Store. when the feast was nearly over Katchang who was absent when the Treaty was signed and refused to accept the present of $8 offered, came with his family and said he was willing to accept the money as his brothers had done after receiving same, he thanked the Commissioners saying that he would put the money to good use. his wife also said she would use her influence with the women of the Band to make them good. the feast being over, word was brought from the Indians by Mr

11.6 Feast at Fort Hope

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Gordon [37] Mg’r H.B.C that they had elected Katchang – Chief Yesno ) Joe Goodman ) Ooskineegish Benjamin ) Councillors Quisces George ) Returning to the feast ground and explaining that the chief was to rule over the Band for three years and that the flag a twelve foot Union Jack wh. was presented to him was to be turned over to his successor provided he and the councilors were not reelected at the end of that term, then shaking hands with them retired [38] shortly after the chief and his councillors came to our camp and informed us they had after consultation decided upon the land they desired to have as a reservation asking for a water frontage of 100 miles. on being told that it was impossible to grant a tract of land of the dimensions asked for and having again explained that a reserve was simply a home for them on wh. no white man could hunt or cut timber, or build without their permission and that 1 square mile per each family [39] of five was the basis on wh. the size of the land would be alotted [sic], the chief then said he was satisfied and after some discussion we proposed that the following land should be granted as their Reservation. Fort Hope, in the N.W.Ty beginning at Kitchesagi on the north shore of Lake Eabamet, extending eastward along the shore of the Lake 10 miles; lines to be run at right angles from these two points to contain sufficient land to provide one square mile for each family of five upon the ascertained [40] population of the Band. the Indians all assented. the chief who was absent when the Treaty was signed when asked to endorse same, replied, that as long as he was Chief he was to be paid the same amount as received at this payment, but when it was maid [sic] plain to him that the amt paid this year was a present from the King and that in future he would receive as long as he lived an annuity of $4 per annum, he assented & also said what use is my name on the Treaty I was not present when the terms were explained. when he understood that [41] he as chief elect should show his appreciation of terms in Treaty and also sanction said terms as the head of the Band, he immediately touched the pen, saying I will do all in my power to have the Band obey the laws and be good Indians. at 7 30 p.m Mr Richards English Church Missionary arrived from Marten’s Falls and was given a hearty welcome by the Indians who seem to have the highest esteem and regard for him. he had been called to Marten’s Falls by the Bishop[.] [42] Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin This important Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company is situated on the shore of Lake Eabamet and is the meeting point of a large number of Indians, certainly 700, who have their hunting grounds on both sides of the Albany and as far as

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11.7 Women and children at Fort Hope ii

the head waters of the Winisk River. The post was in charge of Mr. C.H.M. Gordon. The same course of procedure was followed as at Osnaburg. The Indians were requested to select representatives to whom the business of the Commission might be explained, and on the morning of the l9th the Commissioners met a representative number of Indians in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s house. Here the Commissioners had the benefit of the assistance of Reverend Father F.X. Fafard of the Roman Catholic Mission at Albany, whose thorough knowledge of the Cree and Ojibeway tongues was of great assistance during the discussion. A more general conversation in explanation of the terms of the Treaty followed than had occurred at Osnaburg. Moonias, one of the most influential Chiefs, asked a number of questions. He said that ever since he was able to earn anything, and that was from the time he was very young, he had never been given something for nothing; that he always had to pay for everything that he got, even if it was only a paper of pins. “Now,” he said, “you gentlemen come to us from the King offering to give us benefits for which we can make no return. How is this?” Father Fafard thereupon explained to him the nature of the Treaty, and that by it the Indians were giving their faith an[d] allegiance to the King and for giving up their title to a large area of land of which they could make no use, they received benefits that served to balance anything which they were giving. “Yesno”, who received his name from his imperfect knowledge of the English language, which consisted altogether in the use of the words “yes” and “no”, made an excited speech in which he told the Indians that they were to receive cattle and implements, seed-grain and tools. Yesno had evidently travelled and

11.8 Men at Fort Hope

had gathered an erroneous and exaggerated idea of what the Government was doing for Indians in other parts of the country but, as the undersigned wished to guard carefully against any misconception or against making any promises which were not written in the Treaty itself, it was explained that none of these issues were to be made, as the Band could not hope to depend upon agriculture as a means of subsistence; that hunting and fishing, in which occupations they were not to be interfered with, should for very many years prove lucrative sources of revenue. The Indians were informed that by signing the Treaty they pledged themselves not to interfere, with white men who might come into the country surveying, prospecting, hunting or in other occupations; that they must respect the laws of the land in every particular and that their reserves were set apart for them in order that they might have a tract in which they could not be molested and where no white man would have any claims with[out] the consent of their tribe and of the Government. After this very full discussion the Treaty was signed and payment was commenced. The payment was finished on the next day and the Indian feast took place at which the Chiefs selected were Katchang, Yesno, Joe, Goodwin, Benj. OOskinegisk, and George Quisees. The newly elected chiefs made short speeches expressing their gladness at the conclusion of the Treaty and their determination to be true to its terms and stipulations. It is considered worthy of record to remark on the vigorous and manly qualities displayed by these Indians throughout the negotiations. Although undoubtedly at times they suffer from lack of food owing to the circumstances under which they live; yet they appeared contented and enjoy a certain degree of comfort. Two active missions are established at Fort Hope, the Anglican under the charge of Rev. Mr. Richards who is resident, and the Roman Catholic under the charge of Rev. Father Fafard who visits from the mission at Albany.

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11.9 Eabamet Lake to Ogoki Forks. This 1935 map shows “Martin Falls,” where Treaty No. 9 was signed in 1905 and a reserve first surveyed, and the relocated Marten Falls reserve downriver, opposite the mouth of the Ogoki River.

fort hope to marten falls Friday, 21 July, to Monday, 24 July Scott Friday 21. Up at 5 prepared to start. Left at 1115 called on Rev Mr Richards C.of.E. Mr Gordon says about 12 July best time to see his Inds. notice sh[oul]d be sent in the winter. made good time today. camped 7.15. Sat 22 Elizabeths birthday.31 heavy wind & rain. in camp all day. in the night tent blew down. rained all night. Sunday 23. Struck camp 10.30. dull & cold. travelled all day in rain & wind. Camped 7.20 [20] Monday 24. Started 5.45, fine m[orn]ing sun & cold wind. Ran rapids all m[orn]ing, & all after- noon. [heavy?] water, had to portage twice & walked over several. camped 7.45 Stewart 21 We were up early in order to make our preparations for continuing our journey. Rev Mr Richards had arrived the previous evening, and we had a conversation with him regarding Indian matters generally. At 11.15 our preparations were completed and we embarked for the next stage of our journey.

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Top 11.10 York boat and canoe on Lake Eabamet Bottom 11.11 Two York boats and canoe on Lake Eabamet

There was a good deal of excitement all morning as two large York boats were also to leave for Albany for supplies. We were given a good send-off by a large crowd of Indians. Passing through Lake Eabamet we again reached the Albany. When we stopped for lunch at l pm we were overtaken ^and passed^ by the York boats and a canoe from Fort Hope, but these were overtaken again by us during the afternoon[.] It began to cloud over during the [60] afternoon, and when we camped about 7 pm there was every sign that we were about to have a storm. 22nd Rained all night, and still raining heavily in the morning so that we were unable to proceed.

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During the morning we were again passed by the York boats, the Indians not taking account, apparently of the fact that the rain was coming down in torrents. We put in a rather miserable day as in addition to the rain, the weather turned quite cold. At night a storm of wind came up which blew down our large tent, and compelled its occupants to stand shivering in the rain while matters were being put to rights 23. Although it was still raining and there was a pretty high wind we decided to break camp, and proceed on our journey[.] [61] A start was made about 10.15. The weather cold and showery all day so that although we were passing through a rather interesting district, we could not enjoy the scenery to the extent we otherwise would have done[.] We ran a number of rapids which required all the skill of our canoemen to navigate properly. We also passed through several big lakes. One of these, Makokabahtun,32 or the lake where the keg went ashore, is about eighteen miles in length, with sandy or gravelly banks. Here as elsewhere along the lake wild roses were to be seen in great profusion. We saw several dogs on one of the islands on the lake, and they also saw us and showed evidences of wanting to join our party. They ran along the island barking to attract our attention, and when the end of the island was reached they jumped or waded into the water and swam after us for quite a distance[.] [62] We expected to see the owners of the dogs somewhere along the lake or river but in this we were disappointed.33 Mile after mile was travelled without any sign being discovered that there were any other human beings in the district but ourselves. More than once the words of the Ancient Marriner34 [sic] occurred to us: We were the first That ever burst Into the silent sea. We came in sight however, of a grave on a prominent point of the shore of the mainland, but whether it was that of a white or an Indian we had no means of knowing. It may [be?] the former, that of some voyageur or trader who died far from friends or kindred. “The Indian knows his place of rest, far in the cedar shade.”35 We camped at 7.30 on a beautiful [63] sandy beach with a background of wild roses and other flowers. 24 A beautiful, bright morning, a great contrast to the previous day. We were up at 4.30 and ready to proceed at 5.45[.] In almost one hour’s time we arrived at the end of the lake and for several miles were in an almost continuous rapid. At the foot of this we entered Gloucester Lake.36 By this time a cold north wind had sprung up so that it was far from pleasant. The foot of the lake brought us to another rapid at the lower end of which we met [in?] with a boat on its way to Fort Hope.

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At 11.30 we arrived at a portage which having crossed we were ready for lunch which was also ^was^ soon ready for us At 1 p.m. we continued our journey on a beautiful river the water of which was [64] clear and cold. The weather also was beautiful, warm and bright, so that we had every reason for feeling happy and contented. At 1.30 we reached Mooswahkeeng Falls where part of our goods were portaged, and the balance was allowed to remain in the canoes which were run over the rapids. Smooth Stone falls was reached at 4 p.m. This is a beautiful fall with picturesque surroundings. The portage too is a pleasant one to walk over as there is a smooth rock all the way. We encountered a succession of rapids during the afternoon Although we were informed that we were within a short distance of the HB post at Marten’s Falls, we decided to camp at 7 p.m. and to make the run in to the post in the early [65] morning. Signs of our nearness to the post were seen in an Indian encampment close to where our tents were put up. We soon had a visit from the owner of the tents with the usual request for something to eat. We had also many visits from numerous mosquitoes that also had evidently been fasting for some time, and were therefore ready to make the most of the opportunity for obtaining a good meal. MacMartin Friday 21st This a.m. Mr Richards called upon us at the H.B. Company Residence. had a pleasant talk with [him] regarding the capabilities of the country as regards agriculture and timber Lands, learning that the soil was poor, and that the only source from wh. the Indians and he himself derived means of subsistence was [43] ^Mr. Richards mission Extends from) Marten’s Falls to Osnaberg)^ from fish and Rabbits; during our stay at the Fort Dr. Mendle, attended to the diff. ailments of the Indians and vaccinated 201 of the Band. At 11:10 – All being in readiness for our departure, bidding adieu to Mr Gordon and family, shaking hands with the Chief & those of the Band who had assembled at the dock, stepped into the canoes and as they rounded the point entering the lake, rousing cheers were given by those assembled on the shore of the Bay. Proceeding down the Bay against a head wind from the East. tied up for dinner at for dinner at the Entrance of Little [44] Narrows River. Dinner over again resumed our onward course at 2 p.m. running thro’ a chain of lakes reached portage at 6.20 p.m. over a boiling Rapids, which the Indians ran with the loaded canoes; crossing the portage about 1/2 mile long in wh. large spruce, small poplar Birch and cotton wood was to be seen at 6.35 p.m. again took to the canoes running several rapids, the upper one being exceedingly rough, tieing up & pitching tents at 7 30 pm. The shores of lake and river during the days run were as usual low and swampy. Rained during the night. [45]

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Saturday 22nd Raining heavily, preventing our moving. very high wind during the day & continuing during night. Sunday, 23 High wind & rain from the N. East West Broke camp at 10 20 am facing the raw and chilly wind with occasional showers, passing thro’ a chain of rapids and [expansions?] the river bank low and swampy [46] the scrubby timber reaching to the water edge, principally spruce and poplar, tied up for lunch at 1.15 p.m. lunch over, ran a short distance down the river and entered Lake Makokibaton a fine sheet of water about 25 miles long by 2 in width, banks low and grassy. near the Entrance noticed a grave newly made and apparently well cared for on the n side of Lake and about 6 miles further down on a point on the north shore, another grave near which a Rabbit blanket was hung up. there being a very heavy swell on the Lake were obliged to hug the north shore of the Lake. Banks [47] Low in places rocky; principally sandy gravel, timber of the usual kind. Camped at 7 p.m. about 20 miles down Lake in a bay opposite the largest Island seen on the Lake, (scarcely any Islands). at times, showery, others, excessively hot during the day. Monday 24th Called at 4 30 a.m. Breakfast over at 5 a.m., left the shore at 5.45 a.m. bright clear morning. cold N.E. wind blowing. running down the Lake facing the stiff breeze for 5 miles entered the river, running several rapids, crossed portage No 1 over a rapid two tough to run with all [48] the [illegible] freight. portage 1/8 mile long. as the canoes loaded were run thro the rapids by the Indians no delay of any length of time was caused. entering the canoes again ran another rapid at foot of wh were two H.B.Co York boats making their way up from Albany with cargo. accompanying them were two Indian families in canoes. passing on again ran rapids over a sheer fall at their head of about 2 feet. passing thro’ this rapid water came to portage No. 2. the timber on the Portage consists of large spruce and poplar with a few small balsams. the country as viewed from the canoe today presents a very flat appearance banks low swampy the willows [49] reaching to the waters edge. On Portage No 2 considerable ^feldspar crystals^ [illegible] is to be seen in crystals thro’ the rock. after lunch ran several rapids crossing portage No 3, where an Island divides the River into two falls as is generally the case at the head of all the principal falls the light canoes were run over the South Falls. the falls on the n side are very rough and in the centre divided by rocks. have a gradual descent for some distance then taking a plunge of about 8⬘. portage over same about 1/4 mile long. canoes again loaded left portage at 2.25 p.m. running rapid and rough water. walking around two falls, the former having a straight fall of about 5⬘, the latter about 8⬘ [50] a tumbling, seething, foaming mass of water again falling at the foot about 6⬘. as usual the Falls at the head are divided by an Island.

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portage about 300⬘ long 1/2 mile down river, comes portage No 4, 1/8 mile long over No 3 Fall these falls are within the area of 1 mile the last No 3 is the largest fall I have seen on the River, an immense volume of water ^400⬘ wide^ passing over and falling in all to the foot about 16⬘ within the past 2 miles. the capabilities of the River as a water power producer are immense. at 7 p.m. went into camp [51] Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin Fort Hope was left on the morning of the 21st July, and after passing through Lake Eabamet the Albany was reached again, and after three days’ travel we arrived at Martin’s Falls at 7:35 on the morning of Tuesday the 25th July.

12 Marten Falls [A]gain it was put forcibly before them, that it was a home for them that was being provided & not a hunting preserve and that they could hunt wherever they pleased. they signified their assent m ac martin diary, 25 july 1905

12.1 Marten Falls hbc post

Tuesday, 25 July Perhaps named after Humphrey Marten, also known as Martin, this post was established by the hbc in 1784 on the the Albany River, 115 miles upriver (with no portages) from the Company’s first inland post at Henley House.1 It was closed and replaced by Gloucester House about 1809. Nine years later, in 1818, it was reoccupied, replacing Henley House.2 Marten Falls (also known as Martin Falls or Fall) received supplies from Fort Albany, transported on “flat bottomed river boats carrying about 6 tons, manned by 8 to 10 Indians.” It was inconveniently situated on the main channel of the Albany River, which had 30-foot-high banks and no landing facilities. The post

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also had less country food, especially fish, than a lake location would, so many Ojibwe preferred to summer at Fort Hope. Economizing efforts here focused on “Indians being kept at work in Summer without authority in connection with rebuilding the house and unnecessarily at tilling the ground to grow potatoes for gratuitous distribution afterwards to themselves.”3 At the time of the commissioners’ 1905 visit, Marten Falls was part of the hbc’s Lake Huron district. The postmaster was thirty-nine-year-old Sam Iserhoff, born in Quebec and of CreeEuropean ancestry.4 The York boats that passed the commissioners in the rain would have alerted the people at Marten Falls to expect the treaty party at any moment. This moccasin telegraph undoubtedly also relayed Indigenous understandings of the Treaty No. 9 deliberations at Osnaburgh and Fort Hope. (As noted earlier, the Ojibwe and Cree received messages not only by word of mouth but through spirithelpers.) MacMarten indicates that obeying the law, just “as the whiteman” (or face “punishment”), was mentioned here, and a copy of the words on parchment was promised. Most of the Ojibwe who were paid gratuities (77, including treaty signatories David Knapayswet, Long Tom Ostamas, and William Weenjack) were Dominion Indians; the rest (27, including signatories William Coaster and William Whitehead) were Ontario Indians.5 Almost a third of those on the hbc census, 42 Ojibwe, did not appear at treaty time (see chapter 18). After the treaty was signed, MacMartin reveals that Whitehead uttered public misgivings at being “cornered” by the commissioners and argued for an extensive shoreline reserve spanning both sides of the Albany River. A reserve location was eventually agreed upon that evening, but only after Whitehead had again expressed a desire for a larger shoreline reserve.6 Historian Rhonda Telford suggests that this was a strategy to prevent prospectors from ascending tributaries of the Albany and gaining access to the Indians’ hunting territories.7 Bimaadiziwin was clearly their prime concern, for MacMartin reports that they were reassured “when it was explained to them that they could hunt and fish as of old and they were not restricted as to territory, … that the land was theirs for ever.” Marten Falls hbc post continued to operate at the 1905 site until about 1924, when it relocated 65 miles downriver to the confluence of the Albany and Ogoki Rivers, no doubt a strategic move to better compete with Revillon Frères at Pagwa (see chapter 13). The new location became known as Ogoki. Treaty commissioner Awrey paid treaty annuities at Ogoki post in 1929 and 1930.8 Beginning in 1940, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario diverted the Ogoki River, a major tributary flowing into the Albany River from the south (see figure 11.9). Waters of the upper Ogoki were sent south to the Ogoki Reservoir, above Lake Nipigon. The Ogoki and Long Lake diversions increased the flow of water into the Great Lakes to boost hydroelectric output at Decew Falls, near St Catharines.9

Top 12.2 Signatures at Marten Falls (Canada’s copy) Bottom 12.3 Signatures at Marten Falls (Ontario’s copy)

The Marten Falls First Nation’s reserve was relocated downriver across from the mouth of the Ogoki River. Marten Falls chief Elijah Moonias provides this commentary: “We are against development where we have no input. We want to ensure long-term benefits from development in our treaty protected territory.”10 Scott Tuesday 25. Up at 5 left 6.20. run rapids. arrived at Martens Falls 7.35. Sam[ue]l Isahrrof in charge. Made Tr, & paid Indians. a miserable Post & a poor boring lot of Indians. Remember Rae[’]s story about Mc Donald.11 Marten’s Falls Reserve In the N.W.T. ^on the Albany^ beginning at a point a quarter of a mile [21] below the foot of the Rapid known as Marten’s falls [illegible] downstream a distance of six miles & of sufficient depth to give an area of thirty miles square miles. Stewart 25th July. A short run brought us to Marten’s Falls, at the head of which we were landed, after which the Indians navigated the canoes down the rapids. On rounding a point we came in sight of the HBCo buildings on a rather high hill. We were not seen until we had arrived almost at the landing place but it did

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not take long for the Indians to gather to see the King’s men of whom they had heard from [66] the Fort Hope men who had called there on their way to Albany. Mr. Iserhoff, in charge of the post, appeared to think that we were a rather formidable party, but he was soon convinced that we would not be a source of trouble to him in any way. Mr Iserhoff had not had many opportunities of meeting with whitemen, and seemed hardly to know just how he should act under the circumstances[.] Marten’s Falls is rather an unimportant post of the HBCo. We had met over 300 Indians at Osnaburg and over 400 at Fort Hope. At Marten’s Falls there were only about 125, and these in physical development were not at all equal to those at the other posts. An old mortar or cannon mounted to overlook the river reminded us of the time when those in charge of these [67] out of the way posts had to be prepared to defend themselves against attacks from both white and red enemies. We lost no time in beginning work on the preparation of lists and pay tickets. At noon we met five representative Indians and made the usual explanations regarding the Treaty. The representatives signified their acceptance of its terms, and the treaty was duly signed and witnessed. Some of the Indians seemed to think that there would be something behind the offer of the Govt of which they were not aware. It seemed to them that an offer was being made to give them something for which they were not expected to make any return. The explanation however eventually set at rest the fears they appeared to entertain, and the money paid to them was accepted with gratitude. The feast was given to the Indians in the afternoon and was much enjoyed [68]. Immediately before the feast William Whitehead was elected Chief and William Coaster and Long Tom Ostamas Counsellors. At the feast where the flag was presented the Chief made a very sensible speech setting forth the benefits the Indians would derive from the Treaty, and expressing his gratitude and that of the other Indians to the King and ^to the^ Government for the benefits conferred on them. The reserve question was also disposed of to the satisfaction of all concerned During the afternoon a visit was paid to the RC. Church,12 which is situated on a prominent point on the hill, a short distance from the HB buildings The doctor as usual had a busy time attending to the sick here, and in vaccinating the children and the women[.] In the evening the inevitable dance was held at which our canoemen [69] took a prominent part. Jimmy Swayne, our head guide, had formerly lived for a time at Marten’s Falls, and he seemed much pleased to have the opportunity of visiting the scenes with which he had been so well acquainted. MacMartin Tuesday 25th Called at 4 a.m. resuming our journey at 6.20 am, running thro’ rapid water

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and arriving at Martens falls the H.B.C Post at 7 35 a.m. this Post is situated on a high clay Bank about 25’ above the foot of the rapids, styled falls. The Soil at this Post is the most fertile I have seen on the whole route, being a mixture of dark mucky soil and white clay. the Garden at the post is cultivated well and shows potatos and onions well advanced. In front of Mr Iseroff’s house there is set up an old ship cannonade, wh as far as usefulness is a thing of the [52] past. there is also an English Ch. Store &c. After lunch, Chief Wm Whitehead and a number of the leading Indians having assembled a conference was held Mr Iserhoff acting as Interpreter, explaining that the King had sent his representatives to negotiate a Treaty with them and advance their interests as he wished all his subjects to be happy and prosperous. also, after they had entered into treaty a present of $8. per capita would be granted this year and an annuity for life of $4 per annum, and that a tract of land as a reserve would be set aside for their sole use and benefit, giving [53] to each family of five 1 sq mile on wh no white man would be permitted to hunt on, cut wood, erect building or even set his foot on without having first received their sanction. that they were to elect a chief and two puny13 chiefs or councillors who were to hold office for 3 years unless reelected at the end of the time. that they must in return obey the laws and be subject to same, as the white man, and would be amemiable [sic] to punishment if they were not good Indians and obedient. that a copy of the treaty would be furnished them as as to enable them to see and read just what they had subscribed to[.] [54] on being asked if they had any reply to make, the chief said he was ready to accept the terms as offered and that his people were also willing. the treaty was then signed without any further discussion at 2 p.m. The pay lists being completed the Indians were called up in families, and carefully counted and paid each head of the family receiving a card numbered for future use some being absent the money was held over (returned to Dept of Indian Affairs) $ 568 00 Dom. Indians no. 71 – Ont ⬙ ⬙ 24 192.00 [55] As promised them a feast was prepared and when all was in readiness at 7 p.m. and every member of the Band served with currant bannocks, tea, pipes and tobacco, they announced that they had chosen – Wm. Whitehead chief Wm Coaster ^and^ Long Tom Ostesama as Councillors Chief White head then delivered an oration, in wh he said, pointing up and down the river that they were being cornered by not being allowed both banks of the River per miles to fish and hunt on but that they must accept what was offered from these who had given them presents [56] and provided a feast for them. when it was explained to them that they could hunt and fish as of old and they were not restricted as to territory, the Reserve, merely being a home for them where in which no white man could interfere, or trespass upon, that

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the land was theirs for ever; they gladly accepted the situation, and said they would settle the reserve question later on. the flag was then presented to the chief with the admonitions as usual. The feast over, about 9.30 p.m. the chief and his councillors came to our quarters saying that they wanted both banks for 50 miles down river as a hunting reserve. again it was put forcibly before them, that it was a home for them that was [57] being provided & not a hunting preserve and that they could hunt wherever they pleased. they signified their assent and the following land was allotted On the Albany River in the N.W.Ty beginning at a point one quarter of a mile below the foot of the Rapids known as Marten’s Falls, down stream a distance of six miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of 30 square miles. at 10 pm after the usual handshaking they took their departure perfectly satisfied. the river below Martens falls and past the allotted reserve has no falls upon it merely a strong current [58] before leaving Dr Meindl besides attending to the various ills of the Indians many of whom were suffering from consumption, vaccinated 47 of the Band principally children. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin This is a very unimportant Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in charge of Mr. Samuel Isahrof [Iserhoff]. A number of Indians were awaiting the arrival of the Commission. The first glance at the Indians served to convince that they were not equal in physical development to those at Osnaburg or Fort Hope, and the comparative poverty of their hunting grounds may account for this fact. The necessary business at this Post was transacted on the 25th. The Treaty, after due explanation, was signed and the payment made immediately. Shortly before the feast the Indians elected their Chief Wm. Whitehead and two Councillors Wm. Coaster and Long Tom Oatesames. At the feast Chief Whitehead made an excellent speech in which he described the benefits which would follow the Treaty and his gratitude to the King and the Government in extending a helping and protecting hand to the Indians. The reserve was fixed at a point opposite the Post and is described fully in the Schedule of Reserves. The commodious Roman Catholic Church situated on the high bank of the River overlooking the Hudson’s Bay Company’s buildings was the most conspicuous object at this Post.

marten falls to english river Wednesday, 26 July, to Friday, 28 July Scott Wed 26 July Rose at 6. Started at 8.00. Fine day, cool breeze sky full of lovely grey clouds.

12.4 Ogoki to Mammamattawa. This 1903 map confused D.C. Scott, for it shows the abandoned Wabashi River post about halfway to English River hbc post, near “Mammamattawa.” See his journal entry for 29 July.

River wide with strong current, but no rapids. after supper drifted all night.14 ^Thu.27 July^ The crew made tea at 5. Breakfasted at 8. very hot. made about 40 miles last night. reached Kenogami River at 2.45. camped delayed by heavy thunder storm. Camped [22] 6.45. Fri July 27 28 Up at 6. Left camp at 6.45. Tracking up Kenogami all day Camped 7.00 in swampy ground. Stewart 26 July We left Marten’s Falls at 6 am on our way to our next place for meeting with the Indians, viz: at English or Kenogami River The lower river, as the part between Marten’s Falls and Albany is called, differs from the upper river inasmuch as ^while^ there is a swift current all the way, there are no rapids or falls that necessitate a portage We made good progress during the day, and as the night was beautiful and bright, we decided to remain in our canoes and drift with the swift flowing stream[.] We had to forgo comfort somewhat to do this, as with nineteen men in three canoes there was not much room [70] in which to spread ourselves. We were all quite contented, however, and when not asleep enjoyed viewing the stars or the swift rushing water. We ran aground a couple of times during the night, but were soon afloat again, these incidents

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only furnishing the men with some fun at the expense of the steersman,15 who had evidently allowed himself to drop into dreamland. We drifted nearly forty miles between night and morning, and felt well paid for the discomforts we had experienced. 27th. We landed at 4 am so that the men who had taken turns watching that the canoes took their proper course, might have a cup of tea. The lower river differs also from the upper in that the former has high banks down which many streams pour. These [71] streams and the swift rushing water of the river cause many land slides, and also cuts [sic] up the banks into many fantastic shapes[.] The weather clouded over during the morning and during the ^day^ we had a couple of heavy showers. We entered the Kenogami River at 2.45 and then began one of the worst stages of our journey. We were then travelling up stream, as the Kenogami runs north to the Albany[.] Shortly after entering the river, we were caught in a heavy thunder storm, which compelled us to go ashore for a time. As it was rather cool the Indian started a fire which very nearly had serious consequences. A large spruce tree took fire but this fact was viewed by the Indians with the most perfect indifference.16 The fire would very soon have spread had it not been that we compelled the Indians to carry water from the river to throw on it. This with [72] the assistance of the heavy rain enabled us to get the fire out, but it would not have taken long, if we had not set to work as we did, to have had a big forest fire. The Kenogami is by no means a pleasant river on which to travel[.] At the time of our journey the water was very high, and the current swift, so that we made very slow progress altho’ the men worked very hard from dawn till dark. The water of the river is a dark, dirty brown and has a very unpleasant smell. As marked on the map,17 we should have reached the H.B. post during the morning of the second day, but we travelled on and on without seeing any signs of our much longed for destination[.] We had many things to take from our pleasure on this part of our journey. The mosquitoes and black flies were [73] beyond words to describe. Even the Indians were obliged to wear netting to permit of their continuing at their work. During a good part of the time, the canoes had to be tracked or pulled up stream with ropes, and this had to be done with the shore either a marsh through which the men had to wade, or a tangle of alder bushes difficult to push ones way through. On the evening of the first day on the Kenogami, we met in with some Indians who informed us that all the Indians had left the post as they had given up hope of our arriving. They, however, informed us that a number of these Indians were in the vicinity of the river, and that they would undertake to collect them and bring them to the post[.] This duty was performed so satisfactorily that before we reached the post in the afternoon of the third day, we were accompanied by nine canoes containing Indians who with [74] our own three canoes made quite an imposing spectacle coming in to the post.

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MacMartin Wednesday 26th Called at 5.30 am. Bidding adieu, to the H.B.Cs clerk Mr Iseroff and shaking hands with the chief and the assembled Indians, started down stream at 8.15 a.m. taking a N. Easterly course after paddling about 10 miles passed over two small [59] rapids or ripples, the former of wh. the Indians have named Devil rapids about 5 miles further down stream [Swan?] River also named by the Indians flows into the Albany from the n.west. lunched at 12 n. left at 1 30 p.m. the river here widens out considerably to a width of from 1/4 to 1/2 a mile also dotted with fairly large Islands after passing down the river for about 5 miles the Ogiki18 enters from the south[.] nearly opposite on the north shore two graves apparently of recent date are to be seen in a poplar grove on high ground, railings made of split wood surrounding them. & passed the Ogiki at 5.30 p.m. [60] at 6:30 p.m. tied up for tea the boats being prepared for the night tied them together and floated down stream, untieing and running the rapid parts of the river separately passed 1 river unamed flowing in to the Albany from the n.west estimated run during the night 35 miles making a total for the 24 hours of 75 miles Very warm during the day and cold a night. Thursday 27th Stopped for breakfast at 8 am. River at this part is narrower flanked on both sides by high white clay banks continuing a n east course, tied up for dinner, leaving at 2.10 p.m a few minutes later passed Little Sturgeon River flowing from the South, paddling for almost 3 miles a large Island divides the River into two channels the southern one leading into Kenogami or English River wh we entered at 2.50 p.m; River is as large as the upper Albany, current about 2 miles an hour banks low, slopping [sic] to the water & fringed with willows. After paddling about 1 miles the Indians [62] tied our canoe to the large bark occupied by the Dom. Com’rs and rigging a tow line to the bark canoe the Indians four in number in half hour relays towed the canoes against the current in orthodox canal style timber, spruce, balsam, cotton wood poplar and very small birch. Weather very warm thro’ the day Camped [rest of line illegible] Showerry during the afternoon Camped for the night at 7 pm Friday 28th Broke camp at 6.45 p.m men still towing the canoes in half hour relays, course southerly [63] during the morning passed a small river flowing from the west at 11 20 met 2 Indians and squaw who gave the information that there were no Indians at the post but that they would push on and attempt to get them together. at 12 40 p.m. passed unamed River flowing from the west. dinner over started up stream at 2 pm. following a southerly course. Excessively warm during the day camped for the night at 7 p.m. hard frost during the night

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Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin Martin’s Falls was left on the morning of Wednesday the 26th July. Below this point the Albany flows toward James Bay without any impediment of rapids or falls but with a swift current which is a considerable aid to canoe travel. The mouth of Kenogami River was reached at 2.45 on the afternoon of the 27th July. This river flows in with a large volume of water and a strong current. It took two days of heavy paddling and difficult tracking to reach the English River Post which is situated about sixty miles from the mouth of the River and near the Forks. We found many of the Indians encamped along the River, and they followed us in their canoes to the Post where we arrived on the afternoon of the 29th July.

13 English River [A]rrived at 5 p.m. and forthwith proceeded to get the pay sheets in order, calling up the Indians who had assembled by families, carefully counting & paying them. as there are so few in the band we decided to assign them to the Albany band as they are also Crees and give them a reservation on the English River m ac martin diary, 29 july 1905

13.1 English River hbc post

Saturday, 29 July, to Sunday, 30 July South River fort was built at the confluence of the Kenogami and Kabinakagami Rivers sometime prior to 1832. Around 1860 trading shifted 30 miles down the Kenogami River to New Post (not the post of this name on the Abitibi River), closer to the Albany (into which it empties), near the mouth of the Wabashi River. Twenty years later the original site, also known as Mamattawa or Mama(wi)matawa (“the coming together of many branches”), was reoccupied and renamed English River House. It is not just the two rivers that join here, for “both of these receive branches near their mouths” as well.1 Long Lake was eight days

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upriver by canoe. Another branch led to Montizambert, twelve days distant. And Moose Factory was accessible from “another branch close by,” the StoopingKwetabohigan route.2 These connections notwithstanding, missionaries seldom visited this remote post.3 In 1891 the trade was judged “too small and uncertain, and the Indians wander[ed] off too much.” Chief factor Samuel K. Parson concluded that the trade could not be expanded (“the post is within such easy reach of the railway line that it is hard enough work to keep what there is already”). At the time of his visit, English River was occupied by Isaac Hunter, John Faries, and the one-armed James Louttit. When an opposition trader named Timmins came downriver in the spring, Hunter followed him, passed him in the night, and warned the Company’s traders at Fort Albany. Fort Albany was a twenty-day round trip on smooth water. Until Revillon Frères appeared, the only competition was from the hbc’s own posts at Long Lake, Missanabie, and Montizambert. The local Indians were, however, “poached upon by Indians belonging to adjoining posts.”4 The Indians trading at English River in 1905 were “Crees … [who] do not vary much in appearance from the Ojibways.”5 Again, we do not know how many of these Crees were equally fluent in Ojibwe. The 1905 commissioners burned a substantial portion of G.B. Cooper’s wood supply and hoped he would at least have some recreation replacing it during his solitude. Once the Indians left for their winter grounds, Stewart lamented that the man would be “alone or nearly so,” his only companion an “Indian clerk.”6 There was more to this comment than numbers and remoteness, of course; it was a statement of social and cultural distance. Supplies for a feast were provided, candies were given to the women and children, and cash gratuities were distributed to 47 people (including no. 9, John Shakanaquet, whose wife was from the Robinson-Superior Treaty band at Michipicoten).7 Almost a third of this band, 20 individuals, was also absent (see chapter 18). Tobacco would have been shared as well. If Meindl performed his duties here, he did not keep separate statistics, likely including them with the Fort Albany numbers. The commissioners judged these Indians to be members of the Fort Albany band, so there was no signing of the parchment; taking the cash meant accepting the treaty, but MacMartin makes no mention of any such explanation. A separate pay-list was maintained, however, perhaps after discussions with hbc officials at Fort Albany, and Ramsden was instructed to hold elections at English River the following year,8 but this was apparently delayed until 1921.9 By 1928 ships from Montreal still brought some supplies to Fort Albany and Moose Factory, but Revillon Frères was freighting supplies on scows from Pagwa on the cnr line, down the Pagwachuan to English River post. The scows were then towed down the Kenogami and Albany Rivers to Fort Albany.10 Revillon Frères and the hbc competed, each maintaining posts not just at Fort Albany

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but even at remote English River. The hbc had an outpost at Ghost River and another about two miles up the Kenogami from its entry into the Albany.11 Treaty commissioners W.C. Cain and H.N. Awrey paid annuities at English River in 1929 and 1930.12 In the 1940s, with so many Indians attracted to Pagwa13 or Calstock (near the Arrow Land and Logging Company), members of the English River band merged with others to form the Constance Lake band with a reserve near Hearst.14 Today, 820 of the 1,470 Cree and Ojibwe members live on reserve.15 Constance Lake chief and/or council has asserted: Our culture and our inherent rights as First Nations Peoples are not being taken into consideration when children’s aid societies deal with our families on child welfare matters.16 If for any reason a representative [of the cas] enters onto Constance Lake Territory, they will be treated as trespassers, and if any children are removed from the community it will be considered a kidnapping.17 Important Notice to Mining & Exploration Companies You must contact us prior to conducting any exploration or staking within our traditional territory.18 Scott Sat July 29 Up at 4.15. off at 5.30 all day on Kenogami. Very hot Reached English River Post at 5. Pd Inds. Reserve. In Ont. beginning ^at a point on the Kenogami or English River^ one half mile below H.B.Cos Post known as English River Post on the north side of the river thence down stream two miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of twelve (12) square miles. Note Tell Dept of Int[erior] that English River Post is in the [23] wrong place on the map about 1/2 mile below [forks? falls?] of the River. Sunday July 30 Up at 7.30 Bfast 8. Heavy rain & cold all day. Stewart The Kenogami post is the most desolate one could well imagine. It is as much out of the world as if situated in the heart of Labrador. The clerk in charge Mr. G.B Cooper is quite a young man, apparently not much over 20 years of age, but looked as if all his energy had been taken from him. He came to this place from Aberdeen by HB Steamer by way of Hudsons Bay about three years ago, and this wild uncivilized district is the only part of Canada he has seen or will probably see for years to come[.] The house in which he lives is little better than a dog kennel, and in this he will have to live alone or nearly so until the

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13.2 Gift-giving at English River

Indians return at the opening of navigation. Cooper had only a few [75] books, but expects to get some from Albany in the spring. We left him a few that we had on hand, which we hoped would enliven some hours for him. Cooper’s last mail was received by him five months ago, and the news he then rec’vd is the last that he has received from the outside world[.] This visit of ours is one event to be spoken of both by the Indians, and by Mr. Cooper for a long time to come. We gave the Indians a good time in the way of a feast, and in addition the women and children have had of supply of candies given them such as in their wildest dreams never crossed their mental vision. The Indians at English River post are really a branch of the band residing at Albany, and it was not therefore considered necessary to have them sign the treaty[.] [76] Its terms were, however, fully explained to them, and they expressed their willingness to come under its provisions, and they were informed that by accepting the gratuity they would by held to have entered treaty, a statement which they fully realized. The following day being Sunday, we decided to make the payments at once which was done much to the gratification of the Inds who were evidently in much need of the supplies which the money given them enabled them to purchase. It may be added that the Indians of this section are Crees, but do not vary much in appearance from the Ojibways 30th It rained nearly all Sunday so that we kept pretty much to our tents. The soil at this place is a stiff clay, which is far from pleasant to walk through. Mr

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13.3 Group at English River

Cooper has [77] made no attempt to improve matters about the post by making walks of any kind. He evidently has no ambition to improve either his house or it surroundings[.] We were glad to keep a fire going all day as it was miserably cold, so that considerable inroads were made into Mr. Cooper’s wood pile. It was perhaps not altogether an evil that we ^thus^ furnished him with some work to occupy his time after we had left. MacMartin Saturday 29th Called at 4 a.m. Broke camp [64] at 5.30. morning very cold. Starting again on a similar course against a strong current. the timber along the River on the west bank has been burnt over & presents nothing but dry poles for miles, up to and past the Post where we arrived at 5 p.m. and forthwith proceeded to get the pay sheets in order, calling up the Indians who had assembled by families, carefully counting & paying them. as there are so few in the band we decided to assign them to the Albany band as they are also Crees and give them a reservation on the English River where they would be paid their treaty money each year reservation. on Kenogami or English River In the Province of Ontario, beginning at a point three miles below Hds Bay Post on the north side of the River [65] known as English River thence north a frontage of 3 miles and of sufficient depth to provide 1 square for each family of five upon the ascertained population of the band Sunday 30 Rained all day. Indians without saying any thing sat down to their feast in the wet grass at 7.15 p.m.

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Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin This is a desolate Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in charge of Mr. G.B. Cooper. There are very few Indians in attendance at any time; about half of them were assembled, the rest having gone to “The Line,“ as the Canadian Pacific Railway is called, to trade. Compared with the number at Fort Hope or Osnaburg there was a mere handful at English River and it did not take long to explain to the Indians the reason why the Commission was visiting them. As these people cannot be considered a separate Band, but a branch of the Albany Band, and it was not thought necessary to have them sign the Treaty and [sic] they were merely admitted as an offshoot of the larger an[d] more important Band. The terms of the Treaty having been fully explained, the Indians stated that they were willing to come under its provisions, and they were informed that by the acceptance of the gratuity they would be held to have entered Treaty, a statement which they fully realized. As the morrow was Sunday and as it was important to proceed without delay, they were paid at once.

english river to fort albany Monday, 31 July, to Wednesday, 2 August Scott Monday July 31 Heavy frost last night. Ice formed on water ponds. Up at 4 3.45. Left Post at 5.30. Send G.B. Cooper books, &c Camped 7.15 Pd M. Falls Inds. Tuesday Aug 1. Up at 4.30. left 6.10. Sailed with a light wind Paid Inds at Cheepy River Camped at 6. [24] Wed Aug 2 Up at 4 off at 5.20. threatened rain but cleared. Fine strong wind, sailed all day made about 90 miles. Camped at 6.30. Gale came from north suddenly. blew fiercely for about 2 hours. Stewart 31st July We were up at 3.45 on Monday morning, and a cold, miserable morning it was[.] A basin of water left at the door of one of ^the^ tents had a coating of ice an eighth of an inch thick, and a small crop of potatoes in a little garden near by looked as if there was not much hope of their growing any more this season[.] The Indian clerk, however, had some hope that they were not completely ruined[.] We left at 5.50 for the Albany [78] and had what was a common experience with us this trip. We put on in addition to our ordinary clothing, our sweaters and heavy overcoats, the latter of which had been purchased by us from the HBCo store at Osnaburg. About 9 am we took off our overcoats. At 9.30 we dispensed with our sweaters At 10 we were glad to pul

13.4 Mammamattawa to Fort Albany. This 1904 map shows the Stooping and Kwetabohigan Rivers meeting at their source, one of many routes known to Indigenous peoples, whose territories were criss-crossed by these capillaries.

[sic] off our under coats and vests, and from 10.30 and from that till about 3 pm. we were as limp as rags with the heat. About 4 pm we began to reclothe ourselves until about 6 30 or thereabouts we were arrayed as in the early morning. On our return trip down the English River we had the strong current in our favor and fairly flew along, so that at 6 pm of the same ^day^ we arrived at the Albany, having covered the distance down in one day and a [79] half less then it took us to go up the river. On the English River, as well as those we had previously come up or down, we saw no game of any kind, with the exception of three or four ducks. We found nine Indians waiting for us at the foot of English River. They proved to be from Fort Hope, and had been to Fort Albany for supplies. At that place they had heard from some Indians who had come from Marten’s Falls, of our mission, and so they had waited at the point mentioned for a day and a half in the hope of getting a share of the money we were carrying. We

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made them happy by handing them over the amounts due them, and then camped at a rather miserable camping ground about five miles below English River. 1st August. We were up at 4.30 and left at 6.10 and with so good a wind [80] in our favor that we had sails rigged up and went flying along at a speed that made us all feel happy. At 7.20 we passed a point where we were informed old Fort Henley, the oldest H.B. post in the country had formerly stood, and where we were further informed, every member of the Company residing there had been killed at the instigation of members of the rival North West Company. The Indians whom we met at the foot of English River had informed us that there were some Indians from Albany waiting for us at the foot of an island some distance down the river, as they also had been informed that we had money of which they might secure a share. About 5 p.m. we had evidence that we had reached the place mentioned, as we saw some tents in [81] the distance, and we could also hear the sound of guns, fired to attract our attention[.] The Indians were camped at one of the most beautiful spots on the river. It was at the foot of the Chepai Seepee or Ghost River, or River of the dead, distant from Marten’s Falls a little over 200 miles The Indians here appeared to be equally divided between hope and fear[.] They were anxious to get the money that would be of such service to them, but they as well as the Indians at Fort Hope, Marten’s Falls and other points had heard strange stories about the two soldiers or policemen who were with the party, and they were filled with fears as to what the presence of these men could mean. One of the Indians, an old man, fairly shook all over with fear, and I think one of the happiest moments of his life was when, after paying them their money, we sailed away on our voyage [82] down the river We had brought a boy from English river post who desired to join his father and mother at Albany, and we were able to hand him over to his parents at this place as his people were members of this camping outfit. They may have been pleased to see each other but they certainly did not show it by the slightest sign. This was the second boy passenger we carried in this way, as we brought a boy about fourteen years of age from Dinorwic to Osnaburg, and left him there with his family We camped about 6 pm, and in an hour were favored with a grand display of Northern Lights 2nd Aug. Left at 6.55 and again had a good sailing wind. Shortly after starting we met two York boats on their way to Fort Hope, and, as they [83] would have to do nearly all the way to their destination, they were tracking the boats up by means of ropes, a tedious, difficult business[.] Our fair wind continued until well on in the afternoon, so that, having also a strong current in our favour, we made excellent progress.

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13.5 Elder, Albany River

About 6 p.m. it came on to rain, and from that time on, we were on the lookout for a good camping ground which appeared to be difficult to find in this particular section. The place at last selected was far from being a comfortable one, both on account of the wet marshy ground and the millions of black flies there assembled. Here a peculiar incident occurred. It had stopped raining, and we were busy fighting the flies, and making preparations for our evening meal, when Mr Rae, the HBCo. officer called our attention to what appeared to be a wreath of smoke some distance [84] across the river. We were speculating as to whether this indicated that we were near Fort Albany, when the wreath rapidly increased in volume, and appeared to be rushing across the river towards us, altho’ the clouds near by did not seem to be moving. The Indian soon showed us what they thought it was, as they hurried down to lift the canoes well up on the bank. They had hardly time to do this when a regular tornado swept over us levelling three of the tents to the ground, and lashing the water into fury. I do not remember having ever before witnessed so wild a scene, and for hours after the tornado had passed, the waves continued to break upon the shore with as much noise, as the surf of the ocean. We learned when we arrived at Albany that a portion of the storm had passed over that place; and the captain19 of a [85] small steamer that came over from Charlton Island20 informed us that they had seen the storm in the distance, and were very thankful that it had ^not^ passed very near to them.

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MacMartin Monday 31st Up at 4 am., heavy frost this a.m. very cold night. left the Post at 5 35 a.m. running down the River, and dining at 12 n. resuming our course at 1 15 pm reaching the Albany at 6 pm [66] camping at a point about 5 miles down stream at 7.30[.] 5 Indians, 3 women and one orphan girl who belonged to the Marten’s Falls Band who had been in waiting to meet the party 11 1/2 days and who were entered on the pay list were duly given their present of $8. they signified their willingness to accept the Treaty, obey the laws and be good and dutiful subjects of the King. Very warm during the day cold at night [67] Tuesday Aug 1st Up at 4.30 am, left at 6 a.m running down the river for an hour the stream widens out to about a 1/2 mile where we passed the abandoned Hds Bay Post once styled Old Fort Hope, the oldest Post on the Continent, it was at this post that the N.W.Co wiped out all the whites then resident at the Fort. 6 or 7 miles down stream from this point Eagles Nest River enters from the north dinner over at 1.30 p.m. running about 7 miles down stream passed Chiezman River entering from the south about 5 miles farther down stream Chepy River in [68] the neighborhood of 250’ wide and entering from the Ontario side of boundary named by the Indians Uncany, relating to the dead as a number of them met their death and were buried there on the banks of the stream, a century or more past. A short distance down the Albany a number of Indians ^(15)^ were camped who were carefully counted and paid; six belonging to the English River Band the remaining 9 to Fort Albany. just opposite the Indian camp is the foot of a large Island that divides the River into two channels. here the River after channels divide is [69] about 3/4 of a mile wide. two miles down stream an Island about 1/2 mile wide and two miles long divides the River. At 6 p.m. we camped opposite this Island on the N. Bank of the Albany. Excessively hot during the day. Wednesday 2nd Up at 4 a.m. after breakfast left at 5 20 a.m. about two miles down the south branch or channel a river named Sisinnagog enters from the South the large Island bears the same name. about 7 miles farther [70] [page heading:] X Re soil down stream a small stream enters from the n. named by the Indians swolen finger as an Indian who at one time camped there was continually troubled with swolen fingers. as there was a fair wind blowing improvised sails were hoisted. having covered about 4 miles passed bear bone Island a long strip of land nearly denuded of timber. all the soil on Islands and banks of stream is composed of white clay sand and gravel[.] The canoe route past this and another Island is about 1/2 mile wide. the banks are about 15’ high X [refers to page heading] and wherever I have had an opportunity of examining the [71]

13.6 Miikiwaam, Albany River

[page heading continues from previous page:] back of Banks of Albany River country back of the banks find that they are flanked by muskegs21 X running about 35 miles down stream again came to Islands separating the channel and causing slight rapids near the foot of wh. Fishing Creek enters from the north. Here tied up for dinner having run with the aid of current and sail about 15 miles this morning as estimated on map. dinner over left at 1.15 pm hoisting sails sped on our way at a lively clip, passing over two small rapids caused by an Island forcing the channel into narrow bounds at 4 30 p.m. passed Otter [72] Creek entering from the South camped at 6.30 on an Island opposite the fork of River marked on the map. at 7.30 a very heavy and violent wind storm passed over lasting about 30 minutes prior to this it was showering and turned very cold. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We left the English River Post early on Monday morning and reached the mouth of the River at 6 o’clock. Coming again into the Albany we met a number of Martin’s Falls Indians who had not been paid and who had camped at the mouth of the River expecting the Commission. After being paid they camped on the shore near us, and next morning proceeded on their way to Martin’s Falls with their York boats laden with goods from Fort Albany. The next day a party of Albany Indians were paid at the mouth of Cheepy River, and the Post itself was reached on the morning of August 3rd at 9.30. [paragraph continues]

14 Fort Albany Wm Goodwin, said that they were very glad to accept the terms as stated, that the King was good & that his present would help them very much. then said we are ready to sign the Treaty m ac martin diary, 3 august 1905

Thursday, 3 August, to Sunday, 6 August The original fort, built by the hbc about 1674, was on the south shore, near the mouth of the Albany River and present-day Fort Albany. It was captured by Pierre de Troyes in 1686 and temporarily renamed Fort Ste Anne. Two years later the hbc established a second post on Bayley’s Island, now known as Albany Island, and subsequently dislodged the French.1 In 1905 the post at Albany Island, for many years the headquarters of the Company’s Albany district, was part of the James Bay district.2 Here the commissioners would meet outgoing hbc clerk George W. Cochrane3 and his replacement, Albert W. Patterson.4 They would also meet the Anglican bishop of Moosonee, George Holmes,5 and his Roman Catholic counterparts,6 and inspect their educational facilities (see chapter 21). The Reverend Robert J. Renison, whose autobiography One Day at a Time suggests he was present at treaty-making, was absent on furlough. James Linklater would serve as interpreter.7 The hbc was trying to economize at Fort Albany when Revillon Frères arrived nearby, just prior to treaty time. Maintaining a crew for the Company barge cost about $4,000, more than doubling the annual expenses considered reasonable for such a post.8 Indian labourers were paid a total of almost $1,000 for summer employment at haymaking, not the $200 that it should cost. Overall, “Wages and Mess expenses [could] be reduced 50 per cent without impairing the efficiency of the Staff,” a Company official reported. And the “custom which has crept in of feeding all hands, Servants and Indians, with imported food” was under review. It would be much cheaper to provide “country food.” In addition to the salt geese already stockpiled for year-round use, more fish could be acquired. At the turn of the century, the fall fishery yielded some 20,000 pounds, eaten by the Company’s officers or used as dog food. With “a proper Seine boat” and more effort, however, it should have been possible to amass enough to provide fish to all employees throughout the winter.9

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There was a scarcity of beavers in the district and a cyclical decline in foxes. There was also “too large a population maintained at or near the Post to permit of good hunting there.” A winter trading post had been established at Attawapiskat (where the Oblates later joked that hbc meant “here before Company”). These “Northern Indians” were the mainstay of the fur trade, but traders worried that they “frequently wasted much valuable time during the hunting season in travel to Albany.” Attawapiskat cost the Company very little, just “the wintering of a Servant there instead of at Albany.” A census of the Indians trading at Fort Albany showed that these northerners relied entirely on the hunt, earning nothing from general labour or freighting (although some would later provide services to the Roman Catholic mission). Northern Indians such as Gull, Hookcamah (also spelled Hookenawinino and Hookimaillillino, from okimaaw ininiw; Moose Cree, ililiw), Kamalatisit, Metatwabun, Nakooche (Nakogee), Noah, Rose, Shishkeesh, Spence, Sutherland, Toomakatick, Wabanoo, and Williams averaged 40 to 50 mb, each worth only 34 cents in goods, so their clothing failed to meet Euro-Canadian standards.10 The Attawapiskat Cree were not living independently of Euro-Canadian society, but in 1905 their pimaatisiwin relied almost completely on the resources of the land and waters. In others’ eyes they may have been extremely poor, unable to purchase Western-style clothes. Anthropologist Richard Preston notes, however, that the “Cree sense of wealth” was very different. In 1955 Preston’s teacher, John J. Honigmann, was told the following dream: “I dream of 2 bears, very fat. I make grease and sell the skins, two for $40. I am extremely rich. I have money and flour.” Most of the descendents of these Cree would adapt to the changes that lay ahead, but some would see their families devastated in the aftermath of residential schools and associated child welfare interventions and addictions. In 1905 the treaty gratuities would have seemed to them a small fortune. In contrast to these productive northern fur trappers, hbc inspector Alex Milne concluded that “a crowd of idle and comparatively worthless people are supported round about the place who swell the expenses without materially contributing to its support.” His solution was to provide them with a choice: “they may either provide for themselves hunting or fishing, or remove themselves elsewhere.”11 A year later, in July of 1902, former Fort Albany hbc servants “Wm. Etherington, Wm. Louttit, Wm. Corston, & James Louttit son of James Louttit B, arrived” at Montizambert on the cpr line, midway between Sault Ste Marie and Port Arthur. They were “poor devils,” according to one observer, who had “got the quiet hint to move. They may get work along the Line & they may not.” Another hbc servant, Peter Louttit, started building a house there, expecting to move from Fort Albany. The arrival of Revillon Frères at Fort Albany (and later at Pagwa), however, reversed their fortunes. Peter Louttit, William Louttit, and William Etherington were back at Fort Albany by 1905 and were admitted to Treaty No. 9 as Indians.12

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A quarter of the Cree who received gratuities (97, including treaty signatories William Goodwin, Charlie Stephen, and David George Wynne) wintered in Ontario. Most (278, including signatories Xavier Bird, Jacob Iahtail, Peter Sackaney, Samuel Scott, Patrick Stephen, and Andrew and John Wesley) were classified as Dominion Indians.13 Almost half the band was absent at treaty time: 364 individuals, mainly from Attawapiskat to the north (see chapter 18). Only one of the treaty signatories, Jacob Iahtail, was what the hbc called “Northern Indians – the principal hunters, and little or no expense to the Post in Summer.”14 By 1920 Andrew Wesley, the first elected chief (1906), was an Anglican catechist at Fort Albany. Abel Wesley was his Anglican counterpart at Attawapiskat, and John Solomon (whose kinsman Richard Solomon was the great-grandfather of chiefs Andrew and Jonathan Solomon) was catechist at Akimiski Island.15 Commissioner Herbert Nathaniel Awrey, pronounced as “Mista Lolly” by one Attawapiskat elder, paid annuities at historic Fort Albany in 1929 and evacuated the ailing Reverend Pierrepont Arthur Northam by aircraft.16 The following year, when Awrey renewed his acquaintance with Northam, he and Cain deflected the Indians’ complaints to Indian agent Hamilton at Moose Factory. “The same plaintive tones as heard at most of the posts were poured out here,” they wrote, “that the hunt was poor, the fish scarce, and earning a living hard.”17 It was apparently at this time that Northam explained to Anglican Crees what the 1905 parchment entailed.18 At times like this, residential schools were sometimes viewed as a place of refuge for children.19 When Robbie Linklater’s first wife died in 1931, the hbc sailor and mailman sent his children, Munroe and Elsie, to attend the residential school in Sioux Lookout.20 When I started teaching at Moose Factory in 1972, Munroe was a trustee on the unique provincial school board established in the 1950s. I naively asked him if the residential schools were as bad as I had heard in my courses at the University of Waterloo. He paused and then replied, “Some of us think they made us who we are today.”21 Elsie’s son, Pat Chilton, had just started working at the school board office in 1972; he was until recently chief executive officer of the Weenebayko Area Health Authority. With the arrival of the t&no in Moosonee, Fort Albany’s days of importance were numbered. Band members such as Robbie Linklater, Frank Rickard, and his son Daniel Wesley22 began moving south to Moosonee and Moose Factory, while others went to Pagwa or Calstock. Construction of a Mid-Canada Radar Line station nearby sealed the post’s fate. The hbc post on Albany Island, abandoned around 1957, is now referred to as Old Post; people hold Indian Days there each August and tend the graveyards. Descendents of those who moved to the south shore of the Albany River, to be near the Roman Catholic mission complex and radar base, settled at Sinclair Island and now comprise the Fort Albany First Nation.23 Those who moved to the reserve that Dobie surveyed on the north shore are known as the Kashechewan First Nation. Today, members of the historic Fort

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Albany band who remain (after the Attawapiskat and Weenusk bands were formed in 1929–30) are still represented by two chiefs.

commentary The signing of our Treaty on 3 August 1905 by our ancestors is a sacred agreement between the Crown and the Crees of Kashechewan. It is significant because our ancestors wholeheartedly believed it would bring certainty and hope for their future generations, because of the verbal promises that were made by the commissioners of the Crown. This Treaty of 1905 is a living document, and we, as leaders of today, must continue to strive for the Crown to live up to the promises that were made. I would like to thank John Long for his continued commitment to document the promises that were made, so that our generation can fight with dignity and honour, knowing that our struggles will pay dividends for the generations today and yet unborn. Chief Jonathan Solomon24 James Bay Treaty No. 9, Albany Reserve No. 67 Kashechewan First Nation [B]ecause both Kashechewan and Fort Albany jointly hold and occupy the lands that make up Indian Reserve No. 67, there is one iba. Then both chiefs and councils passed band council resolutions to confirm the ratifications and to authorize the chiefs to sign the iba. It was an easy process. At times, these negotiations were difficult. We were not always confident that De Beers understood and respected our ways. The iba provides us with the reassurances we need to move ahead. We look forward to the benefits we will share from the mine. Chief Andrew Solomon25 Fort Albany Our people are suffering in Third World poverty while living next door to one of the largest and richest diamond mining operations in the world. We have made efforts with De Beers as well as Ontario and Canada for many months in an attempt to address our issues of poverty because our people are suffering, our infrastructure is crumbling, and our patience is running out. Chief Theresa Hall26 Scott Thur. Wed Aug 3. Up at 5 off at 6.00 Paddled about 15 miles arrived at Post 9.30. Very cold.

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Made Treaty, & wrote out list & visited / Fridy Thur Aug 4 Up at 5. Paid [345?] Inds visited catholic School, church, & priests house. ‘Inenew’ arrived with Bishop Holmes. tea at Cockram’s. [25] Rt Rev Geo Holmes Bishop of Moosonee. Friday Aug 5. Sat [apostrophe for ditto indicates August] 6 5 Waiting for fair wind. Paid several Inds- Sat Inds had feast. Father Fafard arrived made choice of Reserve. Sunday Aug 7 6. attend church 2. Aft[ernoon] called on Pere Fafard. Stewart 3rd August. We made a start at 6 a.m. and a cold, dreary morning it was. We were delighted to reach Albany River post at 9.30 a.m. where we received a very hearty welcome. At Albany we met Mr. and Mrs. ^A.W.^ Patterson who had formerly lived at Nipigon House, Lake Nipigon, and who were known by one of the members

Top 14.1 Signatures at Fort Albany (Canada’s copy) Bottom 14.2 Signatures at Fort Albany (Ontario’s copy)

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of the Commission who had visited them at the latter place. Mr Patterson had been transferred to Albany to take the place of Mr. ^G.W.^ Cockram, who was about to leave for England ^by way of the HB steamship^ with his wife and little daughter. Both Mr. and Mrs Cockram and the Pattersons did everything possible for our comfort, both ^not only^ on our arrival and but also during all the time we remained at [86] Fort Albany. We found a letter awaiting us from His Lordship ^the Anglican bishop^ of Moosonee the Right Rev Geo Holmes, addressed to His Majesty’s Treaty Commissioners, regretting that it was impossible for him to be at Albany to receive us on our arrival, and wishing us every success in our undertaking. During the afternoon ^of the 4th^ however, the Hudson’s Bay Co. Steamer “Innenew” arrived from Charlton Island with Bishop Holmes on board. In the afternoon of the 3rd we were met by the Chief men ^10 in number^ selected to represent the Indians at Albany. The meeting was convened in a large room over the HBCo store, and was in every way satisfactory[.] As at the other points, full explanations were given of the Treaty and it provisions and in reply two of the Indians, Arthur Wesley and Wm Goodwin spoke at length [87] expressing on their own behalf and on behalf of the members of the band the pleasure they felt at upon being brought into treaty, and the satisfaction they experienced on receiving such generous treatment from the Crown. The signing of the treaty passed off in the most satisfactory manner to all concerned. Our next duty was the preparation of the Pay lists and the pay tickets. This was done with the assistance of Messrs Cockram and Patterson so that all was ready to begin the payments on Friday morning. Mrs Cockram had kindly asked us to spend the evening at her house. We were also offered rooms in which to put up in beds which ^and this^ offer was at once accepted, so that we were very comfortably situated while at this place 4th We were up bright and early Friday morning, and found the day gave promise of being warm and fine Soon after breakfast we began paying [88] the Indians. We paid in all 345 men, women and children, and received many expressions of thanks from the recipients of the gratuity. In order to let us see how the dog trains works a number of the dogs were harnessed in the sleighs and it was wonderful to see the changes that came over the dogs, when this was done.27 Previous to being harnessed the dogs slunk about; looking all the time as if they expected, and deserved a beating[.] As soon, however, as they were placed in the sleighs they were full of life, and could scarcely be restrained from going off with them The arrival during the afternoon of Bishop Holmes on the Steamer Innew was an incident of interest[.] The Innew brought word that the H.B.Co. Steamer had not yet arrived at [59] Charlton Island, and that some uneasiness

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was felt regarding her.28 Three steamships have come to grief in James Bay within the past two years. The El Dorado, belonging to the Revillon Co, and the Lady Head owned by the HBCo were both lost two years ago, and the Stork ^belonging to the latter Company^ ran aground this spring29 We were invited to dinner in the evening by Mrs Cockram and Mrs Patterson[.] During the day we had visited the Catholic Institutions at this place. Too much credit cannot be given to the sisters and to the clergy for the good work being done for the Indians both in connection with the hospital and the school. The children are being taught habits of cleanliness, and are also being taught to read and write in English. The sick are also cared for by trained nurses, and in many ways the Indians, old and young all securing benefits from the work being [90] done by the RC Church. 5th August The most important matters for Saturday were the question of the reserve to be set apart for the Indians, the feast, and the presentation of the flag. The first was settled to the satisfaction of all, the second kept many of the Indians busy all day, baking getting the necessary dishes, making tea &c &c. The feast was held in the evening in front of the HB dwelling house[.] All the Indians, old and young, protestant and catholic were present, and there was a sufficient quantity of good things to satisfy all present. Bishop Holmes, Father Fafard, and a number of lay brothers were present at the feast and helped to make everything pass off pleasantly. Mr and Mrs Cockram and Mr and Mrs Patterson also [91] took an interest in the proceedings, so that everyone present had a good time. The election for Chief and Counsellors usually held at the feast did not take place as a number of the Indians were absent at their hunting grounds at Attawapiskat river, and it was considered advisable, to postpone the election until next year.30 Speeches were made by several of the Indians, and were replied to by the Commissioners[.] those by the Indians expressed their thanks for the good treatment they had received from the representatives of His Majesty the King[.] We spent the evening with our friends of the H.B.Co. where we were very kindly entertained. 6th Sunday. The past night was wet and windy, and the morning did not give promise of a fine day. ^6th^ The Commrs went to ^the English^ Church in the morning along with our H.BCo friends and heard a very good sermon preached [92] by Bishop Holmes. There had been a service in Cree early in the morning, but yet the Church was well filled during the second service which was in English. Those of our party who attended the RC service reported that the church was well filled with members of that faith who took an intelligent part in the service. The evening services were also well attended, and large collections were taken up to be used in connection with the respective churches31

14.3 Feast at Fort Albany

MacMartin Thursday 3rd Up at 4.30 am. chilly morning. Left at 6.30, passing a no of Islands and running 2 rapids named respectively Boatmans and Coopers falls where the [73] river is about a mile wide. Arrived at Fort Albany at 9 30 am where we were received by Mr [blank] and Mr Patterson formerly of Nipigon House who is replacing the former who is returning to England on leave of absence. Fort Albany is situated on an Island in the Albany River, and besides the Hd’s Bay buildings wh. are on a large scale owing to the Post being a distributing point for the Upper River Posts, there are two churches, Episcopal with a residence for the missionary, R. C. with residence Convent and Hospital combined in charge of 4 nuns. Accommodation for 25 children in the convent. Everything connected with the hospital & school is in perfect order and marvelously [74] neat and clean; there are also two priests and 4 brothers of the Oblate Order. Cattle are kept by the Hds Bay people.32 potatoes, rhubarb and vegetables grown in the garden. After getting warmed up at the managers residence, and partaking of dinner the leading Indians not absent were assembled in a room off the Office at the Fort and it was then explained to them thro’ Interpreter James Linklater that the King had sent his representatives to enter into Treaty with them as he wished all his subjects both whites and Indians to be happy and prosperous and that he wished to set aside a tract of land for their sole use and benefit upon wh no white man would [75] be permitted to trespass. he also wishing to assist them would after the signing of the Treaty make a present this year of $8 per capita and an annuity during all time of $4 per annum. that an Agent

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would be appointed to meet them at a season to be agreed upon and he would pay to all present absentees $8. in addition to the $4 annuity falling due next year. and that they would be paid the money promised after signing the Treaty as soon as the pay list were prepared. Also that the King had ordered a feast for them in commemoration of this event wh. would not be continued year after year being provided this year on account [76] of it being the Treaty year. it was also explained that so many of their band being absent the choosing of chief and councillors would be deferred until next year when they were all assembled & that on the Election of chief he would be given a flag wh. he was to fly on all occasions when visitors or Gov’t officials visited his camp & that after the term of 3 years, the flag would be transferred to his enccessor33 unless he was reelected. They were then asked if they had any thing to say in return[.] Wm Goodwin, said that they were very glad to accept the terms as stated, that the King was good & that his present would help them very much. then said we are [77] ready to sign the Treaty wh was duly signed at 3.30 p.m. Friday 4th The paylists being completed the Indians were called up in families, carefully counted and paid [space] [space] In the afternoon we paid an official visit to the R.C. Convent and Hospital. there is accommodation for 25 children. everything reflects credit on the Order of sisters who besides being teachers are trained nurses and attend to the sick Indians who come for treatment to their Hospital. we also visited the [78] Church which is and [sic] ideal chapel the painting and ornamentation having been done by Bro Tremblay who has in the church here as well as at Fort Hope done all the carving with a pocket knife. the work is beautifully executed and would do credit to any sculptor[.] bidding adieu to the sisters, priest and Brothers, as we proceeded along the path leading to the fort, the steamer Inenew hove in sight coming up the Bay from Moose Factory with supplies for the Post and having on board Bishop Holmes of the diocese of Moosonee who I met and had a conversation with during the afternoon re matters connected with his missionary work [79] Saturday 5th During the day attended to posting the pay sheets and in the evg attended the Indian feast wh was held at 7 p.m. When the Indians were all served with raisin bannocks, tea, pipes and tobacco Chas Stephens rose and read a letter from Wm Goodwin thanking the King for his kindness in giving them a present of money wh would help them along and providing a feast for them. they then before leaving gave three cheers for the King and three cheers for the [80] Commissioners, Bishop Holmes leading. they then dispersed and went to their homes contented and happy at 5 p.m. Father Forfard flying the Union Jack at the stem of his canoe arrived at the R.C. Mission[.] Wm Goodman [Goodwin] on account of illness was unable to attend the feast, and sent a letter thanking the King for his kindness wh. was read by Chas Stephens

14.4 Portion of syllabic message. William Goodwin’s syllabic address may not state that “[the King] has taken us over.” William (Bill) Louttit Sr of Moose Factory translates this fragment as follows: “From our hearts we thank you, kitchi okimaw, for how you’ve pitied us and how you’ve helped us, as our spirits are poor, and for how you came to our land and helped us in our weakness.” John D. Nichols, pers. comm., suggests the following Roman orthography and translation: nitehinaahk “our heart(s)” ohci “from” kinanaaskomitinaan “we thank you” o [?] kihchi-okimaaw “great chief” kaa-ishi-kitimaakelimiyaahk “that/how you (singular) pity/feel compassion for us” nesta “and” kaa-ishi-wiichihiyaahk “that/how you (singular) help us” niiyawinaahk “in our body (bodies, persons?)” naaspich “very” e-kitimaakisiyaahk “we being poor/pitiable” nesta “and” e-liilamisiyaahk “we being weak” nikii-otihtikonaan “he/she reached us” oota “here” nitaskiinaahk “at our land/territory” kaa-ishi-wiichihiyaahk “that/how you (singular) help us” kiilawaaw “you (plural)” ohci “from.”

Sunday, 6th Attended divine service at the Episcopal Church at 11 am Bishop Homes [sic] officiating and preaching a very touching sermon and calling for assistance in the mission work, which was nobly responded to by the congregation wh was half Indian [81] the collection amounting to $10200[.] Dr Meindl besides attending to the ailments of the Indians, vaccinated 282 of the Band, before leaving. Fort Albany Reserve in the N West Ty Beginning at the point where the North River flows out of the main stream of the N. River [t]hence north on the east side of the North River a distance of 10 miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of 140 sq. miles Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin Here the Commissioners had the advantage of receiving much assistance from Mr. C.W. Cockram who was just leaving the Post on his way to England, and Mr. A.W. Patterson who had just taken charge in his room.34 In the afternoon the chief men selected by the Indians were convened in a large room in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s store, and an interesting and satis-

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factory conversation followed. The explanations that had been given at the other points were repeated here, and two of the Indians, Arthur Wesley and Wm. Goodwin, spoke at some length expressing on their own behalf and on behalf of their comrades the pleasure they felt upon being brought into Treaty and the satisfaction they experienced on receiving such generous treatment from the Crown. Some of the Indians were away at their hunting grounds at Attaw[a]piskat River and it was thought advisable to postpone the election of Chiefs until next year. The Indians were paid on the 4th and 5th August. During the afternoon the Hudson’s Bay Steamer “Innenew” arrived with Rev. George Holmes, the Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, on board. On Saturday the Indians feasted and presented the Commissioners with an address written in Cree Syllabic,35 of which the following is a translation:“From our hearts we thank thee, O Great Chief, as thou hast pitied us and given us temporal help. We are very poor and weak. He (the Great Chief) has taken us over, here in our own country, through you (his servants). “Therefore from our hearts we thank thee, very much, and pray for thee to Our Father in Heaven. Thou hast helped us in our poverty. “Every day we pray, trusting that we may be saved through a righteous life; and for thee we shall ever pray that thou mayst be strong in God’s strength and by His assistance. “And we trust that it may ever be with us as it is now; we and our children will in the church of God now and ever thank Jesus. “Again we thank you (Commissioners) from our hearts.” Fort Albany is an important Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company and there are two flourishing Missions, one of the Roman Catholic and one of the Church of England. Father Fafard has established a large Boarding School which accommodates twenty Indian pupils in charge of the Grey Nuns from the parent house at Ottawa. Here assistance is given to sick Indians in the hospital ward and a certain number of aged people who cannot travel with their relatives are supported each winter. The church and presbytery are commodious and well built and the whole mission has an air of prosperity and comfort. The celebration of mass was well attended on Sunday. The Church of England Mission is also in a flourishing condition. The large church was well filled for all Sunday services conducted by Bishop Holmes, and the Indians took an intelligent part in the services.

fort albany to moose factory Monday, 7 August Scott Monday 7. Up early, started in two masted Sailboat. Ran all day before fair wind. anchored for night at mouth of Moose River.36 sailed over 100 miles.

14.5 Western James Bay

Stewart 7th August. As it had been found impossible to arrange to cross to James Bay in a Steamer, a sail-boat was chartered from the H.B.Co. The weather was therefore a subject of much concern in the early morning. Shortly before 5 a.m. it was announced that a favorable wind had sprung up, [93] so, after saying good-bye to our friends at Albany, we at once embarked for Moose Factory. We were accompanied by Bishop Holmes who desired to visit the institutions under his charge at the latter place previous to his leaving for his present residence at Chapleau The wind proved to be so favourable that we made good progress across the Bay. It was quite a pretty sight to look back when out a mile or two and view the post in the distance. Just as we left, the Indians had fired off an old cannon that had done service for very many years, and the men women and children had waved us their farewell from its shore37 We had not proceeded far across the Bay when several members of our party became so sea-sick that they were obliged to improvise beds for themselves on the bolders [sic] placed in the bottom of [94] the boat for ballast. It was a great surprise to the Commissioners to find that James Bay, of which they had heard so much, was a shallow bay with low marshy shores. Nearly all

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the way across, although we were several miles from shore, for quite a ^long^ distance, a pole was used for taking soundings, with result that it ^was^ showedn that at no one point was there any great depth of water.38 We made such good progress that we arrived at 7 pm at the mouth of Moose River. It was not considered safe to attempt to proceed further that evening and so ^we^ anchored almost in sight of the post. The boat was by no means suited to afford sleeping accomodation [sic] for the number that was in our [95] party, and so we all spent a rather miserable night, in the cramped up space at our disposal. MacMartin Monday 7th The luggage and supplies also canoes being placed on the Hd Bay sail boat left the Dock at 8 am when a salute was fired from the old ship cannonade, in front of the Fort. sailed all day with a fine wind and anchored outside of the bar off Moose River at 8.50 p.m., heavy swell rolling through ^out^ the night. [paragraph continues] Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We left Albany on the morning of Monday, the 7th of August, in a sail boat chartered from the Hudsons’ [sic] Bay Company; and the wind being strong and fair we anchored off the mouth of Moose River at seven o’clock the same evening. [paragraph continues]

15 Moose Factory Fred Mark replied that they had long wished to enter into Treaty, that they concurred in all that had been said[,] that it was right and reasonable. that they were satisfied that they would be better cared for and protected by the King. that they would obey his laws and be good and dutiful subjects. that under the laws their children would be protected and properly educated. that they thanked the King for the present offered as they were poor & it would help them m ac martin diary, 9 august 1905

Tuesday, 8 August, to Friday, 11 August This hbc post, built in 1673 at Hayes Island (now called Moose Factory Island), was captured by Pierre de Troyes thirteen years later and renamed Fort St Louis. Although subsequently regained by the hbc, it was not reoccupied and rebuilt until 1730. In 1810 Moose Factory became headquarters of the Company’s southern department.1 In the late nineteenth century, Moose Factory was an important hub in the transportation of supplies from England and the return trip for furs. All goods from the annual ship, which arrived in August, were landed at Moose Factory. Nearby posts received some of their supplies before freeze-up that year, but onehalf or more were warehoused at Moose Factory until the next summer. Fall supplies destined for Rupert House were taken there by the brigantine Mink. The ketch Atlanta, also known as the Albany barge, supplied Fort Albany. Fort George and Whale River each sent small supply boats to Moose Factory every fall. After spring breakup, the Mink and the Atlanta delivered any remaining goods and brought back the winter’s fur bales.2 It was a costly system that required a large “a permanent staff twice as large as could possibly be justified at any other Season of the year.” In order to have “a shiptime gang” each August, the Moose Factory post had “to secure the goodwill and services of the Indians at whatever expense, yielding to their every caprice and finding them employment through the Summer at work quite unremunerative.” By the turn of the twentieth century “the demand for Indian workmen towards the Interior,” coupled with poor health conditions at the post, was reducing this labour pool, and the hbc looked for a way “to carry the work through without dependence being put upon Indian assistance.”3

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Prior to treaty time, a pier and warehouse were built at Charlton Island, some 75 miles to the northeast. The steamer Inenew was purchased to replace the schooners, so fewer skilled seamen were required. This change reduced expenditures by $25,000, an annual war chest that would permit the hbc to double its fur prices if competitors appeared.4 Until then, the only threat was “the Indians going to the railway line with their furs … only a journey of 15 to 20 days there and back.”5 Revillon Frères soon penetrated the Moose River, first establishing itself at Ara Island and then, in the spring of 1903, on the mainland north of Moose Factory at “French Post” (now Moosonee).6 hbc transport officer T.C. Rae ensured that the 1905 commissioners did not visit the Revillon Frères posts, an advantage Chipman had foreseen. Revillon Frères had perhaps invigorated what was an extremely difficult period for the Cree trading at Moose Factory, a crisis that can be attributed to the impacts of transcontinental railway construction in the hinterland and the influx of competitors. With competition, fur prices rose, but the Cree did not necessarily harvest more fur.7 In his 1901 report hbc inspector Alex Milne remarked, “Beaver have disappeared from the section of country hunted by the Moose Indians, where they used to be abundant. They have been killed out with intent apparently in later years as Indians came to expect that their titles to their hunting grounds would be disputed by the inflow of whites.” Milne was not speaking of legal title; he was referring to the breakdown of an age-old system of allocating territory to maximize pimaatisiwin.8 As we saw at Fort Albany, fur trading was no longer the mainstay at Moose Factory, a situation created by the hbc. ”Every Indian, with hardly an exception, is a Voyager, sailor or workman of some sort first and a hunter only when he is driven to it. If work is not forthcoming to most of them they will have to find their way elsewhere for it,” wrote Milne. This, he coldly added, “will be no loss.”9 Milne was hardly more sanguine in his comments about the Company’s servants. Aging servants such as Norwegian Gustave Udgaarden, Philip Turner, and Scottish blacksmith Ken McLeod were now considered liabilities.10 Coldly summarizing the situation, Milne wrote, “Some of the men, engaged and temporary, appear to be strong, hearty young fellows from whom, with a man to lead them and work with them, good work can be got. But half the engaged Servants might be weeded out and dispensed with, and would not be missed … Most of the Servants are in debt.”11 At Moose Factory the commissioners would met local hbc officer in charge J.G. Mowat,12 Sydney Barrett13 of New Post, local curate the Reverend T.B. Holland,14 and others from the Anglican mission staff. Fred Mark, first of the Moose Factory band’s elected chiefs, later became an Anglican clergyman.15 George McLeod16 served as interpreter. Treaty-making took just half an hour, for Holmes had called a meeting in the church the night before.17 (He likely spoke at that

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15.1 James Bay hunting territories, c.1880. Reprinted by permission of Anthropologica from Flannery and Chambers, “John M. Cooper’s Investigation.”

time about converting the now-vacant bishop’s residence into a residential school. He first presented the idea to the Moose Factory congregation on 14 June 1905.)18 Scott visited the hbc library and acquired some reading material. All the Crees trading at Moose Factory were considered Ontario Indians, even though the trading post band’s territory stretched into Quebec (as shown in figure 15.1 above). Those who wintered at Kesagami Lake might trade at Moose Factory, New Post, Rupert House, or Abitibi; the commissioners assigned them to whatever band the hbc did. By 1910 half the Moose Factory Cree were trading at French Post, and with so many having moved south to Chapleau and Missanabie, Moose Factory was “one of the two smallest missions” in the Anglican diocese of Moosonee.19 A year-round rcmp detachment was established at Moose Factory in 1926 by Constable Ronald L. Trolove, and in 1929–30 Indian agent–doctor B.H. Hamilton (replaced, upon his death, by W. Lorne Tyrer) was stationed there.20 Treaty commissioner H.N. Awrey paid annuities at Moose Factory in 1929 and, with fellow commissioner Walter Cain, again in 1930.21 In 1930 the hbc and Revillon Frères ended the age-old debt system. rcmp constable E.S. Covell realized that this change would “bear pretty hard on some Indians,” but he hoped it would “also act as a stimulant to them and make them realize that they must get out and rustle and save enough from their winter hunt to grubstake themselves for the coming fall.”22

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Prior to the commissioners’ 1930 visit, the band had again asked to move its reserve, this time from French River to Hannah Bay.23 The province apparently had little information on Hannah Bay and cautioned against a swap, but it promised to entertain a more detailed proposal.24 North Bluff (the site proposed while Dobie was en route to survey the French River location) or Hannah Bay would have given the Moose Factory band easy access to prime migratory bird staging areas. They would have gained privileged access to spring and fall goose and duck hunting, fox trapping, and moose or caribou. The Fort Albany band had such a coastal reserve. In 1931 a Moose Factory man was sentenced to three months in jail or a $50 fine for selling alcohol to Indians.25 Two Finns who travelled on skis and used poison bait to kill foxes were given the choice of just one month of jail or a $50 fine and costs. Crees John Fletcher and Jimmy Canasheesh, who trapped in the Hannah Bay region, helped Constable Covell locate the men’s camps.26 The Moose Factory Crees’ pimaatisiwin was further threatened in 1932, when the t&no Railway reached the Revillon Frères site across from Moose Factory, giving southerners easy access to this Cree homeland.27 By 1935 the caption on an aerial photograph of Moose Factory acknowledged the impact: “Many of the numbers of this band were employed as servants of the Company, but no work is now attainable since the Company has removed its headquarters. Consequently they are now almost destitute, depending on the Government for aid.”28 Moosonee became a magnet, and the squatters who had congregated there by the 1960s were a public policy concern.29 The French River reserve site made some sense when access to the region was by river from the south. It was a place for the Cree to meet the treaty paymaster, for example, and possibly grow some potatoes. But when the Moose Factory band asked to move its reserve, in the face of changing conditions heralded by the t&no, Ontario simply refused. The original Moose Factory reserve is still located between South Bluff Creek and the French River, but it is not inhabited year-round. A second reserve was acquired on Moose Factory Island after 1945, when the federal government constructed a large regional hospital there to combat tuberculosis and Indian Affairs concurrently instituted an intensive housing program to settle the Cree, removing them from the path of hydroelectric developments on the Mattagami and Abibiti Rivers.30 Radar installations were constructed on their lands, supposedly allaying Cold War fears.31 When gold was discovered in 1975 at Detour Lake, east of Kesagami Lake, the Moose Cree and other adjacent First Nations (e.g., New Post, Wahgoshig) were not consulted. A road to the site, from provincial highway 652 east of Cochrane, across the First Nations’ traditional lands, was exempted from detailed scrutiny under Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act.32

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George Cheechoo’s great-grandfather, Charles, received treaty money and ticket no. 7 at Moose Factory in 1905. Charles’s son, Mark, was assigned ticket no. 102 in 1910, and Mark’s son, Thomas, was awarded ticket no. 232 in 1934. Thomas introduced fifteen-year-old George to trapping about 1940, thinking that the young man would make his living from the same trapline which had sustained his ancestors. George trapped full-time in the 1950s and then part-time when he secured wage employment at Moose Factory. A winter road and two hydro lines now run through George Cheechoo’s trapline, disrupting the animals and restricting his trapping. When the winter road is built over the creeks draining into James Bay, culverts are not used; instead, the creekbeds are filled with logs, and no water gets through. So there are no otters or mink or muskrat to be caught, and George cannot retrieve his frozen traps.33

commentary Since time immemorial, the Moose Cree people have been very vigilant in surviving and functioning as a nation, whether it was before treaty times or in the post-treaty era. Our people have always harmoniously occupied the 6 million hectares of land within the Moose Cree Homelands that extend south to the French, Abitibi, Missinaibie, and Mattagami Rivers, east to the Quebec border, and points north and west. With the invasion of Western society through the government of Canada, we have continuously fought for rights that are otherwise taken for granted by the rest of the so-called civilized population, which is still geographically isolated from us today. In times past and to this day, our elders have always held the treaty signing on 9 August 1905 as very sacred. The recognition symbolized by the annual treaty payment is more significant then the amount of $4.00 given annually. The understanding of Treaty No. 9 shown by our first elected chief, Fred Mark, by and his councillors, James Job, Simon Quatchequan, and Simon Cheena, was quite astounding. They foresaw a society that would invade their lands and impede their survival. Considering their lack of specific knowledge of government plans to later exploit and rape the resources of our our lands, they clearly knew what needed to be communicated to government officials at the signing of Treaty No. 9. It must be noted that since time immemorial our leaders never yielded or surrendered any lands occupied by the Moose Cree First Nation. In the modern era, we have ensured that we are moving forward and paying homage to our predecessors in our dealings with the government of the day. A case in point is resource development and the need for governments to recognize our treaty rights and our gift of sharing the vast resources within the Moose Cree

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Homeland. Chief John Fletcher, whom I consider one of our greatest leaders, said in a statement to the Royal Commission on the Northern Environment in 1978 that “the Indians would share the profit and wealth from any resources.” This is another prime example of one of our leaders planting the seeds for us to move forward on the issues that we are facing today. There is much that can be said about Treaty No. 9, both good and bad. It is time for this generation of leaders to ensure that we embark on a journey that is healthy, reassuring, and complements the understanding of the treaty held by our forefathers and the generations before them. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the great work of my colleague, author, and my mish-toog-gi-shoo [whiteman] friend John Long in the publication of his new book, Treaty No. 9. Mr Long, as far as I can remember, has tirelessly worked on the history of the Crees from the James Bay area. I praise him for the work he has done in keeping our history alive and in informing our upcoming generations on the importance of our history and our existence as Moose Cree people. Gitchi-meegwetch, John, from the Moose Cree First Nation. We wish you well in your endeavours. Chief Norm Hardisty Jr 15 November 2009 Scott [Tuesday Aug 8] Up anchor @ 3. ^Tuesday 8th^ landed at 10.30, wind fitful. rested for remainder of day [26] as trip was rough. I was pretty sick. Wed. Aug 9 Made Treaty, in the morning. made out list in aft. Inspected mission property. Hospital, Bishops House34 wh with few alterations will make suitable boarding schools. Recommend grant for alterations & equipment and per capita Grant, 25 or 30 pupils @ $60. send some books, charts, &c for day school. Recomm’d grant for building new day school say $500. send stuff by Revillon Freres Quebec, for Rev T.B. Holland, Moose Factory J.G. Mowat Esq. Linstrom to replace Meredith, 15 Sept 05, Haileybury. [27] Reserve Moose Factory In the Prov of Ont, beginning at at [sic] a point on the East shore of Moose River at South Bluff Creek thence south six miles on the East shore of French River and of Sufficient depth to give an area of 66 square miles Reserve Fort Albany In the N.W.T. beginning at the pt where the north River flows out of the main stream of the Albany thence north on the west side of the North River a distance of ten miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of 140 sq miles [28] Thursday Aug 10. Paid Ind from 10 to 4. Election of Chief & flag pr[ese]nted. Friday Aug 11

Top 15.2 Signatures at Moose Factory (Canada’s copy) Bottom 15.3 Signatures at Moose Factory (Ontario’s copy)

Inspected mission property for school purposes Friday, Aug 11 Reserve question settled Send Rev Mr Holland ^for^ Moose & Albany, Forms for report of attendance & statutes, the annual Statement. Stewart 8th August. We weighed anchors at day-break on Tuesday morning, and drifted with the tide and a light fitful wind to assist reached Moose Factory at 10.30 am. We were welcomed by Mr J.G. Mowat, in charge of Moose Post, and by Mr Barrett of New Post, who had come with a crew for the purpose of taking back with him a load of much needed supplies, but which he could not obtain owing to the fact that the ship which was weeks overdue had not arrived. Moose Factory has quite a history and many points of interest are to be seen there: the two cannons brought from York Factory, the old arsenal, the points where attacks had been [96] made by the French on the fort, and where the British seamen had fought and won back points that had been captured by the French.

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Our tents were put up close to the HBCo officers quarters, which are situated on a hill overlooking the River and Bay. During the afternoon we received a visit from Bishop Holmes, who was also accompanied by his staff at Moose consisting of Rev T. Bird Holland, Curate, Mr. Oxley in charge of the mission school, and Miss Johnson,35 nurse in charge of the hospital. At night the usual dance was held, much to our discomfort, as the dancers used as a promenade the lane at the back of our tents and the loud talking and laughing of the many dancers did not act as a lullaby. To add to our troubles, a large bell near by was rung for a considerably time, beginning about 2 am. On enquiry in the morning we learned that the last performance was to announce to a number of boatmen that they were to take advantage of the tide to go up36 the river for some boat loads of marsh hay. 9th August. Mr. Mowat, with the assistance of Bishop Homes [sic] had interested himself in securing for us a meeting of representative Indians. We accordingly met in the morning in a large room placed at our disposal by the HBCo Geo. McLeod one of the HB officials acted as interpreter being assisted occasionally by Bishop Holmes37 and Mr. Mowat The Indians who had been chosen to confer with us seemed remarkably intelligent and deeply interested in the subject to be discussed. When the points of the treaty were explained [98] to them, they expressed their perfect willingness to the terms and conditions. Frederick Mark, who in the afternoon was elected Chief, said that the Indians were all delighted that a treaty was about to be made with them; they had been looking forward to it for a long time, and were glad that they were to have their hopes realized, and that there was now a prospect of law and order38 being established among them. John Dick remarked that one great advantage the Indians hoped to derive from the treaty was the establishment of schools wherein their children might receive an education. George Tappaise said they were very thankful that the King had remembered them, and that the Indians were to receive money, which was very much needed by many who were poor and sick. Suitable responses were made to these gratifying speeches by the Commissioners and Bishop Holmes, and the treaty was immediately signed.39 During the afternoon we paid a visit to Bishop Holmes, and to his curate, Mr Holland. We also visited the school, and hospital, and could not but realize that good work was being done here by the staff under the control of Bishop Holmes We were shown through the garden adjacent to Mr Hollands residence and were not a little surprised at the variety of vegetables grown here. Mr Holland said that he had tried to grow wheat, barley and oats but without success as the season is too short for them to mature. The Bishop presented us with some very fine potatoes which were much appreciated, as we had been without any fresh vegetables for a number of weeks. [100]

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15.4 Outside the commissioners’ tent, Moose Factory

We were favoured with beautiful weather while at Moose, and we enjoyed several delightful walks along the shores of Moose River. We had also bright moonlight nights in which it was delightful to stroll across some of the fields or along the banks of the river. 10th August We began to pay the Indians early in the day and with the assistance of Mrs Mowat to identify those who presented themselves for payment, completed this duty early in the afternoon. ^342 paid^40 We could not but be impressed with the fact that the Moose Factory Indians were the most comfortably dressed and, in every way an apparently ^a^ [sic] better class of Indians than those we had met up to this time. During the evening the Indians informed the Commission[er]s that they [101] had elected the following Chief and Counsellors: Frederick Mark, James Job, Simon Quatchequan and Simon Cheena. As they were to have their feast in the evening, it was decided to present the flag to the chief on that occasion. The feast was held in a large workshop placed at the disposal of the Indians by the company; and before this hall, just as night was coming on, the flag was presented to Chief Mark. In many respects it was a unique occasion. The gathering was addressed by Bishop Holmes, who began with a prayer in Cree, the Indians making their responses and singing their hymns in the same language. Bishop Holmes kindly interpreted the address of the Commissioners, which was suitably replied to by Chief Mark. It may be recorded that [102] during our stay at this point the commodious church was crowded every evening by interested Indians, who took an intelligent part in each service. ^The usual dance was held at its close of the feast^ It should have been stated that on the evening of the 9th, Mr McKenzie,41 district inspector for HBC. and Mr Cochram came over from Charlton Island on the Steamer Chipman, and both of these gentlemen showed us every kindness possible.

15.5 Elders at Moose Factory

On the 10th we received an invitation to take dinner at Mr Mowat’s house which was gladly accepted by the whole party. The gathering proved to be an exceedingly pleasant one[.] The house occupied by Mr and Mrs Mowat was built in 1832, and was for many years occupied by Sir George Simpson.42 Mr McKenzie [103] told us than [sic] in his early days at this place, the house was the scene of many festive gatherings. This was particularly the case when the ships used to come to within a short distance of the post[.] It was many years, Mr McKenzie informed us, since the large dining room had seen such a large gathering as the one at which we were present. We all felt that the gathering was a memorable one. The stories told us by Mr Mackenzie of the early days of the H.B.C. at this place were very interesting indeed, and gave us a great deal of information in regard to Moose Factory and its early history. 11th August. During the morning we visited the “James Bay Library,” which supplies books to the officers of the Posts that receive their supplies at Albany and Moose.43 The library [104] is a very good one, and new books are constantly being added to it, so that the officers are well supplied with reading matter. Mr Barrett who travelled with us from Moose to New Post, took back a good sized box of books with him to replace a box that he had brought ^with him^ to Moose. As we intended leaving in the morning for our journey up the Abitibi, we spent some time visiting points of interest such as the old fort, the point where the ships formerly landed, a tunnel said to have been made by the French to assist in capturing the fort and the old cannons. We also visited the shop where the large canoes are built for use on the Moose, Abitibi and Missanabie. In the boat house we saw a large boat which we were [105] informed was owned by Mr A.P. Low ^Low^44 and which was used by him in his expedition to Hudson Bay

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The weather was all that we could desire while we were at Moose, the nights also being beautiful and bright as the night moon was about at the full; the flies known as “bull dogs”, however were very vicious, and took greatly from the pleasure we otherwise would have had MacMartin Setting the sails at [82] Tuesday 8th 3.50 am, crossed the bar and entered the river at 4 30 am [illegible] arriving at the Factory at 10 a.m[.] Moose Factory is situated on one of the large Islands in Moose River and evidently from the number of store houses and residences now abandoned a large business was done here at one time by the Hds Bay Company as this place was a distributing depot for all the Post[s] along the coast and for some distance inland, the vessels conveying stores coming to this post[.] In addition to the Factory building there is a Mission Church and Bishop and curate residences. the flags at the Factory and mission were both flying in honor of our [83] visit. on the high ground opposite the Dock at wh we landed two British Brass field guns are mounted bearing the Coat of Arms of the late Queen Victoria, also the badge of the regiment with the motto, “Tria juncto in uno.”45 Guns are of the date of 1843. There is also a small Hospital attached to the mission, one trained nurse also a teacher for the school that the Bishop has in anticipation [84] Wednesday 9th At 10 a.m. the representative members of the Band to the number of 10. were assembled in an upper Room of the Hds Bay storehouse. it was then explained to them that the King had sent his representatives to them to make a Treaty, that he wished them to be happy and prosperous46 and that, if they entered into Treaty they would be protected; also the King had sent them a present this year of $8 and would grant them an annuity per capita of $4 per annum for all time [85] that when they were ready for same schools would be established for the purpose of educating their children[.] It was explained that it was the usual custom to provide a feast for them after the Treaty was signed and that Mr Mowatt the Hds Bay Companys Agent would provide them with all necessary for their feast that a Reservation would be set aside for them, giving each family of 5 a square mile, that they were not obliged to live on it until they felt inclined, that they could follow their custom of hunting where they please the area of land simply being set aside as their own on wh no white man could trespass or enter upon [86] without their permission, also they were expected to elect a chief and advisors and that the chief on election would be provided with a flag and on his enccessor being elected the flag being a badge or sign of Authority was to be transferred. They were then asked if they had anything to say. Fred Mark replied that they had long wished to enter into Treaty, that they concurred in all that had been

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said that it was right and reasonable. that they were satisfied that they would be better cared for and protected by the King. that they would obey his laws and be good and dutiful subjects. that under the laws their [87] children would be protected and properly educated. that they thanked the King for the present offered as they were poor & it would help them [6 blank lines, one of which showed a child’s prowess with numerals] 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 10.30 a.m. the Treaty was signed. in the afternoon the Pay lists were carefully gone into and prepared. [88] Thursday 10th At 10 30 a.m. the Indians were called up in families carefully counted and paid, in cases where sickness prevented any of the family from attendance, in addition to statements of the parent or parents the Hds Bay Agent, also the Curate of the mission, testified to the correctness of the no of families and as to the number of same missing. In the evening the Band before sitting down to their feast announced that they had Elected Fred Mark as Chief, James Job, Simon Quachquam and Simon Cheenas, Councillors [89] they were then presented with a Union Jack as an emblem of Authority and also to remind them when they unfurled it on all occasions when they met in consultation on receiving visitors that they were under the protection of the King and must obey all his laws. it was also explained to them that they must not purchase make or use liquor in any shape or form. they then sang the doxology the Bishop leading, afterwards giving three Cheers for the King and three Cheers for the Commissioners. Mr McKenzie, Inspector for this district (Hds Bay Co) accompanied by Mr Cochrame Agent [90], who is on leave of absence, at Fort Albany arrived from Charlton Island. Friday 11th Mr McKenzie and party left this Post at 10 a.m. on his steam Launch Chipman for his Headqarters wh. is a supply depot as the vessels from England land their cargoes there[.] At 10 30 am the chief and councillors assembled in the Dom Com’s Tent and we after a short discussion granted them the following Reserve, [91] Reserve Moose Factory In the Province of Ontario Beginning at a point on the east shore of Moose River at south Bluff Creek, [t]hence south 6 miles on the East shore of French River and of sufficient depth to give an area of 66 square miles. The Hudson Bay Co. have 26 head of Cattle at the Post also some Horses. The mission also have some cattle and two Fine gardens. Tame hay, timothy is grown here by the Company and wild hay “Red Top” grows in abundance[.] The Agent Mr Mowatt informed me that in every instance when [92] attempted grain failed to mature the fall frosts nipping the head while in the milky state.

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Dr Meindl in addition to attending to the ailments of the Indians vaccinated [space] of the Band Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin Weighing anchor at daylight on Tuesday morning, we drifted with the tide and a light, fitful wind and reached Moose Factory at 10.30. We had been accompanied on the journey by Bishop Holmes, who immediately upon landing interested himself with Mr. J.G. Mowat in charge of this important Post of the Hudson’s Bay Company to secure a representative meeting of Indians on the morrow. On the morning of the 9th a meeting was held in a large room placed at our disposal by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Indians who had been chosen to confer with us seemed remarkably intelligent and deeply interested in the subject to be discussed. When the points of the Treaty were explained to them they expressed their perfect willingness to accede to the terms and conditions. Frederick Mark, who in the afternoon was elected Chief, said that the Indians were all delighted that a treaty was about to be made with them; they had been looking forward to it for a long time and were glad that they were to have their hopes realized and that there was now a prospect of law and order being established among them. John Dick remarked that one great advantage the Indians hoped to derive from the Treaty was the establishment of schools wherein their children might receive an education. George Teppaise said they were thankful that the King had remembered them and that the Indians were to receive money which was very much needed by many who were poor and sick. Suitable

15.6 Inside the commissioners’ tent, Moose Factory

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responses were made to these gratifying speeches by ourselves and Bishop Holmes and the Treaty was immediately signed. Payment commenced next day and was rapidly completed. It was a matter of general comment that the Moose Factory Indians were the most comfortably dressed and best nourished of the Indians we had so far met with. On the evening of Thursday the Indians announced that they had elected the following Chief and Councillors:- Frederick Mark, James Job, Simon Quatchequan and Simon Cheena. As they were to have their feast in the evening, it was decided to present the flag to the Chief on that occasion. The feast was held in a large work-shop placed at the disposal of the Indians by the Company; and before this hall, just as night was coming on, the flag was presented to Chief Mark. In many respects it was a unique occasion. The gathering was addressed by Bishop Holmes who began with a prayer in Cree, the Indians making their responses and singing their hymns in the same language. Bishop Holmes kindly interpreted the address of the Commissioners, which was suitably replied to by Chief Mark. It may be recorded that during our stay at this point a commodious church was crowded every evening by interested Indians and that the good effect of the ministrations for many years of the Church Missionary Society were plain not only at Moose Factory but after the immediate influence of the Post and the Missionaries had been left. The crew from Moose Factory which accompanied the Commissioners as far as Abitibi held service every night in camp, recited a short litany, sang a hymn and engaged in prayer. A fact we think worthy of remark, as in the solitude through which we passed this Christian service made a link with civilization, and the best influences at work in the world which had penetrated even to these remote regions. On Friday, August 11th, the question of a reserve was gone into and settled to the satisfaction of ourselves and the Indians. A description is given in the Schedule of Reserves. During our stay we had the opportunity of inspecting Bishop’s Court, at one time the residence of the Bishop of Moosonee but which the present incumbent of the office intends to convert into a boarding school for Indian children. The hospital under the supervision of Miss Johnson was also inspected. A report upon the work performed there and the manner of its performance will be found in Dr. Meindl’s report which is attached hereto.

