Nations of the Strait

Timeline

1. Time immemorial Homelands on both shores. The Anishinaabe Three Fires and the Wyandot live, fish, farm and trade along the strait. In the 1700s Odawa and Huron-Wendat villages stand on the south shore, the side that is now Windsor (City of Windsor archaeological plan). Sources: City of Windsor · Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island

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3. Time immemorial to today Bkejwanong. Walpole Island First Nation, Bkejwanong, 'where the waters divide', is home to Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi people of the Council of Three Fires. It is unceded territory. Sources: Ontario Heritage Trust · DOI record

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7. Late 1600s A resting place at the strait. Walpole Island's own history says the Three Fires gave the Huron-Wendat a small tract at the strait to live on until they could return home. An Odawa village stood on the Canadian shore near today's tunnel. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation · Wyandot of Anderdon Nation

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12. 1728 The Huron mission. A Jesuit mission to the Huron at Detroit begins the roots of today's Assumption parish. Windsor Public Library: the mission moved to Bois Blanc Island in 1742, then to la Pointe de Montréal on the south shore. Sources: Windsor Public Library · Assumption Parish

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14. 1748 A village near today's bridge. Some Huron settle near the site of today's Ambassador Bridge and give land beside their village to the Jesuits for a church. Walpole Island's research says the Three Fires did not consent to these land gifts. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation · Windsor Public Library
15. 19 May 1790 McKee's Purchase. Anishinaabe and Wyandot leaders surrender land from Lake Erie to the Thames to the Crown for £1,200 currency of the Province of Quebec in goods delivered by Alexander McKee (blankets, cloth, kettles, guns, powder, rum, a bullock and more, scheduled in the deed). Two reserves are set apart in the deed itself: one from a run near Bois Blanc Island up the strait to the French settlement above Petite Isle au D'Inde, then east seven miles and south to close (the Anderdon reserve); and another from the mouth of Rivière au Jarvais (Knagg's Creek) up the strait to the Huron Church, 120 arpents deep. Caldwell First Nation did not sign. Frans. Baby, Ensign of Militia, witnessed the deed. It was recorded at L'Assomption, District of Hesse, on 22 June 1790 (Register B, pp. 374 to 378). Sources: Indian Treaties and Surrenders (Mapping Land Theft) · Canadian Encyclopedia · Government of Canada publications

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17. 1790 The Anderdon Reserve. About 200 Wyandot settle the Anderdon Reserve near Amherstburg, 23,330 acres (Wyandot of Anderdon Nation history). Sources: Wyandot of Anderdon Nation · Canadian Encyclopedia
18. 1791 A rectangle becomes a triangle. Surveyor Patrick McNiff runs the Huron Church Reserve's side lines along settlers' lots. Walpole Island's analysis: the reserve shrank from about 4,560 acres, the 1790 rectangle, to about 1,139 acres. One source so far. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation
19. 2 June 1797 'The proper owners of the soil'. Alexander McKee goes to Walpole Island to buy the Huron Church Reserve from the chiefs there. A provisional deal keeps 61 acres beside the church as a camping ground for Walpole Island people. One source so far. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation
20. 11 September 1800 Deed No. 12. The 1,078-acre Huron Church Reserve is sold to the Crown for £300 in goods: blankets, kettles, cloth, tools, ammunition and a bullock. The same deed takes 1,334 acres by the Amherstburg garrison and a 41-acre road as a 'gift', 1,375 acres that the deed rounds to '1,380 or thereabouts'. In all, 2,412 acres and a road. Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Wyandot chiefs signed, among them Roundhead (Ustaiechta); Thomas McKee accepted for the Crown; commissioners F. Baby and Alexander Duff witnessed. Sources: Indian Treaties and Surrenders (Mapping Land Theft) · Walpole Island First Nation
21. 17 November 1807 Treaty of Detroit. The Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi sign a treaty with the United States at Detroit, on the American side of the river, with William Hull for the United States. The manuscript survives in the Library of Congress. The printed Kappler edition matches the date and parties. Sources: Wikimedia Commons · Kappler edition (Oklahoma State University)

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23. 1812 to 1813 Oshawana beside Tecumseh. Oshawana (John Naudee), later a chief at Walpole Island, was Tecumseh's chief warrior at the Battle of the Thames, 5 October 1813 (Canadian War Museum; Library and Archives Canada). Sources: Canadian War Museum · Art Canada Institute

