paper, ink

Description of Order in Council:

The committee, having taken into consideration the petition of Mr. McNab and Mr. C.D. Morson, are humbly of the opinion that the lease for ninety-nine years of Kettle Island, granted in 1818 by certain Indian Chiefs to Eleazar Gillson, is null and void, inasmuch as the Indians have no right to grant leases or dispose of the lands situated within their ancient hunting grounds. The committee recommended that some compensation be given to the Indians from the rent collected for Kettle Island.

Also, the committee were led to have reference to an approval Report of Council dated 13th June 1837:

The Iroquois, Algonquins and the Nipissingues, under the spiritual care of the priests of the Seminary of Montreal at the Lake of Two Mountains requested the help of the Government to be maintained in the residue of their hunting grounds on the Ottawa River, and to be compensated for that which has been taken from them by the Crown. Their claim comprised a tract of country on each side of the Ottawa River, reaching from the seigniorial grant for some hundred miles upwards; and they asked that besides compensation for that portion of this territory which the Crown had granted away or the white population had occupied they may be protected in the enjoyment of the remainder against further encroachment or grant.

The committee recommended that a sufficient tract of land should be set apart in the rear of the present range of townships on the Ottawa River, and that such of them as may from time to time be disposed to settle on land should be located there, and that both they and the rest of the tribes should continue to receive support as may supply the place of their former means of subsistence, and at the same time prepare and lead them to a state of independence.

Signatories:

J. Stewart, Chairman

Date document signed

Canada, Indian Treaties and Surrenders from 1680 to 1890, 2 vols., (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1891), 2: 14-16.

17 June 1839, Order in Council Regarding Lands on Kettle Island and on the Ottawa River, Library and Archives Canada, Indian Affairs, D-10a, Series A, Volume 1847, Reel T-9939, GAD REF IT284, http://grasac.org/gks, (heritage item id no. 3338, accessed [date]).

This record was created under the direction of Heidi Bohaker as part of a larger research project funded by an Aboriginal Research Grant titled “Braiding Knowledges: Anishinaabe Heritage in Community Perspective”from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).