Only a Scrap of Paper
A lake near my house in the aftermath of a forest fire, date unknown
By Jonathon Reed
My home is a 400-acre property in rural Ontario. Growing up, I knew the tract of land had been abandoned by its previous Scottish owners in the 1960s, and never thought to wonder who or what had preceded them.
European settlers gained the right to establish roads and trade routes through the territory of the Mississaugas with the John Collins’ Purchase of 1785. In 1818, a group of Mississauga chiefs ‘surrendered’ two million acres of land between Rice Lake and Lake Simcoe as part of the Rice Lake Treaty.
According to the meeting minutes, the Mississaugas were already in a dire situation because of settler-led disruptions to their traditional hunting systems. They were promised indefinite hunting and fishing rights and an ongoing reciprocal relationship with the British monarchy. But there were significant discrepancies between what was expressed to and understood by the chiefs, and what was written down—in English—in the Treaty itself.
“Our ancestors acquiesced cheerfully in the belief that they could hunt where and when they wished—‘as long as the grass grows and the water runs’—so ran the agreement signed by Indian chiefs and representatives of His Majesty’s Government. This was the law and promise which our ancestors deemed invulnerable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, but which later proved to be only a scrap of paper.”
Before European contact, the land was an abundant old-growth pine ecosystem that was carefully tended to by its inhabitants. The mid-19th century, however, is when the lumber industry reached the rivers and lakes of the northern townships and turned the towering forest of Laxton, Digby and Longford Townships into the lifeblood of the British navy.
“The story of Longford Township is one of tall pine timber, crashing logs on flooding waters, sturdy lumberjacks and raging forest fires. It is the story of the South Ontario lumber industry itself.”
The John Collins’ Purchase and the Rice Lake Treaty were signed in the decades leading up to the rise of the lumber industry, which suggests a connection between the two. The implications of that are significant.
The land itself is scarred, I could see that even while I was growing up. But I wonder about the scars in our relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Treaty people when the Treaties themselves were part of a system of exploitation and resource extraction that has never been adequately reckoned with. I think that acknowledging Treaties needs to be done alongside action and solidarity with Indigenous land defenders and climate activists.
Visit Land Needs Guardians to take action.
Written by Next Gen Men Program Manager Jonathon Reed as part of Treaties Recognition Week, an annual event that offers an opportunity to learn more about our collective Treaty rights and obligations. We are all Treaty people.