A “great experiment” was taking place in Simcoe County during the 1830s. It was officially known as The Coldwater Narrows Reserve.
This “great experiment,” as it was known in British government circles, was really a house of cards. The experiment was being haphazardly conducted by British Indian Agents and the lessons learned here would eventually be amalgamated into legislation known as the Indian Act.
My ancestors were the subjects — the laboratory rats, as it were. We were forced into what would become Ground Zero for Settler colonialism, the first Indian Reserve in Canada. It all took place in what would become Simcoe County.
Before the end of the decade, the great experiment would crumble.
In the fall of 1837 the hereditary Chieftains of the Anishinaabeg (Chippewa Tri-Council) were exhausting all protocol and diplomacy to keep the encroachment of Settlers from eliminating them from their ancestral territories. They were fighting a losing battle on all fronts as land was being sold out from under them.
Chiefs Yellowhead and Aissance were fighting to retain control of sawmills which their men built for the benefit of their people and which were being leased (without their consent) by government officials to Settler corporations. At the same time, they were fighting to keep the Settler community (through negotiations) from entering into their familial hunting grounds.
Within a short period of time, the Anishinaabeg had established the Coldwater Narrows Reserve as the most successful farming operation north of York. For that, they became a target as everyone wanted a piece of that action.
But the biting wind and churning waters that the Anishinaabeg Chiefs seemed to be fighting against would rise into a dangerous tide of unforeseen darkness. Survival would be made even more difficult.
South of their homelands was the growing Settler community of York, in a territory that was known as Upper Canada. The territory was held by the British and controlled by an oligarchy — powerful men who controlled space as government officials, bankers, lawyers, land developers, and railway operators. With names like Sir Francis Bond Head and Samuel Jarvis, they were also very active in Simcoe County.
These men of British heritage often held all of these positions at once. They controlled the bulk of the wealth in Upper Canada. They controlled the people. Their tight grip on the affairs of the state and the economy would force many settler community farmers into bankruptcy and foreclosure. And eventually, in 1838, mutiny.
As a result of the evilness they were pouring over their people of Upper Canada including Simcoe County and the Anishinaabeg people, the Oligarchy were forced to quell the uprising that had now become an insurrection. A rebellion. This rebellion also had American interests within its ranks who were filling the minds of the Settlers about a better way: the American way.
Months before, Sir Francis Bond Head, who was the Lt. Governor of Upper Canada, had sent the bulk of his military north to Lower Canada to quell the uprising that had started there, much earlier. The Lt. Governor was forced to put together a militia of loyalists to guard against the rebel forces which had become sprinkled with American republicanism.
The Lt. Governor quickly learned that he didn’t have the required numbers of militiamen to stave off any assault so he sent word to the Anishinaabeg (the same Anishinaabeg he was stealing land from), to help him. He was counting on their loyalty and allegiance to the Crown to help him just as they did 26 years before during the War of 1812.
The hereditary Chiefs met with Bond Head’s officials. And after a series of negotiations they agreed to attend York to assist in the rescuing of Canada once more.
Within days, Chiefs Yellowhead and Aissance would travel with their warriors to Cooks Bay and to a staging area on the Holland River before riding down into York to confront the Rebels. With names like Kchi Noodin (Big Wind), Kaabinaakwe (Stands to Shoot), and Mishaanaago (He/She Appears), many of these warriors, like their Chiefs, were hardened veterans of conflict having served during the war of 1812.
It was noted by historians that the Indigenous nations which included, Mohawks, Mississaugas, Potowatamis, and Anishinaabeg, were the largest contingent per capita of any ethnicity that answered the call and came to join the skirmish. And together, they were victorious; it was recorded by the insurrectionists that one warrior fought with the ferocity of three settlers.
This very scene was repeated during World Wars I and II when Indigenous men and women joined the war effort in numbers which were, per capita, larger than all other ethnicities in Canada.
Why? Why would they join and fight alongside the very people that were removing them from their homelands? The very people who would not allow them on to trains, steamships, or any other form of public transportation. The very people who would not allow them into their shops and who would openly desecrate and rob the graves of their ancestors. Why?
To put it simply; survival. Survival of the people, and we gave our word that we would be allies to the Crown. We held to our word.
On Nov. 8 (Indigenous Veterans Day) and Nov. 11 (Remembrance Day) as you give honour to men and women who sacrificed themselves to preserve this land, remember them, too.
Many of their names of warriors who fought in the Upper Canada Rebellion are lost. There are few records. In many cases, the British didn’t bother to record the names of warriors who fought for them. But they did record the names of the British officers who served alongside those contingents.
But, we will remember them.
Jeff Monague is a former Chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, former Treaty Research Director with the Anishnabek (Union of Ontario Indians), and veteran of the Canadian Forces. Monague, who taught the Ojibwe language with the Simcoe County District School Board and Georgian College, is currently the Superintendent of Springwater Provincial Park. His column appears every other Monday.
