Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation

Last updated

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation
Band No. 122
Cape Croker logo.jpg
Chippewas of Nawash First Nation logo
Land
Main reserve Neyaashiinigmiing 27
Other reserve(s)
Land area71.83 km2
Population
On reserve724
Off reserve1958
Total population2714
Government
ChiefChief Greg Nadjiwon
Council size9
Website
www.nawash.ca

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation (Ojibwe : Neyaashiinigmiing Anishinaabek) is an Anishinaabek First Nation from the Bruce Peninsula region in Ontario, Canada. Along with the Saugeen First Nation, they form the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. The Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation had a registered membership of 2758 individuals, [1] as of December 2020. Approximately 700 members live on the main reserve, Neyaashiinigmiing 27 (formerly known as Cape Croker). The First Nation has 3 reserves, Neyaashiinigmiing 27, Cape Croker Hunting Ground 60B and Saugeen and Cape Croker Fishing Islands 1. The size of all reserves is 8083.70 hectares (31.21 sq. mi.). [2]

Contents

Etymology

The name Chippewas of Nawash is from Chief Nawash who fought with Tecumseh during the War of 1812. [3]

History

Neyaashiinigmiing has always been the home of the Chippewas of Nawash. Their traditional lands included the entire Bruce Peninsula and roughly 2 million acres (8,100 km2) south of it. In 1993, the First Nation won a court battle giving them the right to fish for trade and commerce in their traditional waters surrounding the Bruce Peninsula. [4]

Reserves

Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation
Map of the reserves of Chippewa of Newash First Nation

Chippewas of Nawash have three reserves in perpetuity, amassing to 71.83 km2 (27.73 sq mi). Of these three, the 63.81 km2 (24.64 sq mi) Neyaashiinigmiing 27 is considered the main reserve and Saugeen & Cape Croker Fishing Island 1 is shared with Saugeen First Nation.

Neyaashiinigmiing 27

Formerly known as Cape Croker 27, this reserve is located within Bruce County, Ontario. It is 63.81 km2 (24.64 sq mi) big. It is the largest reserve of the three.

Cape Croker Hunting Ground 60B

The reserve is surrounded by Bruce Peninsula National Park and Saugeen Hunting Grounds 60A.

Saugeen and Cape Croker Fishing Islands

The reserve consist of 89 island shared with Saugeen First Nation.

Government

Leaders of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation are elected every two years by the population registered on the band list. The next election date has not yet been set however it will be held around the same time in 2021.

The current Chief and Council are: [5]

Media

FM Radio

Local newspaper

Culture

The Chippewas of Nawash hold a Traditional Pow Wow every year. Chippewas of Nawash is also the home of musician Ira Nadjiwon, Marc Merilainen (Nadjiwon), Jacques Pigeon, Kevin (The Hooch) Lavalley, and Bryden "Gwiss" Kiwenzie who grew up on Nawash. They are also home to an award-winning powwow singers group called "Chippewa Travellers".

Land claims

In 1994, the Nawash and the Saugeen First Nations filed a lawsuit against the Government of Canada; the claims for land, and payment of rent on lands, discussed in early treaties are significant. "The two First Nations are claiming aboriginal title to the lands under the water covering an area of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay from south of Goderich, west to the international border and north to the mid-point between the tip of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island; then east to the mid-point of Georgian Bay and south to the southernmost point of Nottawasaga Bay." This suit has yet to be resolved. [6]

The Official Plan for the Town of Saugeen Shores (2014) includes the following comment about this issue: "The Chippewas of the Saugeen First Nation and the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation have filed a Native Land Claim for the islands in the Saugeen River, the lands that border the north side of the Saugeen River and the shoreline from the mouth of the Saugeen River northerly around the Bruce Peninsula." [7]

Notable members

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce County</span> County in Ontario, Canada

Bruce County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It has eight lower-tier municipalities with a total 2016 population of 66,491. It is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, the sixth Governor General of the Province of Canada. The Bruce name is also linked to the Bruce Trail and the Bruce Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odawa</span> Indigenous people of North America

The Odawa are an Indigenous American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long preceded the creation of the current border between the two countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Canada

The Bruce Peninsula is a peninsula in Ontario, Canada, that divides Georgian Bay of Lake Huron from the lake's main basin. The peninsula extends roughly northwestwards from the rest of Southwestern Ontario, pointing towards Manitoulin Island, with which it forms the widest strait joining Georgian Bay to the rest of Lake Huron. The Bruce Peninsula contains part of the geological formation known as the Niagara Escarpment.

Saugeen First Nation is an Ojibway First Nation band located along the Saugeen River and Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. The band states that their legal name is the "Chippewas of Saugeen". Organized in the mid-1970s, Saugeen First Nation is the primary "political successor apparent" to the Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory; the other First Nation that is a part of Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory is Cape Croker. The Ojibway are of the Algonquian languages family. The First Nation consist of four reserves: Chief's Point 28, Saugeen 29, Saugeen Hunting Grounds 60A, and Saugeen and Cape Croker Fishing Islands 1.