“half-breeds” For the Métis, there are two well-known dates in the history of western Canada: the Riel resistance in 1870 and the 1885 rebellion. In the wake of these two events, legislation sought to mollify “half-breeds” in western Canada and extinguish any of their lingering rights. The Manitoba Act and later provisions entitled the chil-

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dren of half-breed parents to receive grants of land, provided they were alive in the province on 15 July 1870. Similarly, the North-West Half-Breed Commission extended this option to the territories, providing half-breed children with 240 acres or scrip (a certificate) worth $240 and giving their parents 160 acres or scrip worth $240. At an 1889 adhesion to Treaty No. 6 there were parallel scrip and treaty commissions, as there were with Treaty No. 8.47 In his advice to Clifford Sifton of February 1902, following receipt of the Osnaburgh petition, J.A.J. McKenna, one of the Treaty No. 8 commissioners and now the sole North-West Half-Breed Claims commissioner, cautioned the minister against signing a treaty that was partly south and east of the Albany River (in northern Ontario) and partly north and west (in Keewatin).48 He reminded Sifton of one of the problems that had arisen following the signing of Treaty No. 3 whereby, once Ontario’s boundary was determined to lie west of Lake Superior and north along the Albany River to James Bay, the result was a treaty that straddled two provinces and a territory.49 The boundary decision created what McKenna called “an inconsistency” in the Treaty No. 3 area. “Halfbreeds living on the Keewatin side of the English River are recognized as having territorial rights and get scrip,” he wrote, “scrip which they may locate in Manitoba or any part of the North West Territories; while the Halfbreed on the Ontario side who naturally comes and makes a claim has to be told that he has no territorial rights. We must take care to avoid the perpetuation of this.” It was for this reason that he urged Sifton to wait until halfbreed claims in the territories were settled before negotiating Treaty No. 9.50 “If the treaty [was] extended to Keewatin,” wrote McKenna, “influences would at once be put in operation to lead many of the people classed as natives to set up claims to white blood, to declare that their habitat was in Keewatin and to demand scrip instead of money. On the other hand if we keep out of Keewatin, all of the people who are really living the life of aborigines will come into Treaty.”51 By August 1903 a population estimate had been compiled from the data provided by some of the department’s most northernly agents, and the proposed new treaty had been tentatively called Treaty No. 9 or the James Bay Treaty (see chapter 3). Two years before Treaty No. 9 was signed, Sifton was counselled that “if any claims be made by halfbreeds as distinguished from Indians, the Province to grant 160 acres to each of such persons in fee simple under conditions that will admit of land being located in advance of survey and being taken possession of at once, as without such conditions, owing to the remoteness of these persons from surveyed lands, the grant would be of little use to them.”52 The half-breed issue was not mentioned in Frank Pedley’s first letter to Ontario commissioner of Crown lands E.J. Davis eight months later or in any of his subsequent communications with Davis’s assistant, Aubrey White. Half-breeds are not referred to in any of the correspondence from Indian agents, clergy, or the hbc to Indian Affairs. McKenna had recommended that the department only

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obtain information on “the number of Indians in the territory.”53 The department’s northern agents were asked merely to provide an estimate of “the number of Indians.”54 Archdeacon Thomas Vincent, himself a “half-breed” who had unsuccessfully applied for scrip,55 made no mention of half-breeds in his correspondence with Indian Affairs (but might have spoken of this issue if he had been invited to meet treaty planners in Ottawa, as he wished).56 While at Moose Factory, the commissioners were presented with a handwritten petition from five half-breeds, one of whom (George McLeod) had served as the commissioners’ interpreter. Some of them had relatives in the west, so they knew about scrip.57 Holmes was opposed to scrip as an alternative to band status in Athabasca, knowing that Indian Affairs would only provide per capita residential school funding for Indian inmates.58 We the undersigned, half breeds of Moose Factory, beg to petition the Government of Ont. for some consideration, as we are told by His Majesty’s Treaty Commissioners that no provision is at present made for us. We understand that script [sic] has been granted to the half breeds of the North West Territory. We have been born & brought up in the country, and are thus by our birth and training unfit to obtain a livelihood in the civilized world. Should the fur traders at any time not require out services we should be obliged to support ourselves by hunting. We therefore humbly trust pray that you will reconsider your present arrangements and afford us some help. Andrew Morrison George McLeod William McLeod [Sr] William Moore William Archabald The above represent various absentees at Charlton & on H B C vessals. J G mowat59 As we saw in chapter 4, their claim is still outstanding. Arthur Ray reminds us that the arrival of Revillon Frères at the mainland north of Moose Factory just before 1905 created new opportunities. The petitioners’ claim “Should the fur traders at any time not require out services we should be obliged to support ourselves by hunting” was a very real one, as Ray demonstrates in his fine description of dependency and paternalism (and as we saw in hbc inspector Milne’s remarks).60 But it may not describe the economic prospects of all the 1905 petitioners. In June of 1902 an Anglican missionary encountered “43 men, women and children of hbc’s servants, who had been given a passage to the line. They will

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find many hardships before they settle. Moose Fort is half emptied of the Company’s servants, some few Indians have left, and more are going.” When Revillon Frères appeared on the scene, however, the tide of immigrants reversed itself. By July “a large party of new traders” arrived, “French Roman Catholics … going to settle near Moose, and taking with them Indians and servants, nearly 40 canoes in all.”61 All the same, as Milne recognized, the days of the fur trade were numbered at Moose Factory. Any advantages that accrued from the arrival of Revillon Frères amounted, in hindsight, to a stay of execution for the Cree and half-breed people of Moose Factory. The arrival of the t&no a quarter-century later forever changed the community. The Moose Works, the important boat-building operation that had been so central in the nineteenth century, was closed. The James Bay district office staff was moved to Winnipeg, and Moose Factory’s economy collapsed.62 New vocational niches would also begin to open for both for Métis and the First Nations: rcmp special constable, railway section hand, Indian Affairs interpreter, night watchman at the residential school, ward aide, secretary, cook, water-taxi operator, guide, laundress, painter, and carpenter. In the second half of the twentieth century, jobs would become available in the band office, school, senior levels in Indian Affairs, and senior advocacy organizations (gct9, nan, and the Mushkegowuk Council). In the 1970s Donald Faries, descended from one of the oldest hbc families,63 established a highly successful commercial enterprise based on the Moose Factory reserve. When I lost an early version of this manuscript, representing weeks of work, I called Bercell Integrated Technologies (Donald Faries, president), and Sacha Lostun, my friend and bit’s systems analyst, found the file.

moose factory to new post Saturday, 12 August, to Friday, 18 August The treaty party, accompanied by Barrett, left Moose Factory at midday with new canoes and a new crew of local men (including Caleb Cheena, treaty signatory Simon Smallboy, his son, and Daniel Wascowin), who would accompany them as far as Abitibi. hbc personnel had checked and rechecked the supplies for this trip to ensure that the treaty party’s crew had no “excuse” to delay them en route. After some three hours of paddling upriver, the commissioners camped near a prime fishery “at the foot of a pretty swift rapid,” where they saw their first lobstick and witnessed evening vespers led by the elder Smallboy, who had replaced Jimmy Swain as head guide. Harry Black continued as cook, and Isaac Ritch remained with the treaty party as well. On Sunday the voyageurs poled and tracked upriver, while the commissioners waded or walked, and in the afternoon the party entered the Abitibi River. Next day they met a survey crew, to whom Meindl provided medical care. Survey teams

15.7 Moose Factory to New Post

15.8 Crew from Moose Factory to Abitibi

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15.9 Young Smallboy

had been engaged for the past five years in a comprehensive provincial investigation of northern Ontario’s resources64 and since then in weighing Moose Factory versus Fort Albany as the site for a northern railway terminus.65 Days of poling and tracking took the canoes past Blacksmith and Lobstick Rapids, the mouth of the Little Abitibi River, and the Clay Falls and Sextant portages. They also passed Otter Rapids, where, fifty-five years later, a hydroelectric dam would be constructed.66 New Post was reached on Saturday, 19 July, a full week after the commissioners had left Moose Factory. Scott Sat 12 Aug Left Moose Factory 12.30 camped at 4.30 rain in the middle of day. camped at only available spot for several miles. [29] Sun 13 Aug Up at 5.00. Started at 6. poling & tracking up long rapids. constant swift water. Reached mouth of Abbittibi 2.30. Long portage Left Bishop Holmes. camped at 6.20.

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Mon 14 Aug Up at 5, started 6.30 When leaving called upon by passing canoes. Sullivan’s survey party for Ont Govt. Poled & tracked all day. Camped 6.45. Tuesday 15 Aug Started 6.50. Poled all day. no tracking. fine struggle with Blacksmiths Rapids. camped on high bank amid trees, 6.30. Slept well. [30] Wed 16 Aug Rise at 6. Started 7.25. clear sunlight. reached Little Abitibi River about 9. tracked miles along stony track & thro woods. Camped at lip of 60 foot bank, tent on edge of cliff. Thursday 17 Aug Rise at 5.30 started 6.30. Very rough water. 2 long Portages. Camped after Sextant portage in berry patch. one of the men stunned by tree. Ill next[illegible] day. not the[illegible] [hamstring?]. Friday 18 Aug Rise at 6 off at 7. after nearly an hours paddle reached Otter Rapids Ptg over 3 miles. men had to carry everything including canoes part of the way. Began to rain after luncheon. Rain increased, had to camp at 4. [31] Indian Pattern. short stick in direction they have taken. Long stick points to where the sun was when they started. Stewart 12th August We were up early in order to complete our preparations for departure[.] We had to engage a new crew here to take us as far as Fort Abitibi and our friends of the H.BCo gave us good assistance in getting the right kind of men. Bishop Holmes was to accompany us as far as the junction of the Moose and Abitibi, from whence he was to proceed to Missanabie which water flows [106] into Missinabe Lake ^at a point^ a few hours distant by rail from Chapleau, the bishops place of residence It was 12.30 before our arrangements were completed and then with many regrets we said good bye to our many kind friends at Moose. All the Indian and white population turned out to give us a good send off.67 The large cannons, too, were brought into use and as we left the wharf a salute of six guns was fired in our honor. All along the shore for quite a distance, the people of the village were to be seen waving ^shawls or^ some ^other^ article of apparel to give us as a final salute. Shortly after leaving the post, we were caught in a shower of rain but continued on our journey. The tide from James Bay runs [107] up the Moose for several miles, so that the water is salt for quite a distance. Shortly after leaving the post we saw a school of porpoises68 sporting in the water, and as this was a novel sight for several of us we were much interested in watching them as they appeared from time to time We had been warned at the post that it was the custom of the Indians to

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leave something behind them so that after a few hours journey they would have an excuse to return to say good bye once more to their friends.69 We had therefore taken special precautions that everything we required should be taken along. When we stopped for lunch however at 1.30 the bishop’s men informed him that their canoe was leaking, and that they had forgotten to bring any pitch with them. They also stated [108] that they had no gun with them and that it was absolutely necessary that they should obtain one. It would, therefore, be necessary for them, ^they said,^ to return to Moose to have these matters put right We were therefore obliged to go on at about 2.30 and leave the bishop beside the fire awaiting the return of his men. About 4.45 we arrived at the foot of a pretty swift rapid, and were informed by our men that the camping ground near by was the only suitable one in the vicinity. We therefore landed and camped for the night Directly opposite our camp two tall trees were to be seen, the branches of which had been taken off to near the top. The trees were quite [109] conspicuous, and we were informed that these were known as “Lob Sticks”,70 and that if we went over to them we would find that they bore some inscription commemorating some important event. One of our party was quite struck with ^this^ manner of writing history, and along the Moose and Abitibi there are now a number of “Lob Sticks” commemorating the making of the James Bay Treaty During the evening the ^bishop’s^ canoe arrived at our camp having made good speed to and from Moose. It should have been mentioned that several canoes containing women had come with us from the Post, as the women were going to spend some days fishing at the rapids at which we were camped At night all the Indians gathered [110] around their camp fire and held a religious service which was led by Simon Smallboy71 our head guide. They sang several hymns in Cree, and as these were well known hymns such as Abide with with [me], Sun of my Soul, There is a happy land &c. they could also be joined in in [sic] English by the other members of the party who decided to do so. After singing, a short litany was recited, and prayers said, after which most of the Indians at once retired to their tents. It may be added that this service was continued every night by the Moose Indians, during the time they travelled with us. 13th August We were up at 5 a.m. and found that the weather had cleared and that it was a bright beautiful [111] morning. We said good bye to the women ^and children 13 in all^ who were remaining at the rapids to fish and proceeded on the next stage of the journey. Poles were use [sic] by the men instead of paddles for the first mile or two ^as the^ swift current ^made this necessary^. At about 8.15 the men had to resort to tracking, that is to say to pulling the canoes up by means of ropes. The river at this part was wide and afforded a very pretty picture

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At noon we landed at “Stewart’s bight”, for lunche[o]n. Meanwhile the bishop and his crew had gone on ahead of us, and at 2.30 we saw a canoe coming towards us which on closer view turned to be that of the bishop. The canoe ^,we learned,^ was leaking so badly that it was considered advisable to return it to Moose and have it exchanged for a more serviceable one. In a short time caught sight of the [112] bishop, standing on the shore looking very disconsolate indeed. His Lordship was very anxious to attend a conference of bishops to be held in Toronto early in September, and had about given up hopes of accomplishing this[.] We felt very sorry indeed that our good friend should have been so unfortunate, but were unable to lend him any assistance72 The bishop was camped just opposite the Junction of the Moose and Abitibi rivers, and after saying good bye to His Lordship we turned our canoes towards the latter river[.] The line where the two rivers joined was quite marked, the waters of the Moose being bright and clear unlike those of the Abitibi were muddy and dirty [illegible.] On entering the Abitibi we were met by a swift current so that a [113] portage was found to be necessary. It was by no means a nice portage either, as the shores were marshy and grown up with so thick a growth of alders that it was with difficulty we could push our way through them. We camped at 6.30 at a rather pleasant camping place. 14th. We we[re] up at 5 a.m. and shortly after breakfast, saw three canoes coming down the stream. The occupants proved to be Ontario Govt men who were sent to report on the mines, forests and soil of the district. Mess[r]s Sullivan, Dillon and Rogers were in charge of the party. Three of the canoe men Al Simon, Joe Leclair and Jocko Tickman ^were from Mattawa and^ were known to our doctor, and they were glad to meet in this remote region Mr Sullivan, it proved was ill, and his friends were bringing him to Moose, in the hope that [114] he might receive medical attendance there. He was much pleased when he learned that we had a doctor in our party, and at once came ashore to be examined. The doctor reported that a skin infection73 which had caused Mr Sullivan much alarm, was not as dangerous as he had imagined. The doctor gave him some medicine, and advice as to treatment, and the party proceeded on their way in much better spirits than when we had met them. We encountered many rapids during this day’s travel, and the poles had frequently to be resorted to as the current was much too swift for the paddles to be of use. The scenery was however very pretty including as it did long vistas with green trees on either hand, beautiful [115] islands standing high out of the water, and in many places high hills down which it was evident the water must come in torrents in the spring. We landed for the night at 6.15, after a rather unsatisfactory attempt to sail up stream. 15th We got up at 5.45 to find the morning rainy and cool. As usual the Indians

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only took a light breakfast, their real breakfast having taken after travelling about two hours. For the first hour the Indians were compelled to track the canoes up the rapids. At 8 30 we landed to permit the Indians to take their usual morning meal. When we left again at 9.15 the wind was so favorable that sails were put up and good progress was made thereby up the rather swift-flowing river. The scenery [116] along this part of the river is really beautiful and was much admired by the members of the party Blacksmith’s rapids which were reached early in the afternoon proved a pretty stiff proposition for the crew, but they stuck manfully to the task until they had accomplished what no doubt had been done by them many times before, viz. brought the canoes to the head of the rapids Good camping places were evidently scarce at this part of the river, and when a good one was pointed out at 6.30 it was decided to land and put up our tents. A visit was paid to a “Lob Stick” that was prominent among the trees, about a quarter of a mile away. Several inscriptions, evidently made by Govt Surveyors, were to be [117] seen on the tree, but the weather had so obliterated them as to render them almost unreadable. 16th August. The morning was clear and cold but during the day it was quite hot. At 8.45 we came to the Little Abitibi[.] We had to do a good deal of walking on this day, as the many rapids had to be passed. The shore was very rough ^[illegible]^ with many high hills which had to be climbed. We were glad to come to an occasional spring on the side of the hills where we were able to refresh ourselves after a long, hot walk. We had some exciting moments in the canoes in poling up the stiff rapids The islands in the river at this part of the trip were very beautiful. Two of them standing high out of the water we named Fortification Island and Gun Boat Island. The hills were [118] were [sic] so steep coming down close to the water’s edge, that it was with difficulty a camping place could be found. The one at last selected was on the top of a high hill that required considerable skill in climbing to ascend. We were all pretty tired, and did not spend as much time as usual around our camp fires. These camp fires were one of the features of this part of our journey. The evenings were generally cool and as wood was plentiful we had several big fires each evening, one in front of each tent. 17th August As ^had been^ usual for some days past, the morning was clear and cold but grew ^much^ warmer as the day advanced[.] We began our journey this day with a walk of about a mile and a half [119] Part of the way was over some high clay hills. The men in the canoes had a difficult task poling them up the stiff rapids. At 11.45 we arrived at Clay Falls portage. This portage bore evidence of having been crossed many times. It is about one and a half miles long, and has a well beaten path across it.

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One could not [but] be struck with the fact on this river, that however it may be used in future to provide water power, it can never be made navigable, as it has so many rapids and waterfalls throughout its whole length About 3.45 we reached Sexton Falls and portage. There, we had to walk along the river over a very rough road, then ascend a hill to a rather good trail through the woods. On descending to the river again, we were glad to [120] rest for a time and then take a dip in the river, and were thereby much refreshed. While walking along the shore we saw on the opposite side of the river, a canoe descending the rapids. There were two men in the canoe a whiteman [and] an Indian and as they were the first persons we had seen on the river since parting with the Govt Survey men on the 14th, we had naturally some curiosity as to who the traveller was. The canoe, however, was too far away for us to be able to have our curiosity gratified One of the drawbacks to our enjoyment of this part of our journey was the multitude of mosquitoes by which we were attacked. In travelling through the woods we came to a raspberry [121] patch, and enjoyed a feast of that fruit. One of our Indians met with an accident here. In carrying a load of our goods over the portage, he was running along with his head bent,74 and therefore did not see a tree that had fallen across the path. He struck this with such force with his head as to render him unconscious. Fortunately the doctor was near and at once came to the assistance of the poor fellow, who was incapacitated from further work for that evening. We camped near our raspberry patch, and were able to add this fruit to out bill of fare. 18th. We all had a good night’s sleep ^rest^ having been lulled to sleep by the song of the rapids. Our morning’s ^journey^ was begun by the Indians poling up a rapid for about a mile to Otter Falls where another [122] portage had to be made, a distance of about two miles, through the woods[.] Here again there were many raspberry bushes loaded with the fruit ^to^ which we did full justice[.] At the upper end of the portage we had a fine view of the falls and rapids from a rocky point The black flies were exceedingly numerous at this portage, and tormented us terribly. One can have no idea of the number and viciousness of these creatures until one travels through such a country as we were then in It had been threatening rain all morning and just as the men were bringing over the last of the goods, a heavy shower came on. Our tents were therefore put up hurriedly about 4 pm. [123] and we were glad to get under shelter. Although the men had worked diligently from 7 a.m. we only succeeded in travelling about four miles during this day. MacMartin Saturday 12th Bidding adieu to Mr Mowatt and family and others assembled left the Post

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with flags flying the Indians lining the bank of the river, the brass field pieces belching forth a salute as we passed swiftly [93] up the river, at 12 40 p.m. the wind being favorable, from the north, sails were improvised and after a fair run of 10 miles camped at the 1st rapids marked upon the map. the rapids merely show the current is a little stronger with small rocks showing here and there. it is near this point that the land granted as a reserve commences the timber is very poor, banks comparatively speaking low during the afternoon, rain fell for about an hour afterwards bright and cool with occasional hot flashes [94] when the sun pierced the clouds. during the afternoon Sunday 13th Broke camp at 6.50 a.m. and commenced polling and where the shores would permit, tracking the boats against the strong current. at 12 n. tied up for dinner at a small bay named Stewarts bight. after lunch running against a very stiff current at 3 p.m. entered the Abbittibi River a muddy stream very rapid around which a trail runs one mile long over sharp rocks and boulders. about one mile long from the head [95] of the rapids went into camp at 6 p.m. (during the morning we met) two men, in a Peterboro canoe, belonging to the Sulivan Party. Monday 14th At 6.50 all being in readiness for our departure, 3 canoes, containing Messrs Sulivan, Dillon, and Rogers, and 3 Indians (Mattawa) name Jocko, Simon and Joe Leclaire came down the river and stopped at the shores for a few minutes. Mr. Sullivan I regret to say had his throat and head tied up, suffering from skin an infection of the skin under the left ear. the party I was informed, were looking over the [96] country, re geology of same, timber and agricultural possibilities having had a short conversation, we parted, the Indians polling [sic] the canoes over rapid water named Whiskey and Sinker rapids, passing Red Rock, and Nivens boundary line75 between Nippising and Algoma tied up for the night at 6 pm; banks of river slightly higher. timber in places burnt and consisting of spruce, balsam poplar and birch. weather bright and very warm. [97] Tuesday 15th left camping ground at 6 45 a.m. passing up rapids, stretch after stretch, in some of wh. owing to the low state of the water the boulders were to be seen in the channel almost blocking same. in fact the boulders in long rapids rendered the [?] of the current very difficult. after ascending the rapids tied up for dinner opposite the Onakawana river entering from the west. in the Evg passing up Blacksmiths rapids the most rapid water of all encountered during the day, went into camp about 1/8 of a mile below [98] barebone Island. Wednesday 16 Struck camp at 7 10 a.m passing little Abbittibi River that enters from the East, at 9 00 a.m., mouth of same is about 200⬘ wide, shallow and rapid. The hills a short distance from the river rise to a height of about 60⬘ during the afternoon the Indians polled the canoes against the rapid water. the party consisting of

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Messrs Scott, Stewart, myself and, Dr Meindl and the Dom policemen, Parkinson [99] and Vanasse walked a distance of 4 miles along the shore of the river over boulders, pebles [sic] and broken rock, in places climbing the steep banks and climbing over fallen timber, to get around points where the water prevented from taking the shore route; during the day, very warm, evg and morning chilly. Camped at 6.40 pm on high bank Thursday 17. at 7 6 30 am. started up the river continuing the rough walk along the shore over Clay Falls and Sextant portages both of wh [100] are over high ridges, on one of wh steps have been made to make the climbing with packs feasible, arriving at Otter portage at 6 pm timber along the river in places burnt. where green is of fair size, comprised of spruce, balsam cottonwood, birch and an odd jackpine Camped at 7. Packing accident, before reaching end Friday 18 Arrived at Otter falls at 7 30 am. the trail here rises from the river abruptly. Reaching the summit the trail is in places rocky others swampy over wh. pole walks, now [101] in a state of decay have been erected in times gone by, by the H. B. Co. the rapids at the Head of the falls are divided by a rocky Island, the water running thro’ a rocky gorge about 150⬘ wide, the volume of water alone not sufficient to warrant water power of value. portage is 3 miles long. the boats and impediments76 arrived over the trail at 4 p.m. during a down pour of rains so camp was immediately pitched on the high ground above the head of the rapids. timber on the trail burnt. Showing [102] Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin On Saturday, August 12th, we left Moose Factory at 12.30. For one week we were engaged with the strong rapids of the Moose and Abitibi Rivers and did not reach New Post, our next point of call, until 12.30 on Saturday the 19th. [paragraph continues]

16 New Post Angus Weenusk, replied that they accepted the terms as stated and did not wish to thro’ any obstacles in the way. they were satisfied. m ac martin diary, 21 august 1905

Saturday, 19 August, to Monday, 21 August In 1867 John Garton, evidently the son of a Yorkshire-born sloopmaster of the same name, began building “a new Post, a little below the long Portage in Abitibi river … the object … firstly to draw a number of the Abitibi Indians to hunt around that place.” The new post was also intended to serve as a depot, so that trade goods for Abitibi post – but not provisions, which came from Canada1 – could be taken there “by Moose Indians.” By the time of Confederation it was becoming too difficult to “induce the Abitibi Indians to voyage.”2 For accounting purposes, this new place (like Kenogamissi Lake) was not always considered an outpost, for its furs were mixed and pressed into Moose Factory’s bales for London.3 Long Portage eventually became known New Post.4 It was built on the eastern bank of the Abitibi River, near a small tributary that the late Peter Sutherland Sr knew as chiipilew siipii, “great partridge river,” later named New Post Creek. My friend Pete said it was “mostly all Ojibways in there” until his Cree father, petitioner Sydney Archibald, arrived.5 I think he said this to emphasize that the surrounding area was his homeland (although he did not use that word) and, before him, his mother’s, his maternal grandparents’, and his adoptive mother’s inheritance, symbolizing a line of ancestry reaching back long before the hbc received its charter. By 1875 the postmaster was Scotsman Alexander McLeod, father of 1905 petitioner William Sr and 1906 treaty witness Alexander J. McLeod. Cree men transported the Company’s supplies from Moose Factory to the long portage, six miles upriver from the new post, there exchanging the trade goods with a crew from Abitibi and taking their fur bales downriver (“avoiding the necessity & labor of hauling the heavy boats over a rough Portage of several miles).”6 Calamity struck in the winter of 1880–81 when five hunters (a quarter of the number trading at New Post and among them “a man who was always looked upon as the best hunter there”) died “before they had given in a skin.”7 A year

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16.1 New Post hbc

later the post reported just “11 heads of families” (accomplished male hunters), as well as the five widows and their children.8 Fur production increased at New Post over the next few years, even when there were declines elsewhere. It was a rich fur country, with skilled and resourceful hunters, but the hbc gave the credit to McLeod.9 Fur prices were raised at New Post (and Moose Factory) in 1888, in response to the increased competition at Abitibi, a direct result of the arrival of the cpr; New Post’s trade was still good, but Indian debts increased “owing to sickness among some of the hunters.”10 Fur returns began to decline, but even then, under McLeod’s successor, Christopher Jobson, so many were returned from New Post that chief factor Joseph Fortescue at Moose Factory suspected the hunters were acquiring furs from other Indians.11 There were fewer furs in 1890–91, a situation worsened by the cyclical decline in rabbits, a staple food, “preventing them from moving about.” Profits were reduced for two reasons: prices had been raised and runners employed (“to keep the camps clear of Fur”), “expenses rendered necessary by threatened Opposition.”12

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In 1891 New Post was still “supplied by boats from the coast,” manned by Moose Indians. It played an important role for the Company in guarding its southern frontier. “Were it not for this post,” wrote chief factor S.K. Parson, “a good many Indians who hunt in its vicinity, and whose lands are as near or nearer to Abitibi than Moose, would certainly go to Abitibi to trade, attracted by the higher prices, and certainly, when in need of supplies during winter, which is frequently the case, would sooner go there than come to Moose. In fact, all the hunters around New Post would certainly attach themselves to Abitibi were it not [for] the money they can earn by work at Moose during the summer months.”13 Fur returns appeared to simply be cyclical at New Post; they improved in 1891–92 and 1901–2.14 There were thirty-eight men, women, and children listed on the New Post band list when gratuities were paid.15 As at Moose Factory, there were insignificant numbers of absentees, if any (see chapter 18). The commissioners met with three New Post representatives,16 and absentee Esau Omakees17 was chosen chief. A reserve was selected at Tahquatagma,18 and the commissioners were given a sketch of this lake (see figure 16.4), perhaps drawn by Omakees. Leaving New Post, the treaty party received help crossing a challenging section sometimes known as the “little lakes route.” This was a series of difficult portages with names such as Oilcan, Burnt, Little Lobstick, and Big Lobstick. To feed the pulp and paper and mining industries, the river would soon be transformed in ways that would no doubt seem unimagineable to Chief Esau Omakees and his men. Couchiching Falls would look very different when Samuel Stewart saw it three years later.19 Within a decade after treaty-signing, the Abitibi Power and Paper Company built the first dam upriver to supply its pulp mill at Iroquois Falls.20 A second hydroelectric dam was erected at Island Falls in 1923.21 Seven years later construction began on the Abitibi Canyon dam, flooding the little lakes portage route. The Moose Factory Crees were directly impacted by further developments downriver from New Post. Construction on the Otter Rapids generating station began in the late 1950s, its capacity increased by diverting the Little Abitibi River through New Post Creek.22 The National Transcontinental Railway was completed in 1912. The town of Cochrane, incorporated two years earlier, arose at the intersection of the ntr and t&no. The route of the t&no was chosen to pass near Island Falls, Abitibi Canyon, and Otter Rapids. It reached Island Falls in 1922. The massive influx of people, characterized by anthropologist Richard Preston as a “trespass unlike any prior visitors on Cree lands,” took its toll at New Post. By Preston’s calculation, “there was s devastating 76% death rate for the decade 1913–22.”23 When hbc inspector Nathaniel M.W.J. McKenzie of North Bay visited New Post in the fall of 1914, he found “everything neat, clean and tidy in the Stores and in [post manager John McLeod’s] dwelling house. The few Indians that trade here were advanced and gone to their hunting grounds long ago; some of them

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will not return with their hunts until next June.” Having already advanced $1,600, McLeod was instructed “that not another cent of debt be given out to anyone until he receives instructions to do so.”24 Fur returns declined in 1914–15 but rebounded the following two years. The hbc’s only competition was in Cochrane, where some of the New Post Indians sold their furs for twice the price. To dissuade them, the Company began selling its flour below cost price.25 In 1918, with “a considerable amount of fur” still being traded at Cochrane, the hbc replaced John McLeod with his nephew, George McLeod, heretofore its blacksmith and sawmill foreman at Moose Factory.26 Four years later author and district manager George R. Ray lamented the changing circumstances at New Post. There was “increased loss on Indian debts … chiefly due to the unsettled state of the country at that point, caused by the extension of the T & N.O. Railway. Independent of the treacherous processes which underlie the credit system, we shall now have an ever increasing number of unprincipled small traders to contend with at New Post.” Credit was eliminated, the trade to be conducted “on a strict barter basis.”27 The great cost of freighting supplies to tiny, struggling New Post, whether from Moose Factory or from Cochrane, would soon be resolved. When postmaster William L. Miller, a man of Orkney-Cree ancestry, was replaced by Scotsman William Gregory, the district manager at Moose Factory predicted savings: “Now that the end of steel is within forty miles of New Post, I think it would be an easy matter to have the Outfits freighted from there to New Post by horse teams in winter.”28 In 1926 New Post was detached from the hbc’s James Bay district and assigned to its Lake Huron district office in North Bay. The Company had a new store on “the line” at Island Falls, and the New Post trade was transferred there, the Abitibi River site no longer occupied.29 William Archibald’s son, Sydney, succeeded his father-in-law, Esau Omakees, as chief. When Sydney’s first wife died, their son, Peter, was fostered by Thomas and Annie Sutherland and adopted their surname. Peter Sutherland was schooled in the bush, but he taught himself to read and write. Sydney married Nancy Moses from the Rupert House band; their son, Thomas, attended Sioux Lookout Indian Residential School at Pelican Lake and succeeded his father as chief. Peter and his brother, Tom, obtained summer work along the t&no line and then relocated their families to Moosonee, unable to make a living on the land. For several years Tom’s son, Peter Archibald Sr, was chief of the New Post First Nation, with an office in Cochrane. Under his leadership, the band acquired a new reserve near Cochrane. When Peter Sutherland’s son, Dwight, became chief, the band was renamed Taykwa Tagamow Nation, after the lake where the original reserve was chosen in 1905.30 Peter Sutherland Sr, grandson of the first treaty chief, Esau Omakees, said that when people were thinking about a reserve site in 1905, “They wanted some place where they could fish, and a good hunting ground.” As with their near neighbours upriver and more distant ones along the Albany, the main concern

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was pimaatisiwin. Having barely survived the onslaught of incursions in their homeland, the descendents of Esau Omakees and William Archibald have begun “a partial recovery of harvesting activities and a general cultural revival. And this revitalization is continuing.”31 Chief Dwight Sutherland comments: My great-grandfather [was] Chief Esau Omakees … [B]ack before the white people decided to call him a chief I am sure he thought and pondered about the treaty, thinking, “What is best for my future generations?”32 Taykwa Tagamou Nation and De Beers Canada have signed a deal allowing the diamond mining company to run an electricity transformation line through its traditional lands in exchange for employment and training over the life of the Victor Mine. Chief Sutherland said he was pleased with the opportunities the relationship will bring to the community.33 Scott Sat Aug. 19 Rise 5.30. Left 7. fine day. Reached New Post 2.30. Sunday Aug 20 [no entry] Monday [apostrophes indicate August] 21 Rise 7. Heavy thunder showers. Made Tr. Pd Inds. &c. Taquahtagama New Post Reserve Beginning at a pt one mile south from ^of^ the N.E. End of Eastern arm of Lake known as Taquahtagama, or Big Lake [illegible] situated about 8 miles inland [32] South from New Post on the Abbittibi River, [illegible] thence in a northly direction a distance of 4 miles & of sufficient depth in an Easterly direction to give an area of 8 sq miles. Stewart 19th August. We were up at 5.30 and found that the day was clear and fine[.] On starting we could not but remark on the fine view ahead of us, which included some mountains in the distance. This we thought was one of the finest views we had seen for a number of days When we landed at noon for lunch, we found that we were in the midst of a blueberry patch, and we soon took advantage of this fact. The place bore evidence of having been visited recently by berry pickers, and we learned that this was a favourite resort of the New Post Indians. While we were at this place we [124] heard the sound of a gun shot in the distance, and this was ^to us^ another evidence that we were nearing New Post We left at 1.15 for the last stage of this part of our journey, and at 2.30 we arrived at New Post. Mr Barrett in charge of this post had come with us from

Top 16.2 Signatures at New Post (Canada’s copy) Bottom 16.3 Signatures at New Post (Ontario’s copy)

16.4 Sketch of Taquatagama Lake, or Big Lake

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Moose, and we had all become very much attached to him. Mr Barrett had formerly been a member of the North West Mounted Police, and had many stories to relate of adventure while doing duty with the force. He is also a gentleman of good education, being a graduate of Oxford University, and he had also travelled extensively, so that he proved to be a very entertaining companion[.] Mr Barrett had sent some of his men [125] ahead of us from Moose, and the Indians were therefore ready to receive us[.] The flag had been run up when we were first sighted, and the Indians were all down at the landing to give us a hearty welcome. It may be added here, that during the days we spent at New Post, Mr Barrett showed us every attention, and nowhere was the Commission received with greater kindness and hospitality New Post is no exception to the majority of the H.B. post[s] in the beauty of its situation. The view of the river, and of the surrounding hills is very fine. Mr Barrett had a very neat flower garden at the side of his house, and another in which besides many red currant bushes, which were loaded with fruit, he had also vegetables of various kinds, such as potatoes, onions, lettuce and turnips [126] 20th August Sunday we spent reading and resting. The day was fine and warm and enjoyable in every way. 21st We were favored with a thunder storm in the morning. Our first duty as usual was to meet with representative Indians, and the following were chosen to confer with us, viz., Angus Weenusk, Wm Gull, and John Luke, the later acting as interpreter. As usual, the point on which the Indians desired full information was as to the effect the treaty would have on their hunting and fishing rights. When assured that these would not be taken from them, they expressed much pleasure and their willingness to sign the treaty, which was accordingly done, and the signatures duly witnessed. [127] With the assistance of the representative Indians, lists were prepared of the New Post Indians, so the payments might be made in the afternoon. The Indians were asked to elect a Chief to whom the flag would then be presented. Their choice fell on Esau Omakess [sic], who had not been present when the treaty had been signed, but who arrived shortly afterwards. We were very favorably impressed with Omakess, and on further knowledge of him our respect in him increased. We paid thirty-eight Indians in all during a down pour of rain ^which was^ accompanied by thunder and lightning. The feast in the evening was a very creditable affair, as the Indians arranged matters exceedingly well. Everything in connection with the feast looked clean and neat, and proved, [128] we thought, that these Indians had been well trained. In the evening the reserve question was settled to the satisfaction of both the Indians and the Commissioners The all night dance was of course the next item on the program, the members of our crew taking part as usual.

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MacMartin Saturday 19th River above the Falls widens out and is for a distance not quite so rapid. morning bright and cool. left camp at 7 pm. The river is winding and flanked by high hills, gradually increasing in heighth [sic] to little River [New Post Creek], a stream running in from the west thro’ a gorge and said to have a fall upon it of 90 feet, one mile from New Post at which we arrived at 3 p.m. Mr Barrett the manager accompanied us from Moose factory. [102] Sunday 20th Remained in camp during the day. Monday 21st This morning three of the representative Indians of the band assembled in Council and had terms of Treaty explained to them also the object of same, that the King had sent them a present of $8 per capita for the present year and an annuity for all time of $4 per [104] provided they accepted the terms of the treaty, also a reserve or tract of land would be set aside and surveyed in the near future for their sole use and benefit that they were not obliged to live on same. were also allowed as of yore to hunt and fish where they pleased. that they were to elect a chief who would advise the band for the ensuing 3 years or until a successor was elected in his stead. the chief would be presented with a flag as an emblem of office and reminder that he and his band had agreed to become good citizens, and obey the laws of the land. that Mr [105] Barrett would issue provisions for their feast, as this was a special occasion we wished them all to be happy and enjoy them selves. They were then asked thro’ John Luke who had acted as Interpreter if they wished to ask any questions or say any thing in reply[.] Angus Weenusk, replied that they accepted the terms as stated and did not wish to thro’ any obstacles in the way. they were satisfied. the Treaty was then signed at 10.55 a.m. the Indians then departed and when the paylists were completed, commenced paying the Indians in the afternoon carefully counting each family as [106] it appeared before the pay table. shortly after the pament [sic] had been completed, the Indians announced that Esau Omakess was their choice as chief, who was then presented with A Union Jack. ^Heavy thunder storm passed over.^ Rain falling in torrents at intervals during the day. In the evening the chief accompanied by two of the leading men of the band, consulted with us re the Reserve and after consultation the following tract of land was selected for the New Post Reserve, Begininng at a Point one mile south of the north east ^end^ of eastern arm of Lake known as Taquahtagama or Big Lake, situated about 8 miles inland ^south from^ New Post, on the Abitibi River [107] thence running in a northerly direction a distance of 4 miles and of sufficient depth [At this point the journal is very faded. The original pencil marks have been erased. Two faint pages follow, and there are several blank pages and then more erasures. At the end, upside down, is a half-page about Sandy Lake and

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some childlike drawings. There is also a third of a page of expense account information totalling $40.25.]34 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin New Post is a small and comparatively unimportant post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It is situated on a beautiful bend of the Abitibi River and commands an excellent hunting country. The Post is in charge of Mr. S.B. Barrett, and nowhere was the Commission received with greater consideration and hospitality than at this place. The New Post Indians, although few in number, are of excellent character and disposition. They met us with great friendliness. The Treaty was concluded on Monday the 21st and the Indians were at once paid. The reserve question was also discussed and the location finally fixed as shewn by the schedule of reserves. One of the leading Indians, Esau Omakess [sic], was absent from the reserve during the negotiations. He, however, arrived during the time the payments were being made and signified his approval of the action taken by his fellow Indians. He was subsequently chosen unanimously as Chief of the Band.

new post to abitibi Tuesday, 22 August, to Wednesday, 30 August Scott Tuesday Aug 22 Rise 6. Rain & mist. clearing a little start at 9.30. Very rough rapids Long Ptg 3 miles. Did not finish ptg until 6. camped at near end of next ptg. Fine evg after unsettled day [33] Wed Aug 23 Up 6.30. men ptg stuff over ptg 1/2 mile. Rocky called oil can Ptg. Passed Burntwood & Lobstick Ptgs. reached quick water again about 5. paddled to mouth of Whitefish River & camped at 6.30 Thur Aug 24 Up at 6. off at 7.15. cold night. Passed high clay bank Said to be half way between Moose Factory and Abbittibi at 9.20. camped at 6. Friday Aug 25 Up at 5.30 off at 6.55. cool morning. reached Frederick House River 11.45. Kettle Falls 12.05 Camped in swampy woods 6.30 [34] Sat Aug 26 Up at 6 Left at 7 6.50 Frost[.] Passed line between Nippissing & Algoma 7.10 walk along shore at Long Sault Rapids,35 thru dense woods.36 had lunch at 2nd Chute. Camped at 6.30. very cold night. Sunday Aug 27. Up at 6. Left at 7. met party of Surveyors. Township & Transcontinental. Camped 6.30.

Top 16.5 New Post to Frederick House Forks Bottom 16.6 Frederick House Forks to Lake Abitibi

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Monday Aug 28 Up at 5.30 left at 7. rain in night. wet morning started in wind & rain. Iroquois Falls 7.45. Black River 10.25. Sky cleared at 12. [35] Lunch at [Two?] Ptgs at noon. Camped 6.20. Bad sand flies. Tuesday Aug 29 Up at 5.Left at 5.50 fine morning. Granny’s Rock 7. Coutcheeching Falls. Lake Abbittibi 12. Favorable wind for a while. Camped at 6.15. at HBCo winter post. took supper in rain. Heavy rain all night. Wed. Aug 30. Up at 5.15 Started 6.20. glimpse of Eclipse of Sun. very cloudy. heavy sea on wide arm of lake. Rain Dinner Iroquois Pt 12. wind bound for 2 hours, fr 2 to 4. Arrive Abitibi at 7 nearly dark. [36] Stewart 22nd August We had another rain storm in the morning, and it looked as if we would not be able to leave as we had hoped to do[.] About 9.30 however, the prospects looked a little brighter and as the men were anxious to continue the journey we decided to make a start. One of our men ^Caleb Cheena^ had been unwell previous to our reaching New Post, and he was now reported unfit to travel, and so the services of John Luke [129] were secured to take his place. On the previous evening Chief Omakess had informed the Commissioners ^of^ his intention of to accompanying the party with five other Indians to assist ^us^ in passing the difficult series

16.7 Granny’s Rock

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of portages which lie immediately above New Post. We had heard that this would prove to be one of the most difficult stages of our journey, and we could not but be thankful to those men for their kind thoughtfulness We were ready to leave at 9.30 and with ^after^ many hearty good byes to our friend Mr Barrett and to the Indians our canoes were pushed out from the landing. The Indians ^of the Post^ now [?] were all ready with their guns and as we left the wharf a fusilade of shots were was fired, and this was continued for a considerable time. We left New Post feeling that we had parted with those to whom we had become very nicely [?] [130] ^attached^ and with whom we were never likely to meet again. We found that the statements that had been made to us of the difficulties we would encounter in the next day or two to be more than borne out by the facts. Almost as soon as we left the Post we came to rough water that required all the skill of our expert canoe men to force the canoes up the wild tossing water ^waves^. We had many narrow escapes from being capsized and were thankful when we arrived about 12 n. at our first portage This portage was truly a picturesque spot, with rocky gorges, rushing, tumbling water, and high hills[.] The portage is about four miles across, and [131] we would have enjoyed the walk thro’ the woods, but for the mosquitoes and black flies that seemed to have made the place their head quarters On reaching the upper end of the portage we came to another beautiful waterfall[.] Piles of driftwood were to be seen along the shore for a distance of a quarter of a mile, and the thought occurred to us that there was a sufficient quantity of fire wood going to waste to provide fuel for hundreds of families in some of our cities[.] There is no possible way, however, in which this wood could be made available and so it must be allowed to lie there and rot. Our goods were all across the portage at 6 p.m., and we then crossed to another portage about three hundred yards distant where the tents were pitched for the night. Here we [132] were lulled to sleep by the sound of a waterfall close by. 23rd August. Immediately after breakfast the work of portaging our good[s] over a very rocky, rough road ^was begun^. This was accomplished by 8 a.m. Our next run was a very short one of about ten minutes. Just as we landed a big storm of rain came on and the canoes were converted into tents under which we took shelter. In about half an hour the rain ceased and we were able to resume our journey. The rapids and falls extended for a long distance, so that it was 10 a.m. before our good[s] were all across[.] A run of about 2 hours brought us to our fifth portage known as “Little Lob Stick,” where there is another beautiful fall and rapids Here [133] the water is forced through a narrow channel, between high banks of rocks[.] We left “Little Lob Stick” at 2 pm and reached “Big Lob Stick” at 2.15. This is another remarkable place with rocky chasm on one side

16.8 Daniel [Wascowin?]

and falls on the other. The run over to this place was very exciting as the current is very swift. We were impressed with the fact ^that^ the river grew more wonderful and more picturesque the further up we went. Our goods were across “Big Lob Stick” by 2.45, but we had to wait here for a time until the big canoe, which had received some damage in the rapids, could be repaired From this place we had a beautiful view up the river, which included rapids, & islands ^many of^ which were well-wooded. Just at the landing there was also a beautiful, cool [134] spring with a back trough though which the surplus water ran off As the Abitibi water is far from inviting, owing to the clay soil over which it runs, we were always glad when we came across a good spring. This one was taken full advantage of by both whites and Indians. At this portage we were to say good bye to our New Post Indians, which we did with much regret. They had rendered us very great assistance, and had saved us at least one day’s travel, as the part of the river they had helped us over is about the most difficult to be encountered[.] They did this also without any desire for reward, saying when we spoke of this that this was their way of saying thank [135] you for the treatment accorded them[.] We parted with mutual expressions of good will about 5.15, after a group photo. had been taken of these fine fellows[.] We camped for the night at the foot of Whitefish

16.9 Chief Esau Omagees and New Post volunteers

river, which provided us with clear water, a contrast to that of the Abitibi. The camp ground was by no means a desirable one, but was reported to be the best in the locality. 24 August. We resumed our journey at 7.15 and at 9.20 passed the half way point between Moose and Abitibi posts. The mornings were quite cold, and when the Indians landed at 9.30 for their usual cup of tea, we were glad to built [sic] a big bon fire at which to warm ourselves. Here we saw several partridges, but as we had no gun [136] they were not interfered with[.] We had next a good run to Island portage which we reached at 11.45. Beyond the portage we came to a most beautiful part of the river, with hight [sic] rocky shores. The river had also many windings with varied scenery, which included ^a number of^ beautiful islands. The current was very swift, here giving the men some hard work to make much headway. Our next portage was reached at 3.00[.] Here there were two channels one of which ^was^ taken by the small canoes which necessitated two portages, while the other required one long portage which was taken by the big canoe because, as one of the Indian said, “This was best for us fellows.” In this portage blue berries grew in great profusion. The walk over [137] was much enjoyed as the day was fine and bright, and a walk through the woods was a pleasant change from the cramped position we were compelled to take in the canoes. The scene on the other side of the portage was a great contrast to that we had left. The water was calm without a ripple in its surface[.] The shores also were beautiful with a growth of spruce and birch. We camped for the night at 6.10 25th August. We broke camp shortly after 6 am on another beautiful morning.

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On the Indians landed for their breakfast at 8.45, we found the place chosen to be a veritable raspberry garden of which ^fact^ full advantage was taken. We had heard from our Indian of two young men from Mattawa who had been drowned ^early in the previous summer^ on the river in the vicinity where we now were, and that searching [138] parties had been looking for the bodies without so far as they were aware, any success. Shortly after resuming our journey we came to where some Indians, Daniel Squirrel and family, were camped, and learned that they had found one of the bodies ^one of [illegible]^ which ^[illegible]^ they had buried ^it^ near by. The water had risen to the place where this grave had been made and only a part of the mound was to be seen. Just at this place, one of our Indians took a watch from his pocket to look at the time, and through carelessness allowed it to drop overboard. The watch proved to belong to our head canoeman, Simon Smallboy, and he at once announced that it must be either found or its value paid to him by the man to whom it had [139] been loaned. A diligent search failed to find the lost watch, and so we had reluctantly to go on without it. In a short time we arrived at Big Bend and Frederick House Lake, and at 12.05 we came to Kettle Falls where we took lunch. Leaving again at 2 pm we came at 3.10 to Kasobanajing or Swift Water. At the time indications of an approaching storm were to be seen. At 4.30 we were obliged to take shelter under some trees on the shore. In about half an hour we were able to proceed and soon entered a very strong current which continued for several miles. At 5.30 we came to some Indian graves, and learned from our Indians that they were those of the family of Andrew Weenusk. Shortly after this time we began [140] to look for a camping place, but for a considerable time our search was fruitless[.] We at last decided it advisable to make the best of a bad bargain, and just as night was coming on, landed at a swampy marsh, where our tents were put up for the night. Despite the hard day’s work the men had done, they assembled as usual for their evening service. One of the hymns chosen for this particular evening was the well known O come all ye faithful or a Cree translation of the same, and all, both protestants and catholics, of the party were able to join in the singing. 26th August We were up at 5.30 and found that it was as a difficulty [sic] place at which to secure a proper wash. The water was very muddy all along the shore, so that we had to content ourselves with what is usually described [141] as ‘a lick and a promise’ At 7.10 we passed the division line between the districts of Nipissing and Algoma. The weather had now become clear and fine much to our delight, as the condition of the weather was a matter of considerable importance on a journey of this kind. At 8.30 we arrived at another grave which from the inscription thereon we

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found to be that of Arthur Fleury, one of the Mattawa men who were drowned early in the ^previous^ summer. The inscription read as follows, “Arthur Fleury from Mattawa drowned at first pitch of the Long Sault, July 13, 1904, Erected by Ben Parent son of Jos. Parent. So boys this is a warning to youse all.” We had now arrived at the foot of the Long Sault, where all but the canoe men were obliged to disembark so that [142] the canoes might be lightened to enable them to be poled up the long and difficult rapid. The walk along the shore was also a very difficult one. Close to the water the shore was covered with large bolders [sic] many of which had to be climbed over. In other places we had to walk knee deep in the swift current, as the high banks came close to the water’s edge. For a long distance ^also^ we were obliged to make our way through a tangle of brush so that when we covered the nine miles of this rough portage we were all pretty thoroughly exhausted. We were glad at noon to stop for lunch just opposite the second pitch of the rapids, and to thus refresh ourselves for the rough walk ahead of us. At the foot of thise rapids one of our men found a bake oven or [143] pot in the bushes close to the shore. It had doubtless belonged to the party of which Fleury and Leclaire were members, and had been lost when their canoe was overturned. As the lid was securly [sic] fastened on the pot it was perfectly water tight, and therefore did not sink with the rest of the goods[.] We arrived at the first pitch where the accident occurred at 2 p.m. and there found a notice with the words “Always portage here”. At 4 p.m. we arrived at a cache of one of the Transcontinental parties, but there was no sign of anyone being in charge of the goods that were piled up on the floor and on the shelves of the buildings. There was quite an assortment of articles such as pork, candles, matches, snow shoes, tobaggans &c. There was a notice on the building stating that the cache belonged to District D party [144] No. 6 in charge of D.G. Stewart. There were also a number of names cut into the boards among which we noticed those of two Pembroke men and one Ottawa man. We fired off a gun a couple of times in the hope that some of the men might be in the vicinity, but as no one appeared we proceeded on our journey. We camped at 6.30 and enjoyed very much the comfort derived from several large camp fires 27th August. We were up at 6 am and found signs that there had been a pretty severe frost during the night. The morning was clear and cold. During this day we came across numerous signs that there were a number of survey parties in the vicinity[.] Early in the morning we came to a camp in front of which there were five canoes [145] but no men were to be seen. A little later on we came to another camp and six canoes, but again no men were visible. Between 11 and 12 however, we came to another camp and this time we found three men in charge. They informed us that they were engaged on a township survey that was under the charge of a Mr [Code?] of Alverston with a Mr McDougall of Hamilton second in command. The men were engaged

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when we saw them in mending their clothes that had suffered by their tramps through the bush. They were very reticent regarding themselves37 and evidently did not desire to have any news brought out regarding their health, or as to when they would return to civilization. They informed us that a Mr Flemming of Toronto was the head of the Transcontinental party whose cache we had seen on the previous afternoon. [146] After proceeding for about twenty miles, we came to a rapid at the foot of which there a man with a canoe containing supplies which had just brought down by him. He informed us that other members of his party were at the head of the rapids, and apparently in difficulties, but that he could not go up alone, in his canoe to assist them Our men had great difficulty in poling our canoes up this rapid. When about halfway up we saw another man ^on the shore^ with a load of supplies, who also mentioned that one of their canoes was evidently in need of help. Soon after we saw the canoe referred to with two men men in charge. On going over we learned that the men were Dr Johnson,38 a college mate of our [147] doctor and a Mr [Quellion?], whose name we had seen on the cache already referred to. The doctor informed us that they were in a fix, as they did not feel themselves competent to run the rapids, and it seemed almost impossible to portage around them. After spending a short time pleasantly with the Dr and his companion, two of our Indians took charge of the canoe and brought it and its occupants safely to the foot of the rapids We camped at 6.30 at a post 23 miles from the mouth of Black River. The place chosen for our camp bore evidence of having been frequently use[d] for this purpose. We soon had our big camp fires going, and the light and heat from these were much enjoyed. 28th August. We had a heavy rain storm during the night, and it was still raining at 5.30 when we began [148] our preparations for departure. We left at 7.00 am. and at 7.45 arrived at Iroquois Falls which as they appeared in the early morning formed a perfect picture of beauty. The two falls are ^each^ about twenty feet in height and are divided by an island. At the foot of the falls there are also two small islands. The shore opposite the falls are [sic] well wooded, the whole forming a very impressive scene A run of about 500 yards brought us to another portage which was necessitated owing to the river being jamed [sic] with drift wood. At 10.15 we arrived at the point where the Black River enters the Abitibi, and here saw more evidence that survey parties were at work in the vicinity. After crossing two more portages [149] we encountered several different rapids but made very good headway until 6.20 pm when we camped for the night. The Sand flies at this place were exceedingly numerous and troublesome both during the evening, and on the following morning. 29th. We made an early start this morning leaving at about 5.30. In a few minutes we arrived at “Granny’s Rock,” a high rock or bluff at the foot of which our canoe men stopped to enable each member of the party to throw a piece

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of tobacco in the water to benefit in some way the spirit of an old blind Indian woman who had been pushed over the rock ^by a war party of Iroquois39 Indians^ to drown in the water below. This ceremony having been duly performed we proceeded on our way, and at 9.15 reached Couchiching Falls a succession of falls and rapids the most picturesque that we [150] had yet seen. The falls are three in number, having a total descent of about forty five feet. We reluctantly left this beautiful spot at 10.30, and proceeded on our way to the lake which we were informed we would reach in a couple of hours. After travelling about an hour we saw a couple of two Indians on the shore, and on crossing over to them we learned that they were a father and son, belonging to Fort Abitibi who were on a fishing expedition. They informed us that most of the Indians had left the post, as they had given up hopes of our arriving there this season. The two Indians offered to accompany us to our next to our next camping place, and to catch some fish for us [with?] their nets in exchange for other provisions [151] We accepted this offer and therefore had one more canoe added to our fleet. We arrived at the Lake at 12 and before entering it decided to take our noon meal. We resumed our journey at 1.45, everyone in the best of spirits. The journey across the Lower Lake was a delightful one. The weather was perfect, the lake being perfectly calm acting as a mirror reflecting the sky and clouds and the trees on the many islands that dotted the lake. The view of the shore was also very pretty, the whole making a picture long to be remembered. We arrived at the narrows between the upper and lower lake at 3.20 and reached the Upper Lake at 6.00 pm[.] A run of about twenty minutes brought us to a winter post of the HBCo where we decided to camp for the night. [152] The many graves in the vicinity of this post clearly showed that this place was one at which the Indians had congregated for a number of years. There was a large potato patch in front of the house, and with the approval of H.B. officer who was travelling with us, a couple of hills were dug up, and the contents made use of and much appreciated 30th August. It rained heavily during the night, and was still cloudy when at 6.20 we were again on our journey towards Fort Abitibi. It might be mentioned that our Indian friend had secured a good catch of fish for us with his net for which he was paid very liberally. Shortly after leaving our camp grounds, the clouds broke [153] showing the sun partially eclipsed. We had forgotten that there was to be an eclipse on the 30th August and were therefore taken completely by surprise. This eclipse gave both Indians and whites a topic for conversation, not only during the time it continued but also for some time after it had ended. On reaching Ottawa we learned that that [sic] we had been more highly favoured than had numerous parties sent out to take observations, as cloudy weather had prevailed in almost every district where those parties had gone

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At 8 am we reached Iroquois Point River, so called from the fact that a great battle had taken place here between the Iroquois and Ojibeways About this time it came on to rain accompanied by a high wind which called into play all the skill of our [154] canoemen to pilot us safely over the wide stretch we were then crossing. We were glad to land on a island at 12.30 for lunch. The chief item of our bill of fare was fish to which we all did full justice. After lunch we ventured to proceed across the lake, but after travelling a short time were glad to once more take refuge on an island as the storm continued to increase so that the waves were breaking over the tops of our canoes. As the weather had grown cold we built a large bon fire thus adding greatly to our comforts. We remained on the island for about two hours, when our chief guide Simon Smallboy reported that it [sic] considered it now safe [155] to proceed on our journey. We accordingly embarked once more, and although the water was still very rough, by taking advantage of the shelter of the islands on our course, the Indians skilfully guided our canoes towards Fort Abitibi, which we reached at 7 00 p.m. cold and hungry. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We started for Abitibi on Tuesday morning, August 22nd. On the previous evening the Chief had announced to the Commissioners his intention of accompanying the party with five companions40 to assist in passing the difficult series of portages which lie immediately above New Post. One unacquainted with the methods of travel in these regions will not perhaps realize the great assistance this was to the party. At a moderate estimate it saved one day’s travel; and this great assistance was to be rendered, the Chief said, without any desire for reward or even for maintenance on the route (they were to bring their own supplies with them) but simply to show their goodwill to the Commissioners and their thankfulness to the King and the Government for the treatment which had been accorded them. They remained with us until the most difficult portages were passed and left on the evening of August 24th with mutual expressions of goodwill. As we ascended the Abitibi evidences of approaching civilization and of the activity in railway construction and surveying which had rendered the making of the Treaty necessary were constantly met with. Surveying parties of the Transcontinental Railway, the Toronto Northern Ontario Railway and Ontario Township Surveyors were constantly met with. On the morning of August 29th we reached Lake Abitibi, camped at the Hudson’s Bay winter post at the Narrows on the same evening and arrived at Abitibi Post the next night at dusk. [paragraph continues]

17 Abitibi

17.1 Abitibi hbc post

Thursday, 31 August In 1686 Pierre de Troyes built a post on the east side of Lake Abitibi “on a long flat point,” a site used by the French until 1763 and supplied from Timiskaming. Soon thereafter the French built a second fort 30 miles to the west, “on the S.W. shore of the Narrows at the end of a long peninsula commanding entrance to Lower Lake Abitibi.” The hbc had taken possession of the eastern post by 1774, supplying it from Moose Factory until the 1880s and afterwards from the Montreal and the Ottawa River. In 1821, following its union with the North West Company, the hbc also gained a nwc post at the narrows.1 Abitibi may be derived, as Jean-André Cuoq suggested, from Ojibwe aabitaabing, “(at) the half lake.” Provincial geologists were told that its English equivalent meant “water that shines white” (from waab, “white”) or “water that shines at a distance.” Ursula Jacko, an Ojibwe friend, commented that Abitibi

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sounded like “always full” or “always flowing” (from aapid) and reminded her of a pun meaning “almost drunk.” Dr Alfred Cooper, an Ojibwe physician and graduate of the Spanish Indian Residential School, agreed that aabitaabing means “half a lake,” but he noted that aapidaabing also means “endless water.”2 Each of these translations seems appropriate. Linguists and Indigenous language keepers each have insights that inform us. The narrows separate this shallow lake into upper and lower halves, which empty west and north, eventually reaching the Moose River near James Bay. The Abitibi River is not endless, but it stretches an impressive 250 kilometres. The lake straddles the OntarioQuebec border, arising in the clay belt. Lake and river have a high turbidity, resembling milky tea, which perhaps looks white. And alcohol was once traded freely at Abitibi post.3 After the cpr was completed in 1885, one of the first competitors at Abitibi was “Ducas [now Dokis], an Indian from Lake Nipissing,” who obtained his merchandise at Penetanguishine. hbc traders worried that if the Indians received cash from these free traders, they would spend it at Mattawa.4 The Hawkesbury Lumber Company was active 70 miles south at Lonesome River. A few of the Abitibi Indians traded at at Baie des Pères, at the head of Lake Timiskaming. A couple of Rupert House Indians regularly traded at Abitibi, and sometimes one or two from Moose Factory also did so. hbc goods for Abitibi now came by cpr to Timiskaming station, 130 miles distant, and were then handled several times. First, they were taken by steamer across the lake to the Fort Timiskaming warehouse. Next, they were hauled by winter team to nearby Long Point, where they sat until open water. Finally, they were taken 100 miles by canoe to Abitibi.5 By treaty time in 1905–6, the post at the eastern end of upper Lake Abitibi was operated year-round and was part of the hbc’s Lake Huron district. George Drever was in charge.6 The narrows was a winter outpost, with free traderWilliam Frederick Biederman established nearby.7 Traders considered the Indians here to be Algonquin and Cree; those to the south were Algonquin or “Sotto” (Saulteaux), while further north they were “mixed with the Crees of Hudson’s Bay.”8 The trade at Abitibi was “purely fur trading.” It was an important hbc post, its Indians “very well off; furs and food are plentiful and easy to obtain.”9 Borron imagined Couchiching Falls being blasted away, so that this immense but shallow lake (and similarly nearby Bank and Nighthawk Lakes) could be “drained and vast areas of fertile land reclaimed.” He estimated that these three northern lake beds alone could cheaply provide Ontario with 320,000 acres for settlers, who might access the region via the t&no.10 Father Charles Alfred Paradis did just that.11 When the National Transcontinental was completed, Abitibi became an outpost of La Sarre, a town founded nearby in 1917. Scott Thursday Aug 31 Abitibi up at 7. cloudy & cold. Dr M for blackberries. Creolin 1 teaspoon full

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to qt 1st yr 1 [apostrophes indicate “teaspoon full to”] pt 2[nd yr,] 1 [teaspoon full to] cup 3[rd yr,] 1 [teaspoon full to 1/2 [cup] 4[th yr]. apply at night Met Inds at 2.30 & explained situation. Burwashs action in writing Dreaver. Geo Dreaver. Paget.12 Sleeplessness. Paraldy hyde one teaspoonful in something to disguise taste [37] (Scott’s journal ends here.) Stewart Here we were welcomed by Mr Drever in charge of the post, as well as by his assistants, McKenzie and Rich.13 The latter was particularly pleased to see us, as one of our canoe men, Issac, was his a son ^of his^ whom he had not seen for several years. Mr Drever informed us that a large tent which had been used by the Govt. Survey party as a cook house was at our disposal, and we therefore made use of it during the time we stayed at this post. Mr Drever confirmed the statement [156] made to us by the Indian whom we met near the Lower Lake, that most of his Indians had left for their hunting grounds 31st August Again cold and windy so that we were thankful we had no lake to cross on this day. With the assistance of Mr Drever, we got a meeting of the Indian convened at 2 p.m. when the purpose of the Commission was carefully explained to them. The Indians were informed that as there were so few of them now at the post, it was not considered advisable to submit the Treaty for their acceptance at this time, but that they would be visited early in June of the coming summer both with regard to the treaty and to the reserve which it was proposed to set aside for them. The Indians [157] present agreed that it would be better to postpone action in regard to the treaty until a full representation of the band could be obtained. During the evening we were entertained by Mr Drever14 with many stories relating to Indians, their traditions, habits, &c. Mr Drever has lived among the Indians for many years and has a thorough knowledge of both the Cree and Ojibeway languages. He is also an authority on all matters relating to the manners and customs of the Indians so that we listened to what he had to tell us with much pleasure. The inevitable dance had of course to take place at night, nearly all the Indians at the post being present Our doctor was kept ^[illegible]^ busy visiting those who needed his professional services during all the time we remained the post. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We did not expect to find many Indians in attendance, as they usually leave for their hunting grounds about the first week in July. There were, however, a few

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Indians who were waiting at the Post in expectation of the arrival of the Commission. These were assembled at 2.30 on the afternoon of the 31st August and the purpose of the Commission was carefully explained to them. Until we can report the successful making of the Treaty, which we hope to accomplish this year [sic], we do not think it necessary to make any further comment on the situation at this Post. A full list of the Indians was obtained from the officer in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Mr. George Dreaver. Mr. Dreaver has thorough command of the Cree and Ojibeway languages, which was of great assistance to the Commissioners at Abitibi where, owing to the circumstances of the Indians belonging to the two Provinces, Ontario and Quebec, it was necessary to draw a fine distinction and where the explanations had to be most carefully made in order to avoid future misunderstanding and dissatisfaction. Mr. Dreaver cheerfully undertook this difficult office and performed it to our great satisfaction.

abitibi to ottawa Friday, 1 September, to Saturday, 9 September Scott Friday Sept 1 Rise 7. Moose Factory crew left at 8. got list of Ont & Que Inds. Left at 12.30 camped at 6 on w shore Upper Lake or Agotaweka. Sat Sept 2 Rise 5.30. Left 6.45 Fine morning. splendid run thro Island Lake. met many prospectors, travelers, traders camped at 6 at South End of Height of Land Ptg. Sun Sept 3. Up at 5.30 off at 6.30 dull morning. began rain about 9. bought moose meat had dinner in rain. Rain very heavy. left again at 4. rain continued Camped ^5.30^ [38] Monday Sept 4 Rain all night. Up at 5.30 off at 6.45. dull morning. Travelled all day until 4.30. arrived at Klock’s Depot in heavy downpour.15 Tuesday Sept 5. Started 12 for N[orth].T[emiskaming]. Bad road. rain. arrived about 5. Stayed at Gibbons’. Wed Sept 6. [no entry] (The 1905 journal ends here; the entries continue with 22 May 1906 on page 39.) Stewart 1st ^September^ Our crew from Moose and New Post [158] left us at Abitibi, and so a new crew had to be secured.16 With the assistance of Mr Drever good men were secured. We had parted with our late crew with many regrets, as we

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17.2 Lake Abitibi to Mattawa. The Grand Trunk Pacific and Ontario’s Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railroad would meet near Cochrane.

had found them all to be willing, and careful, and well qualified to perform all the duties required of them We left ^Fort^ Abitibi at 12 noon on the 1st September, and soon saw that our new men were fully as competent as any we had previously employed. No time was lost by them in landing the canoes, and on arriving at a portage they were equally quick in packing the goods and canoes across to the next point of embarkation[.] After crossing Lake Abitibi we came to the Dancing Portage [159] which being only about one hundred yards long did not take us long to cross. We next came to Ajolauke Lake, one of the prettiest lakes we had yet seen We camped near the end of this lake at 6 pm. 2nd Sepr. ’05. We again made an early start and soon had evidence that we were nearing civilization. On entering the river we ^saw^ a camping party on the shore busily engaged in preparing their morning meal. A little further on

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we came to a Transcontinental Survey party. Near here we had a succession of portages to cross. Early in the afternoon we entered Island Lake, which we were inclined to think was the prettiest lake we had yet been on. Perhaps the beautiful day had something to do with this decision, but in any event, this is certainly a beautiful [160] lake with its many islands, and its various scenery. After crossing the lake we met a canoe containing two young men, with an Indian guide. It was evident from the way one of the men paddled that this must have been his first experience in a canoe, and the way in which he handled his paddle was certainly very amusing. Seeing us he at once made a dive for his camera which apparently he kept ready for emergencies, and it is probable that ^the picture of^ our canoes and their occupants forms one of those in his collection. At 4 00 p.m. we came to a marshy, reedy stretch, and were informed that we were nearing the Height of Land portage. Here again [161] we met two men in a canoe, and learned later that they were prospectors Just before arriving at the portage we met a large canoe containing a varied assortment of goods, among which were a stove and stove pipes[.] The two men we had met shortly before would scarcely reply to our salutation, but the man in charge of the big canoe was exceedingly polite and friendly We were informed by our Indians that the gentleman was Mr. Loudit, the district Inspector for the Revillion [sic] Freres. We arrived at the Height of Land portage at 4.30, and found here a good wharf, and a good road across this portage which is about a mile in length. On crossing over we found an old man camped near the landing ^where there is a beautiful spring of clear water^ and we were informed by him that it [162] was his son and grandson whom we had met near the marsh on the other side of the portage. He also informed us that he was the father of Tretheway the discoverer of the celebrated silver mine of that name at Cobalt.17 Mr. Tretheway had a number of recent newspapers which he kindly loaned to us, and which gave us the first news we had received for weeks from the outside world. Our goods were all over and we were able to have our tents put up at 6 p.m. Old Mr Tretheway was pleased to have our company and was also glad that we were able to supply him with some sugar and butter of which he was in need. 3rd September At 6.30 am. we resumed our journey, the first stage being a run [163] of about a mile to Little Height of Land portage which is about 1/4 of a mile in length. By 7 we were ready to launch our canoes on Lake Opasatica. On the little Height of Land portage there was a camp belonging to a Boundary Survey party. Several members of the party were known by Dr Meindl and an exchange of experiences was made while the goods were being brought over. Shortly after 9 a heavy rain storm came on so that we were glad to take shelter for a time, and to build a fire both for the heat it afforded and for the purpose of drying our clothes. While we were here, three canoes canoes containing six whites passed our stopping place. Shortly after resuming our journey, we came to an Indian

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encampment and on going ashore to ascertain whether [164] they had any fish that we could purchase from them, we learned that they had a quantity of moose meat which, they said, they had purchased from the men who had gone on ahead of us. We very gladly purchased some of the meat from them, as we had had no fresh meat for many weeks. Going on, we passed those whom we now designated as the “Moose meat men,” who had gone ashore to take shelter from the rain. Shortly after 12 we decided to land as the rain was now coming down in torrents. We also were looking forward to enjoying some of the moose steak. Our expectations were more than realized when dinner was announced. How we did enjoy that meat, sitting [165] around a big camp fire! It was still raining heavily, but of this we took little account as we were pretty well sheltered by the big trees, and had the big fire, and the good food to compensate for the wetting we were receiving. We concluded at 4 p.m. to proceed on our journey although it was still raining rather heavily. Shortly after leaving our shelter, the rain increased to a flood, so that we all were thoroughly soaked in a very short time. We kept on till 5 30, when it was considered advisable to camp for the night. 4th September We were up shortly after 5 am. and while the morning was cloudy there seemed to be indications that it would clear up shortly. We left at 6.45, and in a short time arrived at “Lonely River.” Passing through [166] this river we came to Obicoba or Barrier Lake. From then on signs that we were nearing civilization increased as we continued to meet prospectors and others on their way up the river. Shortly after noon it again began ^to rain^ and from then on we travelled in a steady downpour, ending in a deluge as we neared our journey’s end. We reached our last portage in the rain, and the depot of the Hawksbury Lumber Co.18 at 2.10[.] Crossing the portage we entered Quinze Lake and at 4.10 arrived at Douglas Farm or Klocks Depot, the end of this part of our journey. Going into the store, we met with several young men who had arrived just ahead of us [167] and who like ourselves were soaked to the skin. They were a jolly lot of boys, and had thoroughly enjoyed their outing up the river. We all gathered around the big box stove, and exchanged experiences. Our men came in to say good bye to us as they were going at once to the H.B.Co. depot some miles further on down the river. We had had splendid men with us on the various stages of our journey, and these men were no exception to those we had previously engaged. We put up for the night at the boarding house in connection with the depot, and were well cared for both in regards to accommodation and the meals provided for us 5th It took us all the morning packing our goods and in making our [168] preparations for crossing the 17 mile portage to North Timiskaming After a

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good dinner, we left at 12 n, and then began one of the worst experiences we had yet encountered. At any time this portage is bad enough as the road is one of the roughest to be found anywhere. Where it is not a stiff clay that sticks to one like glue, it is either through a marsh, or over rough bolders [sic] against which one is apt to fall and bark ones shins. Some members of our party tried sitting on the wagon that was filled with our goods, but soon gave this up as the jolting was more then they could stand[.] To add to our troubles, it again began to rain, so that both under foot and over head, everything [169] seemed to be against us. We arrived about 6 pm at North Timiskaming thoroughly exhausted as well as being soaked to the skin. We put up at the Lake View House, kept by one Gibbons who did everything possible for our comfort. 6th Sepr. We were favored with a beautiful, warm morning, a contrast to the previous day. North Temiska[mi]ng is prettily situated on the lake, and Wwhen we were there ^it^ was crowded with prospectors who could talk nothing but mines and minerals. Going into the store kept by Mr. J. Malone it became evident that he was doing a rushing business furnishing supplies to prospectors. Malone himself was interested in a number of mines, regarding which he was very enthusiastic. We [170] had a visit from the Indian Agent for the district, and soon found that he had a pocket full of samples of ore from his mines We visited the Indian school here and gave the children a little treat to cause them to remember our visit. The remaining portion of the day ^morning^ was occupied in settling with the Indians who had accompanied us throughout the trip, and in getting our dunnage ready for shipment. We left North Timiskaming for New Liskeard by steamer at 2 p.m. which place we reached at 4 p.m. Here again we found bustle and excitement, with any [171] amount of talk relating to mines. The hotels were all full with people from many different countries From Liskeard we proceeded to Haileybury where the mining excitement was even greater than at the places we had left. It was with difficult[y] that we could secure accommodation [sic], and that at last obtained was in an unfinished hotel. Every one of the men in and around the hotels were dressed in mining costume, long boots being particularly in evidence. At Haileybury we were much pleased at receiving our letters, some of which were addressed to Moose but were ^had been^ retained at this place. The news that our friends were well was of course pleasant to hear, and at this place we were able to wire them of our safe arrival, and that we expected [172] to see them within the next few days. The bar rooms of the various hotels were evidently profiting by the mining excitement as they were crowded from morning to night. 7th Sepr. Fair and bright. We had some business to wind up with the H.B.C.

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which we attended to during the morning. During the day clothing and other goods left by us at Dinorwic, and which we had asked H.B. Agent there to forward to this place, was located after some trouble by the railway officials. We were therefore able to improve our appearance somewhat much to our satisfaction. 8th Sept. We were up at 6 am to prepare for our departure [173] Mr Rae of the H.B.C. officer, and our three Indian friends who had accompanied us throughout the trip came down to the wharf with us to say good bye.19 We had come through many varied scenes together, and had had many varied experiences[.] Many of the incidents of the trip would furnish subject of conversation for both Indians and whites for many days to come. We left at 7:30 by Steamer “Meteor” and had a pleasant sail to Timiskaming. At dinner we found that four of our companions were “the moose meat men,” and in conversation we learned that one of these was from France and the others from England. They denied having sold the meat to the Inds, but said they had given it to them as they had [174] more than they could use. They seemed to be fine gentlemanly fellows who had come over to get some experience regarding life in the wilds. Their verdict was that they had had an exceedingly enjoyable time, and one that would be long remembered by them. We reached Mattawa, the home of our doctor at 6 pm and were received with every kindness by his father, who was anxious to show us that his son’s friends were his friends also. 9th Sepr. The next and last stage of our journey was from Mattawa to Ottawa which latter place was reached at 3 p.m of the 9th Sepr. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin We left Abitibi on the morning of the 1st of September with an excellent crew and made Klock’s Depot without misadventure on Monday, September 4th. We reached Haileybury on the 6th and arrived at Ottawa on the 9th of September.

18 Endings

The commissioners’ collective official report introduces the notion of a fictitious line, later referred to as ab (see figure 5.2). It claims that the words on the parchment treaty were faithfully communicated and no “outside promises” made. The schedule of reserves (later in this chapter) and Meindl’s report (chapter 20) are mentioned in this draft, but the reference to the doctor’s report was excised prior to publication (so that it appeared to be unrelated). A separate report on education (chapter 21) was never published. The schedule of reserves states that “connections may be made for settlers’ road wherever required,” a stipulation that the commissioners do not mention in their journals. This chapter ends with financial details – the cost of the expedition to the federal government and the gratuities shared by the two governments. Stewart Thusere ended a memorable journey of over three thousand [175] miles, about two thousand of which was by canoe through districts seldom visited by white men. We had passed through many dangers and realized that we had great reason for thankfulness that not one serious accident had happened to any member of our party, either whites or Indians. The party broke up with the hope that we would all be permitted to bring the making of the Treaty to a conclusion during the summer of 1906, by visiting the points which time did not permit of our visiting this year. (Stewart’s 1905 journal ends here.) Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin In conclusion we beg to give a short resume of the work done this season. Cession was taken of the tract described in the Treaty comprising about 90,000 square miles, and, in addition, by the adhesion of certain Indians whose hunting grounds lie in a northerly direction from the Albany River which may be roughly described as territory lying between that River and a line drawn from the north-east angle of Treaty No. 3 along the height of land separating the waters which flow into Hudson Bay by the Severn and Winisk from those which flow into James Bay by the Albany and Attawapiskat comprising about 40,000 square miles. Gratuity was paid altogether to 1617 Indians representing

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a total population, when all the absentees are paid and allowance made for names not on the list, of 2,500 approximately. Throughout all the negotiations we carefully guarded against making any promise over and above those written in the Treaty which might afterwards cause embarrassment to the Governments concerned. No outside promises were made and the Indians cannot, and we confidently believe do not, expect any other concessions than those set forth in the documents to which they gave their adherence. It was gratifying throughout to be met by these Indians with such a show of cordiality and trust and to be able fully to satisfy what they believed to be their claims upon the Governments of this country. The Treatment of the reserve question, which in this Treaty was most important, will it is hoped meet with approval. For the most part the reserves were selected by the Commissioners after conference with the Indians. They have been selected in situations which are especially advantageous to their owners and where they will not in any way interfere with railway development or the future commercial interests of the country. While it is doubtful whether the Indians will ever engage in agriculture, these reserves, being of a reasonable size, will give a secure and permanent interest in the land which the indeterminate possession of a large tract could never carry. No valuable water powers are included within the allotments. The area set apart is, approximately, 374 square miles in the North-West Territories and 150 square miles in the Province of Ontario. When the vast quantity of waste and at present unproductive land surrendered is considered, these allotments must, we think, be pronounced most reasonable. We beg to transmit herewith copy of the original of the Treaty signed in duplicate; Schedule of Reserves, and the report of Dr. A.G. Meindl upon the health and physical characteristics of the Indians. We have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servants, Duncan Scott Samuel Stewart Daniel G. MacMartin, Treaty Commissioners. Schedule of Reserves: Treaty No.9. osnaburgh: in the province of ontario. beginning at the Western entrance of the Albany River running westward a distance estimated at four miles as far as the point known as “Sand Point” at the eastern entrance of Pedlar’s Path Bay, following the shore at this point southwards and around it and across the narrow entrance of the Bay to a point on the eastern shore of the outlet of Paukumjeesenaneseepee thence due south, to comprise an area of twenty square miles.

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in the north wester [sic] territories. beginning at a point in the centre of the foot of the first small bay west of the Hudson’s Bay Company Post, thence west a frontage of ten miles and north a sufficient distance to give a total area of fifty-three square miles. fort hope: in the north west territories. beginning at Kitchesagi on the north shore of Lake Eabamet extending eastward along the shore of the lake ten miles. Lines to be run at right angles from these points to contain sufficient land to provide one square mile for each family of five, upon the ascertained population of the band. Marten’s Falls: in the north west territories. on the Albany River beginning at a point one-quarter of a mile below the foot of the rapid known as Marten’s Falls down stream a distance of six miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of thirty square miles. english river in the province of ontario. beginning at a point on the Kenogami or English River, three miles below the Hudson’s Bay Company post, known as English River Post, on the east side of the river, thence down stream two miles and with sufficient depth to give an area of twelve square miles. Port [sic] Albany: in the north west territories. beginning at the point where the North River flows out of the main stream of the Albany, thence north on the west side of the North River a distance of ten miles and of sufficient depth to give an area of one hundred and forty square miles. moose factory: in the province of ontario beginning at a point on the east shore of Moose River at South Bluff Creek, thence south six miles on the east shore of French River, and of sufficient depth to give an area of sixty-six square miles. New Post: in the province of ontario. beginning at a point one mile south of the north-east end of the eastern arm of lake known as Taquahtagama, or Big Lake, situated about eight miles inland south from New Post on the Abitibi River, thence in a northerly direction about four miles, and of sufficient depth in an easterly direction to give an area of eight square miles. The reserves are granted with the understanding that connections may be made for settlers’ roads wherever required. Duncan C. Scott Samuel Stewart Daniel G. MacMartin Treaty Commissioners

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annuities, gratuities, and expenses It is not widely known among the Ojibwe and Cree of Treaty No. 9, and certainly not among non-Indigenous Ontarians, that the provincial government actually pays their treaty annuities. The funds are distributed by the federal government, which then invoices Ontario, as this correspondence illustrates: Ottawa February 26th 1906 Aubrey White Esqr., Ass’t. Com’r Crown Lands, TORONTO. Dear Mr. White: In reply to your enquiry by telephone this morning I have to give you the following information regarding Treaty No. 9 Indians. The following statement will give you the numbers paid by the Commissioners at the points where they made treaty, and approximately the number of absentees:Osnaburgh Paid 326 Absent 49 Fort Hope ⬙ 390 ⬙ 244 Martens Falls ⬙ 104 ⬙ 42 English River ⬙ 47 ⬙ 20 Albany ⬙ 375 ⬙ 364 Moose Factory ⬙ 337 New Post ⬙ 38 1617 719 Of the number actually paid, 690 belong to Ontario and 927 to the North West Territories. The Dominion of course pays the annuity of the last mentioned. You will observe that the largest number of absentees are Indians who hunt in the North West territories. They only come to Fort Hope with their fur catch, and leave immediately for the interior. They would be classed as Dominion Indians and paid by the Dominion. At Fort Albany the absentees hunt in the vicinity of the Attawapiskat River. The remark made with reference to Fort Hope Indians applies to them also. Next season the Commissioners propose to make treaty at Abbittibi, Matachewan, Metagami, Flying Post, New Brunswick House and Long Lake. They also expect to meet and pay a number of Indians who have come from Moose Factory and are located alon[g] the line of railway. It is somewhat difficult to make an accurate estimate of the Indians yet to be met with, but this statement may be taken as approximately correct. Abbittibi Metachewan

127 102

Indians ⬙

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Matagami 150 ⬙ Flying Post 100 ⬙ New Brunswick House 200 ⬙ Long Lake 100 ⬙ Scattered 200 ⬙ TOTAL 979 The Commissioners found that the numbers given in the preliminary census proved to be incorrect and therefore too much reliance cannot be placed upon these figures with the exception of those given as the population of Abbittibi and Matachewan1 and Long Lake. Of course whatever Indians are met with this summer will be Ontario Indians as they, generally, do not reside near the boundaries of the Province. Yours sincerely, Frank Pedley abstract payments to indians. under Treaty No.9. band

ontario Men

English River Fort Albany Moose Factory New Post Osnaburg Fort Hope Martens Falls

13 26 73 11 26 9 7 165

Total Number 47 97 337 38 113 35 27 694

ontario Dominion Total

163 209 374

694 972 1,666

Absentees. Ontario Dominion

3 45 48

$ 24.00 360.00 $384.00

Amount Paid $376.00 776.00 2,696.00 304.00 872.00 280.00 216.00 $5,520.00 $5,520.00 7,416.00 12,936.00

dominion Men 64

Total Number 278

Amount Paid $2,224.00

53 71 21 209

262 355 77 972

1,736.00 2,840.00 616.00 $7,416.00

July to Oct of 1905 Indians at Abbittibi and north of Bisco[t]a[s]ing to be dealt with in 1906.2

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Table 18.1 Expenses for 1905; fiscal year ended 30 June 1905 Advances: D.C. Scott and S. Stewart, $28,000; D.G. MacMartin, $200; total, $28,200; less refunded by D.C. Scott and S. Stewart, $9,464 Can. Pac. Ry.: transport of commissioners Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin and policemen Parkinson and Vanasse from Ottawa to Dinorwic, including Pullmans Canadian Express Co.: express charges on vaccine

$18,736.00

194.50

0.65

A. Drouin: engrossing on parchment “The James Bay Treaty,” 2 copies

25.00

Geo. May & Sons, Ottawa: portmanteau, $15.50; cash box, $2

17.50

A.G. Meindl, MD: Bay to Ottawa, Ottawa to Dinorwic, $68.90; medical instruments and appliances, $53.60

122.50

James Parkinson, Dominion police: travel, $27.80; balance of advance, subsequently refunded, $22.20

50.00

J. Skinner Co., Ottawa: medicines and medical appliances

73.22

D.C. Scott: insurance, $5; Pullman for Dr. Meindl, $6.50; travel and sundries, $52.16; of advance, subsequently refunded, $136.34

200.00

S. Stewart: interpreter, $10; travelling bag, $7.50; travel and sundries, $31.10; balance of advance, subsequently refunded, $151.40

200.00

Wm. J. Topley, Ottawa: Kodak, $27.50; photographic supplies, $16.50

44.00

Jos. L. Vanasse, Dominion police: travel, $31.65; balance of advance, subsequently refunded, $18.35

50.00

Woods, Limited, Ottawa: boots, 6 pairs at $5; oil tan moccasins, 3 pairs, $4.05; kit bags, 5 at $4; waterproof bags, 4, $6.75; pillows, 3, $8.50; down robe, $25; oil suits, 6 at $2.50; sheets, 8, $7.10; sweaters, 4, $6.75; bath towels, 8, $6; Union Jacks, 12 foot, 16 at $8.63, 3 foot, 6 at $1.88; small items, $5.40 TOTAL Source: Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904–5, 9–10.

283.91

$19,997.28

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Table 18.2 Expenses for 1906; fiscal year ended 30 June 1906 Annuities paid by commissioners D.C. Scott, S. Stewart, and D.G. MacMartin: summer 1905, 1,652 Indians at $8

[13,216]

D.G. McMartin, commissioner: summer 1905, 85 days at $10; doctor’s and nurses’ fees, $35.50; travel, $43.35

[928.85]

A.G. Meindl, MD, physician: summer 1905, 76 days at $6; travel, $136.15

[592.15]

D.C. Scott, commissioner: summer 1905, allowance, 72 days at $5

[360.00]

S. Stewart, commissioner: summer 1905, allowance, 72 days at $5 [360.00] Jos. L. Vannase [sic], constable and canoeman: summer 1905, 75 days at $3.65 [273.75] Hudson’s Bay Co.: bacon, $86; butter, $19; 5 canoes and paddles, $339.60; camp outfit, $438.60; exchange on canoe, $20; express and freight, $60.08; flour, $251; pork, $174; rent of canoes, $43; telegrams, $14.25; tobacco, $55.60; transport officer, salary, 2½ months, $557.63; travel of men, $370.05; tea, $25.20; tents, $15; wages of men, $2,004.25; wood, $12; commission at 15 per cent, $701.35; sundry supplies and provisions, $588.43; total, $5,776.04; less sale of 3 canoes, $80

5,695 04

Source: Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, 8–9.

In April of 1906 Pedley invoiced Matheson for $5,536 for gratuities issued to Ontario Indians in 1905: Osnaburgh $888, Fort Hope $280, Marten’s Falls $216, English River $376, Fort Albany $776, Moose Factory $2,696, and New Post $304.3 As noted elsewhere, Quebec was never invoiced for annuities payable as a result of the 1908 adhesion. Ontario’s expenses increased in 1912, when its boundary was expanded north of the Albany River, making the province responsible for what were previously known to government officials as the Dominion Indians of Treaty No. 9. These expenses grew again when the 1929–30 adhesions added the Big Trout Lake, North Caribou Lake, Fort Severn, and Weenusk bands.

19 The Last of the Indian Treaties They were to make certain promises and we were to make certain promises, but our purpose and our reasons were alike unknowable. What could they grasp of the pronouncement on the Indian tenure which had been delivered by the law lords of the Crown, what of the elaborate negotiations between a dominion and a province which had made the treaty possible, what of the sense of traditional policy which brooded over the whole? Nothing. So there was no basis for argument. The simple facts had to be stated, and the parental idea developed that the King is the great father of the Indians, watchful over their interests, and ever compassionate. After gifts of tobacco, as we were seated in a circle in a big room of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s House, the interpreter delivered this message … [They] listened … to the recital of what the Government would give them.1

Duncan Campbell Scott’s article “The Last of the Indian Treaties,” so different in style from his treaty journal, was first published in Scribner’s in 1906 (together with the ten illustrations identified in the appendix “An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs”). It was republished in a collection of Scott’s work shortly before his death in 1947 and more recently in a much larger Scott collection.2 The title is misleading, for other treaties (Treaty No. 10 in 1906, Treaty No. 11 in 1921, and the Williams Treaties in 1923) were signed even during Scott’s lifetime.3 He acknowledges this discrepancy in his 1947 collection, but as Stan Dragland, his foremost literary critic, points out, “the word could not be dropped without sacrificing an association with the momentousness of the passing of an era or a race (‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ ‘The Last of the Curlews,’ ‘Custer’s Last Stand’). The word carries some of the thrill of resignation to disappearances that are picturesque, because [they are] literary and distanced.”4 Dragland judges this to be Scott’s “only Indian essay with much literary merit.”5 It is an example of a common theme in early twentieth-century Canada: the Indians “doomed to assimilation by the incursion of the Anglo-Saxons” and the benevolent whites (and their government) endeavouring “to make the death struggle of the primitive as soft as possible.”6 Scott refers with approval to the Six Nations, his own maternal ancestors. He states that there were negotiations, but he contradicts himself when he says that “there was no basis for argument.” The promises were sacred – but only those that were “written down and signed” on the parchment.

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Scott The Indian policy of the Canadian Government was inherited from the British procedure in the American colonies, which still survives with additions and modifications. The reserve system appeared at the earliest, and there was but little difference between the policy of the French and British in Canada with the exception that in the French design evangelization was an important feature. So that in 1867, when the Dominion of Canada took over the administration of Indian affairs, the Government found a well-established condition. The Indians of the old provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had been given lands; in Quebec the grants of the French king had been respected and confirmed; in Ontario the Indian titles had been surrendered by treaty for a consideration in land and money, as between sovereign powers. The first of the treaties was made by Governor Haldimand in 1784. In the early days the Indians were a real menace to the colonization of Canada. At that time there was a league between the Indians east and west of the River St. Clair, and a concerted movement upon the new settlements would have obliterated them as easily as a child wipes pictures from his slate. The Indian nature now seems like a fire that is waning, that is smouldering and dying away in ashes; then it was full of force and heat. It was ready to break out at any moment in savage dances, in wild and desperate orgies in which ancient superstitions were involved with European ideas but dimly understood and intensified by cunning imaginations inflamed with rum. So all the Indian diplomacy of that day was exercised to keep the tomahawk on the wall and the scalping knife in the belt. It was a rude diplomacy at best, the gross diplomacy of the rum bottle and the material appeal of gaudy presents, webs of scarlet cloth, silver medals, and armlets. Yet there was at the heart of these puerile negotiations, this control that seemed to be founded on debauchery and license, this alliance that was based on a childish system of presents, a principle that has been carried on without cessation and with increased vigilance to the present day – the principle of the sacredness of treaty promises. Whatever has been written down and signed by king and chief both will be bound by so long as “the sun shines and the water runs.” The policy, where we can see its outcome, has not been ineffectual, and where in 1790 stood clustered the wigwams and rude shelters of Brant’s people now stretch the opulent fields of the township of Tuscarora; and all down the valley of the Grand River there is no visible line of demarcation between the farms tilled by the ancient allies in foray and ambush who have become confederates throughout a peaceful year in seed-time and harvest. The treaty policy so well established when the confederation of the provinces of British North America took place has since been continued and nearly all civilized Canada is covered with these Indian treaties and surrenders. A map colored to define their boundaries would show the province of Ontario clouted

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with them like a patch-work blanket; as far north as the confines of the new provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta the patches lie edge to edge. Until lately, however, the map would have shown a large portion of the province of Ontario uncovered by the treaty blanket. Extending north of the watershed that divides the streams flowing into Lakes Huron and Superior from those flowing into Hudson Bay, it reached James Bay on the north and the long curled ribbon of the Albany River, and comprised an area of 90,000 square miles, nearly twice as large as the State of New York. This territory contains much arable land, many million feet of pulpwood, untold wealth of minerals, and unharnessed water-powers sufficient to do the work of half the continent. Through the map of this unregarded region Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of Canada, had drawn a long line, sweeping up from Quebec and curving down upon Winnipeg, marking the course of the eastern section of the new Transcontinental Railway. The aboriginal owners of this vast tract, aware of the activity of prospectors for timber and minerals, had asked the Dominion Government to treat for their ancient domain, and the plans for such a huge public work as the new railway made a cession of the territory imperative. In June, 1905, the writer was appointed one of three commissioners to visit the Indian tribes and negotiate a treaty. Our route lay inland from Dinorwic, a small station on the Canadian Pacific Railway two hundred miles east of Winnipeg, to reach the Lac Seul water system, to cross the height of land, to reach Lake St. Joseph, the first great reservoir of the Albany River. Our flotilla consisted of three canoes, two large Peterboroughs and one birch-bark thirty-two feet long which could easily hold eleven or twelve men and 2,500 pounds of baggage and supplies, as well as the treasure-chest which was heavy with thirty thousand dollars in small notes. Our party included three commissioners, a physician, an officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company who managed all the details of transport and commissariat, and two constables of the Dominion police force.7 I am bound to say the latter outshone the members of the commission itself in the observance of the Indians. The glory of their uniforms and the wholesome fear of the white man’s law which they inspired spread down the river in advance and reached James Bay before the commission. I presume they were used as a bogey by the Indian mothers, for no children appeared anywhere until the novelty had somewhat decreased and opinion weakened that the magnificent proportions and manly vigor of our protectors were nourished upon a diet of babies. Our crew of half-breeds and Indians numbered not less that twelve and sometimes seventeen, so that the strength of the party never fell below nineteen and was often twenty-four. New men were engaged at Albany and at Moose Factory and experience was had of many different types. The scriptures had seemingly been searched

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to furnish names for our men and we had in service at one time or another the prophets, the apostles, and a goodly number of the saints, even to such minor worthies as Caleb who went to spy out the land for the children of Israel! A word or two of the chronicle must be given up to the chief members of the crew – to David Sugarhead, who only had one lung and worked as if he had four; to Oombash, the dandy of the party, a knowing bowsman who wore a magenta and blue sweater and always paddled in a pair of black woolen gloves; to Simon Smallboy, a hard man to traffic with, but a past master of poling; of Daniel Wascowin, who cooked for the crew, and who was a merry man; and lastly, of Jimmy Swain, the old Albany River guide, sixty-seven years old, who ran to and fro over the longest portage carrying the heaviest pack. He is a fine type of the old half-breed race of packers and voyageurs which is fast disappearing; loyal and disinterested, cautious but fearless, full of that joy of life which consists in doing and possessed by that other joy of life which dwells in retrospect, in the telling of old tales, the playing of old tunes, and the footing of old dance steps. Jimmy was enjoying a mighty old age after a mighty youth. He had been able to carry 600 pounds over a portage nearly a quarter of a mile long. He had run on snow-shoes with the mail from Moose Factory to Michipicoten, a distance of 500 miles, in six days, carrying only one blanker, a little hardtack, and a handful of tea. Now in his sixty-seventh year he was the equal of the best of the young fellows. He took all the portages at a tremendous speed and barefooted, for there was a thick layer of callous flesh on the soles of his feet. He was conscious of his virtues, for in reply to the question, “Well, Jimmy, is there anything left at the other end of the portage?” he would always say, “I was there last myself, surr.” That was conclusive. Moreover, Jimmy was an artist. How he could play the violin at all with his huge callous fingers was a matter for wonder, but play he did; all the jigs popular on the Albany for the last fifty years, curious versions of hymn-tunes, “Abide with Me” and “Lead, Kindly Light,” a pathetic version of “Home, Sweet Home,” the name of which tune he did not know, but called it after a day or two “The tune the bosses like; it makes them feel bad!” Every night after supper Jimmy withdrew into his tent, closed the flap, and took out his violin. The instrument was as curious as the art employed to play it. “Oh, it’s a fine fiddle!” Jimmy would say. “It’s an expensive fiddle. Dr. Scovil gave it to me, and it must have cost ten dollars.”8 He had scraped the belly and rubbed it with castor-oil, and the G string had two knots in it. But what matter! When Jimmy closed the flap of his tent and drew it forth out of its blue pine box, I doubt whether any artist in the world had ever enjoyed a sweeter pang of affection and desire. We touched water first at Big Sandy Lake and in three days we had reached Frenchman’s Head (Ishquahka portage), one of the reserves set apart by an earlier treaty. James Bunting, the chief of the band, when he learned our business sent twelve of his stalwart Indians to help us over the long and difficult

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portage; as it was the occasion of a lifetime they brought their wives, children, and dogs and made a social event of it. But they doubled our working force and saved us a half-day on the portage. Once again we were to meet with such kindness, at New Post on the Abitibi River, when Chief Esau and five of his men, adherents of the new treaty, gave us an offering of their help for two days. “We do not expect any money, and no food for this. We will feed ourselves. You have brought us much; we have little to give, but that we freely give.” After Osnaburgh, Fort Hope was to come, then Marten’s Falls, then English River, then Fort Albany and the salt water, then Moose Factory and New Post. But Osnaburgh had all the importance of a beginning. It was about two o’clock one afternoon that we sighted Osnaburgh, a group of Hudson Bay buildings clustered on the lakeshore, and upon higher ground the little wooden church of the Anglican mission. Everyone expected the usual welcome, for the advent of a paymaster is always announced by a fusillade, yells and the barking of dogs. But even the dogs of Osnaburgh gave no sound. The Indians stood in line outside the palisades, the old blind chief, Missabay, with his son and a few of the chief men in the centre, the young fellows on the outskirts, and the women by themselves, separated as they are always. A solemn hand-shaking ensued; never once did the stoicism of the race betray any interest in the preparations we pitched our tents and displayed a camp equipage, simple enough, but to them the matter of the highest novelty; and all our negotiations were conducted under like conditions – intense alertness and curiosity with no outward manifestation of the slightest interest.9 Everything that was said and done, our personal appearance, our dress and manners, were being written down as if in a book; matter which would be rehearsed at many a campfire for generations until the making of the making of the treaty had gathered a lore of its own; but no one could have divined it from visible signs. Nothing else is so characteristic of the Indian, because this mental constitution is rooted in physical conditions. A rude patience has been developed through long ages of his contact with nature which respects him no more than it does the beaver.10 He enriches the fur-traders and incidentally gains a bare sustenance by his cunning and a few gins and pitfalls for wild animals.11 When all the arguments against this view are exhausted it is still evident that he is but a slave, used by all traders alike as a tool to provide wealth, and therefore to be kept in good condition as cheaply as possible.12 To individuals whose transactions had been heretofore limited to computation with sticks and skins our errand must indeed have been dark.13 They were to make certain promises and we were to make certain promises, but our purpose and our reasons were alike unknowable. What could they grasp of the pronouncement on the Indian tenure which had been delivered by the law lords of the Crown, what of the elaborate negotiations between a dominion and a province which had made the treaty possible, what of the sense

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of traditional policy which brooded over the whole? Nothing. So there was no basis for argument. The simple facts had to be stated, and the parental idea developed that the King is the great father of the Indians, watchful over their interests, and ever compassionate. After gifts of tobacco, as we were seated in a circle in a big room of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s House, the interpreter delivered this message to Missabay and the other chiefs, who listened unmoved to the recital of what the Government would give them for their lands. Eight dollars to be paid at once to every man, woman and child; and forever afterward, each year, “so long as the grass grows and the water runs” four dollars each; and reserves of one square mile to every family of five or in like proportion; and schools for their children; and a flag for the chief.14 “Well for all this,” replied Missabay, “we will have to give up our hunting and live on the land you give us, and how can we live without hunting?” So they were assured that they were not expected to give up their huntinggrounds, that they might hunt and fish throughout all the country just as they had done in the past, but they were to be good subjects of the King, their great father, whose messengers we were. That was satisfying, and we always found that the idea of a reserve became pleasant to them when they learned that so far as that piece of land was concerned they were the masters of the white man, could say to him, “You have no right here; take your traps, pull down your shanty and begone.”15 At Fort Hope, Chief Moonias was perplexed by the fact that he seemed to be getting something for nothing; he had his suspicions maybe that there was something concealed in a bargain where all the benefit seemed to be on one side. “Ever since I was a little boy,” he said, “I have had to pay well for everything, even if it was only a few pins or a bit of braid, and now you come with money and I have to give nothing in exchange.” He was mightily pleased when he understood that he was giving something that his great father the King would value highly. Missabay asked for time to consider, and in their tents there was great deliberation all night. But in the morning the chiefs appeared, headed by Missabay, led by Thomas, his son, who attended the blind old man with the greatest care and solicitude.16 (In the picture of Missabay [see figure 10.1] speaking you may see Thomas behind his father’s staff on his left side.) Their decision was favorable. “Yes,” said Missabay, “we know now that you are good men sent but our great father the King to bring us help and strength in our weakness. All that we have comes from the white man and we are willing to join with you and make promises which will last as long as the air is above the water, as long as our children remain who come after us.” After the payment, which followed the signing of the treaty, the Hudson’s Bay store was filled with an eager crowd of traders. The majority of Indians had touched paper money for the first time; all their trading had been done

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heretofore with small sticks of different lengths. They had been paid in Dominion notes of the value of one dollar and two dollars, and several times the paymasters had received deputations of honest Indians who thought they had received more in eight ones than some of their fellows had in four twos. But they showed some shrewdness in calculation when they understood the difference, and soon the camp was brightened by new white blanket coats, gay handkerchiefs and shawls, new hats and boots, which latter they wore as if doing a great penance. Meantime, the physician who accompanied the party, had visited the tents. He found the conditions that exist everywhere among Indians – the effects of unsanitary habits and surroundings, which are to some extent neutralized by constant changes of camping-ground, by fresh air and pure water; the prevalence of tuberculosis in all forms, a percentage of cases which at one time might have been relieved by surgical treatment, but which have long passed that stage. It had become known that a mysterious operation called vaccination was to be performed upon the women and children, but not upon the men, whose usefulness as workers might be impaired by sore arms. Indians are peculiarly fond of medicine, and at least as open to the pleasure of making experiments with drugs as their white neighbors, but operations they dread; and what was this mysterious vaccination? Jenner and his followers had time to carry on a propaganda, but here at Osnaburgh our physician had to conquer superstitious fear and prejudice in a few short hours. I have known a whole tribe take to the woods upon the mere suggestion of vaccination. But this very superstition, aided by the desire to be in the fashion, gained the day. The statement that something rubbed into a little scratch on the arm would have such powerful results savored of magic and “big medicine,” but the question was solved by one of the society leaders, Madame Mooniahwinini! She was one of the three sisters, all wives of Mooniahwinini, and she appeared with those of his thirteen children for whom she was partly responsible.17 That settled the matter and children were pulled from their hiding-places and dragged to the place of sacrifice, some howling with fear, others giggling with nervousness. Never in the history of the region had there been such an attempt at personal cleanliness as at Osnaburgh that day, and at the other posts upon like occasions. To be sure the cleansing extended to only three or four square inches of arm surface, but it was revolutionary in its tendencies. As soon as the treaty had been signed a feast had been promised by the commissioners and the comestibles had been issued by the Hudson’s Bay Company. They consisted of the staples, pork, and flour, tea and tobacco; with the luxuries, raisins, sugar, baking powder, and lard. The best cooks in the camp had been engaged for hours upon the preparation of these materials. Bannocks had been kneaded and baked, one kind plain, another shortened with lard and mixed with raisins; the pork, heavy with fat, had been cut into chunks and boiled; the tea had been drawn (or overdrawn) in great tin kettles.

