Sunday 21 August 2016

Treaty Day, Long Lac

E. C. Everett photos.
Conflicting dates from 1923, 1927 to 1930 on photos.
 
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E.C. Everett photo
Treaty day, Long lac
 
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Treaty Day, Long Lac
Barrel of Ice Cream on dock.
possible Wallace Everett standing behind it.
E.C. Everett photo
 
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Treaty Day, Long Lac
Bea Everett (back left), nurse
(date given for this as July 1927)
 

2 comments:

  1. The middle photo: Nick Finlayson Part One:

    Nick Finlayson (my g-g-grandfather) in canoe and his son Emile is standing in the canoe. Nick Finlayson's full name was Louis Victor Nicholas Finlayson, and he was born at Fort William in 1857 and died in 1931 in the Fort William hospital. He was buried in the old Catholic Church cemetery on the Long Lake #58 Reserve . His father, John Finlayson, was the HBC Post Master at the HBC Long Lake Post for many years, then at Red Rock, Michipicoten and then retired and is buried at Mobert First Nation. Nick's mother was Angelique Ikwens, her Native name was Shebagijig. She was most likely from Rat Portage (now Kenora) and was either Ojibway or Oji-Cree. She was born circa 1827 and died in 1910, she is buried next to John, who did in 1898, at the Mobert First Nation cemetery. Nick's (second) wife was Jane Souliere. The Souliere family is one of the oldest French Métis families dating back to New France in the 1600s. In the 1700s Jane's Souliere Ojibway/French grandparents were on Madeline Island in Wisconsin, Lake Superior (Mooningwanekaaning-minis, “Home of the Golden-Breasted Flicker"). In the late 1700s as the Ojibwa began to disperse from the island and into northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, some bands and families backtracked along the original East to West Anishinaabeg migration route and returned to the East and settled with relations in northern Michigan on Drummond Island. The Souliere family was a part of this migration. After 1812 when the borders were finalized many Ojibway and Métis families left Drummond Island (preferring to stay aligned with the British in Canada over the Americans, who could blame them) and went north over the border and settled in parts of Sault St. Marie such as Garden River. This branch of the Souliere family was a part of this northern movement and eventually made their way to the Pic River Ojibway community by 1871 (Algoma Census, 1871, 1881). At that point, the Pic River Reserve was not yet established. No Chief or Headman from the Pic River Ojibway ever attended or signed the 1850 Robinson Superior Treaty which only established Reserves at Fort William, Lake Nipigon (Gull Bay) and Gros Gap at Michipicoten. By 1883 the community at Pic River petitioned Indian Affairs for their own reserve signed by the Chief at Pic River, Jean Baptiste Morrisseau (who himself was actually from the Lake Nipigon, Gull Bay) and headmen and several "halfbreed Chiefs" including John Finlayson, Nick's father. John's father was the Scottish HBC fur trader and later Chief Factor Nicol Finlayson 1794-1877. He came to Canada with his brother Duncan 1775-1862 (Gov of Assiniboia at Fort Gary, Red River Settlement, Manitoba 1839-1844). John's mother was Nicol Finlayson's first so-called "country wife." Her name was Nancy Ka-na-ki-shi-waite (provided by John's full brother Hector Finlayson on his 1886 Métis Scrip Application). She was most likely Cree or Oji-Cree from near the HBC Henley House Post and was born circa 1800 and may have died around 1828.

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  2. Nick Finlayson Part Two:

    Nicol Finlayson was a fluent Cree speaker and was given the Cree name "Mis-qui-Kiweninne" (found in letters written by Nicol to his son John after retiring in Nairn, Scotland, found in the HBC Archives and Ontario Archives). Nick Finlayson and his wife Jane Souliere had 10 children. Nick had one son (Stephen Finlayson 1879-1903, died young of TB at Mobert) with his first wife before she died. Stephen married Agnes Godchere, she was the daughter of well-known HBC Manager at Long Lake Peter Godchere and Catherine Kadena. Peter Godchere was a friend and fellow HBC employee of Stephen's father Nick Finlayson. Nick Finlayson and his second wife Jane Souliere had 10 children between 1885 and 1901: Emile, Sarah (Abraham Desmoulin), Elizabeth or Eliza (John Boissoneau), Louise (Eli Onabigon and then Pete Gagnon), Florence or Flora (Henry Itchum or Echum), Catherine (Eli Mijakibinens/Michano), Agnes (Robert Michano Sr), John or Johnny (Catherine Dick), Duncan (never married), and Michel or Michael (Barbara Desmoulin). Agnes was my great-grandmother. The grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc and through the many intermarriages with descendants of these Finlayson siblings are now spread out primarily from Long Lake #58, Ginoogaming (formally Long Lake #77), Pic River #50, and Mobert First Nation and into the small towns nearby. Agnes Finlayson's oldest daughter was Doris, born circa 1918 near Longlac, possibly at the Kowkash HBC Outpost managed at the time by her grandfather Nick Finlayson. She lived at Heron Bay and then Coldwell with Agnes and Robert Michano Sr until she met and later married Ed Fortier in 1936 in Schreiber. Our Fortier family line stems from Noel and Antoine Forestier, fahermand son who immigrated from Dieppe, France in 1663. They are considered one of the original 500 french families t permanently settled in New France (I'Le de Orleans) and Antoine shortened the name to Fortier. Ed and Doris lived in Coldwell, Port Arthur and then Beardmore and finally in Nipigon. Ed and Doris Fortier had 14 children, including my father Walter, the second oldest. He was born in 1939 at Coldwell and attended the St Joseph Indian Residential School in Fort William for 2 years. He met my mother Henriette Bigaouette in high school while living in Beardmore in the 1950s and they were married in the old Church there which was still standing when we visited in 1994 after 30 years being in the USA. My two oldest brothers were born in Beardmore. We moved to Nipigon around 1960. My next two older siblings and myself were born in the old Nipigon hospital after we moved to Nipigon. I was born in Sept, 1962, I was the youngest. In 1963 my father, Walter Fortier was struck and killed by a falling tree while cutting pulpwood for the Martin Pulpwood Co out of Nipigon. The accident occurred in Cameron Falls. One year later to the day, Sept 27, 1964 we moved from Nipigon to Mooseheart, an orphanage run by the Loyal Order of the Moose. The Beardmore Moose Lodge sponsored our move there. My father was a member first at Beardmore and then at Nipigon (I assume). There was an article in a local newspaper about our move to Mooseheart. Our family used to have a copy but we have since lost it. I remember there was a photo with the article and it showed the Moose Lodge officials, my mom holding me in her arms, some of my siblings, and the mayor of Nipigon presenting a cake to me because it was my second birthday. If anyone ever stumbles on an archive copy of the early October, 1964 issue let me know. I have been searching for it for decades now. If you are curious about any of this you can contact me at james_fortier@live.com.

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