First Nations in Ontario constitute many nations. Common First Nations ethnicities in the province include the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and the Cree. In southern portions of this province, there are reserves of the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saugeen Shores</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Saugeen Shores is a town in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada, formed in 1998. In addition to the two main population centres of Southampton and Port Elgin, the town includes a portion of the village of Burgoyne and the North Bruce area, straddling the municipal eastern and southern boundary respectively. In 2016, the permanent population of Saugeen Shores was 13,715, in a land area of 171.05 square kilometres (66.04 sq mi).

Nahnebahwequa or Catherine Bunch was an Ojibwa spokeswoman and Christian Missionary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiikwemkoong First Nation</span> Unceded territory in Ontario, Canada

The Wiikwemkoong First Nation is a First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. The Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory is the First Nation reserve in the northeast of Manitoulin Island in Manitoulin District, Ontario, Canada. Wiikwemkoong is an unceded Indigenous reserve in Canada, which means that it has not "relinquished title to its land to the government by treaty or otherwise."

The Robinson Treaties are two treaties signed between the Ojibwa chiefs and the Crown in 1850 in the Province of Canada. The first treaty involved Ojibwa chiefs along the north shore of Lake Superior, and is known as the Robinson Superior Treaty. The second treaty, signed two days later, included Ojibwa chiefs from along the eastern and northern shores of Lake Huron, and is known as the Robinson Huron Treaty. The Wiikwemkoong First Nation did not sign either treaty, and their land is considered "unceded".

The Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory, also known as Saugeen Ojibway Nation, SON and the Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory, is the name applied to Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugeen First Nation as a collective, represented by a joint council. The collective First Nations are Ojibway (Anishinaabe) peoples located on the eastern shores of Lake Huron on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. Though predominantly Ojibway, due to large influx of refugees from the south and west after the War of 1812, the descendants of the Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory also have ancestry traced to Odawa and Potawatomi peoples.

Charles Rankin, was an early Irish-born and Scottish-descended settler and land surveyor in Upper Canada. He is significant due to his role in the surveying and early settlement of large areas of Upper Canada, including much of the Bruce Peninsula and south shore of Lake Huron, and notably the city of Owen Sound. Born in 1797 at Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, he died in either 1886 or 1888 in Owen Sound, a city whose founding he had been instrumental in.

Basil H. Johnston was an Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) and Canadian writer, storyteller, language teacher and scholar.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is an Anishinaabe writer of mixed ancestry from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in Canada. She lives and works at Neyaashiinigmiing, Cape Croker Reserve on the Saugeen Peninsula in southwestern Ontario, and in Ottawa, Ontario.

Neyaashiinigmiing, formerly Cape Croker, is a reserve within Bruce County, Ontario. It is one of the parcels of land administered by the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

Saugeen may refer to the following in Ontario, Canada:

Cape Croker Hunting Ground 60B is a reserve located on the Bruce Peninsula bordering the Bruce Peninsula National Park. It is one of the reserves of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

Saugeen and Cape Croker Fishing Islands 1 is a First Nations reserve consisting of 89 islands in Lake Huron off the western coast of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. They extend north of Chief's Point 28 for 11 miles (18 km) up to Pike Bay. These islands are shared between the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugeen First Nation.

Bryden Gwiss Kiwenzie is a Canadian musician whose debut album Round Dance & Beats (Powwow) was a shortlisted nominee for both the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2017 and Best Hand Drum Album of the year at the 2017 Indigenous Music Awards.

The Cape Croker Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the south-east corner of Neyaashiinigmiing 27 native reserve in Ontario, Canada. It is a part of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land Back</span> Movement by Indigenous people in North America to reclaim lands

Land Back, also referred to with hashtag #LandBack, is a decentralised campaign by Indigenous Australians, Indigenous peoples in Canada, Native Americans in the United States, other indigenous peoples, and allies alike, that seeks to reestablish Indigenous sovereignty, with political and economic control of their ancestral lands. Activists have also used the Land Back framework in Mexico, and scholars have applied it in New Zealand and Fiji. Land Back is part of a broader Indigenous movement for decolonisation.

References

  1. "First Nation Profiles". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada . Government of Canada. 14 November 2008.
  2. "First Nation Profiles". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada . Government of Canada. 14 November 2008.
  3. "Chippewas of Nawash - Cape Croker". Archived from the original on 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  4. "Cape Croker Park". No. 34th (annual pow wow). Chippewas of Nawash First Nation: Cape Croker Economic Development. 2018.
  5. "Chief & Council - Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation". www.nawash.ca.
  6. "Nawash/Saugeen First Nations Launch Aboriginal Title Lawsuit". Turtle Island Native Network.
  7. "Official Plan" (PDF). Town of Saugeen Shores. 26 March 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  8. "John Borrows - University of Victoria". UVic.ca.
  9. "Writers-in-Residence Program: Robin Kimmerer." Archived 2013-04-02 at the Wayback Machine HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2012.

44°54′30″N81°01′21″W / 44.908279°N 81.022634°W / 44.908279; -81.022634