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19.1 Mrs Mooniahwenini and children

There is a rigid etiquette at these feasts; the food is piled in the centre of the surrounding Indians, the men in the inner circle, the women and children in the outer. When everyone is assembled the food is divided as fairly as possible and until each person is served no one takes a mouthful, the tea grows cold, the hot pork rigid, and half the merit of the warm food varnishes, but no one breaks the rule. They still wait patiently until the chiefs address them. At Osnaburgh while Missabay walked to and fro striking his long staff on the ground and haranguing them in sort reiterant sentences – the same idea expressed over and over, the power and goodness of the white man, the weakness of the Indian, the kindness of the King, their great father – there they sat and stoically watched the food turn clammy! With us the cloth is cleared and the speeches follow; with the Albany River Indians every formality precedes the true purpose of the feast, the eating of it. The proceedings at Osnaburgh were repeated at the river posts, but when we reached Fort Albany we seemed in a different world. The salutation on the upper river is “Bow jou,” the “Beau jour” of the early French voyageur; on the coast it is “Wat che,” the “What cheer” of the English.18 Marten’s Falls was the last post at which we heard Ojibway spoken; at Fort Albany we met the Crees. In our journey we had been borne by the waters of the Albany through a country where essential solitude abides. Occasionally the

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sound of a conjurer’s drum far away pervaded the day like an aerial pulse;19 sometimes we heard the clash of iron-shod poles against the stones where a crew was struggling up-stream with a York boat laden with supplies. For days we would travel without seeing a living thing, then a mile away a huge black bear would swim the river, slip into the underbrush through a glowing patch of fire-weed, then a lemming would spring across the portage path into the thick growth of Labrador tea; no birds were to be seen, but a white throat sparrow seemed to have been stationed at intervals of a hundred miles or so to give us cheer with his bright voice. But at Marten’s Falls the blithe sentinel disappeared and “the rest was silence.”20 When one has heard even a few of the stories of Indian cruelty and superstition which haunt the river, of the Crane Indians who tied a man and his wife together, back to back, and set them over the falls because they were sorcerers, of the terrible wendigo21 of Marten’s Falls, the lonely spirit of the streams becomes an obsession. It is ever-present, but at night it grows in power. Something is heard and not yet not heard: it rises, and dwells, and passes mysteriously, like a suspiration immense and mournful, like the sound of wings, dim and enormous, folded down with weariness. Below Marten’s Falls the Albany flows in one broad stream for three hundred and fifty miles through banks, in some places, eighty feet high, unimpeded by rapids or falls, rushing gloriously to the sea. One night the canoes were lashed together and floated on under the stars until daybreak. Above Marten’s Falls the river is broken by great rapids and cataracts and interrupted by long lake stretches, such as Makokobatan and Miminiska. The shores are flat and the land seems merely an incident in a world of water. Wherever a tent is pitched it is amid flowers; wild roses are enclosed within your canvas house, all about are myriads of twin-flowers, dwarf cornel, and pyrola blossoms. At James Bay the casual effect of the land is yet more apparent. Can these be called shores that are but a few feet high? The bay is vast and shallow; ten miles away the fringes of red willow look like dusky sprays brushed against the intense steel-gray of the sky-line, and the canoe paddles will reach the sandy bottom! No language can convey the effect of loneliness and desolation which hangs over this far-stretching plain of water, treacherous with shifting sands and sudden passionate storms, unfurrowed by any keels but those of the few small boats of the fur-traders. At the upper river posts the Indian had been stoical, even taciturn, but at Fort Albany and Moose Factory the welcome was literally with prayer and songs of praise and sounds of thanksgiving. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s property at Fort Albany separates the buildings of the Roman Catholic mission from those of the Anglican mission. Moose Factory was until lately the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, but that glory and part of the trading glory has departed; the bishop has gone to “the line,” as the Canadian Pacific Railway

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is called, and the Hudson’s Bay Company has removed its distributing warehouse to Charlton Island, fifty miles out in the Bay. The Indians are adherents of either one faith or the other. Casuists they are, too, and very brilliant at a theological argument; so the religious element was largely mingled with the business, and here they thanked God as well as the King. The feasts at Moose Factory and New Post seemed like savage and debased “tea-meetings.” An address written in Cree, in the syllabic character, was presented at Albany; and at Moose Factory the proceedings opened with prayer and were enlivened by hymn singing. The use of the syllabic character is common on the river. Here and there messages from one group of Indians to another were met with, written upon birch bark and fixed to a stick driven into the ground in some prominent position – announcements that the fishing was poor and that they had gone to Winisk; that if Cheena’s boy was met with, tell him his father was building canoes two days’ journey up the Chepy River. This method of writing the Indian languages was invented by Rev. James Evans, a Methodist missionary about the middle of the last century.22 He was then living at Norway House, north of Lake Winnipeg, where he had come from Upper Canada. As the Crees of Norway House are hunting Indians he found it difficult to make any headway with the work of evangelization. It was almost impossible to teach them to read by the English alphabet, and during the greater part of the year they were on their hunting-grounds, virtually inaccessible. So he invented the characters in which each sign represents a syllable modified by terminals and prefixes. He made his first type from the lead in which tea was packed, moulded in clay; his first press was a Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur-press, his first paper fine sheets of birch-bark. An intelligent Indian can readily learn to read by the aid of the syllabic character and the system is used by the missionaries of all sects to disseminate their teachings. The effect of education and of contact with a few of the better elements of our civilization were noticeable at Albany and Moose Factory. There was a certain degree of cleanliness in the preparation of food, the Indians were better dressed, and although the fur trade is a sort of slavery, a greater self-reliance was apparent. The crew that took the commission from Moose Factory to Abitibi were constant in their vespers and every evening recited a litany, sang a hymn and made a prayer. There was something primitive and touching in their devotion, and it marks an advance, but these Indians are capable of leaving a party of travellers suddenly, returning to Moose Factory in dudgeon if anything displeases them, and the leader of the prayers got very much the better of one of the party in an affair of peltries. But any forecast of Indian civilization which looks for final results in one generation or two is doomed to disappointment. Final results may be attained, say, in four centuries by the merging of the Indian race with the whites, and all these four things – treaties, teachers, missionaries,

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and traders – with whatever benefits or injuries they bring in their train, aid in making an end. The James Bay treaty will always be associated in my mind with the figure of an Indian who came in from Attawapiskat to Albany just as we were ready to leave. The pay-lists and the cash had been securely packed for an early start next morning, when this wild fellow drifted into the camp. Père Fafard, he said, thought we might have some money for him.23 He did not ask for anything, he stood, smiling slightly. He seemed about twenty years of age, with a face of great beauty and intelligence, and eyes that were wild with a sort of surprise – shy at his novel position and proud that he was of some importance. His name was Charles Wabinoo.24 We found it on the list and gave him his eight dollars. When he felt the new crisp notes he took a crucifix from his breast, kissed it swiftly, and made a fugitive sign of the cross.25 “From my heart I thank you,” he said. There was the Indian at the best point of a transitional state, still wild as a lynx, with all the lore and instinct of his race undimmed, and possessed wholly by the simplest rule of the Christian life, as yet unspoiled by the arts of sly lying, paltry cunning, and the lower vices which come from contact with such of our debased manners and customs as come to him in the wilderness.26

20 The Treaty Doctor’s Report

By 1905 the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario had long since rebounded from earlier waves of epidemic diseases, such as smallpox, that had decimated their populations.1 Health was inseparable from their more holistic notion of bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin. Northern Algonquians sought blessings from the manidoog or manitoowak. If they were sometimes receptive to Western medicine, they never entirely rejected Indigenous practices.2 In the Ojibwe and Cree world view, Jennifer S.H. Brown and Susan Elaine Gray remind us, “sickness and other mishaps were often attributed to animate agents, human or nonhuman, whom their victim had offended.”3 Roger Roulette adds that the Ojibwe and Cree believed that a person was at times cursed by his or her own actions, an aspect of the world view that is forgotten in modern healing lodges.4 E.B. Borron lamented the lack of medical doctors in far northeastern Ontario and recommended that a small hospital be established.5 The Letitia Newnham Cottage Hospital was operating at Moose Factory by 1902, and D.C. Scott photographed it at treaty time.6 The commissioners had already visited the small hospital established by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Soeurs Grises at Fort Albany in 1902.7 The hbc no longer kept a doctor stationed at Moose Factory.8 After Meindl’s visit in 1905, the peoples of far northern Ontario continued to receive brief annual visits from a doctor (and Indian agent) until Indian Affairs district offices were established in Moose Factory and Sioux Lookout and yearround doctors stationed in those centres. In 1945 the responsibility for Indian health was transferred from Indian Affairs to the Department of National Health and Welfare.9 The Anglican hospital at Moose Factory was eventually superceded by a 200bed federal government hospital-sanatorium constructed in 1949–50. As happened elsewhere in Ontario, its Roman Catholic counterpart, expanded to take in Attawapiskat (and later Moosonee), remained in operation under provincial jurisdiction for another half-century. The chiefs of the Mushkegowuk Council held a press conference at Queen’s Park on 30 June 1989 to protest the actions – illegal until 7 April 1989, when the Liberal provincial government of David Peterson retroactively passed an enabling regulation – of the James Bay General Hospital in charging elderly First Nation chronic-care patients in Fort Albany and Attawapiskat for services.10

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20.1 Letitia Newnham Cottage Hospital, Moose Factory

Later that year provincial opposition leader Bob Rae, mlas Gilles Pouliot and David Reville, staff member David de Launay, and Toronto Star journalist Thomas Walkom visited communities in far northern Ontario. In January 1990, months before the ndp unexpectedly formed the government, they issued First Come, Last Served, a report on health care for First Nations. Pouliot introduced this private member’s resolution in the legislature: That, in the opinion of this House, recognizing that health care is totally inadequate for Ontario’s first nations people, and recognizing that aboriginal people’s requests for improvements are often not met because of jurisdictional disputes between the federal and provincial governments and further recognizing that Ontario’s indigenous peoples want some control over the provision and delivery of their health care, the government of Ontario should immediately take whatever measures necessary to ensure that: the level of health care services to Ontario’s first nations is at the same level as other Ontarians; the jurisdictional disputes between the federal and provincial levels of government are reduced and eventually eliminated; and a

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process of giving control over the provision and delivery of health care services to the first nations is developed and implemented. Conservative mla Ernie Eves, who would briefly succeed Mike Harris as premier, supported the resolution, calling it “a very real issue about justice and equity.”11 In 1994 the ndp government announced an aboriginal healing and wellness strategy.12 The two systems in far northeastern Ontario have only recently been integrated under the aegis of the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority.13 The board that operated Moose Factory’s hospital for a decade or so, prior to the integration of the two systems, has a logo with the “four medicine wheel” colours and an eagle feather.14 These pan-Indian images may seem inappropriate to some, but they are modern-day attempts to bring back a broadly based, genuine, age-old Cree view, pimaatisiwin.15 A 1921 train accident prompted the establishment of a small hospital in Sioux Lookout. As at Moose Factory, in 1949 the federal government built a large sanatorium, which was later called the Sioux Lookout Indian Hospital. The province of Ontario constructed the Sioux Lookout General Hospital a year later.16 As in the northeast, these two parallel health care systems have recently amalgamated through the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre. The name Meno Ya Win is variously translated as “health, wellness, well-being … holistic healing and wellness … the whole self being in a state of complete wellness.”17 This regional hospital clearly promotes bimaadiziwin. Although an improving situation, the life expectancy of First Nations today is still less than for other Canadians. Tuberculosis, an airborne infectious disease, is now rare, but its incidence is still much higher among First Nations than in the general population. Suicide among Indian youth has become a major concern in far northern Ontario.18 Dietary change and a sedentary existence have resulted in chronic diabetes.19 Poor planning and environmental contamination have resulted in “boil water” advisories and fuel-contaminated soil in many First Nations and demands for the cleanup of abandoned radar stations in First Nations territories.20 Medical priorities in far northern Ontario today, in the two systems now managed largely by the Ojibwe (north of Sioux Lookout) and the Cree (in the James Bay region), include diabetes and other chronic disease management, traditional healing/medicine, mental health,21 addictions, long-term care, public health, human resources (to address a lack of physicians, nurses, and counsellors), technology, transportation, and Indigenous governance/management.22 When I lived in Moose Factory, I was considered “white status” if I needed services at the hospital. I will not forget the weekend when the parent of several of my students, a descendent of one of the families denied treaty status by the 1905 commissioners, visited me, clearly distressed at his lifelong struggle with

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alcohol and the effects on his family. He accepted my invitation to accompany him to the outpatients department, where we waited to see a physician. We were lucky, I suppose, that there was a visiting specialist. I accompanied my friend for the first few minutes of his eventual meeting with the psychiatrist. I left soon after my friend was asked, “Do you wish you were a whiteman?” “I have never really been touched by death,” I remember telling the friend I was visiting in North Bay one Sunday in March of 1992. I drove back to Timmins and almost called Doug M. Cheechoo, who was in charge of counselling services for Cree high school students from the western James and Hudson Bay First Nation communities, but it was March break and I knew he needed one. Next morning Doug told me that a sixteen-year-old student had been missing since early Friday morning. On Tuesday afternoon the city police organized a ground search near her boarding home. I discovered her frozen body in a partially covered woodshed a few doors away, where she had apparently tried to sober up before going home after a Thursday night party with friends. Late that night, when she bolted from a taxi (a block away) without paying, the driver calculated what it would cost him to report it to the police and decided to try for another fare on that cold, snowy night when the bars would soon be closing. This was the last of a series of “what ifs” that night – if he had called the police, who had already been contacted by the boarding home, perhaps her fresh footsteps would have been found and her tragic death prevented. The community named its new school in her memory, hoping that her teenage death would be the last. It was not. I will not forget the school registers I reviewed in a First Nation community in far northwestern Ontario in 1983. “Closed – suicide.” “Closed – suicide in [neighbouring community].” Over and over again. Nor will I soon forget the day during my first few months in Kashechewan when a frustrated high school teacher brought a student from his keyboarding class to my office, complaining about the copious amount of paper she had printed. Fortunately, I took the time to look at some of the pages and saw the telltale words of a student who had thoughts of self-harm. Fortunately, I recognized her surname, and my first question was whether she had recently had a tragedy in her family. Her sister had taken her life a year earlier. She quietly sobbed, and her loving father came to get her, shaking my hand in thanks. When I learned a few months later, shortly before a Monday staff meeting, that another of our high school students had attempted suicide that weekend, it was like a body blow. As noted in chapter 18, Meindl’s reports were referenced in the original typed version of the commissioners’ official report but not in the published one. They were edited, perhaps by Scott, prior to publication in the annual reports of the Indian Affairs department.23 Ottawa, Ont. September 12th, 1905. To the Honorable Supt. General, Indian Affairs.

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Dear Sir: – As medical attendant to the Indians with commission of Treaty ix, I beg to submit this report: Having obtained a supply of medicines and instruments necessary for emergencies and general surgical purposes I visited the following bands of Indians: 1. Osnaburg.- 2. Fort Hope.- 3. Martens Falls.- 4. Albany.- 5. Moose Factory.- 6. New Post & 7. Abitibi. On arrival at an encampment with my interpreter, enquiry was made and attention immediately given to those who were so ill as to be confined to tents. Afterwards a “surgery” was equipped where the Indians came with their families for medical examination, treatment and vaccination. In this region the adult Indian is far below the average size and weight of the white man. He is of a spare type, about 5 ft. 7 inches, and weighs 125 lbs. Muscles and bones undeveloped. Stature stooping, with a long, narrow, thin chest. The appearance of the face is expressive of a lack of energy and sluggishness. The forehead is broad and prominent, the eyes sunken, the nose large[,] lips full and the lower jaw heavy and thick. The hair is black and of strong growth. Intelligence and reasoning powers of a low state. However a few exceptional, sturdy specimens of man were met with. The children to 6 years of age show an abundance of subcutaneous fat, are well developed and very healthy. This condition no doubt is due to their extra natural food supply, the mothers nursing every child to six. From 6 to 15 lack of development is noticeable; the death-rate is high. Tuberculosis and infectious diseases acting acutely. From 15 to 25 same conditions exist, except diseases are better resisted and become more chronic. Of the large number in families (average about 13) only one-third reach adult life. Throughout the journey tuberculosis and dyspeptic derangements are found to be prevalent. Overlooking intermarriage and heredity, the chief causes are due to aborigines being vulnerable to contagious diseases and to their mode and means of living. Although apparently remaining in pure, fresh air, they are very lacking in cleanliness, overcrowded in wigwams or tents, poorly clothed and exposed to wet and cold. Excepting the small amount of provisions obtained from the fur-traders, they are wholly dependent on fish and game as a food-supply. In a territory where both these are so variable, it is almost a constant state of semi-starvation or overfeeding. These irregularities lead to malnutrition, hence there is very little resisting power, which leaves them an open prey to all the contagious diseases. These conditions in the very worst aspect occur among the inland Indians, of the Albany waters, where they have very little chance to come in contact or imitate the white man, and the missionaries have practically just commenced their valuable work among these bands. Besides spiritual teachings, hygienic principles are energetically taught and readily put into practice; the result is obvious among those on James Bay Coast and on the Abitibi waters, where years of missionary labor and schools show

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a much better developed, both intellectual and physical, man. For the welfare of the Indians everything should be done to aid and encourage these good men in their noble efforts. Including several minor symptomatic and nervous ailments. The following is “list of conditions” present and the cases in which medicine and treatment were given at: 1. Osnaburg. Ojibiways. – Never had any medical help, the whole band in very unhealthy condition. Tuberculosis actively present in 65 %. Acute ulcerative Eurocarditis 1 Cholera Infantum 17 Meningitis, T.B.C. 1 Chlorosis 12 Otitis Media 2 Cataract 4 1. Scabies The whole band. 2. Pediculi Impetigo contagiosa 30 Teeth extracted 12 Vaccinated 107 Lacerated wound of hand 2. Fort Hope. Tuberculosis Scrobutus Hernia Chlorosis Peritonitis Acute Cholera Infantum Taenia Ulcerative Stomatitis Erysipelas Herpes Zooster Teeth extracted Vaccinated Removed a Darmoid cyst from face. 3. Marten Falls. Tuberculosis Peritonitis acute

35 % 1 1 5 1 5 28 1 1 2 17 201

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Otitis media Taenia Epilepsy Dysentery Prolapsus Ani Vaccinated Teeth extracted Aspirated a pleurisy.

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1 3 1 5 2 47 3

4. Albany. Here the sick are attended to by four Grey Nuns, graduate nurses of Ottawa General Hospital. There are two large airy wards for patients in the convent. A supply of drugs on hand which are liberally dispensed, not only to the coast Indians, but to the inlanders from Fort Hope and Marten Falls, who come down the river for H.B. Co’s supplies. Tuberculosis 20 % Ascites 1 Pneumonia 1 Otitis Media 2 Iritis 1 Gonorrhoea 3 Taenia 13 Synovitis Elbow 1 Teeth extracted 20 Vaccinated 268 Removed one finger on account of septic infection. Removed Tuberculous Fluid from Abdomen. 2 5. Moose Factory. Previous to five years ago several physicians had practiced here, I found about 40 % of all the children vaccinated. The English Church Mission has a neatly equipped Hospital with Miss Johnston, a very competent nurse in charge. There is ample room for 7 patients. Both this hospital and the one at Albany deserve great credit as to the state of health among the Indians. During the recent epidemics of “La Grippe” and Measles, the death rate was practically reduced to nil as a result of the splendid assistance rendered by these institutions. Tuberculosis 20 % Stomatitis 1 Taenia 11 Meningitis 1 Epilepsy 1

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Scurvy Circumcision Infected Hand Ecthyma Herpes Proplapsus Ani Teeth Extracted Vaccinated

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1 1 1 1 1 3 17 146

6. New Post. Small Band well developed and comparatively healthy. Tuberculosis 10 % Synovitis 1 Impetigo 5 Vaccinated 23 Teeth extracted 3 7. Abitibi. Tuberculosis Epilepsy Hernia Synovitis Infected arm Vaccinated Teeth extracted

10 % 1 1 1 1 98 9

Tuberculosis was found in various tissues, especially in the lungs, serous membranes, lymphatic glands, bones and skin. The chronic ulcerative and Fibroid types of infection in the lungs were the most common forms. After a very close inquiry and observation I am glad to report an almost total absence of venereal disease in any form. Another very striking feature was the rarety of Rheumatism or its sequences. In conclusion as to the future good health of these Indians may I add a few suggestions. There must be an improvement in their ways of living. Hygienic principles, cooking, regularity in food, clothing, ventilation etc., etc., shown and taught will necessarily show marvelous results; this can best be accomplished by the opening of schools or through the missionaries. Finally to alleviate the present sufferers, considerable medical assistance can be rendered by keeping a good supply of medicines with the nurses at Albany and Moose Factory. Yours obediently, a.g. meindl m.d. c.m.

21 Education

John Dick’s gratitude regarding the prospect of formal education at Moose Factory must have referred to residential schooling, for the federal and provincial governments already provided funds for day schools at the James Bay posts.1 If school was offered during the winter for the children of hbc servants, the language of instruction was English. Any schooling provided during the inland Indians’ brief summer visits was more likely in Cree (or, inland, in Ojibwe); Laura Rickard and Frederick Mark helped the clergy to teach at Moose Factory.2 Some of the “more forward” children, such as Mark Cheechoo, acquired some English as well. Mark, the son of Moose Factory hbc cook Charles Cheechoo, “worked his way up … into the English school,” an exception to the missionaries’ usual complaint: “The Indian boys are not very smart, but the girls seem to be much brighter.”3 But John Dick may also have been referring to the fact that thirteen children from Moose Factory, including Emily Donald’s aunt, had been sent to residential school in far-off Manitoba four years earlier.4 Wesleyan Methodist George Barnley had hoped for a residential school at Moose Factory decades earlier, plans thwarted by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which then controlled the area.5 By 1905, however, a government-funded residential school fit nicely into Bishop Holmes’s plans. Northern dioceses such as his were facing an influx of nonIndigenous settlers along their southern margins; moving his headquarters to Chapleau meant an empty residence at Moose Factory.6 Long before residential schools, the Diocese of Moosonee had established the Coral Fund, a fosterparent plan whereby overseas donors could sponsor orphaned or fatherless Indigenous children such as Christiana Richards (or Rickard), Johnny Fletcher, and Willie Turner at Moose Factory. Donors could also endow a bed in the cottage hospital. Sometimes, these children were given a new surname, such as Sperling, perhaps in honour of the sponsor.7 Although schooling is not reported to have been discussed at any of the other locations where Treaty No. 9 was signed in 1905, it must have been spoken about by priests and missionaries and fur traders. The commissioners’ repeated promises that the people could continue to hunt arguably implies that their children would receive culturally relevant education from their extended families. Those who may have hoped that their children would acquire fluency or literacy in English

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21.1 Bishop’s residence, Moose Factory. Anglican bishop George Holmes made his residence in Chapleau, and after the treaty this building (“Bishop’s Boarding School”) became Moose Factory’s first Indian residential school. Inset 21.2 Pre-treaty residential school and hospital at Fort Albany, established two years earlier by the Oblats de Marie Immaculée and Soeurs Grises de la Croix.

undoubtedly wanted additive, not subtractive, bilingualism.8 They likely wanted to augment their indigenous language and culture, not replace them. The king’s wish that they prosper, as reported by MacMartin, and the promises of cultural continuity are, in my view, more valid sources for claiming a treaty right to highquality education than the limiting words on the parchment.9 The Fort Albany residential school had already been in operation for two years prior to the signing of Treaty No. 9, largely at the mission’s expense. In the late 1920s this school was relocated from Albany Island to the south shore of the Albany River, on higher ground some 5 miles upriver.10 In the state-funded Fort Albany residential school, Cree students were taught that some of their cultural practices were sins. Fred Wesley of Attawapiskat provided me with the following translation of Fafard’s catechism: “He who makes his god in the image of the devil by paying homage to the sun, to the stars, to the idols, he who drums, participates in shaking tent ceremonies, evil chanting, evil feasting, evil pipe ceremonies and sweetgrass[,] all these are of the devil.”11 The Moose Factory residential school opened on 1 September 1905.12 A second Anglican institution was established near Chapleau in 190713 and a third at Pelican Lake, near Sioux Lookout, in 1926.14 A second Roman Catholic institu-

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tion and another Anglican one operated at Fort George on eastern James Bay.15 Indian students from far northern Ontario also attended residential schools beyond the Treaty No. 9 region: for example, the Shingwauk residential school in Sault Ste Marie and the Mohawk Institute in Brantford. Beginning in 1986, some Canadian churches issued apologies, carefully crafted to avoid liability, for their roles in the residential school system. As Janet Bavelas has shown in her analysis of the so-called apologies, the churches “avoided describing themselves as agents of wrongful actions,” except for very general “cultural and religious errors, which may not be actionable or at least would not at present incur large damages.”16 In 1998 then minister of Indian Affairs Jane Stewart issued a carefully worded “Statement of Reconciliation,” wherein the government of Canada admitted to being “deeply sorry” for the impacts of residential schools.17 Eight years later, following negotiations with the Assembly of First Nations, the government of Canada announced approval of an Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, resolving the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. The irssa provided for a one-time out-of-court cash payment to former students. It also established an “independent assessment process” to address compensation to those who experienced sexual and some other kinds of abuse. In addition, it provided for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and other related programs.18 It should be noted that, though schools run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and United Churches are covered by the irssa, Canada has rejected a request from several nan First Nations to designate two Mennonite institutions as historic residential schools, thus denying compensation to their former students.19 In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking for the government of Canada, formally apologized, on behalf of Canadians, for this “sad chapter in our history” and acknowledged that the policy of assimilation was “wrong” and had “caused great harm”: The Government of Canada built an educational system in which very young children were often forcibly removed from their homes, often taken far from their communities. Many were inadequately fed, clothed and housed. All were deprived of the care and nurturing of their parents, grandparents and communities. First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultural practices were prohibited in these schools. Tragically, some of these children died while attending residential schools and others never returned home. The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language. While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts

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of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities. The legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today … The government recognizes that the absence of an apology has been an impediment to healing and reconciliation. Therefore, on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I stand before you, in this Chamber so central to our life as a country, to apologize to Aboriginal peoples for Canada’s role in the Indian Residential Schools system. To the approximately 80,000 living former students, and all family members and communities, the Government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions[,] that it created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that, in separating children from their families, we undermined the ability of many to adequately parent their own children and sowed the seeds for generations to follow, and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you. Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry.20 When twenty-five former Moose Factory residential school students were interviewed in the 1990s, they recalled a range of positive and negative experiences. They shared the following memories: how hard it was to be separated from their parent(s), the many routines they had to follow, a sense of being in jail, separation from siblings in sex-segregated age groups, gangs of bullies, resisting, harsh or cruel punishment, and various other forms of abuse. In a culture where children traditionally learned through observation and adult role apprenticeships, these experiences had profound, long-lasting effects on family and community life. The normal Cree life cycle was interrupted. Re-establishing close relations with family members was difficult; so were emotional relations with a spouse. Feelings about one’s Indigenous identity were often confusing. Disciplining one’s children and showing them affection were difficult. There was a general sense of anger, injustice, and loss.21 One-time residential school settlements may allow the government and churches to escape future liability, but they clearly do not fix problems like these. Nor do they address the legacy of the child-welfare system, which was often at least as damaging as the residential schools. Section 87 of the 1951 Indian Act (see chapter 4) exposed Indian reserves to provincial child-welfare laws. This change

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came at the worst possible time for First Nations, for another legislative revision that year legalized the possession of alcohol off-reserve.22 Together, these regulatory changes ushered in the sixties scoop whereby thousands of Indian children were removed from their families and communities. Adoption – even of “just” a new way of life – means loss: of family, culture, language, community, and too often respect, the wrenching dislocations that Susan Dion describes so well in her own family history.23 Legislation in 1984 introduced the concept of the child’s “best interest,” including his or her cultural background, and began a new era in Indigenous child welfare in Ontario.24 After World War ii Indian students increasing attended schools under provincial jurisdiction.25 Indian Affairs was opposed to establishing school boards on reserves, believing that “we are paying the whole shot, and we should call the tune.”26 In the wake of the 1969 White Paper’s rejection, there was an assertion of Indian control of Indian education, and during the 1980s any federal Indian day schools in the Treaty No. 9 region were transferred to local community administration.27 The Kingfisher Lake, Wapekeka, and Wunnumin Lake First Nations decided to implement bilingual-bicultural education,28 an initiative that was envied by many of their neighbours and is now administered by the Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre in Sioux Lookout. Some 80 per cent of Ontarians speak English in their homes, less than 3 per cent speak French, and about 27 per cent speak a “non-official” language.29 It is more appropriate to reverse the question in far northern Ontario: how many still speak their ancestral language in the home? (The home language, when it is not an Indigenous language, is French in one Treaty No. 9 community, English in all the others, including those in Treaty No. 5.) On-reserve in the Treaty No. 9 communities, there are seven with very high rates of Indigenous language retention. One community has half speaking English and half using the Indigenous language at home. In eleven others, the homes where the ancestral language is spoken range from 32 to 3 per cent, and in one Treaty No. 9 community the Indigenous language is seemingly not spoken at all. Indigenous language retention is high in one of the Treaty No. 5 communities, but ranges from 37 to 11 per cent in the others.30 When all Ontarians are considered, 10 per cent have a university degree, 18 per cent have a college diploma, and 27 per cent have a high school education or equivalent. Among on-reserve residents in the nineteen Treaty No. 9 communities who reported such data, 1 per cent have a university degree, 7 per cent have a college diploma, and 12 per cent have high school or equivalency. These are averages; university includes fourteen cases rounded to 0, the others 2 to 6 per cent; college includes two cases rounded to 0, the others 4 to 19 per cent,; high school equivalency includes two cases rounded to 0, the others from 4 to 24 per cent. The corresponding figures in Treaty No. 5 communities in Ontario are 2, 4, and 12 per cent, these averages again masking ranges from 0 to 6 per cent (university), 0 to 7 per cent (college), and 0 to 15 per cent (high school).31

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“It’s very important that you have a canoe,” said Daniel Wesley, using a traditional metaphor that now guides his son in a vastly changed world. Norm, that son, was until recently training coordinator in the Human Resources–Training Department at De Beers’s Victor Mine. The bleak statistics cited above notwithstanding, there are many Cree and Ojibwe in the Treaty No. 9 region who have such a canoe today. If they were signing a treaty today, they could call upon lawyers – Mary Chakasim, Derek Chum, Patricia Faries-Akiwenzie, Les Moore, and Mandy Wesley, for example – from their own communities, and many other homegrown professionals as well. But the cost of achievement can be very high. As my friend Roger Chum, who counsels students at Canadore College, reminds me, those who are experiencing pimaatisiwin in their own lives hope that their peers who still struggle for that balance will find it, and they feel a deep well of sadness for too many of their generation who have already been sucked into the vortex of addictions and despair and suicide. A program funded by Indian Affairs has resulted in increased First Nation access to post-secondary education in Canada (so the Harper government wants to slash it, of course). The gap today between high school and post-secondary graduation rates of on-reserve Indians and other Canadians is staggering.32 Based on 1991–96 data in diand’s 1999 Performance Report to Parliament, the auditor general reported a 37 per cent high school completion rate for on-reserve Indians Canada-wide, compared to a 65 per cent rate for all Canadians.33 The gap is even wider in Ontario, where the overall high school completion rate was 77 per cent in 2008–9 and the province’s goal is to reach 85 per cent by 2010–11.34 In some of the Treaty No. 9 communities, the high school completion rate is less than 10 per cent. Failure to complete high school is correlated with a host of social ills, including unemployment and reliance on social assistance, poor health, illiteracy, and crime.35 And even when Indigenous students complete high school, they often experience limited success in alien post-secondary institutions.36 The notion of an “achievement gap,” however, can be misleading, focusing our attention on Indigenous peoples’ perceived deficits instead of recognizing the need for genuine partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, increased Indigenous control where possible, and “respectful and inclusive curricula” that value and promote Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy.37 In 2009 the nan First Nations signed agreements-in-principle that may lead to self-governance in education.38 Duncan Campbell Scott and Samuel Stewart wrote the following unpublished report on the schooling requirements of the bands they visited during the treaty negotiations in 1905. The undersigned had opportunity during the Treaty 9 expedition to consider fully the educational needs of the new district, and beg to report and make recommendations as follows:-

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At the present time the grants made to education are as follows:- Church of England, 8 schools, $1,600.00; Roman Catholic Church, 1 school, $300.00. The whole field of missionary work is occupied by these two demoninations. The Church of England has a larger establishment and has probably two-thirds of the Indians as adherents, the Roman Catholic Church having the remaining one third of those who come under the influence of Christianity. There are a considerable number who are pagans but the influence of the mission is gradually being extended to them. Although the Church of England has received $1,200.00 per annum for some time for the support of day schools, not a great deal has been accomplished. The only place where we saw a day school in operation was at Moose Factory where in a small building with insufficient equipment a day school is being conducted in which the Indians of the mission are very much interested. At Fort George there is also a day school but this point we did not visit as it is in the Province of Quebec and outside our purview. The great difficulty to be met with in the operation of a day school is that there is no resident Indian population at any of the Posts. The Indians are all hunters, they come in with their winter’s catch of furs during the month of June and leave for the woods again not much later than the first week in July. Day schools cannot, therefore, be of any practical utility as a means of education unless at Albany and Moose Factory where there is a small resident population of half-breeds some of whom are classified as Indians. We came to the conclusion, therefore, that so far as the practical needs of education are concerned a grant of $1,2000.00 to the Church of England, from the character of Indian life in the country, cannot be productive of any very great results. We are of the opinion that any benefits which arise from Indian education must come from adequate boarding schools situated in favourable localities and our recommendations must lie along this line. The Indians of the district do not require an advanced education on ordinary subjects. They require an elimentary [sic] training and instruction in cleanly modes of life both in the preparation of food and personal surroundings, as well as the most important hygienic rules. All the assistance the Roman Catholic Church has received for education is a grant of $300.00, nominally for the salary of the day school teacher but which really goes to meet the expenses of the boarding school at Albany. This boarding school for which aid has already been asked by Reverend Father Fafard, its founder, is a commodious building, part of a small group of buildings which constitute the settlement at Fort Albany. It lies north of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s buildings which divide the lands of the Roman Catholic Church from those of the Church of England both of which hold under lease from the Company. The building is commodious, well suited to the purpose for which it was erected and provides a comfortable home for 25 Indian children, 6 aged and infirm Indians, and hospital accommodation of four beds. All this expenditure

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has been undertaken and the work carried on without any financial assistance from the Department. It is the first and only boarding school existing in this large district. As it will be necessary to deal justly with both denominations, we have decided to make our recommendation as a whole, no part of which we think ought to be considered by itself, that the whole scheme should carry in the interest of the Indians. The recommendation is made with due consideration for economy and is by no means an extravagant one for the inception of the work considering the large number of Indians to be served and their great need. roman catholic boarding school. For the boarding school at Albany, 25 pupils at $60.00 per capita, $1,500.00. Grant for the current fiscal year for which there is no special appropriation, 15 pupils at $60.00, $900.00. An immediate supply of school material. The details of this grant can be settled with the Schools Branch and could be sent in through Revillon Freres in the spring. A grant of $1.00 per diem for each Indian inmate of the hospital, the grant not to exceed $500.00. A grant of 25¢ per diem for the keep of old and infirm Indians to the number of 5. church of england. When we were at Moose Factory we were able to make a thorough inspection of Bishop’s Court, the residence formerly occupied by the Bishop of Moosonee. It is the intention of the present incumbent of the See to reside at Chapleau and he is desirous of turning this residence into a boarding school for Indians. In conversation with him and so far as we can see from his correspondence he does not intend to ask the Government to make him any allowance for this building and we beg to certify that it is very suitable for educational purposes and with some alterations can be an almost perfect structure for the purpose. Accompanying this report is a photgraph of the building. To assist in the erection of a new day school building at Moose Factory, $500.00. To assist in altering the Bishop’s house at Moose Factory to make it suitable for a boarding school and to provide equipment, $1,500.00. To provide for 25 pupils at $60.00 per capita at Moose Factory, $1,500.00 It is understood in making these grants to the Church of England that the present grant of $1,600.00 shall cease except where any portion of it is actually used in the maintenance of a day school, and where this is the case the amount granted shall be $300.00 per annum instead of $200.00 D C Scott S Stewart Commissioners Treaty 939

22 Formal Treaty Documents The happiest future for the Indian race is absorption into the general population, and this is the object of the policy of our government … The great forces of intermarriage and education will finally overcome the lingering traces of native custom and tradition. d.c. scott 1 Ownership of Crown land and resources will remain with the Crown. ontario ministry of northern development, mines and forestry 2 Treaties. Agreements in which Indians gave up their rights to land in exchange for certain promises made by the federal government. ontario ministry of education and training 3

Two copies of the formal or “official” parchment treaty, sometimes referred to as “the written version of the treaty,” were prepared and signed, one for the province of Ontario and one for the federal government. The transcription below is from Ontario’s parchment copy of the treaty, which can be viewed at the Archives of Ontario’s online exhibit “The James Bay Treaty Turns 100.” The Ontario copy was then compared with the federal copy, which can be reached online from lac’s “Spirit and Intent: Understanding Indian Treaties” website. The line endings in the two copies differ, but as with the journal excerpts in earlier chapters, they have not been indicated in this transcription. As we saw in chapter 3, some of the wording – much of the rest from earlier treaties, clearly influenced by the Dorchester instructions – was negotiated in the last few days prior to the commissioners’ departure from Ottawa. Few changes were made to the draft copy of Treaty No. 9 that Pedley sent to Matheson on 12 June 1905. The names of the commissioners and a paragraph referring to the federal-provincial agreement were added.4 The word “Cree” (without a preceding comma) was inserted after “Ojibeway” in three places. Errors of punctuation and spelling were corrected. The phrase “or any other Province of the Dominion of Canada” was excised from the end of the ninth paragraph in the draft. The treaty’s second last paragraph contained, at Ontario’s insistence, a reference to the agreement fictitious dated 3 July 1905.

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The official treaty that left Ottawa in June of 1905 was written in calligraphy in duplicate on three sheets of parchment, leaving space for the commissioners to insert the appropriate information at each signing. Ontario’s copy may have been the first copy made, for MacMartin’s name is squeezed into the first paragraph, and the third page has room for only two signings (at Osnaburgh and at Fort Hope). Canada’s copy is squeezed into less space, leaving room for three signings on the third page (at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, and Marten Falls). In Ontario’s copy the fourth page includes the signings at Marten Falls, Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and New Post. Page four of Canada’s copy has the signings at Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and New Post. Prior to signing at each of the six locations where the parchment was signed that first summer, a preamble was written by hand on each copy. “Signed at [trading post] on the [numeral] day of [month] 1905 by His Majesty’s Commissioners and the Chiefs & headmen in the presence of the undersigned witnesses after having been first interpreted & explained” was written, likely by Scott, the senior official. The three commissioners, the witnesses, and the chiefs and headmen then affixed their signatures. Those who could not write – or were presumed incapable? – simply touched the pen while a commissioner printed the mark of the cross (as we will see in chapter 23). The handwritten preambles and signatures from both Canada’s and Ontario’s copies have been reproduced as illustrations with the journal transcriptions for each particular post in earlier chapters of this volume. For me, the most important words on the parchment are “Signed … after having been first interpreted & explained.”

The James Bay Treaty Treaty No. 9. Articles of a Treaty made and concluded at the several dates mentioned therein, in the year of Our Lord one thousand and nine hundred and five between His Most Gracious Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, by His Commissioners Duncan Campbell Scott, of Ottawa, Ontario, Esquire, and Samuel Stewart, of Ottawa, Ontario, Esquire; and Daniel George MacMartin of Perth, Ontario, Esquire, representing the Province of Ontario, of the one part; and the Ojibeway Cree and other Indians, inhabitants of the territory within the limits hereinafter defined and described[, in original] by their Chiefs and Headmen, hereunto subscribed, of the other part: Whereas the Indians inhabiting the territory hereinafter defined have been convened to meet a Commission representing His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada at certain places in the said territory in this present year of 1905, to deliberate upon certain matters of interest to His Most Gracious Majesty, of the one part, and the said Indians of the other.

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And whereas the said Indians have been notified and informed by His Majesty’s said Commission that it is His desire to open for settlement, immigration, trade, travel, mining, lumbering and such other purposes as to His Majesty may seem meet, a tract of country bounded and described as hereinafter mentioned, and to obtain the consent thereto of His Indian subjects inhabiting the said tract, and to make a treaty and arrange with them, so that there may be peace and good will between them and His Majesty’s other subjects, and that His Indian people may know and be assured of what allowances they are to count upon and receive from His Majesty’s bounty and benevolence. And whereas the Indians of the said tract[, in original] duly convened in Council at the respective points named hereunder, and being requested by His Majesty’s Commissioners to name certain Chiefs and Headmen who should be authorized on their behalf to conduct such negotiations and sign any treaty to be founded thereon, and to become responsible to His Majesty for the faithful performance by their respective bands of such obligations as shall be assumed by them, the said Indians have therefore acknowledged for that purpose the several Chiefs and Headmen who have subscribed hereto. And whereas the said Commissioners have proceeded to negotiate a treaty with the Ojibeway Cree and other Indians, inhabiting the district hereinafter defined and described, and the same has been agreed upon and concluded by the respective bands at the dates mentioned hereunder, the said Indians do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, for His Majesty the King and His successors forever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever, to the lands included within the following limits, that is to say:- That portion or tract of land lying and being in the Province of Ontario bounded on the south by the Height of land and the northern boundaries of the territory ceded by the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850, and the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, and bounded on the East and North by the boundaries of the said Province of Ontario as defined by law, and on the West by a part of the eastern boundary of the territory ceded by the North West Angle Treaty No. 3; the said land containing an area of ninety thousand square miles, more or less. [end of page 1 in Ontario’s copy] And also the said Indian rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to all other lands wherever situated in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, the District of Keewatin, or in any other portion of the Dominion of Canada. To have and to hold the same to His Majesty the King and His Successors forever. [end of page 1 in federal copy] And His Majesty the King hereby agrees with the said Indians that they shall have right to pursue their usual vocations of hunting, trapping and fishing throughout the tract surrendered as heretofore described, subject to such regulations as may from time to time be made by the Government of the country acting under the authority of His Majesty, and saving and excepting such tracts

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as may be required or taken up from time to time for settlement, mining, lumbering, trading or other purposes. And His Majesty the King hereby agrees and undertakes to lay aside reserves for each band, the same not to exceed in all one square mile for each family of five, or in that proportion for larger or smaller families; and the location of the said reserves having been arranged between His Majesty’s Commissioners and the Chiefs and Headmen as described in the schedule of Reserves hereto attached, the boundaries thereof to be hereafter surveyed and defined, the said reserves when confirmed shall be held and administered by His Majesty for the benefit of the Indians free of all claims, liens or trusts by Ontario. Provided, however, that His Majesty reserves the right to deal with any settlers within the bounds of any lands reserved for any band as He may see fit; and also that the aforesaid reserves of land, or any interest therein, may be sold or otherwise disposed of by His Majesty’s Government for the use and benefit of the said Indians entitled thereto with their consent first had and obtained; but in no wise shall the said Indians, or any of them, be entitled to sell or otherwise alienate any of the lands allotted to them as reserves. It is further agreed between His Majesty and His said Indian subjects that such portions of the reserves and lands above indicated as may at any time be required for public works, buildings, railways or roads of whatsoever nature may be appropriated for that purpose by His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada, due compensation being made to the Indians for the value of any improvements thereon, and an equivalent in land, money or other consideration for the area of the reserve so appropriated. And with a view to show the satisfaction of His Majesty with the behaviour and good conduct of His Indians, and in extinguishment of all their past claims, He hereby, through His Commissioners, agrees to make each Indian a present of eight dollars in cash. His Majesty also agrees that next year, and annually afterwards forever, He will cause to be paid to the said Indians in cash, at suitable places and dates, of which the said Indians shall be duly notified, four dollars, the same, unless there be some exceptional reason, to be paid only to the heads of families for those belonging thereto. Further His Majesty agrees that each Chief, after signing the treaty, shall receive a suitable flag and a copy of this treaty to be for the use of his Band. Further His Majesty agrees to pay such salaries of teachers to instruct the children of said Indians and also to provide such school buildings and educational equipment as may seem advisable to His Majesty’s Government of Canada. [end of page 2 of Ontario copy] And the undersigned Ojibeway Cree and other Chiefs and Headmen, on their own behalf and on behalf of all the Indians whom they represent, do hereby

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solemnly promise and engage to strictly observe this Treaty, and also to conduct and behave themselves as good and loyal subjects of His Majesty the King. They promise and engage that they will, in all respects, obey and abide by the law; that they will maintain peace between each other, and between themselves and other tribes of Indians, and between themselves and others of His Majesty’s subjects, whether Indians, Half-breeds or Whites, this year inhabiting and hereafter to inhabit any part of the said ceded territory; and that they will not molest the person or property of any inhabitant of such ceded tract, or of any other district or country, or interfere with or trouble any person passing or traveling through the [end of page 2 of federal copy] said tract or any part thereof, and that they will assist the officers of His Majesty in bringing to justice and punishment any Indian offending against the stipulations of this Treaty or infringing the law in force in the country so ceded. And it is further understood that this Treaty is made and entered into subject to an agreement dated the third day of July between the Dominion of Canada and Province of Ontario, which is hereto attached. In Witness Whereof His Majesty’s said Commissioners and the said Chiefs and Headmen have hereunto set their hands at the places and times set forth in the year herein first above written.5

the agreement backdated 3 july 1905 Although this agreement is referred to on page 3 of the formal treaty, it was not signed (as we saw in chapter 3) until five months later, after the treaty tour of 1905 was finished. Its reference to “the agreement made on 7th July 1902” links that document to the parchment treaty. Canada’s copy can be found online. It is neither appended to nor filed with Ontario’s copy of the official treaty.6 this agreement made on the third day of July, in the year of Our Lord, 1905, between The Honourable Frank Oliver, Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, on behalf of the government of Canada Of the one part: And The Honourable Francis Cochrane, Minister of Lands and Mines of the province of Ontario, on behalf of the government of Ontario. On the other part. Whereas, His Most Gracious Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland is about to negotiate a treaty with the Ojibeway and other Indians inhabitants of the territory within the limits hereinafter defined and described by their chiefs and headmen for the purpose of opening for settlement, immigration, trade,

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travel, mining and lumbering, and for such other purposes as to His Majesty may seem meet, a tract of country bounded and described as hereinafter mentioned, and of obtaining the consent thereto of His Indian subjects inhabiting the said tract, and of arranging with them for the cession of the Indian rights, titles and privileges to be ceded, released, surrendered and yielded up to His Majesty the King and His successors for ever, so that there may be, peace and good-will between them and His Majesty’s other subjects, and that His Indian people may know and be assured of what allowances they are to count upon and receive from His Majesty’s bounty and benevolence, which said territory may be described and defined as follows, that is to say, all that portion or tract of land lying and being in the province of Ontario, bounded on the south side by the height of land and the northern boundaries of the territory ceded by the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850, and the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, and bounded on the east and north by the boundaries of the said province of Ontario as defined by law, and on the west by a part of the eastern boundary of the territory ceded by the Northwest Angle Treaty No. 3; the said land containing an area of ninety thousand square miles, more or less, said treaty to release and surrender also all Indian rights and privileges whatsoever of the said Indians to all or any other lands wherever situated in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, or the district of Keewatin, or in any other portion of the Dominion of Canada. And whereas, by the agreement made the 16th day of April, 1894, entered into between the government of the Dominion of Canada, represented by the Honourable T. Mayne Daly, and the government of the province of Ontario, represented by the Honourable John M. Gibson,7 in pursuance of the statute of Canada passed in the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth years of Her Majesty’s reign, chaptered five and intituled, “An Act for the settlement of certain questions between the governments of Canada and Ontario respecting Indian lands,” and the statute of Ontario passed in the fifty-fourth year of Her Majesty’s reign, chaptered three, and entitled, “An Act for the settlement of certain questions between the governments of Canada and Ontario respecting Indian lands,” and by the sixth clause of the said agreement it is provided, “That any future treaties with the Indians in respect of territory in Ontario to which they have not before the passing of the said statutes surrendered their claim aforesaid, shall be deemed to require the concurrence of the government of Ontario,” and by the said intended treaty it is signified and declared that His Majesty show his satisfaction with the behaviour and good conduct of His Indian subjects, and in extinguishment of all their past claims through His commissioners, will make to each Indian a present of eight dollars in cash, and will also next year and annually afterwards for ever cause to be paid to each of the said Indians in cash, at suitable places and dates, of which the said Indians shall be duly notified, the sum of four dollars, and that unless there be some

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exceptional reason, such sums will be paid only to heads of families for those belonging thereto. It is therefore agreed by and between the governments of Canada and of Ontario as aforesaid, as follows: — That, subject to the provisions contained in the hereinbefore recited agreement of 16th April, 1894, and also the agreement made on 7th July, 1902, by counsel on behalf of the governments of the Dominion and Ontario, intervening parties, upon the appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the suit of the Ontario Mining Company v. Seybold et al. (Ont. S.P., 1904, No. 93), a copy whereof is hereto attached; and the surrender of the Indian title within Ontario to the entire territory herein defined and described, duly obtained, – The government of the province of Ontario hereby gives consent and upon the following conditions concurs in the terms proposed to be entered into, made and agreed by the said treaty, in so far that the said government of Ontario, on and after the payment to the Indians of the above mentioned present of eight dollars, and thereafter the payment annually of four dollars to each Indian, for ever, as above specified, promises and agrees to pay the said sums to the government of Canada, upon request when and as the same are paid to the Indians, upon proof, when required, of such payment – such payments to be free from any expenses at the cost of Ontario attendant upon distribution of the said sums of money. And the government of Ontario, subject to the conditions, aforesaid, further concurs in the setting apart and location of reserves within any part of the said territory, as surrendered or intended to be surrendered, in area not greater than one square mile for each family of five, or in like proportion, at points to be chosen by the commissioners negotiating the said treaty, one of the said commissioners to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in Council, and the selection of the said reserves to be subject to the approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council. And the government of Ontario stipulates no part of the expense of survey and location of the said reserves to be at any time at the cost of the government of Ontario. And further, that no site suitable for the development of water-power exceeding 500 horse-power shall be included within the boundaries of any reserve. It is also agreed between the parties hereto that no part of the cost of negotiating the said treaty is to be borne by the province of Ontario. In witness whereof, these presents have been signed and sealed on behalf of the government of Canada by the Honourable Frank Oliver, Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, and on behalf of the government of Ontario by the Honourable Francis Cochrane, Minister of Lands and Mines. [The signatures themselves have been omitted.]

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the 1902 agreement As noted earlier, the agreement dated 3 July 1905 imports this earlier document into the parchment version of Treaty No. 9. In turn, the 1902 accord, by referring to an 1894 agreement, arguably imports headland-to-headland reserve rights.8 Reserve 38B, mentioned in the last paragraph, was at Lake of the Woods.9 The transcript below is from Ontario’s parchment copy of the official treaty, to which it was appended, at the Archives of Ontario’s online exhibit “The James Bay Treaty Turns 100.”10 Canada’s copy is also available online. Agreement between Counsel on behalf of the Dominion of Canada and Ontario intervening parties upon the appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Counsel in Ontario Mining Company vs. Seybold et al. As to all Treaty Indian Reserves in Ontario (including those covered in the territory covered by the North-West Angle Treaty which are or shall be duly established pursuant to the statutory Agreement of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-Four) and which have been or shall be duly surrendered by the Indians to sell or lease for their benefit, Ontario agrees to confirm the titles heretofore made by the Dominion and that the Dominion shall have full authority to sell or lease and convey title in fee simple or for any less estate. The Dominion agrees to hold the proceeds of such lands when or so far as they have been converted into money upon the extinction of the Indian interest therein subject to such rights of Ontario thereto as may exist by law. As to the Reserves in the territory covered by the North-West Angle Treaty which may be duly established as aforesaid Ontario agrees that the precious metals shall be considered to form part of the Reserves and may be disposed of by the Dominion for the benefit of the Indians to the same extent and subject to the same understanding as to the proceeds as heretofore agreed with regard to the land in such reserves. The question as to whether other Reserves in Ontario include precious metals to depend upon the instruments and circumstances and law affecting each case respectively. Nothing is hereby conceded by either party with regard to the constitutional or legal rights of the Dominion or Ontario as to the sale or title to Indian Reserves or precious metals or as to any of the contentions submitted by the cases of either Government herein but it is intended that as a matter of policy and convenience the Reserves may be administered as hereinbefore agreed. Nothing herein contained shall be considered as binding Ontario to confirm the titles heretobefore made by the Dominion to portions of Reserves 38B, already granted by Ontario as appearing in the proceedings. (Sgd) E.L. Newcombe, For the Dominion.

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(Sgd) Edward Blake, For Ontario. Dated 7th July, 1902.

the 1908 adhesion This agreement to surrender all claims within Quebec and share the Ontario reserve was signed by Stewart and witnessed by George Drever, Oblate father Evain, and David McKenzie. With the usual claim of “having been first explained to the Indians,” it was also signed by Louis McDougall, Michel Baratus, Andue MaDagan, Charles Piers, and Nina Antuan (the so-called Ontario Indians) and Isha Nychany, John George Cutchetich, Batis Kictabec, Antoine Shesheshe, Pierre Mowat, and Simon Cheisman (their Quebec counterparts, some of whom touched the pen).11 As already noted, Quebec did not absorb the costs of these annuities. this agreement made in duplicate and entered into this twenty second day of June one thousand nine hundred and eight in the presence of Samuel Stewart, Esquire, one of His Majesty’s Commissioners who negotiated Treaty No. 9, representing the Department of Indian Affairs of the Dominion of Canada, between the owners of the Abitibi Indian Reserve in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, as represented by their Chief, Councillors and principal men; hereinafter called the Parties of the First Part; and the Abitibi Band of the Province of Quebec and Dominion of Canada, as represented by their Chief, Councillors and principal men, hereinafter called the parties of the Second Part. witnesseth that the parties of the First Part for themselves and their descendants agree to admit the parties of the Second Part and their descendants into their Band, and allow them as members thereof to have, hold and possess forever an undivided interest in all land and other privileges now possessed and enjoyed or which may at any time hereafter be possessed and enjoyed by the said Parties of the First Part. witnesseth also, that the parties of the Second Part having had communication of the Treaty made with the Abitibi Indians and signed on the 7th day of June 1906, known as Treaty No. 9, hereby in consideration of the provisions of the said Treaty being extended to them (it being understood and agreed that the said provisions shall not be retroactive) transfer, surrender and relinquish to His Majesty the King, his heirs and successors, to and for the use of the Government of Canada, all their right, title and privileges whatsoever, which they have or enjoy in the territory described in the said Treaty, and every part thereof, to have and to hold to the use of His Majesty the King, and his heirs and successors forever. and the said parties of the Second Part hereby agree to accept the several

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benefits accorded by the Treaty aforesaid, payment of annuity at the rate of $4.00 per capita (the said payment not to be retroactive) and an interest in land as before mentioned, waiving all claims to the allotment of a Reserve in the Province of Quebec or any other part of the Dominion of Canada. And the said Parties of the Second Part solemnly engage to abide by, carry out and fulfil all the stipulations, obligations and conditions contained in the said Treaty No. 9 on the part of the Chiefs and Indians therein named to be observed and performed, and the said parties of the Second Part agree in all things to conform to the articles of the said Treaty, as if they themselves had been originally contracting parties thereto and had attached their signatures to the said Treaty. This Agreement having been translated and read over and its provisions fully explained in the Ojibway language to the Indians concernend was sealed, signed and delivered in the presence of the undersigned at Abitibi this twenty second day of June one thousand nine hundred and eight.

the 1929–30 adhesion This adhesion, with its reference to water, land covered by water, and islands so different from the 1905 parchment, contains the familiar preamble “after having been first interpreted and explained” before each set of signatures. It was signed at Trout Lake on the 5 July 1929 by the commissioners, Isaac Barkman, Samson Beardy, Jacob Frog, Jack McKay, Jeremiah Sainnawap, and George Winnapetonge (witnesses the Reverend Leslie Garrett, Mary Garrett, Dr Gordon Bell, and interpreter Karl Bayly). The following year the adhesion was signed again at Windigo River by Apin Ka-Ke-Pe-Ness, Samuel Sa-Wa-Nis, John Que-Que-Ish, Patrick Ka-Ke-Ka-Yash, and Senia Sak-Che-Ka-Pow (witnesses Dr John T. O’Gorman and hbc trader John Wesley) on 18 July 1930. It was signed at Fort Severn by George Bluecoat, Munzie Albany, and Saul Crow (witnesses Dr John T. O’Gorman, pilot David A. Harding, pilot R. Kingsley Rose, mechanics Gerald McManus and Rene Gauthier, trader George Third, clerk Henry F. Bland, and free trader Henry J. Mann) on 25 July 1930. The adhesion was signed for the last time at Winisk by Xavier Patrick, John Bird, and David Sutherland (witnesses Dr John T. O’Gorman, hbc trader John Harris, hbc clerk Ray Wheeler, and the Oblate priest L. Ph. Martel) on 28 July 1930.12 whereas His Most Gracious Majesty George V, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, has been pleased to extend the provisions of the Treaty known as The James Bay Treaty or Treaty Number Nine, of which a true copy is hereto annexed, to the Indians inhabiting the hereinafter described territory adjacent to the territory described in the said Treaty, in consideration

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of the said Indians agreeing to surrender and yield up to His Majesty all their rights, titles and privileges to the hereinafter described territory. and whereas we, the Ojibeway, Cree and all other Indians inhabiting the hereinafter described Territory, having had communication of the foregoing Treaty and of the intention of His Most Gracious Majesty to extend its provisions to us, through His Majesty’s Commissioners, Walter Charles Cain, B.A., of the City of Toronto, and Herbert Nathaniel Awrey, of the City of Ottawa, have agreed to surrender and yield up to His Majesty all our rights, titles and privileges to the said territory. now therefore we, the said Ojibeway, Cree and other Indian inhabitants, in consideration of the provisions of the said foregoing Treaty being extended to us, do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada for His Majesty the King and His Successors forever, all our rights, titles and privileges whatsoever in all that tract of land, and land covered by water in the Province of Ontario, comprising part of the District of Kenora (Patricia Portion) containing one hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty square miles, more or less, being bounded on the South by the Northerly limit of Treaty Number Nine; on the West by Easterly limits of Treaties Numbers Three and Five, and the boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and Manitoba; on the North by the waters of Hudson Bay, and on the East by the waters of James Bay and including all islands, islets and rocks, waters and land covered by water within the said limits, and also all the said Indian rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to all other lands and lands covered by water, wherever situated in the Dominion of Canada. to have and to hold the same to His Majesty the King and His Successors forever. and we, the said Ojibeway, Cree and other Indian inhabitants, represented herein by our Chiefs and Councillors presented as such by the Bands, do hereby agree to accept the several provisions, payments and other benefits, as stated in the said Treaty, and solemnly promise and engage to abide by, carry out and fulfil all the stipulations, obligations and conditions therein on the part of the said Chiefs and Indians therein named, to be observed and performed, and in all things to conform to the articles of the said Treaty as if we ourselves had been originally contracting parties thereto. and his majesty through His said Commissioners agrees and undertakes to set side reserves for each band as provided by the said aforementioned Treaty, at such places or locations as may be arranged between the said Commissioners and the Chiefs and headmen of each Band in witnesses whereof, His Majesty’s said Commissioners and the said Chiefs and headmen have hereunto subscribed their names at the places and times hereinafter set forth.13

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part three

Trick or Treaty No. 9?

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23 Making the Agreement to Share the Land in 1905 The simpler facts had to be stated. scott, “The Last of the Indian Treaties”

What did treaty-making entail in 1905? Are we to assume that the Ojibwe and Cree understood the written terms of the treaty and readily agreed? Records kept by the treaty commissioners provide us with some insight into these questions. Their writings reveal the commissioners’ reliance on interpreters and indicate the typical sequence of events at treaty-signing.1 This chapter has eight sections: communication problems; elements of treaty-making; explaining the treaty; discussing the treaty; signing; money, pay-lists, and tickets; feasts, oratory, and medicine; and choosing the reserve. It ends with a brief conclusion.

communication problems Since the commissioners did not speak Ojibwe or Cree, they had to rely on others to speak for them. At Osnaburgh the official report says that trader Jabez Williams “rendered great service to the party by interpreting whenever necessary,” but MacMartin reveals that it was the treaty party’s own Ojibwe guide, Jimmy Swain, who interpreted.2 At Fort Hope the official report acknowledges “the assistance of Rev. Father F.X. Fafard, of the Roman Catholic Mission at Albany, whose thorough knowledge of the Cree and Ojibweway tongues was of great assistance during the discussion,” but MacMartin indicates that Sinclair Ritch filled the key role.3 Similarly, MacMartin writes that Cree hbc clerk Samuel Iserhoff acted as the commissioners’ interpreter at Marten Falls, while Cree James Linklater performed this duty at Fort Albany.4 At Moose Factory, the official report reads, “Bishop Holmes kindly interpreted the address of the commissioners,” but Stewart reveals that it was George McLeod (a Cree “half-breed” refused admission to the treaty) who did most of the interpreting, “assisted occasionally by Bishop Holmes and [hbc officer] Mr. Mowat.”5 Band member and treaty signatory John Luke served as interpreter at New Post.6 These translators played key roles as linguistic and cultural mediators in the treaty-making, and it is unfortunate that we know so little about them.7

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Unable to communicate with the Ojibwe and Cree, the commissioners could only rely on what their various interpreters – the choir directors in a series of antiphonic concerts – reported and what they could observe for themselves through their myopic cultural lenses. They frequently observed reticence or quiet behaviour in the presence of strangers, for these northern Algonquian peoples placed a high value on non-interference and emotional control in public.8 MacMartin misinterpreted this response as a “stolid indifference characteristic of their race.”9 Scott called them almost “taciturn” and wrote of “the stoicism of the race.”10 Stewart was surprised to see so little emotion (in his presence) when two Cree parents were reunited with their son, “a boy from English River post” whom the commissioners had transported to Fort Albany: “They may have been pleased to see each other but they certainly did not show it by the slightest sign.”11 But compare his ethnocentric outsider view with anthropologist A.I. Hallowell’s culturally informed description of a similar situation. When an old Ojibwe woman’s favourite son returned from boarding school after three years’ absence, Hallowell saw him step off the boat and walk past his mother with scarcely a greeting, while she stood there impassively. Since I was living with this family, however, I knew about the excited talk that anticipated that homecoming and continued long after we were all finally settled in the kitchen. Yet one would have gained no clue to the emotion that seethed beneath the surface from the behavior observed on the dock. In public the pattern is always one of severe restraint under such circumstances.12 Scott noticed that the Ojibwe greeting “Bow jou” (boozhoo, borrowed from the French bon jour) gave way at Fort Albany to the Cree “Wat che” (waachiye, borrowed from the Shakespearean “what cheer”), but he and his fellow commissioners had no understanding of either language and could not attest that Scott’s oral explanations of Treaty No. 9 were accurately conveyed to the Ojibwe and Cree by the various interpreters.13 It is not surprising that the commissioners made no effort to speak Ojibwe or Cree, for studying a language often involves making mistakes and being laughed at. It requires the language-learner to submit to another’s authority, become dependent, and acknowledge inferiority or incompetence,14 not images that these men wished to convey. A unilingual English-speaking tourist may be able to convey a simple idea or ask a basic question by substituting one word for another and perhaps miming, for example, fenêtre (French) for “open the window” or caballeros (Spanish) for “where’s the men’s room.” Second-language learners, Jim Cummins remind us, acquire two levels of fluency: the more easily acquired basic interpersonal communicative skills, so necessary for finding the bathroom or playing bingo, and

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the cognitive academic language proficiency required to study in the higher grades, which take much more time to learn.15 Algonquian languages such as Ojibwe and Cree, unlike English, are not concerned about word order. The late Munroe Linklater Sr of Moose Factory knew this characteristic when he told me, during a meeting of Cree representatives, that the education organization for western James Bay should be called Wiichiihitowii kakiskinohamakewin, not Kakiskinohamakewii wiichiihitowin. They arguably both translate into English as “working together in education,” and in retrospect, I think he was making a political statement.16 When correctly translated into a verb-based Algonquian language, the five statements “John went to the lake,” “Went to the lake John,” “To the lake John went,” “To the lake went John,” and “Went John to the lake” are equally correct ways of communicating the same action. Some English sounds have no equivalent in Ojibwe or Cree. There are different words for man and woman, brother and sister, but no separate words for he and she (or it); the important distinction in these languages is whether an item is animate (such as bear, moose, and whitefish) or inanimate (such as house and canoe).17 Translating Treaty No. 9 from English into Ojibwe or Cree would have required ambiguous new words to convey foreign concepts. Jim Morris explained to me that there are two kinds of Indigenous words. The first category “is the original language that the people would have spoken in all the different dialects before the Europeans arrived.” It was “based on the land and the environment that they knew then … the trees, the animals, the snow, the sky, all the natural things.” The English words “rabbit,” “moose,” and “beaver,” for example, are basically the same among all Algonquian languages: waabooz, mooz, and amik in Ojibwe and waaposh, mooswa, and amisk in Cree.18 These words were derived from a common ancestral language that linguists call Proto-Algonquian.19 The second category involves what Jim calls the “descriptive language” that the Ojibwe and Cree created for “everything that came after the Europeans arrived.”20 How to describe one of the non-Indigenous people who arrived in the seventeenth century? He was human but clearly not one of their own people, neither anishinaabe nor ininiw. At their first encounters, an equivalent to the English “stranger” – myagi-anishnaabe in Ojibwe or mandew in Cree – might be appropriate.21 He might even appear to be the dreaded windigo or wiihtikow.22 But once these foreigners began living among them, they needed a more definite name. The colour “white” could be used, as in Ojibwe waabishkiiwed (“have white skin”) or Cree kawaapisit (“white face”).23 More commonly, near the Great Lakes, the Ojibwe chose zhaagnaash (perhaps borrowed from the French “les anglais”), while the Cree coined the descriptive term wemistikoshiw (“he has a wooden boat”).24 On the upper Albany River, the Ojibwe use a similar term, wemitigoozhi (“wooden boat person”).25 There was no Cree word for chair, but it was given the existing word tehtapon

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(or tehtapwin, “sits level”; Ojibwe, desabiwin).26 Alcohol was named ishkotew apoyii (“fire water”; Ojibwe, ishkodewaaboo). A flagpole was called mistikohkan, and a clock named a piisimohkan, employing the Cree words for tree and sun respectively.27 A traditional Cree conical tent was already called a miikiwaam, so a trader’s house was designated waaskaahikan (“enclosure”). The trader’s word “marquee” (already borrowed from French) was used to describe a canvas tent, a maahkiy.28 Assigning existing names or coining or borrowing new ones to describe things that one can see is much simpler than naming intangibles that one has not encountered, and using these new words requires that the listener and the speaker have a common understanding. The anthropologist Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, speaking of biblical translations, wrote of the difficulties in trying to translate “the word ‘lamb,’ as in the sentence ‘Feed my lambs.’” Although he was referring to the Inuit, we can imagine the same problem with Cree or Ojibwe:29 You can, of course, render it by reference to some animal with which the Eskimoes are acquainted, by saying, for instance, “Feed my seals,” but clearly if you do so, you replace the representation of what a lamb was to a Hebrew shepherd by that of what a seal may be to an Eskimo. How is one to convey the meaning of the statement that the horses of the Egyptians “are flesh and not spirit” to a people which has never seen a horse or anything like one, and may also have no concept corresponding to the Hebrew conception of spirit? … Or how do you render into an Amerindian language “In the beginning was the word”? Even in its English form, the meaning can only be set forth by a theological disquisition. Missionaries have battled hard and with great sincerity to overcome these difficulties, but in my experience much of what they teach natives is quite unintelligible to those among whom they labour. Could the words inscribed on the parchment have been interpreted into Ojibwe or Cree? I did not ask the late Mary Rose Archibald of New Post First Nation (now Taykwa Tagamou Nation) about her understanding of the 1905 treaty. But around 1995 she volunteered a story of how a Department of Lands and Forests official visted her home in the late 1940s, seized the family’s moose meat, and fined her husband, the late Tom Archibald Sr, about $100.30 A unilingual Cree, Mary Rose waited until the end of day so her bilingual brother-in-law, the late Peter Sutherland Sr, could explain the situation to her. (Tommy, a World War ii veteran, was too mad to talk about it at the time.) But even after Peter told her, in Cree, what amisk okimaaw (the game warden, literally “beaver boss,” a reference to the registered trapline system) had done, Mary Rose could not understand. No words in her mother tongue could help her to comprehend why on earth a Cree could not hunt for food in any season of the year, and what wage

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employment had to do with it. Moose meat was, and still is, a healthy, preferred source of food (and useful materials such as hide) for northern Algonquians; it could not be purchased at the store, and there was no store in Island Falls, the tiny settlement where they lived along the t&no line. For the Cree and Ojibwe of far northern Ontario, bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin meant being able to eat their traditional food and live – as much as possible, under changing circumstances – in their accustomed ways.31 In a telling passage in his published article, Scott admitted that, even if the words of the written treaty could have been interpreted, the Cree and Ojibwe would never have understood the concepts, so he misled them: They were to make certain promises and we were to make certain promises, but our purpose and our reasons were alike unknowable. What could they grasp of the pronouncement on the Indian tenure which had been delivered by the law lords of the Crown, what of the elaborate negotiations between a dominion and a province which had made the treaty possible, what of the sense of traditional policy which brooded over the whole? Nothing. So there was no basis for argument. The simpler facts had to be stated, and the parental idea developed that the King is the great father of the Indians, watchful over their interests, and ever compassionate. After gifts of tobacco, as we were seated in a circle in a big room of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the interpreter delivered this message.32 This deception does not seem to have mattered to Scott, so long as he convinced the Ojibwe and Cree to sign the all-important written treaty. For him, “the sacredness of treaty promises” meant that “[w]hatever has been written down and signed by king and chief, both will be bound by so long as ‘the sun shines and the water runs.’”33 (As noted earlier, this is our only evidence that this now-iconic oratorical phrase was used.) If there was “no basis for argument,” neither was there any basis for agreement, if what was explained orally did not reflect what was written down and signed. A good interpreter needs to be able to convey the message accurately from one language to another and to do so using idioms familiar to the listener. When the late Emile “Jammin” (German) Nakogee, a unilingual Cree elder from Attawapiskat, met with the Mushkegowuk chiefs in the 1980s, I recall him saying that before setting out on a journey one needed to be able to cover both sides of one’s miikiwaam. Ronald Roundhead’s reference to “two packsacks” (chapter 6) is a more recent example. But the closest we come to an idiom in the commissioners’ reports is Moonias’s comment about “a needle” or “pins” (chapters 11 and 19). The interpreters did not convey the indirect phrases and/or the commissioners did not record them, content to write what MacMartin referred to as the “pith” of the message.

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elements of treaty-making The treaty party’s arrival would sometimes be heralded by the hoisting of flags at the post and a volley of gunfire or cannon, indicating that they were important and powerful people.34 A short distance from the post, the treaty party would raise a large Union Jack at the front of each canoe and line up their watercraft side by side, the largest in the centre, to maximize the visual impression.35 Soon after arriving, the commissioners would rely on the hbc official in charge of the post to arrange a meeting with “representative men to whom the treaty might be explained.”36 These chiefs and headmen were a necessary fiction at treaty time, but the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario were organized at the band level described by anthropologist E.R. Service. As Borron observed, they were “not divided into bands” and did not really have chiefs: “Family ties would appear to form the principal … bond of union; excepting … that weaker one which arises from the circumstances of a number of families trading their furs, and obtaining their supplies, at the same post.”37 The meetings usually began with “solemn hand-shaking,” and then “gifts of tobacco” were distributed, a blending of European and Aboriginal protocols.38 Sharing tobacco and food followed long-established custom. Tobacco, which could be mixed with red willow bark, was available in small quantities through Indigenous trade networks but was later acquired through trade with Europeans. A century and a half before Treaty No. 9, William Falconer observed: When a man returns from hunting etc., nobody in the tent can tell what luck he has had before he smokes a pipe, for he never speaks till then, nor must any questions be asked him. If an Indian, or Indians when hunting etc. falls in with a tent, either acquaintances or strangers, they sit down at some distance where they may be seen from the tent and light their pipes and stays until they are discovered from the tent; when the oldest man goes out, with his skipatogan [medicine bag] sits down by the stranger, sets on his pipe and after they have smoaked together silence is broke, and the strangers are invited to the tent; which invitation is commonly obeyed, but they never do go into anothers tents, when they meet unawares, before the above ceremony is performed, nor do they ever use any other salute at either meeting or parting of nearest kindred; and when they come to trade at the settlements they always make a stop some distance from the outmost gate, and if there are any Indians on the plantation, smoaks a pipe with them, and then proceeds to the gate, and if a single person or two, both has admittance to the Chief Factors apartments, where the Factor (if acquaintances) salutes them with “what cheer, what cheer?” and they return “watchee, whatchee?”, after which they are not long till they pronounce … I am hungry for tobacco, I am starved too, there are no deer etc. etc.39

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Following the handshakes and gift-giving, treaty-making in 1905 typically involved several sometimes concurrent activities: meeting with representatives to explain the treaty, signing the treaty, paying gratuities and distributing identification cards, holding elections and presenting a flag, making speeches, feasting, meeting the doctor, and choosing a reserve.40 Besides these activities, there were often church services.41 If a fiddler could be found, there would also be all-night dances.42 We learn how the treaty was explained from Scott’s formal addresses to the Ojibwe and Cree representatives, recorded by the commissioners, and from further clarifications provided in the discussions that followed.

explaining the treaty A careful explanation of the treaty was essential, for the commissioners had no latitude to change its provisions. “The terms of the treaty were fixed,” states their official report, and the commissioners “were not allowed to alter or add to them in the event of their not being acceptable to the Indians.”43 If at times this report provides few details of how the treaty was explained, at other times it and the commissioners’ private journals flatly contradict the written provisions of Treaty No. 9. MacMartin’s journal is especially helpful. At Osnaburgh the commissioners met with Missabay, Thomas Missabay, George Wahwaashkung, Kwiash (gayaashk, “seagull”), Nahokeesic (naawigiizhig, “half-day”), Oombash (ombaash, “blown in an upwards direction by the wind”), David Skunk, John Skunk, and Thomas Panacheese (bananjiis, “pants”).44 The official report states that “those nominated presented themselves and the terms of the treaty were interpreted,” but it gives no indication of how this was actually done.45 MacMartin writes that “Mr. D.C. Scott … stated the object of our coming so long a distance to meet them, [with] Jim Swain as Interpreter, and having ordered a feast similar to that held yearly,” but he provides none of the details that we will later come to expect in his descriptions of treaty-making in the summer of 1905.46 Unlike Scott and Stewart, MacMartin was not a career employee of the Department of Indian Affairs. Perhaps as a young man, long before embarking for the north, he had discussed treaty-making with former treaty commissioner Alexander Morris, who lived in Perth across the street from MacMartin’s father.47 I wonder if MacMartin’s conscience bothered him after witnessing the so-called negotiations at Osnaburgh. He had signed as an official witness below a statement which said, “Signed … after having been first interpreted and explained.” Did this lawyer’s son know that the text of the written treaty, which he would have carefully read before embarking on this summer adventure in far northern Ontario, had not been fully interpreted and explained? Whatever the reason, we are indebted to MacMartin for recording his post-Osnaburgh observations.

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We might expect that Scott explained the treaty at Osnaburgh the same way he explained it at Fort Hope a week later. Indeed, the official report states that at Fort Hope the “same course of procedure was followed as at Osnaburgh.”48 Of Fort Hope, Scott simply writes, “signed Treaty in the morning.” MacMartin provides more details about how Treaty No. 9 was explained at Fort Hope to Yesno, George Namay (name, “sturgeon”), Wenangasie (wiinaange, “vulture with naked head”?) Drake, George Quisees (gwiiwizens, “boy”?), Moonias (mooniyaw, the borrowed word “Montreal”), Joe Goodwin, Abraham Atlookan (aataloohkaan, “legend,” from Cree), Harry Ooskinegish (oshkiniigi, “male youth”), Noah Neshinapais (anishinaabens, “little Indian”), John Ashpanaqueshkum, and Jacob Rabbit (waabooz).49 Scott said, with Ritch interpreting, that the King had sent the Commission to see how his people were and to enter into a Treaty with them, and that the King wished to help his subjects and see that they were happy and comfortable, giving them as a present this year $8 per capita and an annuity for ever of $4 per annum, also setting aside for their sole use and benefit a tract of land 1 square mile to each family of 5 that no white man should put his foot on without their permission.50 The following week, at Marten Falls, the official report states, “The necessary business at this post was transacted” with “due explanation.”51 MacMartin gives us the details. With Iserhoff interpreting, Scott explained to William Whitehead, William Coaster, David Knapayswet, Ostamas Long Tom, and William Weenjack that “the King had sent his representatives to negotiate a treaty with them and advance their interests as he wished all his subjects to be happy and prosperous.”52 Again, the gratuity, the perpetual annuity, and the reserve were explained, along with election procedures. But here the importance of obeying the laws, being “subject to same, as the white man,” and avoiding “punishment if they were not good Indians” were also emphasized.53 A few days later, at English River, the usual meeting with representatives was deemed unnecessary. There were few Cree at the post, the trip up the Kenogami (ginoogami, “long body of water”)54 had been difficult, the post itself was deplorable (the hbc clerk’s house “little more than a dog kennel”), and the treaty party was eager to push on, as the summer was nearly over.55 The official report says that “it did not take long to explain to the Indians the reason why the commission was visiting them.”56 Stewart writes that the terms of the treaty were “fully explained to them.”57 MacMartin provides no details of how this was done, if indeed it was.58 Scott’s journal provides scant details of what transpired at Fort Albany: “Arrived at Post 9.30 Very cold. Made Treaty.”59 The official report simply states that “an interesting and satisfactory conversation followed. The explanations that had been given at the other points were repeated.”60 MacMartin again provides the information we seek. After lunch, “the leading Indians not absent”

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(Charlie Stephen, Patrick Stephen, David George Wynne, Andrew Wesley, Jacob Iahtail, John Wesley, Xavier Bird, Peter Sackaney, William Goodwin, and Samuel Scott) met in a room at the hbc post, where Scott “explained to them thro Interpreter James Linklater that the King had sent his representatives to enter into Treaty with them as he wished all his subjects both whites and Indians to be happy and prosperous.” Commissioner Scott explained the reserve, the treaty money that they would receive as soon as the treaty was signed, and the feast. With “so many of their band being absent” (i.e., those at Attawapiskat), elections were postponed until 1906, at which time their chiefs “would be given a flag wh. he was to fly on all occasions when visitors or Gov’t officials visited his camp.”61 This Union Jack, worth $8.63, would be passed to the next chief at the end of his three-year term.62 At Moose Factory the official report says nothing about how the treaty was explained to Simon Smallboy, George Tappaise, Henry Sailor, John Nakogee, John Dick, Simon Quatchegan, John Jeffries, Fred Mark, Henry Utappe, and Simon Cheena.63 Once again, MacMartin’s journal fills in the gaps. The party met in a room over the hbc storehouse, where Scott explained, through interpreter McLeod, “that the King had sent his representatives to them to make a Treaty, that he wished them to be happy and prosperous and that if they entered into Treaty they would be protected.” He explained the treaty money, the feast, the reserve, the election, and the flag (“a badge or sign of authority [which] was to be transferred”). For the first time, finally realizing the importance of these issues, Scott explained at the outset that the Cree would not be “obliged to live on [their reserve] until they felt inclined” and “could follow their custom of hunting where they please.” And here, for the first and only time, (residential) schooling was mentioned, likely at the request of Bishop Holmes. The Cree were informed that “when they were ready for same, schools would be established for the purpose of educating their children.”64 The official report simply states, “The treaty was concluded” at New Post.65 MacMartin explains that Scott, through band member and treaty signatory John Luke, explained the money, reserve, election, flag, and feast to Angus Weenusk (wiinashk, “groundhog”) and William Gull.66 The Union Jack was the chief’s “emblem of office and reminder that he and his band had agreed to become good citizens, and obey the laws of the land.” As at Moose Factory, it was explained at the outset, according to MacMartin’s account, that they “were not obliged to live on” their reserve and would be “allowed as of yore to hunt and fish where they pleased.”67 Stewart suggests that there was some discussion on this issue.68

discussing the treaty After Scott’s various interpreters had explained Treaty No. 9, the Ojibwe and Cree representatives were given the opportunity to reply. They “were … told that it was the desire of the commissioners that any point on which they required

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further explanations should be freely discussed, and any questions asked which they desired to have answered” (Osnaburgh); “asked if they had anything to say” (Fort Hope, Fort Albany, and Moose Factory); and “asked if they had any reply” (Marten Falls) or “if they wished to ask any questions or say anything in reply” (New Post).69 They could receive clarification if anything about the treaty, as it had been orally explained, was unclear. Rejecting it or modifying it was not presented as an option. The questions asked by the Ojibwe and Cree provide further evidence of how the treaty was explained to the Indigenous signatories and how it was understood by them – always remembering that these were what we might call “[d]ialogues of the left-unsaid.”70 In 1905 these deliberations with chiefs and headmen were an essential tool of colonialism, for obtaining their signatures on the parchment was the objective of the commissioners’ visit. At each of the meetings the primary concern of the Indigenous representatives, despite the commissioners’ explanations, was whether they would be able to continue to survive from the resources of their traditional territories. Bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin required territories much greater than the treaty’s one square mile per family of five.71 Two issues had to be resolved: what was the purpose of this reserve, and how would their traditional harvesting practices be affected? At the start of their summer adventure, the commissioners seem to have been unaware of the importance of these issues, not realizing that identical concerns had been raised during the Treaty No. 8 deliberations six years earlier.72 At Osnaburgh the commissioners expected some dissatisfaction with the terms of the new treaty. Treaty No. 9 would provide perpetual annuities of only four dollars per person, not the five dollars of their Lac Seul neighbours, and no farm tools, seed, cattle, or ammunition would be distributed.73 Several of the commissioners’ crewmen, among them the treaty signatory Oombash, had close connections with Osnaburgh.74 They were mobile people, and some of them would have had opportunities, over the preceding decades, to hear from the Ojibwe at Frenchman’s Head, Lac Seul, or Pikangikum about the earlier treaties (including those in the United States) and their benefits. (I consider it highly unlikely that these Ojibwe had heard, as some may suspect, of the “pass system” that was imposed on the western plains, whereby Indians could not leave their reserves without permission of the Indian agent.)75 At Osnaburgh the commissioners’ official report states that blind “Missabay … recognized chief of the band … spoke [in Ojibwe], expressing the fears of the Indians that, if they signed the treaty, they would be compelled to reside upon the reserve to be set apart for them, and would be deprived of the fishing and hunting privileges which they now enjoy.” Scott reassured Missabay and the other Osnaburgh representatives “that their fears in regard to both these matters were groundless, as their present manner of making their livelihood would in no way be interfered with.”76 Stewart confirms that Scott promised “they could continue to live as they and their forefathers had done,” but he maintains

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that a condition was added: “they could [only] make use of any lands not disposed of by the government.” With this explanation, Stewart reports, “they appeared to be satisfied.”77 If the Ojibwe (and Cree) could continue to hunt and fish as they had for countless generations, there would be no restrictions. They would not be limited to whatever territory was left over after the government had given what it wanted to white men. The commissioners’ careful use of the word “privileges,” in English a code for the Crown’s right to regulate or restrict, would have been lost (if it could have been interpreted) among Indigenous people who relied upon the resources of their lands and waters. As Borron had learned, each family needed to range over a territory of “not less than fifty, and frequently as much as one hundred square miles of country to supply fur-bearing animals and game sufficient for its maintenance. If the Indians, therefore, are not to abandon hunting and trapping altogether, they must of necessity reside two-thirds of the year on their hunting grounds.”78 If the commissioners had hoped to sign the treaty that night, however, they were in for a surprise. The official report states that the Osnaburgh Ojibwe, having received Scott’s reassuring answer to Missabay’s question, “talked the matter over among themselves [i.e., in Ojibwe], and then asked to be given until the following day to prepare their reply. This request was at once acceded to and the meeting adjourned.”79 MacMartin’s journal puts an entirely different spin on the situation: “the Indians departed, shortly afterwards sending word through the Agent Mr. Williams that they would give a reply the following morning.”80 Unlike the commissioners, with their orders-in-council, the Ojibwe representatives did not have the authority to agree. Like their Cree neighbours, they relied on consensus. Their “chiefs” had influence but no real authority. As the English historian John Oldmixon wrote three centuries earlier, an “Okimah” was often “an Old Man, consider’d only for his Prudence and Experience. He has no Authority but what [the Indians] think fit to give him upon certain Occasions. He is their Speech-maker to the English.”81 The Osnaburgh representatives did not report back early the next morning but waited until the hbc’s noon bell rang, announcing the start of the celebratory feast.82 Food for the feast had been distributed in advance of the discussions, further evidence that rejecting the treaty was not an option. It was a subtle pressure tactic, for the feast and the distribution of money were contingent on the chiefs and headmen signing the treaty. Refusing the commissioners’ generosity would have been unthinkable for the Ojibwe and Cree.83 At noon, according to the commissioners’ official account, the Ojibwe representatives signified their readiness to give their reply, and the meeting being again convened, the chief [Missabay] spoke, stating that full consideration had been given to the request … and they were prepared to sign, as they believed that

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nothing but good was intended. The money that they would receive would be of great benefit to them, and the Indians were all very thankful for the advantages they would receive from the treaty. The other representatives … signified that they were of the same mind as Missabay.84 MacMartin again puts a different spin on what happened. Missabay may have felt he had no choice, for he respectfully replied, “Whatever you say we will do.” The blind chief told his fellow Ojibwe representatives “that the white men were their friends, were good, had assisted them giving money and lands for their benefit, that the H.B.[C.] was good to them and that they could not get along without the white men and they must be good and obey the laws, they were poor and needed assistance.”85 Missabay’s deferential and respectful comments are consistent with traditional rhetorical styles.86 It is highly unlikely that the Ojibwe and Cree understood the Euro-Canadian concept of “law.” The closest Ojibwe word, onaakonigewin, referred to a plan or decision.87 The only written laws they might have known in 1905 would have been the mide scrolls of the Ojibwe and possibly the biblical commandments introduced by missionaries in the previous sixty years. Most of their own laws were values about sharing, cooperation, and other culturally proper behaviours so essential to their survival and well-being – literally, the laws of the land. As Oldmixon observed, “they meet every Spring and Fall, to settle the Disposition of their Quarters for Hunting, Fowling, and Fishing. Every family have their Boundaries adjusted, which they seldom quit.”88 These decisions, or laws, were necessary for maintaining bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin. Laws that restricted hunting or fishing, or disrupted them by permitting forestry and mining, would have been unthinkable to the Ojibwe and Cree in 1905. At Fort Hope the first Ojibwe representative to speak was Yesno, who stated “that he was willing to enter into Treaty and advised the others to act likewise.”89 He “told the Indians that they were to receive cattle and implements, seed-grain and tools,” as in Treaty No. 3, but the commissioners quickly corrected this misunderstanding. It was explained that the Fort Hope Ojibwe “could not hope to depend upon agriculture as a means of subsistence; [and] that hunting and fishing, in which occupations they were not to be interfered with, should for many years prove lucrative sources of revenue.”90 The next speaker was more suspicious. The official report states that Moonias, one of the most influential chiefs … said that ever since he was able to earn anything, and that was from the time he was very young, he had never been given something for nothing; that he always had to pay for everything that he got, even if it was only a paper of pins. “Now,” he said, “you gentlemen come to us from the King offering to give us benefits for which we can make no return. How is this?”91

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MacMartin confirms that Moonias was suspicious, adding that the man wished to “consult with” his “aunts and cousins.”92 Such consultations with kin were essential, for an Indigenous leader was a first among equals. This passage also provides one of the few hints at the important role of women in treaty deliberations. An Oblate priest came to Scott’s aid. The official report says, “Father Fafard thereupon explained to [Moonias] the nature of the treaty, and that by it the Indians were giving their faith and allegiance to the King, and for giving up their title to a large area of land of which they could make no use, they received benefits that served to balance anything that they were receiving.”93 Stewart records that Fafard explained the Ojibwe would “surrender the title to their unused land.”94 The commissioners had once again guaranteed that these Ojibwe could continue to use their traditional lands to hunt and trap, fish and gather, as they always had, without fear of interference. Their mobile hunting life required continued access to the land, and ownership was a foreign concept that could not be interpreted. They could not have understood Fafard’s concept of giving up their title to the land they used, let alone the land they did not use. According to the commissioners’ official report, the Fort Hope representatives were also told that by signing the treaty they pledged themselves not to interfere with white men who might come into the country surveying, prospecting, hunting, or in other occupations; that they must respect the laws of the land in every particular, and that their reserves were set apart for them in order that they might have a tract in which they could not be molested, and where no white

23.1 At the feast, Mattagami, 1906

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man would have any claims without the consent of their tribe and of the government.95 This explanation must have seemed very confusing, assuming that the commissioners faithfully recorded what Scott said and the interpreters accurately conveyed his words. The Ojibwe and Cree could not be “interfered with” on their traditional lands, but they might be “molested,” and the government might only protect them on their reserves. If signing the treaty gave the government a free hand to make “laws,” the promises made to Moonias and Yesno, and to Missabay before them, were deliberately misleading dialogues of the left-unsaid, in violation of Dorchester’s instructions. The Indian Act, for example, was never mentioned. MacMartin reports that the discussion was conclusive: “after an explanation, [Moonias] along with the others signified his assent.”96 Stewart’s journal reads, “Several of the Indians spoke expressing their pleasure that they were to receive annuity money and also at the fact that they were to have lands reserved for their own use.”97 At Marten Falls, MacMartin writes that “the chief [William Whitehead] said he was ready to accept the terms as offered and his people were also willing,”98 although after the signing, Whitehead would publicly express his dissatisfaction with restrictions imposed on the selection of a reserve. At English River, where there was no meeting with specific representatives, there was apparently no discussion. The commissioners’ official report states, “The terms of the treaty having been fully explained, the Indians stated that they were willing to come under its provisions, and they were informed that by the acceptance of the gratuity they would be held to have entered treaty, a statement which they fully realized.”99 MacMartin indicates that gratuities were paid and a reserve allocated, but he mentions no discussion of the treaty.100 At Fort Albany, “Wm. Goodwin said that they were very glad to accept the terms as stated, that the King was good & that his present would help them very much, then said we are ready to sign the Treaty.”101 And at Moose Factory, MacMartin reports, Fred Mark replied that they had long wished to enter into Treaty, that they concurred in all that had been said, that it was right and reasonable, that they were satisfied that they would be better cared for and protected by the King [than by the hbc?], that they would obey his laws and be good and dutiful subjects, that under the laws their children would be protected and properly educated, that they thanked the King for the present offered as they were poor & it would help them.102 The commissioners’ official report confirms that the Moose Factory Cree representatives “expressed their perfect willingness to accede to the terms and condi-

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23.2 The Treaty No. 9 territory. There is no economic certainty and no shared understanding of law, for these Indigenous lands do not appear to have been surrendered.

tions.” It states that Fred Mark “said the Indians were all delighted that a treaty was about to be made with them; they had been looking forward to it for a long time, and were glad that they were to have their hopes realized and that there was now a prospect of law and order being established among them.” In addition, John Dick spoke in favour of establishing a (residential) school “wherein their children might receive an education.” George Tappaise expressed appreciation for the money, saying that it would help the “poor and sick.”103 At New Post, MacMartin reports, “Angus Weenusk replied that they accepted the terms as stated and did not wish to throw obstacles in the way. They were satisfied.”104 Stewart confirms that they “they expressed much pleasure and their willingness to sign.”105 The oral explanations may have been confusing to the Ojibwe and Cree, but there was no confusion in Scott’s mind. The signing of this treaty would secure for the Crown the Indian title to “much arable land, many million feet of pulpwood, untold wealth of minerals, and unharnessed water-powers sufficient to do the work of half the continent.”106

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The Treaty No. 9 territory, grandly claimed through the parchment’s blanketextinguishment clause and shown so precisely today on maps, is an illusion. It cannot possibly conform to provincial and adjoining treaty boundaries (treaties whose own borders are presumably as problematic). Traditional territories did not follow provincial borders107 and were not mapped or surveyed – or even inquired about – at treaty time. And, by MacMartin’s account, the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario were never asked to surrender them. (See the “Treaty No. 9 Region” section in the Terminology appendix.)

signing Once the explanations were given, the treaty was usually “signed” at once, except at English River, where the commissioners considered this step unnecessary. At Moose Factory four Cree participants definitely signed their own names, using the syllabic characters introduced (along with the surname Wesley) by George Barnley, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, in the 1840s.108 Until recently it was widely assumed, based on a frequently reprinted 1931 federal government publication,109 that all other Indigenous signatories made the mark of an X in 1905, and presumably did so without assistance. The commissioners’ official report states the treaty was signed at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Moose Factory. With one important exception, their journals corroborate this fiction. Scott writes that the treaty was signed at Osnaburgh.110 Stewart agrees that it was signed at there, as well as at Marten Falls, Moose Factory, and New Post.111 MacMartin supports this assumption when he states it was signed at Fort Hope, Marten Falls, Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and New Post.112 But he also lets slip that Katchang, the unwilling participant who actually arrived late and missed the explanation and discussion concerning Treaty No. 9, “touched the pen” at Fort Hope.113 Cree elder Marius Spence of Fort Albany heard that one of the Treaty No. 9 commissioners (likely Scott) held the pen while each Indigenous signatory touched its end with a fingertip.114 Philosopher Thomas Hobbes warned us long ago of the logical error in assuming that hand touches pen, pen touches paper, and therefore hand touches paper. We can readily form a “mental picture” of Hobbes’s example and realize that it is a ridiculous conclusion.115 What does it mean when the “signatory” only touches the end of the commissioner’s pen? Such images evoke the power relations and cultural misunderstandings involved in making Treaty No. 9. Did each Indigenous signatory gently, or perhaps reverently, touch the top of the commissioner’s pen unassisted? Did one of the other officials, perhaps one of the commission’s police officers (like an officer of the law fingerprinting a suspect today), grasp each Indigenous signatory’s finger so the inexperienced witness did not make a mess of the important parchment? If this was the case, we have a hand holding a finger touching a pen, held by another, touching the paper.

