From Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg: This is our Territory, © Gidigaa Migizi (Doug Williams). Published by ARP Books in 2018.

Shkin

This is a story about the time soon after the Williams Treaty was signed in 1923, when our people thought they had agreed to keep hunting and fishing rights. Because many people in Curve Lake lived off the land—hunting, fishing, and food gathering—it would be important that they retain the right to continue those activities.

Unexpectedly—and contrary to our understanding of the original agreement—game wardens began to monitor the area, and started charging people for poaching. Our people fished, hunted and gathered in order to feed ourselves, to survive. We had been doing this forever and we didn’t know we weren’t supposed to.

It suddenly became a game of cat-and-mouse between the game wardens and the people living on their own homelands.

Amongst those people came a hunter who was legendary at getting away from the game wardens. His name was Shkin, short for Shkiiniwenh meaning young man and he knew every trick to get away from the game wardens. He was such a skilled paddler that two men in a canoe couldn’t catch him.

In winter, Shkin would cover himself with a white sheet on the ice so people wouldn’t see him fishing. He was also an extraordinary ice skater and would skate circles around the game wardens chasing him. Shkin made fun of them and their clumsiness, taunting them: “You can’t catch me.”

Shkin used the old style of skates, in which the blades tied onto your boots. One day the game warden appeared with a modern pair of tube skates in order to catch Shkin at his game and out-skate him. Shkin was ice fishing when he spotted the officer and swiftly took off.

This time, however, the game warden was gaining on him like never before, and the chase was on.

Shkin realized those modern skates were catching up to him and so he raced over to the dangerous part of the ice where he saw a big crack about 20 feet wide. He skated like a son-of-a-gun, as fast as he had ever skated … and he jumped.

Shkin made it across the open water and looked back at the game warden who had to stop, unable to make the leap. Shkin gave a big yell: “See I told you, you would never catch me. Have a good day.” And with that, it can be said that a big crack ultimately saved Shkin’s butt.

As humorous as the ending of this story is, it also serves as a stark reminder of how the government attempted to keep food from our peoples. It is also a story of gratitude and to remember our ancestors, our heroes, so dearly for having endured so much.

We never gave up our right to eat, in the same way we never gave up our right to access river mouths, our namesake: Mississauga. But that is another story.

Sam Fawn

The resilience of my people is admirable. One of the ways they kept up their spirit was with humour. Many stories are told of the clutzy game wardens that were posted on the lakes to watch out for us. There are also some sad stories. Old Sam Fawn, after many years of carving axe handles, saving up money and making other items like that, was able to afford a cedar strip canoe from Peterborough. He went fishing on Fox Island out of provincial season. He was seen by the game warden who chased him. Sam beat him and came across from Fox Island to the mainland at Curve Lake. He put his canoe up on shore, turned it over and walked home. Everyone did that back in those days. Everyone knew each other’s canoes. The game warden was watching him from Fox Island, and he sneaked over and seized that canoe. The canoe has never been seen again. Poor Sam Fawn, worked hard his whole life, trying to live off the land. I remember him as being one of the most gentle human beings that lived in Curve Lake. The trauma created by the 1923 Williams Treaty will be long lived. It lives in our hearts. It can never be repaid by the government no matter what they do. The damage has been done. Many people have lived through this trauma who have now passed on. I remember them dearly and I hope that somehow there are no game wardens in the Happy Hunting Grounds.

Nogie’s Creek

Chief Nogie was banished to Nogie’s Creek. The Indian Agent banished him to that place because he was allegedly caught abusing band funds when he was the Chief. The missionaries wanted him banished there because they thought he was a thief and a bad influence. It was no problem for him—it was beautiful over there. James McCue was a writer and there are letters written to the government in the archives.

Jacob Crane

He was the Chief in Mud Lake, but he was from Scugog. He wanted to be part of Curve Lake, so he came, but he didn’t like it. He then got some land from the Indian Agent at Balsam Lake. He was a descendant of the Nika, the Gooses. The Indian Agent gave some money to a carpenter from Peterborough to build a house. The carpenter never showed up for four or five years. Finally, he came to build the house. But Jacob was frustrated and went back to Scugog.

Road Allowances

Sometimes I have heard the Métis called “Road Allowance People.” The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) defines Road Allowance as “an allowance (normally 66 feet in width) for a road laid out by a Crown surveyor, including a road allowance shown on an original township survey and a road allowance included on a Crown plan of subdivision.” These areas were also important for Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg. The roads weren’t built right up to the lake. So we used these areas to camp. Eventually, the things we left at the road allowances were vandalized because the settlers didn’t like us using the land.

Beaver Lake/Amik Zaagii’gan

In the late 1940s the Government of Ontario divided the land around Beaver Lake up and sold them only to white people for $25–$30 per lot. Broke my heart. That was the Taylor branch of the families’ hunting area—Beaver, Gold, Catchacoma and Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Lakes. We got pushed north to Bottle and Sucker Lake. They took the trapline from James Taylor between 1952 and 1954 because they said he wasn’t using it. They said he wasn’t harvesting enough animals and selling enough furs. The Williams side of the family, the Maskonoje’s area was up and down the Coldwater portage going to Georgian Bay.