Keewatin v. Minister of Natural Resources

Part 5. The Ojibway Perspective - Ojibway History 40Q. And can you give me a sense of what the Ojibway reaction… in the Boundary Waters area … tothe arrival of Christianity was?A. …The Ojibway, according to the missionary records that we have, engaged in almostphilosophical studies with these missionaries, but they rejected Christianity They felt that theMidewiwin was their religion and they didn't need another ...There are descriptions of when I think Peter Jacobs tried to build a church … the Ojibway would justtake the boards down.But given the culture of the Ojibway and their particular form of etiquette, the Ojibway did not repelthe missionaries from their area forcibly. They simply used rather polite language. I can recall, forexample, one expression being quoted, "We gently bar the door against you."This …led the missionaries [to leave] the area and …call [it]… "the headquarters ofHeathenism" ……Q. And did the resistance to the arrival of Christianly continue to the early 1870s?A. Yes. …[228] In his report, Ex. 60, Chartrand at p. 38 quoted ethno-historians Waisberg and Holzkammas follows:After a decade of discussion with Catholic and Methodist missionaries, the Grand Council proscribedChristianity in 1849, forbidding a planned mission station and school on the Rainy River; a warningwas issued that an attempt to build would be met by soldiers who would dismantle any structures.2011 ONSC 4801 (CanLII)The Seasonal Round[229] From season to season, the Ojibway moved from area to area, travelling by birch barkcanoe in summer, snow shoe in winter. They gathered resources for their sustenance wheneverand wherever they were available.[230] In a letter to the Minister of Public Works dated December 19, 1870 [Ex. 1, Vol. 4, tab103], to which I have earlier referred in other respects in the section on Euro-Canadianperspective, Dawson, anticipating that after the Treaty was made, the Ojibway would be treatedas minors and that they would come under the care of the Dominion Government, provided adetailed description of their habits and means of obtaining their subsistence:In spring, as the navigation opens, the Indians leave their hunting grounds, and betake themselves tothe Lakes and Rivers and, as the fish literally swarm in these inland waters, in the early part ofSummer, they then have no difficulty in obtaining food, and the means of communication being easyto their light canoes, they can congregate in considerable numbers. Rainy River is the Chief resort,and it is there that their Councils are held, and their Feasts celebrated, but Rainy River, although theSturgeon abound in its waters, cannot support the whole tribe, and the number which assemble thereis generally limited to 600 or a thousand people, including men, women and children. Last summer,however, the number was greater than usual, there having been at one time full 1500 people in thevicinity of Fort Frances.…… early in Summer, the grand occupation is fishing, and this is to them the happiest season of theyear, as they have then an opportunity of uniting after a long winter of isolation. Food is abundantand the time passes pleasantly under circumstances of peculiar fascination to the Savage. With hisgun in readiness for the wild fowl, and his spear for the fish, he can, with little labour, secure enoughfor his immediate wants, and the future troubles him not. The produce of the winter's hunt affordshim the means of renovating his garments and bedecking himself to his tastes; marriages and dancesare the order of the day with the young, and the old and experienced meet in Council to deliberate on