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If Indigenous signatories needed assistance in touching the pen, not knowing how to do it, did they understand why they were doing it? As David Travieso, writing in a very different context, reminds us, “Just by touching the pen you can feel neither its size nor its weight.”116 Did the 1905 ogimaag and okimaawak have any sense of the size and weight of the words on the parchment on which they made their marks? They would certainly have recognized it as a dried skin, worth something at the hbc store. Anthropologist Raymond DeMallie writes, “Touching the pen, the action of the Indian in touching the end of the pen while the scribe marked an X after his name,” was a widespread treaty-making practice. Writing about the US Great Plains, he explains that “treaty commissioners played on this to trick Indians into signing documents containing provisions to which they had not agreed.” Although American Indians were suspicious of the practice, touching the pen “apparently signified [to them] that they were validating all they had said at a council.” Often they “did not realize their signatures committed them to only those statements written in the treaty.”117 When we examine the two “signed” copies of the parchment, images now available on the Internet, we see that the Xs shown in that 1931 publication were actually crosses and these marks appear identical.118 The religious significance of the cross would not have been lost on the Indigenous signatories. The cross appears in some Ojibwe sacred mide scrolls.119 Most Cree had adopted Christianity by 1905, fusing it with traditional beliefs,120 and were familiar with its sacred symbols. Patrick Stephen, Norm Wesley’s grandfather, for example, was the son of a Cree mitew (shaman) who had chosen to follow Christianity (maasinahiikan, “the book”) instead.121 Among converts, the crosses (especially when witnessed by Fafard or Holmes) may have confirmed the solemnity and perhaps sacredness of the oral promises that had been made. Some Cree elders state that the treaty commissioners swore on a Bible in 1905,122 perhaps a reference to these marks of the cross. Indigenous participants’ signatures do not necessarily imply any understanding of, or consent to, what was written on the parchment. Their marks simply acknowledge that they were present, like witnesses at a marriage, when solemn promises were made. Long before the arrival of missionaries, white men had written in a ledger every time the Ojibwe and Cree received gifts or trade items. The Cree word masinah (“make a mark using a tool”) is the root of masinahikew, “he writes, gets ‘debt’ (i.e., credit) at the store.”123 The cross was also familiar as a symbol of indebtedness with the hbc.124 New ideas were interpreted through established cultural lenses.125 Northern Algonquians understood oral agreements. Treaty No. 9 is referred to by Cree elders today as naskoomitowin, “the [oral] agreement.” The Ojibwe equivalent is nakomidiwin, which, linguist John O’Meara explains, is built on an underlying verb nakom (“answer someone”), -idi- (“reciprocal” or “each other”),

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and -win (“state of,” which converts the verb into a noun). They also understood an oral “promise,” in Cree ashatamakewin. In some dialects of Ojibwe the corresponding word is ashotamaagewin, from ashotamaw- (“promise someone”), – ige- (“indefinite object,” to produce a secondary verb “promise to people”), and -win (“state of”).126 Oral agreements were not fixed or final; they were revisited when circumstances warranted. Hunting territories, for example, had sometimes to be adjusted. When a man died, others might not want to hunt on his land, for “the animals leave the territory in search of him.”127 Social relationships were very important. There were ways to ask for and decline something without giving offence.128 In such small face-to-face societies, insults and injuries could be remembered for generations. The Cree are able to live together in harmony because they value mino-waahkoomitoowin (“good relations”; in Moose Cree, milo-). John O’Meara explains that this is a noun made from a reciprocal which is made from a transitive animate verb: waahkoom (“be related to”), -itoo- (reciprocal), and –win (nominalizing suffix).129 The claim that someone “can hunt anywhere” is contingent upon maintaining good relations – both with the hunter who is custodian of that land130 and with the animals themselves.131 Although the treaty states on page 2 of the original, “His Majesty agrees that each chief, after signing the treaty, shall receive … a copy of this treaty to be for the use of his band,” no copies were distributed in 1905, a violation of the Dorchester instructions.132

money, pay-lists, and tickets Gratuities were paid, following the signing. Some 1,617 Ojibwe and Cree received their money during the summer of 1905, but absentees would inflate this number by 25 per cent to 2,047 when Inspector Joseph George Ramsden visited the same posts the following summer.133 In addition to the Cree and Ojibwe who were absent from the posts during treaty-making, some were paid along the commissioners’ route, and it is highly doubtful that they were actually told, let alone understood, that accepting the money meant agreeing to the wholesale surrender laid out on the vellum. Besides those who met the treaty party the following summer, some were paid even later. Payment of the gratuities necessitated careful record-keeping, and pay-lists had to be prepared before distribution of the money began. Yielding to the urging of the hbc’s Chipman, the federal government had decided at the last minute to admit to treaty those who traded at the Albany River posts but wintered in the North-West Territories, a hinterland later reckoned to lie north as far as the imaginary and arbitrary line ab (see figure 5.2).134 Since the Albany River served as the boundary between Ontario and the North-West Territories in 1905, these lists also had to distinguish between those who wintered south of the Albany River

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(“Ontario Indians”) and those whose territories lay to the north (“Dominion Indians”); the province would assume the costs only of the former. Movement, intermarriage, and errors meant that, in future years, federal officials had to regularly balance their ledgers by transferring individuals from one pay-list to another and sometimes from one treaty to another. Names on the pay-lists were written in alphabetical order, assigning each family a number and indicating the name of the male household head, the number of men, women, boys, and girls, and the totals. These lists were prepared with help from the local traders, who kept their own lists. The 1905 Fort Albany pay-list, for example, clearly relied on a 1901 hbc census.135 North of the height-of-land, far away from the frontier zone near the railway lines, the hbc still employed the age-old debt system, conducting its trade “by making large advances to the Indians,” under what one fur trader described as “the parental relations that still exist.”136 Trade was based on the beaver standard at each post where Treaty No. 9 was signed in 1905. Each pelt was assigned an equivalency in “made beaver,” abbreviated to “mb” or a “skin.”137 When I lived in Kashechewan from 1997 to 2000, the English word “dollar” was still referred to in Cree as ahtay, “a skin, hide or pelt.”138 At Fort Hope in 1901, for example, a bear was worth 6 to 12 mb, depending on size, while a fisher would fetch 4 to 6, and an otter 2 to 8. Smaller or less valuable furs and other country produce were assigned fractional values. A skunk was worth a ½ mb, a mink from ½ to 1. Ten muskrats equalled 1 skin. A marten was valued at 1½ mb, and a beaver was worth from 1½ to 5. Furs received by Fort Hope traders that year included 8,830 muskrats, 969 mink, 298 martens, 308 otters, 155 fishers, 144 beaver, 28 black bears, and 15 skunks.139 A tweed cap was worth at least 15 mb; a briar pipe, 26,; tea, 22; sugar, 26; painkiller, 18; a crooked knife, 32; a gun, 46 to 57; and a small powder horn, 59.140 One mb was valued at 50 cents.141 Arthur Ray reminds us that fish (and fish products such as isinglass, an area of the Indigenous economy traditionally dominated by women) were extremely important items of trade. Likewise, the Ojibwe and Cree sustained the traders in their midst with meat from rabbit, moose, or caribou. All along the Albany River the Ojibwe and Cree sold thousands of fish to feed the traders and their dogs.142 On the James Bay coast the Cree traded thousands of geese, ducks, and quills. As Bryan Cummins observes, “The inventory of traded country foods reads like a list of the subarctic flora and fauna.”143 In Jabez Williams’s time, Osnaburgh store goods were priced with “painted wooden sticks representing dollars. Each stick was marked in quarters with notches.”144 At Moose Factory the made beaver was the only standard of currency, but tokens had been replaced by chits and certificates.145 A few Moose Factory Crees traded at Abitibi, “attracted by the cash tariff there,”146 but most of the Ojibwe and Cree who encountered the treaty commissioners in 1905 had

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little or no experience with paper currency. Whether sticks, chits, or tokens147 were employed, in the middle ground of the fur trade these objects served as money, and the Ojibwe and Cree were astute consumers, familiar with economic exchange. Refusing a gift, moreover – be it treaty annuities in 1905 or, later, social assistance – was culturally unacceptable for the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario.148 Treaty money was a boon to northern Indigenous peoples still heavily involved in the fur trade economy. It could be used to acquire staples (such as powder, shot, and flour) for the coming winter or portable “fancy goods.”149 It was also a windfall for traders. Ray again reminds us, “The aggregate value of the annuities paid out in each treaty area were substantial, even though the per capita amounts were small.”150 Cash was almost unheard of in the northern posts.151 On the first day of annuity distribution at Osnaburgh, however, Jabez Williams wrote in his journal, “Took in nearly $600.00 today.” He accepted another $500 the next day. Sales at Fort Albany on 4 August 1905 amounted to $1,072.152 Distributing cash to those they considered their primitive inferiors was sometimes a source of entertainment for the treaty commissioners. Scott later wrote, “To individuals whose transactions had been heretofore limited to computation with sticks and skins our errand must indeed have been dark.”153 At Fort Hope, MacMartin recorded that “one or two returned the money thinking that they had not received their just due, not being able to distinguish between one and two dollar bills, but in every instance it was found to be correct and they turned away perfectly satisfied.”154 One-dollar bills made things easier.155 Along with the cash, each male household head received a card or “ticket numbered for future use and identification,” for they were now involuntary wards in Canada’s Indian Affairs administration, a critical subtext of Treaty No. 9.156 Even without a treaty, under the 1876 Indian Act, they were already “Indians,” not “persons.”157 Assimilation was an important goal of Canadian Indian policy,158 but Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Brian Gettler remind us that assimilation was much less important than control and dependency, for assimilation would eliminate the need for an Indian Affairs department.159 Indian Affairs officials and fur traders alike were often critical of others’ assimilative efforts. At Abitibi, for example, hbc inspector E.K. Beeston remarked, “There are changes among the Indians chief among those frequenting, or residing near, Mission stations, who from being honest and trustworthy as found in their natural state, are, after being Christianized, with few exceptions dishonest and untrustworthy.”160 D.C. Scott found the daily prayers of Simon Smallboy and his crew en route to Abitibi to be “primitive and touching” and a sign of the Moose Factory Cree’s “advance,” but he still considered them unreliable and dishonest (how ironic, coming from the treaty spokesman).161

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feasts, oratory, and western medicine Bannock, pork, and tea may not sound like much of a feast, for the English word suggests a banquet with an elaborate and abundant supply of food. A century ago, fur traders such as Herb Williams, brother of Jabez, reserved the word “feast” for the “all night cooking and feasting” that followed his moose-hunting adventure with Chief Powassan at North-West Angle. He fondly recalled that occasion, when “everybody [was] welcome, and by morning light one [of two] moose had disappeared for ever.” When visiting Indians on their traplines, he became accustomed to eating whatever was cooking.162 To decline such an offer, Williams explained, “according to Indian etiquette would have been very discourteous.” Generous hosts still expected reciprocal gifts where possible.163 Thus Moonias’s suspicion at Fort Hope. Herb Williams considered bannock a very “frugal meal” for travellers, something easily prepared by his servant while the dogs’ food (“cornmeal and tallow”) was boiling.164 For the Ojibwe and Cree, a feast referred to the generous act of sharing itself, not the type or quantity of food.165 Sharing it equally, respecting any speakers, and eating together were important. And the food did not need to be warm. Scott wrote that “the food is divided as fairly as possible and until each person is served no one takes a mouthful, the tea grows cold, the hot pork rigid, and half the merit of the warm food varnishes.”166 But I doubt he or his fellow commissioners ate at these feasts, for the cooks’ hygiene would have been suspect. They likely ate before or after, preferring their familiar food and trusted cook. If they had partaken, would they may have taken more than their share, a cultural faux pas?167 Feasting also meant an opportunity for public oratory intended for a wider audience, the many Ojibwe and Cree who had not been involved in their representatives’ private discussions with the commissioners. These speeches provide additional glimpses of Indigenous peoples’ understanding of Treaty No. 9, illustrate their traditional deference and respect, and sometimes alert us to their lingering concerns. The feasts also provided the commissioners with an opportunity to speak in a public forum, but apparently they did so just twice. At Marten Falls, Stewart records that the chief “made a very sensible speech.”168 MacMartin contradicts this optimism when he reports that Chief Whitehead complained of restrictions on the choice of reserve, “pointing up and down the river, that they were being cornered by not being allowed both banks of the river for miles to fish and hunt on but that they must accept what was offered from those who had given them presents and promised a feast for them.” MacMartin adds, “When it was explained to them that they could hunt and fish as of old and they were not restricted as to territory, the Reserve merely being a home for them where no white man could interfere or trespass upon, that the land was theirs for

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ever, they gladly accepted the situation and said they would settle the reserve question later on.”169 At Fort Albany, Stewart says, “Speeches were made by several of the Indians, and were replied to by the commissioners. Those by the Indians expressed their thanks for the good treatment they had received from the representatives of His Majesty the King.”170 Unfortunately, we have no idea what the commissioners said in their reply. While the food was being cooked and the gratuities distributed, Dr A.G. Meindl and his assistants visited each “Indian encampment,” examining the Ojibwe and Cree at their tents and vaccinating the “women and children, but not the men, whose usefulness as workers might be impaired by sore arms.”171 At Osnaburgh, Stewart writes, the doctor, “assisted by the two policemen and Isaac Nicole one of our boatmen was busily employed during all the time we were at the Post.”172 The Dominion police constables must have been an imposing and intimidating presence.173 A police officer, for the Cree, is okipahowesiw (“the one who shuts away”).174 Nothing could be much more frightening for people who value their personal freedom and practise non-interference.

choosing reserves Finally, there were reserves to be chosen. In most cases this was described as a straightforward matter, but at two locations the commissioners had to once again explain the treaty’s provisions. At Fort Hope, MacMartin reveals that the newly elected leaders wanted “a water frontage of 100 miles.” The commissioners “again explained that a reserve was simply a home for them on which no white man could hunt or cut timber, or build without their permission and that 1 square mile per each family was the basis on which the size of the land would be allotted.” Only when told “that it was impossible to grant a tract of land of the dimensions asked for,” MacMartin reports, did Chief Katchang say “he was satisfied.”175 At Marten Falls the commissioners’ official report states that a reserve was agreed upon “to the satisfaction of all.”176 MacMartin confirms that it was chosen in less than half an hour but reports that this happened only after the Ojibwe representatives twice attempted to secure a much larger area. Soon after the feast, “the chief and his councillors came to our quarters saying that they wanted both banks for 50 miles down river as a hunting reserve.” Only when it was “put forcibly before them, that it was a home for them that was being provided & not a hunting preserve and that they could hunt wherever they pleased,” did the Ojibwe leaders finally “signified their assent.” The matter was seemingly resolved, for “after the usual handshaking [the representatives] took their departure perfectly satisfied.”177

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Fifteen years earlier E.B. Borron had written that “in this territory, at any rate it will be bad policy to insist on herding the Indians together on what are called reserves,” which would “retard and keep back the settlement of the country.” He recommended instead that each family have “a homestead on its own huntinggrounds,” with perhaps a thousand acres set aside near the trading post for summer camping and socializing.178 Mary Black-Rogers suggests, from her research on the 1929–30 adhesions to Treaty No. 9, that a reserve was understood as a place to meet with government officials, in order to receive gifts or support.179 MacMartin’s journal entry at English River supports this view: “we decide to … give them a reservation on the English River where they would be paid their treaty money each year.”180 Arthur Ray, referring to the region immediately south of Osnaburgh, observes that the Ojibwe “wanted the government to help them in the development of gardens, which they believed would help them reduce the risk of suffering from periodic food shortages.”181 This may not have been the case further north in the Treaty No. 9 territory. A Cat Lake spokesman recalled in the 1970s, “Farm tools, potatoes and other seeds were sent to each family, although no-one knew how to farm and these things went to waste.”182

conclusion In Adam Sherrif Scott’s painting of an eighteenth-century trading ceremony, Indigenous peoples stand on the sidelines while traders bear flags and gifts.183 Many of D.C. Scott’s photographs of treaty-making in far northern Ontario in 1905, when the commissioners also brought flags and gifts, convey a similar passive role for Indigenous participants. As we saw in chapter 1, Arthur Ray and Donald Freeman remind us that Indigenous peoples were far from passive during the fur trade era.184 Treaty-making still relied on long-established rituals and understandings, and Indigenous peoples continued to push for a continuance of the “middle ground.” We know that they did so in 1905 from the commissioners’ journals. The king’s representatives spoke confidently, and occasionally forcefully, for the Indigenous peoples had no real choice during treaty-making. But despite the intimidating presence of these powerful officials, bolstered by police officers and clergy, the Ojibwe and Cree only agreed to a treaty once they were assured that they would be free to hunt and fish as they had for countless centuries and would not be forced to live on the ambiguous reserves. If we judge from the commissioners’ own writings, the treaty that Ontario and Canada had worded so carefully is very different from what was explained orally to the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario in 1905. We have no evidence that the Ojibwe and Cree understood in they were giving up 99 per cent of their Indigenous territories in 1905, retaining only small reserves.

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For Canada and Ontario, state title to far northern Ontario may have been asserted through Treaty No. 9, more than a quarter of the province in 1905 alone, but aboriginal title and Indigenous rights were not knowingly or willingly ceded, released, surrendered, or yielded up by the Ojibwe and Cree. Indigenous peoples agreed to accept presents that to them signified a renewal of their commitment to the fur trade’s middle ground of compromise and coexistence. Two of the 1905 treaty commissioners, Scott and Stewart, had a dual relationship with the Ojibwe and Cree, being their supposed equals as treaty signatories and yet their guardians under the Indian Act.185 It was what we would today call a conflict of interest incompatible with their fiduciary duty. The three commissioners apparently did nothing to dissuade the Ojibwe and Cree from trusting their promise that some sort of middle ground would continue to exist. Unwilling to communicate the true nature of Treaty No. 9 to the Indigenous signatories, the commissioners simply “performed” it. David Murray explains that “performative speech acts” include the explorer Jacques Cartier taking possession of Gaspé Bay on behalf of France in 1534 while a puzzled group of Iroquois watch from a distance, an event depicted by the artist George Agnew Reid.186 Performance acts were best suited to “situations where language barriers prevented easy communication and,” more importantly, where “power and sovereignty were being asserted.” It did not matter whether Indigenous peoples understood what was taking place, as long as the transaction was somehow “legally enacted.”187 In 1905 Scott and Stewart assumed that they and their political masters knew what was best for their wards. The commissioners needed to return to their centres of political power with some semblance of Indigenous concurrence in the surrender of a vast swath of land. Without ever attempting to explain what treaty-making involved, they needed the illusion of consent, obtained through a dialogue of the left-unsaid and a series of marks on paper. The journals of Scott and Stewart perpetuated the charade of surrender through treaty-signing. MacMartin’s tells another story. For this pretense to be believable to non-Indigenous Canadians, the Ojibwe and Cree chiefs and headmen also had to be endowed with the authority to agree and sign on behalf of their people. The treaty-making game was predicated on representative democracy (where only white males with property could vote).188 Gifts were a necessary part of treaty-making, because there were strings attached (as Moonias suspected) to the perpetual annuities. The sovereignty of the confederated state, with Canada controlling the Indians and Ontario in charge of their lands and other resources, lay hidden behind illusions of good wishes and generosity.189 Would the northern Ojibwe and Cree have agreed to share their land if they had been asked?190 They had coexisted with fur traders for two centuries, in a symbiotic relationship that usually benefited both parties. They would undoubtedly have agreed to some changes to the middle ground, a modest expansion of

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this respectful partnership. They understood and expected Treaty No. 9 to be a confirmation of the fur trade model of coexistence, a modest sharing of the land and its benefits. Fred Mark’s comment at Moose Factory “that they were satisfied that they would be better cared for and protected by the King” suggests that some understood their long-established relationship with the hbc was being replaced by a similar relationship with the king’s government of Canada – something not incompatible with the commissioners’ oral explanations but definitely at odds with the parchment version of the treaty and the Indian Act.191

24 Parchments and Promises This land is a part of the native people. If you take the land away, you take the essence of who the First Nations people are. deputy chief bart meekis, sandy lake first nation 1

Canada’s parchment copy of Treaty No. 9 is housed in Library and Archives Canada’s conservation centre. The skin itself is smaller than it was in 1905. And the iron-gall ink used to write this controversial contract is corrosive, its iron ions and acidic components now known catalysts in the deterioration of paper or parchment. lac uses digital imaging and hyperspectral analysis to monitor the condition of this artifact (catalogued as consecutive treaty number 539) and preserve it.2 D.C. Scott would surely be intrigued by this modern photographic technology. As we saw in chapter 6, there are about 40,000 nan citizens today, and approximately 32,000 of these citizens are eligible to receive annuities by virtue of Treaty No. 9, as signed in 1905–6 and 1929–30. At $4 per person, that amounts to $144,000 in treaty annuity money paid by federal government officials – and reimbursed by Ontario. (Annuities under Treaty No. 5 are $5 per capita.) Does accepting the cash mean that the Ojibwe and Cree accepted the parchment, as was argued in the Temagami case?3 MacMartin’s journal tells a different story. Will Ontario sue the federal government for the return of a century of annuity payments, for not delivering aboriginal title? How long has Ontario known about MacMartin’s version of events? Of course, $4 does not buy as much today as it did in 1905. Treaty annuity payments now amount to an annual insult, and celebrating a provincial treaty day, as Justice Linden suggests, may not be entirely welcome in far northern Ontario. If we use the Bank of Canada’s basket-of-goods inflation calculator, the annuity’s buying power would be more than $75 today.4 Frank Pedley received an annual salary of $4,000 as deputy minister in 1905, but one-thousandth of a deputy minister’s salary today would amount to $208 to $300, plus performance bonus.5 Whatever it may have been worth in 1905 (when the one-time gratuity doubled its value), what do the people of Ontario get in return for the $144,000 their government pays to the descendents of the Ojibwe and Cree who touched the pen or made their own marks on Treaty No. 9? Let us compare the words on the 1905 parchment with what the commissioners’ writings tell us.

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the parchment The parchment treaty addresses eight interrelated issues: blanket extinguishment, harvesting, reserves, cash, a flag and a copy of the treaty, schooling, law and order, and the Ontario-Canada agreement. The Indian Act and medical care are not specifically addressed. We will briefly examine each of these questions, realizing that there are a host of equally important collateral issues, such as whether the signatories had the authority to bind those they supposedly represented (including absentees). Readers who are impatient can skip ahead to table 24.1 below. On the first issue, the 1905–6 parchment states unequivocally that the Ojibwe and Cree “cede, release, surrender and yield up to the government of the Dominion of Canada … for ever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever, to the lands.” The highly suspicious ogimaag at Osnaburgh were told that some of their land might be “disposed of” by the government, and their equally suspicious neighbours at Fort Hope apparently heard something about “unused land.” But at Osnaburgh they were also informed that they could continue to live as their forefathers, and at Fort Hope they were promised that their hunting and fishing would not be interfered with. We have no indication, except from the vague references at Osnaburgh and Fort Hope, that the Indigenous signatories were “notified and informed” of the king’s “desire to open [their lands and waters] for settlement, immigration, trade, travel, mining, lumbering, and such other purposes as to His Majesty may seem meet.” The parchment states that the Ojibwe and Cree “shall have the right to pursue their usual vocations of hunting, trapping and fishing throughout the tract surrendered … subject to such regulations as may from time to time be made by the government of the country … and saving and excepting such tracts as may be required or taken up from time to time for settlement, mining, lumbering, trading or other purposes.” Aside from the ambiguous comments reported at Osnaburgh and Fort Hope and the Marten Falls chief’s attempt to secure a large waterfront reserve, we have the aforementioned promises at Osnaburgh and Fort Hope (along with the hope that they be “happy and comfortable”); the “usual explanations” and wishes for everyone to be “happy and prosperous” at Marten Falls; the wish to be “happy and prosperous” (but no mention at all of harvesting) at Fort Albany; the desire for happiness, prosperity, protection, and “hunting where they please” at Moose Factory; and the commissioners’ promise that the people of New Post would be “allowed as of yore to hunt and fish where they pleased.” Treaty right or confirmation of pre-treaty Inigenous rights? On the third issue, the parchment treaty states in great detail that “each band” would receive a maximum of “one square mile for each family of five, or in that proportion for larger or smaller families”; the location of the reserves was “arranged between His Majesty’s Commissioners and the Chiefs and Headmen as described in the schedule of Reserves hereto attached,” but the reserve boundaries would

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only later be “surveyed and defined.” The parchment states that the reserves “when confirmed shall be held and administered by His Majesty for the benefit of the Indians free of all claims, liens or trusts by Ontario,” adding that “His Majesty reserves the right to deal with any settlers within the bounds of any lands reserved for any band as He may see fit,” and any portion or “interest therein, may be sold or otherwise disposed of by His Majesty’s Government for the use and benefit of the said Indians entitled thereto,” so long as “their consent [was] first had and obtained.” The band and its members were not “entitled to sell or otherwise alienate any of the lands allotted to them as reserves.” Any “portions of the reserves and lands above indicated” which might “at any time be required for public works, buildings, railways or roads of whatsoever nature” could be “appropriated for that purpose by His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada, due compensation being made to the Indians for the value of any improvements thereon, and an equivalent in land, money or other consideration.” Chief Whitehead wanted an extensive area along the river and only abandoned this desire when spoken to “forcefully.” Each reserve, except at English River, was described to the Indigenous signatories by the commissioners as an area where no white man could set foot without their permission. There was no mention of how the reserves would be administered or of their future sale, disposal, or expropriation. Bands would not be forced to live on their reserves, for they could hunt, fish, and trap as they had in the past. A reserve was likely just a place to meet the annual treaty paymaster – the shooniyaan-ikimaw6 or zhooniyaawigimaa – and the doctor. Gratuities, states the parchment, were provided “to show the satisfaction of His Majesty with the behaviour and good conduct of His Indians, and in extinguishment of all their past claims.” Annual annuities would be provided to the head of families, “unless there be some exceptional reason.”7 The commissioners explained that the cash was a gift intended to help them, payable upon signing the parchment. On the fifth issue, the parchment states that “each Chief, after signing the treaty, shall receive a suitable flag and a copy of this treaty to be for the use of his Band.” Flags were provided, except at English River and Fort Albany. Copies of the treaty (an issue mentioned only at Marten Falls) were not available until the next summer, when inspector-paymaster Ramsden apparently provided them. The parchment states that “salaries of teachers to instruct the children … and also … such school buildings and educational equipment as may seem advisable” would be provided by the federal government. This issue was only discussed at Moose Factory, perhaps in the context of aid to orphans and motherless or fatherless children, their numbers perhaps increased, by deaths from influenza or measles, beyond the people’s ability to absorb? The commissioners’ promise of continued hunting, fishing, and trapping arguably implies support for continued education within their own families (see chapter 21) and fosterage in a culturally appropriate setting.

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On the seventh issue, law and order, the parchment is again very detailed. By signing the treaty, the Ojibwe and Cree “solemnly promise and engage to strictly observe this Treaty, and also to conduct and behave themselves as good and loyal subjects of His Majesty the King.” They agree to “obey and abide by the law”; “maintain peace between each other, and between themselves and other tribes of Indians, and between themselves and others of His Majesty’s subjects, whether Indians, Half-breeds or Whites”; “not molest the person or property of any inhabitant” anywhere “or interfere with or trouble any person passing or traveling through” far northern Ontario”; “and assist the officers of His Majesty in bringing to justice and punishment any Indian offending against the stipulations of this Treaty or infringing the law in force in the country so ceded.” The commissioners may have referred to Indigenous peoples as “subjects” (or children of the king, if Scott is to be believed, the great father of the Indians?) at Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Fort Albany. Laws were mentioned at Fort Hope and Marten Falls, and interference at Fort Hope. Protection was cited at Moose Factory. Finally, the parchment adds, it is “understood that this Treaty is made and entered into subject to an agreement dated the third day of July between the Dominion of Canada and Province of Ontario, which is hereto attached.” There is no mention whatsoever of this agreement, which was not signed until months later, in the commissioners’ journals.

promises and hidden agendas MacMartin writes that the commissioners had been sent by the king, who wanted to “help his subjects and see that they were happy and comfortable” (Fort Hope), “advance their interests as he wished all his subjects to be happy and prosperous” (Marten Falls), “wished all his subjects both whites and Indians to be happy and prosperous” (Fort Albany), and “wished them to be happy and prosperous and … protected” (Moose Factory). In addition to this general promise, the Ojibwe and Cree could continue to hunt, trap, and fish. They would receive help in the form of a one-time feast, perpetual annuities (distributed at a location set aside for their exclusive use), and, in one instance, a residential school. They would choose a chief and councillors. In return, the Ojibwe and Cree would not have to live on their reserve or be restricted in their hunting, trapping, or fishing. They would have to obey the law and be good, however they understood this requirement. Their chief would receive a flag as a symbol of his recognition and protection by the king. To the Ojibwe, even with their suspicions, this promise must have sounded as if the king’s representatives might help them to achieve bimaadiziwin. Their Cree neighbours seem to have had little doubt that the visitors sent by the king would bring pimaatisiwin. Indigenous treaty participants had what anthropologist Richard Preston calls “a sustainable life perspective.”

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Table 24.1 The parchment versus the commissioners parchment

commissioners

Blanket extinguishment

Simplified, if addressed at all, and contradicted by harvesting promises

Harvesting within limits

Limits not mentioned

Reserves subject to government control

Some confusion about purpose; no mention of government control

Gratuity for good conduct and extinguishment; perpetual annuities

Money as goodwill; help in perpetuity

Flag and copy of the treaty

Flag provided at treaty time; copies sent a year later

Schooling

Only mentioned at Moose Factory, perhaps for orphans and fatherless and motherless children

Law and order

Some mention at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and New Post; protection is implicit in harvesting promises, schooling, and flag; temperance?

Federal-provincial agreement

Not mentioned

The Ojibwe and Cree of 1905 were not living in an Indigenous garden of Eden. The fur trade world was always in turmoil, but they hoped that the middleground relations of the fur trade would be renewed. What they later discovered hidden in the treaty Trojan horse’s vague mention of laws, however, were blunt instruments apparently designed to eliminate anything distinctive about the Ojibwe and Cree. For there was a hidden agenda that stretched far beyond the words on the parchment. Treaty-funded Roman Catholic schools introduced terrifying images intended to frighten Indigenous children away from Indigenous beliefs.8 Anglican teachings about hell were no less scary: burning, as we have seen, was a fate reserved only for extreme situations (to destroy a windigo). A recent windigo, itinerant Angli-

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Table 24.2 Implementing the promises promises

hidden agenda

Happiness, prosperity, help, protection, harvesting

Federal Indian Act, Migratory Birds Convention Act, and rcmp; child welfare laws; provincial mining, forestry, and fishing laws; separate education and health-care regimes for Indians and other Canadians

Indigenous peoples are on the land and inseparable from it

Indigenous peoples and the land are separated

can clergyman Ralph Rowe, sexually abused numerous boys in far northwestern Ontario in the 1970s before he was reported and convicted.9 Although I visited and worked with Cree leaders in Fort Albany and Attawapiskat, I was shocked when some of the horrors that had occurred at the Fort Albany residential school were revealed in the 1990s.10 Institutions begun, perhaps, with the best of intentions have instead wrought havoc on First Nations, for they were conceived and executed within a colonial relationship.11 Child welfare laws, administered by ethnocentric officials, devastated Ojibwe and Cree families until the 1980s, when First Nations demanded their own organizations, such as Payukotayno (“family unit”) and Tikinagan (“cradle board”) and Kunuwanimano (“keeping our own”) in far northern Ontario.12 Indigenous communities are struggling to end generations of physical and sexual abuse that can sometimes be traced to the actions of a few pedofiles working in governmentfunded residential schools.13 Youth, and now adult, suicides are rocking the First Nations communities of far northern Ontario and straining the capacity of social service agencies to provide support. The Ojibwe and Cree had every reason to expect a future of enhanced indigeneity, given the promises and explanations that preceded touching the pen in 1905. Instead, the threat of ethnocide lay ahead.14

two crowns The bna Act assigned to Canada exclusive legislative authority for “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.” Canada was supposed to protect Indigenous Canadians from the provincial settler governments. But as we have seen, the

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federal government often lost legal challenges with the province of Ontario prior to 1905 or afterwards bent to its will. If Ontario was not a party to the nineteen-paragraph parchment treaty, it certainly dictated a portion of it, its nominee witnessed and recorded the promises made, and provincial laws were part of its hidden agenda. As we have seen, the provincial treasury also bears the cost of treaty annuities. In 1954 all descendents of the Ojibwe and Cree who signed Treaty No. 9 became eligible to vote in provincial elections, and six years later they acquired the federal franchise.15 But anthropologist Thomas F. McIlwraith correctly observed, “Those Indians back of Moosonee … would have no understanding of the meaning of the vote.”16 Some Treaty No. 9 descendents still refuse to dilute their vote by participating in such elections, arguing that they are better represented by their chief and council, and perhaps by nan, the Chiefs of Ontario, and the Assembly of First Nations. Seemingly minor issues, such as whether a website’s url acknowledges Ontario or even Canada, become symbols of sovereignty. First Nations are often reluctant to “deal with the province,” fearing the loss of treaty or more general aboriginal rights or any dilution of Canada’s fiduciary responsibility to safeguard First Nations’ interests. This distrust is well-founded in Ontario’s historic role in what Jocelyn Thorpe calls the “erasure” of Indigenous claims to the land and the province’s “social contruction” of their unsurrendered territories as a “wilderness” to be preserved for tourism or exploited by extraction of its resources.17 Nor has the infamous 1969 White Paper’s proposal to terminate Indian status and deliver services to all Indigenous peoples through the provinces been forgotten. Of course, the relationship between Indians and federal Indian Affairs officials is by no means free of suspicion and hostility either. The department has a history as “a quasi-colonial government [concerned] with almost the entire life of a culturally different people who were systematically deprived of opportunities to influence government … and … subject to separate laws.” Indian Affairs was “a miniature government, rather than an ordinary civil service branch,” and had “a widespread reputation for being a particularly authoritarian organization.” The 1969 White Paper’s termination proposal may have been the wrong solution, but the Hawthorn report, which predated it by a few years, was correct in identifying this problem: “It is impossible to suggest that Indians should continue to receive inferior and second rate services from Ottawa, or in some cases almost no services at all … simply because of seven words … placed in the British North America Act.”18 As we have seen, half of the citizens of nan now live off-reserve, largely under provincial jurisdiction. The 1923 Williams treaties were negotiated by three lawyers, two of whom were appointed by Ontario.19 The next treaty in Canada, the 1975 tri-partite James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, included unique Indigenous-modified provincial solutions, such as the Cree School Board.20 And

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as we will see below, the province of British Columbia is busily engaged in treatymaking and reconciliation. Anthony Long and Menno Boldt argue that “provincial laws and practices have a direct impact on Indians, and if Indians hope to achive a better accommodation in the Canadian federation, they have no choice but to deal with the provinces.”21 Treaty No. 9 was signed with the Crown, but the bna Act gave that Crown two heads, assigning the provinces legislative authority over such matters as public lands, natural resources, and education. So any resolution of the ambiguous agreement known as Treaty No. 9 will likely involve the First Nations, Canada, and post-Ipperwash Ontario. But that is a matter for the First Nations to determine. As Evelyn Kallen reminds us, Indigenous rights must be understood from an even broader perspective, wherein “ethnic minorities throughout the postColonial world are beginning to demand a reassessment of their other-imposed minority status and to assert demands for self-determination.”22 (See director Rob Rafelson’s 1990 film Mountains of the Moon for dramatic parallel images of treaty-making in 1857 in East Africa.)23 In September of 2009 Stephen Harper was widely criticized for claiming that Canada has “no history of colonialism.” We are not yet even a post-colonial nation, having refused to sign the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But Canadians can try to understand our treaties with the Indigenous peoples in Canada from a post-colonial perspective, heeding Michel Foucault’s warning that we are dealing not simply with facts but with the interrelationships among power, difference, knowledge, and truth.24

treaty resolution today The British Columbia government, so reluctant to resolve such issues for most of the twentieth century, is now committed to treaty-making. The province now finds treaty-making necessary for two reasons: “to create economic certainty over Crown land and resources and to improve the lives of First Nations. Treaties and other agreements stimulate investment, create jobs and expand economies in communities throughout British Columbia and provide a better quality of life for Aboriginal people.”25 If we leave aside the political issue of First Nations’ sovereignty – a nonIndigenous term – and whether a treaty is an agreement between soverign nations, the bc approach is more pragmatic.26 A treaty is defined as “a negotiated agreement that will spell out the rights, responsibilities and relationships of First Nations and the federal and provincial governments … [that] is likely to deal with far-reaching issues such as land ownership, governance, wildlife and environmental management, sharing resources, financial benefits and taxation.”27 Two-thirds of the Indigenous peoples of British Columbia, representing sixty other First Nations, are now participating in treaty negotiations.28 The

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Tsawwassen First Nation treaty of 2009, the first urban agreement and the first modern treaty negotiated in that province, was opposed by the federal government’s local member of Parliament and by environmentalists, evidence (if it was needed) that resolving these issues, after lengthy and expensive negotiations, still will not satisfy everyone.29 At least two of the principles guiding the bc process (delegated powers of government and the phasing out of tax exemptions) are controversial among First Nations as well.30 Even in 2009’s difficult economic climate, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, in its report A Prosperous and Sustainable Future for Canada, urged the government of Canada to “reaffirm its commitment to the British Columbia treaty process … to updated mandates for Canadian negotiators on specific issues hindering treaty completion.”31 Prosperity, protection, and law and order were mentioned each time that Treaty No. 9 was signed in 1905. But the conflicting, unholy trinity of understandings that lie beneath the surface of this treaty have not brought prosperity to the First Nations. And it remains to be seen whether Ontario’s boreal forest plan will provide any certainty. Impact-benefit agreements now being signed with resource developers generate cash for First Nations, a kind of gift-giving (albeit on a much more favourable scale than the $4 annuities of Treaty No. 9). If, as I suggest, Treaty No. 9 is merely a treaty of peace, friendship, and protection, the daily relationships of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to each other and to the land in far northern Ontario will remain unresolved. The nanCanada treaty forum is probably what David McNab calls a “mailbox” that will not result in a modern, negotiated land claim agreement in far northern Ontario. And, as McNab has shown in No Place for Fairness, few Indigenous claims in Ontario receive the provincial and federal prioritizing that can lead to resolution. First Nations leaders have learned to be cautious about taking political issues into the legal arena, where non-Indigenous judges may or may not rule in their favour and when the cost of fighting the almost-unlimited resources of the Crown is so great, even when First Nations win. So a still-frustrated Kitchenahmaykoosib Inniniwug (ki) notified Ontario’s attorney general in August of 2009 that it would no longer “participate in your justice system.” We feel that the issue before us is more political than legal. Canada and Ontario cannot use the (English only) written only tests of our Treaty to justify your Mining Act, but not also accept the fiduciary obligations to protect our Aboriginal and Treaty Rights as Indigenous Peoples. Ontario has an obligation to meet with us to negotiate a solution which respects the spirit and intent of our Treaty. We call on Ontario to recognize that we have the right to free, prior and informed consent before our traditional territory is mined or explored.

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We took this position in the past and we went to jail. We are prepared to do that again, if that is the price that we need to pay in order to have Ontario recognize our right to say “no” to exploration and mining in our territory.32

are we all treaty people? Justice Sidney Linden, in his report on the Ipperwash Inquiry, mused that “public education generally and education in the public school system” might “provide the necessary background to help the [non-Indigenous] public understand why Aboriginal peoples occupy land or take direct action.” The commissioner suggested that “education about treaties in Ontario [was] a good place to begin.”33 Borrowing a phrase from Saskatchewan’s treaty commissioner, Linden argued, Respect must begin with knowledge and understanding. At the very least, every Ontarian should understand that this province and our country were built upon the treaties negotiated with [the] First Nations, and that everyone shares the benefits and obligations of those treaties. Every Ontarian should also realize that treaties are not historical artefacts from some distant time. They remain vitally important and relevant today … It is imperative that the phrase “we are all treaty people” resonate with all Ontarians.34 But how can we all be treaty people if those treaties were not “negotiated” and their “benefits and obligations” are not agreed upon? Library and Archives Canada hints at the complexity of these issues when it states that “the spirit and intent … has changed over time” and “the treaty relationship itself has proven to be permanent.” But which treaty relationship – the parchment, the promises, or the hidden agendas?35

overlapping circles: the temporal or fidelity lens Until I read MacMartin’s journal, I naively assumed that Treaty No. 9 was somehow fully explained; I did not think that this kind of deception could happen in the country of my birth. I did not take my thinking to its logical conclusion: if the treaty was not truly negotiated, was there perhaps some kind of capitulation? Like others, I wondered what the commissioners said to the okimaawak and ogimaag before these Indigenous leaders touched the pen. I thought that the parchment, the commissioners’ reports, and Indigenous oral traditions, being three different kinds of sources, constituted three treaties.36 I now think we can imagine sets – plural because some of the details varied

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from location to location – of at least six overlapping circles (but sometimes fewer, as when there was no signing: e.g., at Elbow Lake, English River, the mouth of the Kenogami River, or Ghost River). Drawing on studies of curriculum implementation, the outermost circle (not to scale) consists of the broad intended but hidden – to the Ojibwe and Cree – agendas of the Indian Act, provincial hegemony over the land and its resources, and the railway-building that symbolized national and provincial ambitions (the very interventions that violate, for the Mushkegowuk Council, the Rupert’s Land pledge). We could include international interests in the outermost circle as well, such as the Migratory Birds Convention Act37 or the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (which Canada has not signed). Next in, we have the parchment version, in duplicate, of Treaty No. 9 (each of these actually three linked parchments, if we include the 1902 and 1905 agreements), a tangible outcome which the commissioners were expected to produce or perform (bring back with signatures) – the official announcement of a new curriculum, if you wish. The third largest circle is what the commissioners said (although all we have is what they recorded in their journals) – or how the English-speaking teachers actually enacted the new curriculum to their non-comprehending students. But since they employed various interlocutors, the fourth circle is how their interpreters relayed those intended comments. How the teacher’s assistant taught or delivered the lesson in another language. This circle is not the interpreters themselves but the actual dialogue in Ojibwe or Cree. We have no idea what was said in circle four in 1905, except that “puny chiefs” were mentioned. To what extent were the 1905 conversations distorted in the way that Godchere misspoke at Long Lake in 1906 (chapter 5)? In the fifth circle we have what was actually agreed upon by the Ojibwe and Cree, filtered through their world views (sometimes known in retrospect as the treaty’s “spirit and intent”). This is what was learned, grasped, understood, experienced, or received by the learners. Finally, in the centre we have the signatures on parchment. The three innermost circles would be the basis for much – but not all – of Indigenous oral traditions. Oral traditions might well include what the people saw or heard from the missionary, priest, Soeur Grise, trader (or trader’s wife or children), police officer, or treaty doctor. Oral tradition would also be influenced by what the people heard from the voyageurs, the York boat men, the boy who travelled with the commissioners, or neighbours who traded at other posts. As shown in figure 24.1, the temporal lens shows a “gap between … [government] plans and their fulfillment.” Circle four, the commissioners’ English declarations (to judge from MacMartin), is very different from circle five, the words on parchment – so different that each is the null curriculum (the one left unsaid, not really offered, the one “that might have been”) of the other.38

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4 3 24.1 The temporal or fidelity lens

2 1

5

6

We have not just shown the gap; we have explained it. We have really employed Jon Synder and Karen Zumwalt’s fidelity lens. We have considered more than “the degree to which a particular innovation [the parchment] is implemented as planned.” We have identified some of “the factors which facilitate or hinder implementation as planned.”39 The circles overlap. Circles four, five, and six are linked by the words “law” and “subject.” Circles one through five are linked by notions of perpetual annuities and marks on the parchments. The temporal or fidelity lenses are a necessary but insufficient way to examine Treaty No. 9. They are perhaps better than a simple binary, such as state domination versus Indigenous bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin. But they are still inappropriate for at least two reasons. First, this approach is driven by whitemen’s actions, leaving Indigenous peoples on the receiving end of treaty-making; as we saw in chapter 2, the Ojibwe initiated treaty-making by asking for protection and support. Second, at the centre of the circle we simply reach a stalemate, a tale of two treaties. We stop when the treaty party departs. This short-term model does not show us a way out of the impasse. It shows us how we got there, it but does not suggest how to achieve a “living treaty” with mutually beneficial “lasting arrangements,”40 an agreement achieved in the “spirit of co-existence”41 and mutual recognition.

mutual adaptation: the changing relationships lens Another lens allows us to examine “how the curriculum is shaped through the evolving constructs of teachers and students.” This approach views change as an “ongoing joint creation,” a process of “mutual adaptation” or “mutation,” and helps us to convey a much longer time frame.42

Indigenous Peoples

Scott et al.

Promises

Canada

$4 Parchment

Ontario

Our Shared Future

24.2 The changing relationships lens

In figure 24.2 the Indigenous people have an indirect relationship with the federal government when some of the Indigenous people trading at Mishkeegogamang issue their plea, through Jabez Williams, for support and protection prior to treaty-making. In the case of Sahquakegick, or Louis Espagnol, there is an indirect relationship with Ontario (via E.B. Borron) and a direct connection through the Robinson-Superior treaty and his correspondence. Leaders of those trading at Abitibi meet directly with Indian Affairs officials. As successor to the hbc, Canada and the First Nations have long-standing relationships through fur trade alliances. As successor to the pre-Confederation colonies, Canada is connected to the First Nations through the Rupert’s Land Order, the Indian Act, the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and Dorchester’s instructions. They later establish a more direct relationship through Treaty No. 9, the federal franchise, and the Constitution Act, 1982. Canada and Ontario have a direct relationship through the bna Act and evolving federal-provincial relationships such as St. Catherines Milling and the bilateral 1902 and 1905 agreements. Ontario’s relationships with Indigenous peoples are initially mediated through Canada (e.g., the half-breed petition and the First Nations’ early requests to change the location of their reserves). A line of dashes shows later, direct relationships (e.g., when Ontario extends the franchise or when gct9 makes its Declaration of Nishnawbe Aski). The First Nations are on the receiving end of direct, involuntary relationships with Canada and Ontario through those governments’ hidden agendas and legislation; these relationships

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exist independent of the parchment, but the parchment lends them a fictitious air of legitimacy and consent. When my Cree friend phoned me in December 2009 to complain that the Canadian Tire store in Chelmsford had refused to honour his Indian status card and exempt him from paying tax, I did not argue when he referred to this as a treaty right. Tax exemption is derived from the Indian Act (and some treaties), but the welcome benefits (and less welcome restrictions, which Ernie Epp argues violate the treaties) under that act are a legitimate part of the hidden agenda of Treaty No. 9.43 In December 2009, Ontario First Nations were enraged that a new harmonized sales tax would violate their treaty and Indigenous rights. (Tax exemption is a hot-button issue today, for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike.) Treaty or not, existing conditions cannot be unilaterally changed. The top-down sequence in figure 24.1 indicates that the First Nations, their civilizations, languages, and world views (e.g., concepts of ogimaa and bimaadiziwin, okimaaw and pimaatisiwin) preceeded the fur traders and later colonizers, with whom they nevertheless share a long history. If the chart is rotated 90 degrees, we see the First Nations (and Métis) and the federal and provincial governments potentially coexisting in some sort of relative equality. Canada (and Ontario) represents the state, all its citizens, and its agents; each of us has a place on this chart. While treaty-making was initiated by the First Nations, the parchment was a creation of Canada’s, with Ontario’s influence. The parchment was communicated orally by D.C. Scott and his fellow commissioners, as their journals and official reports may describe. The speech bubbles symbolize Indigenous voices in their original petitions, the voices of the commissioners, Indigenous voices in the discussions prior to treaty-signing (and ever since), the interpreters, Indigenous oral traditions, and the voices of any fur traders (and their wives and children) and clergy. Indigenous peoples often trusted and respected (as ogimaag or okimaawak) the fur traders who lived among them, and, as J.R. Miller notes, they may have sometimes assumed that the treaty commissioners were “the same kind of people who held similar attitudes.”44 The outcomes are perpetual annuities (for some people, sometimes), the parchment (windigo or John Ralston Saul’s mythology), and the promises (pimaatisiwin or Saul’s fairness). Which one will define the future for First Nations, Métis, and other Canadians in far northern Ontario?

strands of history A number of writers have used the concept of braids to symbolize historical relationships,45 and this notion helps me to understand John Ralston Saul’s initially strange suggestion (in A Fair Country) that we are a Métis nation. For thousands of years, far northern Ontario was the homeland of Indigenous civilizations, represented by strong Ojibwe, Cree, and Oji-Cree strands.

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About four hundred years ago, a few fur traders – imagine a tiny piece of yarn that grows larger – arrived in their midst, were invited into this rope, and became interwoven. Each was affected by the other, and for at least a century and a half, theirs was a strong, symbiotic bond – a holding of hands, not a two-row wampum.46 Names such as Cromarty, Faries, Hardisty, Moonias, Louttit, McKay, and Sutherland suggest another kind of sharing, but my argument here is cultural, not biological. The Ojibwe adopted a French greeting, the Cree an English one, and words such Montreal and marquis, learned to shake hands and make bannock or boodin.47 The first Europeans adopted words such as muskeg, mocassin, and manitou and learned to paddle a canoe and walk on snowshoes. Commitment to this respectful interrelationship, this middle ground of compromise and coexistence, was renewed through gift-giving, statements of need and goodwill, and pipes of tobacco. Their numbers now reduced and their bimaadiziwin threatened, the Indigenous peoples sought protection and assistance in changing times. Long-established ceremony and symbols from the middle ground and deceptive promises of pimaatisiwin were used by the now stronger and more numerous former partner to impose a very different relationship. The Ojibwe, Cree, and Oji-Cree were almost completely cut off from an increasingly stronger and more complex braid – the very one that they had helped to create. What kind of future lies ahead in far northern Ontario? Will those original strands be invited back to share in and contribute to, and not be strangled by, the strength of the others? In contrast to the promising treaty-making of British Columbia, we have a situation in far northern Ontario in which there is no economic certainty and no common rule of law. The issue is not whether Canadians can afford the cost of one or more modern, negotiated land claim agreements in this region. The question is whether we can afford the cost of not resolving the simmering conflicts that resulted in the incarceration of ki leaders and then seemingly left it to ki and Platinex to fix the problem. When Canada and Ontario seemed to be making little, if any, effort to resolve this particular problem, ki appealled to the United Nations.48 Do we need a negotiated, modern revision to Treaty No. 9? I think so. I agree with Thomas Berger when he writes: The question is not one of guilt, present or past. The question is one of continuing injustice, and the distinctive feature of the injustices, past and present, done to indigenous peoples is the fact that these injustices were committed against peoples. These peoples are still with us, and the nations that committed these injustices are still with us … These injustices continue, and they are within the power of remedy.49 Native claims have been described as claims based on the idea of apartheid … The Native people in Canada are seeking access to the social, economic

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and political institutions of the dominant society. What they are seeking is the exact opposite of apartheid. Only if we were to deny them that access could it be said that we were guilty of apartheid.50 Will we see meaningful tripartite negotiations to share the land in far northern Ontario? Probably not. Not with a neo-conservative government in Ottawa (or another one in Queen’s Park). There is real progress on a number of fronts under the current Liberal regime in Ontario, but without a sympathetic federal partner we are unlikely to see the Treaty Commission of Ontario that Justice Linden recommended in 2007. Treaties have been sidestepped, in order to focus on quality-of-life issues that provinces can more easily address: educational achievement, poverty, and violence against women.51 These are worthy goals for a rapidly growing population, will promote pimaatisiwin, and should resonate with non-Indigenous voters, as the following on-reserve statistics indicate.52 The median age in the Treaty No. 9 (and No. 5) communities is approximately twenty-three, but thirty-nine for all Ontarians.53 About 35 per cent of the population is under the age of fifteen, compared to 19 per cent for all Ontarians.54 From 2001 to 2006 the on-reserve population increased perhaps 15 per cent, even with out-migration, but less than 7 per cent for all Ontarians.55 The median income for all Ontarians is $69,156 ($59,377 after tax), but perhaps $30,000 or less for Treaty No. 9 on-reserve residents.56 In agreeing on shared goals, the provinces and aboriginal leaders recognize how difficult it will be to achieve them on-reserve without federal government engagement. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier did not actually say, “The twentieth century belongs to Canada.” He said, “The nineteenth century was the century of the United States. I think that we can claim that it is Canada that shall fill the twentieth century.”57 If the twenty-first century is to bring bimaadiziwin to Indigenous peoples with resource-rich lands in Canada, as John Ralston Saul predicts in A Fair Country, many of the Treaty No. 9 communities are not poised to take advantage of jobs, which will go instead to “outsiders.” Questioning the validity of one treaty challenges the integrity of all the others, opening a door that Canada and Ontario want to keep sealed shut. Governments, on the advice of their lawyers, will continue to hide behind the fiction of Indigenous surrender, giving slightly larger gifts and every few years committing to a – choose one – memorandum of understanding, agreement in principle, declaration of intent, statement of relations, or treaty forum that involves ongoing dialogue with the First Nations. Federal government policy, since the Trudeau era, addresses two types of claims. Specific claims involve past grievances, such as unmet parchment-treaty promises.58 The treaty annuities that were reduced during wartime would fall into this category. The comprehensive claims process is intended for “areas of the country where Aboriginal rights and title have not been addressed by treaty or

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through other legal means.”59 But a policy adopted under Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government excludes historic treaties such as Treaty No. 9 from this second process: Existing treaties are fundamental to the special relationship between Treaty First Nations and the Crown. The Government does not propose to re-open, change or displace existing treaties through implementation of the inherent right and the negotiation of self-government agreements. For Treaty First Nations that so desire, the Government is prepared, consistent with this policy approach, to negotiate agreements on self-government which build on the relationship already established by their treaties.60 Self-government agreements, such as the one now being negotiated by nan, represent a third approach, which seeks to replace the archaic Indian Act relationship (the federal government’s hidden treaty agenda) with a negotiated alternative. Recognizing that many Indigenous peoples do not live on reserves, government policy acknowledges the need for “agreements with the provinces concerned.”61 Thomas Flanagan, in his polemic First Nations, Second Thoughts, decries any “aboriginal orthodoxy” that views treaties as “the means by which aboriginal peoples secure the resources necessary to create and direct their own economies.” He assumes that the numbered treaties were negotiated, relying entirely on the “obvious meaning of the written text,” by which he means their parchment versions, “the exclusive record of the treaty.”62 Flanagan sees treaties as mere “real estate conveyances,” some of which have a built-in “ongoing relationship.”63 Flanagan rejects the view, advanced by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, that aboriginal title can coexist with Crown title (and not be extinguished).64 He dismisses this novel and untested legal theory [of] aboriginal peoples as co-owners of all land, even though they signed agreements extinguishing their land rights, have received substantial benefits … [as a] one-sided reading of the treaties. Implementation means that any clause conferring benefits must be fulfilled to the letter, while renewal means that any clause by which the Indians gave up something must be ignored, reinterpreted, or replaced.65 Flanagan recommends that we weigh the sources we use to interpret treaties, in order to reach a “balance of probabilities” or “the most likely account of what happened” when Indigenous peoples touched the pen.66 Readers will wish to compare the parchment (Treaty No. 9A) with the commissioners’ accounts (Treaty No. 9B) and reach their own balance of probabilities. Should we believe Stewart’s

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diary and the commissioners’ official report, or should we believe Scott’s account in Scribner’s and MacMartin’s journal? This is exactly what Justice Linden had to do when former premier Mike Harris’s attorney general (and minister responsible for Native Affairs), Charles Harnick, recounted a meeting on 6 September 1995, the day that Dudley George was killed at Ipperwash Park. Harnick recalled under oath ten years after the incident that he heard the premier utter the infamous words “I want the f***ing Indians out of the park.” Harris denied making the remark, and Harnick’s testimony during the inquiry contradicted his earlier statements in the legislature. But there was no animosity between Harnick and Harris, and Mike was known to use the F-word. So Linden concluded, “After carefully assessing the evidence, my view is that Michael Harris made the statement.”67

to kill a windigo Our self-determination and lifestyle of yesterday provided all the basic necessities for survival … [but o]ur philosophy of life … for thousands of years was going to be changed from what the whiteman referred to as primitive and uncivilized … The results were cruel and devastating. The complete destruction of a once proud self-sufficient nation came very close. andrew rickard 68

The Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario had long-established means of maintaining social control. During a shaking tent performance, for example, someone might be publicly shamed.69 There were sometimes eye-for-an-eye blood feuds, as when Cree hunters and hbc employees executed the perpetrators of the 1832 Hannah Bay murders.70 A windigo or wiihtiko might be killed and burned, to destroy its heart of ice – until Euro-Canadian institutions curbed this oncenecssary practice.71 The Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario expected that people who spoke or acted improperly would be cursed and have their words or actions “come back on them.”72 During my years as a teacher in Moose Factory and Moosonee, I was privileged to know several men and women with extensive knowledge of traditional Cree life; among them were Abraham Rickard, Oliver Rickard Sr, Willie Wesley, Oliver Dick Sr, George Jolly, George Solomon, and Alfred Carpenter. Considered “unskilled” in the modern workforce, they were often employed as custodians or handymen or as guides during the school’s outdoor education units. After the children were in their tents at Pilgrim Island one spring, as the adults sat around a fire, Willie observed, “Indian makes a small fire and everybody sits close to get warm. Whiteman makes a big fire and everybody sits back so they won’t burn.” On another occasion, Oliver Dick spoke about the 1832 Hannah Bay

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murders. Oliver Rickard showed the students how to use a pole snare to catch whisky jacks; on another occasion, Willie demonstrated how to catch them with a snowshoe trap. George Jolly told me how he knocked down his residential school supervisor with his fists when the man tried to deny him breakfast after early morning chores. George Solomon pointed to a picture of his grandfather in Olive M. Peterson’s book The Land of Moosoneek, teaching me the Cree word nimooshoom (“my grandfather”). This is second of three stories told to me by Alfred Carpenter (and translated by the late Andrew J. Faries) as we shared a cup of tea in Moosonee on 21 August 1984: Once, long ago, some people were travelling. There was a thick crust on the snow. It was the spring of the year, and the four families were killing beaver and caribou for food. Two children lagged behind the others, fooling around because they knew it was almost time to make camp [a detail that makes this a cautionary tale of pastaamowin, although the first story Alfred told me was clearly a historical incident].73 Swamp berries, that grow in mossy areas, were showing through and the children would occasionally stop to pick some. They could see someone coming from the same direction they had followed, but were not the least bit alarmed. They thought it was just another person, but [as it got closer] they realized it was an ochiskwachiw. One person in their party was able to kill one of these. As this ochiskwachiw caught up to the two children he said to them, “What are you doing?” They replied, “We are picking these berries.” He immediately asked them, “What is the name of the man who can kill an ochiskwachiw?” “His name is Taking the Hat Off,” replied the children. After they said this, the ochiskwachiw blew on them, erasing their memories of this encounter, so they were unable to tell the others about this experience. The two children hurried to catch up with the rest of their group. By the time they arrived, four tipis had been set up. Soon it was dark and everyone was eating. In those days, people added a porch made out of brush at the entrance to their tipis, where firewood was kept. All of a sudden, they heard someone yelling outside, “Taking Off the Hat, you are wanted outside.” One of the adults stopped eating and went outside. The others heard a terrible sound, like thunder. The others waited, and wondered where Taking the Hat Off had gone. Finally, one of them went outside to see what was wrong. All he saw was a trail of blood. The ochiskwachiw had cut off Taking the Hat Off’s head and dragged away the body.

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The person went back inside and told the others what had happened. Then the two children were able to remember what had happened on the trail, the person they had seen when they were picking berries. They told the others that someone had spoken to them. “This person asked us the name of the person who was able to kill an ochiskwachiw,” they said. “Why didn’t you tell someone about this?” they were admonished. “The person blew on us and we were unable to remember,” they replied. The dead man’s brother announced, “I am going to try and do what my brother was able to do.” Having made up his mind to avenge his brother’s murder, he followed the trail of ochiskwachiw. [Others accompanied him.] To follow a trail at night, in those days, people used a birchbark torch. After following the trail for some time, he noticed that there was only one set of tracks, confirming that ochiskwachiw had killed his brother and was now carrying his body. Then he saw a fire up ahead on slight rise. I don’t know why this happened, but this ochiskwachiw was making a meal out of the dead man, spinning [part of] him on a cord [rotisserie-like] beside the fire [so he could catch the dripping grease]. As the dead man was cooking, the other would cut off one slice of meat at a time and eat it. Ochiskwachiw could use a bone like a mirror, like shamans do. The others saw ochiskwachiw eating meat from the dead man’s shoulder blade. They heard him speak and then saw him lie down, facing the fire. He knew that people were following him, by looking at his shiny bone. The dead man’s brother said to the others, “I’ll shoot the first arrow.” But before he had his first arrow ready, ochiskwachiw shouted, “I’m being shot at.” He grabbed the rest of the dead man’s remains, preparing to take off, but the arrow struck him and he fell dead, his feet twitching. The others approached. They cut more firewood and laid it in a square. Then they lit the fire and threw the body of ochiskwachiw upon it. The only thing that didn’t burn to ashes was its heart. The heart just lay there on the coals and ashes. People say that the heart of ochiskachiw is made of ice. That is the end of the story. That is all I know of this story.74 The wiihtikow or windigo has many names, and I am grateful to the person who told me, in Winnipeg in 1987, “The government is our wiihtikow.”75 For much of the twentieth century, none of the traditional Indigenous practices would seem able to stop the windigo-like advance of the two-headed state in far northern Ontario, and many would be driven to despair. East of Ontario, however, Toby Morantz argues that a modern land claim agreement prevented that region from becoming a descent into colonialism.76 In eliminating the destructive windigo ushered in by Treaty No. 9, the Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario will decide for themselves how this can best be done. But the jbnqa suggests some ways to kill a windigo today.

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In the spring of 1971, when Quebec premier Robert Bourassa announced a hydroelectric megaproject in far northern Quebec, he did not count on united opposition from the Crees or their short-lived vindication in court. Quebec argued that the Crees had no title to their homeland. But Quebec Superior Court justice Albert Malouf agreed with the Crees that their rights had not been surrendered. Although Malouf’s decision was overturned in a matter of days, Quebec decided to negotiate. In November of 1973 John Ciaccia, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec and a former deputy minister in the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, was appointed as Bourassa’s personal representative and mediator. The Crees had an agreement in principle in 1974, and a year later they signed the 454-page James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.77 Seven parties signed the jbnqa in septuplicate in Quebec City on 11 November 1975: the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec (upon the direction of their communities and the advice of their lawyers), the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, three Crown corporations (the James Bay Energy Corporation, the James Bay Development Corporation, and Hydro-Québec), the government of Quebec, and the government of Canada. Ciaccia explained that the Indigenous population of northern Quebec had lived in a kind of legal “limbo” since the 1912 boundary extension, with “Quebec’s title … not properly defined. This Agreement will remove any grounds for further doubt or misunderstanding.”78 The jnnqa contained detailed sections concerning land, local and regional government, health and social services, education, the administration of justice, policing, environmental protection, harvesting (i.e., hunting, fishing, and trapping), compensation, taxation, economic and social development, and income security for Cree hunters and trappers. The agreement established three categories of land. On those territories closest to the year-round villages (2,158 square miles for the Cree, which, in Ciaccia’s words, “to all intents and purposes they can call theirs,” but “not … walled off or cloistered … We are not creating shelters or confinements for wards of the State”),79 any mining activity would require Indigenous consent, but the state could still expropriate land. Slightly further afield, in category 2, the Indigenous peoples would retain exclusive harvesting rights, but the state could authorize use of the land “for development purposes.” In category 3 lands, to which all Quebecers would have access, Indigenous peoples would have continuing harvesting rights.80 As noted earlier, the jbnqa avoided blood quantum definitions of eligibility; this decision has created strong Cree communities within Quebec, while excluding the people of Mocreebec just across the Ontario boundary. Along with strong communities, the jbnqa created a strong Cree regional government, still respectful of community consensus but able to speak with a much stronger voice than an Indian Act chief. Basic compensation under the agreement, divided between the Cree and Inuit, amounted to $225 million – the province

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paying slightly more than half, the hydroelectric utilities responsible for one-third, and Canada paying slightly less than one-sixth. The Cree share (slightly less than 60 per cent) was $136,625,450 plus the cost of negotiations; the value of these assets in 2007 was reported to be $162,830,000.81 (The Cree are also seeking an additional $1.4 billion from the federal government for failure to implement the agreement for thirty years.)82 A Cree School Board was created, with authority to “determine … the number of Native persons and non-Native persons required as teachers,” “select courses, textbooks and teaching materials appropriate for the Native people,” and “develop courses, textbooks and materials designed to preserve and transmit the language and culture of the Native people.” The federal government initially contributed 75 per cent of the costs of schooling, Quebec the remaining 25 per cent83 – another significant advantage of an agreement with the two-headed Crown. (A 2010 agreement covered offshore islands.) The Ojibwe and Cree of far northern Ontario, many of whom are affiliated with “tribal councils,” have a number of institutions – children’s aid societies, a cultural centre, a development fund, legal services corporation, media, police services, and treatment centres84 – often established without adequate, ongoing funding or the kind of special legislation that would provide cultural supports and create a strong regional government. The Indian Act, with its definitions of bands and chiefs, and the transfer of Indian Affairs programs to local control, have created to a strong aversion to authority other than the individual First Nation community. I personally think that nan needs to be much stronger (a conclusion that will surprise those I worked with at the Mushkegowuk Council). A nanwide board of compensation, for example, might more easily resist the urge to disperse multi-million dollar compensation settlements as per capita payments. A modern, comprehensive self-government agreement would also mean that these future-oriented funds would not have to be used for more immediate infrastructure and program needs in neglected communities, betrayed for a century by the promises of 1905. I expect that many of my Cree and Ojibwe friends are hoping, as I do, that the destructive windigo-like actions of the two Crowns have been slowed (postpatriation of our constitution and post-Ipperwash) as the past – including the commissioners’ promises – now “comes back on” the governments of Ontario and Canada. Perhaps we are creating a new middle ground, and Ontario’s boreal forest initiative is simply an interim measure. Perhaps the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario, like their neighbours in northern Quebec, will have the opportunity to create strong, modern forms of bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin again. E KO M A A K A

…

We have examined the origin of Treaty No. 9 in the pleas for help from Indigenous peoples near the cpr line, in the detailed negotiations between Canada and

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Ontario, and in the oral explanations provided to Ojibwe and Cree signatories, through a non-negotiable dialogue of the left-unsaid. I have argued that Indigenous signatories did not know what the parchment said when they touched the pen, that they were concerned about bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin, and that they accepted the king’s representatives as generous, protective ogimaag or okimaawak sharing gifts and goodwill.85 For each step forward in relations between Indigenous citizens and the Canadian state, it seems there is at least one backwards. A few days after Premier Dalton McGuinty’s announcement of Ontario’s northern boreal forest initiative, and shortly after the release of the ki six, Ontario Provincial Police commissioner Julian Fantino had a sniper positioned nearby while he was negotiating with Mohawk activist Shawn Brant on 29 June 2007. If Fantino had read the report of the Ipperwash Inquiry or its recommendations, standard operating procedures had apparently not changed. This was arguably not the fault of the opp alone, but a failure of provincial government policy. Perhaps, as this story unfolds, the opp will convince the public that a sniper was required, but Fantino’s bullying remarks and threats contradict Justice Linden’s finding “that the police [should] use force only as a last resort.”86 For many participants, one of the highlights of the Taykwa Tagamou Nation’s Treaty No. 9 commemoration in 2005 was viewing “Takwata” Lake (as the Atlas of Canada calls it) from a helicopter chartered by Chief Dwight Sutherland and his council. Dwight’s father, my late friend Peter Sutherland Sr,87 had told me about “the big lake” chosen by his grandfather as the New Post band’s reserve a century earlier. I did not meet Walter Gagnon, but I read about him afterwards in a story captioned “What should have been a routine traffic stop turned into a nightmare for a Taykwa Tagamou First Nation family.” Driving home from the commemoration late at night, Walter, his wife, and two young children were stopped by opp officers and “ordered out of their minivan at gunpoint.” It was an error. The Gagnons were innocent of wrongdoing and the opp was apologetic. But speaking of the “high-risk traffic stop procedure” that was used, Mushkegowuk Council chairman Stan J. Louttit remarked, “The actions of the opp are truly reminiscent of the Ipperwash tragedy.”88 Although many of the Treaty No. 9 First Nations now police their own communities through the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services, the communities and the naps face enormous challenges. On 8 January 2006 Jamie Goodwin and his friend Ricardo Wesley, great-grandson of treaty signatory Andrew Wesley, died when the Kashechewan jail, in which they were being held for public intoxication, burned to the ground. A coroner’s inquest made eighty-six recommendations, the last for a public inquiry or royal commission to examine the many inequities “in services, community health and safety, and quality of life” found in far northern Ontario.89 Ricardo was a wonderful young man with a keen intellect and a fine

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sense of humour. I am saddened by his untimely death and at the conditions, in the aftermath of Treaty No. 9, that drove the two boys to set that fire. Conditions in Kashechewan today are a far cry from the pimaatisiwin that Chief Moses Wesley90 had in mind in 1920 when he asked the “Big Chief” to send a police officer there.91 He was concerned about couples who lived together in an umarried state, an accidental homicide, drinking (among Indians and whites), and, perhaps most important of all, his personal experience with theft and dishonesty. The chief noted that his personal authority was non-existent,92 and he complained that the Indian agent’s annual visit was not enough. Being chief was tiring work, and he objected to the fact that he and his councillors were not paid.93 His son James (“Jeemis”), grandsons Silas and Willie, and great-grandson Oliver Wesley have each been chiefs as well.94 There were promising signs of progress by mid-December 2009. Platinex, no doubt recognizing that its relationship with the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inniniwug was permanently poisoned, accepted $5 million for surrendering its leases and mining claims near Big Trout Lake and ending its lawsuits – against both Ontario and the ki.95 Ontario also withdrew the lands in question from future staking or exploration, allowing the province “to continue working with ki to strengthen [their] relationship and to pursue future opportunities.”96 ki chief Donny Morris was pleased that the lake his people depend upon for fishing and hunting was no longer threatened with contamination from mining.97 But environmentalists are alarmed at the haste with which other developments are proceeding in the delicate ecosystem of far northern Ontario.98 Critics worry that land use planning and environmental protection are being neglected by the McGuinty government in the rush by First Nations to enter into partnerships for a share of billions of dollars (and a more promising future) in the mineral-rich and Johnny Cash–inspired “ring of fire” north of Marten Falls and east of Webequie.99 For nan grand chief Stan Beardy, however, “The bottom line is that the First Nations affected want to benefit from the activity … We want to have full participation in the project, to share in the wealth, and to be compensated for being displaced … We’ve lived in these areas for thousands of years … And we will continue to live there after the boom-bust period, so we need to make sure it’s done right.”100 Maybe the province’s northern boreal forest initiative, together with the nanCanada agreement-in-principle on governance and perhaps the Mushkegowuk Council’s Rupert’s Land challenge, will achieve the kind of “exciting” future envisioned by nan negotiator Doug Semple: “engaging our people’s creative energy [and] building their communities to be self-governing the way they see fit.” There are signs of hope for far northern Ontario in post-Harris Ontario. But we need a real commitment from Ottawa in order to make real progress on Indigenous issues in Canada.101

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I hope that this volume will help to begin building this kind of understanding and respect for Treaty No. 9. My own understanding has resulted from years of thinking about this treaty, reading and rereading documents, and listening to stories. I end this book by again acknowledging and thanking many friends in the Treaty No. 9 region who have helped me on my journey of understanding. One of these in 1987 was seventy-three-year-old Hosea Wynne of Kashechewan, who explained, “This is Indian land … when they came here they said they found land. They didn’t find it. It wasn’t uninhabited. The people who owned the land were here.”102 I urge Indigenous Canadians to learn all they can from their elders. And I urge other, non-Indigenous Canadians to accept Justice Linden’s challenge and begin establishing meaningful, respectful personal relationships with Indigenous Canadians. Education and personal relationships are both essential. Both are necessary for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Ontarians to be able to live together in peace and harmony. sidney b. linden 103 e’kwaani piko eskwaapihkeyaak (That is the length of the story [for now].)104

Afterword

I am reading Treaty No. 9 while I travel in and out of my community of Moose Factory on my way to meetings. I am a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, 1440098901 – that’s my “band number” – and I have been elected to the office of councillor for my people, one of six women.1 You would think that I would know all about the treaty that was signed in 1905, as it still affects me today – after all this time. But do you want to know something? I don’t. This was such an experience, one I will not soon forget. How can I? I am where my forefathers were a century ago – I deal with the governments who do not honour and much less understand the significance or intent of the treaty. I am amazed, baffled, and keenly disappointed. Why? We do not ask for handouts or welfare or pity. We ask that the intent of the treaty be respected and honoured. We never surrendered our lands – how could we? We do not own it – we are the caretakers and stewards. We agreed to share peacefully, and we have upheld our side of the treaty. What about the government’s part? I see change coming, and we have negotiated an Impact Benefit Agreement with the first diamond mine in Ontario. My people, the Moose Cree First Nation, just ratified a deal with Ontario Power Generation Inc. Much more needs to happen, and I look forward to this time that we are entering into. An exciting time, filled with potential and possibilities, and as long as we acknowledge and put Kitchi Mundoo in first place, we will be all right. We are more than survivors. We will be more than okay! Our children and those who are to follow must learn from us what this treaty means and how it came about. How else will we and they learn? Will we continue to survive? Yes! After all, we have been here for hundreds of years, and if the last four hundred years are anything to gauge our survival by, we are in pretty good shape. Lesser people have been done away with. We are here for a purpose and a destiny, and walk it out we will. Keep your eyes and ears open – we are not done yet. On the 10th of September 2006 a man I admired, respected, and loved drew his last breath. In the time since then I have heard countless stories of how much he worked to make the life of his people better – the people of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, formerly Grand Council Treaty No. 9. He fought tirelessly for his people and sacrificed so much. He was the founding leader, president, grand chief – Andrew Rickard. I honour him as I write this, and I end with his words,

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Our traditional and cultural way of living must be included in the education system if we are to survive. Our concept of meaningful self-government is therefore based on the belief that we must become self-sufficient and self-determining in all areas which affect the physical and spiritual life of our people. Yesterday our system of government worked effectively. Today, our people are confused and frustrated with a system that is reducing our nation to a welfare state. With pride and dignity, we look at tomorrow’s challenges for a better future.2 Last, but not least – kitchi meegwetch to John Long for allowing me and my people especially a look into the mechanisms that brought about Treaty No. 9. This truly is one special gift. Pauline M.R. Rickard councillor, Moose Cree First Nation sister to Andrew Rickard

Historiography

Until fairly recently, if Treaty No. 9 was mentioned at all in works about far northern Ontario, it was often dismissed. Paul Driben and Robert S. Trudeau’s analysis of the Fort Hope band includes a very useful commentary from someone the authors characterize as a “bitter” community member: When the government came here, the people already knew that other treaties were signed. But you have to remember they still didn’t know much about what was happening. Here was the government promising all kinds of things, like a reserve and annuity payments, and all the people had to do was promise their allegiance to the King. But of course they didn’t know the full implications, and there’s little doubt about that. They didn’t know they were signing away all their land for a reserve the government would control anyway, and they certainly didn’t know the annuity payment, which was worth a lot of money then, would be worth nothing today. No! The people didn’t know anything about that, and today, almost everyone in the band knows they got ripped off, whether they are honest enough to admit it or not.1 The sociologists correctly observe that the Ojibwe signatories at Fort Hope were not “acting in ignorance” and conclude that their trusting acceptance of a promise not to interfere in their economy was entirely reasonable at the time.2 Michael Barnes’s first book on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (t&no) states, “The treaty, which was signed so promptly and with much rejoicing, was to be severely criticized by an enlightened leadership many years later,”3 reinforcing what Paul DePasquale calls the pervasive colonial “myth of the passive, unsophisticated Indian who easily submits.”4 This perception is echoed in Barnes’s later book, when he assumes that “all the [treaty commissioners] did was … dictate the terms of the treaty. The Cree gave up their lands … a deal which native leadership bitterly regretted later.”5 It is more common for Treaty No. 9 to be omitted entirely, as in Fred Close’s All Aboard the Polar Bear Express. Treaty No. 9, and Indigenous peoples for that matter, are also entirely absent from Albert Tucker’s 1978 history of the building of the t&no.6 These authors unwittingly reinforce another of DePasquale’s colonial

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myths, for they assume “the perceived right and legal authority”7 of the state to carry out such projects in Indigenous territories. More surprising is a book on the t&no by historian Robert Surtees (a scholar known for his knowledge of Indigenous history), which almost completely ignores aboriginal peoples. After asserting that the 1850 “Robinson-Huron Treaty had secured to the government the lands … as far north as the height of land,” Surtees acknowledges that the Temagami (Teme-Augama) people felt otherwise. In stating that “Cree … claims were purchased as far north as the Albany River in 1905,” however, he implies that there are no other interpretations.8 Grand Council Treaty No. 9’s Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski in 1977, Andy Rickard’s 1977 book, and numerous presentations to the Royal Commission on the Northern Environment in 1977–78 suggested otherwise.9 Surtees, a childhood friend of former Ontario premier Mike Harris and a selfdeclared “blue Tory,” was simply following in the track of his predecessors. When the Laurentian University Review published a special issue commemorating fifty years since the arrival of the t&no, there was no mention of Treaty No. 9 and Tucker’s book was favourably reviewed.10 As in H.V. Nelles’s classic study of forestry, mining, and hydroelectric development in Ontario,11 Indigenous peoples’ interests in the region used to be ignored. The province’s unfettered ownership of the land, water, and resources were often unquestioned. Indigenous history was often divorced from “mainstream” accounts of the twentieth-century events. By ignoring Treaty No. 9, scholars advance the myth of Ontario’s legitimate authority to “develop,” regardless of any inconvenience – or harm – to Indigenous peoples. By implication, the message is the paramount good for Ontarians as a whole of all sorts of “developments.” Ernest Leigh Fraleck of Bellevile, a geologist with the Kingston School of Mines, could not have foreseen the scale of the hydroelectric megaprojects that would devastate the Indigenous occupants of the upper Albany, Mattagami, and Abitibi Rivers. Yet Fraleck, a member of the province’s exploration survey party no. 2 in 1900, did recognize that development of any kind would affect the Indigenous peoples of northern Ontario. On the basis of his brief investigations between the Abitibi and Missinaibi Rivers, he observed, The Indians in the summer subsist mainly on white fish which they obtain by means of small gill nets. Sturgeon also appear to be present in these rivers … The Indians in our district do not at the most number over eight hundred individuals. Each household has its hunting ground allotted according to tribal custom. They are provided only with the old flintlock muskets. It is therefore to the interest of each household not to exterminate the game in its district. The opening up of the country would in my opinion lead to a rapid depletion of the fur-bearing animals.12 Fraleck’s warning would be ignored by federal and provincial governments.

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Until the discovery of MacMartin’s journal, it was understandable that most writers assumed Treaty No. 9 had been explained, understood, and accepted by the Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Cree, and Algonquin, although perhaps under duress. The latter view was common through the mid-1980s, even in the Ojibway-Cree Cultural Centre’s Nishnawbe-Aski Nation: A History of the Cree and Ojibway of Northern Ontario.13 I am grateful to many scholars whose works have contributed to my understanding of Treaty No. 9 and the people of far northern Ontario. They include Michael Angel, Janet Armstrong, Louis Bird, Charles Bishop, Mary Black-Rogers, Jennifer S.H. Brown, David Calverley, Janet Chute, Ken Coates, Stan Dragland, C. Douglas Ellis, Regina Flannery, John Foster, Brian Gettler, Susan Gray, A.I. Hallowell, Victor Lytwyn, Jean Manore, Maureen Matthews, David McNab, Jim Miller, Toby Morantz, James Morrison, David Pentland, Laura Peers, Dick Preston, Arthur Ray, Ed Rogers, Roger Spielmann, Rhonda Telford, Brian Titley, Frank Tough, Sylvia Van Kirk, Thomas Vennum, Derek Whitehouse-Stong, and no doubt others whom I may have forgotten. Graeme Williams kindly shared family research on his grandfather Herb and great-uncle Jabez. John O’Meara provided extensive scholarly advice on Ojibwe and Cree terminology; John D. Nichols, David Pentland, and C.D. Ellis contributed as well; errors are mine. It is no exaggeration to say that while others have written about Treaty No. 9, James Morrison has established himself as the foremost scholar. Jim worked for Grand Council Treaty No. 9 in the 1970s and after that as an independent consultant. He is a highly respected legal and historical researcher. In writing this book, I have relied heavily on his research reports on Treaty No. 9, the 1850 Robinson treaties, and twentieth-century developments in the Moose River basin. Jim has also been generous in answering my questions and providing additional information during the writing of this book. Janet Armstrong’s doctoral dissertation is a valuable case study of the impact of Treaty No. 9 on the water rights of the Mishkeegogamang First Nation, labelled the Osnaburgh band in 1905.14 Similarly, chapter 4 of Rhonda Telford’s history of aboriginal mineral resources in Ontario concerns Treaty No. 9.15 These scholars were apparently the first to use the previously unknown journal of treaty commissioner D. George MacMartin. Jackie Hookimaw-Witt’s ma thesis uses interviews with elders and her own cultural insights as a Cree woman from Attawapiskat to articulate a Cree world view of land ownership and conclude that the land is still theirs.16 The research of these scholars deserves to be published. Louis Bird has briefly considered the signing of Treaty No. 9 at Winisk by his grandfather and great-uncle in 1930,17 although most of his insights on this matter are as yet unpublished. Jackie’s and Louis’s “insider” research complements my own into oral accounts of treaty-making at Fort Albany, Winisk, and New Post.18 Other scholars have conducted research into Treaty No. 9 under contract to Nishnawbe Aski Nation or its constituent First Nations or other aboriginal

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organizations, or for the provincial or federal governments, but the results are generally not available to outsiders. “Treaty Gold,” a book manuscript on Treaty No. 9 and the people of North Caribou Lake by Mary Black-Rogers and the late Ed Rogers also deserves to be published. There is a rich scholarly debate about where the Ojibwe and Cree of what is now northern Ontario were originally located and where they moved, following the arrival of European fur traders. The reader is referred to Laura Peers’s summary19 and to the publications of Charles Bishop, Victor Lytwyn, Edward S. Rogers, Dale Russell, Adolph Greenberg, and James Morrison included in the bibliography. Similarly, the reader is directed to the lively debate on family trapping (or hunting) territories, alluded to by Fraleck, in the important collection edited by Charles Bishop and Toby Morantz. The situation of the Métis, referred to as “half-breeds” in 1905, in the aftermath of Treaty No. 9 has been considered by Jean Manore, Gwen Reimer, and Jean-Philippe Chartrand and by me.20 Carol M. Judd, Jennifer Brown, and Sylvia Van Kirk have investigated Métis origins.21 Lorraine Le Camp provides important insider insights.22 Arthur Ray and Donald Freeman’s important study of fur trade relationships, and subsequent analyses by others (including John Foster, Jim Miller, Ray with Miller, and Frank Tough) help to place treaty-making in historical perspective.23 Brian Titley, who, like Jim Morrison, had access to the journals of Scott and Stewart (but not MacMartin’s), was one of the first to bring Treaty No. 9 to the attention of a wider public.24 Jean Manore, Dick Preston, and I have written about hydroelectric development in far northeastern Ontario in the wake of Treaty No. 9.25 Legal scholar Patrick Macklem has examined the implications of the treaty on “natural resource development in far northern Ontario.”26 Kent McNeil’s legal research on the physical boundaries of Rupert’s Land and the Rupert’s Land pledge is especially relevant to a modern understanding of Treaty No. 9.27 I also wish to acknowledge some websites that I found especially useful: the 1864–1990 annual reports of Indian Affairs, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development’s historic treaty site, the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives’ biographical sheets, the Ontario First Nations directory and community profiles, the Wawatay News archives, the Ontario Bureau of Mines publications database in the geoscience data portal of the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and the federal department of Natural Resources’ Mirage index of Geological Survey of Canada maps.28 Wawatay News and www.knet.ca are “go to” sites for news coverage of far northern Ontario. Shortly before Treaty No. 9 went to press, On the Path of the Elders, an interactive multimedia website that allows participants to experience treaty-making in 1905, was launched.29 Its history section was written by my Cree friend and anthropologist Stan L. Louttit. His paternal grandfather, hbc employee William Louttit, was assigned ticket number Albany 73 when Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin made their treaty tour.30

Terminology

algonquin As we ascend the Abitibi River and descend the Ottawa, Indigenous people call themselves variations of the term Anishinaabeg and are more often referred to in English as Algonquin.1 Wahgoshig First Nation near Matheson, which belongs to nan, also has an affiliation with Abitibiwinni at Pikogan and five other Algonquin First Nations in Quebec: Eagle Village at Lake Kipawa near Temiscaming, Kitcisakik (historic Grand Lac Victoria) near Val d’Or, Kitigan Zibi (“Garden River”) at Maniwaki, Lac Simon, and Long Point (also known as Winneway).2 Their neighbours in Quebec include the Algonquins of Barriere Lake (now at Rapid Lake), Timiskaming First Nation (near Notre Dame du Nord), and Wolf Lake (at Hunter’s Point).3 The Pikwakanagan First Nation (“beautiful hilly country covered in evergreens”) is located at Golden Lake in Ontario.4 The self-designation Ojibway is sometimes used today at New Post (Taykwa Tagamou Nation) among descendents of Bella Omakees, as it sometimes was over a century ago.5

bands For the 1905 Treaty No. 9 commissioners, a “band” was defined in legislation as a group of Indians who either had a reserve, its legal title held by the Crown, or received funds from the federal government.6 Without a reserve or funds managed by the government and without a treaty, the same people were considered to be “non-treaty Indians” belonging to an “irregular band.”7 The bands arbitrarily created by the Treaty No. 9 commissioners were simply renamed trading-post bands. Anthropologists June Helm, Ed Rogers, and James Smith remind us that each of these “bands” was really as an “aggregate of groups associated with a specific trading post.” Although the federal government “imbued these trading post bands with formal membership recorded on ‘band lists,’ ‘chiefs,’ and a corporate definition,” these government creations were “pronouncedly at variance with the diffuse, fluid, and pragmatic patterns of traditional leadership and territorial and political organization.”8 The bands created by the commissioners in 1905 were called Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and New Post. When its economy changed, a treaty-inspired band’s constituent groups often separated and moved,

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and the names often changed as well. The Indian Act term “band” has been replaced on letterheads in far northern Ontario by “Nation” or “First Nation” since the late 1980s, but it is still used by the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (diand).9 A century after the first signing of Treaty No. 9, descendents of the Anishinaabeg, Anishininiwuk, and Mushkegowuk are politically affiliated with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, an organization that also includes people with historic connections to Treaty No. 5.10 My understanding of the relationship of nan’s constituent communities to the Treaty No. 9 bands of 1905–6, 1908, and 1929–30 is as follows, with square brackets indicating where I found their reserve lands in the Atlas of Canada, available at Note: When I write that the Slate Falls First Nation, for example, was once considered part of the Osnaburgh band or that the Whitewater First Nation was once considered part of the Fort Hope band, I am referring to the colonial system imposed by the treaty commissioners in 1905. Similarly, when I state that a First Nation is not yet recognized by Indian Affairs as a band today, I acknowledge that such recognition is rooted problematically in the Indian Act. The Abitibi (Ontario) band, recognized by the 1906 commissioners, is now known as the Wahgoshig First Nation. The Abitibi (Quebec) band [at Pikogan Indian Reserve], recognized by the 1906 commissioners, is not affiliated with nan. Samuel Stewart visited the group in 1908 to sign an agreement or adhesion, formally denounced by Chief Harry McDougall in 2006. Now centred at Pikogan, near Amos, Quebec, the people are known as the Abitibiwinni Anishinabeg or Conseil de la Première Nation Abitibiwinni. With Eagle Village, Lac Simon, Long Point, and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, they created the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council in 1992.11 The Aroland First Nation [Aroland 83 reserve] is an amalgam of members with ties to Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Long Lake 77 (in Treaty No. 9) together with Long Lake 58 and Fort William First Nations (in the 1850 RobinsonSuperior Treaty). Aroland acquired band status in 1985.12 The Attawapiskat First Nation [at Attawapiskat 91A reserve], at first considered part of the Fort Albany band, was formally recognized as a separate band in 1929.13 The Bearskin Lake First Nation [at Bearskin Lake reserve], previously considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1975. The Beaverhouse First Nation [at Beaverhouse Lake, Timiskaming district], near Kirkland Lake, was apparently overlooked by the 1906 treaty commissioners and is still not considered a band by Indian Affairs. The Big Trout Lake band, recognized by the 1929 treaty commissioners, is now known as Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug.

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The Brunswick House First Nation [at Duck Lake 76B reserve] was recognized as a band by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The Cat Lake First Nation [at Cat Lake 63C reserve], previously considered part of the Osnaburgh band, acquired band status about 1970.14 The Chapleau Cree First Nation [at Chapleau Cree Fox Lake reserve] was implicitly recognized as a band by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The Chapleau Ojibway First Nation [at Chapleau 61A reserve] was implicitly recognized as a band by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The Constance Lake First Nation [at Constance Lake 92 reserve], created in 1945, includes former members of the English River, Fort Albany, Fort Hope, and Moose Factory bands. They sometimes describe themselves as “Oji-Cree” to acknowledge the two separate language groups. The Deer Lake First Nation [at Deer Lake, Kenora district] was recognized as a band in the 1910 adhesion to Treaty No. 5 and later admitted members of the Island Lake (Manitoba) band. In 1985 the people separated into the Deer Lake, Keewaywin, Koocheching, North Spirit Lake, and Sandy Lake First Nations. The Eabametoong First Nation [at Fort Hope 64 reserve] was previously known as the Fort Hope band. The English River band [near Mammamattawa], initially considered part of the Fort Albany band but soon recognized as distinct, became part of the Constance Lake First Nation.15 The Flying Post First Nation was recognized as a band by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The reserve [Flying Post 73] near Timmins is now unoccupied, and descendents are located near Nipigon. The Fort Albany band, recognized by the 1905 treaty commissioners (with Attawapiskat becoming a separate band in 1929), separated unofficially in 1957 when a radar base was built on the south mainland. Descendents affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church went to Sinclair Island and the mainland opposite the south channel of the Albany River [at Fort Albany, unincorporated area], where they established what is now known as the Fort Albany First Nation. Anglicans went to the reserve assigned in 1905 [at Fort Albany 67 reserve] on the mainland opposite the north channel and established what is now known as the Kashechewan First Nation.16 The Fort Hope band [at Fort Hope 64 reserve], recognized by the 1905 treaty commissioners, is now known as the Eabametoong First Nation.17 Some descendents have since formed the Neskatanga First Nation at Lansdowne House on the south shore of Attawapiskat Lake, the Webequie First Nation at the north end of Winisk Lake, and the Nibinamik First Nation at Summer Beaver.18 The Fort Severn First Nation [at Fort Severn 89 reserve] was recognized as a band by the 1930 treaty commissioners. The Ginoogaming First Nation [at Ginoogaming First Nation reserve] was previously known as the Long Lake band.19

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The Hornepayne First Nation [Hornepayne unincorporated area], previously considered part of the Long Lake band, is not yet recognized as a band by Indian Affairs. The Kasabonika Lake First Nation [at Kasabonika Lake reserve], previously considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1976. The Kashechewan First Nation [at Fort Albany 67 reserve] was once considered part of the Fort Albany band. The Keewaywin First Nation [at Keewaywin reserve] was once considered part of the Deer Lake band. The Kingfisher Lake First Nation [at Kingfisher Lake 1 reserve], previously considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1975. The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug [at Kitchenuhmaykoosib Aaki 84 reserve], previously known as the Big Trout Lake band, are no longer members of nan. The Koocheching First Nation was once considered part of the Deer Lake band. The Long Lake 77 band [at Ginoogaming First Nation reserve], recognized by the 1906 treaty commissioners, is now known as Ginoogaming First Nation. The Long Lake 58 First Nation [at Long Lake 58 reserve], with ties to the 1850 Robinson-Superior Treaty, is an associate member of nan. With the signing of Treaty No. 9, 65 members of this band were transferred from its pay-list to the Long Lake 77 band.20 The Marten Falls band [at Marten Falls 65 reserve], now Marten Falls First Nation, was recognized by the 1905 treaty commissioners. The Matachewan band, now Matachewan First Nation [at Matachewan 72 reserve], was recognized by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The Mattagami band [at Mattagami 71 reserve], now Mattagami First Nation, was recognized by the 1906 treaty commissioners. The McDowell Lake First Nation [at MacDowell Lake], whose members have historic ties to the Osnaburgh (Cat Lake) and North Caribou Lake bands, acquired band status in 1985. The Mishkeegogamang First Nation [at Osnaburgh 63 reserve] was previously known as the Osnaburgh band. The Missanabie Cree First Nation [at Missanabie 62 reserve] was implicitly recognized as a band by the 1906 treaty commissioners. Mocreebec Council of the Cree Nation consists of people historically connected to Quebec bands from eastern James Bay but living in Moose Factory and Moosonee.21 Under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, they are unable to exercise their jbnqa rights and benefits while living in Ontario. Mocreebec is a member of Nishnawbe Aski Nation but is not a band under the Indian Act, does not have a reserve in Ontario, and is not part of Treaty No. 9. Others with roots in the same Quebec bands have married into or transferred their band memberships to Treaty No. 9 bands, particularly the Moose Cree First Nation.

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The Moose Cree First Nation was previously known as the Moose Factory band. Although it was assigned a reserve upriver in 1905 [at Moose Factory 68 reserve], most members live in Moose Factory (where there is another reserve) or Moosonee. The Moose Factory band, recognized by the 1905 treaty commissioners, is now known as the Moose Cree First Nation. The Muskrat Dam First Nation [at Muskrat Dam Lake reserve], previously considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1976. The Neskatanga First Nation [at Lansdowne House reserve and formerly known as a band by that name], implicitly recognized as distinct from the Fort Hope band in 1929–30, acquired band status in 1985. The New Post band [at New Post 69 reserve], recognized by the 1905 treaty commissioners, is now known as the Taykwa Tagamou Nation [at New Post 69A reserve]. The Nibinamik First Nation [at Summer Beaver reserve], previously considered part of the Fort Hope band, acquired band status in 1985. The North Caribou Lake First Nation [at Weagamow Lake 87 reserve] was implicitly recognized as a distinct group (the Cranes) in 1905 and then as a band by the 1929–30 commissioners. The North Spirit Lake First Nation [at North Spirit Lake reserve] was once considered part of the Deer Lake band. The Osnaburgh band [at Osnaburgh 63 reserve], recognized by the 1905 commissioners, is now known as Mishkeegogamang (“muskeg”) First Nation.22 The Pikangikum First Nation [at Pikangikum 14 reserve] was recognized as a band by the Treaty No. 5 commissioners in 1875. The Poplar Hill First Nation [at Poplar Hill reserve], previously considered part of the Pikangikum band (Treaty No. 5), acquired band status in 1978. The Sachigo Lake First Nation [at Sachigo Lake 1 reserve], implicitly recognized as distinct from the Big Trout Lake band in 1929, acquired band status in 1975. The Sandy Lake First Nation [at Sandy Lake 88 reserve] was once considered part of the Deer Lake band. The Saugeen First Nation [at Saugeen Nation of Ojibway reserve], with historic ties to the Fort Hope and Osnaburgh bands (and to Treaty No. 3), acquired band status in 1985 but has since withdrawn from nan. The (New) Slate Falls First Nation [at Slate Falls reserve], which has historic ties to the Osnaburgh band, acquired band status in 1985.23 The Wahgoshig First Nation [at Abitibi 70 reserve] was previously known as the Abitibi (Ontario) band. The Wapekeka First Nation [at Wapekeka reserve and previously known as the Angling Lake band], once considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1975.

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The Wawakapewin First Nation [at Wawakapewin reserve and previously known as the Nemeigusabins Lake band, sometimes referred to as Long Dog or Long Dog Lake], once considered part of the Big Trout Lake band, acquired band status in 1985. The Webequie First Nation [at Webequie reserve], previously considered part of the Fort Hope band, acquired band status about 1985. The Weenusk First Nation [at Peawanuck reserve], previously misspelled Winisk, was recognized as a band by the 1930 treaty commissioners. The Whitewater First Nation was previously considered part of the Fort Hope band. When the Ontario government created Wabakimi24 Provincial Park at Whitewater Lake in 1983 (expanded in 1997 to become the second largest in the province), provincial authorities asked the Slipperjacks, descendents of William Patahoo, to leave. Knowing the oral promises made in 1905, they refused.25 They are not yet recognized as a band by Indian Affairs. The Wunnumin Lake First Nation [at Wunnumin reserve], implicitly recognized as distinct from the Big Trout Lake band by the 1929 treaty commissioners, acquired band status in 1975.

colonialism Colonialism, writes Linda Tuhiwai Smith, is “one expression of imperialism.” In Rupert’s Land, imperialism meant “economic expansion” – the trade in furs, masts for the British navy, quills, or isinglass. From today’s vantage point, the introduction of alcohol signalled future devastation. With the decline of the middle ground and the imposition of the Indian Act and provincial laws, the economc imperative expanded to include mining, forestry, and hydroelectric development, but now clearly involved “the exploitation and subjugation of indigenous peoples.” The hbc had to control its own men (for there were few women in Rupert’s Land during its first century and a half), and these posts became “image[s] of the future nation.”26

cree I use the term “Cree,” knowing that the self-designations Ininiw27 (Moose Cree, Ililiw)28 – variously translated as human being, person, aboriginal person, Indian, or true person; pluralized with –ak (pronounced to rhyme with “duck”) – and (O)mushkego are also in use today. The Muskegog Cree Council was renamed the Mushkegowuk Council at its 1987 annual assembly in Kashechewan. Chiefs felt Muskego[wu]g Cree was redundant, and they sought guidance from a committee of elders. From the committee’s deliberations, the council produced the following statement (in translation):

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Mushkegowuk can mean two things. One refers to the muskeg. Long ago, the Ojibway Indians from the west came to see us, and they saw that we were living along the coast. So they named us Mushkego Indians. The Indians who lived here were very strong and powerful, and that is the second reason we were given the name Mushkegowuk. Our grandfathers unloaded the Hudson’s Bay Company ships when they came in. The word Mushkegowuk also reminds us of our traditional religion, when we used powerful spirits to protect ourselves.29 While Mushkegowuk did not originate as a self-designation (“the Ojibway Indians … named us Mushkego Indians”; recall that Mishkeegoogamang refers to “swampy water”), it has been adopted as one,30 at least for now. Some northern Ontario Cree feel that their official self-designation should derive from Ininiw or Ililiw, but perhaps the committee of elders recognized that they were unlikely to reach consensus on which dialect to use.31 (One elder in the group would have used the East Cree Eeyou or Iyiyu.32 Her constituent group, Mocreebec,33 was subsequently removed from the Mushkegowuk Council but remains a member of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation.)34

far northern ontario With almost half of Ontario lying below the 49th parallel, “north” in this province is always imprecise. For many people, it begins in the cottage country at Parry Sound (as it does for Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines).35 The area between Parry Sound and North Bay is often called the “near north,” a nod to Louis-Edmond Hamelin’s “Pré-Nord,” which he extended as far as the 50th parallel.36 Lying north of 50 is the area increasingly referred to as the province’s “far north.”37 I borrow the phrase “far northern Ontario” from the subtitle of the Ontario Royal Commission on the Northern Environment’s 1985 atlas, North of 50º. Hamelin considered my “far northern Ontario” to be Canada’s “middle north.”38 Some stretch the old expression “little north” to describe this region.39 Far northern Ontario today represents slightly more than half the surface area of the province and just over 5 per cent of Canada.40 It is not coterminous with Treaty No. 9, for the Treaty No. 9 region dips some 300 kilometres below the 50th parallel between Lake Nipigon and the Quebec border. Far northern Ontario includes parts of the 1850 Robinson-Superior treaty and Treaties 3 and 5 (see figure 1.3). But it was largely within this vast “north of 50” territory that Treaty No. 9 commissioners Duncan Campbell Scott, Samuel Stewart, and D. George MacMartin travelled in the summer of 1905, visiting the hbc posts at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Marten Falls, English River, Fort Albany, and Moose Factory

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before treaty-making ended for the year at New Post, just south of the 50th parallel. Treaty deliberations in Ontario and Quebec in 1906 and 1908 respectively occurred below the 50th. Only after Ontario’s northern boundary was expanded in 1912 was Treaty No. 9’s reach extended again to the far north in 1929 and 1930 (see chapter 5). The climate of far northern Ontario is, generally, more typical of lands much further north, but there are different zones within this vast region. The southwestern area is more temperate, the windy coastal area bordering James and Hudson Bays “the most rigorous and limiting.” Similarly, “[d]iversity of species,” too, is “greatest in the southwest and lowest along the coast.”41 The rivers of far northern Ontario originate in the rugged, rolling, mineralrich Canadian Shield, which comprises a very broad belt in the western and central portions of the region and a very narrow strip in the southeast. Along the saltwater coast, in a band stretching 240 kilometres (150 miles) or more inland, lie the Hudson Bay Lowlands, generally less than 150 metres (500 feet) above sea level.42 Rivers and lakes account for 11 per cent of the surface area of the Shield, but just 3 per cent of the Lowlands – much of which is bogs, fens, and shallow lakes.43 Peat bogs cover as much as half of far northern Ontario, and there is discontinuous permafrost in the more northernly half.44 Far northern Ontario lies within two broad divisions of Canada’s boreal forest, an enormous region that stretches from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Rocky Mountains. In the Shield portion of far northern Ontario, where the commissioners began their treaty-making in 1905, it is “predominantly forest,” comprised of white and black spruce, balsam fir, trembling aspen, and white and jack pine, but it can be further subdivided into six subsections, through three of which the commissioners travelled: the Upper English, which includes Lac Seul and half of Lake St Joseph; the Central Plateau, which is drained by the upper reaches of the Albany River and its tributaries; and, in the east, the Northern Clay section, on the upper reaches of the Moose River’s three tributaries. In the Lowlands it is “forest and barren,” with characteristic tamarac and white and black spruce along the river banks – and at most stunted growth in the transitional strip of Forest-Tundra along the southwestern coast of Hudson Bay.45 Moose, caribou, beaver, fisher, marten, mink, muskrat, weasel, and hare are found in far northern Ontario. White-tailed deer, bobcat, coyote, and racoon are limited to the south or southwest, while Arctic fox and polar bear are found only along the shores of Hudson and James Bay. Over two hundred bird species can be encountered, some three dozen of them year-round.46 Northern pike, pickerel, brook and lake trout, lake sturgeon, and whitefish are the major fish of the region.47 North can be a political, social, cultural, or racial designation – a created space as well as a geographical one. I was reminded of this fact when I was principal of Francine J. Wesley Secondary School in Kashechewan in the late 1990s. Having lived most of my adult life north of 50°, I felt comfortable wearing a t-shirt

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bearing the phrase “Attitude – it’s a northern thing.” One of the students, Jean, thought differently. She remarked, “You’re not even a northerner.”

hbc posts Half a century after Henry Hudson’s ill-fated exploration of James Bay, the Nonsuch, commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam, wintered at the mouth of what the crew named the Rupert River and traded for furs with Indigenous people. In 1670 the “Governor & Company of Adventurers of England Tradeing into Hudsons Bay” received an exclusive royal charter to trade and colonize the vast area that would be known as Rupert’s Land for two centuries. For most of this time, the Hudson’s Bay Company enjoyed a monopoly.48 I generally use the commissioners’ and hbc’s 1905 terminology for specific places, recognizing that Indigenous names, which may have been used since time immemorial, have sometimes since replaced them. Names are used by colonizers not only to define and dominate the people they encounter (or “discover’) but also to assert jurisdiction over their lands and waters. As Linda Tuhiwai Smith says, “They came, they saw, they named, they claimed.”49 Formerly colonized peoples around the world are reasserting the power to rename themselves and their territories.50 In 1905 it was administratively convenient for the federal government to meet a band at one central location to pay annuities, but, except for a few days each year (and, for some, not every year), the people were spread over their ancestral land and waters. In creating these artificial bands, the treaty commissioners followed the lead of the Hudson’s Bay Company, for it too found it convenient to establish posts at central locations and discourage the trappers associated with Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, Martin Falls, English River, Fort Albany, Moose Factory, and New Post from trading elsewhere. Even in 1905, of course, people were on the move, attracted by new opportunities along the cpr line and coalescing into new bands or joining other bands. Men who had married out, for example, would often trap with their fathers-in-law for at least a few years. By 1902 Revillon Frères was competing with the hbc at most of the hbc’s posts in far northern Ontario. For the hbc, as we saw in chapter 3, it was an enormous economic advantage to be able to shape the geographical scope of Treaty No. 9 and actually deliver the commissioners to its own posts in 1905.

indians The commissioners’ journals frequently employed the term “Indian” to refer to the northern Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Cree, and Algonquin. The term’s legislative history predates Confederation, and it is still used in the federal Indian Act.51 By the time Treaty No. 9 was first signed, the term had passed through several legal

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meanings. In 1868, eight years before the first Indian Act, an Indian was defined in Canadian law – arbitrarily and by non-Indians – as someone who was “of Indian blood, reputed to belong to the particular tribe, band or body of Indians … and their descendents.” A child with one non-Indian parent was still considered an Indian, as were his or her descendents. In addition, any woman who married an Indian was deemed an Indian.52 The definition was changed a year later to discriminate against Indian women and strip any of them who married non-Indians of their Indian status, along with any children from that union. In addition, an Indian woman who married into another band had her band membership switched to that of her husband. Similarly, children were assigned “to their father’s tribe only.”53 The first Indian Act in 1876 consolidated earlier legislation and placed additional emphasis on male lineage. An Indian was now “Any male person of Indian blood reputed to belong to a particular band … Any child of such person … Any woman who is or was lawfully married to such person.” There was, however, some consolation for an Indian woman who married a non-Indian. Although she would “cease to be an Indian in any respect within the meaning of this Act,” she could still receive her share of payments from her paternal band’s annuities. If her band approved, she could, however, choose instead to “commute” or exchange this annual “income” for a one-time sum equal to ten times the annual amount.54 These provisions were still in effect in 1905 when Treaty No. 9 was first signed.55 By 1927 the definition of an Indian was unchanged, but the consent of the band was no longer required for commutation of annuities; all that was needed was “the approval of the Superintendent General,” by which title the minister responsible for Indian Affairs was known (see “Indian Affairs” below).56 As Robert Brightman observes, the term “Indian,” “ambiguities of correctness notwithstanding … [,] remains (politicians and academics to one side) the commonest unmarked English self-designation.”57 When one of my students, on a teaching placement in a First Nation school a couple of years ago, asked a member of the local staff, “What’s it like to be a First Nation citizen?” he received the puzzled response, “Huh? We’re just Indians around here.”

indian affairs Created as a separate federal government department in 1880, by non-Indians, Indian Affairs was generally overseen by the minister of the Interior until 1930 and then by the minister of Immigration and Colonization. Between 1935 and 1966 it was reduced to the status of a branch within, variously, Mines and Resources, Citizenship and Immigration, Resources and Development, and Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. In 1966 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (diand) was created.58 Letterhead and website notwithstanding, it is still the diand.

