Chapleau Ojibway First Nation is an

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

located near Chapleau Township,

Sudbury District The Sudbury District is a district in Northeastern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1894 from townships of eastern Algoma District and west Nipissing District. The overwhelming majority of the district (about 92%) is ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The First Nation have

reserved Reserved is a Polish apparel retailer headquartered in Gdańsk, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomerania, Poland. It was founded in 1999 and remains the largest company of the LPP (company), LPP group, which has more than 1,700 retail stores located in ...

for themselves the 67 ha Chapleau 61A Indian Reserve, 64.7 ha Chapleau 74 Indian Reserve and the 799.3 ha

Chapleau 74A Chapleau 74A is a First Nations reserve located near Chapleau, Ontario. It is one of several reserves of the Chapleau Ojibway First Nation Chapleau Ojibway First Nation is an Ojibwa First Nation located near Chapleau Township, Sudbury District, ...

Indian Reserve. In September, 2007, their total registered population 39, of which their on-reserve population was 30 (24 on their main Reserve).

History

The people of Chapleau Ojibwe First Nation live on the only Ojibwa-language reserve in the Chapleau area. Their historical kinship and relationship with the land therefore draws them west to the shores of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

and south to the shores of

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

, rather than north into

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

territory to the shores of

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...

. As such, much of their traditional territory was ceded to the Crown under the 1850

Robinson Treaties The Robinson Treaties are two Treaty, treaties signed between the Ojibwa chiefs and The Crown in 1850 in the Province of Canada. The first treaty involved Ojibwa chiefs along the north shore of Lake Superior, and is known as the Robinson Superior ...

. These treaties cover all land whose waters drain into the north shores of lakes Huron and Superior. Chapleau Ojibwe forefathers were not, however, signatories to the Robinson Treaties, partly because

William Benjamin Robinson William Benjamin Robinson (December 22, 1797 – July 18, 1873) was a fur trader and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in Kingston in 1797, the son of Christopher Robinson and Esther Sayre, and moved to York (Toronto) with hi ...

did not take the time to meet with inland

communities and partly because inland First Nation leaders were reluctant to travel as a result of a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak in 1849. After visiting Chapleau in 1905, the ''

Treaty 9 ''Treaty No. 9'' (also known as ''The James Bay Treaty'') is a numbered treaty first signed in 1905-1906 between Anishinaabe (Algonquin and Ojibway) and Omushkegowuk Cree communities and the Canadian Crown, which includes both the governm ...

'' commissioners reported that it would not be necessary to negotiate a treaty with the Indian people of Chapleau as they belonged to bands residing at

Moose Factory Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands no ...

, English River and other places already under treaty. ''Treaty 9'' covers all land in the Chapleau are that drains north into James Bay. Since large reserves had already been established in other parts of the province for the bands from which people at Chapleau had immigrated, the commissioners recommended that a small area be set aside for Chapleau Ojibwe so that they could build small houses and cultivate garden plots. The Chapleau Ojibway Reserve was established in 1950.

Governance

The First Nation is led by Chief Anita Stephens and two Councillors: Johanne Wesley and Joshua Memegos. Chapleau Ojibway First Nation is member of

Wabun Tribal Council Wabun Tribal Council is a non-profit Regional Chiefs' Council representing Ojibway and Cree First Nations in northern Ontario, Canada. The Council provides advisory services and program delivery to its seven Status and non-Status member-Nations. B ...

, a regional tribal council affiliated with the

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Nishnawbe Aski Nation (ᐊᓂᐦᔑᓈᐯ ᐊᔅᑭ ᐃᔥᑯᓂᑲᓇᓐ ᐅᑭᒫᐎᓐ (''Anishinaabe-aski Ishkoniganan Ogimaawin''), unpointed: ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯ ᐊᔅᑭ ᐃᔥᑯᓂᐊᓇᓐ ᐅᑭᒪᐎᓐ; NAN for short) is a political orga ...

. Chapleau Ojibway First Nation is

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

d by the

Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service The Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service (NAPS), also occasionally known as the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (without a hyphen) is the police agency for Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN). As of July 2020, NAPS has 34 detachments in NAN communities across the ...

, an Aboriginal-based service.

External links

*(http://www.cbc.ca/slowboil/pdfs/on/Chapleau%20Ojibway.pdf)
Chiefs of Ontario profileAANDC profile
Anishinaabe reserves in Ontario Communities in Sudbury District Nishnawbe Aski Nation {{NorthernOntario-geo-stub