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25. 1836 Anderdon cut down. At Amherstburg on 20 September 1836, Wyandot chiefs and warriors propose in ITS Surrender No. 46 to give up the south third of the Huron Reserve for the general expenses of the Indians in Upper Canada, to have the Crown sell the north third for the tribe's interest, and to keep the stone quarry (and by implication the middle third). Lt. Gov. F. B. Head approved; warriors absent from council assented on 26 September 1836. The Wyandot of Anderdon Nation's history says the reserve was cut to 7,770 acres and the stone quarry; that acre figure is not in the ITS No. 46 text we have. Sources: Indian Treaties and Surrenders (Internet Archive) · Wyandot of Anderdon Nation
26. 1837 and 1841 Return to Bkejwanong. Potawatomi and Odawa families return from Michigan and settle on Walpole Island. These are the dates the Nations give themselves, in their 1869 Memorial. One source so far. Sources: Internet Archive
27. 1844 to 1845 The Bagot Commission survey. A report on the affairs of the Indians in Canada, commissioned by Governor General Sir Charles Bagot and laid before the Legislative Assembly on 20 March 1845, treated the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair communities as distinct administrative units. It groups Chippewas, Hurons, Shawnees and Munsees at Amherstburg and Point Pelee; Chippewas, Pottawatomies and Ottawas of Walpole Island; and a large Anderdon tract, formerly in Malden, which the commissioners put at about 23,000 acres and said had been surrendered in trust in August 1835. This is the Crown commissioners' contemporary account, not a modern land-claim finding. Sources: Report on the Affairs of the Indians in Canada, 20 March 1845 (Internet Archive)

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29. 1851 to 1946 Residential schools. Walpole Island children are sent to Mount Elgin, Shingwauk, the Mohawk Institute and other schools. Mount Elgin, at Muncey, operated from 1851 to 1946. Walpole Island's memorial monument carries about 400 survivors' names. Sources: The Children Remembered · All Lit Up
30. 19 July 1853 The camping ground surrendered. Indian Agent J. B. Clench certifies Surrender No. 71, by which eight named Wyandot chiefs and principal men at Anderdon (Joseph White, Matthew Greyeyes, William Clarke, Alexander Clarke, James Clarke, Joseph Warrow, Francis Parke and Alexis Matthias Splitlog) surrender a triangular tract commencing on Detroit Street, running along the Detroit River to the Huron Church line, then along a rivulet to a bridge on the Queen's Highway and back along Detroit Street (the 61-acre camping ground). Dated Anderdon, 19 July 1853. Walpole Island says the Three Fires were not party to it and calls the surrender improper. Sources: Indian Treaties and Surrenders (Internet Archive) · Walpole Island First Nation
31. 1869 The Walpole Island Memorial. Printed at Sarnia and addressed to Governor General Sir John Young, it claims the Huron Reserve and Fighting, Bois Blanc, Turkey and Pelee islands. It says Bois Blanc was reserved as 'a place of landing, camping and holding Councils' and never surrendered, and that Pelee Island was only leased to Thomas McKee. One source so far. Sources: Internet Archive
32. 1929 The bridge and the camping ground. Walpole Island Heritage Centre research (2013) places the Canadian end of the Ambassador Bridge inside the 61-acre camping ground, with river footings in water-bed land never surrendered. This is the Nation's research, credited to it. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation · Historic Detroit

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34. 1922 Point Pelee. Parks Canada and APTN record that Caldwell people were expelled from Point Pelee National Park, on the mainland, after it was created. Caldwell First Nation's own account, as reported by CBC, is that families were burned out of their homes 'by the RCMP' in the 1920s. Point Pelee is not Pelee Island. Sources: APTN News · CBC News
35. 2010 to 2011 Caldwell's claim settled. Caldwell members approve a $105 million settlement on 21 August 2010; Canada approves it on 2 March 2011 and announces it on 25 March 2011. The claim is tied to the 1790 treaty and Point Pelee land promised in the War of 1812. Sources: Government of Canada · CBC News
36. 1748 to today Names on the map. Huron Line (Huron Church Road), Wyandotte Street and Indian Road recall the Huron mission at la Pointe de Montréal (Lajeunesse's parish history, reproduced by Assumption Parish). One source so far. Sources: Assumption Parish

Nations of the Strait today

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2. November 2020 A band without land no more. After a 230-year fight, Caldwell First Nation's land near Leamington gains reserve status (CBC, 24 November 2020). Sources: CBC News · APTN News
3. 2022 Caldwell and Point Pelee. Joint conservation, ceremony and interpretation at Point Pelee National Park, described by Caldwell as true to the Anishinaabek way of life (CBC). One source so far. Sources: CBC News
4. 2024 The Enniskillen claim. Canada's offer to Walpole Island, about $46 million with an option to add up to 400 acres of reserve, goes to a community vote that is put off in August 2024. Researchers said the Nation may be owed more. Sources: Chatham Daily News · Turtle Island News
5. March 2025 Water. A 'do not consume' advisory at Walpole Island after an upstream spill. Bkejwanong draws its water from the St. Clair River downstream of Sarnia's chemical plants. Sources: Sydenham Current · Friends of the St. Clair River
6. Every 5 May Red Dress Day. Gatherings at the Can-Am Indian Friendship Centre for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. Sources: CBC News · Can-Am Indian Friendship Centre
7. Today In the Nation's own words. Walpole Island Chief and Council publish community updates on claims and news. Sources: Walpole Island First Nation · Walpole Island First Nation

Connections between records

Links we found between separate records. Each one says how strong it is.

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