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indigenous I sometimes use the term Indigenous instead of aboriginal, agreeing with Linda Tuhiwai Smith that Indigenous is also “problematic in that it appears to collectivize many distinct populations whose experiences under imperialism have been vastly different.”59 When I use this term in reference to far northern Ontario, I include the Ojibwe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Algonquin, and Métis of this region.

indigenous languages The Nishnawbe-Aski website states that the ancestral languages of its members are “Ojibway, Cree, and Ojicree,” the terms commonly used in English.60 Speakers of those languages call generally refer to these tongues as Anishinaabemowin, Ininiimowin (or Ililiimowin or Mushkegowiimowin), and Anishininiimowin respectively. According to a map of Indigenous language speakers in Ontario, the Indigenous languages of the nan First Nations are as follows: Cree: Attawapiskat, Chapleau Cree, Constance Lake, Fort Albany, Fort Severn,61 Kashechewan, Mocreebec, Moose Factory, Taykwatagamou Nation, and Weenusk. Oji-Cree: Bearskin Lake, Deer Lake, Kasabonika Lake, Keewaywin, Kingfisher Lake, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, MacDowell Lake, Muskrat Dam, Nibimamik, North Caribou Lake, North Spirit Lake, Sachigo Lake, Sandy Lake, Wapekeka, Webequie, and Wunnumin Lake. Ojibwe: Aroland, Beaverhouse, Brunswick House, Cat Lake, Eabametoong, Ginoogaming, Hornepayne, Marten Falls, Matachewan, Mattagami, Mishkeegogamang, New Slate Falls, Pikangikum, Poplar Hill, and Wahgoshig.

métis When Indian Affairs officials later stated that the only “half-breeds” were at Moose Factory, they were evidently not talking about people of IndigenousEuropean ancestry – who were present throughout far northern Ontario, in and out of treaty – but about those who had petitioned them, those whom officials did not classify as white or Indian, or those who declared themselves “half-breeds.” Categories often lie in the eye of the beholder, the “other,” as my friend and former student Randy Kapashesit (now chief of Mocreebec) reminded me. When I said something to him about the “Métis, formerly known as half-breeds,” he immediately finished the phrase with “formerly known as Crees.” In the mid1980s I preferred to speak about “fur trade company families,” a phrase Jennifer S.H. Brown used in her important work Strangers in Blood. More recently, I referred to my late friend Fred Moore as a “Cree half-breed” but noted that he jokingly referred to himself as a “tin can” – wemistikoshihkan (“standing in for

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a person with a wooden boat,” or perhaps “whiteman-like,” or “living like a whiteman”) – who later “got his feathers back.”62 I have thought about this term for almost forty years, have written about it, and will probably write some more, but I am increasingly uncomfortable with using “Métis” in far northern Ontario. Whether the definition comes from the Manitoba Act, the Indian Act, or a repatriated constitution, it is still someone else’s term for some of the Indigenous peoples of far northern Ontario (except on one Treaty No. 9 reserve where French is spoken). As we saw earlier, the jbnqa avoided blood quanta in defining who is eligible under that treaty, recognizing any amount of Indigenous ancestry combined with continued residency in the region. The Indigenous people of far northern Ontario – First Nation and Indigenous other – can and have devised their own membership codes and definitions. The rest of us need to know that the strands in the braid (see 367–8) have influenced each other for centuries. Sharing with, learning from, and respecting one another – and enabling Indigenous peoples to achieve bimaadiziwin (their own distinct forms of the “peace, welfare and good government” that John Ralston Saul reminds us is central to Canada)63 – is far more important than dna. But in chapters 3, 4, and 12 of this historical analysis,, I use the expressions of the day.

oji-cree Linguist John O’Meara, who authored most of the Wikipedia article “Oji-Cree Language,” explains that “Oji-Cree is frequently treated as a separate language but in reality it is a dialect of Ojibwe with a significant (but not overwhelming) amount of vocabulary borrowed from Cree, as well as some minor morphology, etc. from Cree. Linguists prefer the name Severn Ojibwe.”64

ojibwe Laura Peers, in her fine book The Ojibwa of Western Canada, argues that historians should be true to the records, avoid presentism, and use historic terms for aboriginal peoples, recognizing that these European or Euro-Canadian labels are not necessarily those preferred by Indigenous peoples themselves.65 The names of treaty commissioners, witnesses, chiefs, and headmen are affixed to a document that refers to the “the Ojibeway[,] Cree and other Indians,” and I have chosen to use variations of these terms in this book as well, rather than Anishinaabeg and Mushkegowuk. In the western portion of far northern Ontario I modify the spelling of the treaty term “Ojibeway” – except in original documents – to “Ojibwe” (as commonly used by linguists today).66 Muriel Sawyer of North Bay, one of my local experts, advises that “Ojibway” is an Anglicized form of “Ojibwe” but the final two letters in “Ojibwe” should be pronounced like the first two in the English

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word “wet.”67 I sometimes add the adjective “northern,” used since A.I Hallowell and R.W. Dunning and then Charles Bishop and Ed Rogers established “the northern Ojibwa” as a scholarly canon.68 Spelling is by no means standardized outside (or inside) the academic world. The Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre is based in Timmins. Mishkeegogamang First Nation is also known as Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation.69 The spelling is Ojibwe on Michipicoten First Nation’s website and in the name of the Chapleau Ojibwe First Nation.70 I recognize that, today, the Indigenous people of the upper Albany River often prefer (A)nish(i)naabe (“‘Indian’ or ‘human being’”)71 and its plural forms, Anishinaabek or Anishinaabeg. (Voiced –k and voiceless –g are usually not distinguished,72 and the spelling of Indigenous languages is not standardized, except among linguists, who favour the “g.”) Linguist David Pentland writes, “The most common self-designation is [Anishinaabe] ‘ordinary man,’” but this is also “used by other Ojibwa groups besides the Northern Ojibwa.”73 These others include the Great Lakes more southerly Ojibwe, the Mississauga and Odawa, some Algonquins, and the Potawatomi.74 In choosing to use the term “Ojibwe,” except where the context demands another historic term, I recognize three present-day complications, none of which impacts significantly on the journals and articles written by the 1905 treaty party. First, some Indigenous people in the western portion of far northern Ontario combine Anish[inaabe] and Ininiw to call themselves Anishininiw (singular, sometimes glossed as “Oji-Cree”; plural –ag but pronounced to rhyme with “duck”).75 Second, some of these same people sometimes refer to themselves in English as Cree.76 Finally, the term Ojibwe is generally not applied to the Algonquin people of northeastern Ontario (although linguists consider Algonquin a dialect of the Ojibwe language, sometimes called Eastern Ojibwe). Even historical records do not always agree. A 1901 census enumerator described the English River Indians as “Red” in colour, “Ojibbeway” in racial/ tribal origin, and bilingual – “speaking both Ojibbeway and Cree from an early age.”77 Samuel Stewart four years later considered them to be “Crees … [who] do not vary much in appearance from the Ojibways.”78

reserves In 1905 a reserve was defined in the Indian Act as land “set apart by a treaty or otherwise” for a band of Indians, its legal title vested in the Crown. Included with the land was “all the trees, wood, timber, soil, stone, minerals, metals and other valuables thereon or therein.” If part or all of a reserve reverted to the Crown, having been “surrendered” by the band, it was referred to as “Indian lands.”79 Today, although “reserve” is still enshrined in the Indian Act, the expression “First Nation territory” is sometimes used to refer to a reserve, although, in the

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far north, this term more often refers to a more extensive traditional territory. The Indigenous peoples who became enveloped in Treaty No. 9 in 1905 did not, of course, live year-round at the hbc trading posts where the commissioners met them (except for a few who were employees of the Company or its rival, the newly arrived Revillon Frères). They were spread across their traditional territories, commuting to the nearest post to trade their furs for supplies or seek summer employment. R.J. Renison, who learned to speak Ojibwe as a boy and later acquired fluency in Cree as a young Anglican missionary and future bishop in James Bay, recognized that most of the Cree and Ojibwe of far northern Ontario depended on the resources of that vast territory of land and water. If we overlook the paternalism and implicit racism in his memoir, he reminds us that the Cree were spread across that territory just like the one of the animals they depended upon: “In many ways the Indian is like the beaver. For countless generations he has lived in those vast … lands … He finds food, shelter, work and happiness in the open air.”80 Geologist W.D. Harding, who was interested in Lake St Joseph’s main tributary, the Cat River, and nearby Kawinogans Lake, recognized that the Ojibwe were still mobile people, dispersed on their lands, in 1934. There were “no white residents,” but A few Indian families from the Osnaburgh Indian Reserve reside in the area for most of the year. In the winter they live in teepees or log cabins adjacent to their trap lines, but in general their habits are nomadic. John Carpenter, present chief of the Osnaburgh Indians, and his family reside during most of the year at Slate Falls.81 Because of their intimate knowledge of the lands and waters, Indigenous people were invaluable to geologists and surveyors. Harding wrote that “Simon Wesley, of the Osnaburgh Indian Reserve at Lake St. Joseph” provided him with “Ojibway names of many of the lakes, as well as much other valuable information concerning the area.”82 There were significant hardships at the turn of the twentieth century, as a result of starvation, disease, and other disruptions and incursions, but the Ojibwe, OjiCree, Cree, and Algonquin were accustomed to dealing with these. Hardship stories are often the first ones that Indigenous elders tell to strangers. The arrival of Revillon Frères in northern Canada, just prior to treaty-making in 1905, ushered in a period of expanding opportunities for northern aboriginal peoples.83 Aside from the few who worked for the fur traders (or, later, the missions), sometimes for generations, the Indigenous people of far northern Ontario only began living year-round on their reserves in the 1950s. Today, as we saw in chapter 6, many of the Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Cree, and Algonquin from the historic 1905 bands live off-reserve in towns and cities across northern Ontario and through-

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out the world. With the Corbiere v. Canada decision of 1999,84 off-reserve band members can now vote in band elections.

treaty no. 9 region Political geographer Norman Nicholson reminds us that boundary demarcation is much more complicated than boundary delimitation. The latter “is a matter that may be decided upon quite rapidly … but the marking of a boundary on the surface of the earth involves different problems.” In the north, he observes, boundary delimitations “were often arbitrary in their essential character and were usually vaguely worded and phrased, often having been drawn up by authorities far removed from the area involved.”85 Anthropologist Mary Black-Rogers notes that “‘the Band’ – the government treaty entity – was never expected to represent a natural group boundary. No do Provincial lines.” Her study of the North Caribou Lake First Nation, whose representatives signed Treaty No. 9 in 1930, “extends into Northeastern Manitoba, and before 1912 Ontario stopped just short of the entire area of the study. Political borders do not stand still, nor (it turns out) do boundaries and compositions of human groups within them.”86 Numerous maps of the Treaty No. 9 region notwithstanding, we really do not know where to draw its boundaries. One of the earliest maps, prepared about 1923, shows it lying solely within Ontario, the area south of the Albany River having been acquired in 1905–6 and the portion north of the Albany “unsurrendered” (see figure 5.1). The region south of the Albany River is widely assumed to be the territory surrendered in 1905–6. A map published with the report of the 1930 commissioners shows the area north of the Albany now purportedly surrendered by adhesion.87 It includes the mysterious line ab running from the easternmost extension of Treaty No. 5, as shown on that map, through Cat Lake to a point on the west coast of James Bay halfway between the 54th and 55th parallels (see figure 5.2). On this second map, the Ontario boundary cuts through the box that frames its title in the top left corner, creating a triangle – which I will refer to as the 1930 wedge – in northern Manitoba, seeming to have suggested to some that Treaty No. 9 extends into northern Manitoba. The Atlas of Canada continues to show Treaty No. 9 taking in the 1930 wedge, as does a Treasury Board map.88 The rcne’s 1985 map of far northern Ontario shows not only the 1930 wedge but a second triangle – the rcne wedge – apparently a cartographical error.89 This seems to stem from a simple failure to align the western boundary of Treaty No. 9, south of the 1930 wedge, with the Ontario-Manitoba boundary. Not only does it create the rcne wedge for Treaty No. 9, but it also pushes Treaty No. 5’s adhesions into Ontario, unlike conventional maps of the Treaty No. 5 territory, such as those of the Atlas of Canada and the Treasury Board.90 While the rcne map’s eastward extension of Treaty No. 5 is apparently the

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result of a simple error, it nevertheless draws our attention to an important fact: the traplines of the bands who signed treaties did not conform to provincial boundaries. The maps of Cree family territories reconstructed by Regina Flannery and Beth Chambers from John M. Cooper’s notes, for example, show no regard for the Ontario-Quebec boundary.91 Their borders are not straight lines, and they resemble jigsaw puzzles more than checkerboards. A recent map of several Ojibwe territories along the Ontario-Manitoba boundary reinforces this perspective. The Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi territories extend into Ontario and abut those of Pikangikum, all three of whom are adherents of Treaty No. 5. Pikangikum, being in Ontario, is affiliated with nan, while Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi, of course, are not.92 A nan online map, however, hugs the Manitoba border west of Pikangikum, seemingly laying claim to their neighbours’ lands. nan’s map also includes a long, thin triangle in Manitoba that bears no resemblance to either the 1930 or rcne wedges. Ontario’s northern and western boundaries were extended by legislative decree in 1912, but its boundary with Manitoba was not completely marked upon the ground until 1948. Prior to demarcation, provincial regulation of mineral claims and traplines was difficult.93 Ironically, the last portion of this line was cleared by “axemen … from Norway House,” eager to finish the job before the spring muskrat season.94 Ontario’s northern boundary arbitrarily excluded offshore islands in James and Hudson Bays, such as Akimiski (akaamaskiy, “land across the water”), an area important to the western James Bay Cree, and Charlton Island, long an important hbc depot and, for a time, home to several Inuit, because they were hard to describe and the federal government might need them for defence or navigation.95 The Ontario-Quebec boundary, decreed in 1791 and surveyed north from Lake Timiskaming in 1872–73, was not completely demarcated until 1931.96 The official text of the parchment to which people affixed their names in 1905–6 circumscribed Treaty No. 9 with four limits: (1) “land lying and being in the Province of Ontario”; (2) “bounded on the south by the Height of land and the northern boundaries of the territory ceded by the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850, and the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850”; (3) “bounded on the East and North by the boundaries of the said Province of Ontario as defined by law”; and (4) “on the West by a part of the eastern boundary of the territory ceded by the North West Angle Treaty No. 3.” It is further described as “an area of ninety thousand square miles, more or less.” The parchment also includes a catch-all phrase that refers to “all other lands wherever situated in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, the District of Keewatin, or in any other portion of the Dominion of Canada” (see chapter 22). The four limits suggest that the Treaty No. 9 area today can be considered to be very roughly circumscribed on the east and, to some degree, on the west by provincial boundaries which have since been surveyed and demarcated but in no

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way delimit the territories of the First Nation signatories. Its boundaries with other treaty areas, in the west and south, have never been surveyed or demarcated. The catch-all phrase could, of course, be invoked to include within the purported 1905 surrender the territory lying between the line ab and the Albany River. The 1929–30 commissioners intended to “confirm the cession made in 1905, by those Indians in the territory between line ab and the Albany river, and to deal with the … reserves within such area” – those at Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Fort Albany and the northern part of the Osnaburgh reserve, which were not within Ontario in 1905.97 I can find no evidence that the commissioners discussed any confirmation of a surrender of rights and territory with the Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, or Cree whose lands lay within this particular area. Ever since the boundary extension of 1912, Ontario had accepted its obligation to reimburse the Indian Affairs department for any annuities paid to Indians who resided there. Confirmation was nothing more than a bureaucratic detail, of which the Indigenous people were likely unaware, whereby Ontario’s commissioners saw the four reserves first-hand and approved the sites in principal, so that they could then be approved by provincial order-in-council.98 Treaty No. 9’s catch-all phrase could also be used to lay claim to Indigenous signatories’ lands within Quebec, offshore in James and Hudson Bays (now considered part of Nunavut), and, conceivably, in Manitoba. (I have yet to find a map of Treaty No. 9 that acknowledges the adhesion, signed in 1908 at Abitibi by Samuel Stewart, which purports to include lands within the province of Quebec.) Conversely, First Nations in adjoining areas in Quebec, Manitoba, or Ontario may consider some of the Treaty No. 9 lands and waters to be theirs. There have been rumours for many years that the Waskaganish (formerly Rupert House) Cree are preparing a land claim within Ontario.99 Flannery and Chambers’s map would seem to support such a claim, but also a counterclaim by the Moose Cree First Nation. The 1905–6 parchment lays claim to 90,000 square miles (233,099 square kilometres) within Ontario. The commissioners’ official 1905 report refers to an additional 40,000 square miles (103,600 square kilometres) north of the Albany River “which may be roughly described as territory lying between that river and a line drawn from the northeast angle of Treaty No. 3, along the height of land separating the waters which flow into Hudson Bay by the Severn and Winisk from those which flow into James Bay by the Albany and Attawapiskat.”100 (This is our first reference to what would later be called the line ab.)101 The Treasury Board of Canada, ignoring the line ab, confidently asserts that the portion of Treaty No. 9 lying south of the Albany River comprises 87,979 square miles (227,866 square kilometres), while the area further north consists of 136,807 square miles (354,329 square kilometres).102 Using the Treasury Board estimates, the Treaty No. 9 area lying within Ontario comprises some 224,786 square miles (582,193 square kilometres). According

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to the Atlas of Canada, Ontario covers 415,598 square miles (1,076,395 square kilometres).103 By these calculations, Treaty No. 9 affects some 54 per cent of Ontario. The nan area, which includes an Ontario portion of Treaty No. 5 estimated at 5,172 square miles (13,395 square kilometres), would then affect some 55 per cent of the province. nan calculates its area as 210,000 square miles and two-thirds of the provincial land mass.104 Some of the discrepancy may be explained by the different definitions of Ontario’s surface area, which includes the offshore waters of the Great Lakes, and its more narrowly defined land mass. Regardless of how we calculate, Treaty No. 9 affects more than half the province.

An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs

archives of ontario The Archives of Ontario has copies of 188 photographs in its Scott fonds.1 Although most of the ao images are dated “ca. 1905,” 94 appear to be from that year,2 and another 3 are likely from 1906. There are 2 photos of Abitibi hbc post (735–6) and 5 of Lake Timiskaming (600–2, 737–8) which could have been taken in either 1905 or 1906. I was unable to contextualize another four, so they could be from either 1905 or 1906: “Vista from View” (559 but, if the ao is correct in describing it as “Abitibi River,” it would be from 1905), “Highland Lake” (593), “Lake Scenery” (597), and “Portaging” (634, but if lac is correct it is from 1906). The remaining 86 are definitely, or in one case likely, from 1905. The ao captions in the table below are from the images themselves; square brackets indicate my corrections, and italics show that there was no caption and the ao supplied one.

library and archives canada Many of the photographs attributed to D.C. Scott can be found by searching the lac website for “Indians events 1905.” Others can only be found in Scott’s two photo albums (ask for the box bearing barcode 2000761353); there were 191, but some are apparently now missing.3 Copies of ao photographs 559, 735–6, 600–2, and 737–8 appear in his 1905 album, suggesting they were in fact taken that summer.

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The 1905 photographs

My no.

ao digital image

ao caption

lac copy neg.

lac caption

Figure

the treaty party and their crewmen 1

pa-059555

2 3

I0010690

pa-059521 pa-059512

4

I0010627

5

I0010624

6

I0010557

7

I0010655

8

I0010643

9 10

I0010631 I0010654

Chief Esau and Abitibi Indians – New Post The pa-059549 Commissioners – (& pa-129381) Fort Albany Rae, Stewart, pa-059535 MacMartin and Swain, Albany River En route – pa-059516 Abitibi River Isaac Ritch 1905 album no. 96 Jimmy Swain – pa-059538 Guide The Cook pa-143065 Young Smallboy – Abitibi River

Crew from Moose Factory to Abitibi Daniel [Wascowin?] New Post Indians

15.8 16.8 16.9

Indian Treaty No. 9 Commission

7.1

Big Canoe and Crew

7.8

Isaac and his load

8.3

Jimmy Swain

8.1

Harry – the cook

8.2 15.9

from dinorwic to lac seul 11

I0010725

12

I0010711

13 14

I0010620

15 16

I0010641 I0010640

17

I0010639

Starting from pa-059503 Dinorwic Patching Canoes 1905 album – Big Sandy Lake no. 2 pa-59504 Group at pa-129383 Ishkaqua Portage Big Sandy Lake Grassy Portage – pa-143067 Canoe Lake, en route to Lac Seul Wagons – Big Sandy Lake

Leaving Dinorwic Indians Patching Canoe Lac Seul Portaging York Boats Indian Family – Ishkaqua Portage Marsh portage

8.5

an inventory of the 1905 photographs

•

405

at lac seul 18 19

I0010726

20

I0010652

21

I0010633

22

I0010622

23

I0010621

H.B. Co House – Lac Seul Old Wolf – Lac Seul Commissioners – Lac Seul Commissioners Tent – Lac Seul Commissioners and Indians – Lac Seul

1905 album no. 7 Lac Seul 1905 album no. 7 Lac Seul pa-059505

Old Wolf, Lac Seul

9.2

pa-059488

Group at H.B. Co. Post

1905 album no. 8 pa-059501 (& pa-129382)

H.B. Co’s Post with Commissioners’ Tent Group, Lac Seul

pa-143064 (& pa-117777)

Source of Root 7.5 River Height of Land Portage Source of Root River, Height of Land Portage Fast Rapids – Root River

9.1

on root river 24

I0010623

Head Waters – Root River

25

pa-059507

26

I0010618

27

I0010714

28

I0010642

Rapids – Root River Tracking up Rapids – Root River Poling up – Root River

29

1905 album No. 10 1905 album no. 13

Tracking up portage

pa-059500

Poling Pickerel Rapids

pa-059506

Poling Pickerel Rapids

at osnaburgh 30

pa-059496

31

I0010713

Joe Carpenter and family

32 33

I0010599 I0010598

Lake St Joseph Lake St Joseph and Osnaburgh

34 35

I0010727

36

I0010717

Group of Ojibway Indians at Osnaburgh pa-059662 Joe Carpenter and family en route. Old Shabokeshick 1905 album no. 18

1905 album no. 16 pa-059544

10.6

Osnaburgh in the Distance

Approaching Osnaburg House Blind Chief 1905 album no. 21 [Missabay] making a speech, Osnaburg

10.3 10.1

406 37

I0010715

38

I0010686

39

I0010684

40

•

appendices

Indians preparing pa-059551 for feast – Osnaburgh House Group of Indians pa-059550 – Osnaburgh House Indians – pa-059508 Osnaburgh pa-059545

Indians at Feast, Osnaburgh Group of Indian women, Osnaburgh Group of Indian women, Osnaburgh Mrs Mooniahwenini and children

10.7

10.8 19.1

on the albany river 41

I0010581

42

I0010583

43

I0010646

44

I0010647

45 46

I0010644 I0010587

47

I0010582

48

I0010578

49 50 51

Hughies Creek – Albany River Snake Rapids – Albany River York Boats – Albany River Running Rapids, Albany River Albany River Rapids – Albany River Albany River

1905 album no. 22 1905 album no. 30 1905 album no. 37

1905 album no. 26 Couchiching Falls 1905 album – Albany River no. 29 1905 album no. 30 1905 album no. 45 pa-059533

52

pa-059553

Hughie’s Creek Second Snake Rapids

Snake Rapids Second Snake Rapids Second Snake Rapids Albany River Indian wigwam, Albany River Old Indian, Albany River

13.6 13.5

at fort hope 53 54

pa-059536 pa-059486

55 56

I0010724

57

I0010687

58

I0010685

pa-059540 1905 album no. 32 Group of Indians pa-059531 – Fort Hope Group of Indians pa-059539 – Fort Hope At Fort Hope

Feast, Fort Hope 11.6 Indian group 11.4 at Fort Hope On Lake Eabamet 11.10 Indians at Fort Hope 11.7 11.5 Indians at Fort Hope

11.8

an inventory of the 1905 photographs 59

I0010653

60

I0010645

Chief Moonias – Fort Hope, Lake Eabamet York Boats – Lake Eabamet, Albany River

•

407

pa-059534

Moonias, Fort Hope

pa-059532

York Boats – Lake Eabamet

11.1

11.11

at marten falls 61

I0010585

62

I0010586

Smooth Stony pa-059537 Rapids, Albany River Martin Falls 1905 album [hbc Post], no. 40 Albany River

Rapids – Marten Falls H.B. Co’s Post – Marten’s Falls

12.1

on the kenogami river 63

I0010595

Kenogami River

1905 album no. 47

On Kenogami River

pa-059547

H.B.C. Post, English River Indians scrambling for candies, English River Post Group at English River Post

at english river post 64

I0010728

65

I0010632

66

I0010625

English River – H.B. House Distributing tobacco

pa-059546

Indians – English pa-059552 River (& pa-129384)

13.1 13.2

13.3

at fort albany post 67

I0010729

68

I0010688

69

I0010679

70 71

I0010678 I0010683

72

I0010650

73

I0010649

74

I0010648

75

Hudson Bay pa-059542 House – Fort Albany Group of Indians pa-059541 – Fort Albany Mrs Patterson pa-059499 – Fort Albany Children – Fort Albany Whip sawing pa-059529 – Fort Albany Husky Dogs – pa-059530 Fort Albany Husky dogs – 1905 album Fort Albany no. 54 Huskies – Fort 1905 album Albany no. 53 1905 album no. 49

Residence of H.B. Co. Officer Albany River Post Group at H.B. Co. residence, Albany River Post Pit Sawing – Albany Husky Dogs – Albany Husky Dogs Husky Dogs Husky Dogs

14.3

408 76

I0010626

•

appendices

Fort Albany

pa-129385 (& pa-059543)

[Treaty party and HBC personnel at Fort Albany]

At Moose Factory. York boat rigged like bateau

pa-059554

Boat on James Bay

78

e007140767

79

e007140768

[Letitia Newnham 20.1 Cottage Hospital, Moose Factory [Bishop’s residence 21.1 at Moose Factory] Hudson’s Bay Co’s 15.4 Post – Moose Factory Storehouse, Moose Factory

on james bay 77

I0010553

at moose factory

80

I0010731

Moose Factory

pa-059528

81

I0010730

82

I0010680

83

I0010689

84

I0010628

Hudson Bay Co pa-059548 Warehouse – Moose Factory Hospital – 1905 album no. 62 Moose Factory Old Indians – Moose Factory Commissioners 1905 album Paying Annuities – Tent – Moose no. 59 Moose Factory Factory

15.5 15.6

on the moose river 85

I0010629

Bishop Holmes – Moose River

pa-059489

Commissioner’s canoe

on the abitibi river 86 87 88

89

I0010571 I0010574

I0010573

90

I0010567

91

I0010556

Abitibi River Rapids – Abitibi River Rapids – Abitibi River Poling on the Abitibi River Poling – Abitibi River

1905 album Junction of the Moose no. 63 and Abitibi Rivers 1905 album no. 64 1905 album no. 73

Abitibi River

1905 album no. 74 pa-059517

On the Abitibi

1905 album no. 67

Poling on the 7.6 Abitibi River Poling the Abitibi River

an inventory of the 1905 photographs 92

I0010555

93

I0010554

94 95

I0010630

96 97

I0010580 I0010558

98 99 100

I0010584

101

I0010579

102

I0010576

103

I0010575

104

I0010577

105 106

Poling up – Abitibi River Poling – Abitibi River

409

pa-59510 pa-59515

pa-059513 On the shore – 1905 album Abitibi River no. 68 On the Abitibi River Abitibi River – pa-059524 Long Sault 1905 album no. 69 pa-059514 Couchiching Falls – Albany River Couchiching Falls – Abitibi Indian Falls – Abitibi River Indian Falls – Abitibi River Granny’s Rock – Abitibi River

•

Poling the Abitibi River On the Abitibi

Poling Long Sault Island in Abitibi River

1905 album no. 29

Couchiching Falls, Abitibi River Couchiching Falls – Abitibi River

1905 album no. 85 1905 album no. 83 1905 album 84

Couchiching Falls – Abitibi River Iroquois Falls – Abitibi River Iroquois Falls – Abitibi River

1905 album no. 82 pa-143066

Granny’s Rock – Abitibi River Portaging a canoe, Lake Abitibi View on the Abitibi

I00110559 Vista from Route 1905 album no. 91

16.7

at new post 107

I0010572

108

I0010734

109 110

I0010733 I0010732

Abitibi River – pa-124636 from New Post The Hudson’s pa-059511 Bay Company post, New Post Mr S.B. Barrett Mr S.B. Barrett H.B. Co – New Post

At New Post – Abitibi River New Post, Abitibi River

16.1

H. B. Co. Post, Abitibi

17.1

at abitibi 111

I0010735

Hudson Bay pa-059518 Company Post – Lake Abitibi

410 112

10010736

•

appendices

Hudson Bay 1905 album Company Post – no. 88 Lake Abitibi

Hudson’s Bay Co’s Post – Abitibi

from abitibi to ottawa 113

I0010594

Island Lake

114

I0010602

115

I0010600

116

I0010737

117

I0010739

118

I0010601

119

I0010738

Lake Temiscamingue Lake Temiscamingue Old H.B.Co. Post – Lake Temsicamingue The Village of Haileybury View from North – Lake Temiscamingue Old Fort – Lake Temiscamingue

1905 album no. 93 1905 album no. 94 1905 album no. 95 pa-059527

Island Lake – Abitibi

Lake Temsicamingue

pa-059519

Haileybury

1905 album no. 99

View from North Temiscamingue

1905 album no. 100

Old Fort – Lake Temiscamingue

Lake Temiscamingue Old Fort – Lake Temiscamingue

Credits for the Figures

Figure I.1 was inspired by nan’s online map “Land, Culture, Community,” but all locations were plotted using the National Atlas of Canada’s search engine (with thanks to Tom Terry for reviewing an initial draft). Figure 1.3 was suggested by Natural Resources Canada’s online map “Historical Indian Treaties,” with the jbnqa territory added. Figure 8.4 was inspired by an inset on the map of Ontario and Quebec railways in the 1906 Atlas of Canada. Graphic artist Daisy Churchman helped with figures 3.2 and 3.3. fig. credit I.1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 8.1 8.2 8.3

kas Canada, diand, lac pa-059577 Canada, diand, lac pa-059569 Jeff Kielman hbca, am 1987/14/42 lac, Re Treaty No. 9 Canada, diand, lac pa-195396 Canada, diand, lac pa-059614 Canada, di, Atlas of Canada, “Territorial Divisions” Canada, di, Atlas of Canada, “Transcontinental Railways” Canada, diand, lac pa-059601 lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey Glenbow Museum, na-726-7 lac, Adhesions Ontario, ds, “Map” occc Canada, diand, lac pa-059549 lac, Scott journal lac, Stewart diaries qua, MacMartin diary Canada, diand, lac pa-143064 Canada, diand, lac pa-059517 Canada, diand, lac pa-059587 Canada, diand, lac pa-059516 Canada, diand, lac pa-059538 Canada, diand, lac pa-143065 Canada, diand, lac pa-129383

412 8.4 8.5 9.1 9.2 9.3 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6

•

credits for the figures

ao I0010655 Jeff Kielman Canada, diand, lac pa-059501 Canada, diand, lac pa-059505 Canada, di, “Sketch Map … Lac Seul to Severn Lake” ao I0010717 Bell, “Report on Exploration,” in Miller, “Reports,” 64 Canada, diand, lac pa-059544 lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 Canada, diand, lac pa-059662 Canada, diand, lac pa-059551 Canada, diand, lac pa-059508 Canada, dm, “Lake Nipigon” Canada, diand, lac pa-059534 lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 Canada, diand, lac pa-059486 Canada, diand, lac pa-059531 Canada, diand, lac pa-059536 ao I0010724 Canada, diand, lac pa-059539 Canada, dm, “Lake Nipigon” Canada, diand, lac pa-059540 Canada, diand, lac 059532 ao I0010586 lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 Canada, di, “Map … Eastern Keewatin” Canada, diand, lac pa-059547 Canada, diand, lac pa-059546 Canada, diand, lac pa-059552 Canada, di, “Map of … Eastern Keewatin” Canada, diand, lac pa-059553 Canada, diand, lac pa-059533 lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 Canada, diand, lac pa-059541 Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties” Canada, di, “Map of the West Coast of James Bay” Anthropologica lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 Canada, diand, lac pa-059528 ao I0010689 ao I0010628

credits for the figures 15.7 15.8 15.9 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 16.9 17.1 17.2 19.1 20.1 21.1 21.2 23.1 23.2 24.1 24.2

•

413

Canada, di, “Map of … Eastern Keewatin” Canada, diand, lac pa-059555 ao I0010654 Canada, diand, lac pa-059511 lac, Treaty No. 9 ao, Treaty No. 9 lac, Scott journal Canada, di, “Map of … Eastern Keewatin” Canada, di, “Sketch Map of the Abitibi Region” ao I0010577 Canada, diand, lac pa-059521 Canada, diand, lac pa-059512 Canada, diand, lac pa-059518 Canada DI, Atlas of Canada, “Railways – Ontario and Quebec” Canada, diand, lac pa-059545 lac, Treaty 9 Schools lac, Treaty 9 Schools Archives Deschâtelets, Oblats de Marie Immaculée Canada, diand, lac pa-059589 Jeff Kielman Author Author

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Notes

abbreviations used in the notes aantc Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council acde Association of Canadian Deans of Education afn Attawapiskat First Nation afoac Aboriginal Finance Officers Association of Canada am Archives of Manitoba ans Algonquin Nation Secretariat ao Archives of Ontario ap Algonquins of Pikwakanagan bcmarr British Columbia Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation bctc British Columbia Treaty Commission ccp Chapleau Community Portal cdcp Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clfn Constance Lake First Nation co Chiefs of Ontario cpr Canadian Pacific Railway dcl Department of Crown Lands di Department of the Interior diand Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development dm Department of Mines dmj Deputy Minister of Justice ds Department of Surveys dsgia Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs gcc Grand Council of the Crees (of Quebec) gct9 Grand Council Treaty No. 9 gsa General Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada gsc Geological Survey of Canada hbc Hudson’s Bay Company hbca Hudson’s Bay Company Archives hbcabs Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, biographical sheet (online) hbca, dir Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, district inspection report (archival) hbcaph Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, post history (online) jbnqa James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement kcfs Kunuwanimano Child and Family Services kerc Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre ki Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inniniwug

416

•

abbreviations used in the notes

lac Library and Archives Canada lsfn Lac Seul First Nation lua Laurentian University Archives maa Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs mc Ministry of Citizenship mcfn Moose Cree First Nation me Ministry of Education mnchod Métis National Council Historical Online Database mndm Ministry of Northern Development and Mines mndmf Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry mofn Mishkeegogamang Ojibway First Nation nan Nishnawbe Aski Nation nas Native Affairs Secretariat nauk National Archives of the United Kingdom nib National Indian Brotherhood nr Natural Resources nwtsc North-West Territories Supreme Court oc Ontario Chancery occ Office of the Chief Coroner occc Ojibway Cree Cultural Centre odc Ontario Divisional Court ogs Ontario Genealogical Society ohf Ontario Heritage Foundation ola Ontario Legislative Assembly omnr Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources oop Ontario Office of the Premier opg Ontario Power Generation orr Ontario Rural Routes pco Privy Council Office pma Peterborough Museum and Archives rcap Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (Canada) rcne Royal Commission on the Northern Environment (Ontario) rnmp Royal North-West Mounted Police qua Queen’s University Archives scc Supreme Court of Canada scia Select Committee on Indian Affairs sgia Superintendent General of Indian Affairs shc Senate and House of Commons slmywhc Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre tbs Treasury Board Secretariat tfrbl Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto ubcic Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs ukjcpc United Kingdom Judicial Committee of the Privy Council wfnc Windigo First Nations Council wha Weeneebayko Health Ahtuskaywin wlfn Wolf Lake First Nation

notes to pages xvii–6

•

417

meegwetch 1 Also written miikwech in Cree, but miigwech in (Eastern) Ojibwe. See Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 679; Rhodes, Dictionary, 596. 2 Preston, Cree Narrative, xiv. 3 Conversation, 30 April 2010. Johnston, Ojibway Heritage, 13–14. The Cree know this story but believe they were lowered to the earth by a spider, “the net-maker who never exhausts his twine. See Scott, “Where the First People,” 3.

introduction 1 Quoted in Cumming and Mickenberg, Native Rights, 331. 2 Canada, diand, Statement on Indian Policy, 11. 3 Weaver, Making Indian Policy; scc, Calder. The Calder decision caused Trudeau to remark to Okanagan mp Len Marchand and his Nisga’a constituents, “I guess you guys have more rights than I thought you did.” See Marchand, Breaking Trail, 108. 4 In 1998 a modern treaty was concluded. See Molloy, World Is Our Witness. 5 Macklem, Indigenous Difference, 135–8. See also Foster, Raven, and Webber, Let Right Be Done. 6 lac, re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Davis, 30 April 1904. 7 Ibid., Law clerk Reginald Rimmer’s “Proposed Treaty in Ontario and Quebec,” 24 June 1901. 8 For a comparative view of British settler societies, see Foster, Berger, and Buck, Grand Experiment. 9 Scott, learning that he could not complete treaty-signing in 1905, hoped for a “clean sweep” in 1906. See lac, Scott journal, 2 July 1905. 10 scc, St. Catharines Milling. 11 Macklem, Indigenous Difference, 252, 257, 277. See also his “What’s Law.” 12 Macklem, Indigenous Difference, 145, citing scc, Simon v. Queen. But see the discussion on Bill Henderson’s website viewed 2 June 2009. 13 scc, Simon v. Queen, f.49. 14 McNeil, Native Claims, 18–19. 15 Ibid., 25. 16 Ibid., 35. 17 Ibid., 15–18. 18 Macklem, “Impact of Treaty 9,” 241n4. 19 Flanagan, First Nations, Second Thoughts. See also Widdowson and Howard, Disrobing. To place social conservatives in a broader context see Dudas, Cultivation of Resentment. 20 Stradiotto, “Land Claim”; Higgins, Whitefish Lake, 69–78. Sudbury Star, “Blog.” The blog is no longer accessible. 21 Anon., “Editorial.” See also Bricker, “Public Opinion.” 22 Long, “How the Commissioners.” 23 Frisch, “Oral History,” 111.

418 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43

44

•

notes to pages 6–8

See Murray, Forked Tongues. Bird, “Our Voices.” Frisch, “Oral History,” 113. Lucal, “Oppression and Privilege.” McNab, “Lurid Dash of Colour.” Wickwire, “To See Ourselves,” 20. Twain, Innocents Abroad, 650. Ibid., 233. Morantz, “Plunder or Harmony?” lac, Stewart diaries, 15 July 1905. Peers, Ojibwa of Western Canada, 11. Later treaty commissioners found that the Indians at Nikip Lake (the North Caribou Lake band) “with their squaws and papooses … presented a picture, in comparison with other bands, of unkempt, ill-clothed rather penurious and distressed people.” See Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 25–6, 29. Borron considered the “natives” to be in “a condition of absolute subservience and dependence” to the hbc. See his “Report,” 1880, 74. For a much more nuanced analysis stressing interdependency, see Ray, “Decline of Paternalism,” and Morantz, “‘So Evil.’” Peers, Ojibwa of Western Canada, 14. Ray, Miller, and Tough, Bounty and Benevolence, 206. See also Dragland, Floating Voice, 110. Dragland, Floating Voice, 39. lac, Stewart diaries, 9 August 1905. Time and the work ethic were valued in this industrial age, and outsiders expressed concern about the casual rhythm of work at some fur trade posts in far northern Ontario. hbc inspector Alex Milne, for example, felt that “a rule ought to be formulated requiring punctuality and the work hours to be uniform with those at Moose [Factory]. The cessation of work during an extended period, forenoon and afternoon for smoking, is a regulation for which there is no sufficient excuse, and is too ridiculous in the eyes of visitors to be permitted to continue.” See hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1910, 10. See Berkes, “Chisasibi”; Spielmann, “What’s So Funny?”; and Poirier, “Humour.” Building on the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the 1794 Dorchester Regulations forbade “strong liquors.” See Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” section 9.2. Sale of “spirituous or other intoxicating liquours” to (and later possession by) Indians was prohibited in 1869 and, eight years later, the prohibition was enshrined in the first Indian Act. See Canada, “Act for the Gradual,” article 3, and Canada, “Act to Amend,” article 79. Williams wrote that “for a week, night and day, the whole crowd gambled and caroused. The women, when this carnival started, hid the guns, knives and axes out in the marshes and woods. The chief, Powassin [sic], did not join in but came over and sat up nights in my storage tent and warned away a number of would-be burglars. There were several fights, wigwams pulled down, women and children screaming, but no one seriously hurt. After the fire water was exhausted everything quieted down, the visitors departed, some with winnings and some without a shirt on their back. It was quite lively while it lasted and I was glad to see it ended.” See

notes to pages 8–18

45

46

47 48

49 50 51 52 53

54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61

62 63

•

419

his “My First Bear Hunt,” 29 March 1934. I am grateful to his grandson, Graeme Williams, for this article. “In the morning a few held 90 per cent of all the others’ earnings.” See ibid., 1 March 1934. On this game see Ritzenthaler, “Southwestern Chippewa,” 752. See also Binde, “Gambling across Cultures.” “As usual at these gatherings the popular gambling game of ‘Mocassin-a-tardde-win’ was always in full blast, at any time, night or day, or as long as they had something to put up for stakes.” Williams, “My First Bear Hunt,” 29 March 1934. “Indians had their usual blow-out and gambling pow-wow.” Williams, “A Second Year.” James Slater Miller (1854–1939), an Orkneyman, married Hannah Neveau (1862–1903), who had elite fur trade roots in the Faries, Hardisty, and Sutherland families. They had ten children. Gord Miller, pers. comm. See also Miller, Kokum’s Gift. Oulette and Tremblay, “From the Good Savage.” Flannery, Ellen Smallboy, 10. See Miller, Compact, 101, 170. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 22 January 2010. The Cree word would normally be written kakiike. In far northern Ontario, mikinak is the name of the spirit helper who can travel quickly across vast differences, bringing news to the practitioner crouched inside an Ojibwe or Cree shaking tent. See Long, “Manitu.” Davis, “Polarities, Hybridities.” Long, “‘Government Is Asking,’” 54. Ibid., 5–6. Ibid., 53–4. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies, 28. Long, “‘Government Is Asking,’” 7. This may be an exaggeration. See the discussion of the Treaty No. 9 Region in the Terminology appendix. Rhodes notes that “questions of tradition depend much more on the examples set by living people than on the content of written records. The truth about the Indian way of life is found in what the old men and women do and think, rather than in what was written by long dead white men.” See his “Baseball,” 373–4. Cairns, Citizens Plus, 40. For current maps of the region, see Berger and Terry, Canoe Atlas.

chapter one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Ellis, âtalôhkâna, xxxv. Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 200–17. Bishop, “First Century,” 38; Glazebrook, “Introduction,” xv–xvii. Rich, Hudson’s Bay Company, 62–3; Moriarity, “Gillam.” Rich, Hudson’s Bay Company, 139. UK, “Royal Charter.” Rich, Hudson’s Bay Company, 109; emphasis added. Oldmixon, “History,” 400–1.

420

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notes to pages 18–20

9 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 61. 10 Carlson and Wright, “Prehistoric Trade.” 11 Selkirk’s 1817 treaty was disputed a half-century later. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … One and Two, 5, 8. 12 Rogers, “Cultural Adaptations,” 98–9. 13 Lytwyn, Mushkegowuck Athinuwick, 128–9. 14 Ibid., 128–9. 15 Ibid., 133. 16 Oldmixon, “History,” 401; emphasis added. 17 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 61; emphasis added. 18 “So wee have caused Iron marks to be made of the figure of the Union Flagg, wth wch wee would have you burn Tallys of wood wth such ceremony as they shall understand to be obligatory & sacred. The manner whereof wee must leave to your prudence as you shall find the modes & humours of the people you deal with, [sic] But when the Impression is made you are to write upon the Tally the name of the Nation or person wth. whom the Contract is made and the date thereof, and then deliver one part of the Stock to them, and reserve the other. This wee suppose may be suitable to the capacities of those barbarous people, and may much conduce to our quiet & commerce, and secure us from foreign or domestick [sic] pretenders.” Ibid., 61. 19 Bishop, “First Century”; Judd, “Sakie.” 20 Oldmixon, “History.” 21 Rogers, “Cultural Adaptations,” 104, and his “Leadership.” 22 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 55. 23 This painting was reproduced in an hbc calendar in 1956. See hbc, “Fur Trade.” See also Rindisbacher, “Red Lake Chief.” 24 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 55; Judd, “Sakie,” 89. 25 Foster, “Indian-White Relations,” 188. 26 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” 56–7. 27 Ibid., 55, 59. 28 Ibid., 63, 66–77. 29 White, “‘Give Us a Little Milk,’” 187. 30 Black-Rogers, “Varieties of ‘Starving,’” 368. 31 Cummins, “Trapper-Trader,” 80. 32 Black, “Ojibwa Power,” 147. 33 Chute, Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 13–18. 34 See Long, “Coping,” 12. 35 Scott, “Ideology of Reciprocity,” 85. 36 Hookimaw-Witt, “Keenebonanoh,” 160. 37 Brian Craik explains that for the Eastern James Bay Cree, a distinction was made between local traders and their overseers. “Wiihsiwesiw was the title given the regional manager of the hbc while the manager was the ouchemau. I believe that the application of ouchemau to the local managers derived from the ouchemau [as okimaaw is pronounced in northern Quebec] who was the head of a hunting party or the head of a hunting territory. Wiihsiwewin is the ‘law.’ When the reference is to the decision made in a hunting group or, more generally, to a decision that was made, it is referred to as kayiihtitsiwanot, which makes reference to what was said

notes to pages 20–21

38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

50

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to be done, iih – ‘say’ + tit – ‘do,’ although this is a bit of speculation as I have never heard a Cree person break this down. If this is correct then a wiihsiwewin is built on what was said, iih. This to me fits with the word iihnaniw, which is used to rationalize something that is traditionally understood to be such and such a way. I would say then that in Cree the law begins with the word, the formation of the law is the act of the one or ones who assume to do this, whether their credentials come from on high or from the people, and the application of the law is concerned with the idea of applying the laws in particular cases.” Craik adds that “Jesus is sometimes known as katipehytachet, ‘the one who governed.’ Tip- refers to the measure of things, ehy– to thought or abstract concept. It is interesting is to look at the other cognates: tipehytachewin ‘government,’ tipehytachesiiwin ‘governance,’ tipehytachesiw ‘member of parliament’ or ‘those who govern,’ tipaskwonchesiw ‘judge,’ tipaskwonigan ‘ruler’ or ‘yardstick,’ tipaskwonchewin ‘the court,’ tipaskwonaganiw ‘he is sentenced.’ The askw from wooden object seems to give a sense of a scale against which something or someone is measured as does the ambiguous English word ‘ruler.’ The law however is wiihsiwewin. It is I think a contraction of wawiihsiwet, but I am not sure.” Pers. comm., 22 November 2009. On western James Bay Cree notions of religious hierarchy, see Long, “Manitu.” For East Cree see Long, Preston, and Oberholtzer, “Manitu Concepts.” Ellis, “Note.” The quotation is from Scott, “Hunting Territories,” 169. Francis and Morantz, Partners in Furs, 169. Rogers, “Northern Algonquians,” 325. Ibid., 325; Rogers, “Cultural Adaptations,” 115. Anderson, Net in the Bay, 177,198; Shearwood, By Water and the Word, 58, 68. See also Long, “‘Shaganash,’” 190–3. Rogers, “Cultural Adaptations,” 115. Borron, “Report,” 1880, 40. Ibid., 40. Bishop, Northern Ojibwa; Rogers, “Cultural Adaptations” and “Northern Algonquians.” White, Middle Ground. Arthur, “Charles McKenzie,” 47–8. But see Schumann, “Diffusion of Alcohol”; Dailey, “Role of Alcohol”; and Mancall, Deadly Medicine, 50, 54. Molohon compares Moosonee, with its illicit liquor smuggling, to a Mexican border town. See her “Contact and Transition.” The hbc’s Moose district report for 1891–92 states, “Opposition under a Mr. Colville came down the River last summer, and again this Spring under his man, which tended to upset the Indians [i.e., make them dissatisfied], although neither did much damage to the Trade, he managed to decoy four of my Indians to the Lines, and on their return, the reports they spread of the advantages of the Trade and Prices there, were not calculated to make the Indians contented. As a consequence, they became more exacting and independent, and very off-hand, threatening to leave us, in case their wants were not granted, so that I was in some cases forced to give what I should otherwise refuse, for fear of losing advances already given.” hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 14. See also Long, “Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families,” 142; Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 92–3. The arrival of Revillon Frères was delayed one year by a disastrous shipwreck. See Upton, “Wreck.”

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51 Such opportunities actually began in the 1880s, with railroad construction near the height-of-land. See Innis, Fur Trade, 21. 52 qua, MacMartin diary, 9 August 1905. 53 Canada, Report of RNMP , 1908, 268. 54 Historian Arthur J. Ray, in his “Periodic Shortages,” sees the modern welfare state in the far north developing out of fur trade dependency, but he later stresses interdependency in his “Decline of Paternalism.” 55 Chute, Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 17. 56 McNeil, Native Rights. See also Mushkegowuk Council, “Rupert’s Land.” 57 White, Middle Ground; Canada, rcap, Report, 1: 141ff. Edward Said discusses the concept of othering in his 1978 book Orientalism, a foundation for postcolonial studies. 58 The 1794 Dorchester regulations called for British treaty-makers to conduct themselves “with great solemnity and ceremony according to the ancient usages and customs of ther Indians.” See Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 83. 59 Henderson, “Royal Proclamation.” 60 Kent McNeil, pers. comm. 61 scc, Calder. 62 Carleton was first Baron Dorchester and commander in chief of British colonies in North America. See Browne, “Carleton.” 63 Carleton, “Additional Instructions.” 64 Ibid. 65 Carleton, “Letter to Lt. Govr.” 66 Allen, His Majesty’s Indian Allies. 67 Anon., “Historic King George iii Medal.” 68 Johnson, “Six Nations.” 69 Canada, rcap, Report, 1: 138. 70 Surtees, Indian Land Surrenders; Miller, Compact, 61–122; Morris, Indians of Ontario, 7ff. For maps of these treaties see Canada, nr, “Historical Indian Treaties Time Line.” 71 Smith, “Dispossession.” 72 The British colony known as the Province of Upper Canada had formed the western portion of the Province of Quebec from 1774 to 1791. It was renamed Canada West, part of the United Province of Canada, between 1841 and 1867. 73 Surtees, Robinson Treaties. 74 Surtees, Indian Land Surrenders, vi, 19–25; Canada, nr, “Map of … 1783 Treaty.” See also McNab, “‘Promise That He Gave.’” 75 Surtees, Indian Land Surrenders, 73–4; Canada, nr, “Map of … 1819 Treaty.” 76 omaa, “Algonquin Land Claim.” 77 Canada, nr, “Map of … 1923 … Williams Treaties.” 78 Manitoulin, “being surrounded by innumerable fishing Islands” on the north shore of Lake Huron, was intended to become “a most desirable place of residence for many Indians who wish to be civilized, as well as totally separated from the whites.” Sir Francis Bond Head promised that their “Great Father” would “withdraw his claim to these islands.” He asked the Anishinaabeg to surrender their

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exclusive claims so the islands could then become “the [common] property (under your Great Fathers control) of all Indians whom he shall allow to reside on them.” See Morris, Indians of Ontario, 27–9. “In all parts of the world farmers seek for uncultivated land as eagerly as you[,] my red children, hunt in your forest for game. If you would cultivate your land, it would then be considered your own property, in the same way as your dogs are considered among yourselves to belong to those who have reared them, but uncultivated land is like wild animals and your Great Father, who has hitherto protected you, has now great difficulty in securing it for you from the whites who are hunting to cultivate.” Ibid., 28. Miller, Compact, 118–21. But see omaa, “Wikwemikong Islands Claim Negotiations.” Surtees, Treaty Research Report. Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 7. The most comprehensive discussion of this topic is Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling.’” Binnema and Hutchings, “Emigrant and the Noble Savage.” Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 132–7, 141. But see ibid., 141–52. See also Marlatt, “Calamity.” Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 5–7. It was not until 1951, however, that section 88 of the Indian Act nominally protected treaty rights from provincial laws of general application. See Coyle, Addressing Aboriginal Land and Treaty Rights, 22; Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” Jarvis, “Robinson.” Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 59, 80, 83, 143. See also McNab, No Place for Fairness. Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 87–93. Ibid., 122–3. Anon., Canadian Biographical Dictionary, 361–2; Rose, Cyclopæedia, 196–7; Millman, “Anderson”; Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 56–61, 64. Peau de Chat indicated his approval. See Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 94–5. Ibid., 94–7. Ibid., 96–7. Ibid., 106–7. Chute, Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 136, 144, 149; Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 69, 71, 87, 99, 159. Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 82–3, 98–100, 104–5, 120–1. See Canada, nr, “Map of … 7 September 1850 Treaty,” “Map of … 9 September 1850 Treaty,” and “Map of … 13 October 1854.” Morrison notes that 80 of the 216 Ojibwe at Long Lake hbc post in 1851 had claims within the Robinson-Superior treaty area, but all (including those north of the height-of-land) were listed as “annuitants.” Near the end of the century, however, these lists were more closely scrutinized. See ibid., 111, 137–40. See also Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 2–3. Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 109–21. The escalator clause increased annuities to $4 per person in 1884. See ibid., 135. McNab, No Place for Fairness; omaa, “Temagami Land Claim.”

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102 scc, Ontario (Attorney General) v. Bear Island Foundation. 103 Ibid., 158ff; Chute, Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 156–7. The giving of “presents” was curtailed (and then discontinued). See Chute, Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 146–7. 104 This stipulation was in effect from 1927 until its repeal in 1951. See Canada, rcap, Report, 1: 296. 105 Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 106 Harring, “Liberal Treatment” and White Man’s Law. 107 Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 152, 163–83. This sentiment was still evident in 1930 when the adhesions to Treaty No. 9 were concluded. The arrival of the railroad to Moosonee would mean employment for “the dexterous canoe man, the ready guide and the tourist’s handy man.” See Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 39–40. 108 See Brownlie, “‘Nothing Left.’” 109 Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 185–8, 195–206, and passim in chapters 5 through 8. The 1971 ruling is noted on 457. 110 Linden, Report, 61. 111 The system would include one road from Lake Superior (Prince Arthur’s Landing, later Port Arthur and now Thunder Bay) west to Shebandowan Lake and another between Lower Fort Garry and Lake of the Woods; between Lake of the Woods and Shebandowan Lake, locks would be built and dams constructed to allow steamboat transportation through connecting lakes and rivers and twenty portages. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 2, 9. 112 Simon J. Dawson (1818–1902) was the Department of Public Works’s chief engineer for the project (which he had first conceived in 1859). He was a commissioner at the signing of Treaty No. 3 and later became the member of Parliament for Algoma. See ibid., 3, 28; Arthur, “Dawson.” 113 Cook, “Wolseley.” 114 Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 63. 115 hbcabs, “Simpson.” 116 Simpson had been authorized to offer perpetual annuities of up to $12 for a family of five. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 12–16. 117 In the case of Treaty No. 1, the first post-Confederation treaty, negotiations began at Fort Garry on 27 July 1871 under the gaze of troops from the local garrison. Lieutenant-Governor Archibald urged the “Chippewa and Swampy Cree” to adopt agriculture, explained that their “Great Mother” wanted them to have reserves (using a formula of 160 acres per family of five) where no white man could “intrude,” and promised that they could continue to hunt on unoccupied land. He then asked that representative chiefs be selected to negotiate with Simpson. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … One and Two, 7–8; Pryke, “Archibald.” See also Hall, “‘Serene Atmosphere’?” The selection of representative chiefs occupied two days, since Indigenous leaders had to bring consensus opinions to the bargaining table. They asked that four Crees be released from jail, and Archibald complied as a goodwill gesture. When the chiefs asked for enormous reserves, fully two-thirds of the province, they were told that “whether they wished it or not, immigrants would come in and fill up their country.” After they had thought about this ultimatum for two days, the offer was accepted and the treaty was signed on 3 August. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … One and Two, 8–10. Treaty

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No. 2, with the “Chippewa Tribe of Indians,” was signed at Manitoba Post three weeks later. When it was learned that dissatisfied Indians might wish to go to Ottawa to discuss unfulfilled promises arising from Treaties 1 and 2, Simpson told them they “could not go to Ottawa unless permission was granted through the proper channels.” Archibald’s replacement as lieutenant-governor, Alexander Morris, recommended that an Indian commissioner be appointed. See Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … One and Two, 15–16. Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … One and Two, 17–18. Friesen, “Morris.” The North-West Angle is now a little-known finger of Minnesota that juts above the 49th parallel. Until the arrival of the cpr at Rat Portage, now Kenora, it was an important hbc post at the end of the water route west from Lake Superior and the start of the Dawson road. Most of the Angle is now the Red Lake Indian Reservation. See Lund, Lake of the Woods, 46; Grimseley, “Marking the Northwest Angle.” Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 19–22, 28–9. In these boundary waters the Ojibwe had men, “often bear clan, who acted as what has been described as ‘police’ or soldiers.” Laura Peers, pers. comm., 17 March 2010. See also Peers, Ojibwa of Western Canada, 5ff, and (on adoption of the grass dance) Vennum, Ojibwa Dance Drum, 76. John O’Meara writes this Ojibwe word ogichi-daa(g). Pers. comm., 19 March 2010. See also Baraga, Dictionary, 319, and Nichols and Nyholm, Concise Dictionary, 105. Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 30–3. See also Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 30–4. Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 35–6. Ibid., 42. Canada, Treaty 3. Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 34. Canada, Treaty 3. For the text of the treaty, the outside promises, and the increased annuities, see Canada, Treaties 1 and 2. Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three, 64. Morrison, “Robinson Treaties,” 161. Ibid., 114. In 1874 and through later adhesions, Treaty No. 4 extended the treaty process further west, into the fertile lands so desired for settlement, in what is now largely southern Saskatachewan. The terms of this treaty were almost identical to those of Treaty No. 3. See Taylor, Treaty Research Report. Morris, Treaties of Canada. The courts’ decision did recognize some sort of continuing aboriginal interest in hunting and fishing. See LaForest, Natural Resources, 113–19. Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 106–7, provides a good summary. Ibid., 108–9. Ibid., 451ff. Bartlett, “Mineral Rights”; Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling.’” Linden, Report, 58. Tough, “Economic Aspects.” See also Ray, Miller, and Tough, Bounty and Benevolence, 121–9. Canada, Treaty 5.

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141 Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report … Five, 19. 142 Armstrong, “Treaty Five First Nations.” I am grateful to Luke Hunter for providing me with a copy of this document by email on 3 November 2009. 143 Morrison, “Treaty-Making Process,” 8. 144 Taylor, Treaty Research Report; Dempsey, Treaty Seven; Madill, Treaty Research Report. See also Whitehouse, “Numbered Treaties,”; Whitehouse-Strong, “‘Everything Promised’”; Ray, Miller, and Tough, Bounty and Benevolence; and Miller, Compact.” 145 Goddard, Last Stand. 146 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Discussion of Terms and Conditions,” paragraph 5. 147 Service, Primitive. See also Fried, Evolution, and Johnson and Earle, Evolution. In many modern-day communities derived from band societies, people often still vote in family blocks at election time. 148 Ellis, “Note.” 149 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Discussion of Terms and Conditions,” paragraph 5; see also Ray, “Treaty 8,” 38ff. Borron advanced the same idea for northern Ontario; see his “Report,” 1890, 87. 150 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Discussion of Terms and Conditions,” paragraph 4. In far northern Ontario, Borron felt that the Indigenous population was decreasing. See his “Report,” 1889, 83. 151 Edwards, On the North Trail, x. Edwards and Macrae became increasingly at odds. For an unflattering description of Macrae, see, for example, xii and 96–7. 152 Madill, Treaty Research Report, Preface. 153 Ibid., “Discussion of Terms and Conditions,” paragraphs 4–5. 154 Ibid., paragraph 6. Additional items not specified in the treaty, such as boots, were also distributed. See Edwards, On the North Trail, 52. 155 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Position of Halfbreeds.” See also Mair, Through the MacKenzie Basin. 156 Edwards, On the North Trail, xvii, 52–3. For more on Edwards, see Hart, “Collecting.” 157 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Discussion of Terms and Conditions,” paragraph 6. 158 Ibid., “Purpose of Treaty Eight.” 159 Cottam, “World Views,” 19, citing James Morrison, “Shaking the Monarch’s Hand.” 160 James Morrison, pers. comm. 161 Emphasis mine. The order can be found online at Maton, “Canadian Constitutional Documents.” See also McNeil, Native Claims, 23–5 and 34–5. 162 Tennant, Aboriginal Peoples. Treaty-making resumed in that province in the final years of the twentieth century. See McKee, Treaty Talks, and the bctc website. 163 Madill, Treaty Research Report, “Position of the Province of British Columbia.” 164 Ibid., “The Fulfillment of Treaty Obligations.” 165 Ray, “Treaty 8,” 34–8. 166 Dunning, Social and Economic Change, 10.

chapter two 1 Williams, “Robson,” 562. 2 Le grand nord was the much larger region lying west of Lake Winnipeg. See Lytwyn, Fur Trade, i.

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3 For linguists, the spelling is mishkiigogamaang, meshkiigwaagamaang, or meshkiigwaagamaag: mashkiigw- “swamp,” -igamaa “body of water,” and -ng “locative.” There is variability in the vowel of the first syllable, with -a- in the general word for “swamp,” mashkiig. The -e- in the first syllable reflects a grammatical process called initial change. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 12 November 2009. 4 Williams was apparently asked about the annuities as soon as he arrived at Osnaburgh: “The request was first broached in September last and before writing it for the Indians I have made careful enquiry, and the result is as now forwarded.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Williams to sgia, dated 12 December 1901 and stamped received 21 January 1902. 5 Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 44; Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904–5, 44, and 1905–6, 48. 6 Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 11. 7 lac, Scott journal, 12 July 1905. 8 Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 79. A reduction in seasonal employment could mean real hardship, as it did in central Manitoba. See Miller, Compact, 173. 9 Ibid., 92. See two photos by gsc’s William McInnes, both labelled “Indian packers from Osnaburgh House at Sandy Lake, 1899,” lac, pa-038347 mikan no. 3389622 and pa-038346 mikan no. 3389621, at viewed 28 October 2009. 10 Orthography and English equivalent courtesy of John O’Meara, pers. comm., 14 October 2009. 11 Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 99. 12 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 5, 112, 121; see also 47ff, 142, 202n. 13 Muriel Sawyer, pers. comm., 13 October 2009. 14 Adelson, “Being Alive Well,” 61–2. 15 Cooper, “Northern Algonquian Supreme Being,” 51. 16 “After the grand council was over the Indians put on fake ceremonial dances and passed the hat around among the visitors and so reaped quite a harvest.” Williams, “My First Bear Hunt.” See also Graham, Treaty Days, 116–18. 17 “[T]he real medicine and initiation ceremonies for their secret orders were held after the payment was ended and the visitors gone.” Williams, “My First Bear Hunt.” 18 Angel, Preserving the Sacred; Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 89. Rogers indicates that a “southeast-northwest” intra-cultural boundary passing through Lake St Joseph marked the northern extent of “clan names, Midewiwin, and the sucking tube, traits found among the Indians below the line”; see his “Cultural Adaptations,” 90. The people of Mishkeegogamang assert that they had sucker, loon, caribou, sturegon, and bear clans prior to 1850. See “History” and “Mishkeegogamang and Its People,” mofn website. 19 Brown and Vibert, Reading beyond Words. 20 “Decolonization … is about centering our concerns and worldviews and then coming to know and understand theory and research from our own perspectives and for our own purposes.” Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies, 39. 21 Williams, “My First Bear Hunt.” 22 hbc inspector Alex Milne noted that Williams had “considerable experience as a trader” and kept his accounts “fairly well.” Williams seemed “very competent” and

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had “a good knowledge of fur values,” but was not inclined to “utilize his spare time in keeping a Post tidy and in repair.” He appeared to “associate with the natives to sone extent.” See hbca, dir, Martin Fall, 1900–1, 4–5. hbcabs, “Williams”; Williams, Jabez Williams. Williams, “My First Bear Hunt.” In 1901 Williams had seven children to support from his first marriage, the youngest four and the oldest fifteen. One was adopted, and the others were living with maternal relatives at Rat Portage (now Kenora). See Williams, Jabez Williams, 21–3. Ibid. Linguist John D. Nichols suggests the root waawiye- “round,” which is common in names, perhaps with -gwan(e)- “feather” and, of couse, -kwe “woman”; he cannot account for the -chi- element. In Minnesoa, he notes, some other element (-bii “sit,” -yaashii- “soar,” -gaabawii- “stand”) intervenes. Nichols, pers. comm., 23 November 2009. Kiebuzinski states that Clara was sixteen years old, while Jabez’s great-nephew Graeme suggests she was five years older. See Kiebuzinski, Yesterday, the River, 136, and Williams, Jabez Williams, 25. See also Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties. John O’Meara advises that booyawe is Baraga’s “young beaver between 2 and 3 years,” “beaver (one and a half to years),” or simply, in his own notes from Cat Lake and Ogoki Post, “mid-sized beaver.” Pers. comm., 28 October 2009. Besides these three, the Williams petition listed Loon, Joseph Loon, Ann-e-waykee-sic, Peesh-e-kense, Shay-way-shay, Nay-otch-e-kee-sic, Kitch-ense, David Skunk, Joseph Skunk, George Skunk, Simon Skunk, Thomas Skunk, Bighead, “& others.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Poo-yah-way et al. to sgia, 12 December 1901. Spelling of zhigaag is courtesy of John O’Meara, 2 December 2009. Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 99. See Robert Bell’s 1886 photographs “Chief Misabi, standing in front row holding his hat, and a group of Indians gathered for feast” (pa-040107 mikan no. 3228213), “Chief Misabi, standing at centre, and a group of Indians gathered for feast” (pa-040104 mikan no. 3228212), and “Ojibway group in front of Osnaburgh House, Hudson Bay Co. Post. Chief Misabi (holding hat) in the centre” (pa-164369 mikan no. 3227557), at viewed 6 November 2009. On the gsc, see Zaslow, Reading the Rocks. hbcabs, “Williams”; typescript of a letter from Jabez to his brother Percy Williams, dated 4 October 1901, in Williams, Jabez Williams. Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 12. Ibid. Ibid. Fancy, Temiskaming, 2: 121–3, and 3: 6. See Long, “Education in the James Bay Region.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Isaiah Poo-yah-way et al. to sgia, “Written and signed at Lake St Joseph by [Jabez Williams] at the request of Poo-yah-way,” 12 December 1901. See Miller, “Gifts as Treaties.” Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 33. See also Preston, “Sustainable Life Perspective.” George and Preston, “‘Going in Between,’” 451.

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Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 51. Rogers and Taylor, “Northern Ojibwa,” 235. Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 113; Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 89. Surveyor Proudfoot wrote that potatoes were grown “in some abundance by them [hbc] and the Indians.” McPhee, a land and timber estimator, considered the potatoes of poor quality. See Ontario, dcl, Report on the Survey, 176, 229. “For the past two or three years exploration for minerals has been carried on in the country contiguous to Lake St Joseph – and an occasional party has penetrated to the Lake itself, and the waters of the Albany River have been descended as far as Eabamet Lake [Fort Hope] in the prosecution of the search.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Isaiah Poo-yah-way et al. to sgia, 12 December 1901. Ontario, dcl, Report on the Survey, 240. Bishop, “Emergence of Hunting Territories,” 5–9. Ontario, dcl, Report on Survey, 212. Ibid., 229. Big Sandy Lake is located east of Dryden and north of Wabigoon at 49o 49⬘ 21⬙ north and 92o 21⬘ 22⬙ west. Ontario, dcl, Report on the Survey, 208. Robertson’s, McPhee’s, and Davison’s reports are at 207–15, 216–30, and 230–50 respectively. The gsc’s Dr Robert Bell travelled the Albany and Kenogami Rivers in 1886. Ibid., 215. See also hbcabs, “Wilson, Robert Cummins.” Ontario, dcl, Report on the Survey, 175–6. Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 80. McLaren and Botsford were the chief competitors at Nipigon, but the hbc refused an offer to absorb its competitors, as it was not a good “policy to buy out these petty traders; it only encourages others to come in, their idea being that when they are hard pressed the Company will buy them out to get rid of them.” See hbca, dir, Nipigon House, 1892, 19. Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 81. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Comment dated 23 January 1902 and written on letter from Jabez Williams to sgia dated 23 January 1902. Williams described Katchang as a leader of the Roman Catholic “Attawapiskat Indians,” apparently a reference to those trading there or at the Lansdowne House on Attawapiskat Lake, some 470 miles (750 kilometres) upriver from Attawapiskat hbc post (at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River). See Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 17. In 1904 the chief assigned a Crane guide to a second party near Cat Lake and warned that their luggage would be searched. See ibid., 17–18; Camsell, Son of the North, 169, 172–4. On the Cranes, see Black-Rogers, “Treaty Period”; BlackRogers and Rogers, “Cranes”; Grant, “Crane and Sucker”; Rogers and BlackRogers, “Who Were the Cranes?”; and Schenck, Voice of the Crane. Black-Rogers and Rogers, “Cranes.” Grant, “Crane and Sucker,” 79. Ibid., 76. Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 2–3. Nicholson, Boundaries, 202–3, 211; Newman, “Boundaries.” Linguist John D. Nichols, applying the principles of Ojibwe naming in Minnesota, suggested the second half of Sahquakegick could be -giizhig (“sky or day”), but he did not recognize the initial element. It might be zaakwe- or zaagwe- (“coming into

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view from around something”), a common root in names. Less likely, it could be zaag- (“extending out”), combined with -wewe- (“sounding, audible”), as in zaagwewe-, but probably not with just one -we. Pers. comm., 23 November 2009. Victor Lytwyn reports that Sahquakegick’s father was named Squaikezhick. Nichols suggests this name was possibly ishkwe-giizhig (“End of the Sky”). Pers. comm., 24 November 2009. Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 7. Despite the Ontario government’s aggressive promotion of its extensive northern clay belt, heralded by the province’s 1901 report, the region’s agricultural potential was limited. See Wood, Places of Last Resort. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Memorandum for the Honorable the sgia from J.A. Macrae, I.I.A.&R., dated 3 July 1901. Morrison notes that the purpose of this trip was to examine the eligibility of those on the Robinson paylists and reduce their number. See his Treaty Research Report, 21. An 1887 amendment to the Indian Act permitted the minister, “upon the report of an officer, or other person appointed by him to make an inquiry, determine who is or who is not a member of any band of Indians entitled to share in the property and annuities of the band; and the decision … shall be final and conclusive, subject to an appeal.” See Venne, Indian Acts and Amendements, 166. Macrae reported that he and D.C. Scott had “met a number of Indians who do not participate in the benefits of that Treaty. These represented many others whose rights of occupancy to the territory north of the tract covered by the Robinson Treaties had not been, and have not since the date mentioned been, extinguished. “These Indians had come from considerable distances and asked what the Government proposed to do about the rights of Indians residing between James Bay and the Great Lakes who had not been treated by the Honorable Mr. Robinson.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Macrae, Memorandum, 3 July 1901. “The answer given to them was that without doubt the Government would deal with them in the same spirit of justice that it has always manifested towards Indians; that it would be time to expect compensation for their rights when those projects of which they spoke came to be carried out, and disturbance of their means of subsistence became serious; that until such time they should remain content, and believe that when the Government permitted projects to proceed which might affect their interests it would certainly not fail to properly consider their claims. The nicest spirit of confidence was manifested by the inquirers, and from that time until now the undersigned has heard nothing further of this matter.” Ibid. Morrison cites Indian Affairs agent James Phipps’s statement: “About half the Indians in the Band of Louis Espagnol have no Reserve nor any Treaty relations with the Crown.” See Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 2–3. The hbc’s Missanabie (“pictures in water”) post, established in 1887 on the cpr line near Missanabie Station, supplied New Brunswick House on Missanabie Lake. In 1905 it was part of the hbc’s Lake Superior district. It apparently closed in the 1930s. See hbcaph, “Missanabie.” “No treaties have yet been concluded with the Indians in this territory for the surrender of their claims. To do so with the natives on or near to the coast of James Bay may perhaps be premature and uncalled for by circumstances. But as regards

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the Missinaibi and other Indians, whose case I have promised the chiefs of the former band to represent, there can be no reasonable doubt on this subject. The Canadian Pacific Railway for upwards of a hundred miles passes through their hunting grounds, and will unquestionably lead, sooner or later, to the destruction of the larger game and fur-bearing animals, and to some extent also of the fish, on which they are solely and entirely dependant for a living. These Indians are simply hunters and trappers, and not one in twenty grows even so much as a potato. Thus they have no other resources to fall back upon.” Borron, “Report,” 1890, 85. See also Zaslow, “Edward Barnes Borron,” and Bray, “Borron.” “D.C.S. took a photograph at the station of Chief Louis Spaniol in gala attire.” lac, Edgar journal, 12 July 1906. The two photographs are pa-195396, reproduced in this book as figure 2.3, and pa-059558, in which the chief stands hatless and holding a musket. Scott later wrote that “buckskins and beadwork and feathers … are rarely seen, except in pageants and on holidays, when the superior race must be amused by a glimpse of real savages in war paint. The Indian hunter and trapper follows the craft of his ancestors clothed as you and I, his wife and children likewise.” See Canada, diand, Annual Report, 1920, 7, and 1927, 7. lac, Stewart diaries, 11 July 1906. See also Silverstein, “Clothed Encounters.” Ibid., 12 July 1906. Lake Pogamasing is on the Spanish River system, about 80 kilometres north of Espanola and just south of the continental divide physically separating the Robinson Treaty lands from those associated with Treaty No. 9 to the north. “When I had concluded paying the Indians of Biscotasing their annuity Chief Louis Espaignol made a speech referring, among other matters, to a claim which, he stated, had previously been brought before the Department, of the Indians residing North of the Height of Land to receive annuity money. Chief Espaignol stated that when the Treaty was made in 1850 these Indians had been promised that they would receive the same consideration as those South of the Height of Land [perhaps a reference to undocumented discussions with Vidal and Anderson, or with Robinson]. “The records do not show that any negotiations were held with the Indians referred to, but it is evident that they are now anxious to enter into Treaty with the Government. “Chief Espaignol stated that he was acting on behalf of the Indians concerned in bringing the matter before the Department, and he asked that a reply setting forth the intention of the Government towards those Indians be sent to him care of J.E.T. Armstrong, H.B.Co., Biscotasing, in order that he may be in a position to convey the same to them at the earliest opportunity.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Stewart, “Memorandum,” 22 August 1901. See also Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 10–11. In 1929 Treaty No. 9 commissioners Cain and Awrey referred to unspecified “alleged grievances.” See their “Report,” 1929, 22. William M. Graham, Indian commissioners for the Prairie provinces, wrote that the annual treaty payment “seemed to be the one and only occasion on which matters pertaining to the band should be taken up … They had dozens of opportunities for such talks at other times but the treaty day appealed to them.” See his Treaty Days, 117.

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78 In an official acknowledgment of their visit, addressed to the two men, the departmental secretary wrote that ”the Department has already sent out Commissioners to treat with the Indians of the unsurrendered portion of the Province of Ontario from the Height of Land to James Bay. These Commissioners will, no doubt, deal with your Indians and report fully to the Department their requirements. Until their report is received the Department is not in a position to deal with representations made by the Indians from the territory in question.” A marginal notation on the file copy states, “These Indians stated that their habitat was within the limits of the Province of Ontario.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, J.D. McLean, Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, to Louis McDougall and John Chechabesh, Abitibi Indians, in the Province of Ontario, 3 July 1905. 79 The two men, Burwash wrote, “are considered to be the most prominent of the Abitibie Indians. They wish to have a talk over affairs at Abitibie, about having a treaty, securing a Reserve, having a chief, and so forth. Mrs John Chechabesh will act as interpreter, she has very good English. “These two Indians have been doing all they can to prevent liquor being brought to Abitibie and urging the Indians to not make use of it, so far as I can learn they are prohibitionists.” Ibid., Burwash to Secretary, 24 June 1905, stamped received 12 July 1905. Thomas C. Irving’s letter to Prime Minister Laurier, dated 16 April 1904, is stamped 3 May 1904 but was clearly received two weeks earlier; see ibid. 80 Ibid., J.D. McLean, Secretary, Department of Indian Affairs, to S. Stewart and D.C. Scott, Commissioners, Treaty No. 9, Abitibi via Mattawa, 11 July 1905. 81 lac photo pa-059614 is reproduced in this book as figure 2.4. There is also a front view, lac photo pa-194769, subtitled “a good Scot[s]man” in the ao’s copy C 275-1-0-6 (S 7677).

chapter three 1 2 3 4 5

UK, Laws, 22 & 23 Geo. V, c. 4. Morrison, “Treaty-Making Process,” 8. Tobias, “Canada’s Subjugation.” Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report … 10. “Recent developments seem to have brought about the time when it becomes proper to inform you of the aforementioned facts. Projects for railroads from Quebec, Mattawa, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and the settlement of New Ontario are much discussed. Advance explorations and surveys have been and are being made, and the Indians, cognizant of all this, are no doubt looking forward to and probably awaiting with some anxiety the action of the Government in respect to their rights. “The Robinson Treaties only extend as far north as the divide between the waters respectively running into James Bay and the Great Lakes, and this divide … extends at some points south of the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. From this it will be clear to you that, already, country to which the Indians have recognized and unextinguished rights is being settled and used, and the undersigned conceives it to be his duty to inform you that they expect to have their title considered as he

notes to pages 48–51

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8 9 10 11

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14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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thinks the time may have arrived when they believe that this should be done.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Macrae, Memorandum, 3 July 1901. Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 18. Macrae recommended a six-week visit to Matachewan, Abitibi, New Post, Moose Factory, and possibly Fort Albany. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Macrae Memorandum, 3 July 1901. McNeil, Native Rights, 20–34; Zaslow, “Ontario Boundary Dispute.” Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 20. Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” 270–1. “In my opinion,” Rimmer wrote, “the only interest which the Dominion Government represents in the negotiation of a surrender of Indian rights over territory in … the Provinces is that of the Indians.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Law Clerk Reginald Rimmer, “Proposed New Treaty for Ontario and Quebec,” 24 June 1901. Sifton’s views, dated 26 June 1901, were recorded on Rimmer’s memo by dsgia and deputy minister of the Interior James A. Smart; see ibid. J.D. McLean submitted the memo to Smart on 25 June 1901. As with Sioux Lookout and Ghost River, this name refers to a route taken by historic enemies – in this case, Iroquois, or natoowak in the early 1600s. See Long, “‘Shaganash,’” 43–6. See also Peers and Schenck, in Nelson, My First Years, 196n, discussing nadoweg. Sifton’s views recorded by Smart, in lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Law Clerk Reginald Rimmer, “Proposed New Treaty for Ontario and Quebec,” 24 June 1901. Ibid., McLean to Chief Louis Espaignol, 11 November 1901. Ibid., Stewart, Memorandum, 22 August 1901. McLean’s comments are undated. Ibid., McLean to Williams, 27 January 1902. Williams notified the department that he delivered the letter; see ibid., Williams to Honorable the sgia, 24 February 1902, stamped received 7 April. Ibid., McLean to Isaiah Poo-yah-way, George Wah-we-aishking, and others, 27 January 1901. Titley, “McKenna.” For a photograph of McKenna, see Glenbow Museum Archives, NA-949-2, “Members of Treaty 8 Commission.” lac, re Treaty No. 9, McKenna to The Honorable Clifford Sifton, sgia, 22 February 1902. Ibid., McKenna to McLean, 3 April 1902. Ibid., McKenna to The Honorable Clifford Sifton, sgia, 22 February 1902. Ibid., McLean to J.F. Hodder, C.L.D. Sims, S. Hagan, W.B. McLean, and William L. Nichols, 8 April 1902; McLean to Sims, Hagan, and Maclean, 26 January 1903. Ibid., W.B. Maclean to Secretary, 28 Jan 1903. Hodder reported the following numbers: Osnaburgh 100, Fort Hope 100, Marten Falls 60, English River 50, Albany 150, Moose Factory 500, New Post 40 (where commissioners would make treaty in 1905), Abitibi 400, Mattagami 200, Flying Post 100, New Brunswick House 100, and Long Lake 50 (where treaty would be made in 1906). He also included Rupert House (40) and Waswanaby (150), which would not have a treaty until the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agree-

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32 33 34 35

36 37 38 39

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notes to pages 52–3

ment; see ibid., Hodder to Secretary, 6 December 1902. During the 1906 season, treaty commissioners paid 915 people, and paymaster J.G. Ramsden paid another 2,047; see Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1906. lac, re Treaty No. 9, Hodder to Secretary, 6 Dec 1902. Ibid. Hodder’s sources of information were local hbc factor Alex Matheson, in charge of the Lake Superior district, and retired Anglican clergyman Thomas Vincent, who had spent most of his life in the James Bay region. Vincent volunteered to travel as far as Ottawa to provide advice, so long as his expenses were paid. See ibid., Thomas Vincent, Stonewall, Manitoba, to sgia, 14 July 1902; Secretary to Vincent, 17 July 1902. See also hbcabs, “Matheson,” and Long, “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Hodder to Secretary, 6 Dec 1902. Nichols reported 117 at Mattagami, 100 at Flying Post, 125 about Biscotasing, 300–400 at Brunswick House, and 100 at Missinabie. See ibid., Acting Indian Agent Nichols to Secretary, 24 July 1902. Ibid., Macrae to Frank Pedley, dsgia, 12 February 1903. Ibid., Pedley’s Memorandum to Sifton, titled “Report on Treaty in Northern Ontario and Quebec,” 17 August 1903. A draft is dated 11 August 1903. Earlier he had submitted a list of seven trading centres and an estimate of the Indians trading at each, provided by “Father Gueguen, who has collected it from Rev. Fathers Beaudry, Laniel and others who are in a position to give it.” See ibid., Pedley to Sifton, 1 April 1903. Matachewan and Mattagami were in Ontario and already on the treaty planners’ agenda, along with Abitibi, north of the Ottawa within Quebec. A century later the Algonquins east of the Ottawa – centred at Long Point, Kippewa or Grassy Lake, Grand Lake Victoria, and the Barrier – still do not have a treaty. Those south and west of the Ottawa began negotiating in the 1980s. See omaa, “Algonquin Land Claim.” lac, re Treaty No. 9, Memorandum to Sifton, 17 August 1903. A draft is dated 11 August 1903. Ibid., Memorandum to Sifton, 17 August 1903. Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” 292–3. Ontario unilaterally legislated away First Nations’ headland rights in 1915, while lacking (Telford argues) the constitutional authority. Canada was essentially bullied into acquiescing, if it hoped Ontario would confirm the Treaty No. 3 reserves. See ibid., 303–11. In 1924 the Dominion Lands Agreement provided Ontario with half of any revenue from base and precious metals on reserves. See ibid., 311–34. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Memorandum to Sifton, 17 August 1903. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., Scott to dsgia, 25 March 1904. Scott’s initials would increasingly appear, as Stan Dragland states, like “many flakes in the snowstorm of memoranda … over the treaty.” See Dragland, Floating Voice, 21. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Sifton, 22 April 1904. Thomas C. Irving was perhaps the son of a man who once managed the Canadian office of powerful commercial credit rating agency Bradstreet and Company, now

notes to pages 53–7

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known as Dun and Bradstreet. See Adam, History of Toronto, 352; anon., “History of D&B.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Thomas C. Irving Jr to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 16 April 1904. The letter is stamped 3 May 1904 but was clearly received two weeks earlier. Pedley acknowledged ithe letter in a memorandum to Irving dated 22 April 1904. Ibid., Thomas C. Irving Jr to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 16 April 1904. Laurier acknowledged the letter in a reply to Irving, 2 May 1904. Ibid., Thomas C. Irving Jr to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 16 April 1904; Laurier to Irving, 2 May 1904. Davis was a member of the provincial legislature from 1888 to 1904. He was also the head of a family leather business. See Davis and Davis, Davis Family, 85–99, 101ff. The list of hbc posts included Rupert House and Waswanapi. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Davis, 30 April 1904. Ibid., Pedley to Chipman, 4 May 1904. On Chipman, see hbcabs, “Chipman,” and Nigol, “Chipman.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Chipman to Pedley, 11 May 1904. Ibid. Borron, “Report,” 1890, 86–7. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Chipman to Pedley, 11 May 1904. Ibid. Ibid. Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 16. On the role of the hbc in this treaty, see Calverley, “Impact of the Hudson’s Bay Company.” hbca, A.12/FT 243/1, f.114–15, Chipman to William Ware, hbc Secretary, 30 June 1905. When Indian Affairs secretary J.D. McLean wrote in December 1905 to seven postmasters, giving them (and any Indians who might visit the post) five months’ notice of the treaty paymaster’s 1906 visits, Chipmen asked that he direct any future correspondence to his office. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, McLean to S.B. Barrett, J.B. Cooper, C.H.M. Gordon, Samuel Isahrof (Iserhoff), J.G. Mowat, A.W. Patterson, Jabez Williams, and C.C. Chipman, 1 December 1905; Chipman to McLean, 6 December 1905. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Chipman to Pedley, 11 May 1904. Ibid., Same to same, 27 May 1904. These estimates were based on a daily cost of $12 for every two passengers: canoe rental, $1; four canoemen, $1.50 each; a bonus for the guide, $1; food for the canoemen, $1.25; food for the passengers, $.75; and extra costs (“equipment, board at posts, etc.”) of $2. See ibid. Based on 2,500 people for three days and $.32 per person per day: pound of bacon, $.12; two pounds of flour, $.08; sugar and tobacco, $.10; and luxuries, $.02. See ibid. Chipman asked that the hbc receive a 15 per cent commission on all expenditures, the same as it had earned with the earlier treaty. See ibid., Chipman to Pedley, 2 June 1904. Bendickson, “Irving.”

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62 Irving sent him a draft reply on 23 May. See ao, Correspondence, Irving to White, 17 and 23 May 1904. White’s letter is based almost verbatim on Irving’s draft. White inserted the words “of a Treaty” in the first sentence and apparently omitted in error an entire line of Irving’s in his fifth paragraph. See ibid., White to Pedley, 30 May 1904; see also lac, Re Treaty No. 9, same to same, 7 May 1904. 63 Ibid. 64 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Sifton, 10 June 1904. 65 Henderson comments, “It took a series of federal/provincial agreements, culminating in the 1924 Canada/Ontario Indian Reserve Lands Agreement, S.C. 1924, c. 48, to provide an interim solution to the problems created these decisions.” See his “St. Catharines Milling.” 66 This suggestion, which Pedley made to Sifton in his submission of 10 June, may have come from Scott. Scott certainly advanced the idea in his communication with Pedley on 18 March 1905. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9. 67 Ibid., Pedley to White, 23 June 1904. 68 ao, Correspondence, Pedley to White, 11 July 1904. 69 Ibid., White to Irving, 17 August 1904. 70 John O’Meara notes that bizhiwi-zaaga’iganiiwininiwag is “Cat Lake people.” The -inini in many dialects means “man” as an independent word, but when compounded, it often is interpreted more generally as “people.” See also viewed 22 July 2009, where Nitam Anishinaabeg apparently refers to the First Nation (nitam, “first”). O’Meara, pers. comm., 10 November 2009. 71 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, McKenzie to Indian Commissioner, 22 June 1904. 72 Ibid., McLean to McKenzie, 30 June 1904. 73 hbca, A.12/FT 243/1, f. 112, Chipman to Ware, 8 July 1904. 74 ao, Correspondence, White to Pedley, 15 December 1904. 75 hbca, A.12/FT 243/1, f. 113, Chipman to Ware, 16 December 1904. 76 White reported that Pedley’s letter had been “answered,” when in fact it had merely been acknowledged. See ao, Correspondence, White to Commissioners, 15 December 1904, and White(?) to Latchford, 16 December 1904. 77 Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 24. 78 Whitney would be knighted in 1908. See Humphries, “Whitney.” 79 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to White, 27 February 1905. 80 ao, Correspondence, White, Memorandum for the Commissioner, 2 March 1905. 81 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Scott to dsgia, 18 March 1905. 82 Ibid., Pedley to White, 18 March 1905. 83 ao, Correspondence, White to Irving, 22 March 1905. 84 The provincial railway is mentioned in Pedley’s 27 April 1905 briefing notes for Laurier. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9. 85 Ibid., Pedley to Foy, 8 May 1905. 86 Ibid., Chipman to Pedley, 29 March 1905. 87 Ibid. 88 Moss, “Implementation.” The jbnqa excluded many of the families who had moved into Ontario during the intervening decades. See Macqueen, “‘We Have Always Been Here,’” and Bonspiel, “People of MoCreebec.”

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89 Departing Dinorwic on 1 July, arriving at Lac Seul midday on the 3rd, departing for Osnaburgh on the 5th, arriving on the 8th, departing for Fort Hope on the 10th, arriving on the 13th, departing for Marten’s Falls on the 15th, arriving on the 18th, departing for English River on the 20th, arriving on the 23rd, departing for Albany on the 25th, arriving on the 29th, departing for Moose on the 31st, arriving on 5 August, departing for New Post on the 8th, arriving on the 10th, departing for Abitibi on the 12th, arriving on the 18th, departing for Haileybury (and from there by train to Mattawa) on the 20th, arriving at Mattawa on the 24th. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Chipman to Pedley, 29 March 1905. 90 Hall, “Clifford Sifton and Canadian” and “Sifton.” 91 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley, Memorandum for the Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Acting sgia, In Re James Bay Treaty, 27 April 1905. 92 Disputes over the Treaty No. 3 reserves would not be settled for another decade. See Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 187–93; McNab, “Administration.” 93 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley, Memorandum for the Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Acting sgia, In Re: James Bay Treaty, 27 April 1905. 94 Ibid., Memorandum to His Excellency the Governor General in Council, April–May 1905 (an amended copy of Pedley’s draft). 95 Ibid. 96 Ibid. 97 Ibid., Pedley to dmj, 2 and 5 May 1906. E.L. Newcombe, dmj, to dsgia, 5 May 1905 (two letters same date). Newcombe had some familiarity with complex Indian issues, having signed the 1902 agreement with Ontario on behalf of the federal government. 98 Ibid., Pedley to Foy, 8 May 1905. 99 Ibid., Matheson to Pedley, 1 June 1905. 100 Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 1 June 1905. 101 A copy of the revised order-in-council was attached. See ibid., Pedley to Laurier, 2 and 3 June 1905. 102 Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 5 June 1905. 103 Ibid., Pedley to Chipman, 5 June 1905. If Chipman immediately wired Dinorwic, Osnaburgh could have had the news by 12 June, Fort Hope by the 16th, Marten Falls by the 20th, English River by the 24th (unless word was sent more directly, up the Kenogami from Nipigon), and Albany by the 29th. Travel time is based on the schedule in Chipman’s letter to Pedley, 29 March 1905, ibid. Telegrams to Mattawa, or perhaps Haileybury, could have been dispatched upriver fairly quickly to Abitibi, New Post, and Moose Factory. 104 Ibid., Chipman to Pedley, 12 June 1905. 105 “There will be no game in the country in July and August so the party need not burden themselves with firearms. A pair of light blankets and water proof groundsheets each can, with the help of evergreen brush and leaves, be made enjoyably comfortable, he says, for any man of fairly strong constitution [and?] the avoidance of the unnecessary makes an appreciable difference on the many portages between the points of departure and arrival, as well as on board the canoe. “Then as to food. The Hudson’s Bay food list consists of flour, bacon, ham, butter, tea, coffee, sugar, split peas, beans, condensed soups, rice, raisins, evaporated

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apples, a few tins of tomatoes and beef or tongue, and the usual common ingredients – all else being considered dispensable on long trips inland. However, I shall be pleased to meet your wishes in this and other matters. “I would advise that the transport officer be left to provide full camping requirements – including blankets and waterproof sheets. Also one good sized tent for the two officials of the Commission. Any other additional comfort wanted by the officials will be cheerfully provided as far as the rather limited space available in travelling by canoe will allow.” Ibid. “Apparently have misunderstood my wire. Party to consist of three Commissioners, doctor, two policemen. Desirable to travel with sufficient equipment and ample accomodation … Provide ample transport and camp equipment. Camp beds, chairs, and table. Similar food as for Treaty Eight trip. Large tent for two Commissioners single tent for one. Engage sufficient men to handle party expeditiously.” Ibid., Pedley to Chipman, 15 June 1905. While Chipman was able to meet Pedley’s requirements for less austere arrangements, he felt obliged to remind him that “whereas for Treaty #8 horses and large boats, or scows, were available, men carriers and canoes are alone possible in the country to be travelled by the Treaty #9 Commissioners, and it would be well for the members of the party for their own comfort and convenience, to travel as light as possible.” See ibid., Chipman to Pedley, 19 June 1905; see also same to same, 16 and 17 June 1905. On the Treaty No. 8 expedition, see Edwards, On the North Trail, and Mair, Through the MacKenzie Basin. ao, Correspondence, Pedley to Matheson(?), 12 June 1905. Includes typed five-page draft of Treaty No. 9. Pedley also telegraphed Matheson on 15 June 15. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Matheson, 15 and 16 June 1905. Ibid. Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 16 June 1905; Matheson to Pedley, 16 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 18 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 23 June 1905 (telegram and letter). A copy of the itinerary is included in ao, Correspondence. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Matheson to Pedley, 23 June 1905 (telegram). Ibid., Matheson to Pedley, 23 June 1905 (letter), stamped received June 27; my emphasis. Ibid., Pedley to dmj, 24 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Scott, 24 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Meindle, 24 June 1905. Ibid., Statement of expenses for travel and “Lyman’s Instruments,” stamped 1905. Constables Parkinson and Vanasse were paid a daily rate of $3.65. Vanasse earned an extra $1.50 in 1906 as canoeman. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, 8–9. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Extract of a Report of the Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by the Governor General on the 29th June 1905. Hall, “Clifford Sifton and Canadian.” Although we have no evidence of this, perhaps Chipman had appealed over Pedley’s head, recommending that the Ojibwe and Cree north of the Albany River be included in the treaty, as traders such as

notes to pages 64–6

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Jabez Williams advocated. See Morrison, Treaty Research Report. Alternatively, perhaps some lessons had been learned from Treaty No. 8. See Ray, “Treaty 8,” 44–5. This seems to be the copy of the agreement with the following changes on the first page: an “e” inserted in “hereinafter defind,” “and to obtain” changed to “and of obtaining,” “and to make a treaty and arrange” changed to “and of arranging,” and “which said Treaty is intended to describe and define that portion” changed to “which said territory may be described and defined as follows, that is to say, all that portion.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Agreement between Frank Oliver and Francis Cochrane. Ibid., Pedley to Oliver, 26 June 1905; see also Acting dmj to dsgia, 26 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Oliver, 26 June 1905. Nelles, “Beck.” In 1896 E.B. Borron prepared a report on provincial water powers. See Manore, Cross-Currents, 36; Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 87, 186. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Oliver, 26 June 1905. Ibid., Stewart to Undersecretary of State, 26 June 1905. MacMartin’s name was was squeezed into Ontario’s copy, suggesting that this was the first copy engrossed. See lines four and five of paragraph one at viewed 6 July 2009. See the beginning of line 2 in paragraph 3 at viewed 6 July 2009. The employee was apparently not the soon-deceased Mr Arcand mentioned in lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pope to McLean, 11 January 1906. A payment of $25 was made to A. Drouin for engrossing two copies on the treaty on parchment. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904-5, 9. Another employee assumed that such opportunities were still available seven months later, when the 1902 agreement was sent to be engrossed. Pedley (and no doubt the accountant Scott) was “particularly careful in dealing with this matter owing to a communication received from the Treasury Board in regard to work done for us during the past summer.” See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Pope, 17 January 1906. It is stamped received by the Secretary of State, 26 June 1905. MacMartin’s name is inserted in pen. “Cree” is inserted by caret in three places between the first two words of the phrase “Ojibeway and other Indians,” without commas. Ibid. Ibid., sgia to Governor General in Council, 27 June 1905. Ibid. Secretary McLean wrote at the top “Immediate[,] File & return to me.” See ibid., Scott to Pedley, 29 June 1905. Ibid., Extract from a Report of the Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by the Governor General on the 3rd July, 1905. Matheson was informed of the order’s approval; see ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 14 July 1905. What was “afterwards attached” to Treaty No. 9 was the Oliver-Cochrane agreement. It was not engrossed and sent to Cochrane, by then Ontario’s minister

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of Mines and Works, until 16 October 1905, a month after the commissioners returned to Ottawa from their first summer of treaty-making. It “forms part of Treaty No. 9 which, when properly executed, will be attached to the Treaty,” wrote Pedley, “one copy of which will be transmitted in due course to your Government.” See ibid., Pedley to Cochrane, 16 October 1905. Matheson returned both copies of the agreement to Pedley a month later, signed and sealed. “I think it would be proper in this case,” he added, “to make the date of the agreement some day previous to the date in the Treaty.” See ibid., Matheson to Pedley, 17 November 1905. It is stamped received 29 November, explaining Pedley’s second letter to Cochrane on 25 November. Cochrane blamed Matheson for the delay. See ibid., Cochrane to Pedley, 29 November 1905. After being signed and sealed by Oliver in 1905, these parchments were kept in Ottawa for another year, with Indian Affairs acting as “custodian of the agreement until the Treaty is completed when one copy will be sent to you.” See ibid., Pedley to Cochrane, 25 November 1905. Matheson preferred to be the custodian of Ontario’s copy, which he received and forwarded to Cochrane in December 1905. See ao, Correspondence, Matheson to Pedley, 5 December 1905; lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Matheson, 6 December 1905; ao, Correspondence, Matheson to Cochrane, 8 December 1905, and Cochrane to Matheson, 11 December 1905. The agreement was backdated to 3 July 1905, the day the provincial order approving the agreement and the third federal order were approved. See lac, re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Matheson, 1 December 1905; ao, Correspondence, Copy of an Order-in-Council approved by His Honour the Administrator of the Government of the Province of Ontario the 3rd day of July, A.D. 1905. In December 1905 Scott requested that duplicate copies of the 1902 agreement, “Same size as Agreement & Treaty” (“14¾ x 19¾”), be engrossed on parchment. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Scott to Assistant Secretary [Stewart], 16 December 1905, and McLean to Pope, 18 December 1905. The engrossed agreement of 3 July 1905 was not filed with the treaty parchment or attached to it. Serge Paquet, reference archivist, Archives of Ontario, pers. comm. “Unless unforeseen delay occurrs [sic] Treaty party will leave here on noon train Friday next.” lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Chipman, 28 June 1905. Ibid., Pedley to Governor General in Council, 29 June 1905. Section 2(b) of the 1886 Indian Act, reproduced in Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 107. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Governor General in Council, 29 June 1905. Ibid., Extract from a Report of the Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by the Governor General on the 6th July, 1905. Ibid., Matheson to Pedley, 29 June 1905. See ibid., Copy of an Order in Council approved by His Honour the Administrator of the Government of the Province of Ontario, the 3rd day of July A.D. 1905; see also ibid., Assistant Provincial Secretary to dsgia, 13 July 1904, and Charles Moss, Administrator of the Government, to Secretary of State, 13 July 1905. At Osnaburgh the commissioners would ensure that there were two reserves, one in Keewatin and one in Ontario, helping to minimize the province’s commitment of land. The reserves at Fort Hope, Marten Falls, and Fort Albany were entirely in Keewatin. The text of the treaty already contained the size-limiting phrase

notes to pages 67–8

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describing reserve allocation also found in Treaty No. 8: “not to exceed in all for each family of five.” The handwritten insertion is crossed out on the undated typed draft of the treaty stamped received by the Secretary of State on 26 July 1905. See lac, Re Treaty No. 9. MacMartin’s is dated 30 June; Vanasse’s is dated 29 June. Ibid. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 111 (reproduced in this volume as chapter 19). Archdeacon Vincent likely would have offered his services had he been invited to meet with Ottawa officials. John Garton Sr offered his services in 1906. See lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Garton to Superintendent Indian Department, 18 June 1906 and Secretary to Garton, 22 June 1906. On Vincent, see Long, “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent.” On Garton, see hbcabs, “Garton.” See the “Terminology” section in this volume.

chapter four 1 lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Acting dsgia to Matheson, 26 October 1906. Matheson requested a copy of the federal order-in-council approving the treaty. See ibid., Matheson to dsgia, 1 November 1906. 2 Ibid., Oliver to Governor General in Council, 3 December 1906. 3 Ibid., “Extract from a Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, approved by the Governor General on the 12th of January 1907.” 4 The order-in-council refers to “the James Bay Treaty No. 9 made by the Commissioners, Messrs Duncan Campbell Scott, Samuel Stewart and Daniel George MacMartin, who were appointed by Order in Council in 1905 to negotiate with the Ojibeway Cree and other Indians inhabiting the territory hereinafter defined for the cession by the said Indians to the Crown, on the terms embodied in the Treaty of all their rights, titles and privileges to the lands included in the territory above referred to, the limits of which may be described as follows:- ‘That portion or tract of land lying and being in the Province of Ontario, bounded on the south by the Height of Land and the northern boundaries of the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850, and the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, and bounded on the east and north by the boundaries of the said Province of Ontario as defined by law, and on the west by a part of the eastern boundary of the territory ceded by the Northwest Angle Treaty No. 3’ and also for the cession by the said Indians of their rights, titles and privileges to all other lands wherever situated in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, the District of Keewatin or in any other portion of the Dominion of Canada.” See ibid. Matheson was provided with a certified copy of the order; see ibid., Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Pedley to Matheson, 25 January 1907. McLean sent the department’s parchment copy of the now-ratified treaty to the undersecretary of state to be “enrolled in the usual manner in the office of the Registrar General and returned to this Department with a certificate of registration endorsed thereon.” See ibid., McLean to Joseph Pope, 18 January, Under-secretary of State to Secretary, 25 January, and Under-secretary of State to Secretary, 19 January 1907. 5 Macklem notes that “even if treaties between the Crown and First Nations were accorded ‘international treaty’ status, this fact alone would not render them

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enforceable in domestic courts; implementing legislation would be required.” See his Indigenous Difference, 137n. Moss, “Implementation.” Canada, diand, “Acts Administered.” The act today is little changed from that time. See Hurley, Indian Act. In Cree, shooniyaan- (Moose Cree, shooliyaan-) ikimaaw; in Ojibwe, zhooniyaawigima. See chapter 10. Cardinal, Unjust Society, 44. Graham, in Treaty Days, reports that elderly people dated events in relation to the treaty. Dempsey mentions a treaty signatory who remembered the year as a poor spring. See Dempsey, “Introduction,” xv. McLean also provided a copy of Treaty No. 9, which states, “They promise and engage that they will, in all respects, obey and abide by the law.” See lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, McLean to Coward, 14 March 1914. In 1900 Ramsden was president of the Young Men’s Liberal Club of Toronto. After graduating from the British-American Business College, he spent fifteen years in confectionary and baking before winning the inspector’s job. Having left the civil service in 1912, he became an electrical contractor, and later he had a milling and general store business; he retired in 1936. Ramsden served as alderman for Toronto’s Ward 3 for several years between 1903 and 1930, in later years in the role of controller. In 1917 he was elected a Liberal member of the provincial legislature. Toronto’s Ramsden Park, on Yonge Street north of Davenport, is named after him. See Moranz, “Toronto Personalities”; anon., “Treasury Watchdog.” Immediately upon his return from far northern Ontario, Ramsden was sent to “visit and inspect the reserves in the Nipissing, Parry Sound District and the reserves at Golden Lake and Rama Reserve, and … any reserves through to the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.” See lac, Ramsden, Secretary to Ramsden, 31 July 1906. In 1908 he was transferred to headquarters staff (the “Inside Service”) and expected to move from Toronto to Ottawa. See ibid., Secretary to Ramsden, 31 July 1906. The following year Ramsden was authorized “to summon, by subpoena issued by you, any person or persons under oath in respect to any matter affecting Indians, in connection with which you may be entrusted, and to compel the production of papers and writings before you relating to such matters.” See ibid., Stewart to Ramsden, 14 October 1909. In 1910 he was promoted to chief inspector of Indian agencies, again with the expectation that he move to Ottawa. See ibid., McLean to Ramsden, 5 December 1910. He requested six months’ leave prior to resigning in 1912, dissatisfied with his annual salary of $2,300 and the requirement to reside in Ottawa. See ibid., Ramsden to Secretary, 16 June 1910, 17 January, 8 March 1912; Secretary to Ramsden, 30 April 1912. Effectively terminated on 31 May 1912, on a month’s notice, he continued to complain about his severance and to use Indian Affairs stationery for another three months. See ibid., Ramsden to Secretary, 2 and 16 May, 25 June, 15, 19 and 29 July, 5 and 31 August 1912; Secretary to Ramsden, 26 July 1912; McLean to Ramsden, 28 April 1906. Ibid., dsgia to Riddell, 28 April 1906. McKay was a first-class clerk in Ottawa, earning $1,500 per year. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, 3, 8. lac, Ramsden, J.D. McLean to Ramsden, 2 May 1906. Noah Wesley was a

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twenty-five-year-old labourer at Osnaburgh in 1891. See hbca, dir, Osnaburgh, 1891, 10. “When Treaty was made at Osnaburgh in the summer of 1905 there were certain Indians of Cat Lake River admitted to Treaty. You will probably find a number of these Indians assembled. If such is the case you may take them into Treaty, and pay them annuity at the rate of $8.00 per capita and add them to the list of the Osnaburgh Band. (I may here state that the gratuity payable to an Indian upon signing Treaty is eight dollars per capita, while the annuity thereafter is $4.00 per capita.) “As allowance was not made for the taking into Treaty of these Cat Lake River Indians in the allotment of reserves at Osnaburgh you should enquire whether they desire to have a reserve at Cat Lake or at some other point on the river, and report whether it would be advisable to grant their request, or whether it would be better to add to the area of the reserve at Osnaburgh in the North West Territories in order to accomodate them. You should give this matter your best consideration … In cases where new bands may join, such as the Cat Lake River Indians at Osnaburgh, you should treat them as if they had just come into Treaty, and pay them the $8.00 gratuity. In the case of absentees of bands who entered the Treaty last year you should pay them at the rate of $12.00 per capita (that is $8.00 gratuity and $4.00 annuity).” lac, Ramsden, J.D. McLean to Ramsden, 2 May 1906. Ibid. Mary Ann Bighead told the 1905 commissioners “that she was formerly paid at Missinabi,” but her name was not subsequently found on any pay-list. See ibid. Attawapiskat was established as an Oblate mission in 1893–94; the Hudson’s Bay Company followed about 1901. See Cummins, Only God, 28; hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 33. The Attawapiskat River has five outlets into James Bay, wrote surveyor Owen O’Sullivan in 1904; “the third, north of [Lawashi], is the deepest, and on it, six miles from the mouth, the Hudson’s Bay Company has an outpost. There is also a Roman Catholic chapel.” See his “South and West Coast,” cited in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 77. “You should enquire carefully into the means of communication with the Mission at Attawapiskat, and the time necessary for the trip, as the Department may decide to pay the Indians of that band in future at the Mission instead of at Fort Albany.” lac, Ramsden, J.D. McLean to Ramsden, 2 May 1906. Jackie Hookimaw-Witt of Attawapiskat concludes, from examining interviews with elders from her community, that “it is of course us Cree who own the land.” See her “Keenebonanoh,” 163. See also Cummins, Only God, 40, 42. Andrew Wesley (1869–1934) was born to Catherine “Kitty” Wesley and hbc employee Morrison (possibly hbc blacksmith Peter or petitioner Andrew). Andrew Wesley married Margaret Solomon; their daughter Emily was Robbie Linklater’s first wife. Andrew and Margaret’s son Gaius (1905–76) married Jane Stephen; their son, George Wesley (1944–2010), and his wife, Eileen (née Friday), raised Ricardo Wesley. Kitty married widower Richard Stephen in 1886. Information from Kashechewan genealogies. Andrew Morrison was a son of Orkneyman James Morrison and his wife, Frances Sanderson. Kitty is apparently a daughter of the John Wesley baptized by Barnley. See lac, 1881 Census of Canada, The Territories, district 192, sub-district 100 Albany Factory, page 4.

