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-------- ----- --" CL ---- -- -- -------- ---- ------ = _ -- -- i ---- = ------------ a rw -------- a -- -- ---- 125th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE The following article about Scu- 808s Native Peoples was researched and written by retired school teacher and local historian Mr. Paul Arcu- lus for the Port Perry Star's 125th Anniversary edition. by Paul Arculus Native Land Claims On November 21, 1923, Wil- son Gerrow of Scugog Island signed his name as a witness to eleven men of the Mississauga band signing their names to a contentious document. After over a century of dis- puted land claims by Ontario's Native people, the federal and provincial governments had es- tablished a commission to inves- tigate and settle the longstand- ing claims of the Chippewa and Mississauga Indians. The two areas of land under dispute were (1} 17,600 square miles of land north of the 45th parallel bounded by Georgian ay and the Ottawa River north of Lakes Nipissing and Musko- ka. {2) Some of the most valuable land in Ontario; 2,500 square miles from Lake Simcoe south to Lake Ontario bounded by Tren- ton in the east and Toronto's Yonge Street on the west. The land between these two claims {Haliburton, the Musko- kas and the Kawarthas} had been purchased from the Missis- .sauga Indians in 1818 at which time they surrendered their rights and claims in exchange for an annuity of 740 English 'pounds. The federal government ap- pointed Toronto Lawyer A.S. Williams as chief commissioner to be assisted by two commis- sioners appointed federally and two appointed provincially. The Williams Commission as it became known investigated the legality of the Indian claims and discovered that although the land in question had been surveyed and built upon, and deeds issued, the Indian land claims were completely valid. Agreement The land had been evaluat- ed at well in excess of thirty mil- lion dollars. The Commission recommended that the govern- ment pay the Indians $700,000 but the government would only pay $500,000. That works out to about four cents an acre! In the Port Perry Star of October 25, 1923, 98 acres in Reach were for sale at $3,000 - about thirty dol- lars an acre! The Commission decided to give half the money ($250,000) to the Chippewas and half to the Mississaugas. Mr. Gerrow signed his name to witness the document as the eleven male members of the Mississauga band on Scu- gog Island each received $375 and the Island band fund re- ceived $7,469. The Scugog Mississaugas who signed were: Austin Goose, Isaac Johnson, David Elliott, Chas McCue and six members of the Marsden family: Thom- as, John W., John H., Norman, Charles F'., and Elijah. Incidentally, the five Com- missioners received $100 a day for their work. The Commission was in operation for five months. European Arrivals Before the arrival of Euro- pean explorers, there is evi- dence of a healthy, thriving, ET EE IEEE I LLC TE UE A J DE NE NE EEE IE BE RE CIE Mississauga Indians of Scugog Island standing in front of the Scugog Island Indian Church in the 1920s. Posing for the photographer are: left to right, Mississauga clan mem- bers Frank Edgar, Matthew Elliot, John York, Edwin Edgar. peaceful existence of the native people. The arrival of the Euro- ans produced serious prob- ems. They brought from France, England and Holland diseases for which the Indian had no immunity. They brought goods and trinkets, and alcohol, for which the na- tive population would change its entire lifestyle. The Jesuit priests, who ac- companied the seventeenth century French explorers and later undertook their own ex- plorations, kept extensive records of the Indians with whom they came in contact. Ac- cording to these records, the In- dians of Southern Ontario gen- erally lived in substantial villages of 1200 or more people and two or three villages were frequently grouped together. Their homes within these villages consisted of long hous- es where many families lived together. Iroquois An interesting factor about the Iroquois of this region is that they were matriarchal, that is, the females were domi- nant. In their long houses, fam- ilies of related females lived to- gether with their husbands and children. The elder women di- rected a number of activities in- cluding council meetings and decisions about planting and harvesting. Even the Iroquois chiefs in- herited their chieftainships through their mothers, and family property was passed down through the women, not the men. Men and women had clear- ly defined roles in the culture. Women were primarily respon- sible for raising the children, preparing food, clothes and EEE I IE STE SE ST EPR utensils. The men were respon- sible for hunting and fishing, roducing implements and Buildings and clearingland. Early Indians in Scugog But what of the Native peo- plesin the Scugog area? There is ample evidence to indicate that Iroquois speaking people lived in this area for nearly 4000 years. When Champlain arrived in the Georgian Bay - Lake Sim- coe area in 1615 he found a flourishing