Who has traded cash for creation? Approaching an Anishinaabeg informed environmental history on Bkejwanong Territory

The turn of the twentieth century featured an accelerated effort on the part of the Department of Indian Affairs to assimilate Indigenous peoples across Canada. The effort was spearheaded by a chain of government bureaucrats who believed the best way to go about this activity was to convince Native bands to surrender their rights to land and resources, all in the name of progress. To fill the void left by the relinquishment of traditional lifestyles, the government pursued a double-pronged approach of agricultural and industrial initiatives at the community level. This study considers the effect these initiatives had in one particular community, the Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario.

In Anishinaabemowin, the community is Bkejwanong Territory, understood as "the place where the waters divide." Members of the community who sought to retain traditional cultural practices and tribal sovereignty met colonial and industrial encroachment on Bkejwanong with an equally forceful response. As a result, the study looks to the literal and metaphorical contested ground, as competing notions of place dominate this era.

This study utilizes a methodology largely informed by some of the traditional chiefs and leaders on Bkejwanong. A complementary phenomenological approach to better understand the differing concepts of place at the turn of the century is also considered. The foundation of this study rests not only in place, but how differing cultures understood and perceived ecology and land use.