03/24/2026
đŸª¶ Michi Saagiig Territory: Before & After Treaties
Three Nations. One Land. A Story of Displacement, Continuity, and Community.
I share this as someone who has been connected to this land and these Nations for most of my life.
A part of my family — the people who helped raise me from early childhood — are rooted in this region. Their presence shaped my understanding of community, responsibility, and relationship long before I had the language for it.
My maternal family has also had a cottage in Hiawatha First Nation since the mid‑1900s. I grew up on this land, long before I understood the deeper history beneath my feet. Over time, through family, community, and education, that understanding has become central to who I am and the work I do.
Professionally, I’m a community peer support worker with a Social Service Worker – Indigenous Perspectives designation from Fleming College, located in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough). My education, relationships, and career have all been shaped by Indigenous knowledge, teachings, and community leadership.
Before treaties, the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg lived across the Kawartha Lakes, Rice Lake, and the north shore of Lake Ontario.
They moved seasonally, harvested wild rice, traveled by canoe, and gathered at sacred sites.
The land was continuous — no borders dividing families or Nations.
After Treaty 20 (1818) and the Williams Treaties (1923), that vast homeland was reduced to three small reserves:
• Alderville First Nation
• Curve Lake First Nation
• Hiawatha First Nation
The map shows the shift clearly: from a connected territory to fragmented pockets surrounded by settler lands.
Today, the Nations remain deeply connected — through language, ceremony, governance, wild rice, and kinship.
The land remembers. The people remain.
As someone tied to this place through family, community, and professional responsibility, I share this to honour the history, acknowledge the impact of these treaties, and support truth‑telling and relationship‑building.
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