The Teme-Augama Anishnabai Struggle for Justice
The struggle has been ongoing for over 145 years. In 1877 Chiefs Tonene and Kanachintz of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai, approached representatives of the Federal Department of Indian Affairs to ask for a reserve to protect the Original Temagami People from lumber companies that were encroaching on n’Dakimenan. Six years later, in 1883, the Federal Government began to pay treaty annuities to some Teme-Augama Anishnabai people without having executed a treaty. Canada also promised to survey a reserve. A reserve was surveyed (The Austin Bay Reserve) comparable to other reserves in the Robinson Huron Treaty area (100 square miles). Ontario refused to accommodate the request, saying that the area was too rich in timber for it to be reserve land and out of keeping with the number of “Indians’.
The Temagami Forest Reserve was then established. Our people were harassed to the extent that they had to get permission from the Ontario department of Lands and Resources to cut firewood. Families were flooded out from their homesteads on their family territories. As time went on, Ontario said that in its opinion, “there is less and less reason for lands to be set aside for the Temagami Indians”. It is not until 1971 that a one-square mile reserve was created on Bear Island, by Order in Council. Bear Island is not a treaty reserve.
In 1973, the Teme-Augama Anishnabai and Temagami First Nation Chief, Gary Potts, after almost 100 years of no response from both Federal or Provincial Governments, registered cautions against 4000 sq. miles (110 townships) and asserted ownership of our homeland territory. In light of the registration of the cautions, Ontario sued the Teme-Augama Anishnabai and Temagami First Nation. The court action culminated in 1991 with the Supreme Court of Canada decision that stated that the Temagami Indians were adhered to the Robinson Huron Treaty because some Teme-Augama Anishnabai received treaty annuities and Bear Island was a reserve. The court noted that the Crown had breached its fiduciary duty and that Teme-Augama Anishnabai had had Aboriginal title before the adhesion.
As of today, 127 Sq. miles of land has been set aside for a mainland reserve. A draft settlement agreement had been completed in 2008 but did not go forward to ratification. It is hoped that respectful co-existence can be reached through a new Agreement in the near future.
Second Chief Aleck Paul Statement 1913 (To Frank Speck)
“When the white people came they commenced to killing all the game. They left nothing on purpose to breed and keep us the supply, because the white man don’t care about the animals. They are after the money. After the white man kills all the game in one place he can teake the train and go three hundred miles or more to another and do the same there. But the Indian cannot do that. He must stay on his own section all the time and support his family on what it produces…
If an Indian went to the old country and sold hunting licenses to the old country people for them to hunt on their own land, the white people would not stand for that.. What we Indians want is for the government to stop the white people killing our game, as they do it for sport and not for support.
We Indians do not need to be watched about protecting the game, we must protect the game or starve. We can take better care of the game just as well as the game warden and better, because we are going to live here all the time.
Download Gary Potts Letter to Special Committee on the Constitution of Canada Nov 21 1980