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24 gsa, Albany Mission Journal, 28 July 1906; emphases in original. 25 In 1929, when his plane damaged one of its floats, commissioner H.N. Awrey proceeded to Attawapiskat by canoe, paid treaty annuities, and held an election “dividing the Albany band and creating a new and distinct one.” The reserve question was deferred to the following year, because of Ontario commissioner Cain’s absence. See Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 30–1. In 1930 Cain and Awrey decided that, in awarding a reserve at Attawapiskat, they would not reduce the size of the one allocated at Fort Albany in 1905. They left it unchanged at 140 square miles and allotted the Attawapiskat band 104.4 square miles (slightly less than numbers warranted). Here, as was usual at annuity time, “Many questions, beyond the purview of the commissioners were presented.” The patient commissioners gave the complaints “a sympathetic hearing,” but the complainants “were referred to the resident Indian agent, Dr. Hamilton,” newly appointed as yearround agent and doctor at Moose Factory. See Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 37–8. When the annuity paymaster was also a treaty commissioner, the fine line dividing administrative decisions from actual treaty-making would not have been apparent to the people of Attawapiskat. See Long, “‘Government Is Asking.’” 26 lac, Ramsden, J.D. McLean to Ramsden, 2 May 1906. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid., J.D. McLean to Ramsden, 2 May 1906. 29 One of the first patrols, from the rcmp base at Haileybury and then via Moose Factory, was to eastern Hudson Bay to investigate the murders in 1919 of Alecum-mick and Anga-look-you-ak by the Belcher Island Inuk Ou-ang-wak. See Canada, Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1920, 16ff; 1921, 35. Another patrol passed through Moose Factory in 1921. “About 450 Cree Indians … trap during the winter and in the summer find employment at the saw-mills, on both companies’ boats, river transportation and gardening. There is no destitution amongst these people.” See ibid., 1922, 34. The Moose Factory detachment opened on 2 September 1926; see ibid., 1926, 35. A case of mental illness was reported at Fort Hope in 1928, and when a drunken party resulted in violence at Moose Factory, the rcmp made an arrest at Kesagami Lake and the men were imprisoned at Haileybury; see ibid., 1928, 27, 106. A case of incest was investigated at Fort Albany in 1927; see ibid., 1929, 21. Oblate father (later bishop) Joseph M.H. Belleau asked for an rcmp presence when the treaty commissioners visited Attawapiskat in 1930 because “there were a few cases of wife-beating and ill-treatment by some of the Indians … [who] needed severe warnings by the police as his efforts along these lines had so far proved unavailing.” At Moose Factory a case of “Neglect in childbirth” resulted in a Cree woman being imprisoned at Haileybury for a year; see ibid., 1930, 104, 17. By 1931 there were “five serious breaches of the Criminal Code” at Moose Factory. “Jail sentences were imposed, but this does not have the desired deterrent effect on other Indians in the district, as they have a more comfortable time in jail than they experience in their own camps.” Constable Covell identified one source of problems: “they will not leave the posts to hunt as long as they can obtain a little food from Government relief supplies, and a few clothes from the missions.” See ibid., 1931, 52. This is undoubtedly a reference to alcohol. When Covell performed his “packing case escape” at one Christmas show, he recalled, “Several Indians were invited on stage

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to nail me in the case and tie it in all directions with ropes etc. Amongst them was one named Willie Frenchman. Quite a character … As he was leaving the stage, he stopped and said to the audience [likely in Cree], ‘Now I have the Policeman where I want him, now I can make some home brew.’ He was quite startled when on returning to his seat he found it occupied by me.” Covell, pers. comm., 26 September 1984. What else did they talk about? Did MacMartin file a report? Did he provide a copy of his diary? Did he acknowledge any qualms about the Indians’ informed consent at treaty time? These questions are a task for another researcher. Matheson wrote to Pedley, “It is probable that the Reserves will be ratified by the Ontario Government, but Mr. Cochrane wishes to look into one or two points in connection with them, and I will advise you as soon as the question of Reserves is dealt with.” See lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Matheson to dsgia, 1 November 1906. The federal government having ratified the treaty, Pedley replied, “I shall be glad to learn at an early date that the Reserves have been approved and confirmed by your Government.” See ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 25 January 1907. Ibid., White to Pedley, 21 February 1907; McLean to White, 25 February 1907. The order served “to approve and confirm the selection of the following Reserves described in the Schedule attached to the report of the said Commissioners dated 6th November 1905 and in the Schedule of Reserves Treaty No. 9, 1906 it being clearly understood that the Government of the Dominion shall be responsible for the survey of the said Reserves and that plans and field notes of the said Reserves shall be deposited in the office of the Minister of Lands Forests and Mines when such surveys have been made.” The 1906 reserves listed were as follows: Abitibi 30, Matachewan 16, Metagami 20, Flying Post 23, New Brunswick House 27, and Long Lake 27 square miles; Ojibeways at Chapleau 160 and Moose Factory Crees at Chapleau 160 acres. See ibid., Copy of an Order-in-Council approved by His Honour the Lieutenant Governor, the 13th day of February, A.D. 1907. The order continues: “made by the Commissioners Messrs Duncan Campbell Scott, Samuel Stewart and Daniel George MacMartin who were appointed to negotiate with the Ojibeway, Cree and other Indians inhabiting the territory hereinafter defined for the cession by the said Indians to the Crown on the terms embodied in the Treaty, all their rights titles and privileges to the land included in the said territory the limits of which may be described as follows;- That portion or tract of land lying and being in the Province of Ontario bounded on the south by the height of land and the northern boundary of the territory ceded by the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850 and the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850 and bounded on the east and north by the boundaries of the said Province of Ontario as defined by law and on the west by a part of the eastern boundary of the territory ceded by the Northwest Angle Treaty No. 3.” Ibid. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Secretary to Galbraith, 14 June 1909; Secretary to Galbraith, 26 May 1909; Galbraith to Secretary, 29 May 1909; Secretary to Galbraith, 5 June 1909; Secretary to MacGregor, 3 May 1909. Ibid., MacGregor to Pedley, 26 June 1909; Galbraith, Osnaburgh–Fort Hope Survey Pay-list and his Diary, 1909. “The Department is quite aware that circumstances may arise in a trip of this nature under which it will be advisable to vary from instructions; you are therefore

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to understand that the Department relies on your experience and ability and you are at liberty to use your own judgment in all cases where the same is required.” Galbraith was told to purchase two 18-20-foot canoes from the Canadian Canoe Company in Peterborough and to dispose of his “outfit and canoes … to the best advantage.” See ibid., Secretary to Galbraith, 14 June 1909. “It is however imperative that the Chief and at least one of the head men of each band be engaged to assist so that they may be quite familiar with the boundaries of their reserves, and that there has been no mistake in the locality of each. In the event of the Chief and headmen being away or for some other reason not being able to assist, you should engage two other intelligent Indians of the band.” Ibid. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 29 July 1909, stamped received 14 August. Ibid., Galbraith, Diary, 1909. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 22 February 1910. Ibid. Dobie, in contrast, considered the school to be a “substantial” building. See ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 22 February 1910. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 30 September 1909. Ibid., Bray to Deputy Minister, 17 March 1910. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 22 February 1910. Ibid. Ibid., Galbraith, Diary, 1909. In 1905 the reserve size was left to be calculated “upon the ascertained population of the band.” See the “Schedule of Reserves” in chapter 18 of this volume. See also lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Galbraith to Secretary, 22 February 1910; Secretary to White, 17 March 1910. McLean informed Aubrey White that the incomplete survey was “probably sufficient for the present.” Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure,” and Black-Rogers, “Varieties of ‘Starving.’” Vincent and Carpenter, for example, were sent to the Moose Factory school, married local women, and became members of the Moose Factory Cree band. His letter was translated at the time, perhaps by C.H.M. Gordon, as follows: “I, Katchang, my letter. On behalf of the Indians I thank you for sending men to survey our land for us and it is my wish that the Indians will make a good use of the land. Owing to the large numbers of deaths at Fort Hope last winter, there are a great many orphans, so we would like you, who have been so kind to us to look after them. I would feel pleased if everything came about just as I would like it to be. We were all pleased when the surveyors came to survey our reserve. We could not have been better pleased if the Great Chiefs had visited us themselves. We would indeed feel sorry if anything were to happen now to spoil the work of the surveyors. I think that the Indians will all be glad to live on the Reserve [if?] the Indians are obedient. It is my wish that the land will prove good & fruitful. I always do my best to look after the Indians to get them to d[o] right. The last two or three winters have been very hard on the Indians [illegible] scarcity of Country Food & the Great Company did [illegible] You will tell us what to do with the Reserve & it will be done during the summer, so we will know what to do. That is all I have to say. Good bye, Goodbye[,] I Katchang[,] Ex chief Fort Hope Indians.

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Letter from Katchang with interlineal translation, stamped received 4 October 1909. See lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 30 September 1909. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 22 February 1910; see also same to same, 30 September 1909. Ibid., Galbraith to Secretary, 5 March 1910. Ibid., Galbraith, Diary, 1909. Two of the six would be patronage appointments. See ibid., Pedley to Bray, 30 March 1911. Dobie’s assistant was paid $4 per day. See ibid., Pedley to Dobie, 27 March 1911. Ibid., McLean to Dobie, 11 April 1911. He reports that he told the Ojibwe that the water power could not be included in their reserve, but he makes no mention of roads. See ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. Ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. Ibid., Dobie to McLean, 24 July 1911. While at Osnaburgh, he also did some private work for the hbc in his “spare time.” See ibid., same to same, 1 April 1912. Referring to Fawcett’s 1886 gsc survey of Lake St Joseph, Aubrey White wondered which of the two outlets to James Bay was referenced by Dobie’s plan. See ibid., White to McLean, 7 June 1912. Dobie found Fawcett’s plan “so incorrect … that it is difficult to show the location of the reserve with reference” to it. He explained that the “Canoe Route to James Bay” was at the southern outlet, while Fawcett’s post was at the northern. He referred the Ontario men to a Geological Survey map showing the “reliable position” of the outlets “almost exactly.” See ibid., Dobie to McLean, 29 June 1912. Similarly, when Dobie tried to close his account at Osnaburgh on 5 July 1911, he found that, due to “the treaty payment being in progress, it was impossible to get settled up that night.” See ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. Ibid. Ibid., Dobie to McLean, 19 August 1911. Ibid. Ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. None of Dobie’s surveys in this remote region of Canada could be confirmed by federal orders-in-council, however, until surveyors plotted the surrounding area. The federal Department of the Interior advised McLean that Galbraith’s Fort Hope reserve could not be connected to any Dominion Lands survey. Such “isolated surveys have given considerable trouble in the past,” wrote the deputy minister of the Interior, “as by the time they are reached by the township lines, all traces of the original survey have disappeared, and we are never sure of not encroaching upon the alienated lands.” Rather than trying to register them with his department, it was suggested that Indian Affairs retain the information in its “books … waiting until the Dominion Lands survey lines reach Fort Hope, before confirming the survey of the Reserve by Order-inCouncil.” See ibid., Deputy Minister of the Interior to McLean, 2 May 1910. Two years later the Department of the Interior still refused to submit the reserves at Osnaburgh, Fort Hope, and Marten Falls for approval by order-in-council. See ibid., Assistant Secretary, Department of the Interior, to McLean, 12 July 1912 (three letters). Ibid., Dobie to McLean, 19 August 1911. Dobie paid two Osnaburgh men $1 for

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paddling him to his camp, perhaps the same two who guided him to Fort Hope. See ibid., Dobie to McLean, 30 March 1912. Ibid., McLean to Secretary, 16 August 1912. See Long, “Early Visions,” and Preston and Long “Apportioning Responsibility.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Chum to Inspector of Indian Agencies, 19 February 1912. For Treaty No. 8, for example, a chief’s outfit cost $21.70 and a headman’s clothing $20.60. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1903–4, 68. George Wesley of Kashechewan, whose grandfather Andrew (Morrison) Wesley was elected chief of the Fort Albany band in 1906, states that his grandfather was eventually paid an extra $20 annually and received a suit of clothes every six months. Andrew used his mother’s surname, but George says that Andrew’s father was an hbc man named Morrison. Telephone conversation with George Wesley, 24 June 2008. Similarly, in 1977 Cat Lake chief Jasper Keesickquayash considered “balls of twine for net-making” and gardening equipment to be treaty benefits. See Cat Lake Band, “Presentation,” and Dragland, Floating Voice, 57. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie, Diary, 1912. James Wesley explains the origin of this name in Long, “‘Shaganash,’” 43–6. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie, Diary, 1912. Ibid., Explanatory Notes included with Dobie’s accounts submitted 25 March 1913; hbcabs, “Gillies.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie to McLean, 20 October 1912. Ibid., Dobie, Diary, 1912. Tucker, Steam into Wilderness, 87. “15 Left for Moose Factory at 5.30 a.m. Very cold. Strong wind from N.W. Camped at noon. Sea too heavy to continue. 16 Started at 6 a.m. Camped half way to Moose. Fine day, but head wind. 17 Started at 5.30 a.m. Sailed all day. Reached mouth of Moose River at night. 18 Started at 5.30 a.m. Reached Moose Factory about 1.30.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie, Diary, 1912. Dobie’s Cree guide was ferried from Moose Factory to Hay Creek, on the north shore of the Moose River, and walked back to Albany. See ibid., Dobie, Explanatory Notes, 23 May 1913. “When the treaty was made with us, a reserve on French Creek was given us, about 7 miles south of Moose Fort. We find on examination that the above reserve is a poor one, not suitable for wood or farming. The wood has been largely cut down or destroyed and the land is too stony for agricultural purposes. Besides there is very poor hunting there. The arrangements were too hurriedly made and did not give us time to investigate. We much prefer and do hereby apply for a reserve extending from North Bluff to [W]avy Creek about nine miles N.W. from Moose Fort along the coast towards Albany. This is most suitable for all purposes – for farming and hunting and wood supply. Though rather swampy further back, it is far ahead of the French Creek Reserve. The hunting is especially good and we could leave our old and infirm there while the hunters are away in the winter, and they would be comfortable – there being also good fishing in the various creeks and streams.” omnr, “Indian Reserve #68,” Anderson to McLean, 2 October 1912. J.D. McLean forwarded the request to provincial deputy minister of Lands and Forests Aubrey White, stating that his department had no objection to accom-

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modating the request. See ibid., McLean to White, 7 October 1912. White dismissed the idea: “we do not see, nor is there anything before us to show why the Reserve should be changed from the location in which the Commissioners fixed it.” See ibid., White to McLean, 10 October 1912. A follow-up letter to White from former treaty commissioner Samuel Stewart was simply ignored. See ibid., Stewart to White, 14 October 1912. In December of 1913 the provincial minister of Lands and Forests, W.T. Hearst, and the federal minister of the Interior (responsible for Indian Affairs), William James Roche, met to discuss “outstanding and unsettled Indian matters.” Where the Indians were dissatisfied with their Treaty No. 9 reserves, as at Moose Factory, it was agreed that “both the Dominion and Ontario will make further inquiry into these matters and correspond with a view, if possible, of meeting the wishes of the Indians and satisfying their reasonable claims with reference to reserves.” See ibid., Minutes of Conference, 9 December 1913. Indian land matters were not resolved, however, until 1924 (and then only in the eyes of the two governments). The agreement, witnessed by former commissioners D.C. Scott and Walter Cain and dated 24 March 1924, is printed in Morris, Indians of Ontario, 58ff. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie to McLean, 20 October 1912. See ibid., Dobie, Diary, 1912. Dobie refers to lacing the snowshoes as “netting” them. See ibid., 5–11 November. He purchased “Shaganette, moose skin, and certain small tools” and made some of the frames. See ibid., Dobie, Explanatory Notes, 23 May 1913. Dobie’s “shaganette” is likely shaakanaapiy, “line.” See Gunner, “Making Babiche.” The small tools may have been crooked knives and awls. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie to McLean, 24 December 1912. Ibid., Dobie, Diary, 1912, 9 November. Parks, “Niven’s Base Line.” Ibid. John was a son of Scotsman Alexander McLeod (1825–85) and his wife, Jane (née Turner, 1836–73). John’s first wife was Caroline McDonald of Moose Factory, evidently a daughter of Angus McDonald and Susan Wemistikosh; upon her death he married Esau Omakees’s widow, Mary (née Squirrel,) c. 1919. See hbcabs, “McLeod, Alexander (a)”; Tumber, McLeods. Squirrel is a translation of achichamosh; see Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 284. John’s brother, Alexander McLeod Jr, interpreted for the commissioners and witnessed treaty-signing at Flying Post on 16 July 1906. See Canada, James Bay Treaty, 15, 24. Alex Jr’s first was wife was Jane Polson; following her death, he married Christina Black Ice of Flying Post. See Tumber, McLeods, 32. The Polson surname survives among the Algonquins of Timiskaming and Long Point First Nations. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie to McLean, 20 and 24 December 1912; Dobie, Diary, 1912. See ibid., Hugh Conn to J.D. McLean, 26 May 1913. Conn later became a passionate advocate of Indian resource use and treaty rights, as fur and wildlife superintendent for the Indian Affairs Branch. See Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 416–45. “I did secure two or three others, to help pack the outfit in to the site of the reserve, but they only lasted one day. At Cochrane it was impossible to get men at all. Some surveyors engaged on township sub-division work were paying men

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$3.00 per day and their board.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Dobie to J.D. McLean, Assistant Deputy and Secretary, 12 February 1914. They also surveyed the portage route back to the Abitibi. Bidding adieu to Omakees, the survey party paddled up the Abitibi to its intersection with the t&no line and made their way home to Thessalon by early August. See ibid., Dobie, Diary, 1913. Omakees was paid $2 per day, the same rate earned by Dobie’s labourers, for fifteen days, 12–29 July. See ibid., Dobie, Diary, 1913. George and Charlie Daniel and John Dymond worked on 15 July, and William Squires on 15–16 July. See ibid., Dobie, 1913 Pay-list. Canada, Library of Parliament, “Indian Status.” Some members of the Moose Factory band wintered in Quebec. See chapter 15. This was not petitioner William McLeod but his younger brother George’s (and wife Isabella McBean’s) son. See, lua, Moose Factory Marriages; lac, rg10, vol. 9550, Moose Factory Band Treaty Paylists. I am grateful to former chief Munroe Linklater for authorizing me to consult these records. lac, Indian Treaties, Treaty 9, Commutation & Enfranchisement, Assistant Treasurer F.N. Turnbull, Ontario, to Harold F. McGill, dsgia, 6 December 1933. Ibid., T.A. Crerar, Indian Affairs, to Provincial Treasurer, 13 February 1943. Ibid., Harold W. McGill, Indian Affairs, to F.A. MacDougall, Deputy Minister, Department of Lands and Forests, 27 September 1944; G. Swartman, Indian Agent, Sioux Lookout, to Indian Affairs Branch, 19 April 1945. Brownlie, “‘Better Citizen,’” 31, 38, 51–2. Tommy appears at far right in lac photograph PA-129385. Emily was born on 28 June 1908. See Le Camp, “Native and Non-Native Definitions,” 84. Her reputed father, Tommy Moore, aged twenty-two, was married to Jesse Fraser by William Haythornthwaite on 14 April 1909. See lua, Register of Marriages. See Long, “Some Early Moores.” Pers. comm. from Emily Jr’s daughter, Lorraine Le Camp. See also Le Camp, “Native and Non-Native Definitions,” 79, 80–1, 84, 88–9. If church records are accurate, Roderick died on 28 April 1920 and not in the canoe accident that claimed seven other boys from the school. Their principal, William Haythornthwaite, committed suicide the following year and was apparently buried with them or nearby. See lua, Moose Factory Burials, nos. 59–60, 71, and enclosed Numbers of Crosses in Cemetery, no. 58. On the drownings (which Auger incorrectly dates 1919) and subsequent complaint by chief and councillors, see his Indian Residential Schools, 130. lac, 1911 Census, Ontario, district no. 99 Nipissing, sub-district Moose Fort or Factory, page 1, family 2. Timpson, “Four Decades,” 130–44. The patronymic surname apparently came from her great-grandfather, Donald Wascowen (1827–84). Donald’s parents were John Weskahwen (1802–?) and Mary Wechapash (1807–?). Pers. comm. from Lorraine Le Camp. Le Camp, “Native and Non-Native Definitions,” 86, 107–9, 105, 112, 114n; Staton and Light, Speak with Their Own Voices, 15; Brownlie, “Man on the Spot,” 72–3, 75n.

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108 Clatworthy, “Re-assessing the Population Impacts.” 109 lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Receipt Nos. 7452, $5,600, and 7453, $9,364, dated 12 September; 9258, $100, dated 13 September 1905; for Meindl No. 9478, $77.50, dated 15 September 1905. 110 Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report … 10. 111 lac, Treaty No. 9, Correspondence re Half-breeds, McLean to Matheson, 18 September 1905. 112 Ibid., C.A. Matthews Jr to McLean, 21 September 1905. 113 McLean continues, “The Halfbreed title is of the same nature as the Indian title and as the cession of one is being taken by the Province of Ontario and the Dominion, the representatives of the other class desire to have their claims considered at the same time. The Treaty 9 Commission to whom the Petition was presented had not power to deal with Halfbreed claims against the Province of Ontario, and the Petition was, therefore, referred for action to the Provincial Treasurer who is fully conversant with the terms of the James Bay Treaty.” Ibid., McLean to Matthews, 23 September 1905. 114 Pedley requested “an estimate of the number of Half Breeds in Treaty No. 9 and approximately with what bands they are connected.” See ibid., dsgia to Scott, 18 November 1905. “I find that the only halfbreeds in Treaty No. 9 are those interested in this petition … These families comprise perhaps twenty-five or thirty people. They were refused treaty by the Commissioners on the ground that they were not living the Indian mode of life. The only thing which might be done for these people is to admit them into the Indian treaty if you thought advisable to do so; but of course, as they are residents of the Province and would come under the same category as the rest of your Indian adherents of Treaty No. 9 and would be paid by your Government, it is a matter which you will have to decide. The Treaty Commissioners promised to bring the matter before you for consideration.” Ibid., Pedley to Matheson, 21 November 1905. 115 In the 1894 Howson case, the North-West Territories Supreme Court examined the sale of alcohol to Henry Bear, a “half-breed” who belonged to the Muskowequan band (in what is now Saskatchewan), lived on reserve, and received annuities under Treaty No. 4. The court concluded that a person could “be as white as a Spaniard or an Italian or as many Englishmen or Frenchmen … and yet not understand a word of any European language, and be in thought, association and surrounding altogether Indian.” An Indian, under the federal Indian Act, was defined not just by ancestry but by certain “associations, habits, modes of life, and surroundings generally,” which were “essentially Indian.” Bear fit this definition and the liquor vendor was convicted. See nwtsc, Regina v. Howson; Backhouse, Colour-Coded, 25. In 1900 this issue was further discussed in a case involving the sale of alcohol to an Indian treaty annuitant and “half-breed” in what is now Alberta. When it was evident that the purchaser, Charles Pepin, spoke “English fluently” and dressed “better than many ordinary white men” (he “never wore moccasins”), the court found that he would not have appeared to be an Indian. A liquor vendor would have reasonably assumed that Pepin was not an Indian, but a man of higher social standing (one of “the better class of half-breeds”). The vendor was not convicted. See nwtsc, Regina v. Mellon; Backhouse, Colour-Coded, 25.

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116 One of Scott’s fictional characters is based on “a halfbreed guide I had with me once who thought he had a claim to halfbreed scrip.” See Dragland, Floating Voice, 142–3. Grant notes that it is unfair to blame Scott alone for views that were widely held. See Grant, “Indian Affairs,” 37. 117 Brownlie, “‘Better Citizen,’” 48. 118 lac, Treaty No. 9, Correspondence re Half-breeds, McLean to Matheson, 19 March 1906. 119 “[T]his Government would be prepared to allow these half-breeds, the number estimated not being over fifty, 160 acres of land reserving minerals, to be selected in the District in which they at present reside, such selection not to interfere with Hudson’s Bay posts, or Indian Reserves, or lands to be required for railway purposes or for town sites, as it may be some time before the district in question is surveyed.” Ibid., Matheson to Pedley, 2 April 1906. The province may have once again sought the advice of Æmilius Irving prior to making this offer. Irving would no doubt have been aware of treaty-maker Alexander Morris’s view that there were three “classes” of half-breeds: those with “farms and homes”; others “who are entirely identified with the Indians[,] living with them, and speaking their language”; and a third group “who do not farm, but live after the habits of the Indians, by the pursuit of the buffalo and the chase.” According to Morris, the first category – the one most similar to the Moose Factory petitioners – ought to be confirmed in their plots or farms and “continue to make their living by farming and trading.” See Morris, Treaties of Canada, 293–5. Fortunately for the petitioners, Irving ignored the contrary view of E.B. Borron: that half-breeds “had nothing to cede or surrender … suffered no loss and had consequently no claim whatever to compensation.” See McNab, “Métis Participation.” Today, Flanigan espouses views similar to Borron’s in his First Nations, Second Thoughts. 120 lac, Treaty No. 9, Correspondence re Half-breeds, Pedley to Matheson, 9 April 1906. 121 Ibid.; Long, “Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families.” 122 “Wm Archibald of Moose Factory desires to be placed on the Indian Band list. He states that he and his family appeared before the commissioners in 1905 that all their names and ages were taken and consideration promised. His wife’s people are on the list he states. The half-breed question at Moose will have to be dealt with. I would like some instructions with reference to this question.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Correspondence re Half-breeds, Ramsden to McLean, 8 September 1909. “Should any further cases such as the above come to your notice, you should be guided by the statement contained in the Hon. Mr. Matheson’s letter.” Ibid., Secretary to Ramsden, 20 September 1909. 123 Jack Rickard, pers. comm. 124 “Dear sir I would like to know if we are going to get Enay thing four fore our land, as thay git Treatty now it is 3 years since thay got Treatty as I would like to git a little hilp I think you know me as I only have wune arm and I find it hard to make a living as I got a large family to seport so I hope you will looke in to this thing four us Ive asked befor and we ware Tolds that we would git Land scrp that is half Brad scrip but hoping to hear from you soon and tell us what you think I was going to right to the Indian department so I thought I would you instead as you are there agent remening your humble servent.” Ibid., James Louttit to

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McKenzie, 28 November 1909. “[T]he woman you say called on you was my sister she is a widow now the other that gave you the name of James Louttit is my wife hire maden name was Jane Linklater now wher we ware born is at fort albany and we have 11 Children 7 boy 4 gurls now when Mr Remsdan told us that we would git some Thing four our Land when he went through here and when we asked him about Treaty he told us that we are not Indian and said we would get scrip as for even getting Treaty before no I prefer scip to Treatty that is all the Explanation I can give we were both born at James Bay and came up this way.” Ibid., Louttit to McKenzie, 5 December 1909 from Dryden. “As I do not know any thing of this matter or what may have been said to this man, I herewith enclose them to you for your consideration and advice as how to answer this man. No doubt but Mr Ramsden will have some note of this if it is as the man states … I may say that I have seen this man James Loullit, several times at Dinorwic, he was working on the C.P.R. last summer although he has only one arm as stated.” Ibid., R.S. McKenzie to Secretary, 8 December 1909. Ramsden, now inspector of Indian agencies and reserves, added his own “recollection of a conversation held some three years ago with James Loutril a one armed man. He has relatives of the same name on Fort Albany list and his wife (Linklater) has also some relatives on the list. He is a half-breed and I thought intended to take the 160 acres of land offered by the Ontario Government. This land would be of little use to him and I think he is probably as well entitled to be on the list as others of his name and as the Linklaters.” Ibid., Ramsden to McLean, 15 December 1909. “This man is entitled to 160 acres of land at Moose Factory, which land will be allotted to him when the survey is made by the Ontario Government. When he receives a patent for the land he will be in a position either to sell or work it. I may add that the Ontario Government does not issue scrip to half-breeds.” Ibid., Stewart to McKenzie, 20 January 1910. The nine groups were descendents of (1) Anglo-Saxon father and Indian mother, (2) French or French Canadian father and Indian mother, (3) Anglo-Saxon father and “mixed” Anglo-Saxon-Indian mother, (4) French father and “mixed” FrenchIndian mother, (5) “half-breed” Anglo-Saxon-Indian father and mother, (6) “halfbreed” French-Indian father and mother, (7) unions among the fifth category, (8) unions among the sixth category, and (9) mixed or half-breed father and Indian mother. See Reid, “Mixed or ‘Halfbreed’ Races,” 45–6. See Long, “Some Early Moores.” Gates observed that “half-breed” was then “universally used in Canada to indicate not merely the result of a first-cross, but for all individuals of mixed descent and more or less intermediate skin colour. Every kind of back-cross with white and Indian has taken place. If the offspring are predominantly Indian in character they are classed as ‘Indians,’ though they may be of mixed descent.” See Gates, “Pedigree Study.” See also Bulmer, “Galton’s Law.” Long, “Politics of Education.” Nashkawa, “Anishinabek”; McNab, Circles, 241n. McNab, No Place for Fairness. scc, R. v. Powley. Ontario’s approach to aboriginal issues is available online at Ontario, maa, “Ontario’s New Approach” and “Draft Guidelines.” It is my understanding that members of the former Indian Act bands of northern

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Quebec, such as the Mocreebec families in Moosonee/Moose Factory (or any beneficiaries who move away for prolonged periods), may be eligible for the less generous provisions of the Indian Act if their Indian status is not jeopardized by the Cree-Naskapi Act. 134 Macqueen, “‘We Have Always Been Here.’” 135 My understanding is based on informal conversations with friends associated with Mocreebec, particularly chief Randy Kapasheshit, and my personal knowledge of treaty-making in 1905 (which almost included parts of northern Quebec). See also Adelson, “Being Alive Well.” 136 On the area south of Treaty No. 9, see Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?”

chapter five 1 lac, Edgar journal, 8 June 1906. The signatories at Abitibi were the commissioners, Louis McDougall Sr, Andrew McDougall, Old Cheese, Michel Penatouche, Louis McDougall, and Antoine Penatouche (witnesses George Drever, Meindl, and Edgar). 2 The signatories at Matachewan were the commissioners, Michel Batise, Round Eyes, Thomas Fox, and Jimmy Pierce (witnesses Edgar, George Monteith, and Meindl). 3 Nighthawk Lake was a winter outpost of Matachewan when Borron visited “an Indian camp on the west side … an elderly Indian woman and young girl, its sole occupants.” He recognized that such outposts were “maintained for the convenience of the Indians in winter, who would otherwise … travel long distances … to the principal posts to trade their furs … [and] thus lose time which might be more profitably employed in trapping.” See Borron, “Report,” 1889, 15. 4 At Mattagami the parchment was signed by the commissioners, Andrew Luke, Joseph Shemeket, Thomas Chicken, and James Nevue (witnesses hbc trader Joseph Miller, Edgar, the Rev. A. McLain C. Banting, and fire ranger Kenneth Ross). 5 At Flying Post the signatories were the commissioners, Albert Black Ice, John Isaac, and William and Thomas Frog (witnesses hbc trader Alexander J. McLeod, Edgar, Meindl, and constable Vanasse). 6 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1906. This was on their return to Biscotasing, after seeing Louis Espaignol. See lac, Stewart diaries, 20 July 1906. 7 The commissioners’ interpreter is not mentioned. See lac, Stewart diaries, 21 July 1906. 8 Speaking of the “Cree Indians, who migrated from Moose and settled in Chapleau,” Bishop Holmes noted, “With very bright exceptions, they are the scum of the town and a disgrace to our Church, and if they are an example of what our Indians on the Bay are to become when brought into close contact with civilization, the prospect is one which we must dread.” In contrast, he found missionary work among “the band of Ojibways, who reside on a reserve across the river … most enjoyable and encouraging.” See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 88. 9 “The Commissioners took this matter in hand, and their action, it is to be hoped, will be attended with beneficial results.” lac, Stewart diaries, 22 July 1906. “S. Stewart interviews hbc & Revillon re John Bull.” lac, Edgar journal, 23 July

notes to pages 85–7

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1906. Borron considered it “inevitable” that “both alcohol and opium will come sooner or later within the reach of the Indians … unless it be proposed to keep them in a condition of gross ignorance and tutelage forever, or so shut them up and hedge them around as to prevent all intercourse or dealings with other races.” See Borron, “Report,” 1880, 37–8. A century later, some hand cleaners are a concern (on reserves where alcohol is not legally available). See Fitzpatrick, “Alcohol Worries.” Daniel Wascowin, “who had acted as cook for our men [the voyageurs, not the commissioners] in 1905,” had come to Missanabie from Moose Factory and was part of a crew waiting to transport Anglican bishop George Holmes to Moose Factory via New Brunswick House. See lac, Stewart diaries, 24 July 1906; Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1906. hbc officer James G. Christie served as interpreter. See lac, Stewart diaries, 25 July 1906. The signatories at New Brunswick House were the commissioners, Alex Peeketay, Pootoosh, Peter Mitigonabie, Tom Neshwabun, and Jacob Windabaie (witnesses Anglican bishop George Holmes, hbc clerk James Grant Christie, his neice Grace McTavish, the Rev. Claude D. Ovens, Edgar, and Morris). Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1906. lac, Edgar journal, 31 July 1906. lac, Stewart diaries, 8–9 August 1906. Signatories at Long Lake were the commissioners, Kwakigigickweang, Keneswabe, Matawagan, and Odagamea (witnesses hbc district manager Herbert A. Tremayne, his wife, Isabella, hbc clerk Peter Godchère, and Edgar). ao photograph I0010703, “Another Chief and Family, Long Lake,” is a duplicate of lac photograph PA-059596, “The Chief and Family, Long Lake.” lac, Stewart diaries, 9 August 1906. Ibid., 14 August 1906. lac, Edgar journal, 9 August 1906; hbcabs, “Godchere.” Stewart made copies of these documents. See lac, Stewart diaries, 17 June 1908. Matachewan chief Michel Batisse’s wife was a McDougall. James Morrison, pers. comm. lac, Stewart diaries, 18 June 1908. Ibid., 22 June 1908. lac, Agreement dated 22 June 1908. I am grateful to James Morrison for this reference. James Morrison, pers. comm. lac, Stewart diaries, 29 June 1908. Abitibiwinni Nation, “Treaty.” D.C. Scott, dsgia, sent a map “showing in red the unceded district” to premier G.H. Ferguson by letter dated 27 November 1923. See lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9. See viewed 21 July 2009. Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” 20. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 20. Ibid., 20–1. Abel, Changing Places.

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32 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 21. 33 Ibid., 23–4. 34 Ibid., 24–5. The lake was given this name by Robert Bell. See “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 71. During the summers of 1929–30 the airborne commissioners visited most of the 1905 reserves; their observations on these bands are noted separately, in chapters 10 through 15. 35 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 25–6. 36 Ibid., 27. 37 Eyler, “Indian Treaty Medals”; Jamieson, Medals, 60–1. lac photographs of these medals include PA-194547, PA-117766, and PA-194545. 38 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 28–9. 39 Ibid., 29–30. 40 Ibid., “Report,” 1930, 29–30. 41 Ibid., 34. 42 Ibid., 36. 43 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 41–2. 44 lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, “Trading at Attawapiskat.” 45 See also Long, “Who Got What,” 25. 46 Ibid., 26–30. 47 lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, “Trading at Winisk.” 48 Ibid., “Census Taken at Severn Post, Ontario, August 11th 1926.” 49 “It is worthy of remark that the general health of the Indians is good. Excluding tubercular trouble appearing in most bands their disorders were more or less negligible and their appearance in the main very respectable. “Contrary to occasional opinion, expressed by certain critics, magazine writers, feigned historians and pseudo experts on Indian matters, the early extinction of the Indian is not particularly evidenced in the Indians under Treaty No. 9, whose numbers approximate four thousand. These Indians during the last fifteen years, according to official figures, show a natural increase of fourteen per cent, thus disproving the theory that, because of alleged unchecked epidemics, the lack of ready applied medical science, with its modern conveniences and varied adaptations, extermination of this nomadic race is rapid. While the loss of close contact with medical and surgical science is regrettable though unavoidable, the periodic visits by officials of the Department of Indian Affairs, and their instructions on the care and cleanliness of the body and on general habits, the wide open spaces, exhilarating air and the carefree, enervating, nonchalant existence, are sufficiently compensating factors to maintain a fair balance in the scales of life and mortality.” Ibid., 40. 50 Sproule-Jones, “Crusading for the Forgotten.”; Milloy, National Crime. 51 The commissioners favoured “an intensive effort at a not too distant date … to teach the Indian to apply himself to … gardening small plots of ground upon the reserves … [reducing] demands made on the Government for relief.” Cain and Awrey clearly admired the efforts to teach farming at the residential school near Fort Albany. Until the Indians were more self-reliant, the commissioners felt they should be “discouraged from loitering too long at summer encampments where their sources of supply are limited, and urged to return within reasonable time to their hunting grounds where they shall not face starvation.” See Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 41.

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52 Ibid., 41–2. 53 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 32. 14 George V, c. 30, refers to Bill 206, passed by the Ontario legislature in 1924, regarding taxation of land in unorganized territory. 54 By Treasury Board estimates, Treaty No. 11 (1921) covers about 375,000 square miles. See Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report: Treaty No. 11; Canada, tbs, “Treaty Areas.” 55 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 24. The Williams Treaties, considered the last of the historic treaties, were signed in southern Ontario in 1923. See Blair, Lament for a First Nation, and Shaule, “Disputed Boundaries.” 56 See Kulchyski, “Considerable Unrest”; Titley, Narrow Vision; and Smith, “Now We Talk.” 57 While Scott, in his article “Canadian Indians in the Great War,” lauded Indian participation, Stevenson, in his “Mobilization” and Canada’s Greatest Wartime Muddle, shows that enlistment was an issue that polarized Indians. For a broader context, see Moses, “Aboriginal Participation.” For one Moose Factory veteran’s experience, see Moore and Long, “Private Fred Moore.” 58 Subcommittees dealt with these three topics during the 1948 session. During its three-year mandate, the joint committee struggled with a mechanism for hearing Indian representatives. The Union of Ontario Indians was among the Indian organizations offering oral evidence during the 1947 session. See Canada, shc, Select Joint Committee, Minutes. The Union, incorporated in 1949, is also known as the Anishinabek Nation. See its website viewed 22 July 2009. 59 The views of Indians were solicited, and a week-long conference was held with nineteen Indian delegates, including five from Ontario, all of whom had already appeared before the special joint committee. The delegates unanimously supported 103 of the 124 sections of the revision. Another 15 were opposed by a minority and 6 by a majority (2 unanimously). Canada, shc, Select Joint Committee, Minutes, 6–8. 60 Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 343. This is now section 88. It provided no protection to Indians who had not signed treaties. 61 Canada, diand, Résumé of Reports. 62 The nib’s brief stated that “the principle concerns of Indian people center around: A) recognition of the treaties and the obligations imposed by same, B) recognition of aboriginal rights, C) reconciliation of injustices done by the imposition of restrictions on Indian hunting through the ratification of the Migratory Birds Convention and subsequent Federal and Provincial legislation, D) Claims Commission. It is our opinion that before meaningful consultation on amendments to the Indian Act can take place, these four items must be dealt with and a position of mutual understanding and commitment reached.” Canada, diand, Verbatim Report, 352. 63 Canada, diand, Statement of the Government of Canada. 64 The document addressed each of the premises in the White Paper. It rejected outright the removal of legal discrimination. While it agreed with recognizing Indian culture, it asserted that this must rest upon the preservation of Indian status, rights and lands, and especially treaties. It rejected the extension of provincial services to Indians, arguing that such an approach violated their treaties and the division of

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powers in British North America Act. The chiefs were distrustful of the White Paper’s proposal to limit recognition to “lawful claims and treaties,” demanding that there be fidelity to all treaty promises. The Alberta chiefs wanted continued protection for their reserve lands, fearing that individual allotments would destroy communities. See Indian Chiefs of Alberta, “Citizens Plus.” Four of these involved replacing the words “the treaties” with “Indian rights,” so that both treaty and aboriginal rights were mentioned. See nib, “Amendments to Red Paper.” A few months later the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs released its Declaration of Indian Rights. Canada, diand, Annual Report, 1970, 162–4. A list of legislation implementing modern land claim agreements can be found at viewed 22 July 2009. See “Specific Claims: A Statistical Snapshot” at viewed 22 July 2009. Outstanding claims registered with Ontario are listed at viewed 22 July 2009.

chapter six 1 George and Preston, “‘Going in Between,’” 451 2 Preston, “Twentieth-Century Transformations,” 245. 3 “Dominion Indian” Frank Rickard was assigned Albany band ticket no. 88 in absentia in 1905. See ao, Fort Albany Pay-list. When Frank and Norm Wesley’s father Daniel (who was raised by Frank) appeared at Attawapiskat hbc post in January 1920 “nearly starved, their families having had nothing to eat for two days,” they did not get much food. See Cummins, “Trapper-Trader,” 80. Frank provided anthropologist John M. Cooper with information on pre-Christian beliefs, as heard from his grandmother. Frank’s mother-in-law, Charlotte Sutherland, also supplied Cooper with information. See Cooper, “Northern Algonquian Supreme Being,” 44–7, 60–2. 4 The Smoky Line was the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company’s railway from Kapuskasing to the Smoky Falls dam and generating station. 5 Rickard, “Perspective on Native Self-Government,” iv. Much of this section is based on my eulogy “Andrew (Andy) Rickard,” derived from conversations with Andy and with his sisters, Pauline, Susan, and Bella. 6 See Brownlie, Fatherly Eye, for earlier examples in southern Ontario. See Preston’s description of a neighbouring Quebec chief standing up to a bullying priest, with the Indian agent’s support, in Preston, Cree Narrative, 17–18. 7 Auger, Indian Residential Schools, 130. 8 It was Indian Affairs policy from 1933 until the 1950s that complaints and inquiries be directed through the local agent. See Hawthorn et al., Survey, 364. But even in 1986–87, when nan deputy grand chief Archie Cheechoo wrote a letter to the minister of Indian Affairs, it was referred to the regional office in Toronto for resolution. Following an informal meeting with me and the Cree education counsellors from the western James Bay communities, Archie’s letter argued for an extension of the practice of paying room-and-board allowances when one parent

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relocated to an urban centre to be with her children attending high school. When I was the Mushkegowuk Council’s education adviser, executive director Pat Chilton and I received a call from the regional office: unless Archie’s letter was withdrawn, the discretionary practice would stop. The letter was withdrawn, and the minister never saw it. Sinclair, a member of the Moose Factory band, became a clerk and interpreter at Winisk in 1947 at the age of twenty-four. In 1952 he was transferred to Fort George and managed its Kaniapiscau outpost. He was transferred to Moose Factory in 1957 but quit the hbc after three years and later worked for the public school as a cleaner and truant officer. In 1965, when the Moose Band needed someone with an understanding of business, he became its welfare administrator and general manager. In 1970 Sinclair established a fly-in fishing camp at Kesagami Lake (now known as Kesagami Wilderness Lodge), which he sold in 1983. This information derives from notes recorded on 26 March 1985 when Sinclair spoke to my students at Northern Lights Secondary School in Moosonee. Sinclair married Jane Iserhoff, daughter of Archdeacon Sam Iserhoff. Long, “Idea Ahead of Its Time.” gct9, “Declaration.” See Rickard, Basic Issues, 18–26. See also Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, v. Rickard, Basic Issues, 18–26. Harvey Yesno, a former chief and vice-president of Grand Council Treaty No. 9, has been president and ceo of the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund since 1993. See viewed 22 July 2009. Zlotkin, “Post-Confederation Treaties,” 295–300. As noted earlier, the repatriation of the bna Act in 1982 provided constitutional protection to Indian treaties. I recall that Scott smiled when Norm Wesley challenged him to “restore honour to the family surname.” Ian Scott was no relation to commissioner D.C. Scott. The late Ernie T. Sutherland, then chief of the Moose Cree First Nation, presented Scott with a large tamarac goose decoy, innocently commenting, “I’m not sure what gender it is” (a sly reference to Scott’s sexual orientation). Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources, unlike Saskatchewan, for example, still insists that the treaty right to harvest is limited to specific treaty areas. A Treaty No. 9 member cannot hunt across the height-of-land in the Robinson-Superior Treaty area and vice versa – in spite of the fact that neither treaty imposes such limitations. The Harris Conservatives’ “common sense revolution” was endorsed by a majority of Ontario electors on 8 June 1995. See McShane, “Mushkegowuk Council”; Mackie, “Reserves beyond Reach”; Klippensteins, “Mushkegowuk Cree.” Mushkegowuk Council, “Rupert’s Land.” Hunter, “Logo Reflects Relationship.” Anon., “Treaty Needs to Be Upheld.” Hunter, “$125 Ticket.” Anon., “nan Set to Battle.” Kashechewan’s E. coli crisis erupted in late October. See anon., “Uncertain Future.” See Fox-Keesic, “Nishnawbe Aski Nation.” Anon., “Treaty 9 Gets Royal Acknowledgement.” Edwards, One Dead Indian; anon., “Name”; “Taylor, Interview.”

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Anon., “Commemoration Plans.” I am grateful to Luke Hunter for providing me with a copy of this agreement. Currie, “Pipe Holds Teachings.” Hunter, “Canada and Ontario Refuse.” Ibid. Ontario was arguably neither a “party” nor a “signatory” to Treaty No. 9 anyway. See R. v. Batisse (1978), 19 OR (2d) 145, 84 DLR (3d) 377, 40 CCC (2d) 34 (Ontario District Court), reproduced in Zlotkin, “Post-Confederation Treaties,” 295–300. As Luke Hunter reminded me, MacMartin was nominated by Ontario and served the province’s interests, but he was appointed by Canada. Hunter, “Canada and Ontario Refuse.” Hunter, “Retracing the Steps.” Anon., “Government Fails to Sign.” See Teillet, “Role of the National Resources Regulatory Regime,” for a broader context. opg, “opg’s Evolving Relationship”; Feeney, “Mishkeegogamang Hydro Settlement Funds.” Jonathan Solomon, pers. comm. opg, “opg’s Evolving Relationship.” opg, “Ontario Power Generation and Taykwa Tagamou Nation.” On historic grievances, see Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility.” opg, “Moose Cree First Nation,” and mcfn, “Amisk-oo-skow.” See Goldcorp, “Musselwhite” and “Welcome to Musselwhite Mine.” See De Beers Canada, “Victor Project.”; Thom, “Fort Albany.” Reynolds, “Ring of Fire.” Thom, “Open for Business.” Thom, “KI Leaders Incarcerated.” Platinex, “Platinex Reduces Damages Claim” and “Platinex Commences Lawsuit.” Anon., “Groups Call for Comprehensive Reform.” Aris, “Ontario Needs.” scc, Haida Nation v. British Columbia. Thom, “KI6 Free.” Oliveira, “Ontario Court of Appeal.” 00p, “Protecting Ontario’s Northern Boreal Forest.” Gillespie, “Ontario to Protect.” Cowan, “Forest Plan.” Gorrie, “Far North Smokescreen.” Garrick, “Concerns about Mining Act”; United Nations, “United Nations Declaration”; and anon., “Canada Votes ‘No.’” Hamilton, “Opening Up the Green Energy Tent.” nan, “Statement.” Lawrence Jeffries, pers. comm., 17 December 2009. Patterson, “Aboriginal Roundtable.” The term “unilateralist” is borrowed from anon., “New Leadership.” Garrick, “Waterways Change.” Compare anon., “Manitoba Creates,” with anon., “Manitoba Protects,” and Owen, “Manitoba to Announce.”

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64 On- and off-reserve population figures are from Canada, diand, “First Nations Profiles,” except for Chapleau Cree (found at ccp, “Cree Geographical Location”), Missanabie Cree (afoac, “Taking Control”), Moose Cree (mcfn, “Our Community”), Whitewater and Koocheching (wfnc, “Communities”), Keewaywin (nan, “Keewaywin”), and Aroland, Ginoogaming, and Saugeen (Wikipedia). I could find no public information for Hornepayne First Nation.

chapter seven 1 Dragland, Floating Voice, 27. Dragland may have been inspired by the cover on Harold Cardinal’s The Unjust Society, which shows five institutional representatives as puppeteers manipulating the Indian fettered to them below. 2 D.C. Scott turned forty-three that summer and missed his only daughter’s tenth birthday. He had been born in Ottawa to an Englishman and Methodist clergyman, William Scott, and his second wife, Isabella Campbell McCallum. See McNab, “Lurid Dash of Colour,” 265. Although he could not afford to enroll Duncan in medical school, William was politically connected to Canada’s first (and third) prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and this link qualified young Duncan for a patronage position in the federal civil service in 1879, at the age of seventeen. See Titley, Narrow Vision, 23–4. Because William Scott had some experience in Indian mission work and the prime minister was responsible for Indian issues, Duncan was assigned to the Office of the Indian Commissioner in the Department of the Interior. See McNab, “Lurid Dash of Colour,” 263–8. In 1879, when D.C. Scott joined the civil service, the minister of the Interior, Sir John A. Macdonald, held the position of superintendent general of Indian Affairs. Although a Department of Indian Affairs was created in 1880, ministerial oversight remained with the minister of the Interior until 1935, with some exceptions. See Canada, diand, “Individuals Responsible.” 3 Information about Scott’s pre-1905 positions is from the lac description of “Duncan Campbell Scott’s James Bay journal” at viewed 14 October 2009. Biographer Brian Titley has Scott progressing from “copy clerk” to “bookkeeper[,] … clerk in charge of the accountant’s branch … [and] chief clerk and accountant” during the same period. See his Narrow Vision, 24. 4 Scott earned the same salary as departmental secretary J.D. McLean. Only Frank Pedley, at $4,000 per year, earned more. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, 8. 5 Scott renounced Methodism for “the wilderness.” See Brown, “Duncan Campbell Scott,” 129–30; Dragland, Floating Voice, 15,78; Titley, Narrow Vision, 26, 29–30, 202. He was “tall and lean” and “wore old-fashioned spectacles and conservative clothes.” The man often seemed rather “dour,” a trait that some attribute to his “Scottish mother.” See Titley, Narrow Vision, 28–9. This introversion apparently did not create any appreciation of the characteristic reticence in the presence of strangers exhibited by many of the Indigenous people in far northern Ontario. See Preston, “Reticence.” Dragland finds Scott to have been at times “a witty, warm-

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hearted friend when you got to know him, a good mimic, a man with a rich sense of humour tending to the dry.” See Dragland, Floating Voice, 72. Titley, Narrow Vision, 24, 199. Brown, “Duncan Campbell Scott,” 134. Titley, Narrow Vision, 204. Titley notes that Scott’s contemporaries Archibald Lampman and William Wilfred Campbell also supported themselves with civil service employment. Ibid., 25–6. Dragland, Floating Voice, 51–2. Historian David Calverley shows that Scott was the first deputy minister to suggest that Indian Affairs appeal a hunting conviction under Ontario’s draconian Game Act, warning that Canada was inviting (in Scott’s words) “the charge of breach of faith with the Indians.” The minister, Arthur Meighen, refused. See Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 270, 307–8. It was not that Scott wanted Indians to forever hunt and fish for subsistence. He wanted them to become assimilated, and he would not have supported commercial hunting. In the case of more traditional (or “transitional”) northern Indians still relying on hunting and fishing, however, he was a gradualist who thought Ontario was applying its game laws “too quickly and too harshly.” See Calverley, “Who Controls the Hunt?” 272, 299–301. Scott married Elise Aylen in 1931 and had to retire the following year, losing his position in a controversy that reached the floor of the House of Commons. He had signed the lease for a private shooting club on the Pasqua Indian reserve in Saskatchewan that served liquor. The agreement had been approved by his western contemporary William Graham. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 82, 88n; Weis, “D.C. Scott,” 69–70; Dempsey, “Introduction,” x; Titley, Narrow Vision, 29, 199. Titley cites Beckman, “Note on Duncan Campbell Scott”; Brown, “Duncan Campbell Scott”; Dagg, “Scott and the Indians,”; Daniels, “Crawford, Carman, and D.C. Scott”; Flood, “Duplicity of D.C. Scott” and “Native People”; Hirano, “Aborigine in Canadian Literature”; Lynch, “Endless Flow”; and Patterson, “Poet and the Indian.” See Titley, Narrow Vision, 30–2. See also Denham, “Music and Painting”; Frohberg, “Duncan Campbell Scott”; Kelly, “Short Stories” and “Foreappointed Quest”; Kostjuk, “Poetic Meter and Form”; McNab, “Lurid Dash of Colour,”; Mezei, “Magic Space”; Salem, “‘Weird and Waning’”; Simpson, “Healing the Wound”; Slonin, “Critical Edition”; Welage, “Divided Worlds”; and Weller, “Sound and Silence.” The sonnets “Watkwenies” and “The Onondaga Madonna,” both with Iroquois themes, appeared in Scott’s second book of poetry, Labor and the Angel. See Titley, Narrow Vision, 26–7. “Both are built on a feeling for the contrast of the savage powerful past of the race with its humbled present and hopeless future.” See Brown, “Duncan Campbell Scott,” 120. See also Dragland, Floating Voice, 189–92. By 1905 Scott had written “Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon,” inspired by his 1899 inspection tour to the height-of-land posts. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 31; Brown, “Duncan Campbell Scott,” 122–4. Dragland notes that two of Scott’s fictional pieces, the short stories “Vengeance Is Mine” and “Expiation” (see Waterston, “Missing Face”), were drawn from his 1905 treaty-making experience, as was his poem “Powassan’s Drum,” published two decades later. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 30, 140, 142. Dragland finds that Scott associated the drum with hatred, characterizing this piece as a “poem of white incomprehension.” See Floating Voice, 71, 155, 261. “A Scene at Lake Man-

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itou,” “Lines in Memory of Edmund Morris,” and “The Height of Land” came from the 1906 treaty tour. Dragland, pers. comm., 14 October 2008. “Scott’s poetry is a highly unreliable guide to his feelings regarding the native population. Nor is it really necessary. Scott’s pronouncements on Indians in readily comprehensible prose, in both an official and unofficial capacity, are legion. Because of their frequency and unwavering consistency, they are by far the best guide to what the private and public man really believed.” Titley, Narrow Vision, 32. Dragland, Floating Voice, 106ff. Ibid., 264, 64. Ibid., “Introduction,” xii. Titley, Narrow Vision, 32–4. As Stan Dragland reminds us, however, Scott became much more impatient at times, as he rose through the ranks, championing compulsory school attendance, for example, and compulsory enfranchisement (loss of Indian status). His treatment of Dr Peter H. Bryce was arguably a genocidal act. McNab, “Lurid Dash of Colour,” and Leighton, “Napier.” Peers and Schenck, “Introduction,” in Nelson, My First Years, 25. See also Edwards, On the North Trail, vi. Dragland, Floating Voice, 30. In Scott’s personal notebooks his poem “Night,” composed on 21 April 1905, begins on page 74, and the back of page 77 is dated 13 May 1906. The entry “When you were in the happy land of France,” for example, refers to his absent first wife and daughter; since it is undated, this phrase may have been written after he returned to Ottawa. See tfrbl, Scott Papers, folder 11, leaves 73–9; Dragland, Floating Voice, 85. Scott lost his only child, his daughter Elizabeth, in 1907, and his first wife, American violinist Belle Warner Botsford, died in 1929. See Titley, Narrow Vision, 28–9; lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 100, City of Ottawa, Sub-district Ottawa Centre B-5, page 2, family 17. lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 105, Ottawa City, Wellington Ward, page 1, family 9. Stewart was born on 6 January 1852. Information about his pre-1905 employment is from the description of “Diaries of Samuel Stewart” at the lac website viewed 14 October 2009. Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905-6, 8. Biographical detail is from the description of “Diaries of Samuel Stewart” at the lac website viewed 14 October 2009. It is not known if the couple had any children. Dragland, Floating Voice, 58. ohf, “McMartin House.” D. George McMartin was born in 1844. His stepchildren, Morgan and Margaret, from his deceased first wife, also named Margaret, would have been sixteen and nineteen respectively. On the 1881 census, George is listed as English, while Margaret and the two children are described as Irish. Information provided by James Morrison, pers. comm., 23 September 1905. See also lac, 1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, district no. 111 Lanark South, sub-district F Burgess North, page 46, family no. 203. Their son, Allan Grant, was eleven; their daughters, Georgina and Hilda, were seven and six respectively. George would be travelling through far northern

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Ontario on Georgina’s eighth birthday. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District No. 81, South Lanark, Sub-district Perth, h 1, page 2, family 15; enumerator P.J. Lee, 1–2 April. ohf, “McMartin House.” Humphries, “Whitney.” “For D. George MacMartin to get his appointment as Treaty Commissioner, he had to have been a Tory (J.P. Whitney’s provincial Conservatives had succeeded the Liberals earlier in 1905). Premier Whitney was a lawyer from Morrisburg, which is where MacMartin‘s father was originally from. However, the more likely connection was mining. As you know, Frank Cochrane was the Minister of Mines. Cochrane had two business associates named Duncan and John McMartin (they were all involved in the Cobalt mine dispute in 1906), and I’ve always assumed that D.G. was related to the latter.” James Morrison, pers. comm. On the Cobalt controversy, see Bray, “Cochrane.” Perth Courier, 13 January 1888; James Morrison, pers. comm. lac, 1901 Census of Canada, as cited above. He may have started mining with his brother-in-law, J.F. Baker, an English mining engineer married to Harriett Theophilia MacMartin. See Perth Courier, 24 May 1912. James Morrison, pers. comm. James Morrison, pers. comm. Stanley, “The Abbé of Abbey Dawn.” Redsky, Great Leader, 13. I am grateful to Dragland’s Floating Voice for this reference. John O’Meara comments that the root is presumably baw- “remove, detach, etc,” but the rest is unclear. Speculatively, there could be a suffix -as(an) “by heat,” if the fruit ripens in the sun and falls off. Pers. comm., 9 November 2009. qua, MacMartin diary, 12 July 1905. Bell, “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 63, 65. Meindl graduated from McGill University in 1903. Mary Houde, McGill University Archives, pers. comm., 20 November 2007. McGill’s is Canada’s oldest medical school. See McPhedran, Canadian Medical Schools. Meindl was born on 19 September 1881. His family can be found in the 1881 and 1891 census data on the OGS website. See also lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 92, Sub-district 1, Town of Mattawa, page 2, family 15, and 1911 census, Ontario, District 99, Nipissing East 54, Town of Mattawa, page 11, family 99. lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Manitoba, District 13, Winnipeg, page 19, family 214. lac, Re Treaty No. 9. ao, Correspondence. lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 100, City of Ottawa, Sub-district E-3, page 7, family 50. Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, 9. Dragland, Floating Voice, 30. lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Quebec, District 181, Montreal St. Jacques, page 14, family 137, Virginie is listed as Blanchette. Vanasse married Virginie Blanchet on 10 July 1888 in Aylmer, Quebec. See Vanasse Migration Project, generation 3, 16 Joseph Jean Louis Vanasse.

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47 lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 100, City of Ottawa, Sub-district B-3, page 11, family 92. 48 Rae was forty-eight years old on 31 March 1901. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, District 206, Unorganized Territories, Sub-district 206 Mackenzie, D-5 Fort Simpson, page 1, family 1. He is listed as twenty-eight years old in the 1881 census for Kinogamissi. lac, 1881 Census of Canada, The Territories, district 192 Eastern Rupert’s Land, sub-district 112 Kinogamissi, page 4, family 18. 49 hbcabs, “Rae.” 50 Morrison, Treaty Treaty Research. 51 Dragland cites a 1906 letter from Elizabeth to her father: “are you allowed to have what you want to eat now that you haven’t got Mr Bray with you.” See his Floating Voice, 85. 52 Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904–5, 10, and 1905–6, 9. 53 See the appendix “An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs” in this volume. 54 For basic information, see anon., “No. 1 Folding Pocket Kodak.” 55 Cameras today have f-stops, with f2 admitting a lot of light and f16 much less light (the larger the f-stop, the smaller the opening). 56 With I, the user simply pressed down on the release lever. With T, for “time,” the photographer touched the release lever twice, once to open and again to close the shutter for a specified duration. With B, for “bulb,” the user pressed the release lever down and held it for a specified (shorter) time, releasing it to close the shutter. A skilled photographer used the two controls together to control the exposure for a perfect picture. A shutter speed of I was usually accompanied by an aperture setting of stop 1 (but stop 2 would be used in very bright conditions), T or B with aperture setting stop 2 (if indoors) or 3 (cloudy outdoors). See anon., “Picture Taking.” 57 Strong-Boas, “Contested Space,” 6. 58 See lac photos “Poling Pickerel Rapids” (pa-059500 and -506), “Poling Abitibi River” (pa-059510, -513, -515, -517), and “Poling Long Sault rapids” (pa-059524). 59 “[W]e came to a series of rapids too shallow for the loaded canoe but accessible by poling. We unloaded the canoe on the bank … The crew paddled out to midstream, then exchanged their paddles for poles. At the foot of the rapids, the Cree in the bow found a grip on the bottom of his pole, then held the canoe in the current until the other Cree … found his grip. Both men would shove the canoe forward, standing and putting all their weight into the thrust. Then they had to flash their poles forward to get new purchase and thrust forward again. If the bow were to swing only a few inches off course, the current would have swung the craft broadside, rolling it over the first rock and giving the men a rough, wet ride. It could severely damage the canoe as well. So these lightning swings of the poles from side to side just averted disaster and a pole that slipped on the bottom had to find a new hold in a split second. Watching the two men shouting and laughing with excitement, plying their poles with the skill and zest of decades of mastery as they steadily worked their way to the top of the rapids, changed forever my image of the first Canadians. As we met them on the portage, coming back for their loads, they had a gleam of triumph in their eyes.” Dewdney, Daylight, 34–5. 60 lac, Stewart diaries, 13 August 1905. 61 “One man would stay in the canoe to steer while the rest of the crew, finding what

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footing they could in or out of the water, hauled on long tump lines.” Dewdney, Daylight, 50–1. “Running rapids in the north country is most exciting and dangerous work. At first one sits in fear and trembling, but after a time the fear passes and one takes it as a mere matter of course, yet the danger is a very real one, though overcome to a wonderful extent by the great skill of the natives in handling their canoes. Of course accidents and some deaths by drowning occur now and then, but they are very few and far between with native boatmen, and much more frequent in the case of white men, who imagine they can handle a canoe as well as a native.” Lofthouse, Thousand Miles, 28, 176. pma, “History.” Edwards, On the North Trail, xvii–iii. Geller, Northern Exposures, xiv–xvi. Ibid., 8. Ibid., 19. Perhaps from jiisakiiwinini, “seer who uses a shaking tent.” This word is in John O’Meara’s Pikangikum notes and is also in Nichols and Nyholm, Concise Dictionary, 74. O’Meara, pers. comm., 2 November 2009. Geller, Northern Exposures, 49–50. The illustrations, frequently cropped, include nine photographs identified in the appendix “An Inventory of the 1905 Photographs” in this volume, plus a portion of William Goodwin’s syllabic address (figure 14.5 in this volume). Brown et al., Pictures.

chapter eight 1 The adjective “old” was inserted before “Province of Canada” in the published version, and several insignificant changes were made. A spelling mistake was corrected, and more than a dozen commas were added in the published version. In the original, the addressee actually comes after the authors’ signatures, but I place it first here for the reader. Copies of the original are found in ao, Correspondence, and in lac, Re Treaty No. 9. 2 This statement is contradicted two sentences later. 3 This would be the second order, approved on Monday, 26 June 1905. 4 In fact, Indian Affairs resisted this approach until the very last moment (see chapter 3). 5 This would be the third order, approved on 3 July 1905. 6 An asterisk in the original indicates that this was, of course, D. George MacMartin. 7 cpr, “Public Timetable.” 8 Jones, Famous Name Trains, 45–61. 9 cpr, “Public Timetable.” For a photograph of Klock, see Mackey, “Vanished Village.” 10 Insects are a metaphor for northern travel. See Harding, Damn. 11 Jones, Famous Name Trains, 74–5; Calliste, “Struggle for Employment Equity”; Mathieu, “North of the Colour Line”; Winks, Blacks; Santino, Miles of Smiles. 12 orr, “Dinorwic,” wrongly claims the source as Cree. 13 Murchison, “Memoirs.” 14 In 1881 the hbc’s Wabigoon post, then part of the Lac La Pluie district, was located

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near the cpr line at the mouth of the Wabigoon River (a location known as Wabigoon Tank, as it was a source of water for steam engines). Around the turn of the century Wabigoon post was moved a mile west, closer to the cpr station, where it operated until it closed in 1965. See hbcaph, “Dinorwic.” The Hamilton Powder Company supplied dynamite to the hbc at Dinorwic. See hbca, dir, Dinorwic, 1899, 9. There were some 120 Indians, “exceptional in that they will not embrace Christianity nor permit a Missionary upon the [Wabigoon] Reserve. They are fairly well off as in addition to hunting there is plenty of employment for them at good wages.” Ibid. Ibid., 1890, 6; 1899, 8. Two James Swains are listed on the 1901 census. Our man is the Scots-Cree halfbreed trapper and labourer, with English as his first language, listed as born in Manitoba (but actually Lac Seul) on 4 July 1841 and living near Rat Portage (lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 44 Algoma, 2–94 Rat Portage Outside, page 4, family 37). He and Jane Wesley of Fort Albany produced three sons at Lac Seul, none of whom survived their teens. I am grateful to Victor Lytwyn for this information. A James Swain, aged sixteen, was listed as apprentice labourer in the Albany River district in 1853–54 (hbca, Abstract of Accounts 1853–4, Southern District). Englishman James Swain Sr and a now-anonymous Indian woman had several “half-breed” children, including James Swain Jr (1799–1887). See hbcabs, “Swain, James, Sr” and “Swain, James, Jr.” James Sr returned to England, but James Jr was farming at Red River by 1823. James Jr and his (second?) wife, Margaret Racette, and several other Swains, including our James, applied for scrip. The Swain in the treaty party had lived for some time at Marten Falls. See lac, Stewart diaries, 25 July 1905. Isaac, like Thomas Sinclair Ritch, twenty-six, and John Wombells Ritch, nineteen, were descended from Orkneyman William Sinclair Ritch and his Scots-Cree wife, Margaret Ann. Thomas was married to an Ojibwe woman, Frances, twenty-five, and they had a daughter Willimina, five. All except the little girl could speak English, read, and write. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, 206 Unorganized Territories, C-5 Keewatin, Fort Hope, page 16, families 2 (William) and 3 (Thomas). Thomas and John and their families were still at Fort Hope in 1911. See lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Northwest Territories, Keewatin, Fort Hope, page 1, families 4 (Thomas) and 5 (John). See also hbcabs, “Ritch, William Sinclair.” For more on the Ritch family, see gsa, Fort Hope Baptisms. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 11 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. See lac photograph “The Chief and Councillors of the Fort Hope Band. The man with the cap is Sinclair Ritch, the interpreter, for Commissioner Awrey who is at his side,” copy negative C-068985. lac, Stewart diaries, 23 May 1906. The “Mr” signifies a person of higher status, while a first name indicates lower status. See Hook, “First Names.” Kiebuzinski, Yesterday, the River, 143. Anon., “History of Sioux Lookout.” Some of the Ojibwe of far northern Ontario would be drawn to new towns such as Collins. See Hedican, Ogoki River Guides. Robertson, “Surveyor’s Report,” 212. Peers and Schenck, citing Baraga, note that

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the Ojibwe “called their enemies naadoweg, serpents, and the name reserved for their enemies to the west was naadowesiwag, written Nadouessioux by the French, and later shortened to Sioux.” See Nelson, My First Years, 196n. Dewdney, Daylight, 72. hbcabs, “King.” This sounds like the celebratory eat-all feast that Herb Williams described. The closest Northern Ojibwe association for linguist John Nichols is minitig (minihtik) “island”; in some dialects of Ojibwe, “island in a river.” He suggests it could be a truncated version of an Ojibwe place name based on a topographic verb, but he does not recognize the initial element. Pers. comm., 23 November 2009. Scott loved wildflowers and kept a garden at his Ottawa home. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 257. He also wrote a poem about twin flowers. York boats were the inland freighters favoured by the hbc. See Helm, Rogers, and Smith, “Intercultural Relations,” 155. Apparently ishkwaakwaa, “remains of a wooded area.” Assuming that there is a missing -w-, John O’Meara explains that this is ishkw- “left over” (same root as ishkonigan “reserve”) with -aakw- “wooden” and -aa “inanimate verb suffix.” Pers. comm., 1 November 2009. Bunting was fifty years old, an Ojibwe, and an adherent of the Church of England. His first language was Ojibwe, although he spoke English and could read. His wife, Margaret, was forty-four. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 44 Algoma, Rat Portage & Savanne Agency, family 333. Blue-joint or marsh reed grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) is a common North American reed grass. It was used by some First Nations as “a mattress stuffing or lining food storage pits.” See Marles et al., Aboriginal Plant Use, 291. Tremayne was district manager of the Lake Superior district. See hbcabs, “Tremayne.” Nova Scotian Chipman had succeeded Joseph Wrigley as chief commissioner in 1891. See Nigol, “Chipman.” The Reverend Maurice Sanderson, a graduate of the Indian residential school system (gsa, “Chapleau”), later a canon and honorary doctor of divinity. See Boon, Anglican Church, 400, 407. Four years earlier Sanderson had been a theology student boarding in Winnipeg (lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Manitoba, 12 Winnipeg, F-2 Ward 6, page 19, family 161). Stewart refers to him as “Mr. Sanderson. an Indian student,” but he was an ordained minister and the missionary responsible for Lac Seul. Another clergyman, the Reverend H.D. Cooper, travelled between Dinorwic, Wabigoon, and Dryden; Mr R. Clough was assigned to Frenchman’s Head. Five years later, Sanderson was still assigned to Lac Seul, with Frenchman’s Head as his outpost, and the Reverend A.J. Bruce was in charge at Dinorwic. See Moosonee and Keewatin Mailbag 4, no. 4 (October 1905): inside front cover, 70, and 6, no. 8 (October 1910): inside back cover. Sanderson supervised Selwyn Dewdney at Lac Seul in 1929–30. See Dewdney, Daylight. A photograph of Sanderson appears in Smith, “Now We Talk,” 48. Leonidas Hubbard lost his life during the 1903 expedition with Dillon Wallace Jr, which was guided by George Elson Jr (likely a son of the man described in hbcabs, “Elson”). See Wallace, Lure of the Labrador Wild. Prior to the commissioner’s visit, Mina Benson Hubbard had hired Elson to take her back over the

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route in 1905, independent of Wallace’s own 1905 expedition. See Hubbard, Woman’s Way; Wallace, Long Labrador Trail. 39 Perhaps Beaulieu?

chapter nine 1 Voorhis, Historic Forts, 96; hbcaph, “Lac Seul.” Arthur, “Charles McKenzie,” provides a succinct description of the fur trade at this post in the early 1800s. 2 lsfn, “History.” John O’Meara notes that the first part is ob- “narrows” and the ending -kaang is a locative “at the, etc.” Pers. comm. 8 November 2009. 3 James Duncan MacKenzie was a brother-in-law of Jabez Williams through the latter’s first wife, Anne MacKenzie. Born in Fort Frances, MacKenzie was married to Jessie Catherine Mitchell, aged thirty-two. They had at least one son, George, five, and were adherents of the Church of England. See hbcabs, “MacKenzie, John Duncan”; lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 44, Algoma, Savanne Village, page 1, family 5. Through his mother, MacKenzie was apparently a sixth-generation hbc trader. His parents were James Bruce MacKenzie and Nancy Setter. He was descended maternally from a now-unknown Indigenous great-great- great-grandmother and Englishman Isaac Batt. His great-great-grandparents were Orkneyman James Spence and Nestichio Batt, and his great-grandparents were Orkneyman Andrew Setter and Margaret (Peggy) Spence. His grandparents were Orkneyman George Setter, Andrew’s cousin, and Margaret Setter. Through his father, J.D. MacKenzie was a fourth-generation trader, a grandson of Scotsman Donald MacKenzie and his wife, Matilda, whose parents were Orkneyman Benjamin Bruce and an Indigenous woman named Matilda. See Williams, Jabez Williams, 12-21. J.D. MacKenzie’s wife, Jesse, was descended from at least three generations of hbc traders, tracing her ancestry to Orkneyman Charles Begg and his wife, Catherine Spence, daughter of George Spence and his aboriginal wife, Catherine. See hbcabs, “MacKenzie, John Duncan MacKenzie” and “Begg.” 4 This Mattawa was 60 miles west of Lac Seul on the English River, staffed by John H. Vincent (who earned $25 monthly plus provisions) and three trippers. Goods were also sent north to an Indian trader at Trout Lake. Wabaskang, under the charge of C. Pierrot, was 45 miles west of Lac Seul. Sturgeon Lake, with Antoine Lac Seul in charge, was 100 miles southeast of the post. Minnitaki, 35 miles south of Lac Seul, was run by an “Indian.” Lac Seul had its own trippers in addition to a permanent staff. See hbca, dir, Lac Seul, 1899, 9, 13. 5 Ibid., 5–6, 1901, 5, 9. 6 Ibid., 11. 7 Arthur, “Charles McKenzie.” 8 The word is akiwenzi, “old man.” In some dialects there is a final nasal vowel. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. 9 Did the commissioners know of this particular midewiwin event prior to leaving Dinorwic? The Lac Seul practice may have been a long-standing concern to MacKenzie or Sanderson; if they complained to Indian Affairs officials, headquarters may have sent a notice of the commissioners’ impending visit, with a “request” that the Ojibwe meet them on arrival. Perhaps Sanderson arranged his travels to be conveniently away at the time of this event, practising non-interference.

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10 Indians were expected to comply with requests from Ottawa. The 1929 treaty commissioners were similarly upset when the Cranes failed to appear at Big Trout Lake. 11 Section 75 of the Indian Act as amended in 1898. See Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 142. 12 Petipas, Severing the Ties, 115. 13 Weaver, “The Iroquois.” See also Taylor, Divided Ground, and Muller, “Holding Hands.”. 14 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 67. 15 Dewdney, Daylight, 69. 16 “While the number of possible routes to the Albany river from the Canadian Pacific railway is very great, there are but three that have been used to any great extent, one leaving the railway at Dinoriwc station and reaching the Albany by way of Lac Seul and its tributary the Root river, another one starting from Ignace and reaching the Albany by way of Sturgeon and Musibimega lakes, and another leading from Nipigon station by Nipigon river and lake and crossing the Albany by way of the Ombabika and Opichuan rivers. The first of these is the best route in, particularly where a load is to be carried, as, though somewhat longer than either of the others, it is down stream or through large lakes for the greater part of the distance … The completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway will shorten very considerably the distance from this side, and render the whole region comparatively easy of access.” McInnes, “Report on Winisk and Attawapiscat Rivers,” in Miller, “Reports of the District of Patricia,” 109. 17 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 67. As a young missionary, Selwyn Dewdney only knew the name of the feast. See his Daylight, 69. 18 Oberholtzer, “Fleshing Out the Evidence”; Cummins, First Nations, First Dogs. 19 Kohl observed that “they cannot offer their deities and spirits a finer sacrifice than a dog … The two most usual sacrifices the Indians offer to Divity, or the Great Spirits, are a dog and tobacco.” See his Kitchi-Gami, 39, 60. 20 Vennum, Ojibwa Dance Drum, 44, 108–12. 21 Anthropologist Frances Densmore witnessed such practice at Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, in 1910. See ibid., 112. 22 Ibid. Brightman notes that among the Cree, “Dogs occupy a multiply ambiguous position … possessing neither the sanctity of the wild animal nor the privileges of the house pet.” They are useful adjuncts to hunting but are considered to be “dirty” because they are known to consume excrement. See his Grateful Prey, 133. Here “the problem is not ‘dirt’ as in a dirty house but the risk of a spiritual disorder or chaos.” See Brown, “Revisiting A.I. Hallowell,” 25. 23 Vennum, Ojibwa Dance Drum, 113. 24 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 36. 25 Ibid., 30–1. 26 Preston, Cree Narrative, 78ff. See also Long, “Manitu.” 27 Some relied on the authority of the Greek word. See Anderson, Net in the Bay, 57–8n. 28 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 3, 13. A secular story is a dibaajimowin (in Cree tipachimowin). See Ellis, Now Then, Still Another Story. 29 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 68–76. 30 Vennum, Ojibwa Drum Dance, 44ff; Brown and Matthews, “Fair Wind.”

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31 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 136–7. 32 Ibid., 90, 155. Less likely, it was a shaking tent. 33 Dewdney, Sacred Scrolls. Jabez Williams had seen such scrolls, either at Lake of the Woods or Lac Seul. See Skinner, Notes, 153. 34 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 71. 35 Brown, “Revisiting A.I. Hallowell,” 22–8. 36 Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 111. Doing so would have involved a great deal of role conflict, even if there were religious divisions within the band. Most Ojibwe would have accepted Christian teachings into their existing cultural repertoire, as Susan Gray shows in “I Will Fear No Evil.” There may have been some tension among the waabanowag, mideg, and jiisakiiwininiwag, but they were simply different ways of seeking the blessings of the manidoog (including new manidoog) and achieving bimaadiziwin. See Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 13, 127, 183. John O’Meara notes that there are many names that end in orthographic -eb, and these have to do with sitting (so names like “sits …”). Pers. comm., 9 November 2009. 37 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 123; Williams, “My First Bear Hunt.” 38 Williams, “True Stories.” 39 Taylor, “Non-Native Teachers.” 40 Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 20–3, 39. 41 The word “and” was changed to “or” and the following five redundant words excised in section 149 of the 1906 Indian Act. See Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 229; Haslip, “Treaty Right to Sport?” note 82. 42 Sec. 114 of the 1886 Indian Act in Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 158. 43 Ibid., 138–40. 44 John O’Meara, pers. comm., 12 November 2009. 45 Bruce, “Geology of the Upper Part,” 3–4. 46 Bruce and Hawley, “Geology of the Basin,” 1, 6–7. See also Bruce, “Gold Deposits”; Gilbert, “Gammon River Area”; and Greig, “Woman and Narrow Lakes Area.” 47 opg, “Manitou Station”; Kiebuzinski, Yesterday, 132, 218; Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 198. 48 Lac Seul Band, “Presentation”; Dragland, Floating Voice, 65–6. 49 opg, “Ontario Power Generation and Lac Seul First Nation; Meadows, “First Nation Feels Compensation.” 50 His father was Alfred Daniel Dewdney, the bishop of Keewatin (1921–38). Selwyn had completed the second year of his ba at Toronto’s Wycliffe College when he spent the summer of 1929 at Lac Seul as “student-in-charge,” holding services there and at Hudson, under the supervision of Canon Maurice Sanderson – and learning to golf on the three-hole course developed by hbc post manager Frank H. Aldous. At the end of his second summer he decided against becoming a clergyman. See Dewdney, Daylight, 60–2, 89. 51 Dewdney, Sacred Scrolls, 146. I am grateful to Stan Dragland for this reference. 52 opg, “Ontario Power Generation and Lac Seul First Nation.” 53 Hamilton, “Opening up.” 54 Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility.” 55 Wesley, “Finding Strength.”

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56 Brightman, in “Culture and Culture Theory,” notes that such criticisms can come from within the Indigenous community. 57 Pat Ninegewance, pers. comm., 18 November 2009. 58 This was the family of Noah Wesley. See lac, Ramsden, J.D. McKenzie to J.G. Ramsden, 2 May 1906. 59 “The general upward course of Root river … has a north-easterly bearing, but the stream is very crooked, and it curves considerably to the south-eastward of a straight line.” Bell, “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 61. 60 Cat Lake Band, “Presentation.” I am grateful to Stan Dragland for this reference in Floating Voice, 57, 65n. 61 Ibid. rcmp inspector McGinnis, who investigated the muder, died on 4 March 1906, having “never recovered his health.” See Canada, Report of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, 1905, 135–8, and 1906, 15. 62 Belle is Scott’s wife. 63 Likely barbecued apwaanaask-style on a stick inserted in the ground. John O’Meara explains that this word is from apwaan “something roasted” (from apwe- “roast something” + -n “nominalizer,” with the -n shifting the preceding vowel to -aa-, that is regular) plus -aask(w) “wooden.” It is a common type of word formation, and many names of wooden items (or types of trees) are made with -aask(w). The -w only shows up when a suffix is added. The Ojibwe congener is -aak(w). Pers. comm., 22 December 2009. 64 John Horden Vincent was forty-three years old. Born at Fort Albany, he appeared to be white but was considered an English half-breed by the enumerator. John had married a Lac Seul woman and was in charge of the Mattawa outpost. His wife, Elizabeth, aged thirty-four, was labelled a white Scotch breed from Trout Lake. Their son, Lester James Vincent, would have been six years old. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, 206 Unorganized, C-7 Keewatin, Lac Seul family 6; hbca, dir, Lac Seul, 1901, 8. See also Long, “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent.” 65 In Ojibwe this is ginoozhe (Cree, kinoshew). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 18 November 2009. 66 MacMartin drew a box around these three words. 67 This now-pejorative word for an Indigenous woman or wife is derived from various Algonquian words for woman, including Cree iskwew.

chapter ten 1 John O’Meara suggests mishkiigogamaang, meshkiigwaagamaang, or (at Cat Lake) meshkiigwaagamaag, meaning is “at the swampy water” (mashkiigw- “swamp,” igamaa “body of water,” and -ng “locative”). Variability in the vowels reflect a grammatical process called “initial change.” Pers. comm., 8 November 2009. 2 Voorhis, Historic Forts, 133; hbcaph, “Osnaburgh House.” 3 hbca, dir, Osnaburgh, 1901, 5, 9–10. Cat Lake was 155 miles distant “in the direction of Trout Lake in the Northern Department.” Ibid., 11. The Lawsons were evidently descended from Thomas Lawson, born in the Rupert River district. Wilson was born at York Factory. See hbcabs, “Lawson” and “Wilson, Robert Cummins.”

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4 He was now a forty-six-year-old widower with eight children by his first wife and two by Fanny, the local woman he married in 1907. As noted earlier, he was a brother-in-law, through his first marriage, to Lac Seul’s John Duncan MacKenzie. See hbcabs, “Williams.” See also Williams, Jabez Williams, and Williams, “The Last Resort.” 5 lac, Stewart diaries, 11 July 1905. 6 The Cranes of Deer Lake are now known as Kakegamic and Kakepetum. See anon., “Deer Lake First Nation.” 7 lac, Scott journal, 12 July 1905. See chapter 4 for Ramsden’s instructions. 8 “The Crane Band of Indians at Cat Lake have sent me definite word through Indian channels, and which is also corroborated by our Manager at Cat Lake (Mr. Chas. McLeod), that they desire to enter the Treaty. “They wish the Commissioner to meet them at Cat Lake on or about the last day of July next. “They will not come to Osnaburg, and it is best in their own interests that they be kept away from there. “There are about 35 to 40 heads of families on our Books. Providing word is sent here by the incoming January ’07 Packet that the Commissioner will be there to meet them, they will receive the message in January 1907 or beginning of February. “It is more than likely that a number of the Trout Lake Band will join the Cranes. This is the first time the Cranes have consented to give up their lands, but the death of their old Chief last year has given the chance to settle the matter.” lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Chipman to Secretary, 15 October 1906. 9 Similar arrangements were considered for the Attawapiskat Cree and Cat Lake River Ojibwe in the 1906 instructions to Ramsden (see chapter 4). 10 lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, McLean to Chipman, 19 November 1906. 11 Ibid., McLean to H.C. Nixon, 18 April 1922. 12 ao, Osnaburgh Pay-list. 13 Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 97. 14 Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 155–6. 15 Ibid., 197–8. 16 Laird, “Geology of the Shonia Lake Area,” 3. Similarly, gold was found at Savant Lake two years earlier. See Moore, “Lake Savant,” 53. 17 Rhodes, Dictionary, 523; Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 693. The Proto-Algonquian word continued without substantial change in Swampy Cree as shooniyaan, Moose Cree shooniyaan, and Ojibwe zhooniyaa. All mean “silver,” usually also “money” (as with French argent in both meanings), so the Proto-Algonquian meaning was likely “silver metal.” Native silver was not as common as native copper, but there were sources in the northeast. The word is not borrowed from the English word “shilling.” David Pentland, pers. comm., 4 June 2008. 18 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 22. 19 Ibid., 28. 20 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 28. 21 Hurst, “Pickle Lake-Crow River,” 3–4. 22 “The nearest power site of consequence is located on the Albany river, 4 miles below Atikokiwam lake, a distance of about 26 miles south of Pickle lake.” Ibid., 5.

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Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 198–208. Ibid., 209–27. Ibid., 227–32. Ibid., 157–8. Ibid., 176–8. On Grassy Narrows, see Shkilnyk, Poison Stronger than Love, and Hutchison and Wallace, Grassy Narrows. These impacts are oingoing. See Brennan, “Mercury.” Armstrong, “Political Economy,” 235–53; “Historic Land Issues,” mofn website. Heinrichs and Hiebert, Mishkeegogamang. “About Mishkeegogamang and Its People” and “History,” mofn website. “The Old Post and Village.” “Mishkeegogamang and Its People,” mofn website. “History,” mofn website. The three commissioners agree the arrival was either at 4:00 or 4:30. Jabez William claims they arrived at 4:15. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 145. A younger man named William Semia Oombash (1898–1942), born at “Osborne, Ont” (Osnaburgh), enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Port Arthur and survived the battle of Passchendaele. See Del Vecchio, “Osnaburgh House,” 50, 80–1. His attestation papers can be found through lac’s “Soldiers of the First World War – cef” search engine,

viewed 30 November 2009, by searching for the surname Semia. lac also has copy negative C-068913 (mikan no. 3358550), captioned “William Senia the young Indian who walked from Cat Lake to the railway line in order to enlist for duty in the war.” Both Scott and MacMartin state that the Keewatin reserve included “precious metals.” We cannot assume that mineral rights were actually discussed with the Ojibwe. This detail, highlighted in the 1902 agreement, would only have concerned the commissioners and hbc agent Jabez Williams. There were three boys and two girls. Following treaty-making, the Carpenter family received ticket number 68. See ao, Osnaburgh Pay-list. The lac photograph includes the caption “old Shabokeshick.” This suggests that Carpenter may also have had an Ojibwe name (zhaabo-giizhig, “through the day”). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 1 November 2009. Scott also applied the caption “Old Shabokesick” to a 1906 photograph taken at Long Lake; lac, pa-059556, mikan no. 3358369. The name Carpenter has a long history in the region, perhaps from francophone North West Company personel absorbed by the hbc following the union of the two trading companies in 1821. Scott also refers to David Sugarhead in “Last of the Indian Treaties.” David, his wife, and two sons received ticket no. 50. See ao, Osnaburgh Pay-list. This consultation was entirely in keeping with the practice followed in earlier treaties and in neighbouring Treaty No. 3. Anishinaabe leaders needed to consult with those they represented, for decisions were reached by consensus. According to MacMartin, however, the ogimug did not “ask” for more time. They left the room and soon afterwards informed Jabez Williams that they would give the commissioners an answer the next morning. See qua, MacMartin diary, 11 July 1905. I wonder if the commissioners took steps to ensure this embarrassment was never

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repeated at other points, perhaps stationing someone at the door (even though the orders-in-council authorizing the commissioners implied that the king’s offer could be rejected). Stewart’s account suggests that the payment of gratuities began on Wednesday, prior to the celebratory feast. If so, and MacMartin makes no mention of this sequence of events, the ogimaag were being insulted, for they had not yet given their answer. Distribution of supplies for the feast before the treaty was even signed certainly implied that the ogimaag had little choice. Flour and other ingredients for Wednesday’s feast had been distributed earlier in the day, for treaty feasts were of the cook-your-own variety. Disrespect and intimidation had been used before to pressure Anishinaabe leaders to capitulate. As we have seen, in 1850 the Sault Ste Marie ogimaag were induced to sign their treaty when Robinson dealt separately with their Lake Superior counterparts. See Morrison, “Robinson Treaties.” Decades later, at annual Lake of the Woods annuity payments, Herb Williams reported that the Indian agent would eventually lose patience and announce to the ogimaakaanag that payment would begin regardless of their wishes (see his “My First Bear Hunt”). The man would have received $168. This was one of three polygynous marriages at Osnaburgh. In addition to no. 19 with three wives, no. 85 and no. 93 had two wives. Similarly, at Fort Hope no. 104 and no. 136 each had two wives. See ao, Osnaburgh and Fort Hope Pay-lists. In earlier times, Bishop notes, a mature hunter often had two or three wives. By 1905 these existing unions were tolerated, but it was expected that the practice, discouraged by missionaries and considered bigamy under Canadian law, would come to an end. See Bishop, Northern Ojibwa, 13, 98. See also Carter, Importance of Being Monogamous. Luke Hunter, treaty research director for Nishnawbe Aski Nation, observes that men sometimes appeared to have multiple wives because they assumed responsibility for women who were widowed during the winter months. Pers. comm, 18 August 2008. Oombash was a lay leader in the local Anglican church. Although the majority were “baptized members of our Church,” lamented Bishop George Holmes three years later, he considered them “deplorably ignorant. But can we wonder, considering that about one month’s instruction in four years is all the poor people have?” He confirmed twenty-six of them, “upon the recommendation of” Jabez Williams. See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 83–4. See also Pelham Edgar’s reference to a “soi disant Indian dance.” lac, Edgar journal, 9 August 1906. See chapter 20. In 1909 Thomas Moonias, John Sagutch, and Kitchi Joseph wrote their names in syllabics, while others made an X. lac, Treaty No. 9, Survey, Galbraith’s Osnaburgh–Fort Hope Pay-list. In the Ojibwe world view, a broader notion of “proper behavior plays a big role in whether or not a person will receive, and then keep, her or his power … Obedience results in reward.” See Brown and Gray, “Introduction,” 124. It was treated like a sacred object. Ojibwe dance drums were protected and, like Euro-Canadian flags, not allowed to touch the ground. See Vennum, Ojibwa Dance Drum, 62. Comma added in published version.

