The Last Stand

To understand Temagami, it is necessary to show the relationship with the established canoeing area with the traditional land of the Teme Augam Anishinabek, or “N’daki Menan” (pronounced daki menan), or ‘Our Land’. As the two maps indicate, the geophysical region with its intertwined lake and river routes, mirror each other. It covers an area of approximately 10,000 sq kilometres. The summer canoe trails were known as the “nastawgan”.

ROBINSON-HURONTREATY 1850

William Benjamin Robinson was an entrepreneur who owned two fur trade posts in the Muskoka region. He later got involved in politics and because he was already well known to the Indians, the feds curried him for a Commissioners job in 1850 to negotiate, “for the adjustment on [the Indians] claims to the lands in the vicinity of Lakes Superior and Huron, or of such portions of them as may be required for mining purposes.” To note, permits to mining companies were already being issued prior to 1850. Chief Shinguakonce in 1848 states regarding the compensation of Anishinabek lands,“(we) were not a little astonished to find that the money (minerals) on our lands has been taken possession of by the white children of our Mother without consulting us.”

The Federal government needed to act quickly to secure dominant rights to all lands for the specific purpose of usurping minerals and timber. The vast stands of Ottawa Valley pine were being depleted and eyes turned north to the timber rich lands of N’daki Menan.

Robinson, acting under duress to gather signatures, uttered threats, used coercion and isolated those chiefs with the strongest objections to sharing resources. Chiefs signed off not fully realizing that the government had no intention of sharing resources equally. Assumptions were also made by the government about actual treaty boundaries. Indians were compensated by token gratuities, but the government deemed those costs incurred to carry out the treaty actually mitigated the obligation to share revenues from resources with the aboriginals.

The government engineered a rider-clause within the treaty agreement that stated; “as well as all unconceded lands within the limits of Canada west to which they have any just claim,” applied to only chiefs Dokis of French River and Shabokishick of Lake Nipissing who did sign the treaty, which in effect included the territory lying between Lake Nipissing and the height of land – lands belonging to the Teme-Augama Anishinabek, who did not take part in the treaty.

The treaty was supposed to be based on trust and an adherence to the tenets within the agreement to share resources, the Anishinabek weren’t required to give up their land. This set a nasty precedence within the Indigenous communities who realized they couldn’t trust the government; International treaties apparently meant nothing, and the way forward was going to be confrontational.

What is important here, is the direction the Ontario and Federal governments were taking by manipulating a major Treaty in favour of industrial demands. From here on, the Ontario government will subjugate all non-timber/non-mineral values (First Nation rights & nature-based recreation) by implementing an unworkable ‘multiple-use’ strategy to manage resources.

Excerpt from Hap Wilson’s latest book, “Clearcut ~ The Fight to Save the Temagami Wilderness"

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