Photo by Sean Allen, Brant News
A First Nations dancer takes part in the Three Fires Homecoming Pow Wow hosted by the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation on Sunday.
Sean Allen
BRANT NEWS
The theme of the annual Three Fires Homecoming Pow Wow hosted by the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation is always “Our Story.”
That’s because their story is always worth telling, said Carolyn King, co-chair of the 26th annual powwow.
Showing a map of the original Mississaugas’ territory that covers most of what is now south-central Ontario – from Lake Erie in the south to Toronto and Orangeville in the north, and from London in the west to Niagara Falls in the east - King said it is her job for the New Credit council to promote their story and garner recognition for what used to be their land.
“Recognition goes a long way to deal with the hurts of the First Nations people,” she said.
Recently, King has started work with other native elders and scholars to develop an Ontario-wide marker program to bring more recognition to First Nations.
“You surely know the symbolism of the Inuksuk and its ties with northern First Nations,” she said. “We are working on making the moccasin the same type of cultural reference.”
King said a committee has been meeting with the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, which has one of the largest native moccasin collections, as well as the council of Chiefs of Ontario to get support to move forward with the moccasin project.
“The Chiefs passed a resolution that the moccasin would be the universal symbol for First Nations of Ontario,” she said. “As we move forward with the federal government and local proponents, we will look to them to support the placement of a moccasin marker to signify whose land it was originally.”
She said the project is not about land claims, but recognition for the past.
The moccasin identifiers that would be placed in key archaeological locations in Ontario would coincide with a curriculum program for local elementary school students to learn some of the history of the aboriginals in their area.
Eventually, she said the project could include the use of QR codes that are scannable by smart phones to link people to more information when they see a moccasin marker.
The pow wow was held both Saturday and Sunday with three grand entries and a number of competitions throughout the weekend. Vendors also filled the park in New Credit’s core area for the weekend.
King said on a good weekend – like the one they just had – the powwow can attract up to 1,500 guests, which is more than double the Mississaugas of the New Credit’s population of just over 700.
I have pointed out before that during the 1650s the Five (later Six) Nations Iroquois from what is now upper New York State entered what is now southwestern Ontario to kill, conquer and disperse the Petun, the Neutral and the Huron Indians.
I have pointed out that later, during the mid-1690s, the Ojibwa Mississauga Indians and their allies moved south and pushed the Five Nations Iroquois out of southern Ontraio, across Lake Erie and back toward their homeland in New York.
A 2003 Indian Claims Commission report describes that history and says “By 1700, the Mississaugas had succeeded in expelling the Iroquois and taken control of the north shore of Lake Ontario. In that year, representatives of the Mississaugas and other Ojibwa groups travelled to Onondaga, the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy, with an offer of peace. In exchange for the Confederacy’s recognition of the Mississaugas’ territorial control, and an agreement to allow them direct access to English fur traders, the Mississaugas offered to cease hostilities. The offer of peace was accepted in June 1700, and as a result, the Mississaugas secured their control of the territory between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. They would occupy these lands until the land cessions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries confined them to a very small proportion of their former territory”.
In fact, Ojibwa Chief Willian Yellowhead kept a wampum belt to remind the Five (later Six) Nations Ioquois of their cession of southern Ontario to the Mississauga.
Notice the article about the Mississauga pow wow says “Showing a map of the original Mississaugas’ territory that covers most of what is now south-central Ontario – from Lake Erie in the south to Toronto and Orangeville in the north, and from London in the west to Niagara Falls in the east”.
That’s interesting. I wonder what the Iroquois from Six Nations of the Grand River think about that claim.
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I’m sorry, that should be Ojibwa Chief William Yellowhead. I spelled William wrong.
And I should have said “Ojibwa Chief William Yellowhead kept a wampum belt to remind the Five (later Six) Nations Ioquois of their cession of southern Ontario to the Ojibwa (Chippewa) including the Mississauga Indians.
And that raises a question.
If the Five (later Six) Nations Iroquois gave control of the land in what is now southern Ontario to the Ojibwa including the Mississauga Indians in June 1700, how can the Five (later Six) Nations Iroquois have validly surrendered that same land to the British according to the Nanfan Treaty a year later in July of 1701?
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