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49 Daugherty, Treaty Research Report … Three. Further south, in Minnesota, several treaties had been concluded with the Chippewa. See Giese, “Treaties with Minnesota Indians.” 50 Comma added in published version. 51 This is the kind of respectful talk that we would expect in the presence of powerful people. See Black-Rogers, “Ojibwa Power Interactions.” It is also a common Ojibwe admonition. See Brown, “Revisiting A.I. Hallowell,” 24–5. At the same time, Missabay is telling young Ojibwe to open their minds to new ways of thinking and making a living. See Brown, “‘Place in Your Mind.’” 52 See Bell’s description of Hugh’s Creek portage, Deep-and-Shoal Lake, and “Atiko-ki-wam or Deer Lodge lake,” in his “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 63, 65. 53 Elbow Lake is now Achapi (achaapiy, “bow” as in bnow and arrow) Lake, a Cree word. In some Ojibwe dialects achaab means “bow.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 8 November 2009. See map of Elbow Lake, Albany River, in Bell, “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 66. 54 Snake portage, or “Kenaibik Inigum,” was the tenth carrying place when travelling downriver from Lake St Joseph. See Bell, “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 65–6). John O’Meara writes this name as ginebig-onigam (“snake + portage”). Pers. comm., 8 November 2009. 55 This detail was written one sentence later, but Scott indicated with an arrow that it belonged here. 56 This would likely be mimiiniskaaw (“many berries”), apparently Cree with reduplication. The word miin-iskaa-w is constructed from miin (“berry”), -skaa- (“be many of them”), and -w (third person). The extra mi- at the beginning would be a reduplicated copy of the first syllable to make it more emphatic. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. This is Bell’s Maminiska Lake. See his “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,”66. 57 “Deer tent” in Ojibwe is adikogiwaam. John O’Meara, pers. comm. It is now called Atikokiwam Lake. 58 Hallowell explains that the Anishinaabeg were buried on a north-south axis, the grave perhaps covered with a small house. If visitors found “some tea or tobacco in the grave-house, they might smoke or drink a cup of tea. To drink, eat, or smoke at a grave was equivalent to having a visit with the dead.” See his Ojibwa of Berens River, 75–6. Ojibwe graves are still often fenced in. See photos in Heibert and Heinrichs, We Are One. 59 They were presumably given treaty gratuities as well. 60 Black-Rogers and Rogers document hostilities involving a man called “Keenapick” (ginebig, snake). See their “Cranes and Their Neighbours,” 98. This could also be a generic reference to enemies. Peers and Schenck note that the Ojibwe “called their enemies nadoweg, serpents.” See Nelson, My First Years, 196n.

chapter eleven 1 This word can be written e-aabamadong or just aabamadong, but the structure must be aabamad-w-ing, with the ending a locative suffix. Ojibwe-speakers at Ogoki also have words such as aabamaa “be a bay” (the -aa at the end is a verb

notes to pages 176–7

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suffix) and aabamoojiwan “be still water” (-jiwan means “water flowing, current, etc,” and the -oo- is obscure), so presumably aabam- has something to do with water. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 8 November 2009. “Several Albany [River] Indians were coming over [here] to meet the opposition to trade their Furs, [junior chief trader Thomas Anderson’s] men intercepted them and brought them to him, securing all the Fur they had, and as they were still short of some necessaries, he gave them … debt on condition that they would immediately return to their own Posts in Albany District, which they did.” Otherwise, these Ojibwe would have “gotten into the hands of the opposition, and remained with them.” See hbca, dir, Nipigon House, 1895, 11. Ibid., Fort Hope, 1901, 7. There were two other hbc posts by this name, one in British Columbia and another in the eastern Arctic. See Voorhis, Historic Forts, 82; hbcaph, “Fort Hope.” Clerk in charge Charles Gordon was allied with one or more Ojibwe women. See hbcabs, “Gordon.” His sons – Charles Munro, William John, and Walter – were born to his wife, Louisa, and baptized in 1903, 1904, and 1907. He apparently fathered two others with Emma Poole and Jane Cheesaquay in 1907 and 1913. See gsa, Fort Hope Baptisms, nos. 176, 189, 197, 257, and 347. At Nipigon, weekly rations for a man (all units in pounds) amounted to 10 of flour and 5 of pork, plus 2 of tea and 2 of sugar monthly. See hbca, dir, Nipigon House, 1895, 13. hbcaph, Fort Hope, 1901, 6. lac, Stewart diaries, 19 July 1905. Fafard was forty-eight years old, one of a dozen children born to Antoine and Christine Morel Fafard of Saint-Hugues, Quebec. Ordained in 1885, he spent the first seven years of his priesthood at Lake Temiscaming. From this southern base, Oblate missionaries had made summer visits to James Bay since 1847. In June of 1892 Fafard and two others established a permanent mission at Fort Albany. From this base, he and his associates travelled up the Albany River and along the western James and southwestern Hudson Bay coasts. Fafard left the region in 1908 and died in 1946. See Lecompte, “Sapier.” By 1905 Fafard had produced two Cree books of religious instruction, Chemin de la croix and Catéchisme de perseverance. He was fluent in Cree. His conversational abilities in Ojibwe are less certain, but we do not know whether this was an impediment to his communication at Fort Hope; for example, could people there also understand Cree? lac, Stewart diaries, 19 July 1905. According to a 1920 census in the Fort Hope baptismal register, Richards was sixty-four years old, having been born at Mattawakumma, and was of Scottish origin. His wife, Jane, aged fifty-three, was of Indian and English origin. They had a son, Roy, fourteen, and a daughter Maria, twelve. See gsa, Fort Hope Baptisms. If a Scotsman, he is perhaps a descendent of neither hbc captain John Richards nor William Richards. hbcabs, “John Richards,” and “William Richards.” lac, Stewart diaries, 19 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 20 July 1905. In 1901 Joseph Goodwin was a servant at Fort Hope earning $146 per year. Besides James Grant Christie, clerk in charge, the other employees at Fort Hope

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were William Ritch, his son Thomas S. Ritch, “Indian” cook George Drake, a domestic servant “(fed by Company) paid by Mr. Christie,” and a “fisherman, employed during open water.” See hbca, dir, Fort Hope, 1901, 7; hbcabs, “Christie,” “Goodwin, Joseph,” “Ritch, Thomas Sinclair,” and “Ritch, William Sinclair.” The name Goodwin is thought by some to be derived from the Cree word kootowan, “fire pit.” Lawrence Jeffries, pers. comm., 10 November 2009; Faries et al., Dictionary, 76. The surname, however, more likely indicates a descendent of the English hbc surgeon Robert Goodwin. See hbcabs, “Goodwin, John.” ao, Fort Hope Pay-list. gsa, Fort Hope Baptisms. Menwapay Bois is listed on the 1905 pay-list. See ao, Fort Hope Pay-list. Six years later, enumerators listed Charlotte “Bois,” aged forty-five, her children (John, fifteen, Henry, twelve, Edward, ten, and Clara, eight), and Mary Peendinegawinnie, seventy, likely her mother, in the same household. See lac, 1911 Census, Northwest Territories, District 218, Keewatin, page 9 family 45 (“Bois”). Henry Bradley Boyce became a clerk at Fort Hope. See hbcabs, “Boyce.” Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 30–1. Burwash, “Geology of the Fort Hope,” 4. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 25–6. Eabametoong First Nation, Website. Thom, “Communities Join Forces.” This could be biidaawaangaa (“sandy beach”), now Petawanga Lake. John O’Meara notes that the ending is -aawangaa “sand, beach” and the root might be biid- “in this direction,” thus “sand/a sandy beach in this direction (toward the speaker).” Pers. comm., 8 November 2009. Perhaps a descendent of William Richards, the hbc’s Welsh surgeon and master. See hbcabs, “Richards, William,” and Johnson, “James Bay Artist.” Alternatively, he could have been descended from Captain John Richards. See hbcabs, “Richards, John.” It is not known whether the Fort Albany band surname Rickard is derived from Richards; the Moose Factory surname Achimist was also changed to Rickard. The lake may be Kawitos, and the river may be part of Triangular Lake. Bell describes three lakes: Patawonga, Ka-wi-tos-kam-igamog, and another “which from its shape might be called, for convenience, Triangular.” See his “Lonely Lake to James Bay,” in Miller “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 67. In western Canada the tickets were made of “paste board … ruled off into six squares, each square being a space to show how many in the holder’s family were paid each year. A ticket lasted for six years.” See Graham, Treaty Days, 117. This was the work of artist Brother Charles Tremblay, who also decorated the Fort Albany church. See Paule-Émile, Amiskwaski, 97. I am grateful to Bishop Vincent Cadieux, omi, for providing this reference by email dated 9 November 2009. See also Saindon, En missionant. Holmes reported that about one-third were adherents of the Roman Catholic church, “the rest, with the exception of a small heathen band, or family, all baptized members of our Church, which speaks much for the zealous labours of the late Archdeacon Vincent and Mr. Richards. The most happy and encouraging service of the many held during our week’s stay, was the one at which the leader,

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father, and grandfather of this heathen band, whose name is ‘Running-Rabbit,’ an old, but well-preserved, man of four score years, was, with his wife, baptized.” See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 84. Running Rabbit may be Fort Hope’s “Wabusinini, the oldest and most noted conjuror,” who told anthropologist Alanson Skinner one of his dreams in 1908. See Skinner, “Notes,” 154. Angel states that the man was not a mide but a jiisakiiwinini. See Angel, Preserving the Sacred, 163. Lawrence Jeffries, pers. comm., suggests the surname Koosees is likely from a Cree kinship term: kosihs (“son,” without the obligatory possessive prefix; it is normally nikosihs, “my son”). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. Quisees appears to be a variant spelling of the same Cree word. C. Douglas Ellis, pers. comm., 18 November 2009. This “alphabet” would be a syllabic chart. Elizabeth was Scott’s daughter. It is known as Makokibatan Lake today. “Even during good times, dogs were seldom fed during the summer months … they would form packs and range over great distances in search of food.” Cummins, First Nations, First Dogs, 114–15. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Scott may have brought a copy of The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited Arthur QuillerCouch, as he did in 1906. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 31. The quotation is from “The Miner’s Burial” by Mary Eulalie Shannon (1824–54). In 1777 construction began on Gloucester House, then the hbc’s second and furthest post inland, some 35 miles above Marten Falls. The post closed in 1796, then reopened for a time, but was closed for good in 1818. See Voorhis, Historic Forts, 74–5; hbcaph, “Gloucester House.” It is now called Washi Lake, waazhi-zaaga’igan in Ojibwe. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 8 November 2009. This would be Bell’s “Washi-sagaigan or the lake of the Narrows.” See his “Abazotikitchewan to Kenogami,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 84.

chapter twelve 1 Marten was stationed at Fort Albany from 1763 to 1775. See Pannekoek, “Marten.” Henley House was built in 1743 some 150 miles upriver from Fort Albany, near its junction with the Kenogami. It was attacked by Indians in 1755, in retaliation for a breech of cultural etiquette, re-established in 1759, and destroyed a second time. Rebuilt again in 1784 as a storage depot for Gloucester, it was eclipsed by Marten Falls by 1818, serving only as a seasonal trading site. See Voorhis, Historic Forts, 80; hbcaph, “Henley House”; Bishop, “Henley House Massacre”; Long, “In Search of Mr. Bundin.” 2 Voorhis, Historic Forts, 109; hbcaph, “Martin Falls.” 3 hbca, dir, Martin Fall [sic], 1900–1, 5. 4 Postmaster Sam Iserhoff was a thirty-nine-year-old man of Cree-European ancestry, born in northern Quebec. See hbcabs, “Iserhoff.” He and his wife, Hannah, aged twenty-nine, had at least seven children: Louise, fourteen, Peter, twelve, Josephine, ten, Annie, eight, George, six, David, four, and Minnie Charlotte, two. Their colour was listed as “Red,” and all were considered Cree-English breeds. Hannah spoke Ojibwe and Cree from childhood. See lac, 1901 Census of

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Canada, The Territories, Unorganized Territories, Keewatin, English River, family no. 1. Iserhoff became a missionary in 1925, but he should not be confused with Canon Sam Iserhoff. ao, Marten Falls Pay-list. qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July 1905. Telford and Lytwyn, “Aboriginal Minerals.” hbcaph, “Ogoki”; Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 30–1, and 1930, 25–6. opg, “Decew Falls ii.” Kornacki, “Marten Falls”; Garrick, “Koper Lake Blockade.” Possibly a reference to Alexander Macdonald. See Long, “Coping with Powerful People.” In 1907, Bishop Holmes reported, fifteen of the eighty-seven were “Romanists, and the rest baptized members of our Church.” William Corston Jr (1850–1903) acted as catechist. “These are the men,” wrote Holmes, “who ought to be trained for the ministry, which I am convinced, is the nearest way to arrive at self-support.” The bishop gleefully reported that “besides two infants, a heathen family of seven were baptized, the last, I think, of the heathen in this part.” See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 85. William Corston Jr, a son of Orkneyman William Corston Sr and his wife, Margaret McKay, was married to Jane Louttit. (On the 1901 census at Fort Albany, William was described as a Cree-Scotch breed, while Jane was a Cree-French breed.) His siblings married into the Elson, Faries, Iserhoff, Mark, and Morrison families. Margaret McKay was the daughter of William McKay and Mary Bunn of Red River. William McKay was a son of John McKay and Mary Favell, she the daughter of Englishman John Favell and his aboriginal wife, Titameg (atikamek, whitefish). Mary Bunn’s parents were Englishman Thomas Bunn and Sarah McNab, daughter of John McNab. See hbcabs, “Bunn,” “Corston,” “Favell,” and “McKay”; lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, district no. 206 Unorganized Territories, sub-district C-1 Keewatin, Albany, family 23. In 1909 William Coaster was the Marten Falls catechist. See Anderson, “Bishop’s Journal,” 139. The diminutive of ogimaakaan would be ogimaakaans or ogimaakaanens, depending on dialect. John O’Meara, pers. comm. Similarly, in Cree a treaty chief is okimahkan (Ellis, “Note”), while a councillor or small chief is the diminutive form okimahkanishish. This was a common time saver. See Anderson, “Bishop’s Journal,” 140. See also Dewdney, Daylight, 50, and Anderson, Net in the Bay, 94–8. Normally the steersman had an important role. Two decades later, on a trip from Big Trout Lake to Fort Severn, Selwyn Dewdney was fascinated by skill which he was later unable to replicate: “His paddle, half again as long as those of his crew, was in constant motion. With a man almost immediately in front of him, he nevertheless deftly swung his paddle overhead to change sides. Steering entirely by turning his paddle blade obliquely to pull the stern right or left as the course demanded, he never used it as a rudder.” See Dewdney, Daylight, 49. The sleeping steersman was a common theme on the lower Albany. See Anderson, “Bishop’s Journal,” 82, 140; Dragland, Floating Voice, 154n. Notice the two world views. For the commissioners, Crown timber was being

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destroyed, wasting government assets. For Indigenous peoples living off the land, however, bimaadiziwin might be enhanced; such fires hastened the growth of berries and the production of moose pasture. hbc traders occasionally lamented the loss of game when fires were carelessly allowed to burn. Many fires, of course, were caused by lightning. See Matthews, “Thunderbirds,” and Berens, Memories, Myths and Dreams, for northern Algonquian beliefs about thunder and lightning. 17 The map (figure 12.4) shows “Site of H.B.Co’s Post” (the former location, at Wabashi River), about 40 miles up the Kenogami River, and “H.B.Co.” (the commissioners’ true destination), some 32 miles further up the Kenogami, close to where the Mammamattawa River tributary empties into it. Canada, di, “Map of Part of Northern Ontario.” 18 This would be today’s Ogoki.

chapter thirteen 1 Voorhis, Historic Forts, 108–9. The basic word is maataw-aa “opening of body of water” or, reduplicated, mamaatawaa “several openings”; maamawi-maatawaa is maamawi- “together” with maatawaa. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. 2 hbca, dir, English River, 1891, 3. See also Wilson, “Reconnaisance Surveys,” in Miller, “Reports on the Patricia District,” 170. 3 Although there was no church there and they never “saw a doctor or a ‘Praying Chief,’” the English River Indians were interested in missionaries. Bishop George Holmes met some of them at the mouth of the English River: “We spent all one day with them, holding services and baptized two infants, but did not suggest confirmation or Holy Communion, feeling that they were not sufficiently intelligent to understand either, at such short notice. They seem little better than baptized heathen.” Holmes was later informed by Archdeacon Robert Renison “that he met a deputation from English River, who had come down [to Fort Albany] to ask the Roman Catholic priest to go and visit them as we had neglected them. The Archdeacon met them on their way to the priest, providentially, and was able to dissuade them, promising to send up his brother [George E. Renison] on his return to Moose, which satisfied them … The total population at English River is about sixty, and some twelve or fourteen are Romanists.” See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 85–6. In July 1909 Holmes’s successor did not visit English River Indians because they were “all … down at [Fort] Albany.” See Anderson, “Bishop’s Journal,” 140. By 1910 there was a church there. See Anderson, “Annual Review,” 29. 4 hbca, dir, English River, 1891, 8–10. 5 lac, Stewart diaries, 29 July 1905. 6 Ibid., 28 and 31 July 1905. On his 1908 trip to Abitibi, Stewart’s party consisted of “two canoes with four paddlers.” The others were “Bazille McDougall, Frank Lemaire, William John, and Thomas Turner, the latter of whom acted as Cook.” They had two tents, but the men did not share them equally. Stewart wrote that there was “one for the men and one for myself … we began our journey of about 600 miles by canoe in high spirits, our only regret being that I had not some friend with me to enjoy the pleasures of the journey to and from Fort Abitibi.” Ibid., 18

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June 1908. When Anglican bishop Jervois A. Newnham visited Keasagami Lake in the winter of 1900–1, he and his guide, Wemistikosh, spent the night with David Cheena, his wife, and two children. It was in the Cheenas’ askiykan, a “roomy, substantial structure” constructed of wood slabs covered in moss, used as their winter dwelling. Newnham would have preferred to camp alone; he found it too hot for sleeping in comfort, “but too public for me to undress.” See his “Bishop’s Winter Walk,” 74. ao, English River Pay-list. Ibid. See also the instructions to Ramsden in chapter 5 of this volume. clfn, “Our History.” The Pagwa route was longer than any of the tributaries of the Moose River, but it had no portages. See Dyer, “Geology and Economic Deposits,” 3. Revillon Frères used thirty 12-by-46-foot scows, each carrying 15–16 tons; ten would return, the others broken up for lumber. A 125-horse-power engine powered the tug that operated between English River post and Fort Albany. See Dyer, “Paleozoic Geology,” 47–8. The arrival of the t&no railway in Moosonee ended the Montreal– James Bay supply route. There were two free traders at Pagwa, in addition to Revillon Frères. See Dyer, “Paleozoic Geology,” 50. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 21–2, and 1930, 25–6. Pagwa, like Moosonee and Sioux Lookout, became a Pinetree Line radar station during the Cold War. See anon, “Pinetree Line.” co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Constance Lake First Nation. clfn, “Our History.” Anon., “Children’s Aid Societies,” quoting Chief Arthur Moore. Anon., “First Nation Bars Children’s Aid Workers,” quoting Chief Arthur Moore. clfn, Website. This was Captain George Thomas Moore of Moose Factory, who appears at the far right in lac photo pa-129385. See Long, “Some Early Moores.” hbca, Report on Transport, provides a detailed account of the changing requirements and silting, which led to a warehouse being established at Charlton Island. Revillon Frères had a similar depot nearby at the Strutton Islands. See also Anderson, Fur Trader’s Story. “Good stands of spruce, birch, and poplar line the river but do not extend inland more than a few hundred yards. The general surface of the country is muskeg covered with sphagnum moss, laurel, and Labrador tea, and sparsely studded with stunted spruce.” Dyer, “Paleozoic Geology,” 49.

chapter fourteen 1 Long, “In Search of Mr. Bundin”; hbcaph, “Albany.” Voorhis incorrectly places the original fort on Albany Island. See his Historic Forts, 30. 2 The Albany Island location was abandoned about 1957, Anglicans gathering at the reserve on the north shore (now Kashechewan) and Roman Catholics on the opposite shore (Fort Albany iii). For a map, see Long, “Coping with Powerful People.” 3 Englishman George Wellesley Cochrane, aged twenty-eight, and his Ontario-born wife, Minnie (a McLeod-Moore from Moose Factory), twenty-five, both “white,”

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had a seven-year-old daughter, Florence Minnie. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, Unorganized Territories, Keewatin, Fort Albany, family no. 9. Albert William Patterson, forty-two, was a clerk and a widower. See hbcabs, “Patterson.” His wife (?), Josepha Patterson, twenty-seven, apparently had at least two children, Sascha, eleven, and Ken, five. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 44 Algoma, Sub-district H-2 Nipigon, Nipigon Township, page 1, family 1. George Holmes was a forty-seven-year-old Englishman who had spent most of the previous twenty years among the Chipewyan and Western Woods Cree of Lesser Slave Lake, where he opened a residential school and officially witnessed the signing of Treaty No. 8. See Boon, Anglican Church, 146; Edwards, On the North Trail, 35. He was elected bishop of Moosonee on 26 November 1904 and then returned to the northwest as bishop of Athabaska on 15 April 1909. See Boon, Anglican Church, 146–7. The hbc steamer Inenew (ininiw; Moose Cree, ililiw, “person” or “Indigenous person”) replaced the Mink, a coastal sailing ship or brigantine. See James, Fur Trader’s Photographs, 88; hbca, Report on Transport. In 1902 the Oblates were joined by four Soeurs Grises de la Croix. See Lecompte, “Sapier,” and Saindon, En Missionant. James Linklater, an Anglican Scots-Cree “half-breed” aged twenty-nine, had seventy-two months of schooling. He was married to Charlotte Linklater, aged thirty, perhaps his parallel cousin, and they had two children. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, Unorganized Territories, Keewatin, Fort Albany, family no. 25. James, his wife, and their son and daughter were given ticket no. 69. See ao, Fort Albany Pay-list. “The transport is carried through a deep-sea going Barge of about 60 tons, built in the country. The manning of the vessel and labor of docking her etc. is a great source of expense and anxiety to the Postmanager. The ‘Mink’ is of too deep a draft for the work and is fully emgaged otherwise. The Barge is also required for the unloading of the London vessel at Moose.” hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 13. The barge was also known as the ketch Atlanta. The Mink, like the Marten, was a brigantine. See hbca, Report on Transport. hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 10–12. A hundredweight (cwt) or basket is equivalent to 112 pounds, or 8 stone. In earlier times it was equivalent to 120 pounds. See Lankton, Geographical Change, 244. hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 9, 13, 28–32. At Fort Hope, Milne observed that “those of the Interior Indians whom we saw, upon whom dependence is put for the great bulk of the Post’s Returns, appeared very backward in respect of cleanliness and dress.” Ibid., Fort Hope, 9. And at Osnaburgh he noted, “Some families of Indians … in a very ragged condition” and their “eagerness to trade fur with us for tobacco or tea.” Ibid., Osnaburgh, 6. Ibid., Fort Albany, 12. Long, “Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families,” 143. See also ao, Fur Trade Papers, 18 July, 12 September 1902, 9 September, 25 October 1904. ao, Fort Albany Pay-list. hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 28–32. Moosonee and Keewatin Mailbag 11, no. 8 (October 1920): inside front cover. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 31. Northam was an English farmer’s son and

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veteran. See lac’s “Soldiers of the First World War – CEF” search engine. viewed 6 April 2010. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1930, 38–9. Long, “‘Government Is Asking.’” See, e.g., Miller and Danzinger, “In the Care of Strangers.” But see also Graham, Mush Hole, and Whiteye, Dark Legacy. Cummins, “Attawapiskat Cree Land Use,” 107. George Robert (Robbie) Linklater was son of Attawapiskat postmaster George Linklater (“C”) and his second wife, Margaret Faries. George “C,” who was assigned Fort Albany ticket no. 68 in absentia in 1905, was a son of James Linklater, “Native” of James Bay, and his wife, Isabella. See hbcabs, “Linklater, George, ‘C,’” and “Linklater, James”; ao, Fort Albany Pay-List. See Schuurman, “Fenced In,” discusses negative impacts of the Moose Factory residential school. When the horrors of the Christian Brothers’ Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland became widely known in the 1990s, many Indigenous people felt empowered to tell their own stories. See Harris, Unholy Orders. When Simeon Wesley died from a hunting accident, his wife, Emily (née Sutherland), married Frank Rickard, and Frank raised her son, Daniel. The descendents of Frank and Emily include four Moose Factory chiefs: Andrew Rickard, Ernest Rickard, Norm Wesley, and Toby Beck. Norm Wesley, pers. comm. Sistili et al., “Aboriginal Perspective”; Long, “Schooling in Kashechewan” and “In Search of Mr. Bundin.” Jonathan Solomon, pers. comm., 16 November 2009. Thom, “Fort Albany.” afn, “Attawapiskat Demands Respect.” See also afn, “Attawapiskat First Nation Puts Brakes,” and “First Nation Calls Halt.” During the 2002 conflict, De Beers was quoted as saying that “the issues of aboriginal and treaty rights represent a sudden change in the focus of the First Nation.” See Robinson, “Cree Halt.” In 2009 De Beers defended itself, noting that the iba aimed to provide at least ninety jobs for Attawapiskat had received $167 million in joint-venture construction contracts and a further $40 million for ongoing operations. De Beers neverthless donated $5,000 to the protesters. See Romaine, “Attawapiskat Protesters.” Small native dogs were used to hunt “moose, bear, beaver, geese, and perhaps some other animals. Dog teams developed from imported British dogs and consumed large amounts of food. Dogs pulling toboggans did not become part of aboriginal life until the 1900s.” See Rogers and Smith, “Environment and Culture,” 133; Helm, Rogers, and Smith, “Intercultural Relations,” 154; Cummins, First Nations, First Dogs, 106. These dogs were used to carry “the packet,” or mail, to Moose Factory (and likely Attawapiskat) in winter. They were also employed in taking spring goose-hunting supplies to Akimiski Island. See hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 8. This comment refers to the annual supply ship from England. The Discovery left London on 15 June and reached Charlton Island on 27 August 1905. See Cooke and Holland, Exploration of Northern Canada, 302. In 1903 the steamer Eldorado, bringing supplies to the fledgling Revillon Frères operation near Moose Factory, was wrecked near Fort George. A few weeks later

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the hbc barque Lady Head became stranded on the Gasket Shoals, east of Akimiski Island, and was abandoned; she had sailed to Hudson Bay since 1865 and was commanded by Captain John G. Ford from 1891 to 1903. See ibid., 263–94, and Upton, “Wreck of the Eldorado.” Photographs of both vessels can be found in James, Fur Trader’s Photographs, 89. The Stork was often commanded by Captain John G. Ford. Ford wintered it at Charlton Island in 1904–5; he commenced his return trip on 9 August 1905 and reached London on 4 October. In 1909 Captain N.E. Freakley (who was its master from 1906, when Ford took over the Discovery) and his crew were forced to winter at Rupert House when the Stork foundered on a reef near Charlton Island. See Cooke and Holland, Exploration of Northern Canada, 301–2, 315; hbcabs, “Freakley”; hbca, Report on Transport. Denominational rivalry likely played a role in this decision, for the Attawapiskat Indians were Roman Catholics. Crees from Attawapiskat and Fort Albany also hunted and trapped offshore at Akimiski Island, in the Northwest Territories. An Anglican church was under constructed there in 1910. See Anderson, “Annual Review,” 29. For a description of the island, see Low, “James Bay,” in Miller, “ Reports on the District of Patricia,” 184–5. See also Cummins, Only God. Some of the treaty money found its way to collection plates, the rest to the hbc or the Revillon store. Holmes complained that the Fort Albany Indians did not contribute generously enough to the church. “Hitherto it has been their object to get as much as possible out of the Mission and the missionary, but I impressed upon them that the time had arrived when this order of things must be reversed.” The collection at Albany was $115, while at Moose Factory it was $134 and another $60 towards fencing the cemetery. See Holmes, “Bishop’s Report,” 86. See hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 8. This word appears to be a synonym for “successor,” although I could not find it in the Oxford English Dictionary. Margot Charlton of the OED observed, in an email to me dated 11 March 2008, “This seems to be an extremely rare word; a Google search suggests that it has been used in French feudal law (in the form encessor), but I have not found this in dictionaries of Old French, and it may of course be Latin. So it may be a nonce word.” Pers. comm. According to the OED , “in his room” here means “in his place,” a reference to positions and ranks. A portion of this syllabic text (figure 14.5) is reproduced in Scott’s article in Scribner’s, but I could not find it in the Treaty No. 9 archival files. Scott is thought to have sometimes appropriated artifacts for his personal collection. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 256, 259. hbc vessels used the middle channel at the mouth of the Moose River, “passing south of Middleboro island,” to reach Moose Factory island. The Company’s competition, Revillon Frères, discovered a deep channel north of Middleborough which allowed its ships to reach the Revillon post on Moose River’s north shore. See O’Sullivan, “South and West Coast,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 17. Railway planners later decided that this north channel had the deepest water and chose present-day Moosonee for the terminus of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railroad. See Dyer, “Geology and Economic Deposits,” 4. The mouth of the Albany River, noted Low, “spreads out and flows between a number of low, swampy islands, forming a delta twenty-three miles long and ten

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miles broad, between the mouths of its channels … for fifteen or twenty miles, the bottom is very flat … shoaling to twelve feet at the mouth, with numerous obstructive shoals and bars, the whole rendering it impossible for deep draft vessels to use it. The country around the mouth of the river is so low and swampy that it is hard to say where the land ends and the sea begins.” See his “James Bay,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 182–4. 38 O’Sullivan found it to be “low with mud flats and boulders as far as two miles beyond Pisquanish, which is thirty-one miles from Moose Factory. Then long reefs of boulders, sand and gravel bars extend seaward as far as Nomansland, 60 miles from Moose Factory. In this last stretch there are some points of land, made up of gravel and sand, that have an elevation of twenty feet above high tide. At Half Way point and Cockispenny one may land with canoes at any time. “Between Nomansland and the Albany river four small rivers enter the bay; the largest, named Konoje … can be reached with canoes at high tide only … The tide between Nomansland and the Albany River runs out three miles.” See his “Four Rivers,” in Miller, “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 176–7. See also Wilson, “Four Rivers,” ibid., 174, and Low, “James Bay,” ibid., 180. Given the flat terrain, the hbc had a beacon of sorts, but it was “only a wooden cage on top of a flagstaff” with “no light even at night.” See Shearwood, By Water and the Word, 26.

chapter fifteen 1 Voorhis, Historic Forts, 119–20; hbcaph, “Moose Factory.” 2 hbca, Report on Transport, 1. 3 “The population at Moose in July was 571, 193 being Company’s employees and their families. There is a good deal of crowding, the sanitation of the place is most defective, the amount of sickness of late dreadful. “An epidemic of Measles last Winter, followed by another at open water of Pneumonia more than decimated the population, upwards of 60 deaths having occurred.” Ibid., 7–8. 4 Ibid., 11–12. 5 Ibid., 10. 6 hbca, Relief and Treaty, 19, Chipman to Ware, 3 July 1903. 7 George and Preston, “‘Going in Between,’” 451. 8 Some Crees had already begun taking furs to the southern “frontier.” See hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1901, 6. Martin’s Keepers of the Game argues that Indigenous peoples turned on the animals that had apparently deserted them. Krech’s Indians, Animals, provides an alternative perspective. 9 hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1901, 7; hbcabs, “Milne.” 10 hbcabs, “McLeod, Kenneth,” and “Udgaarden.” 11 hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 9. 12 J.G. Mowat, born at York Factory, was a thirty-nine-year-old Scots-Cree “halfbreed,” whose first language was English. His wife, Agnes, another Scots halfbreed, born at Fort George with Cree as her mother tongue, was twenty-nine. Their son, George, born at Moose Factory, was six years old. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District of Nipissing, James Bay, Moose Factory, family 114. In 1910 Bishop Anderson, Holmes’s successor, referred to Mowat as “an old col-

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lege chum” whom he had not seen since 1883. See Moosonee and Keewatin Mailbag 6, no. 8 (October 1910): 163. Sydney Blenkarne Barrett, fifty-three years old, had been born in West Deeping, Lincolnshire, about 1858 to James M. Barrett, a clerk vicar, and his wife. See nauk, 1861 Census of England, civil parish of Dunholme, Lincolnshire, Lincoln North East, ED8, household 79. He articled as a solicitor’s clerk. See NAUK, 1881 Census of England, civil parish of Lincoln, Lincoln home, household 65. Barrett died on 3 May 1910, at age fifty-five, at Toronto’s Prince George Hotel, the cause “Probably Alcohol & Drugs.” See Canada, Ontario, Register of Deaths, County of York, Division of Toronto. Record reproduced at viewed 28 March 2010. The Reverend T. Bird Holland, a thirty-three-year-old Englishman. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, District of Nipissing, James Bay, Moose Factory, family 121. Fred Mark, Moose Factory’s first treaty chief, was a “half-breed” (as was the first chief of the Fort Albany band, Andrew Wesley; both men were also Anglican catechists and day-school teachers). Fred’s surname was derived from his father’s given name. His parents were Mark and Mary (or Margaret) Apitakiisikaw (“Half a Day”), Cree hunters of Moose Factory. See lua, Moose Factory Register of Marriages, 1874–1966, 23 December 1886. Mary’s father was Alexander Moar, an hbc servant from a very large lineage on eastern James Bay descended from an Orkney hbc servant and his wife. Alexander’s own wife, Christiana Alesape, was apparently a Moose Factory Cree. Their daughter, Alice, (Fred Mark’s sister) married an Englishman, hbc seaman Henry Bradburn, in 1886 and left the region with him. By 1901 Alice was employed as a domestic servant in Montreal, her colour identified as “white,” her self-identity listed as “E.B.” for English halfbreed, and her mother tongue given as (or assumed to be) English. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Quebec, District 175, St. Antoine, Montreal, 1–12, page 19, line 7. George McLeod, aged forty-three, a Scots “half-breed” born and raised at Abitibi, served as official interpreter. His first language was apparently “Algonquine” (as a result of a childhood spent on the upper Abitibi), not Cree, and English was the language commonly spoken in his home. The parents of George McLeod Sr (1861–1925) were Scotsman Alexander (see hbcabs, “McLeod, Alexander (a)”) and his wife, Jane Turner, both buried at New Post hbc cemetery. George was a boat builder and superintendent at Moose Factory c.1875–1917, finishing his career at New Post. He retired to Huntsville a few years before his death there in 1925. He had married Isabella McBean, and they had a large family. See Ball and MacLeod, MacLeod Family, and Tumber, McLeods. At treaty time their children were William, eighteen, Elizabeth, sixteen, Annie, fourteen, Mary, twelve, Daisy, ten, Fred, nine, Agnes, seven, Hubert, five, and Florence, two. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, Nipissing District, James Bay, Moose Factory, family no. 119; lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 99 Nipissing, Moose Fort, family no. 26. An older boy, George Jr, may have been their half-brother. See lac, 1911 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 99 Nipissing, Moose Fort, family 33. Independent of the commissioners, it seems, Holmes “explained” the treaty that evening to the local Cree in the Anglican church, at which time they chose ten

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representatives to meet with the commissioners. See gsa, Preacher’s Book, 8 August 1905. Ibid., 14 June 1905. A church was erected at French Post soon afterwards. See Anderson, “Annual Review,” 27. Roenspies, “Moose Factory Detachment”; Canada, Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1930, 9 and 105, and 1932, 72. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 31, and 1930, 39–40. Canada, Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1930, 104. Ernie “Tiny” Covell was 6 feet 7 inches tall and wore size 16 shoes. He was then an amateur magician and later performed professionally as The Great Covell & Co. See Kelly, Men of the Mounted, 271–3; Crkovski, “Ernest Covell the Magical Mountie.” See also Flannery, Ellen Smallboy, 51. “It has been represented to the Department that the Moose Factory Indian reserve as at present located does not embrace lands which in the future would be of any use to the Indians for cultivation and that better land is obtainable on the coast adjoining Hannah Bay. If you have any reliable information as to the nature of the country immediately adjoining the Bay, I shall be pleased to receive it. Would you also advise me if, in event of the Department deciding that it would be more advantageous to change the position of this reserve, your Department would consider accepting the present reserve for an equal area in the vicinity of Hannah Bay.” omnr, “Indian Reserve #68,” A.F. MacKenzie, Indian Affairs to Deputy Minister, Department of Lands, 4 March 1930. Ibid., Deputy Minister to MacKenzie, 12 March 1930. Canada, Report of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 1932, 44. Ibid., 42–3. Covell was appointed a game warden in Ontario and Quebec, giving him authority to enforce provincial law. See Kendall, “Law Comes to Hannah Bay.” Covell’s first special constables were Clifford Moore and Joe Gagnon. Covell, pers. comm. Three ceremonial last spikes were driven. See Tucker, Steam into Wilderness, 99. In 1926 the hbc acquired a 51 per cent interest in Revillon Frères, and in 1937 the Company purchased its remaining shares. See Ray, Canadian Fur Trade. lac, rg 10, vol. 3034, photograph C57044, “Moose Factory, 1935,” is reproduced in Long, Treaty No. 9: The Half-Breed Question, 25. Bucksar, “Moosonee and the Squatters.” See also lac, rg 10, vol. 3034, photograph C57040, “Moosonee, 1935,” reproduced in Long, Treaty No. 9: The HalfBreed Question, 25–6. The caption on the original states, “The Moose Factory Indians are not allowed to squat on any property of the Government as their reserve is distant only a few miles up the Moose River.” Morrison, “Hydro-Electric Development.” Len Budgell, who managed the hbc’s Moosonee transportation service, told me that the radar would not have detected enemy ships. When one of the hbc vessels drifted away, he received assistance from the military, but the watercraft could not be found. Pers. comm., c.1986. Ontario, rcne, Road to Detour Lake. lac, Moose Factory Treaty Paylists, rg 10, vol. 9550. George Cheechoo, pers. comm.

notes to pages 232–41

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34 George Holmes lived briefly at Moose Factory before relocating to Chapleau, where an Indian residential school was constructed in 1907. See Boon, Anglican Church, 147. 35 In 1910 Moose Factory teacher Miss Barker, “away in Toronto, taking a course in nursing,” was expected to return in the fall “and resume her double position of teacher and nurse.” See Anderson, “Annual Review,” 29. 36 The trip was undoubtedly downriver (north), perhaps to Hay Creek. 37 Holmes may have used an interpreter, for as much as he might have been able to “‘think in Indian’ and use those figures and forms of speech that most directly moved and touched an Indian heart,” he found it difficult to speak the Cree dialects of James Bay. See Boon, Anglican Church, 146. 38 This may simply be a reference to temperance. Arriving at Moose Factory two years later, “having picked up, between Fort Hope and Albany, nine poor children for the Moose Boarding School,” Bishop Holmes commented, “Although there is a decided improvement in the spiritual tone of the Indian congregation, there is still a good deal of beer-making, drunkenness, and immorality.” See his “Bishop’s Report,” 86–7. The “poor children” included an “orphan family of four” from Fort Hope, the youngest (John Carpenter) informally adopted by matron Susan Quartermain (who later married clergyman J.T. Griffin). See her “Moose Fort,” 153. E.B. Borron’s 1889 report has a section on “Administration of Justice,” but its entire focus is on access to “intoxicating liquors.” See “Report,” 1889, 25. 39 It was signed at 10:30 a.m. See ibid., 9 August 1905. Below the commissioners’ signatures, only four of the okimaawak (Simon Smallboy, George Tappaise, Henry Utappe, and Simon Cheena) signified a cross. The other six (Henry Sailor, John Nakogee, John Dick, Simon Quatchewan, John Jefferies, and Fred Mark) wrote their names in Cree syllabics. 40 Gratuities were apparently distributed to 337 individuals, with no obvious absentees. See ao, Moose Factory Pay-list. 41 This was likely the sixty-five-year-old district manager (hbcabs, “McKenzie, George R.K.J.”). He retired to Winnipeg, where he resided at 871 Grosvenor. See lac, 1901 Census, Manitoba, District 24 Winnipeg, page 14, family 96. 42 On Sir George Simpson, see Galbraith, “Simpson.” 43 Scott took away a set of George Meredith’s novels. See Dragland, Floating Voice, 55. See also Casal, “George Meredith.” 44 Albert Peter Low was a surveyor and later the director of the Geological Survey of Canada. His various explorations in Hudson Bay are summarized in Cooke and Holland, Exploration of Northern Canada, 258, 266–7, 274, 280–1, 290, 296. See also Stewart, “A.P. Low.” 45 “Three joined in one” is apparently the motto of the Order of the Bath, a British order of knighthood. 46 This may be the source of John Fletcher’s statement in 1978 to the Royal Commission on the Northern Environment that “the Indians would share the profit and wealth from any resources.” See occc, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, 36. 47 Madill, Treaty Research Report, 14ff. See also “A Guide to the Section 31 Manitoba Act Affidavits Document Series” and “A Guide to the Northwest ‘Half-breed’ Scrip Applications Document Series” at mnchod. 48 Titley, “McKenna.”

490 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

68 69

70 71 72 73 74 75 76

•

notes to pages 241–52

lac, Re Treaty No. 9, McKenna to Sifton, 22 February 1902. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., “Report on Treaty in Northern Ontario and Quebec,” dated 17 August and draft dated 11 August 1903. Ibid., McKenna to Sifton, 22 February 1902. Ibid., McLean to J.F. Hodder et al., 8 April 1903. lac, rg 15, Interior, Series D-II-8-c, vol. 1370, reel C-15008, claim no. 1757; see also Series D-II-1, vol. 657, reel T-14406, file 281429. lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Vincent to sgia, 14 July 1902, and Secretary to Vincent, 17 July 1902. Long, “Race, Place.” Bishop George Holmes to Samuel Hume Blake, 27 January 1909, in gsa, Blake files. On Blake see Miller, Shingwauk’s Vision, 137ff. lac, Treaty No. 9, Correspondence re Half-breeds. Ray, “Decline of Paternalism,” 190. Moosonee Mailbag 2 (October 1902): 142–3. Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 186. Long, “Race, Place.” Speight was involved in the 1901 provincial survey. See his “Surveyor’s Report.” Tucker, Steam into Wilderness, 87. Morrison, “Hydro-Electric Development,” 59–60. This binary is misleading. As we saw earlier, at some point during their visit to Moose Factory, the commissioners were presented with a petition signed by five “half-breeds.” These would have been beluga whales. Pelham Edgar recorded an occurrence of this: “Indians after passing seven miles discover that they have forgotten their Kokoosh [koohkoosh, “pig” or “pork” (Cree); gookoosh (Ojiibwe)] & pekwashigan [pahkweshikan, “flour” and sometimes “bread” or “bannock” (Cree), but see anakonaw, Moose Cree alakonaw; bakwezhigan (Ojibwe)]. Two return.” lac, Edgar journal, 8 August 1906. Orthography and glosses from John O’Meara, pers. comm.., 20 November 2009. See also Faries et al., Dictionary. Also known as lop-sticks, these trees are left bare except for the uppermost branches. Simon Smallboy’s wife was a key source of the “old ways” for anthropologist Regina Flannery. See her Ellen Smallboy. See lac photo “pa-059489, incorrectly captioned. I wondered if this was caused by “swimmer’s itch,” a common ailment when swimming or bathing in warm, shallow water. See cdcp, “Cercarial Dermatitis.” The men would have moved “at a half trot,” letting “the weight of the load push [them] forward.” Dewdney, Daylight, 35. Alexander Niven (1836–1911) surveyed the northern end of this boundary during the summers of 1896–98. The meaning here, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is as follows: “(Chiefly pl.) Baggage, esp. of an army.”

notes to pages 253–4

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chapter sixteen 1 hbca, A.11/46, 464-6, commissioner James A. Graham to secretary W. Armit, 9 November 1875; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” See also hbcabs, “McLeod, Alexander (a).” 2 hbca, A.11/46, 574-5, chief factor James Anderson (b) to governor William Mactavish, 4 September 1867; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” See also hbcabs, “Garton.” 3 hbca, B.135/e/23b,1, chief factor James L. Cotter to trade commissioner Joseph Wrigley, 25 May 1885. New Post also supplied the Peskajagami outpost at this time. See hbca, A.11/47, same to same, 1 August 1888; copies in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” Peskajami is the Ojibwe name for Nighthawk Lake. James Morrison, pers. comm. The word is likely beshkwaagami, formed from beshk(“nighthawk”), with a w at the end of the root when a suffix is added. The j is likely a mistake for g, with -aagami (“body of water”) at the end. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 24 November 2009. 4 These ambiguous generic terms cause us some confusion. Chief factor William K. Broughton’s annual report stated that, except at Fort Albany and Moose Factory, where there were “Sale Shops for the Company’s employees,” at every post in the district, business was “confined entirely to the Fur Trade which is conducted throughout on the mb system.” He refers to three new posts, the third of which is ours: “(a) Moose Factory, New Post, and Long Portage House sub or wintering Post (b) New Post approximately 100 miles, and Long Portage House 80 miles distant from Moose Factory [and] (c) … New Post about 10 miles below the Long Portage in the Abitibi River and 110 miles inland from Moose Factory.” The Moose River has three major tributaries, the Abitibi, the Mattagami, and the Missanabie. The other Long Portage was on “Missinabi or Brunswick River.” See hbca, B.135/e/36, Broughton to commissioner C.C. Chipman, 31 December 1895; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 5 See Long, “Early Visions,” 23. 6 hbca, A.11/46, 624, James Anderson to secretary W.G. Smith, 7 September 1868; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 7 hbca, D.14/23 and D.14/27., factor James L. Cotter to chief commissioner James A Graham, 3 and 24 August 1881; copies in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 8 hbca, D.14/29, same to same, 22 August 1882; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 9 hbca, D.14/31, same to same, 15 August 1883, and D.14/33, 1 August 1884; copies in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 10 hbca, D.14/33, same to same, 1 August 1884; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” 11 “This Post … was established as a frontier guard or buffer against Abitibi and Kinogummissee, and is in the heart of the grounds of many of the Moose Indians, whom it supplies in Winter with necessaries, and prevents them straying to other Posts, or coming in to the Factory for supplies, and thus wasting valuable hunting time. “I am strongly of the opinion … that Furs from all the Districts round are

492

12 13 14

15 16

17

18 19

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notes to pages 254–5

collected at this little central Post, as the bulk of goods sent in appears to me in excess of any possible requirements of some 15 or 20 Indians, who are the standard hunting staff of this Post, unless, as I have reason to suspect, they also trade with the Indians of the Districts mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.” hbca, B.135/e/30, 5-6, Fortescue to trade commissioner J. Wrigley, 20 August 1890; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” hbca, B.135/e/35, 16–17, chief factor Joseph Fortescue to commissioner C.C. Chipman, 15 September 1891; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1891, 66–7. hbca, Broughton to Chipman, 10 September 1892,; Annual Reports from District Officers, 1891–92, A.74/1, 360; Report of the Fur Trade for the Year Ending 31 May 1902, A.74/11, 29; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” ao, New Post Pay-list. Angus Weenusk, whose surname (wiinask) means “groundhog” in Cree and Ojibwe, was likely related to the Wiiniskus family trading at Abitibi. See Jenkins, Notes, 28; John O’Meara, pers. comm., 24 November 2009. Angus was apparently one of the last New Post shamans. See Long, “Early Visions,” 24. Groundhog Lake and River, near Flying Post and present-day Timmins, was known both as Weenusk and Kakatoosh. See Mitchell, Fort Timiskaming. John D. Nichols explains that the latter term must be Ojibwe akakojiish or akakwijiish (“groundhog”) or Ottawa kakjiiishs or kakjiishenh. Pers. comm., 24 November 2009. John Luke was a forty-one-year-old Anglican, whose first language was apparently “Algonquine” (Ojibwe). Although he was induced to signify his approval of Treaty No. 9 with a cross, John could apparently read and write (in syllabic characters) and spoke English. He was married to Louisa, aged thirty-three, a Roman Catholic Ojibwe who could also read and write but did not speak English, and their children included Betsy, twenty-one, and Thomas, seventeen. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, Algoma, New Post, family 104. Bishop Holmes reported that he had “about half a dozen Indian adherents out of the small band of 32, … the rest being Romanists … though chiefly Roman Catholics, they all attended our services, and our collection was … by far the best in proportion to numbers.” See his “Bishop’s Report,” 87. John Luke’s surname was a patronymic, coming from his father, Luke Egganaishcum. John’s uncles were named after the other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and John. Chief Fred Mark’s father was Mark Apitakiishikaw. See Morrison, “Researching Native Genealogy,” 7. The surname was omakakiins, “little frog.” The -kak- sequence in the middle is often truncated and/or hard to hear and hence not written. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. Esau appears with other New Post men in the lac photograph reproduced here as figure 16.2 and, with his family and traditional dwelling, in Glenbow Archives photograph na-726-7, “Chief Esau’s Tipi, New Post [c1907],” viewed 22 November 2009. The word ends in -aagamaa “body of water.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. “There was a very great change in this place since our last visit. Then the district was in its natural state, and we had enjoyed the walk along the river, and had no difficulty in getting a good view of the beautiful falls. Now a tramway runs from

notes to pages 255–69

20 21 22 23 24

25

26

27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

38

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the foot to the head of the falls, & a large log house has been erected near the first fall for the accomodation of the men engaged in construction work. The timber both for the tramway, and for the house was cut in the woods near the falls, and the brush from the trees make an almost impassible barrier between the road and the river.” lac, Stewart diaries, 20 June 1908. Morrison, “Hydro-Electric Development,” 19–22. Ibid., 29–30. Ibid., 49–56. Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility,” 268–9. hbca, Fur Trade File No. 17, Division 322/3, Inspection Reports, 1912–14, inspector N.M.W.J. McKenzie to fur trade Ccommissioner N.H. Bacon, 12 October 1914; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” See also hbcabs, “McKenzie, Nathaniel M.W.J.” hbca, Annual Reports from District Officers, Outfit 1914, 102, Annual Report: James Bay District Outfit 1914[–15], district manager F.D. Wilson to fur trade commissioner, 16 October 1915; ibid., Outfit 1915, 83, same to same, 6 December 1916; ibid., Outfit 1916, 102, same to same, 20 January 1918; copies in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” See also hbcabs, “Wilson, Francis David.” hbca, Annual Reports from District Officers, Outfit 1917, 93–4, Annual Report: James Bay District Outfit 1917[–18], district manager F.D. Wilson to fur trade commissioner, 15 October 1918; copies in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” See also hbcabs, “McLeod, George.” hbca, Annual Reports from District Officers, Outfit 252, 149–50, Ray to fur trade commissioner, 9 October 1922; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” hbca, Annual Reports from District Officers, Outfit 254, 344–5, same to same, 12 October 1924; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” hbca, A.74/40, 134, 140, Annual Reports from District Officers, Outfit 257, letter no. 150, district manager J.J. Barker to fur trade commissioner, 28 August 1926; copy in hbca, Search file, “New Post.” Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility,” and Long “Early Visions.” Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility.” See also George, Berkes, and Preston, “Aboriginal Harvesting,” and George and Preston, “‘Going in Between.’” Dwight Sutherland, pers. comm. Anon., “Taykwa Tagamou.” Telephone conversation with archivist Heather Hone, Queen’s University Archives, 18 August 2008. There are several Long Sault rapids (e.g., on the upper Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers). This one is on the Abitibi River. Jenkins has Michael Pentabish and John Bernard occupying this area. See his Notes, 28, 30. These men may have been involved in illegal activity, or they may simply have discovered ore samples. If they were prospecting, this would have been normal behaviour; they would not have been concerned that the land was unsurrendered. This individual was likely one of the following: Dr John Alexander Johnson (Med 1902), Dr George Roy Johnson (Med 1902), or Dr John Guy Watts Johnson (Med 1904). Email from Angela Schade, reference assistant, McGill University Archives, 3 March 2008.

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39 See also lac, Stewart diaries, 25 June 1908. 40 This unusual plural seems to mean either companions or followers.

chapter seventeen 1 2 3 4

5

6

7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15

16 17 18 19

Voorhis, Historic Forts, 26; hbcaph, “Abitibi”; Long, “Biederman’s Road.” See Long, “Early Visions,” 22. John O’Meara, pers. comm. Ibid. Bignell and others were also active on the lake. See hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1888, 5. Robinson-Huron signatory and chief Michel Dokis’s son, Henry, married Marie McDougall of Abitibi. Le Belle, Dokis, 11–12. With goods now arriving from Canada via cpr, “Winawaya” or Winneway post was abandoned in 1883. Its buildings and trade were moved to Long Point, managed by John Morrison. See ibid., 9. Scotsman George Drever, aged fifty-four, and his Scottish wife, Elizabeth, forty, had seven children: Nellie, sixteen, Elizabeth, fifteen, Barbara, twelve, Mysie, ten, Isabella, eight, and George, five. See lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, 206 Unorganized Territories, A-6 Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan, page 1, family 1. See also hbcabs, “Drever.” hbcaph, “Abitibi,” and Long, “Biederman’s Road.” hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1885, 2. Ibid., 5–6. Borron, “Report on the Territory,” 22. See also Jarvis, “Agricultural Capabilities.” Hodgins, Paradis of Temagami. Paradis was expelled from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate c.1888. See Abel, Changing Places, 106. Indian Affairs employee Frederick H. Paget. Scott later edited his wife Amelia M.(née McLean) Paget’s The People of the Plains. See Carter, “McLean”; Hulan, “Amelia Paget’s.” William Sinclair Ritch, a fifty-three-year-old Orkneyman and hbc labourer, greeted his son, the crewman Isaac. See hbcabs, “Ritch, William Sinclair.” See also lac, Stewart diaries, 5–6 June 1906 and 22 June 1908. James Bell Klock (1856–27) was a former Conservative mp who had represented the Nipissing riding from 1896 to 1900. A house at 406 Algonquin Street, named after the regiment, not the Indigenous inhabitants, in North Bay still bears its former name, Klock Avenue. See Mackey, “Vanished Village” and “Second Look.” Scott apparently did not take a photograph of this crew, and the commissioners did not record their names. On his son, William G. Trethewey, see Fancy, Temiskaming Treasure Trails, 3: xx. This depot was located 30 kilometres east of Kiosk on Cedar Lake in Algonquin Park. See Mackey, “Heritage Days.” Two of these would be Black and Ritch.

chapter eighteen 1 Pedley wrote to Chipman for a list of non-treaty Indians at Matachewan on 7 October 1905. See also lac, Re Treaty No. 9, Chipman to dsgia, 13 December

notes to pages 285–92

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1905 and 26 January 1906, and List of Indian Families at Matachewan. 2 The documents are found in ao, Correspendence. I have reformatted the tables and changed numerals given as 5.520, for example, to 5,520. 3 The Osnaburgh amount was increased by two additional payments made after completion of the paylists. See ao, Correspondence, Pedley to Matheson, 9 April 1906; Deputy Minister of Finance (Ontario) to Accountant, Indian Affairs, 22 May 1906. The payment is reported in Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1905–6, J-140.

chapter nineteen 1 Scott, “The Last of the Indian Treaties,” 500; emphasis added. 2 It appears in The Circle of Affection and in Addresses, Essays, and Reviews, 82–93. 3 Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report … 10; Coates and Morrison, Treaty Research Report … 11; Blair, Lament for a First Nation; Shaule, “Disputed Boundaries.” 4 Dragland, Floating Voice, 47. 5 Dragland, “Introduction,” xiv. 6 Haycock, Canadian Indian, 1. I am grateful to David Calverley for this reference. 7 A footnote specifies that “Messrs. S. Stewart and D.G. MacMartin, Commissioners; A.G. Meindl, M.D.; T.C. Rae, Esq., Chief Trader, Hudson’s Bay Co.; P.C.’s Parkinson and Vanasse, with the writer, made up the party.” 8 The donor was likely Simmond M. Scovil of Rat Portage, a medical doctor, entrepreneur, and gold speculator. Anne Lindsay, pers. comm., 24 November 2009. 9 Compare this outsider observation with missionary Joseph Lofthouse’s comment on reticence among the Dene: “When one comes to know them better they display many points of interest: their characters exhibit traces of a simple nobility not always found in more favoured races.” See his Thousand Miles, 89ff. 10 There was mutual respect, however, between humans and their prey. See Preston, Cree Narrative, chapter 7. 11 There were no elephants in northern Ontario, and the ground was hard to dig in, so the word should be “deadfall.” See Cooper, Snares, Deadfalls, and Other Traps. 12 This was Borron’s view (“absolute subvervience and dependence”), but Borron was also biased in favour of “opening up the country” so that its resources could benefit his employer, the Ontario government. See his “Report,” 1880, 32, 40. Northern Algonquians did not, however, intensify their trapping when prices rose. See George and Preston, “‘Going in Between,’” 451. 13 In Jabez Williams’s time, Kiebuzinski reports, all store goods were priced with “painted wooden sticks representing dollars. Each stick was marked in quarters with notches.” See Kiebuzinski, Yesterday, the River, 138. hbc beaver tokens were perhaps more common, but with either system the objects served as money, and the Indians were astute consumers. See hbca, “Information Sheet,” and Anderson, Fur Trader’s Story, 105–6. In 1892 at Moose Factory, the made beaver was the only standard of currency, but tokens had been replaced by chits and certificates. “There is no money here, only credit at the Company’s store.” Missionaries agreed not to accept furs, although after 1870 the hbc no longer had a monopoly. See

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19 20 21

22 23 24

25

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notes to pages 293–9

Shearwood, By Water and the Word, 26. On the made beaver, see Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, 61–2. On the introduction of Canadian currency at Moose Factory, see Gettler, “From the Made Beaver to Money.” Scott is referring to the parchment. According to the commissioners’ journals, schooling was only mentioned at Moose Factory. Under the Indian Act, Indian reserves fell under the authority of Indian Affairs officials. MacMartin states that the ogimaag returned at noon (see chapter 10). Mooniahwenini’s name (mooniyaawinini) can be translated as “person from Montreal.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 14 October 2009. I have also heard Anishinaabeg, opposed to the idea that such a now-common Ojibwe greeting is borrowed from the zhaagnaash (white man), say that it is a reference to Ojibwe trickster Nanabozhoo, dropping the first part of the name because of a Yahweh-like taboo against speaking such a “sacred” name. “What cheer” is a contraction of “What cheer with you?” or “What cheer make you?” (meaning, “What is your state or mood?” or “How are you?”). It was obviously introduced by early English fur traders. The phrase “What cheere?” is found in act 1, scene 1, of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610), but was in use for 150 years before that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Today it means either “Hello” or “Goodbye” and can be accompanied by handshaking. It is pronounced “waachiiYE” on western James Bay (and is pluralized by fluent Cree-speakers by adding the suffix -ik when speaking to more than one person) and “waaCHIIya” (which sounds much more like “what cheer”) on eastern James Bay. Preston also glosses it as “shake hands.” See his Cree Narrative, 87. The drum is only mentioned at Lac Seul. This is a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, act 5, scene 2, according to Ritchie, “Editorial Notes,” 544. The wiindigo (Cree, wiihtiko), sometimes personified as an actual cannibal with a heart of ice, was more generally an anti-social influence, a threat to the people and to bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin. See Long, “Manitu.” Nichols, “Cree Syllabary.” As the next sentence says, he did not ask for anything else. He did not mention surrendering his land and his rights. Bachelor Charles Wabano, was assigned Fort Albany ticket no. 123. See ao, Fort Albany Pay-list. In 1927 a man by this name was trading at Fort Hope. See list in lac, Adhesions to Treaty No. 9, Indians Trading at Fort Hope. The money will contribute to pimaatisiwin. He is thanking gichi manitoo, the manitoowak in general, and perhaps katibelitaman pimaatisiwin, “the master of (the means to) life.” See Cooper, “Northern Algonquian Supreme Being,” 51. See also Long, “Manitu, Power,” and, with Preston and Oberholtzer, “Manitu Concepts.” The commissioners, in contrast, did not feel they were breaking one of those simple rules, the biblical prohibition on theft.

chapter twenty 1 See Hackett, Very Remarkable Sickness, and Lytwyn, “‘God Was Angry’” and Mushkegowuck Athinuwick.

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2 “Canadian balsam and other medicines are supplied as being the cheapest, but the Indians will not take them at any price.” hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1888, 1. 3 Brown and Gray, “Introduction,” 20, and Garro, “Hallowell’s Challenge.” See Decker, “Country Distempers,” and Krech, “Retelling the Death,” for cautions on interpreting historical records. 4 Roulette, “Healing Words.” See also Ellis, âtalôhkâna, xxxii–xxxiii, and Long, “Coping.” 5 Borron, “Report,” 1890, 89–92. 6 “[T]he health of the place since November has been good, no cases of illness having been in the Cottage Home since October.” Anon., “Latest News.” The tiny hospital was named after Letitia (née Henderson), wife of Jervois Newnham, the Anglican bishop of Moosonee, 1893–1903. 7 Saindon, En missionant. 8 Until shortly before treaty time, the hbc had physicians at its major posts, a long-standing practice. Robert Goodwin, surgeon at Eastmain and Albany in the 1780s, for example, has descendents in the Albany River watershed. See hbcabs, “Goodwin, Robert.” Dr John Rae was at Moose Factory for a decade before he became an arctic explorer in 1844. See Bunyan et al., No Ordinary Journey. My namesake, Alexander Long, lived common-law at Moose Factory with Nancy Neveu (a surname now common at Mattagami First Nation). See lua, Moose Factory, Registrer of Baptisms, 26 March 1853 (no. 83, their daughter Sarah). William Bell Malloch and Walter Haydon were stationed at Moose Factory in 1870–8 and 1878–93 respectively. See hbcabs, “Haydon” and “Malloch.” Haydon used sphagnum moss (which also has served as Cree baby diapers for countless generations) “sprinkled with a weak solution of carbolic acid” as a dressing at Moose Factory. See anon., “Sphagnum.” I am grateful to Anne Lindsay for this reference. 9 Canada, Dept of Health and Welfare, “First Nations, Inuit & Aboriginal Health.” 10 Ontario, la, Hansard, “Private Members’.” 11 Ibid. 12 Ontario la, Hansard, “Statements.” 13 wha, “Integration Project.” 14 The colours symbolize “man: white, yellow, red and black; wholistic/traditional health: emotional, mental, physical and spiritual; laws of humanity: kindness, honesty, sharing and strength; stages of man: child, adolescent, adult and elder.” The eagle feather’s “two shades represent the light and the dark sides of life; the successes and the obstacles that [the board] will encounter in its goal to achieve the highest quality of health care for the people and the communities it serves.” See wha, “Our Logo.” 15 The concept of four races originates in plantation slavery in the United States, and traditional Ojibwe medicine wheels are circles of stone on the ground. See Roulette, “Healing Words.” I am grateful to producer Maureen Matthews for sending me this transcript. 16 slmywhc, “Chronology.” 17 slmywhc, “Welcome.” 18 Canada, Dept of Health and Welfare, “First Nations Comparable Health Indicators.”

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notes to pages 301–8

19 Louttit, “Diabetes and Glimpses.” See also Canada, Dept. of Health and Welfare, “Diabetes.” 20 For a broad view see Waldram, Herring, and Young, Aboriginal Health in Canada, and Canada, rcap, Report, vol. 3. News of deaths from E. coli in the water at Walkerton enraged the people of Kashechewan when they faced a similar situation in the early 2000s. Ontario premier Mike Harris denied that his government’s cutbacks were responsible for Walkerton, but he agreed to a public investigation (the Walkerton Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O’Connor). 21 See Waldram, Revenge of the Windigo. 22 Pat Chilton, pers. comm., 4 December 2009. 23 In his 1905 report, “Treaty IX” was changed to “Treaty 9.” In his 1906 report “etc” was replaced with “&c,” “Metogami” was updated to Mattagama, C.P.R. and T. & N.O. were spelled out, and “the whiteman” was changed to “white men.” His reference to “squaws” was kept. His reference to a case of rheumatism at Matachewan was included, but the explanatory word “halfbreed” was deleted. “Ozaena” was changed to “Exczema.”

chapter twenty-one 1 Long, “Education in the James Bay Region.” 2 See Moosonee Mailbag 1, no. 11 (April 1900): 90. 3 Newnham, Life at Moose Fort, 11; Moosonee Mailbag 1, no. 11 (April 1900): 92. Charles Chichow, his wife, three sons, and two daughters received ticket no. 7 in 1905. See ao, Moose Factory Pay-list. Charles’s great-grandson, Mervin, married Dr Tyrer’s granddaughter, Carol-Anne; they are the parents of National Hockey League star Jonathan Cheechoo. Carol-Anne is also a great-great-granddaughter of Archdeacon Thomas Vincent and his wife, Eliza Anne (née Gladman). 4 Moosonee Mailbag 2, no. 1 (October 1900): 15; 2, no. 3 (April 1901): 48; 2, no. 5 (October 1901), 82. See also Ferrier, Indian Education. 5 See Long, “Reverend George Barnley,” 317. 6 With so much non-Indigenous in-migration, Indigenous clergymen were deemed less suitable for senior positions in the church. See Long, “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent,” and Whitehouse-Strong, “Because I Happen.” 7 Moosonee Mailbag 1, no. 6 (January 1899): 8; 1, no. 12 (July 1900): 122. 8 Cummins, “Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency.” 9 But see Carr-Stewart, “Treaty Right to Education.” 10 Dyer, “Paleozoic Geology,” 50. 11 Fred Wesley, pers. comm., 3 July 2007. See also Fulford and Bird, “Who Is Breaking.” 12 gsa, Preacher’s Book, comments on previous year, dated 1 January 1906. 13 The school opened on 14 January 1907, with the bishop as principal, Miss Sutherland as matron, and Miss Ruffell her assistant. By the fall of the year there were twenty-three students in attendance. See “Bishop’s Report,” 83, 88. 14 Auger, Indian Residential Schools is a useful reference, but it occasionally contains factual errors. The Fort Albany school, for example, did not start in 1910. The Treaty No. 9 commissioners found it already in operation in 1905. The Northern

notes to pages 309–11

15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30

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Native Education Council still operates a residential facility at Pelican. See anon., “Welcome to the pffnhs Web Page. See, for example, Willis, Geniesh. Bavelas, Analysis, 12–14. “This system separated many children from their families and communities and prevented them from speaking their own languages and from learning about their heritage and cultures. In the worst cases, it left legacies of personal pain and distress that continue to reverberate in Aboriginal communities to this day. Tragically, some children were the victims of physical and sexual abuse. “The Government of Canada acknowledges the role it played in the development and administration of these schools. Particularly to those individuals who experienced the tragedy of sexual and physical abuse at residential schools, and who have carried this burden believing that in some way they must be responsible, we wish to emphasize that what you experienced was not your fault and should never have happened. To those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we are deeply sorry. “In dealing with the legacies of the Residential School system, the Government of Canada proposes to work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, the Churches and other interested parties to resolve the longstanding issues that must addressed. We need to work together on a healing strategy to assist individuals and communities in dealing with the consequences of this sad era of our history.” Canada, “Statement of Reconciliation.” Canada, diand, “Overview of Resolution Sector.” nan, “nan, Windigo Bring Motion.” Canada, “Apology.” Schuurman, “Fenced In.” See also Preston, “Development of Self-Control” and Cree Narrative; Sindell, “Some Discontinuities.” Canada, rcap, Report, 1: 293–4. Dion, Braiding Histories. Timpson, “Four Decades,” 130–44. See also Sinclair, “Identity Lost and Found.” Long, “Politics of Education.” Ontario, la, scia, Proceedings, 453. Long, “Schooling in Kashechewan.” Long, “Local Control.” Data were obtained by searching for the individual First Nation communities, by various names, at Statistics Canada, 2006 Community Profiles accessed 13 May 2010. Fewer than half of the nan First Nations collaborate with Statistics Canada, so these statistics are skewed, and numbers are rounded to the nearest five. Data from Bearskin Lake, Cat Lake, Constance Lake, Deer Lake, Ginoogaming, Kasabonika Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Marten Falls (Martin Falls), Matachewan, Mattagami, Muskrat Dam, Nibinamik (Summer Beaver), North Caribou Lake (Weagamou), North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, Sachigo Lake, Sandy Lake, Taykwa Tagamou (New Post), Wahgoshig (Abitibi), Wapekeka, Webequie, Weenusk (Peawanuck), and Wunnumin Lake First Nations.

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notes to pages 311–25

31 Data from Bearskin Lake, Cat Lake, Constance Lake, Deer Lake, Ginoogaming, Kasabonika Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Marten Falls (Martin Falls), Matachewan, Mattagami, Muskrat Dam, Nibinamik (Summer Beaver), North Caribou Lake (Weagamou), North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, Sandy Lake, Taykwa Tagamou (New Post), Wahgoshig (Abitibi), Wapekeka, Webequie, Weenusk (Peawanuck), and Wunnumin Lake First Nations. 32 Mendelson, Aboriginal Peoples. 33 Canada, Auditor General, “Chapter 4.” 34 Ontario, me, “Graduation Rate,” and Rushowy, “Ontario’s High School.” 35 Hankivski, “Cost Estimates.” 36 Stonebanks, James Bay Cree. 37 acde, “Accord on Indigenous Education.” 38 nan, “nan Closer to Own Jurisdiction.” 39 lac, Treaty 9 – Indian Boarding Schools.

chapter twenty-two 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9

10 11

12 13

Scott, “Indian Affairs, 1867–1912,” 622–3. Ontario, mndmf, “Fundamentals.” Ontario, met, Ontario Curriculum, 26. The draft is found in ao, Correspondence. The last seven words may indicate that Scott hoped to complete treaty-making in one season (and he did), but Treaties No. 1 through 8 used the same expression. Serge Paquet, reference archivist, Archives of Ontario, pers. comm. As noted in chapter 3, historian Rhonda Telford argues that by including references to the 1894 agreement, Treaty No. 9 imported that agreement’s recognition of headlands (unilaterally legislated away by Ontario in 1915). See her “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” 409, 308–9. Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” 270–1. Indian reserve 38B was located at Lake of the Woods. A surrendered portion of this Rat Portage band land was referred to as “A.C. McMicken’s mining location.” See oc, Ontario Mining v. Seybold; odc, Ontario Mining v. Seybold; ukjcpc, Ontario Mining v. Seybold. See also Bartlett, “Mineral Rights.” Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling,’” is the most comprehensive discussion of Seybold and the 1894 and 1902 agreements. Reserve 38B is shown on page 281 of her dissertation. ao, Historical Memorandum, provides detailed background information on the dispute regarding Treaty No. 3 reserves. ao, Misc. Coll., F 775 (1905), item 13, page 7. Transcribed from ao, “James Bay Treaty Turns 100.” lac, Treaty No. 9, Agreement dated 22 June 1908. I am grateful to James Morrison for providing me with this item. Many of the signatory names can be found on the census of hunters in hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1899, 11–13. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929 and 1930; Canada, James Bay Treaty, 30–1. Canada, James Bay Treaty, 29–30.

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chapter twenty-three 1 This chapter builds on my article “How the Commissioners Explained,” courtesy of Tory Tronrud, editor of Ontario History. 2 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905; qua, MacMartin diary, 11 July 1905. 3 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905; qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. 4 qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July, 3 August 1905. 5 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 9; lac, Stewart diaries, 9 August 1905. 6 lac, Stewart diaries, 21 August 1905. At Abitibi, hbc trader George Drever performed this task. See Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 10. Commissioner Stewart was reimbursed $10 for interpreter’s fees, perhaps a donation to Iserhoff. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904–5, 9. 7 On the role of mediators, see Murray, Forked Tongues. 8 Preston, “Reticence” and Cree Narrative, 11. See also Brant, “Communication Patterns.” 9 qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. 10 Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 581, 577 (chapter 19 in this volume). 11 They carried another “boy” of fourteen from Dinorwic to Osnaburgh. See lac, Stewart diaries, 1 August 1905. 12 Hallowell, Culture and Experience, 146. 13 Rhodes, Dictionary, 83; Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 38; Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 581. Stewart mentions “many bon jours from the Inds” at Osnaburgh. See lac, Stewart diaries, 13 July 1905. 14 Murray, Indian Giving, 78 (citing Stephen Greenblatt). 15 Cummins, “Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency.” 16 The message may have been that he, as an elder, should have been consulted (instead of his nephew). Alternatively, it may have been some other indirect statement of disapproval or even hostility. (While I was temporarily executive director, the Mushkegowuk chiefs, headed by his nephew, let him go as their chairman.) The organization has since been renamed Omushkego Education. 17 kerc, Kwayaciiwin Curriculum, 14–15. Brian Craik explains that the distinctions between animate and inanimate are actually more complex and tied to Indigenous cosmology. See his “Animate in Cree Language.” 18 Morris, interview with the author; Rhodes, Dictionary, 548, 523, 422. The words are written as wâpo and môswa in Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 16, 495, 446. 19 Aubin, Proto-Algonquian Dictionary; Hewson, Computer-Generated Dictionary. 20 Morris, interview with the author. 21 John O’Meara, pers. comm.; Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 459. See also Rhodes, Dictionary, 501, 587. 22 See Long, “Manitu, Power.” The Indigenous people whom Henry Hudson saw “set the woods on fire” may have been trying to repel him and destroy his

502

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25 26

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

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notes to pages 331–5

wiihtikow heart of ice; alternatively, he may have simply observed them using smoke to drive flightless birds out of the willows along James Bay. See Asher, Henry Hudson, 115. John O’Meara, pers. comm.; Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 6. See also Rhodes, Dictionary, 617. In Eastern Ojibwe, wemtigoozhii refers to a French-speaker, whereas the Cree use opistikweyaaw. See Rhodes, Dictionary, 617, 482; Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 550, 511; Long, “Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families,” 162n. In James Bay, or at least at Moose Factory, the Cree term may refer to French-speaking traders at Timiskaming and Abitibi – op- (“narrows”), plus -istikw(e)- (“river”) and -yaa-w (“it is”), so it might be “(person from) river narrows” – although the vowels do not match. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 21 December 2009. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 20 December 2009. Ojibwe desabiwin is comprised of des- (“level”), abi- (“be there, sit”), and -win (“nominalizer”). In Cree, teht- + api +-win, the -iwi- gets contracted to -o- in casual speech, or that may be the normal pronunciation for many speakers. So tehtapiwin goes to tehtapon (with the -p- in the middle pronounced like -bbetween vowels). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 20 December 2009. Ellis, “Note,” 1. Morris, interview with the author; Ellis, âtalôhkâna, 548, 486; Flannery, Ellen Smallboy, 12; Long, “Rev. Edwin Watkins.” Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religion, 13–14. I am grateful to their son, friend (and former chief) Peter Archibald Sr, for supplying some of these details. Pers. comm., 18 November 2009. See chapter 2. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 578. Ibid., 574. Ibid., 577; qua, MacMartin diary, 7–8 August 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 6 and 11 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5–6, 8. Borron, “Report,” 1880, 34. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 577–8. lac, William Falconer, Records, 39. I am grateful to Victor Lytwyn for this reference. While the representatives were meeting with the commissioners, for example, other Ojibwe or Cree were seeing the doctor or making bannock. “Inds held service this Evg.” lac, Scott journal, 12 July 1905. lac, Stewart diaries, 12, 19, 25 July, 8, 10, 21, 31 August 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 4. Canada, James Bay Treaty, 21. English equivalents and orthography courtesy of John O’Meara, who adds that omb- is a root meaning “upwards” and -aash is a specialized form of a suffix that means “blown by the wind.” Ojibwe bananjiis is derived from English “britches.” Pers. comm., 14 and 28 October 2009. Linguist David Pentland adds that Proto-Algonquians probably wore leggings and breechclouts rather than pants. He agrees that “britches” is the most likely source but wonders why it was not borrowed into Ojibwe as palichis or pilichis. Pers. comm., 13 November 2009. C. Douglas Ellis adds that palaciis, an animate noun, is indeed the Moose Cree form for “britches.” A “p” replaces the English bilabial

notes to pages 335–7

45 46

47 48 49

50 51

52 53

54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62

63 64

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stop “b.” The “r” of English is replaced by an “l” in Moose Cree, and an epenthetic “a” broke up what would have been an unacceptable cluster, “pl.” The “...itches” of English became ...aiis in Cree, yielding the full form palaciis. The “c” is used in this transcription to represent the “ch” sound, not exactly the same as English “ch” but close. Pers. comm., 18 November 2009. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5. qua, MacMartin diary, 11 July 1905. This statement could easily have given rise to expectations of an annual treaty feast. See Morrison, “Poet and the Muse,” 16. At Fort Albany, MacMartin specified the one-time nature of the feast. See qua, MacMartin diary, 3 August 1905. James Morrison, pers. comm., 23 September 2005. See Morris, Treaties of Canada. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 6. lac, Scott journal, 19 July 1905; qua, MacMartin diary, 20 July 1905. The suffix –ns on mooniyaans indicates a diminutive (similar to –ish in Cree). English equivalents and orthography from John O’Meara, 14 October 2009, including aataloohkaan; see also âtalôhkan in Ellis, Now Then, Still Another Story, 1. The Ojibwe form would be aadizookaan. Wenangasie may be a derivative of Baraga’s wiinaange, “a kind of vulture with a naked head”; perhaps wiinaangesi, “with a suffix -si (similarly -shi) that is found on some names of birds or insects.” Ojibwe oshkiniigi is “male teenager, unmarried young man” or perhaps just “youth,” and oshkiniigish is a derivative with the pejorative suffix -ish (a very common way of making words). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 28 October 2009. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 7. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 25 July 1905. Scott writes, “Made Tr. & paid Indians.” lac, Scott journal, 25 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July 1905. Ibid. Stewart adds that interpreter Iserhoff, a Cree from northern Quebec, “had not had many opportunities of meeting with whitemen and seemed hardly to know just how he should act under the circumstances.” lac, Stewart diaries, 25 July 1905. This would be ginoogami, “long body of water” - ginw- “long” and igami “body of water.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 8 November 2009. lac, Stewart diaries, 27 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 7. lac, Stewart diaries, 29 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. lac, Scott journal, 3 August 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 8. qua, MacMartin diary, 3 August 1905. Sixteen 12-foot flags and six 3-foot ones (worth $1.88 each) were purchased from Woods Ltd, Ottawa. The following year, eight were purchased for a total of $26.26. See Canada, Auditor General’s Report, 1904–5, 10, and 1905–6, 9. See also Canada, James Bay Treaty, 22; qua, MacMartin diary, 3 August 1905. John O’Meara, pers. comm. qua, MacMartin diary, 9 August 1905. Others, especially clergymen, may have mentioned schooling in concurrent addresses or sermons. And in oral tradition,

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69 70

71 72 73 74 75

76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

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notes to pages 337–40

such white men’s statements might easily become merged with the commissioners’ promises. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 9. Weenusk or wiinashk, sometimes misspelled Winisk, means “groundhog.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 9 November 2009. qua, MacMartin diary, 21 August 1905. “As usual the point on which the Indians desired full information was as to the effect the treaty would have on their hunting and fishing rights.” lac, Stewart diaries, 21 August 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5; qua, MacMartin diary, 19, 25 July and 3, 9, 21 August 1905. Ian Rankin’s fictitious Detective Inspector John Rebus explains this kind of evasion in everyday conversation: “It wasn’t that Janice would lie to you, but you had to know how to phrase a question to make sure of getting a truthful response.” See his Dead Souls, 94. Flannery and Chambers, “John M. Cooper’s Investigation.” Madill, Treaty Research Report. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties.” Tobias, “Canada’s Subjugation.” James Morrison agrees, noting that “the pass system didn’t really operate in eastern Manitoba (Sakgeeng, Berens River, etc.), which is the area upper Albany people would have been most familiar with. I agree with you that they were more likely to have known about reservations in Minnesota, since they were in regular contact with Anishinabeg from the boundary waters area.” Pers. comm., 22 March 2010. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5. lac, Stewart diaries, 11 July 1905. Borron, “Report,” 1890, 87. For more recent discussion of hunting territories, see Bishop and Morantz, “Who Owns the Beaver?” Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 11 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 11 July 1905. Williams wrote the 1901 petition on their behalf, asking for this treaty. Oldmixon, “History,” 382. See also Ellis, “Note.” qua, MacMartin diary, 12 July 1905. Stewart claims they appeared next morning. See lac, Stewart diaries, 12 July 1905. Spielman and Chief, “Requesting and Rejecting.” Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 5. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 12 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 12 July 1905. See Black-Rogers, “Ojibwa Power Interactions” and “Varieties of ‘Starving.’” It comes from the Ojibwe root onaakon- (today, at Cat Lake, “judge someone, place a sentence on someone,” i.e., what a judge would do). Nichols and Nyholm gloss the same word as “decide on someone, judge someone.” There is a derived word, onaakonige, “judge things, plan things, decide on things, be in court.” Hence onaakonigewin would be a noun derived from the verb with a range of meanings; so “commandment” or “law” would be appropriate. At Cat Lake today

notes to pages 340–5

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

104 105 106 107

108 109

110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118

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onaakonigewinini is “a judge” (judge people + person). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 12 November 2009; Nichols and Nyholm, Concise Dictionary, 108. Oldmixon, “History,” 382. MacMartin makes no mention of Yesno’s comments about farm equipment, cattle, and seed. See qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 6. Ibid. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 6. lac, Stewart diaries, 9 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 6. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 9 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. lac, Stewart diaries, 19 July 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 7. qua, MacMartin diary, 29–31 July 1905. Ibid., 3 August 1905. Ibid., 9 August 1905. Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 9. See also lac, Stewart diaries, 9 August 1905. Scott simply writes, “Made Treaty in the morning.” See lac, Scott journal, 9 August 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 21 August 1905. lac, Stewart diaries, 21 August 1905. He indicates that they wished to be assured that they could continue to hunt. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 574. See also Macklem, “Impact of Treaty 9”; Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling’”; and Armstrong, “Political Economy.” Speaking of the provincial and territorial boundaries near which he was raised, Cree playwrite Tomson Highway commented, “It’s not as if you trip over them.” Statement made during a keynote address at Nipissing University, 21 May 2009. Long, “Reverend George Barnley.” Canada, James Bay Treaty. In October 1984 David T. McNab (then senior Indian Land Claims researcher for the Office of Indian Resource Policy, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) generously gave me a photocopy of the original treaty. lac, Scott journal, 11–12 July 1905. lac, Stewart diaries, 12 and 25 July, 9 and 21 August 1905. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 and 25 July, 3, 9, and 21 August 1905. Katchang was reluctant to sign and did not do so until the following day. See qua, MacMartin diary, 20 July 1905. Long, “‘Government Is Asking.’” Bennett, Logic Made Easy, 138. Travieso, “Functional Systems,” 129. DeMallie, “Touching the Pen,” 173; emphasis added. The Archives of Ontario has a permanent online exhibition called “The James Bay Treaty Turns 100.” See ao, “James Bay Treaty Turns 100.” Images of the federal government’s copy of Treaty No. 9 can also be found on the Internet. Finding these images online can be a time-consuming exercise in frustration. Six pages plus

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125 126 127 128 129

130 131 132 133 134

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notes to pages 345–6

description are available at through viewed 22 December 2009. In 2007-8, following its tour to far northern Ontario to commemorate Treaty No. 9’s centennial in 2005-6, the federal government’s copy was displayed in Ottawa as part of a Library and Archives Canada exhibition entitled “Spirit and Intent: Understanding Aboriginal Treaties.” See lac, “Spirit and Intent.” Dewdney, Sacred Scrolls. Long, “Manitu,” and “‘Shaganash.’” Cooper, “Northern Algonquian Supreme Being,” 50. Long, “‘Government Is Asking,’” 51–2. The Cree word for “a book or letter” is masinahikan. See Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 276, 675. In Ojibwe it is mazina’igan, but in some northern dialects mazinahigan. The root masin- has a meaning something like “make a mark,” and the -ah- means “using a tool,” also used in words that refer to drawings. The ending -kan occurs in many nouns derived from verbs and should not be confused with the suffix – hkaan. The corresponding Ojibwe ending is -kaan, as in ogimaakaan, or –gan, as in baashkizigan, “rifle.” (Algonquian words such as gun have sexual connotations as well. The root baashk- means “burst,” the -iz “by heat,” to make the transitive verb baashkizw-, “shoot someone,” with the -w indicating the object is animate, or baashkiz- “shoot something inanimate.” From the transitive verb one can add ige, to make the intransitive verb baashkizige, “shoot.” It is this intransitive verb that has the secondary metaphorical meaning “ejaculate.”) John O’Meara, pers. comm., 21 November 2009. (The Cree word for a gun case, sheath, or coat, Faries et al.’s uspikinakun, is also used today for condom; see their Dictionary, 91.) On the suffix –hkaan, see Ellis, “Note.” J.W. Anderson writes, with reference to the Cree of northern Quebec (and perhaps Ontario), “each Indian was given a certificate of his indebtedness when he departed in the autumn … what we would call a statement of account. This would consist of a sheet of paper, dated and signed by the trader, which would contain two rows of crosses, each cross representing ten dollars. If there happened to be an odd number less than ten, such would be noted by so many strokes.” See his Fur Trader’s Story, 105–6. See Long, “Manitu, Power.” “Baraga glosses the basic verb nakom as also being ‘consent to,’ so it fits readily with the meaning of the derived noun.” John O’Meara, pers. conmm., 9 November 2009. Craik, “Making a Living,” 181. Spielman and Chief, “Requesting and Rejecting.” O’Meara observes that an Ojibwe equivalent, waangoomidiwin, is not cited in a dictionary, but Ojibwe-speakers would likely accept it because it is so transparent structurally and in terms of meaning. Pers. comm., 16 November 2009. Craik, “Making a Living.” Preston, Cree Narrative, chapter 7. lac, Ramsden, J.D. McLean to J.G. Ramsden, 2 May 1906. lac, Stewart diaries, 3 and 5 August 1905; qua, MacMartin diary, 10 August 1905; lac, Ramsden. As we saw in chapter 3, the commissioners left Ottawa on 30 June 1905. The fed-

notes to pages 347–8

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139 140

141 142 143 144 145

146 147 148 149 150 151

152 153 154 155 156 157

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eral order authorizing them to admit Ontario Indians was dated 3 July. Three days later, on 6 July, a second order permitted them to admit Indians north of the Albany River. See Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 47. ao, Fort Albany Pay-list; hbca, dir, Fort Albany, 1901, 28–32. hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1899, 10. On the hbc’s barter system in James Bay, see Anderson, Fur Trader’s Story. See also Borron, “Report,” 1880, 32. On the made beaver, see Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade, 61–2. Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 255. Linguist David Pentland confirms that it is from a Proto-Algonquian word ahthaya, “skin, hide, pelt,” with cognates in Cree, Ojibwe assay (obsolete), Fox asaya “skin, buckskin,” Eastern Abenaki hse, and Munsee Delaware xay. He suggests that the Kashechewan form may mean “dollar” only when used as a noun final after a numeral initial (e.g., peyakwahtay “one dollar”). In other dialects it is peyakwaapisk. He notes that Faries spells the word utai and connects it to “a rate of valuation … now seldom if ever heard, except at remote trading Posts.” Pentland, pers. comm., 13 November 2009; Faries et al., Dictionary, 495. hbca, dir, Fort Hope, 1901, 5–6. These are Fort Albany prices, and the valuation would presumably be even higher at Fort Hope. See ibid., Albany, 1901, 19–24. They are also likely “cost-landed” values, as at Moose Factory. See ibid., Moose Factory, 1901, 15–18. If cost-landed, they would be marked up a minimum of 10 per cent. See Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 79. hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1901, 15. Isinglass is a “glue-like substance from the swim bladders of sturgeon.” See Ray, “‘Ould Betsy,’” 90. Cummins, Only God, 90–1. Kiebuzinski, Yesterday, the River, 138. See also Anderson, Fur Trader’s Story, 105–6. “There is no money here, only credit at the Company’s store.” Missionaries agreed not to accept furs, although after 1870 the hbc no longer had monopoly rights. See Shearwood, By Water and the Word, 26. hbca, dir, Moose Factory, 1901, 6. On the introduction of currency, see Gettler, “From the Made Beaver to Money.” See hbca, “Information Sheet.” George and Preston, “‘Going in Between,’” 455. Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 32–3, 88–9. Ibid., 39. Even at Nipigon, for example, there were “very few Cash transactions beyond the Treaty Payments.” In 1899 the influx at treaty time amounted to $1,350. See hbca, dir, Nipigon, 1899, 5. Dragland, Floating Voice, 49. Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties.” qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. Graham, Treaty Days, 117. qua, MacMartin diary, 19 July 1905. See also Epp, “Allies or Wards.” Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 59; Leslie and Maguire, Historical Development, 61.

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notes to pages 348–9

158 “[N]on-Indians determined who was an Indian,” and Aboriginal people were considered primitive savages in need of civilization, pagan souls in want of Christian salvation. See Tobias, “Protection, Civilization, Assimilation.” 159 Gettler, “Doublement dépendants?” 160 hbca, dir, Abitibi, 1885, 3. 161 “[T]hese Indians are capable of leaving a party of travellers suddenly, returning to Moose Factory in dudgeon if anything displeases them, and the leader of the prayers got very much the better of one of the party in an affair of peltries.” Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties.” 162 “[A]s is the custom of the trail we were invited to take pot luck, and it really is pot luck, as the big kettle that is usually simmering on the fire whenever there is anything to cook receives whatever is thrown into it. It may be fox, muskrat, fish, rabbit, lynx or something else. There’s a big wooden dipper to help yourself – eat in faith and ask no questions.” Williams, “My First Bear Hunt,” 22 and 15 March. 163 “[A] fur trader visiting among his hunters … is supposed to take a present of something he knows they would like in appreciation of their hospitality,” such as “half a stick of Hudson Bay tobacco to each of the adult males.” Ibid., 15 March, and Williams, “Second Year.” 164 “First, he would slice off some salt pork or bacon, parboil it[,] open half a sack of flour, well down the top, make a hollow in top of the flour, pour into it the greasy water from the salt pork and enough cold water to make it luke warm, add a little saleratus [sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda], mix it to a dough[,] flatten it out in the frying pan and set it in front of the fire until it is browned over, then turn it over, brown the other side, turn it out and set it up against a stick in front of the fire to finish off and keep hot until he had cooked enough for all for the night meal and breakfast, then he finished cooking the pork or bacon, made the tea, set the frying pan in front of us and we ate our frugal meal of bannock and pork, dipping our bannock into the grease.” Williams, “First Bear Hunt,” 15 March. Likewise, when the Ojibwe served corn soup to Johann Kohl, he considered it “an unpretending banquet” at the end of a tiring day. See his Kitchi-Gami, 52. The term “saleratus,” derived from Latin sal aeratus (“aerated salt”), was commonly used in the late nineteenth century for impure sodium or potassium bicarbonate, employed as a leavening agent. See the Oxford English Dictionary viewed 2 April 2010. It was also the name of a commercially available baking soda bearing the Arm and Hammer logo. 165 In Cree the word is makoshaaniwan or makoshewin (“for everyone to eat”). Ideally it means wild meat or fish, with broth or Labrador tea to drink. The meat could be boiled or barbecued on apwaanaask (a roasting stick). Bannock and tea were later additions. Angela Shisheesh, pers. comm., 17 July 2008. The verb stem is makoshe- “have a feast,” and makoshaaniwan is an indefinite subject form, meaning “there is a feast going on.” Makoshewin is a noun built on the verb makoshe- plus the –win “nominalizer,” to make “feasting.” John O’Meara, pers. comm., 22 December 2009. 166 Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties.” 167 On sharing etiquette, see Preston, Cree Narrative, 14. 168 lac, Stewart diaries, 25 July 1905.

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169 qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July 1905; emphasis added. 170 lac, Stewart diaries, 5 August 1905. 171 Ibid., 30 June and 8 September 1905; qua, MacMartin diary, 13, 21, and 25 July and 6 August 1905; Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 579; Meindl, “Report,” 1905. 172 lac, Stewart diaries, 12 July 1905. 173 See, for example, ibid., 1 August 1905. 174 Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 685. Recalling the “soldiers” referred to in the Treaty No. 3 deliberations (see chapter 1), Severn Ojibwe has the words simaakanis or shimaakanish, which mean “soldier” in some dialects. There are also cognate terms in some other languages, notes John O’Meara. So it is an old word. He also reports dakoniwewinini (“person who arrests people”). This is dakon- (“hold onto someone”) plus iwe (“do to people”) or dakoniwe (“hold people,” with “arrest people” as an extended meaning), plus -(w)inini (“person”). Pers. comm., 16 November 2009. 175 qua, MacMartin diary, 20 July 1905. 176 Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 7, 11; lac, Stewart, 25 July 1905. Scott simply writes, “arranged reserve”; see lac, Scott journal, 20 July 1905. 177 qua, MacMartin diary, 25 July 1905; my emphasis. 178 Borron, “Report,” 1890, 87. 179 Heinrichs and Hiebert, Mishkeegogamang, 9-10. See also Black-Rogers, “Choosing a Place.” 180 qua, MacMartin diary, 29 July 1905. 181 Ray, Canadian Fur Trade, 33. 182 Cat Lake, “Presentation”; Dragland, Floating Voice, 57. 183 See hbc, “Trading Ceremony at York Factory”

viewed 8 July 2009. 184 Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure.” 185 On guardianship, see Dyck, What Is the Indian Problem? 186 See the illustration in Hayes, Canada, 18. 187 Murray, Indian Giving, 6. 188 Ibid., 61. 189 Ibid., 67. 190 If the Ojibwe and Cree had been told the whole story, if the treaty had been truly negotiated, would they have concurred? I agree with James Morrison when he suggests that the Ojibwe of the upper Albany River “would probably have refused to participate.” Morrison had not yet seen MacMartin’s 1905 journal when he concluded that their neighbours, the Cree of western James Bay and the Ojibwe near the cpr, “might have signed the treaty anyway – both because they would have felt they had no real alternative, and because … the commissioners were very successful at promoting the tangible benefits of adherence to the treaty.” If they “had no real alternative,” these were not negotiations. And if the benefits would have swayed them, they were agreeing to Treaty No. 9B. See Morrison, Treaty Research Report, 49. 191 qua, MacMartin diary, 9 August 1905.

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notes to pages 354–60

chapter twenty-four 1 Garrick, “Stan Beardy Not Sure.” 2 Notes from my visit on 13 March 2008 to the lac exhibit “Survey, Examination and Analysis of Treaty Documents,” which ran concurrently with its “Spirit and Intent: Understanding Aboriginal Treaties” exhibit. 3 scc, “Bear Island.” 4 The calculation is from 1914–2009. viewed 3 December 2009. 5 Canada, pco, “2008–2009 Performance”; Canada, TBS, “Government Accepts Recommendations” and “Advisory Committee.” 6 Ellis explains that –ikimaw, not okimaaw, is “the form … used in stem composition.” “Note,”1. 7 During World War I the paymasters induced descendents to forego half of their annuities. See Long, “‘Government Is Asking.’” 8 Fulford and Bird, “‘Who Is Breaking?’” 9 Thom, “Ralph Rowe Found Guilty.” 10 See Metatawabin, Hanaway, and Fortier, Behind Closed Doors. 11 See Haig-Brown and Nock, With Good Intentions. 12 On the impact of child welfare laws, see Canada, rcap, Report, vol. 3. Preston has bekodeno, “‘one household’ … a commensal group. This may be one old man with an unmarried daughter to cook for him, on up to an extended group of kin (and sometimes individuals who are non-kin or only distant kin) members, who eat as one group.” See Preston, “Eastern Cree Notions,” 42. Faries has payukotao, “he is alone with his family” and tikinakun, “an Indian cradle.” See Faries et al., Dictionary, 72, 413. John O’Meara notes that peyakotaaw includes peyakw- “one,” with itaa “be (there)” plus -w “third person animate.” Pers. comm., 5 December 2009. See also Kornacki, “Wawatay Celebrates 25 Years”; kcfs website; Hardisty et al., “Kunuwanimao.” John O’Meara explains that Kunuwanimano could be ganawenimaaganoo “s/he is taken care of (or looked after),” with the “indefinite subject” suffix -aaganoo (or -aaganiwi in a more etymological spelling). If so, this origin would suggest a missing syllable in the word. The transitive verb ganawenim- consists of the root ganaw- “take care of, look after” and suffix -enim “by thought, involving mental effort.” The root also occurs in words such as ganawaabam- “look out for someone” with the suffix “-aabam” “by sight.” Pers. comm., 6 December 2009. Teichroeb’s Flowers on My Grave shows that such organizations are no panacea. 13 A recent study suggests that 4 per cent of clergy were responsible for these crimes. See Lynch et al., Nature and Scope. 14 See also Johnson, Two Families. 15 Canada, rcap, Report, 1: 299, based largely on Bartlett, “Citizens Minus.” 16 Ontario, la, scia, Proceedings, 462. See also Barker, “T.F. McIlwraith.” 17 Thorpe, “To Visit and Cut Down.” 18 Hawthorn et al., Survey, 368–9, 371. 19 Shaule, “Disputed Boundaries,” and Blair, Lament for a First Nation. 20 Diamond, “Cree Experience.”

notes to pages 361–9 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

53

54 55 56

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Long and Boldt, “Introduction,” 5. Kallen, Ethnicity and Human Rights, 59. The film is based on Harrison, Burton and Speke. Foucault, Power/Knowledge. bcmarr, “Treaties and Other Negotiations.” See also Coates, Summary Report. Canada, rcap, Report, 2: 19. bcmarr, “BC Treaty Negotiations.” bctc, “Negotiation Update.” bcmarr, “Tsawwassen,” and anon., “MP: Tsawwassen Treaty.” bcmarr, “Treaty Principles.” Canada, House of Commons, Standing Committee on Finance, Prosperous and Sustainable Future, 94. ki, “Letter to Attorney General.” Linden, Report, 2: 156. Ibid., 154, 158, 164n12. lac, “Spirit and Intent,” Introduction. See Long, “‘No Basis for Argument.’” Gottesman, “Native Hunting.” Jackson, “Conceptions,” 9. “Curriculum Implementation,” 404,412. Canada, Task Force to Review Native Claims Policy, Living Treaties. Canada, rcap, Treaty Making. Synder and Zumwalt, “Curriculum Implementation,” 404 Epp, “Allies or Wards.” See also Tobias, “Indian Reserves,” and Long and Boldt, “Native Self-Government.” Miller, Compact, Contract, 139. See, e.g., Dion, Braiding Stories, and Kennedy, Braided Relations. Muller, “Holding Hands.” I am grateful to J.R. Miller for this reference. Long, “In Search.” ki, “Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninwug Goes International.” Berger, Village Journey, 181-2. Berger, “Native Rights and Self Determination,” 374. omaa, “Moving Forward.” Data were obtained by searching for the individual First Nation communities, by various names, at Statistics Canada, 2006 Community Profiles accessed 13 May 2010. Data from Bearskin Lake, Cat Lake, Constance Lake, Ginoogaming, Kasabonika Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Marten Falls (Martin Falls), Matachewan, Mattagami, Muskrat Dam, Nibinamik (Summer Beaver), North Caribou Lake (Weagamow Lake), Sachigo Lake, Taykwa Tagamou (New Post), Wahgoshig (Abitibi), Wapekeka, Webequie, Weenusk (Peawanuck), and Wunnumin Lake First Nations (in Treaty No. 9) and Deer Lake, North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, and Sandy Lake First Nations (in Treaty No. 5). Ibid. Ibid., excepting Marten Falls and Taykwa Tagamou First Nations. Data from Bearskin Lake, Cat Lake, Constance Lake, Kasabonika Lake, Kingfisher

512

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85

86 87

88

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notes to pages 369–76

Lake, Muskrat Dam, Nibinamik (Summer Beaver), North Caribou Lake (Weagamou Lake), Sachigo Lake, Wapekeka, Webequie, and Wunnumin Lake; Deer Lake, North Spirit Lake, Poplar Hill, and Sandy Lake First Nations. Norman Hillmer, “The Twentieth Century Belongs to Canada” viewed 13 May 2010. Canada, diand, “Land Claims.” Canada, diand, “Comprehensive Claims.” Canada, diand, “Government of Canada’s Approach.” Ibid. Flanagan, First Nations, Second Thoughts, 145–6, 151, 153. See also Kennedy, “Treaty Texts.” Flanagan, First Nations, Second Thoughts, 151. Canada, rcap, Report, 2: 9ff, and Treaty Making. Flanagan, First Nations, Second Thoughts, 153. Ibid., 164. Linden found that Harris’s remark did not influence the actions of the opp that evening or cause Dudley George’s death. See his Report, 1: 360–3. Basic Issues, 47–8. Flannery, Ellen Smallboy, 19. Long, “Introduction.” Fiddler and Stevens, Killing the Shamen [sic]. See discussion in Long, “Coping.” Ellis, âtalôhkâna, xxxii–iii. Audiotape 83, deposited at the Ojibway Cree Cultural Centre in Timmins. Long, “Anglican Church,” 107. Morantz, Whiteman’s Gonna Getcha. Ibid. See also Richardson, Strangers Devour the Land, and MacGregor, Chief. Ciaccia, “Philosophy of the Agreement,” in Canada, JBNQA , xv. Ibid., xviii, xx. Canada, JBNQA . gcc, “Board of Compensation.” Canada, JBNQA , 395ff; gcc, “Board of Compensation,” and “Critical Issues.” See also Wertman, “Planning and Development.” Canada, JBNQA , 268ff. nan, “Partnerships.” “The simple facts had to be stated, and the parental idea developed that the King is the great father of the Indians, watchful over their interests, and ever compassionate.” Scott, “Last of the Indian Treaties,” 500; see chapter 19. Constable Vanasse, probably recalling Scott’s words at Lac Seul, wrote that “their great Father the King would be shocked if he knew of their conduct.” See Vanasse, “White Dog Feast,” 62; see chapter 9. Mathieu, “opp Threatened Force”; Linden, Report, 2: 180. Pete was a grandson of both New Post chief Esau Omakees and Moose Factory “half-breed” petitioner William Archibald. Pete’s parents were Bella Omakees and Sydney Archibald, but he was raised by Thomas Sutherland and took his surname. Gagnon was guilty only of travelling close to a suspicious vehicle, and he was

notes to pages 376–80

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wrongly assumed to be involved with illegal activity. See Thom, “Traffic Stop.” 89 Ontario, occ, “Recommendations.” 90 Moses Wesley (1870–1936) married Barbara Stephen (1876–1963) in 1891. Kashechewan genealogies, copied by me in 1993. Moses was a son of John J. and Mary Wesley, and apparently a grandson of the John Wesley baptized by Barnley. lac, 1881 Census of Canada, Northwest Territories, v. Eastern Rupert’s Land, district 192 Territories, sub-district 100 Albany Factory, page 5. 91 “I have something to relate concerning you who controls the law. This then that I say, I chief Wesley, Albany. I do not know what it is like, this that I say about the law. Towards the north the law book is not given to me by which I might know what law is like.” Luke Hunter kindly provided me with a copy of this document by email dated 6 May 2009. 92 “Any attempt on his part to exercise authority within the band itself may well be and often is regarded as pure interference.” Ellis, “Note.” 93 “Even if the chief says anything, nobody takes any heed to him, as they know that the chief cannot do anything to them … the chief often is threatened with assault when he rebukes any thing that is evil by virtue of his position.” Ibid. 94 Moses and Barbara Wesley’s son James “Jeemis” Silas Wesley (first wife Clara Friday) was chief, as was his son Silas and grandson Oliver. Moses and Barbara’s son Joel (1902–1967) married Christiana Rickard, and their son Willie (married to Beatrice Wynne) was chief of Kashechewan as well. Kashechewan genealogies. 95 Ontario, mndmf, “Correction.” 96 Ontario, mndmf, “Ontario Resolves Litigation.” 97 Garrick, “Platinex Drops Lawsuit.” 98 Gorrie, “Can Ontario’s North.” 99 Gorrie, “Miners and Natives,” and “‘Too Big’”; Talaga, “Ring of Fire.” 100 McLaren, “‘Ring of Fire.’” 101 See Flanagan, Harper’s Team. 102 See Long, “‘Government Is Asking,’” 1–2. 103 Linden, Report, 2: 154–5. 104 This Cree phrase, used with both cyclical and thematic legends, employs “the verb stem iskwâ- ‘be so long, measure so long.’” It “incorporates the medial suffix … âpihk … ‘line-like, cord-like.’ The total stem, iskwâpihkêyâ-, is used of a line or cord and means ‘be of such a length (line or cord).’ As each episode is completed, the figure is that of a line or cord (the series) having reached such a length, to be carried further by the sequel.” Ellis, âtalôhkâna, xxvi, xxxii.

afterword 1 In late 2009 the council consisted of Chief Norm Hardisty, Deputy Chief Charlie Cheechoo, Elder Councillor Bobby Vincent, Youth Councillor Greg Rickard, and twelve councillors: Mildred Alisappi, Doreen Blackned, Earl Cheechoo, Rick Cheechoo, Bobby Echum, Kathy Faries-Quachegan, George Lazarus, Pauline Rickard, Jean Sayers, Charlie Small, Minnie Sutherland, and Wally Turner. Pauline Rickard, pers. comm., 18 September 2009. 2 Rickard, Basic Issues and Priorities, 9.

