Struggle Not Over for Teme-Augama Anishnabai
By Fiona York, 1993
"The Teme-Augama Anishnabai come from no place else on earth; n'Daki-Menan is our true Motherland. It is not a wilderness area or a park, not a source of timber, wood fibre or precious metals. To us, it is the source of life. Quite simply, it is home."
-Mary Laronde,
Stewardship Director for the
Teme-Augama Anishnabai
The Teme-Augama Anishnabai, or Deep Water People, have gone to great lengths to protect and preserve their home from destruction in the name of economic and recreational interests. As they enter year 117 of their efforts to establish rights to the land, Chief Gary Potts stresses the need for public support and government goodwill in establishing a mutually satisfying agreement.
Archaeological and oral histories indicate that the Teme-Augama Anishnabai have resided in an area about 100 miles northwest of North Bay for over 6,000 years. Linguists have proven that the Teme-Augama are a distinct people, related only distantly to the Kipewa-Temiskaming-Algonquins of Northwestern Quebec. Traditionally, the Teme-Augama were a hunting and gathering society, relying on the plentiful resources of their 4,000 square miles of land. Today, approximately 20,000 band members struggle to maintain that self-sufficiency.
Initially escaping government attention, the Teme-Augama Anishnabai were excluded from the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850. While this was hardly cause for concern at first, encroaching white settlement alarmed the band. In 1880, a reserve was requested in an attempt to preserve precious lumber and wildlife for future generations of Teme-Augama Anishnabai. But when the federal government became aware of the resource-rich land unprotected by a treaty, it began a process of "reasoned denial," according to Chief Gary Potts.
"Colonial habits die hard, particularly if you have benefited from a colonial perspective," Potts opines, referring to the century-long struggle for government recognition of aboriginal rights. While title to the land was undecided, the government allowed lucrative timber, mining and recreational concerns to operate on traditional hunting and gathering territory. Only by establishing uncontested title to the land known as n'Daki-Menan could the band ensure that its resources would be farmed in a sustainable manner.
First sign of progress
The first indication of enlightenment came when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Ontario Liberal government on April 23, 1990. The Memorandum committed the Ontario government to three processes:
- negotiating a "Treaty of Co-existence" for residents of the area;
- creating a "stewardship council" with equal native and non-native membership;
- establishing a "bilateral process" whereby the Teme-Augama Anishnabai would have input into all logging activities in the area.
While the Memorandum of Understanding is considered a "breakthrough," it offers no protection for Ontario's last stand of old-growth white pine, located in n'Daki-Menan. In 1988, the Ontario government began building a road to provide loggers access to the old-growth. The Teme-Augama Anishnabai responded with a roadblock on June 1, 1988. Over the next two years, Red Squirrel Road became infamous for blockades and civil disobedience. Chief Potts credits that public pressure with the preservation of the irreplaceable white pines.
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