civilization with the Iroquois Confederacy now occu- pying land south of Lake Onta- rio. North of Lake Ontario was occupied by the Hurons and their allies: the Neutrals, the Petuns {Tobacco} and the Chip- pewas and Ottawas. Extensive friendly trade existed among the Algonquin, Hurons and Iroquois. The Jesuits estimate that the population of Huronia was in excess of 30,000. Due to Eu- ropean diseases such as small- pox, this population was re- duced to almost a third by 1640! The rivalry among the In- dians for trade with the French later became extreme and Champlain decided to ally him- self with the Hurons and the Al- gonquins giving them the trade monopoly to the exclusion of the Iroquois. The English and Dutch became allies of the Iro- quois. To support his alliance, Champlain initiated a war against the Iroquois, a war ". was to have disastrous consequences culminating with the Iroquois destruction of Hu- ronia in 1648-49. This destruc- tion included the deaths of the Jesuit priests Lalemant and Brebeuf at Midland. Numerous retaliatory bat- PEPE I SS vor tles took place over the next for- ty years until the Iroquois final- ly returned to remain in their traditional lands south of Lake Ontario. Coming of the Mississaugas Sometime over the next half century the Mississaugas drifted into the land vacated by the resettled Iroquois. The Mis- sissaugas were a branch of the Ojibwa tribe who belonged to the Algonquins of Northern On- tario. The Mississaugas were a different culture from their pre- decessors the Huron and Iro- quois who had constructed Jatse well defended villages and practiced extensive agri- culture. The Mississaugas were a nomadic people who travelled in small numbers and grew only limited amounts of corn, pumpkins and beans, collected maple sap and in the fall har- vested wild rice from the shores of lakes such as Lake Scugog and, of course, Rice Lake. In the winter they would drift in small family groups to their favorite hunting grounds. Archeological Evidence Numerous evidences of In- dian occupation have been found in the Lake Scugog re- gion. However these evidences are of burial sites and small campsites rather than the ex- tensive village life of the Huron and Iroquois. Evidences of Mississauga burial sites are located on Wpehhoury Island, Seven Mile sland, ugog Island and Prince Albert. Although these burial sites are extensive, par- ticularly on Washburn Island, the campsites particularly in Victoria County are indicative of few families at most. This leads us to the conclu- sion that during the Indian oc- cupation, the Scu area was used for burials, hunting and fishing and for transit between Lake Ontario and the Lake Simcoe-Georgian Bay- Kawartha regions. First White Visitors To Scugo, There is no doubt that the first white man in this area was Etienne Brule. He was part of a Huron-French exchange, a bar- gain struck by Champlain in 1609 to exchange men with the Huron in order to study each other's language and culture. Brule lived among the Huron travelling extensively between Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario. Unfortu- nately he kept no records of the routes which he travelled. The Scugog area was im- portant as a route for Indians and later French, British and Dutch Traders. An Indian Trading village was built at Whitby and, during the earl 1700's, the French built a trad- ing post, Cabane de Plomb, be- -tween the Oshawa and Harmo- ny creeks. Cabane de Plomb was built not only to trade with the Indians but also to prevent the English from using the Scu- gog route. Other early visitors to this area include Fenelon and Trouve, French missionaries who spent the winters of 1669 and 1670 at Ganatsekyagon {Whitby}. During their stay they were visited by Joliet and Pere, important French explor- ers. Major Samuel Wilmot One of our most important sources of information about the Scugog Route is Major Sam- uel Wilmot. He was hired by the government to survey this part of Ontario. He surveyed Reach between November 20, 1809 and March 28, 1810. He marked the "Indian Foot Path" on all his maps of Reach. This trail followed vaguely, Simooe Street out of Oshawa to the ridges then Old Simcoe Street to the fourth concession south of Prince Albert. The Railway was laid on the bal- ance of the trail cutting diago- nally across in a north-easterly direction south and east of Prince Albert, then following a line running parallel to and east of Union Avenue cross 7A through to Railroad House Mo- tel tothe waterfront. Major Wilmot's survey also shows three Trading posts. (1) Curt's Point (Bird's Eye Park just north of the library}, {2} at a point between the 11th and 12th concessions just south of Robinglade at the mouth of the Nonquon River. (He called it the Mistake River) and (3) on Washburn Island. ThelIncident of "The Speedy" This third trading post on Washburn Island was already significant in the annals of On- tario history for it was here in 1804 that a white trader, John Sharp, became Scugog's first recorded murder victim. Two brothers, Moody and Please Turn to page 28 LIL IL I I RS SS TN I I |