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historiography 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23

24 25 26

Driben and Trudeau, When Freedom Is Lost, 19. Ibid. Barnes, Polar Bear Express Country, 22. DePasquale, “Refractions of the Colonial Past,” xxiii. Close, All Aboard the Polar Bear Express, 16. But see Long, “Filling in the Gaps.” Tucker, Steam into Wilderness. DePasquale, “Refractions of the Colonial Past,” xxiv. Surtees, Northern Connection, 4. On Temagami, see McNab, No Place for Fairness. gct9, “Declaration”; Rickard, Basic Issues and Priorities. Presentations to the rcne are housed at Lakehead University’s Northern Studies Resource Centre and in the Trent University Archives. Some of the presentations were influenced by non-aboriginal “helpers.” I helped Munroe Linklater draft his presentation, but he probably received input from Andy Rickard as well. Margaret Fiddler helped draft the Sandy Lake presentation. Olsen, “Review of Tucker.” The same issue of the Laurentian University Review had an introductory piece on aboriginal use of the transportation corridor prior to the twentieth century; see Devereux, “Prehistoric and Historic Precursors.” Molohon had an important article on Moosonee as a border town; see her “Contact and Transition.” Nelles, Politics of Development. Fraleck’s report is in Ontario, dcl, Report, 74–82. The quotation is from 82. See also Munroe Linklater’s presentation to the rcne. As noted above, I contributed to his presentation (and to the occc volume, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation). Armstrong, “Political Economy.” Telford, “‘Sound of the Rustling.’” Hookimaw-Witt, “Keenebonanoh.” See also Cummins, Only God. Bird, Telling Our Stories, 225–7; DePasquale, “Refractions of the Colonial Past,” xxvi–xxvii. Long, “‘Government Is Asking,’” “Who Got What at Winisk?” and “Early Visions.” See also Long, “‘No Basis for Argument.’” Peers, Ojibwa of Western Canada, 4–8. See, respectively, Manore, “Moose Factory Métis”; Reimer and Chartrand, “Documenting Historic Metis.” See also Long, “Politics of Education,” “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent,” and “Some Early Moores.” Judd, “Mixed Bloods” and “Sakie, Eskawenoe”; Brown, Strangers in Blood; Van Kirk, Many Tender Ties. Le Camp, “Afterword” and “Native and Non-Native.” Ray and Freeman, “Give Us Good Measure”; Ray, Miller, and Tough, Bounty and Benevolence; Miller “Compact, Contract, Covenant”; Long, “No Basis for Argument.” Titley, Narrow Vision. Manore, Cross-Currents; Preston and Long, “Apportioning Responsibility.” See also Long, “Historical Context” and “Early Visions of Development.” Macklem, “Impact of Treaty No. 9.”

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27 McNeil, Native Rights and Native Claims. 28 The respective websites are: ; ; ; ; ; ; and http://apps1.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/mirage/db_search_e.php>. All viewed 24 December 2009. 29 Carleton University Centre et al., On the Path. 30 ao, Fort Albany Pay-list.

terminology 1 Clément, “Introduction,” 2; Day and Trigger, “Algonquin,” 797; Goddard, “Other Subarctic Ojibwa.” 2 aantc, Website. 3 ans, Website; wlfn, “Presentation.” 4 ap, Website. 5 Chief Dwight Sutherland, “99 Years of Treaty,” sent by email to the author, 25 November 2004. Bishop Jervois Newnham wrote, “The Indians at New Post were Ojibways and did not understand Cree.” See Shearwood, By Water and the Word, 63. The arrival of Crees named Sutherland, Wynne, and Archibald transformed the people of New Post, and the Cree language eventually replaced Ojibwe (until Cree was largely replaced by English). 6 Section 2(d) of Canada’s 1886 Indian Act, reproduced in Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 107. 7 Sections 2(i) and (g) of Canada’s 1886 Indian Act, reproduced ibid. 8 Helm, Rogers, and Smith, “Intercultural Relations,” 152. 9 The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, not Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, is the name specified in section 2(1) of the Indian Act today. 10 Information was compiled largely from co, “Community Profiles,” and Ontario, nas and mc, Akwesasne to Wunnumin Lake. 11 aantc, “Member Community Page” and “History”; Abitibiwinni Nation, “Treaty No. 9 of 1906.” 12 co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Aroland First Nation viewed 2 April 2010. 13 Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 21, 31, and 1930, 37–8. Roderigue Vezina, omi, translates katawakpiskaw as “there is room to pass between the rocks” or “deep water between high rocks.” See Molohon, “Notes,” 189. This is a reference to the limestone towers in upper branches of the Attawapiskat River. Berger and Terry provide sketches of the towers in their Canoe Atlas, 115. 14 co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Cat Lake First Nation viewed 2 April 2010. 15 Constance Lake First Nation, Website.

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notes to pages 387–91

16 co, “Community Profiles,” profiles for Fort Albany and Kashechewan and viewed 2 April 2010. 17 co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Marten Falls viewed 2 April 2010. 18 Driben and Trudeau, When Freedom Is Lost, 3–6; co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Webequie. viewed 2 April 2010. 19 As with Kenogami, this is a reference to a long body of water, with the locative ending. John O’Meara, pers. comm., 8 November 2009. 20 Anon., “Long Lake #58 Community Profile,” 5. 21 Macqueen, “‘We Have Always Been Here.’” 22 It also refers to red-coloured rocks. See Heinrichs and Hiebert, Mishkeegogomang, 231-2. Willet Miller referred to it in his 1912 compilation of earlier reports as “the lake of the swampy country”; see his “Reports on the District of Patricia,” 7. See also mofn, Website. 23 wfnc, “Communities,” profile for Slate Falls Nation. 24 The name comes from the Ojibwe words waabishgaagami (“whitewater”) or waabishkegin (“the sheet is white”). See Wabakimi Provincial Park, “Cultural Heritage.” 25 Telephone conversation with Chief Arlene Slipperjack, 19 August 2008. For a general discussion on parks and Indigenous peoples, see Morrison, Protected Areas, and Sandlos, “Federal Spaces.” 26 Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies, 21, 23. 27 Pentland, “Synonymy [West Main Cree],” 229. 28 Ellis et al., Spoken Cree, 15. 29 From a brochure in the author’s possession. 30 See Mushkegowuk Council, Website. 31 The problem of standardizing the orthography is compounded by historical differences as well, since most ininiwak elders are Roman Catholic and most ililiwak elders Anglican (although there are also other denominations today). Anglicans and Roman Catholics also used different variations of the syllabic writing system. 32 Pentland, “Synonymy [East Main Cree],” 205. 33 See the Mocreebec website viewed 2 June 2009. Mocreebec also struggles for recognition from the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec. See Bonspiel, “People of MoCreebec.” 34 co, “Community Profiles,” profile for Mocreebec. 35 For Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, “northern Ontario” begins at the southern boundary of the District of Parry Sound. See Ontario, mndm, “Northern Ontario Overview.” 36 Hamelin, “L’écoumène du Nord canadien,” 34. In Ontario a tourist area and a school board use this name. The Near North District School extends from Parry Sound to North Bay. 37 See, for example, Ontario, maa, “Ministers Tour Ontario’s Far North.” 38 Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, plate 1.

notes to pages 391–7

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39 See Lytwyn, Fur Trade of the Little North, and, more recently, Berger and Terry, Canoe Atlas. 40 Canada, nr, “Land and Freshwater Areas.” 41 Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, ix, xi. 42 Ibid., ix, plates 11–12. 43 Ibid., plates 16, 24. 44 Ibid., xi, plates 14–16. 45 Rowe, Forest Regions of Canada. See also Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, plates 16–18. 46 Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, plates 19–20, 22–3. 47 Ibid., plates 26–8. 48 Long, “Narratives”; UK, “Royal Charter.” 49 Smith, Decolonizing Methodology, 80. 50 Basso, Wisdom Sits in Places. See also Worby, “Maps, Names and Ethnic Games”; Martin, “From Negro to Black.” 51 lac, “National Aboriginal Document Database,” has a useful list of the relevant statutes. 52 Ibid., 1868 Act. 53 Canada, “Act for the Gradual Enfranchisement.” 54 Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 24–5. 55 See the 1906 Indian Act, ibid., 174, 179. 56 Ibid., 244, 249. 57 Brightman, “Culture and Culture Theory,” 351. 58 Canada, diand, “Individuals Responsible.” 59 Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies, 6. 60 nan, “Land, Culture, Community.” 61 Others would classify Fort Severn as Oji-Cree or Severn Ojibwe. 62 Long, “Archdeacon Thomas Vincent,” “Tale of Two Treaties,” “Politics of Education,” “Race, Place,” “Reverend George Barnley,” “Some Early Moores,” “Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families”; Moore and Long, “Private Fred Moore.” 63 Saul, Fair Country, 114ff. 64 Anon., “Oji-Cree Language”; John O’Meara, pers. comm., 30 October 2009. 65 Peers, Ojibwa of Western Canada, xvii. 66 Brown, “Revisiting A.I. Hallowell,” 39n. The term is used in, for example, the titles or subtitles of Fox, How the Bees; Ninegwance, Survival Ojibwe; Sawyer, Enweyang; Kegg, Portage Lake; Sugarhead, Ninoontaan; Spielman, You’re So Fat; and Valentine, Making It Their Own. See also Ontario, ME, Native Languages. 67 Muriel Sawyer, pers. comm., 28 May 2008. 68 Pentland, “Synonymy [Northern Ojibwa],” 241. 69 occc and mofn websites. 70 See Michipicoten First Nation website viewed 2 April 2010. 71 Rogers, “Southeastern Ojibwa,” 768. 72 Ojibwe and Cree who are not fluently bilingual know the difference between “g” and “k” or “d” and “t,” but pronouncing it one way or another does not signal

518

73 74

75 76 77

78 79 80

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88

89 90 91 92 93 94 95

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notes to pages 397–400

a different word in those languages. In English we have the minimal pairs “lag” and “lack” or “bed” and “bet,” which have quite different meanings. When I lived in the Cree community of Kashechewan, it always took me a split second to understand that when one of my teaching colleagues said what sounded to me like “that dozer,” he was not referring to a bulldozer but to a member of the Tozer family in Moosonee. Similarly, when one of our students smiled and said what sounded to me like “one taller,” she was hoping for “one dollar.” Pentland, “Synonymy [Northern Ojibwa],” 241. See, e.g., Rogers, “Southeastern Ojibwa,” 768; Canada, diand, “United Anishnaabeg Councils”; Clifton, “Potawatomi,” 741; Silverstein, “Clothed Encounters,” 12. Valentine, Making It Their Own; Rogers, “Southeastern Ojibwa,” 768. Pentland, “Synonymy [Northern Ojibwa],” 241. lac, 1901 Census of Canada, The Territories, Unorganized Territory, Keewatin, English River. Regarding problems with such census data, see Hamilton, “‘Anyone Not on the List.’” lac, Stewart diaries, 29 July 1905. Sections 2(k) and (m) of Canada’s 1886 Indian Act, reproduced in Venne, Indian Acts and Amendments, 108. “When he cannot hunt any more, it is time for the white man who disturbed his simple economy to come to his rescue. Above all it should be made possible for the Indians of Canada to do the things for which they are fitted.” Renison, One Day at a Time, 214. “Many of the Indian children from the area,” Harding added, “attend the residential Indian school at Pelican.” See his “Geology of the Cat River,” 61. Ibid., 55. Ray, “Decline of Paternalism.” scc, Corbiere. Nicholson, Boundaries, 151. Black-Rogers, “Fosterage and Field Data,” 53. The adhesion has very different wording from the 1905–6 treaty (see chapter 5). Canada, nr, “Map of the Area of the July 1905 Treaty” and “Map of the Area of the 1908 to 1910 Adhesions”; Canada, tbs, “James Bay Treaty No. 9 [1929–30]” and “Treaty 9 [1905–6].” Ontario, rcne, North of 50°, plate 35. Canada, nr, “Map of the Area of the 1908 to 1910 Adhesions”; Canada, tbs, “Treaty 5 [1908].” Flannery and Chambers, “John M. Cooper’s Investigation.” Pimachiowin Aki, Website. See also omnr, “Ontario and Manitoba Establish Interprovincial.” Nicholson, Boundaries, 145–6, 159–1. Beatty, “Ontario-Manitoba Boundary,” 138. On Akimiski Island, see Cummins, Only God. The Cree word akaamaskiy is comprised of akaam- (“across water”) and askiy (“land, earth”). John O’Meara, pers. comm., 21 December 2009. Inuit families such as the Weetaltuks apparently came to Charlton Island from the Belcher Islands c.1900. See Freeman, “George Weetaltuk”; Mocassin Telegraph, Winter 1960, 28; Nicholson, Boundaries, 144–5.

notes to pages 400–3

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96 97 98 99 100 101 102

Nicholson, Boundaries, 100, 152, 160. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 21. Ibid., 20. Scott, “Boundaries and Categories.” Scott, Stewart, and MacMartin, “Report,” 1905, 10. Cain and Awrey, “Report,” 1929, 20. Treasury Board calculates the areas as 22,786,567 and 35,432,882 hectares respectively. See Canada, tbs, “Treaty Areas.” A geographer who does not wish to be identified estimated the Treaty No. 9 area south of the Albany to be 227,060 square kilometres (87,668 square miles) and the portion further north at 339,279 square kilometres (130,996 square miles). 103 nrc, “Land and Freshwater Areas.” 104 I am grateful to the geographer mentioned in note 96 for this calculation. See also nan, “Land, Culture, Community.”

an inventory of the 1905 photographs 1 The ao digital images are numbered from 10010553.jpg through 10010650.jpg and from 10010652.jpg through 10010740.jpg. 2 The definites are shortened digital negative numbers 559–66, 568–70, 584, 588–92, 596, 600–17, 619, 635–7, 656–73, 675–7, 681–2, 691–709, 712, 716, 718–23, 735–7, and 740. 3 The 1905 album once consisted of a 4-page typed inventory (the first page not numbered) plus 44 pages of photographs; 4 of the 44 pages of photos are missing, plus another 11 individual photos, for a total of 23 missing photos, although most have corresponding negative numbers to show that images exist. If there is no negative number in my index, it appears that the image is no longer held by lac – chief Missabay making a speech at Osnaburgh, for example. The 1906 album once had 91 photos (11 of which are missing) on 31 pages (one of which is missing).

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viewed 28 March 2010 Willis, Jane. Geneish: An Indian Girlhood. Toronto: New Press, 1973 Wilson, W.J. “Reconnaisance Surveys of Four Rivers South-West of James Bay.” In Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report for 1902–1903, vol. 15: 222–33. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1903 Windigo First Nations Council (wfnc). “Communities.” viewed 2 December 2009 Winks, Robin W. The Blacks in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997 Wise, Sydney Francis. “Head, Sir Francis Bond.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, 1871–1880, ed. Francess Halpenny et al., 342–5. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972

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Wolf Lake First Nation (wlfn). “Presentation to the Commission for the Scientific, Technical, Public and Independent Study of Public Forest Management.” accessed 6 November 2009 Wong, Danielle. “Protesters Visit De Beers to Voice Their Frustration.” Toronto Star, 20 August 2009. viewed 2 May 2010 Wood, J. David. Places of Last Resort: The Expansion of the Farm Frontier into the Boreal Forest in Canada, c. 1910–1940. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006 Worby, Eric. “Maps, Names, and Ethnic Games: The Epistemology and Iconography of Colonial Power in Northwestern Zimbabwe.” Journal of Southern African Studies 20, no. 3 (September 1994): 371–92 Young, Harvey. The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961 Young, T. Kue. “Changing Patterns of Health and Sickness among the Cree-Ojibwa of Northwestern Ontario.” Medical Anthropology 3, no. 2 (1979): 191–223 – Health Care and Cultural Change: The Indian Experience in the Central Subarctic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988 Zaslow, Morris. “Edward Barnes Borron, 1820–1915: Northern Pioneer and Public Servant Extraordinary.” In Aspects of Nineteenth-Century Ontario: Essays Presented to James J. Talman, ed. F.H. Armstrong, H.A. Stevenson, and J.D. Wilson, 297–311. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974 – “The Ontario Boundary Dispute.” In Profiles of a Province: Studies in the History of Ontario: A Collection of Essays Commissioned by the Ontario Historical Society to Commemorate the Centennial of Ontario, 107–17. Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1967 – Reading the Rocks: The Story of the Geological Survey of Canada 1842–1972. Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada, 1975 Zlotkin, Norman K. “Post-Confederation Treaties.” In Aboriginal Peoples and the Law: Indian, Metis and Inuit Rights in Canada, ed. Bradford W. Morse, 272–407. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1991

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Index

Abitibi band, 47, 385–6; Algonquin dialect of Ojibwe, 47, 67, 84; considered to be Algonquin and Cree, 273; pretreaty population estimate, 51; pretreaty request for help, 47, 432n79 Abitibi (Ontario) band, 56, 84–6, 284, 323, 386, 389, 432n78; 1906 treaty signing, 84; 1908 adhesion, 323–4; Louis McDougall, 46–7, 84, 323, 432n79, 432n81; McDougall Chute Indians, 86; Ojibwe (Algonquin) spoken, 395; reserve, 323–4, 389, 445n32 Abitibi (Quebec) band, 84–6, 386; 1908 adhesion, 86, 323–4 Abitibi Canyon, 255 Abitibi hbc post (on upper lake), 272–3; Biederman nearby, 273; census, 500n11; map, 262; origin of name, 272–3; photos, 272, 409–10; winter outpost at narrows, 271 Abitibi Lake, 270–1; lower and upper lakes, 270; narrows, 270; maps, 262, 276 Abitibiwinni Anishinabeg, 12, 385–6; reserve, 386 aboriginal peoples: defined in Constitution Act, 1982, xviii; percentage of the Canadian population today, 10; term considered offensive, xix, 524. See also “half-breeds”; Indian; Indigenous; Inuit; Métis Abraham’s Chute, 132, 135 Achapi Lake, 476n53 Agotaweka Lake, 275 agriculture and gardens, 282, 351: Cain and Awrey on, 456n51; Cat Lake, 448n71; English River, 208; Fort Albany, 221, 456n51; Fort Hope unsuit-

able, 74, 186, 190; Frenchman’s Head, 133; French River reserve unsuitable, 448n80; Marten Falls, 75, 197; Moose Factory, 234, 238, 444n29; New Post, 259; Osnaburgh unsuitable, 42, 169; Pickle Lake, 159 Ajolauke Lake, 276 Akimiski Island, 92, 216, 400, 484n27, 485n30, 518n85; offshore islands retained by federal government, 400 Albany Island, 75, 214, 216, 308, 482n1–2; Old Post, 216 alcohol: 1839 ban, 21; access along cpr line, 44, 84; and colonialism, 390; concerns today, 143, 215, 301–2, 421n49, 455n9; and death of Barrett, 487n13; fire water, 332; forbidden by Indian Act, 8, 230, 238, 311, 444n29, 451n115, 454n9; forbidden during treaty-making, 8, 25, 418n43; Haileybury bar rooms, 279; home brew, 445n29; humour, 171–2, 174; after Lake of the Woods treaty payments, 8, 418n44; mentioned by treaty commissioners, 84, 238, 279; protection from, 47, 432n79; smuggling, 421n49; supplied during fur trade, 19, 171–2, 174, 273; treaty implies protection from, 358, 489n38 Algonquins: Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, 386; dialect of Ojibwe, 67; New Post band, 67, 487n16, 492n16; term defined, 385, 397; territory bisected by OntarioQuebec border, 24; overlooked in Ottawa River watershed treaties, 25, 90; See also Abitibi band Along the Rocks Portage, 155

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Along the Rocks Rapids, 153 Angling Lake band, 389 Anishinaabe (diminutive –ns; pl. –g), 336, 385, 397 Anishinaabemowin, 395 Anishininiimowin, 395 Anishininiw (pl. –ag), 397 annuities. See Treaty No. 9 annuities Archibald (née Sutherland), Mary Rose, 332 Archibald, Peter (son of Sydney and Bella). See Sutherland, Peter, Sr Archibald, Peter (son of Thomas and Mary Rose), 27, 256 Archibald, Roseanne (daughter of Sydney’s son Frank), 96 Archibald, Sydney (son of William), 81: Cree, 253; married to Bella Omakees, 81; succeeds Esau Omakees as chief, 256 Archibald, Thomas (son of Sydney and Nancy), 256, 332–3 Archibald, William: “half-breed” petitioner, 242; wants to be placed on band list, 81, 452n122 Aroland First Nation, 12, 102–3, 386, 414; Ojibwe spoken, 395 Asheweig River, 89 Assembly of First Nations, 91, 309, 360 Atikameksheng Anishinabek, 5–6 Atkikokiwam Lake, 171, 473n22, 476n57 Attawapiskat band: absentees, 216, 220, 284; Christian missions to, 216, 443n20–1, 444n29; concept of wealth, 215; elects its own chief in 1906, 70; formally recognized in 1929, 89; Theresa Hall, 217; and imaginary line ab, 86; implicitly recognized (1905–6), 70, 224, 443n21; Katchang, 43, 429n57; relies on hunting, 215; reserve (Fort Albany band) allotted (1905), 283; reserve allotted (1930), 89, 386, 444n25; Patrick Spence, 496n24; treaty signatories (1905), 216; Charles Wabano, 298, 496n24. See also Katchang

index Attawapiskat First Nation, 9, 12, 103, 386; agreement with De Beers, 100, 484n26; Cree spoken, 395; Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, 20, 383, 443n22; hospital, 299; Emile Nakogee, 333; Gabe Spence, 9; Third World conditions today, 217; Fred Wesley, 308 Attawapiskat hbc post, 215, 443n20; census, 89, 215 Attawapiskat Lake: called Lansdowne Lake by Bell, 456n34; hbc’s Lansdowne House post at, 175; Neskatanga First Nation at, 387 Attawapiskat River: five outlets to James Bay, 443n20; and imaginary line ab, 86, 281; limestone towers, 515n13 Awrey, Herbert Nathaniel: at Attawapiskat, 444n25; commissioner for 1929–30 adhesion, 86–7, 90, 325; at English River, 205; at Fort Albany, 216; at Fort Hope, 177; at Moose Factory, 229; at Ogoki post, 194; at Osnaburgh, 159; photos, 522; promotes agriculture, 456n51 Badesdawa Lake, 159–60 band (Indian Act): construct of non-Indigenous people, 43, 393; definition, 385; vs. First Nation, 386; renamed trading post bands, 385, 393 band (Indigenous): based on kinship, 33, 334; clans, 162, 427n18; commensal units, 159, 162; exploits fluid territories, 43; groups of varying size, 43, 162; highly mobile and flexible, 43; inseparable from the land, 162, 354; leadership, 33, 513n92; named groups, 43; trades at different posts, 43; vast territories, 162 band (trading post): construct of nonIndigenous people, 43, 162, 385; weak ties, 334 Bank Lake, 273 bannock: incorporated into Indigenous diet, 508n165; Indigenous terminology, 490n69; preparation, 508n164; trader’s fare, 349

index Barebone Island, 251 Bear Bone Island, 212 Beardy, Stan: and northern boreal forest, 101, 377; and Treaty No. 9 commemoration, 97–8. See also Nishnabe Aski Nation Bearskin Lake First Nation, 12, 103, 386; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 386 beaver boss, 332 Beaverhouse First Nation, 12, 386; Ojibwe spoken, 395 Beaverstone River, 89 Beck, Ernest (Toby), 484n22 Bercell Integrated Technologies, 243 Berry Lake, 173 Biederman, William Frederick, 273 Big Bend, 267 Big Lobstick Portage, 264–5 Big Sandy Lake (upper English River), 128, 130–1, 134, 136, 291; location, 42, 429n50; map, 151; photos, 404 Big Trout Lake, 386, 388; 1929 adhesion, 88; band, 43, 177, 473n8; three reserves allotted (1929), 88 Bill C-31. See Indian Act: Bill C-31; Métis Black, Harry, 127; photo, 126 Black Face Portage, 128, 131, 135 Black River, 263, 269 Blacksmith Rapids, 246, 249, 251 Boatman’s Falls, 221 Boulder Rapids, 153, 155 British North America Act: assigns “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians,” 24; erroneous assumption re Indian title, 4; no excuse for secondrate services, 360 Broken Bank Lake, 179 Brunswick House band, 387; treatysigning, 85. See also Brunswick House First Nation; New Brunswick House hbc post; Missinaibi Lake Brunswick House First Nation, 12, 103; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 387 Brunswick Lake, 43 Brunswick River, 491n4

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579

Bryce, Dr Peter, 90 Bullrush Falls, 174 Burnt Island, 128, 131–2, 135 Burnt Portage, 255 Burntwood Portage, 261 Burton Lake, 155 Burwash, Adam, 40, 47, 274, 279 Cachegee, Mike, 99 Cain, Walter Charles: commissioner for 1929–30 adhesion, 86–90; at English River, 205; at Fort Albany, 216; at Fort Hope, 177; at Moose Factory, 229; at Osnaburgh, 159 Canada: 1969 White Paper, 3, 91; and Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 309; acquires Rupert’s Land, 22; Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 24; claims policy, 91, 369–70; inferior services for First Nations, 360; Kelowna Accord, 102; policy of control and marginalization of Indigenous peoples, 23–4; residential school apology, 309–10; Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 370; Statement of Reconciliation, 309; Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 309; unresolved claims today, 91. See also British North America Act; Census of Canada; Constitution Act, 1982; Indian Affairs; Ontario Mining Company v. Seybold; Supreme Court of Canada Canadian National Railway: Cochrane, 75; construction, 125; earlier known as National Transcontinental and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways, 75; Hudson, 127; maps, 54, 276; Nagagami River, 75; Pagwa, 204; projected to cross unsurrendered Indigenous territory, 53, 59, 290; Sioux Lookout, 127; Tashota, 177 Canadian Pacific Railway: access to intoxicants, 84; Biscotasing, 84; Chapleau, 84, 229; crosses unsurrendered Indigenous territory, 45; Dinorwic, 125; effects on Abitibi band, 254, 273;

580 effects on Osnaburgh band, 37; effects on Sahquakegick’s band, 43–4; employment opportunities, 84, 422; English River band, 84–5, 208; Flying Post band, 84; Fort Albany band, 215; Heron Bay, 85; maps, 45, 54, 276; Matagama, 84, 125; Mattagami band, 84; Mattawa, 273; Mattawa to Ottawa, 280; Missanabie, 84–5, 229; Montizambert, 85, 215; Moose Factory band, 296; Ottawa to Dinorwic, 124–5; Timiskaming, 273 Canasheesh, Jimmy, 230 Canoe Lake, 135, 174; photo, 404 Canoe (Kinooshayo) River, 153 Carpenter, John (Fort Hope and Moose Factory), 73, 446n51, 489n38 Carpenter, John (Osnaburgh and Slate Falls), 398 Carpenter, Joseph, 158, 164, 474n37; photo, 165, 405 Cat Lake band, 58, 69, 162, 387, 436n70, 443n17; absentees in 1905, 169; admitted to treaty in 1906, 150– 1, 443n17; agriculture, 351, 448n71; murder investigated, 151; resists surveyors, 43, 429n58; role in gold discovery, 159; separate reserve considered, 443n17; trade at Lac Seul, 145; treaty signatory Oombash, 162; twine for making nets, 448 Cat Lake First Nation, 12, 103; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 387. See also McDowell Lake First Nation Cat Lake hbc post, 158, 398, 473n8; and imaginary line ab, 399; location, 151, 472n3; map, 151 Census of Canada: caution re use of, 518n77; preoccupation with colour and racial origin (1901), 81, 397, 472n64, 477n11, 479n4, 480n12, 482n3, 483n7, 486n12, 487n15–16 Chakasim, Mary, 312 Chapleau: Cheesequini, 120–1; on cpr line, 125; map, 45; residential school, 79, 308; treaty payments at, 84 Chapleau (Moose Factory Crees): nega-

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index tive opinion of Bishop Holmes, 454n8; reserve, 445n32 Chapleau Cree First Nation, 12, 103, 387; Cree language, 395; reserve, 387 Chapleau Ojibway band: favourable opinion of Bishop Holmes, 454n8; reserve, 445n32 Cheechoo, Archie (son of Sinclair), 458n8 Cheechoo, Carol-Anne (daughter of Maude, great-granddaughter of Thomas Vincent, daughter of Tom Tyrer, granddaughter of W. Lorne Tyrer), 229, 498n3 Cheechoo, Charles, 231, 307, 498n3 Cheechoo, Doug M. (son of George), 302 Cheechoo, George (son of Thomas), 231 Cheechoo, Jonathan (son of Mervin and Carol-Anne), 498n3 Cheechoo, Mark (son of Charles), 231, 307 Cheechoo, Mervin (son of George), 138–9, 498n3 Cheechoo, Sinclair, 93, 459n9 Cheechoo, Thomas (son of Mark), 231 Cheepay River, 75, 208, 210, 212–13, 297; Iroquois, 433n13; location, 205; map, 209 Cheesequini: painted by Edmund Morris, 121; photo, 120 Chickeney Creek, 76; map, 225 chiefs and headmen: in 1905–6 parchment treaty, 316–19; in 1905 OliverCochrane agreement, 319; in 1908 Abitibi adhesion, 323; in 1929–30 adhesion, 325; compliance expected, 470n10; deposed by Ottawa, 138; Dorchester instructions, 24; hbc trading chiefs, 20; Indian Act, 137–8; instructions to Ramsden, 70; necessary fiction in treaty-making, 334, 338, 352; in orders-in-council, 60, 65; role conflict, 471n36. See also councillors; First Nations of far northern Ontario: Indigenous notions of leadership Chiezman River, 212

index Children’s Aid Societies: Kunuwanimano, 359; Payukotayno, 359; Tikinagan, 359 child welfare: and 1951 Indian Act revision, 310–11; 1960s scoop, 311; child’s “best interest,” 311; Constance Lake First Nation concerns, 205; devastation of once-independent people, 215; hidden agenda, 359; new relationships, 359; pre-treaty Christian missions, 307; and residential schools, 73, 79, 216, 310, 489n38 Chilton (née Linklater), Elsie, 216 Chilton, Pat, 216 Chum, Derek, 312 Chum, Roger, 312 Clay Falls Portage, 249, 252 colonialism: forms in far northern Ontario, 390 Constance Lake band, 205; reserve, 387 Constance Lake First Nation, 12, 103, 205, 387; child welfare concerns, 205, 482n16–17; mining concerns, 205; Arthur Moore, 482n16–17; reserve, 387 Constitution Act, 1982: section 35(1), xviii, 3; section 52(2), 4–5 Cooper’s Falls, 221 Corston, William, Jr, 480n12 Couchiching Falls, 255, 263, 270, 273; photos, 409 councillors: Fort Albany, 70; Fort Hope, 184; Marten Falls, 197; Moose Factory, 238; New Post, 259; Osnaburgh, 166; as “puny chiefs,” 197. See also chiefs and headmen; First Nations of far northern Ontario: Indigenous notions of leadership Cow Byre Portage, 171–2, 174 Cranes, 43, 89, 158, 162, 296, 389, 429n58, 470n10, 473n6 Cree language. See First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Cree) Crow River, 160 Crown: fiduciary relationship with aboriginal peoples, 4; great chief in Indigenous world view, 8–9, 23; great father,

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581 according to Scott, 8; Lieutenant-General Bartleman hosts treaty commemoration event, 97; post-treaty obligations, 100; pre-surrender fiduciary duty, 4; Queen Elizabeth invited to treaty commemoration, 97; sovereignty, 94, 289, 352, 360–1; two crowns vs. fiduciary duty, 360, 362. See also Canada; Ontario; Supreme Court of Canada

Dancing Portage, 276 De Beers Canada, 100, 217, 257, 379 Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski, 94–5 decolonizing, 427n20 Deep and Shoal Lake, 171–3, 476n52 Deep River, 155 Deer Lake band, 32, 388–9 Deer Lake First Nation, 12, 104, 387; reserve, 387 Deer Tent Lake, 172, 476n52, 476n57 Detour Lake, 230 Devil Rapids, 201 Devil’s Island, 144 Dick, John: and residential schools, 234, 239, 307, 343 Dick, Oliver (grandson of John), 371 Dinorwic: cpr station, 37, 125; hbc post, 37, 125; Louttit at, 81; map, 127, 151; treaty annuity payments at, 38, 40; wagon road to Big Sandy Lake, 42, 127 Dog Hole Lake, 161 Donald (Wascowin), Emily, 79–80, 307; attends residential school, 79; graduates from high school, 79; graduates from North Bay Normal School, 80; loses status upon marriage, 80; parents of, 79; resists Indian agent, 80 Dorchester protocols, 24–5 Eabamet Lake, 177, 283; hbc post at, 175; map, 171; photos, 188, 406–7 Eabametoong First Nation, 12, 103, 387; new relationships (mining), 177– 8; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 387 Eagle’s Nest River, 212

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education: Indian control of, 311 Eeyou, 391 Ekwan River, 89 Elbow Lake, 171–2, 182, 364, 476n53 Elkhorn Indian Industrial School, 79 enfranchisement. See Indian Act: enfranchisement English River (Albany River tributary). See Kenogami River English River (Lake Winnipeg drainage), 31, 142 English River band, 70, 204, 206–8, 387; accepting gratuity means entering treaty, 206, 208; at Chapleau, 84; Christian missions to, 481n3; Cree spoken, 206, 397; election, 204; at Heron Bay, 85; initially considered part of Fort Albany band, 206–8; at Montizambert, 85; Ojibwe spoken, 397; payments along Albany River, 212; posttreaty changes, 204–5; recognized as a band, 69–70; resembles Ojibwe, 206; reserve, 205, 207–8, 283; reserve survey, 75; separate pay-list, 204; treaty photos, 119, 203, 206–7, 407; treatymaking, 205–8; visited by Cain and Awrey, 205. See also Constance Lake band English River hbc post, 202–3; also known as Mamawimattawa, 203, 481n1; first known as South River fort, 203; Indian clerk, 208; location, 202, 205; map, 199, 209; photo, 203; Wabashi River site, 203 Espagnol, Louis, 44–5; 1884 plea to Phipps, 44, 430n70, 431n75; 1886 plea to Borron, 44, 431n72; 1899 plea to Macrae and Scott, 44, 430n68–9; 1901 plea to Stewart at Biscotasing, 45, 431n76; 1902 meeting with Nichols at Biscotasing, 52; also known as Sahquakegick, 429n64; Indian Affairs response, 48, 50; photos, 46, 84, 121, 431n73 Fafard, François-Xavier, 222, 477n9; denunciation of Indigenous practices in

index catechism, 308; role at Fort Albany, 178–9, 218, 220, 224, 298, 313; role at Fort Hope, 180, 182, 185–6 Faires, Donald J., 243 far northern Ontario: term explained, 391–3 Faries-Akiwenzie, Patricia, 312 feldspar, 191 Fiddler, Alvin, 97 fiduciary (trust) relationship, 4 fire: 1929–30 adhesion, 159, 177; differing attitudes toward, 200, 480n16; effects of prospectors and, 51; thunderbirds, 481n16 First Nation: vs. band, 386 First Nation languages of far northern Ontario, 395, 397; animacy, 299, 331, 501n17; language retention or shift, 94, 311; pronunciation, xix, 397; Proto-Algonquian, 331; syllabics, 8, 182, 222–4, 297, 344, 475n, 516n; word order, 331 First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Cree), 390–1, 395; aataloohkaan (pl. –ak), 139, 336, 503n49; aatanoohkan, 139; achaapiy, 476n53; achichamosh, 449n88; ahtay, 347, 507n138; akaamaskiy, 400; alakonaw, 490n69; amisk, 331; amisk-okimaaw, 332; anakonaw, 490n69; apwaanaask, 472n53; ashatamakewin, 346; askiy, 95; askiykan, 482n6; atikamek, 480n12; bekodeno, 510n12; chiipay, 75; chiipilew siipii, 253; e’kwaani piko eskwaapihkeyaak, 378, 513n104; e-kitimaakisiyaahk, 223; eko maaka, 17; e-liilamisiyaahk, 223; -hkaan, 506n123; ishkotew apoyii, 332; Ililimowin, 395; ililiw (pl. –ak), 390; Ininiimowin, 395; ininiw (pl. –ak), 79, 215, 390; iskwew, 472; kaa-ishi-kitimaakelimiyaahk, 223 ; kaa-ishi-wiichihiyaahk, 223; -kaan, 20, 506n123; kakeekay, 9; -kan suffix, 506n123; katawakpiskaw, 515n13; katibelitaman pimaatisiwin, 496n25; kawaapisit, 331; kichi-manitoo, 379,

index 496n25; kichi-okimaaw, 8–9, 223–4, 446n52; kiilawaaw, 223; kinanaaskomitin, xvi; kinanaaskomitinaan, 223; kinoshew, 472n65; koohkoosh, 490n69; kootowan, 478n14; -kosihs, 479n29; maahkiy, 332; maasinahiikan, 345, 506n123; makoshaaniwan, 508n165; makoshewin, 508n165; mandew, 331; manitoo (pl. –wak), 496n25; masinahikew, 345; meegwetch, xix, 417n1; miikiwaam, 213, 332; mikinak, xx, 9, xvii, xix; milo-waahkomitoowin, 346; mimiiniskaaw, 476n56; minowaahkomitoowin, 346; mistikohkan, 332; mitew (pl. –ak), 345; mooswa, 331; mushkego (pl. –uk), 390; Mushkegowiimowin, 395; naaspich, 223; naskoomitowin, 345; natoowak (pl.), 433n13; nesta, 223; niiyawinaahk, 223; nikii-otihtikonaan, 223; nikosihs, 479n29; nimooshoom, 372; nitaskiinaahk, 223; nitehinaahk, 223; ochiskwachiw, 372–3; ohci, 223; okimaaw (pl. –ak), 20; okimaahkaan (diminutive –ishish; pl. –ak), 8, 480n13; okipahowesiw, 350; omashkiiko, 390; opistikweyaaw, 502; pahkweshikan, 490n69; palachiis, 502n; pastaamowin, 372; peyakwahtay, 507n138; piisimohkan, 332; pimaatisiwin, 38; powagan (pl. –ak), 139; shaakanaapiy, 449n84; s(h)imaakanish, 509n174; shooliyaan, 159, 473n17; shooliyaan-ikimaw, 442n9; shooniyaan, 159, 473n17; shooniyaan-ikimaaw, 442n9; simaakanis, 509n174; tehtapon, 331; tehtapwin, 331; tipachimowin, 470n28; uspikinakun, 506n123; waachiye, 295, 330, 496n18; waaposh, 331; waaskaahikan, 332; wemistikoshihkaan, 395; wemistikoshiw, 76, 331; wiihtikow, 496n21; wiinashk, 337 First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Ojibwe, including Oji-Cree),

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583 395–7; aabitabiing, 273; aadizookaan (pl. –ag), 139, 503n49; aapidaabiing, 272–3; achaab, 476n53; adikogiwaam, 476n57; akakojiish, 492n16; akiwenzi, 137, 469n8; amik, 331; Anishinaabemowin, 395; anishinaabens, 336; Anishininiimowin, 395; Anishininiw (pl. –ag), 397; ashotamaagewin, 346; baashkizigan, 506n123; bakwezhigan, 490n69; bananjiis, 335, 502n44; bawaaganak, 139; beshkwaagami, 491n3; biidaawaanga, 478n23; bimaadiziwin, 37, 139; bizhiw, 58; bizhiwi-zaaga’iganiiwininiwag, 436n70; booyawe, 428n28; boozhoo, 330, 496n18; bwaani-niimi’idiwin, 138; dakoniwewinini, 509n174; desabiwin, 332; dibaajimowin, 470n28; e-aabamadong, 177, 476n1; gaagige, 9; -gan, 506n123; ganawenimaaganoo, 510n12; gayaashk, 335; gichi-ogimaa (pl. –g), 9; ginebig-onigam, 476n54; ginoogami, 503n54; ginoozhe, 472n65; gookoosh, 490n69; gwiiwizens, 336; -ish, 503n49; ishkodewaaboo, 332; ishkwaakwaa, 129, 468n32; ishkwe-giizhig, 430n64; jiisakiiwinini (pl. –wag), 121; -kaan, 506n123; manidoo (pl. –g), 138; mazinahigan, 506n123; mide (pl. –g), 138; midewakik, 131; midewigaan, 139; midewiwin, 138; misaabe, 37; mishkiigogamaang, 157, 472n1; mooniyaw, 336; mooniyaawinini, 496n17; mooz, 331; myagianishnaabe, 331; naadoweg (pl.), 468n25; naadowesiwag, 468n25; naawi-giizhig, 335; nakomidiwin, 345; name, 336; nitam, 436n70; ogimaa (pl. –g), 20; ogimaakaan (pl. –ag), 475n40; ogimaakaan(en)s, 8, 197, 480n13; omakakiins, 492n17; ombaash, 335; onaakonigewin, 504n87; oshkiniigi (–sh), 336, 503n49; waab, 272; waabano (pl. –wag), 471n36; waabanoowin, 138; waabishgaagami, 516n24; waabishkegin, 516n24; waabishkiiwed, 331; waabooz, 336; waazhi-zaaga’igan,

584

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479n36; wemitigoozhi, 331; wiigwaas, 139; wiinaange, 336, 503n49; wiindigo, 496n21; zhaabo-giizhig, 405, 474n37; zhaagnaash, 331, 496n18; zhigaag, 39; zhooniyaa, 473n17; zhooniyaawigima, 356, 442n9 First Nations of far northern Ontario, 386–90; affiliations, 112; airlines, 99; as allies, 17, 45; allocation of territories, 340, 382; begin to reside on reserves, 92–3, 102–4, 398; bilingual-bicultural education, 308, 311; bilingualism (Cree- or Ojibwe-English), 47, 308, 332; bilingualism (Cree-Ojibwe), 67, 204, 397; bimaadiziwin in decision-making, 340; bimaadiziwin inseparable from health, 299; bimaadiziwin and Treaty No. 9, 158, 194, 338, 357, 368; blessings, 139, 299, 475n46; cash a novelty, 293–4, 347–8, 495n13; child welfare, 205, 359; civilizations, 9; clans, 162, 427n18; clothing, 235–6, 483n10; colonization, 390; commensal unit, 159, 510n12; communities, 111; “complaints,” 93, 140, 145, 159, 161, 177, 216; concept of wealth, 215; concern for future generations, 178, 217; confused by Canadian laws, 23, 513n91; consensus, 176, 183, 339, 474n39; conservation, 382; cooking meat on a cord, 373; cooking meat on a stick, 508n165; cornucopia of country food, 347; cultural hybridity, 9, 37; Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski, 94–5; dependency, 7, 242, 348, 418n36; diapers, 497n8; dogs, 484n27; dream helpers, 139; drum dance, 138–9; drum (Sioux) dance, 138; drums, 129, 138–9, 144, 147, 296, 308; dualism, 9; “eat-all” feast, 349; education, local control of, 311, 380; education gap, 311–12, 380; employment, 37, 41, 55, 74, 176, 194, 204, 208, 214, 227–8, 398, 444n29; and employment opportunities today, 369; and forestry, 162; gambling games, 8, 418n44–419n47; game wardens, 177, 332; gifts of to-

index bacco at graves, 141; good relationships, importance of, 346; graves, 155, 160, 172, 189, 191, 201, 476n58 (see also subheadings gifts of tobacco at graves; rabbitskin blanket at graves; visiting the dead; Weenusk family grave); graves at Lake Abitibi, 270; guardian spirits, 139; healing and wellness, 38, 138, 143, 299, 301, 309; humour, 7–9; hunting groups, 43, 159, 162, 385; hunting rights, 90, 95–6, 177; and hydroelectricity, 64, 99–100, 379; importance to geologists and prospectors, 39, 176, 398; Indian title acknowledged, 48, 433n5; Indigenous notions of leadership, 20, 33, 334, 339, 377, 385, 513n92; inferior services, 360; inseparable from the land, 354; invasion of, 231; messages left by travellers, 246, 297; midewiwin, 138– 42 passim, 144; and mining, 100, 162, 178, 205, 217, 377, 379; mobility, 43, 393, 398–9; moccasin telegraph, 209– 10; naked, 7, 172; new relationships, 195, 231–2 (see also subheadings child welfare; education, local control of; and forestry; and hydroelectricity; and mining); non-interference, 93, 330, 350, 469n9, 513n92; off-reserve residency, 102–4, 399; origins, xx, 384, 417n3; owning the land, 41, 379, 433n22; and pan-Indianism, 301; participate in multiple worlds, 9, 37, 45; patronymic, 450n106, 492n16; pity (English concept), 379; pity (Indigenous concept), 19, 141, 223–4; poached upon, 204; polygamy, 165, 294, 475n41; population today (onand off-reserve), 103–4; post-treaty hardships, 92–3, 142, 159–61, 177, 215–17, 230–1, 255–6, 332, 359, 371, 373, 376–7, 446n52; power, 19–20, 23, 35, 391, 393, 475n46; pre-treaty hardships, 21, 44, 47, 51, 223, 227–8, 253, 398; proper behaviour, 475n46; quality of life today, 376; rabbitskin blanket at graves, 191; reciprocity,

index 349, 508n163; refusing a gift unthinkable, 348–9; reject terrorism, 94; resilience, 379; resist external control, 92–6, 100, 177, 372; respect for prey, 495n10; respectful talk, 340, 346, 476n51; reticence, 183, 210, 292, 296, 495n28; shaking tent, 121, 138, 308, 371, 419n53, 466n68; sharing food, 349, 508n162–3; sharing the land, 340, 346, 377; sharing wealth, 101, 231, 377; Sioux (drum) dance, 138; social controls, 371; sovereignty, 94, 360; squatters, 230, 488n29; starving, 19, 92, 164, 303, 334, 398, 456n51, 458n3; strands of history, 367–8; subsistence trapping (vs. laziness), 40–1; suicide, 93, 95, 98, 143, 301–2, 312, 359, 376; sun dance, 142–3; territories as homeland, 161, 253, 382, 338–40; territories as jigsaw vs. checkerboard, 400; territories not conforming to political boundaries, 180, 229, 399–400, 505n107; territories not mapped in 1905, 51, 344; territories vast and fluid, 43–4, 92, 338–9, 393, 398–9; tobacco, 21, 140–1, 270, 334; tourist guides, 176; visiting the dead, 476n58; Weenusk family grave, 267; wife-beating, 444n29; world war participation, 90, 457n57, 474n35. See also band (Indigenous); Nishnawbe Aski Nation; tribal councils Fishing Creek, 21, 213 Fletcher, John, 230, 232, 489n46 Flour Portage, 155 Flour Rapids, 153 Flying Post band, 387; incursions (mining), 53, 86; payments at Biscotasing, 84; treaty-making, 84 Flying Post First Nation, 12, 103, 387; reserve, 387 Fort Albany band, 387; 1905 election deferred, 220, 224; 1906 election, 70; Christian missions to, 220–4, 296; favourable comments by Wesley and Goodwin, 219, 222, 224; king’s intentions, 221–2; pay-list based on hbc

•

585

census, 347; payment at Lac Seul, 69; payments along Albany River, 212; post-treaty changes, 216–17; pre-treaty hospital and residential school, 220–4, 308, 313–14; reserve, 223, 232, 283, 387; reserve surveyed, 76; role of Bishop Holmes in treaty-making, 218–20, 222, 224; signatories, 218; Andrew Solomon, 216–17; syllabic message from Goodwin, 223–4; treaty photos, 221, 404, 407–8; two chiefs, 217, 224 Fort Albany First Nation, 12, 103, 387; agreement with De Beers, 100; Cree spoken, 395; grievance with Ontario Power Generation, 100; reserve, 387 Fort Albany hbc post, 214–15; Cain and Awrey visit, 216; census, 347; map, 209, 225; photo of treaty party at, 109 Fort Albany residential school, 96, 308, 359 Fort Hope band, 385–7, 389–90; agriculture not feasible, 186; Cain and Awrey visit, 177; Christian missions to, 180, 182, 478n28; concerns of Moses Wesley, 377; Katchang accepts money, 183; Katchang’s letter, 446n52; king’s intentions, 182; leaders request waterfront reserve, 184; map, 171; Moonias suspicious, 183, 185; orphans, 446n52, 489n38; outside promises, 186; photos, 181, 183, 185–6; polygamy, 475n41; post-treaty changes, 177; prospectors at, 429n46; rcmp investigation, 444n29; reserve, 72–4, 178, 184, 283; reserve survey, 72–4; role of Fafard in treaty-making, 180, 185; signatories, 178–9; territory, 180; useless land, 185; Yesno’s comments, 183, 185 Fort Hope gold area, 177 Fort Hope hbc post, 175–6; census, 177 Fort Severn band, 287, 387; 1930 adhesion, 89–90, 324; reserve, 89 Fort Severn First Nation, 12, 103, 387; reserve, 387 Fort Severn hbc post: census, 456n48

586

•

Frederick House Lake, 267; map, 262 Frederick House River, 261; map, 262 free traders, 125, 137, 204, 273, 421n50, 477n2, 482n11 French Creek. See North French River Frenchman’s Head, 40, 127, 129, 133–4, 136–7, 142, 145, 291 French Post, 76, 228–9 French River. See North French River Gagnon, Walter, 376 game wardens, 28–9 George, Dudley, 97, 371, 512n67 Ghost River. See Cheepay River Gillies, Donald, 75 Ginoogaming First Nation, 12, 387–8; reserve 387–8 Gloucester Lake, 189 God Island, 144 Goodwin, Jamie, 376 Goodwin, William, 219, 222, 224, 477– 8n14; syllabic address, 223 Grand Council Treaty No. 9, 94–5; Declaration of Nishnawbe-Aski, 94; succeeded by Nishnawbe Aski Nation, 95 Grand Traverse, 164, 167 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. See National Transcontinental Railway Granny’s Rock, 263, 269; photo, 263, 409 Gray-McKay, Connie, 162 Grey Nuns. See Soeurs Grises de la Croix Groundhog Lake (near Timmins), 492n16 Groundhog River, 492n16 “half-breeds,” 13; in 1905 parchment treaty, 319; Batt, 469n3; Begg, 469n3; Bruce, 469n3; Bunn, 480n12; Carey, 78; Minnie Cochrane, 482n3; Corston, 480n12; Emily Donald, 79; dualism in commissioners’ writings, 8, 127; Elson, 480n12; Faries, 480n12; Favell, 480n12; at Fort Hope (1930), 177; fur trade company families, 395; Goodwin, 478n14, 497n8; Gordon, 477n5; Hardisty, 419n48; Indigenous termi-

index nology, 395; Sam Iserhoff, 459n9, 479n4; Lawson, 472n3; James Linklater, 483n7; James Duncan MacKenzie, 469n3; Jesse Catherine MacKenzie, 469n3; Fred Mark, 487n15; McKay, 480n12; McLeod, 78, 242, 253, 487n16; George McLeod, 242, 487n16; McNab, 480n12; in Meindl’s report, 498n23; Miller, 8, 256, 419n48; Moar, 487n15; Moore, 242, 395; Morrison, 242; J.G. Mowat, 486n12; north of Albany River, 50, 52, 241; Richards, 478n24; Edward Richards, 477n11; Isaac Ritch, 467n19, 494n13; Scott and, 111; in Scott’s fiction, 452n116; Setter, 469n3; Spence, 469n3; Sutherland, 419n48; James Swain, 467n18; Taylor, 78; Turner, 228; John Horden Vincent, 472n64; Thomas Vincent, 441n148; Udgaarden, 78, 228; Andrew Wesley, 443n23; Williams, 428n25, 473n4 Hannah Bay: 1832 murders, 371; map, 225; Moose Factory band reserve, 488n23; non-Indigenous trappers, 230; possible railway terminus, 76 Hardisty, Norman, Jr, 100, 231–2 Harris, Mike: disregards Statement of Political Relationships with Ontario First Nations, 101–2; Linden concludes he uttered racist remark, 371; Ontario Superior Court rules workfare legislation “offends” reality of aboriginal peoples, 96 headlands, 49, 52–3, 73, 160, 322 health and health care, 299–302; Meindl’s report, 302–6 height-of-land: 1899 inspection tour, 423n98, 459n17, 462n11; appeals for assistance along, 40–7; in commissioners’ official report, 123, 281; east, 152, 156; influence on Scott’s poetry, 462– 3n11; map, 262; Mattagami hbc post, 51; northern limit of Canada West, 44; northern limit of Robinson Treaties, 44; in Oliver-Cochrane agreement (1905), 320; Ontario Ministry of

index Lands and Forests restricts harvesting rights, 459n17; in orders-in-council, 60, 441n4, 445n33; in parchment treaty, 317; photos, 118, 405; separates Long Lake band, 28; separates Louis Espagnol’s band, 44, 430n70 Height-of-Land Portage: east, 275, 277; west, 154 Henley House, 193, 210, 212; map, 209 Heron Bay: English River treaty payments at, 85 High Rock Falls, 174 Holmes, George (Anglican bishop), 184, 483n5; accompanies commissioners, 225, 239, 245–6, 408; opposed to scrip, 242; residential school plans, 314; role in Fort Albany treaty-making, 218–20, 222, 224; role in Moose Factory treaty-making, 228, 234–5, 240 Hookimaw-Witt, Jackie, 20, 383, 443n22 Hornepayne First Nation, 12, 388; Ojibwe spoken, 395 Hudson’s Bay Company (hbc): 1670 charter, 393; barter, 19, 256; census at Abitibi, 500n11; census at Attawapiskat, 89, 215; census at Fort Albany, 347; census at Fort Hope, 177; census at Fort Severn, 456n48; census at Marten Falls, 194; census at Winisk, 456n47; colonialism, 390; competition (free traders), 125, 137, 204, 273, 421n50, 477n2, 482n11; competition (Revillon Frères), 393; debt system, 137, 347, 506n124; dog teams, 219; early alliances, 17; early trading ceremonies, 21; effects of cpr, 208, 227–8; expenses, 287, 435n58–9; interpreters, 85, 168, 182, 197, 221, 234; and laziness, 41; Long Lake post, 204; made beaver, 347; medicine sales, 497n2; Montizambert post, 204; naming of geographic features, 393; paternalism, 347; physicians, 497n8; pre-treaty economizing, 214–15, 227–8; rations, 176, 214, 477n6; role in planning

•

587

Treaty No. 9, 55–66 passim; sale of intoxicants, 84; standard of trade, 347; trading chiefs, 20; trading post bands, 43, 162, 334, 385; treaty annuity windfall, 36, 38, 56, 181, 348; treaty provides competitive advantage, 56; work ethic, 418n41 Hugh(ie)’s Creek, 171; photo, 406; portage, 476n52 Hugh(ie)’s Rapids, 172–3 Hunter, Luke, 99, 460n32, 475n41, 513n91 Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario: created summer 1905, 64; floods Lac Seul, 142; Long Lake diversion, 194; New Post Creek diversion, 255; Root River diversion, 160; incursions on Abitibi River, 255. See also Ontario Hydro Ililimowin, 395 imperialism, 390 Independent First Nations Alliance, 548 Indian: author’s use of term, xviii; common English self-designation, 394; dualism in commissioners’ writings, 8, 127; vs. First Nation citizen, xviii; provincial laws subordinate to treaty terms (1951), 90; subject to federal and provincial laws except where restricted by Indian Act (1914), 69; use of term by commissioners, 393; use depends on context, xviii Indian Act: 1968–9 consultations, 90–1; alcohol prohibitions, 8, 310; band (definition) , 385–6; Bill C-31 changes eligibility requirements, 79; blood quantum, 80, 394; chiefs, 137–8; child welfare (1951), 310–11; colonial rule, 69; commutation, 78; conflicts with treaty promises, 79–80; discriminates against women, 78–9, 394; enfranchisement, 78–9, 81; vs. First Nation territory, 397–8; forbids raising of funds for legal claims (1927–51), 28, 424n104; imposition via treaty, 390; Indian (definition c. 1905), 393–4; Indian lands,

588

•

397; indirect rule, 137; involuntarily imposed, 69, 78; morality, 69; vs. offreserve, 103–4, 398–9; origin, 68–9; pass system, 338; reserve, 397; sobriety, 69, 81; and treaty implementation, 68–9; tutelage, 69 Indian Act bands. See band (Indian Act) Indian Affairs: agent-doctors, 229, 44n25; agent understood to be money boss, 69; assimilation vs. control, 348; authority prior to Confederation, 48; complaints referred to local agent, 458n8; department created in 1880, 394; officials as great chiefs, 9, 377; propaganda, 7, 90, 456n49; silencing of Bryce, 90; superintendent general (minister), 394 Indian title, 3–4, 24, 31, 48; and Crown, 370 Indigenous: author’s use of term, xviii– xix; problematic, 395 Ininiimowin, 395 International Nickel Ventures, 100 Inuit (pl. of Inuk): Belcher Island murders, 444n29; at Charlton Island, 400, 518n95 Ipperwash Inquiry: finds Harris uttered racist remark, 371; recommends Treaty Commission of Ontario, 369 Iroquois Falls, 255, 263, 269; photos, 409 Iroquois Point, 263, 271 Iserhoff, Sam, 459n9, 479n4; hbc postmaster at Marten Falls, 194 Ishkaqwa Portage, 129, 133, 135; photo, 126 isinglass, 347 Island Falls, 266 Island Lake (Manitoba), 387 Island Lake (Ontario), 275, 277, 410; photo, 410 Iyiyu, 391 Jack Fish River, 153 James Bay: eastern, 388; western, 225 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (jbnqa), 82, 360, 373–5, 388, 396; map, 26

index Jeffries, Lawrence (Logan), 99 Jolly, George, 372 Kakatoosh Lake, 492n16 Kakatoosh River, 492n16 Kakegamic, 473n6 Kakepetum, 473n6 Kanooshayoo Seepee (near Lac Seul), 153 Kapashesit, Randy, 395 Kapkichegimaga Lake, 159 Kasabonika Lake First Nation, 12, 103, 388; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 388 Kasheechewan First Nation, xvii, 9, 12, 103, 216–17, 387–8; agreement with De Beers Canada, 100; Cree spoken, 395, 507; deaths of Jamie Goodwin and Ricardo Wesley, 376; grievances with Ontario Power Generation, 100; local control of education, 302; Jonathan Solomon, 216–17; suicide, 302, 376 Kasobanajing, 267 Katchang: absent for treaty signing, 183; asks for payment as chief, 184; concern for orphans, 73; confusion re reserve, 73; elected chief, 180; initially opposes treaty money, 183; letter to great chief, 73; meets surveyor Galbraith, 72; opposed to government control, 43; promises to encourage adherence to law, 184; reluctantly touches the pen, 184; requests waterfront reserve, 184; wife speaks in favour of treaty, 183 Kawazie, Henry, 144–6 Kawinogans Lake, 398 Ka-wi-tos-kam-igamog, 478n25 Kawitos Lake, 478n25 Keenapick, 476n60 Keewaytinook Okimakanak, 549 Keewaywin First Nation, 12, 104, 388; reserve, 388 Kejick Bay, 142 Kenaibik Inigum, 476n54 Kenogami River, 202–3, 283; map, 187, 199, 209; photo, 407

index Kenogamissi Lake hbc post, 117, 253, 491n11 Kesagami Lake, 229–30, 444n29, 459n9 Kettle Falls, 261, 267 Key, Amos, 9 Kingfisher Lake band, 388 Kingfisher Lake First Nation, 12, 103, 388; bilingual-bicultural education, 311; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 88, 388 Kinosheo Lake, xv Kinosheo River, 486n38; map, 225 Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (ki), 12, 103, 377, 388; ki six, 100–1, 362– 3, 368; Donny Morris, 100–1, 377; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 388 Kitchesagi, 72, 178, 184, 283 knet.ca (Keewaytinook Okimakanak News), 384 Koocheching First Nation, 12, 104, 388; reserve, 388 Kunuwanimano (Child and Family Services), 359 Kwetabohigan River, 204; maps, 209, 225 Lac Seul band, 21, 32, 37, 39; annuity payments at, 38, 40, 51, 58; chief Henry Kawazie, 137; commissioners’ photos, 405; impact of cpr, 37; impact of National Transcontinental Railway, 127; maps, 54, 127, 151; mide Neotanaqueb, 139; midewiwin at, 38; mining near, 137; post-1905 hydroelectricity incursions, 142; prospecting near, 41, 137; and Treaty No. 3, 30–1; white dog feast at Keesic Bay, 137–42, 147–50; Noah Wesley paid at, 69 Lac Seul First Nation (Obishikokaang), 12; grievance with Ontario Power Generation, 99–100 Lac Seul hbc post, 125, 137; map, 127, 151 Lansdowne House band. See Neskatanga First Nation Landsdowne House hbc post, 175 Lawashi River, 443n20; map, 225

•

589

Le Camp, Lorraine, 79, 384 Lick at the Hole, 171–2, 174 Linklater, George Robert (nephew of James), 216, 443n23, 484n20 Linklater, James, 221, 483n7, 484n20 Linklater, Munroe (son of George Robert), xvii–xix, 216, 331 Little Abitibi River, 246, 249, 251; diversion, 255; map, 244 Little Height of Land Portage (east), 277 Little Lobstick Portage, 264 Little Narrows River, 190 Little Sturgeon River, 201 lobstick, 247, 249 Lobstick Portage, 261 Lobstick Rapids, 245 Lonely River, 278 Lonesome River, 273 Long Dog Lake, 390 Long Lake: photo of commissioners’ fleet, 19 Long Lake band: absent for Robinson Treaty negotiations, 27; divided by Robinson-Superior Treaty, 85, 388, 423n98; hydroelectricity incursions, 194; mining incursions, 53 Long Lake 58 First Nation (RobinsonSuperior Treaty), 388; Newatchigigswabe, 85; reserve, 388 Long Lake 77 band (Treaty No. 9), 12, 388; mistranslation during treaty deliberations, 85; reserve, 445n32; treaty signing, 85 Long Portage (Abitibi River), 253 Long Sault Rapids, 261, 268; photo, 409 Lost Lake, 135; map, 127 Louttit, James, 81, 204, 215; and Ontario’s offer, 453n125; prefers money over land, 452n124; Ramsden suggests admission to Treaty No. 9, 453n125 Louttit, Stan J., 376, 553 Louttit, Stan L., 384 Louttit, William (Bill), 223 Louttit, William (grandfather of Bill, Stan J., and Stan L.), 384 Lower Ear Falls, 142 Lubicon Cree, 33

590

•

Luke, Andrew, 454n4 Luke, John, 259–60, 263, 492n16 Lynx Portage, 153, 160 Lynx Rapids, 155 MacMartin, Daniel George, 6, 8–9; biographical sketch, 114–15; records commissioners’ oral explanations, 182, 197, 212, 221, 237, 260; photo, 109; sample page of diary, 116; transcription of diary, 115 Makokibatan Lake, 189, 296 Mamma(wii)mattawa, 203, 387; map, 199 Manidoo Minising, 144 Manitou Falls, 142 Mark, Fred, 487n15; daughter marries G.T. Moore, 78; elected chief, 238; sister married to “half-breed” petitioner William McLeod, 82; speaks in favour of treaty, 234, 237–9 Marshy Lake, 153 Marshy Portage, 129 Matawa First Nations, 554 Marten Falls band, 388; 1910 treaty payment celebration, 74; Awrey visits, 194; chief expresses gratitude, 196, 198; Christian missions to, 190, 196, 198, 480n12; initial reserve, 195–8, 283; king’s intentions, 197; leaders agree to smaller reserve, 198; leaders desire waterfront reserve, 197–8; Elijah Moonias, 195; must obey the law or face punishment, 197; and Ogoki diversion, 194–5; Ojibwe spoken, 395; relocated reserve, 187, 195; reserve question resolved, 196; survey of initial reserve, 74–5; suspicions, 196; treaty signatories, 195; William Whitehead elected chief, 196 Marten Falls First Nation, 12, 103, 388; concerns about development, 195; reserve, 388; settles grievance with Ontario Power Generation, 99 Marten (Martin, Marten’s) Falls hbc

index post, 193–4, 479n1; census, 194; map, 187; photo, 193; post-treaty changes, 194 Martin, Lawrence, 96 Matachewan band, 284, 388, 495; Nighthawk Lake, 454n3; post-treaty incursions (mining), 86–7; reserve, 388, 445n32; at Timmins, 84, 87; treaty signing, 84, 454n2 Matachewan First Nation, 12, 103, 388; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 388 Matachewan hbc post, 51, 84; Nighthawk Lake outpost, 454n3 Mattagami band, 51, 84, 285, 388; hydroelectricity incursions, 100; mining incursions, 53; payments at Biscotasing, 84; photos of treaty-making, 22, 341; reserve, 388; treaty signatories, 454n4; treaty signing in 1906, 84 Mattagami First Nation, 12, 103; Neveu surname, 419n 48, 454n4, 497n8; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 388; settles grievance with Ontario Hydro, 100 Mattagami hbc post, 51; James Miller, 8, 419n48; Joseph Miller, 454n4 Mattagami River, 100, 231, 491n4; map, 45, 54 Mattawa (near Lac Seul), 137, 469n Mattawa (near North Bay), 115, 125, 280; map, 276 Maynard Falls, 142 McDougall, Harry: denounces 1908 adhesion, 86 McDougall, Louis: 1906 treaty signing, 84; 1908 adhesion, 323; photos, 46–7, 432n81; pre-treaty visit to Ottawa, 47; requests assistance, 432n79 McDougall Chute (on Black River), 86 McDougall Chute Indians, 85–6 McDowell Lake First Nation, 12, 388; reserve, 388 McLeod, Alexander, Jr (son of Alexander): witness at Flying Post treaty signing, 449n88

index McLeod, Alexander, Sr, 449n88 McLeod, George (son of Alexander), 487n16; “half-breed” petitioner, 242; interpreter at Moose Factory treaty signing, 234 McLeod, John (son of Alexander), 77, 449n88 McLeod, Wilbert (grandson of William Sr), 82 McLeod, William, Jr (son of George), 78, 450n95, 487n16 McLeod, William, Sr (son of Alexander): “half-breed” petitioner, 242, 450n95 medals, 25, 45; Treaty No. 9, 88 Meekis, Bart, 354 Meindl, Dr Alexander George: biographical sketch, 115–16; photo, 109; report, 116, 302–6, 282 Metatawabin, Ed, 96 Métis, 395–6; 1905 Moose Factory petition, 242; 1905 Ontario offer land, 81, 452n119, 453n125; 1905 petitioners’ claim unresolved, 82; William Archibald asks to be placed on band list, 81, 452n122; Bill C-31 confers status on some descendents, 79; braided history, 367–8; claims acknowledged in 1903, 241–2; claims policy in Ontario, 82; dualism in commissioners’ writings, 8, 127; employment prospects, 22, 242–3, 245; federal-provincial correspondence re petition, 80–1, 451n113–14; historiography, 384; ignored in commissioners’ writings, 8, 127, 290–1, 313, 395; and Indian women who marry petitioners or their descendents, 78; Indigenous terminology, 395; ineligible for Indian residential schools, 242, 313; Louttit aware of Ontario’s offer, 452n124–5; Manitoba Act, 240–1; North-West Half-Breed Commission, 241; Ontario’s approach to, 82; participate in multiple worlds, 9; paymaster Ramsden aware of Ontario’s offer, 81; petitioners rejected by

•

591

commissioners, 80; Powley decision, 82; pre-treaty legal decisions, 451n115; problematic term, 396; racial theories, 81, 452n119, 453n126, 453n128; Ramsden suggests Louttit be admitted to Treaty No. 9, 453n125; residency vs. blood quantum in jbnqa, 82–3; scrip, 34; Treaty No. 3, 241; Treaty No. 6, 241; Treaty No. 8, 34, 50; Treaty No. 10, 80. See also Census of Canada: preoccupation with colour and racial origin (1901) middle ground, 9, 21, 23, 36, 351–2, 368, 375, 390 Migratory Birds Conservation Act: resistence by Moose Factory chief, 95; resistence by Mushkegowuk Council, 96; violates Rupert’s Land protection pledge, 96; violates commissioners’ treaty promises, 359 Miller, James Slater, 8, 419n48 Miller, William L., 256 Miminiska Lake, 171, 173, 174, 296, 476n56; map, 171 Ministikawatin Peninsula, 50; map, 225 Minitaki Lake, 41, 128, 131, 135, 137; map, 127, 151 Mishkeegogamang First Nation, 12, 103, 161–2, 388; Connie Gray-McKay, 162; Ojibwe spoken, 395; relationship with Ontario Hydro, 99; reserve, 388; Ronald Roundhead, 98 Missabay, 37, 39; elected chief at Osnaburgh, 166; expresses concern about reserve, 170, 293; photos, 157, 428n31; respectful speech, 170, 293 Missanabie Cree First Nation, 12, 103, 388; reserve, 388 Missinaibi Lake, 85 Mocreebec Council of the Cree Nation, 12, 388, 391, 453n133, 454n135 Monkey Island, 154 Montizambert: 1906 treaty payments at, 85; unemployed “half-breeds” in 1902, 215

592

•

Mooniahwinini, Mrs, 294, 496n17; photo, 295 Moonias, 183; suspicious re “something for nothing,” 180, 185, 293; wishes to consult relatives, 183; photo, 175 Moonias, Elijah, 195 Moonias, Peter, 100 Moore, Arthur, 482n16–17 Moore, Beatrice (née Mark), 78–9 Moore, Fred (son of George Thomas and Beatrice), 395 Moore, George Henry (son of George Thomas and Jessie Ann), 79 Moore, George Thomas (Tommy), 450n100; captain of hbc steamer Inenew, 11, 79; photo, 482n19; represented by “half-breed” petitioners, 242 Moore, Henry Frank (brother of George Thomas), 78; first wife, Emily Alisappi, 78 Moore, Les, 312 Moore, T.C. (son of William): marries Ellen Cheechoo, 78 Moore, William (“half-breed” petitioner), 242 Moose Cree First Nation, 12, 103, 389; agreement with De Beers Canada, 100; Cree spoken, 395; grievances with Ontario Power Generation, 100; Norm Hardisty, 231–2; reserves, 230, 389 Moose Factory band, 389: Bill-C31 restores Indian status, 79; Christian missions to, 240; commutation (marriages with “half-breeds”), 78; commissioners exclude “half-breeds” not leading Indian life, 80; John Dick on proposed residential school, 234, 239; king’s intentions, 237; Fred Mark, 234, 235, 238, 239; George McLeod serves as interpreter, 234; post-treaty changes, 229– 31; relocation of reserve disallowed, 75–6, 448n80; reserves, 230, 232, 283, 388–9; signatories, 233; survey of reserve, 76; George Tappaise grateful for gratuities, 234, 239; territory extends into Quebec, 229; treaty-making, 228. See also “half-breeds”; Métis

index Moose Factory hbc post, 227–8; library, 236; post-treaty changes at, 229–31 Moosonee, 216, 230, 256 Mooswahkeeng Falls, 190 Morris, Donny, 100–1, 377 Morris, Jim, 331–2 Mowat, J.G., 486n12 Mushkegowiimowin, 395 Mushkegowuk Council, 96, 299, 390–1; challenges workfare, 96; Stan J. Louttit, 376; resists restrictions on harvesting, 96; Rupert’s Land protection pledge, 96; Norm Wesley, xv, 96 Muskrat Dam First Nation, 12, 103, 389; Alvin Fiddler, 97; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Nagagami River, 75 Nakogee, Emile, 333 National Indian Brotherhood, 91, 457n62 National Transcontinental Railway, 75, 127, 277; later Canadian National Railway, 75; maps, 54, 127, 276; surveyors, 140, 261, 271. See also Canadian National Railway Nattaway Portage, 160, 468n25 Nemeigusabins Lake band, 390 Neskatanga First Nation, 12, 103, 389; Peter Moonias, 100; reserve, 389 Newatchigigswabe, 85 New Brunswick House hbc post, 85, 431n71 New Osnaburgh, 161 New Post band, 253, 389; post-treaty changes, 255–7; reserves, 75, 77, 257, 259–61, 283, 389; survey of reserve, 75; Dwight Sutherland, 257. See also Sutherland, Peter; and individuals with surnames Archibald and Omakees New Post Creek, 253, 260; diversion, 255; map, 244 New Post hbc post, 253–5; map, 244; photo, 254 New Slate Falls First Nation. See Slate Falls First Nation Nibinamik (Summer Beaver) First Na-

index tion, 12, 37, 103, 389; and mining, 178; reserve, 389 Nibinamik (Summer Beaver) Lake, 89 Nicole, Isaac, 350 Nighthawk Lake, 273, 454n3; map, 262 Night Owl Rapids, 155 Nikip Lake, 89, 418n35 Ningewance Nadeau, Pat, 143–4 Nipigon hbc post, 176, 387; map, 45 Nipissing First Nation, 29, 37 Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund, 95, 375 Nishnawbe Aski Legal Services Corporation, 375 Nishnawbe Aski Nation (nan), 10, 375; Stan Beardy, 97–8, 101, 377; communities affiliations and locations today, 10–12, 386–90; Independent First Nations Alliance, 548; vs. jbnqa, 374–5; Keewaytinook Okimakanak, 549; vs. local control, 375; Matawa First Nations, 555; Mushkegowuk Council, 96, 299, 376, 390–1, 558; nan-Canada Treaty Discussion Forum, 99; population on- and off-reserve today, 102–4; self-government negotiations, 312, 370, 377; Doug Semple, 377; Shibogama First Nations Council, 567; territory, 10–12, 402; Treaty No. 5 commemoration, 32; Treaty No. 9 commemoration, 96–9; Wabun Tribal Council, 573; Windigo First Nations Council, 574. See also First Nations of far northern Ontario; First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Cree); First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Ojibwe, including Oji-Cree) Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, 375–6 Nitam Anishinaabeg, 436n70 Niven’s Line, 77, 251, 261, 267, 490n75; map, 262 Nolan, Glenn, 99 Nomansland Point, 486n38; map, 225 North Bluff, 230, 448n80 North Caribou Lake band, 388–9, 399; reserve, 89, 387; treaty signing, 89 North Caribou Lake First Nation, 12,

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103, 389; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 387 Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, 449n14 Northern Superior Resources, 100 North French River, 76–7, 230, 232, 238, 283, 448n80; map, 244 North River, 76 North Spirit Lake band, 12; reserve, 389; Treaty No. 5 adhesion (1910), 387 North Spirit Lake First Nation, 12, 104, 389; reserve, 32 North Timiskaming, 47, 278–9 Nottaway River, 50, 468n25; map, 262 Oak Falls, 142 Obicoba Lake, 278 Obishikokaang, 137 Ochichaak, 43 Ogoki Post, 194–5; map, 187 Ogoki Reservoir, 194 Ogoki River, 201; diversion, 194; map, 187, 199 Oil Can Portage, 261 Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre, 375, 397 Ojibwe, 396–7; author’s use of term, xviii Ojibwe language. See First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Ojibwe, including Oji-Cree) Oji-Cree language. See First Nation languages of far northern Ontario (Ojibwe, including Oji-Cree) Omakees, Bella (daughter of Esau), 81, 512n87 Omakees, Esau, 81; assists commissioners, 263, 292; chief, 259–61; photos, 77, 266 Omakees (née Squirrel), Mary (wife of Esau): marries John McLeod after Esau’s death, 449n88 Ombabika River, 177 Onakawana River, 251 Onamun Lake, 159 Ontario: 1905 Métis claim still outstanding, 82; 1905 offer to “half-breeds,”

594

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81; aboriginal policy today, 453n132; boreal forest initiative, 101; Crown Forest Sustainability Act, 96; far north planning proposal, 101; Game and Fish Act violates Treaty 9, 95; Harris government’s workfare policy “offends” reality of aboriginal peoples, 96; Linden concludes Harris made racist statement, 371; “mailbox approach” to aboriginal issues, 362; Métis claims policy, 82; Mining Act archaic, 100; not a party to Treaty No. 9, 95; role in Treaty No. 9, 23–4, 29, 44, 49, 66–7, 86, 281, 287, 390, 392, 399–400; reserves not negotiable posttreaty, 230; responsible for annuities within province, 64, 78–9; Royal Commission on the Northern Environment, 95, 232; and selection of reserves, 61; sidesteps treaty issues today in favour of quality of life, 369; Statement of Political Relationships, 101–2; surveys far northern Ontario, 41–2; two crowns vs. inferior services for First Nations, 360. See also Crown; Treaty No. 9 Ontario Hydro: grievances with, 99– 100, 162. See also Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario; Ontario Power Generation Ontario Mining Company v. Seybold, 31, 58; in Newcombe-Blake agreement (1902), 322; in Oliver-Cochrane agreement (1905), 321 Ontario Power Generation: grievances with, 99-100, 142, 379. See also Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario; Ontario Hydro Ontario Provincial Police, 97, 376 Oombash, 162, 164, 475n42 Oombash, William Semia, 474n35 Opasatica Lake, 277 Osnaburgh band, 37, 58, 389, 398; Cain and Awrey visit, 159; grievances with Ontario Hydro, 162; Missabay, 165–6, 168, 170; Ojibwe spoken, 395; petition, 36–43, 50; photos, 157, 161,

index 165–6; post-treaty changes, 159–62; reserve, 163, 169, 282–3; Root River dams and diversion, 160–1; signatories, 163; surveying the reserve, 71–4 Osnaburgh hbc post, 36–7; map, 161; photo, 161 Otter Rapids, 250, 252 ouchemaw, 420n37 Owl Rock Portage, 152 Owl Rock Rapids, 153 Pagwa, 194, 204–5, 215–16 Pagwachuan River, 204 Parkinson, James, 117; photo, 109 Patawonga Lake, 478n25 Paukunjeesenane Seepee, 163, 282 Payukotayno (James and Hudson Bay Family Services), 359 Peawanuck, 390 Pedlar’s Path Bay, 163, 169, 282; map, 161 Peesketanga Lake, 179 Pelican Falls, 128, 132, 135 Pelican Falls residential school, 256, 308, 499n14 Pelican Lake, 256 Pelican Portage, 133 Petawanga Lake, 478n23 Pickerel Rapids, 150, 152–4; photos, 405 Pickle Crow, 159 Pickle Lake, 159 Pigeon Rapids, 153, 155 Pikangikum band, 389; reserve, 389; Treaty No. 5 (1872), 32, 35 Pikangikum First Nation, 12, 104, 389; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Pikogan (Quebec) reserve, 386 Pilgrim Island, 371; map, 244 pimaatisiiun, 37, 83 Platinex Inc., 100, 368, 377 Poo-yah-way, Isaiah, 39 Poplar Hill band, 389; reserve, 389; Treaty No. 5 (1875), 32 Poplar Hill First Nation, 12, 104, 389; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Poplar Rapids, 171

index Powassan(g), 115, 139-40, 349; inspiration for Scott’s poetry, 139 Pull and Be Damned Rapids, 172 Quebec: 1906 Abitibi band separated into Ontario and Quebec Indians, 84; 1908 adhesion with Quebec Abitibi band, 85; Abitibi hbc post in, 262, 273; accepted no responsibility for post-1908 annuities, 86; first modern land claim agreement (jbnqa), 374; Moose Factory territories extend across border, 299, 400; Ottawa River bisects Algonquin territory, 24 Rae, Thomas Clouston, 117; photo, 109 Ramsden, Joseph George, 69–70; “halfbreed” claim, 81 Rat Rapids, 160 reserve: use of term, 397 Reuben, Willie, 9–10 Revillon Frères, 21, 69, 76, 84, 194, 204, 214–15, 393, 398 Richard, Andy (son of Abraham), 92, 379–80 Richards, Edward: ancestry, 477n11; Anglican clergyman, 190; born at Mattagami, 477n11 Rickard, Abraham (son of Frank), 92 Rickard, Andrew (son of Abraham), 92–5; photo, 94 Rickard, Ernest (son of Oliver), xvii, 484n22 Rickard, Frank, 93, 458n Rickard, Oliver (son of Frank), 372 Rickard, Pauline (daughter of Abraham), 379–80 “ring of fire”: in far northern Ontario, 377 Ritch, Isaac (son of William Sinclair), 127; photo, 126 Ritch, William Sinclair, 494n13 River of the Dead. See Cheepay River Robinson Treaties, 5–6, 12, 26–9, 44, 50–3, 354, 388, 391. See also Nipissing First Nation; Teme-Augama Anishinabeg

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595

Rocky Rapids, 153 Root River: diversion, 118, 142, 160; map, 151; photos, 117–18, 405 Roulette, Roger, 354 Roundhead, Ronald, 98 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (rcmp), 23, 71, 95, 229, 243, 444n29 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. See Canada: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Royal Proclamation of 1763, 24; not the only source of aboriginal title, 24; recognized in section 25 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 24; vs. St. Catherines Milling and Lumber, 4 Rupert’s Land (Hudson’s Bay Company territory): acquired by Canada, 22 Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory Order, 5, 34 Rupert’s Land protection pledge, 5, 96, 384; implications for Métis, 5; Fred Mark’s understanding, 23, 353; Mushkegowuk Council legal challenge, 96, 364, 377 Sachigo Lake band, 88, 389; reserve, 88, 389 Sachigo Lake First Nation, 12, 103, 389; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Sagamok Anishnawbek, iv. See also Espagnol, Loius Sahquakegick. See Espagnol, Louis Sanderson, Maurice, 130, 138, 468n37, 469n9, 471n50 Sand Point, 169, 282 Sandy Hill Portage, 155 Sandy Lake First Nation, 12, 32, 104, 389; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Sandy Lake Narrows reserve (upper Severn River), 88 Sandy Narrows Lake (upper Albany River), 171, 174 Saugeen First Nation, 12, 103, 389; reserve, 389 Saul, John Ralston: Canada as a Métis

596

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nation, 367; fairness, 367; “peace, welfare and good government,” 396; predicts prosperity for resource-rich northern regions, 369; and turtle island, xx Sawyer, Muriel, 37, 396–7 schooling: bilingual-bicultural programs, 311; education gap, 311; Indian control, 311; local control, 311; successes, 312; treaty commissioners’ recommendations, 312–14 schooling (residential schools), 9, 79, 109, 215–16, 242, 358–9; abuse at, 96; apologies for, 309; Brantford, 309; Dr Peter Bryce and, 90; Chapleau, 308; as children’s aid societies, 73, 79, 216, 310; effects, 216, 310; Fort Albany, 308; Fort George, 308–9; Indigenous expectations, 307–8; Moose Factory, 308; missionary precursors, 307; Sault Ste Marie, 309; and Settlement Agreement, 309–10; Sioux Lookout, 308; and Statement of Reconciliation, 309, 499n; Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 309 Scott, Duncan Campbell: 1905 journals, 112; 1906 journal written by Pelham Edgar, 111; assimilationist views, 111, 297–8, 315, 348; biographical sketch, 110–11; and blanket extinguishment, 290; inventory of 1905 photos, 403– 10; Kodak camera, 286; “The Last of the Indian Treaties,” 289–98; misleading views, 8–9; Onondaga grandmother, 111; photo, 109; and photography 354; poetry and prose, 110–13; report on education, 312–14; sample page of journal, 112; transcription of journal, 111–12 Semple, Doug, 377 Sextant Portage, 246, 250, 252 Shakespeare Falls, 172 Shakespeare Rapids, 171 shaking tent, 138; declared evil in Oblate catechism, 308; Indigenous social control, 371; mikinak, 138, 419n53; practitioner, 121

index Sharette, Louis Jerome, 80 Shibogama First Nations Council, 567 Shonia Lake, 159 Sinclair Island, 216, 387 Sinker Rapids, 251 Sioux: origin of word, 468n25 Sisinnagog Island, 212 Sisinnagog River, 212 Slate Falls First Nation, 12, 103, 389, 398; Ojibwe spoken, 395; reserve 389 Smallboy, Ellen, 8 Smallboy, Simon, Sr, 8, 247, 267, 271, 291; irony of Scott’s opinion, 348; photo, 244 (fifth from left), 404; photo of son, 244 (far left), 245, 404 Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, 10, 390, 393, 395 Smooth Stone Falls, 190 snake (Indigenous term for enemy), 433n13, 468n25 Snake Portage, 171 Snake Rapids, 171, 173–4; photos, 406 snake “tribe,” 173 Soeurs Grises de la Croix, 220–2 Solomon, Andrew (great-grandson of Richard), 217 Solomon, George (son of William, grandson of Richard), 372 Solomon, John, 216 Solomon, Jonathan (great-grandson of Richard), 217 Solomon, Richard, 216 South Bluff Creek, 76, 230, 232, 238, 283 South River Fort, 203; map, 199 Spanish River band, iv. See also Espagnol, Louis Spence, Gabe, 9–10 Spence, Greg, 20 Spence, Marius, 344 Spence, Patrick, 70 Spirit Island, 144 spirit-persons, 138 Spoon Lake, 171 “squaw,” 154, 201, 472n67 Statement of Political Relationships: with Ontario First Nations, 82, 101 Statistics Canada, 499n29–500n31, 511n52–3

index St. Catherines Milling and Lumber case, 4, 31, 49 Stephen, Charles, 216 Stephen, Patrick, xv–xvi, 218, 345 Stewart, Samuel, 7; 1908 adhesion, 85– 6, 386; biographical sketch, 113; education report, 312–14; photo, 109; sample page of diary, 114; transcription of diary, 113–14 Stewart’s Bight, 248, 251 St Joseph Lake, known to Ojibwe as Mishkeegogamang. 36; map, 151; name unfamiliar to Nipigon guide, 42; origin of name, 157 Stooping River, 204; map, 209 strands of history: concept, 367–8 Sturgeon Falls (Albany River), 174 Sturgeon Lake, 137; map, 127 Sturgeon Lake band, 37 Summer Beaver. See Nibinamik Supreme Court of Canada: Calder decision, 3; Corbière decision, 399; post1982 views, 4; post-treaty duty to consult, 100; Powley decision, 82; social conservative criticisms, 5. See also Ontario Mining Company v. Seybold Sutherland, Annie, 253 Sutherland, David, 89 Sutherland, Dwight (son of Peter), 256–7 Sutherland, Ernie T., 459n17 Sutherland, Peter, Sr (son of William and Bella Archibald), 81, 253, 256, 332, 512n87 Swain, Jimmy, 125, 467n18; photo, 126 Swollen Finger River, 212 Tahquatagama Lake, 77, 111, 255–6, 257, 260, 283, 376; sketch map, 258 Tashota, 177 Taykwa Tagamou Nation, 12, 103, 389; agreement with De Beers Canada, 257; Peter Archibald, 256; Cree spoken, 256, 395; grievances with Ontario Power Generation, 100; Ojibwe formerly spoken, 385; reserve, 256, 389; Dwight Sutherland, 257; treaty commemoration, 376

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Teme-Augama Anishinabeg, 28, 354; absent from Robinson Treaty negotiations, 27; accepting annuities means accepting the treaty, 28 Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (t&no), 55; historiography, 381–2; maps, 54, 276; projected to cross unceded territory, 59; surveyors, 76, 271 terminology, 385–402; author generally uses terminology of the day, 396; depends on context, xviii Terrible Tent Falls, 173 thunderbirds, 481n16 Tikinagan (Child and Family Services), 359 Timiskaming hbc post, 272–3, 280 Timiskaming Lake, 24, 116, 273, 400, 403; map, 54, 276 Tom Richards Rapids, 179, 182, 478n24 toponymy, 393, 398 treaties: annuity payments as social and cultural events, 38; blanket extinguishment clause, 28; British Columbia’s role in Treaty No. 8, 35; British Columbia’s treaty-making today, 361–2; broadly defined today, 4; characteristics by 1830s, 25; Crown and aboriginal title coexist, 370; of displacement and dislocation, 25–6; Dorchester’s instructions, 24–5; fictive kinship relations, 8; Flanagan’s views, 5, 370; hbc compacts, 17–21; hbc windfall from, 38, 125, 137; importance of interpreters, 25; lack of oversight, 34, 48; myths, 381–2; pre-Calder view, 3–4; prior to 1905, 17–35; role of provinces post-1905, 360–2; role of provinces pre-1975, 31, 35, 49–67, 78–9, 86; Royal Proclamation, 24; settlement vs. northern resource development, 32; in southern Ontario, 25–6; and sovereignty, 361; understood in retrospect, 69, 141; we all treaty people, 11, 363 Treaty No. 1, 3, 29, 424n117; map, 26 Treaty No. 2, 29, 31; map, 26 Treaty No. 3, 29–31, 49–52; map, 26. See also Lac Seul band

598

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Treaty No. 4, 31; map, 26 Treaty No. 5, 32; map, 26 Treaty No. 5 First Nations in Ontario, 12, 387–9; community locations, 11; map, 26; population (on- and off-reserve), 104 Treaty No. 6, 32–3; map, 26 Treaty No. 7, 33; map, 26 Treaty No. 8, 31–5, 50, 57; map, 26 Treaty No. 9: 1906 signing, 84–5; 1908 adhesion, 85, 207, 323–4, 386; 1929 adhesion, 86–9, 287, 324–5; 1930 adhesion, 89–90, 287, 324–5; absentees, 182, 284, 346; accepting the money means accepting the treaty, 28, 204, 206, 208, 212, 346, 354; allowances for chiefs and councillors, 75, 176, 184, 448n71; annual complaints and grievances, 177, 216, 432n77, 444n25, 450n103; apartheid, 368–9; balance of probabilities, 370–1; blanket extinguishment clause, 355; braided history, 367–8; Canada ratifies, 68; changes demanded by Ontario, 61–3, 66, 74, 360; changing relationship lens, 365–7; chiefs a necessary fiction, 334; choices today, 368, 370, 375, 387; and coexistence, xv, 99; commemoration, 96–9; communication problems, 329–33, 352; confused by laws, 23, 177, 332, 340; connections for “settlers’ roads” stipulation, 66, 123, 281, 283; continuing injustice, 368; copies not provided (1905), 346; copies supplied (1906), 70; Crown’s motivation, 13, 52–3, 54, 59–60, 66–7, 86, 90, 123, 163, 290, 432n5, 474n36; deception, 333; differing perspectives, 38, 292, 352; dissatisfaction with, 184, 194, 197–8; doctor’s report, 302–6; Dominion Indians, 285, 346–7; economic and legal uncertainty today, 368; education discussed, 307; education report, 312–14; education rights, 308, 503n64; elements of treaty-making, 334–5; engrossing, 63, 65–6, 68, 286; everyone’s responsibility, 11, 368, 378; expenses, 284–7,

index 435n58–9; explaining the treaty, 335– 43; feasts, 349–50; fiction of legitimacy, 367; fiction of surrender, 231, 351– 2, 369; flags, 166, 170, 184, 196, 238, 240, 260; “great father” misleading, 8; “half-breed” petition, 80–2; “halfbreeds” in parchment, 319; “halfbreeds” offered land by Ontario, 81; harvesting (parchment), 317; harvesting (promises), 164, 170, 186, 197, 237, 259–60; hidden agenda (Indian Act), 348; hidden agenda (provincial laws), 360; historiography, 381–4; illusion of consent, 352; and imaginary line ab, 86, 281, 346, 401; importance for youth today, 10, 379; vs. Indian status, 78–80; Indian title acknowledged, 48, 55, 57–8, 60, 65, 86, 90, 123–4, 231; ineligibility for comprehensive claim, 370; interpreting in Cree and Ojibwe, 67, 85, 146, 286; king as great chief, 223; king’s intentions, 182, 197, 221, 237, 260; lands not disposed of by government, 164; land surrender incomprehensible, xv, 354; left unsaid, 338, 352; maps misleading, 86, 344, 399–401; Métis claim still outstanding, 82; middle ground, 351; mineral rights, 67; negotiation with First Nations implied, 124, 134; negotiations (CanadaOttawa), 48–67; negotiations at Fort Hope, 180, 186; negotiations at Marten Falls, 197; negotiations at Moose Factory, 237; negotiations at New Post, 259–60; negotiations at Osnaburgh, 170; Newcombe-Blake agreement (1902), 52, 322–3; no basis for argument, 293; Oliver-Cochrane agreement (1905), 322–3; Ontario approves reserves, 71; Ontario Indians, 285, 346–7; Ontario not a party, 95; Ontario ratifies treaty, 71; Ontario responsible for annuities within province, 64, 78–9; Ontario-Keewatin border, 50, 56, 64, 66, 124, 241, 287, 346; Ontario-Quebec border, 50, 52, 56–9, 229, 275, 277; oral traditions, 10; or-

index ders-in-council authorizing, 63–6; originally planned to extend into Quebec, 50; originates in Indigenous requests for assistance and protection, 36–47; outside promises denied, 124, 186, 282; parchment (text of 1905), 316– 19; parchments vs. promises, 351, 355–8; pay-lists, 346–7; peace, friendship, and protection, 362; pleasure expressed by Indians, 186, 219, 224, 234, 239; pre-treaty fact-finding, 48, 51–2; pre-treaty legal opinion, 49; prosperity, 362; protection, 5, 227, 353; vs. provisions of Treaty No. 3, 176, 184–6; and Quebec government, 50, 52, 287, 323; Quebec not responsible for annuities (1908 adhesion), 86; recentring, 10, 38; rejection considered an option, 65; respectful talk, 295; role of hbc, 55–66 passim, 85, 168, 182, 197, 221, 234; vs. Rupert’s Land protection pledge, 96; sacredness, 231, 289, 345; schedule of reserves, 66, 281–3; selection of reserves, 61, 66, 74, 282, 350; sharing the land, 94, 98, 231, 353; sharing the wealth, 96–7, 232, 353, 489n46; sidestepped by government, 369; signing, 344–6; “so long as the sun shines” misleading, 9; speeches, 162, 165, 168, 170, 196–7, 220, 224; surveying the reserves, 71–7; suspicion expressed, 180, 183–5, 196, 293; syllabics acknowledged, 182, 223–4, 297; tax exemptions, 362, 367; temporal or fidelity lens, 363–5; tickets distributed, 348, 478n26; tobacco, 134, 165, 197, 206, 222, 287, 293–4, 407; touching the pen, 344–5, 359; translation never considered, 67; treaty party, 110; trick or treaty, 3; two crowns, 359–61, 370, 373, 375; understood only in retrospect, 69, 177, 216, 231, 332; unholy trinity, 362; unused lands, 185; value of treaty money (1905), 347; value of treaty money (today), 354; volunteers at Frenchman’s Head, 291; volunteers at New Post,

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599

292; water powers, 64, 74, 209, 282, 290; water rights, 88, 97; well-being (bimaadiziwin, pimaatisiwin), 256–7. See also agriculture and gardens; chiefs and headmen; councillors; schooling; Treaty No. 9 annuities; Treaty No. 9 commissioners Treaty No. 9 annuities: advantage for trappers (vs. credit), 40, 348; bargain at 1850 rates, 58; comparative cash value today, 354; federal-provincial costs in 1905, 284–5; vs. jbnqa, 374– 5; money boss, 69, 356; Ontario bears cost south of Albany River, 50, 53, 55, 63–4, 87, 346–7; Ontario bears cost north of Albany River, 87; payments en route, 208–10, 212; provision in Oliver-Cochrane agreement, 321; social and cultural event, 74, 159; symbolizes relationship, 231, 354; tithes for Christian missions, 220, 223; what Ontarians get (or do not get) in return, 354– 8; windfall for traders, 181, 348 Treaty No. 9 commissioners: author’s rationale for using their accounts, 6; conflict of interest, 352; and crewmen, 125, 127, 243; duality and inattention to “half-breeds,” 8; ethnocentric gazes, 9; focus on men, 119; imply negotiation, 164; as king’s men, 196; linguistic handicap, 7; official report draws heavily on Stewart, 114; passengers, 210; performative speech acts, 352; purchase fish, 270; purchase moose meat, 275, 278; share food with Indians en route, 133, 172, 190; writings are selective, 112, 115; writings must be examined critically, 7. See also MacMarten, Daniel George; Scott, Duncan Campbell; Stewart, Samuel Treaty No. 9 First Nations, 386–90; community locations, 111–12; population (on- and off-reserve), 103–4 Treaty No. 9 region, 391, 399–402; map, 26, 343 Treaty No. 10, 80; map, 26 Treaty No. 11, 90, 288; map, 26

600

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Triangular Lake, 171, 478n25 tribal councils, 375; Independent First Nations Alliance, 548; Keewaytinook Okimakanak, 549; Matawa First Nations, 554; Mushkegowuk Council, 96, 299, 376, 390–1, 558; Shibogama First Nations Council, 567; Wabun Tribal Council, 573; Windigo First Nations Council, 574 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 101, 361 Upper Kwiwoocho Rapids, 173 Vanasse, Joseph L.: biographical sketch, 116; photo, 109; “The White Dog Feast,” 147–50 Vincent, Bobby (son of Erland), 95–6, 513n1 Vincent, Erland (son of Erland E. and Sarah Yesno; grandson of Thomas Vincent’s brother James): Fort Hope orphan taken to Moose Factory, 73, 446n51 Vincent, John Horden (son of Thomas), 152, 434n27, 441, 469n4, 472n64, 478n28, 498n3 Vincent, Thomas, 152, 242 voiced and voiceless consonants, 397 voting, 3, 360, 399 Wabakimi Provincial Park, 390 Wabashi River, 199, 203, 481n17 Wabun Tribal Council, 573 Wahgoshig First Nation, 12, 103, 230, 385–6, 389; reserve, 389 Wahpatanga Lake, 179, 478n23 wampum, 25, 27, 368 Wapekeka First Nation, 12, 103, 389; bilingual-bicultural education, 311; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 389 Wascowin, Daniel, Jr: cook for treaty party in 1905, 79, 291; met by commissioners in 1906, 84; photo, 265, 404 Wascowin, Emily (daughter of Daniel), 79

index Wascowin, Emily (daughter of Louisa). See Donald (Wascowin), Emily Wascowin, Louisa (daughter of Daniel), 79 Wascowin, Roderick (son of Louisa), 79 Washi Lake, 479n36 Wavy Creek, 448n80 Wawakapewin First Nation, 12, 103, 390; reserve 390 Wawatay News, 384 Weagamow Lake. See North Caribou Lake First Nation Webequie First Nation, 12, 103, 387, 390; and mining, 100, 178, 377; OjiCree spoken, 395; reserve 390 Weenusk First Nation, 12, 103, 390; Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 390 Weenusk Lake (near Timmins), 492n16 Weenusk River, 492n16 Wesley, Andrew (son of Catherine): catechist, 216; elected chief, 70; father named Morrison, 443n23; receives honorarium and suit of clothes, 448n71; treaty signatory (Fort Albany), 218 Wesley, Catherine (Kitty), 443n23 Wesley, Daniel (son of Simon): advice to son Norm, 312; moves to Moose Factory, 216; traps with foster father Frank Rickard, 458n3 Wesley, George (grandson of Andrew), 443n23 Wesley, James (son of Moses), 513n94 Wesley, Jane (daughter of John?), 467n18 Wesley, Joel (son of Moses), 513n94 Wesley, John (baptized by Barnley), 513n90 Wesley, John J. (son of John), 513n90 Wesley, Madeline (daughter of Patrick Stephen), xv Wesley, Mandy, 312 Wesley, Moses (son of John J.): chiefs among his descendents, 513n94; letter to great chief, 377, 513n91 Wesley, Noah (Lac Seul), 69

index Wesley, Norm F. (son of Daniel), xv–xvii, 82, 96, 312 Wesley, Oliver (son of Silas), 513n94 Wesley, Ricardo (son of George), 376–7, 443n23 Wesley, Silas (son of James), 513n94 Wesley, Willie (son of Alex), 371–2 Wesley, Willie (son of Joel), 513n94 Whirlpool Rapids, 173 Whiskey Rapids, 251 Whitebank Lake, 179 White Caribou Rapid, 171 white dog feast, 137–9; Vanasse’s account, 147–50 Whitefish Lake First Nation. See Atikameksheng Anishinabek Whitefish River, 261 Whitehead, William: accepts terms as offered, 197; agrees to reserve after it is “forcibly” explained, 198; dissatisfied with reserve, 197–8; elected chief, 196, 198; “excellent” speech, 198; satisfied about reserve, 196; “sensible” speech, 196; treaty signatory (Marten Falls), 195 white privilege, 6 Whitewater First Nation, 12, 104, 390 windigo, 141, 296, 331, 502n22; vs. burning in hell, 358; vs. comprehensive

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601

land claim agreement, 374–5; government as, 373; heart of ice, 371, 373, 496n21, 502n22; killing of, 371–3; pedophile as, 358–9; threatens bimaadiziwin or pimaatisiwin, 496n21 Windigo First Nations Council, 574 Windigo River, 89 Winisk band: treaty-signing (1930), 89–90, 324, 383; reserve, 89. See also Peawanuck; Weenusk First Nation Winisk River: and imaginary line ab, 86, 281, 401 Winisk Lake, 387. See also Webequie First Nation Wolf’s Narrows, 153 Wunnumin Lake band, 88, 390; bilingual-bicultural education, 311; reserve, 88, 390 Wunnumin Lake First Nation, 12, 104, 390; Oji-Cree spoken, 395; reserve, 390 Yesno: elected councillor, 180, 184, 186; expects assistance with farming, 185; willing to enter treaty, 183; treaty signatory, 178–9 Yeno, Harvey, 95