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May 17 – The
first interesting thing I see as I approach McKerrow is the police
station. It’s small and low-key, not
much more than a ranch-style house & garage with a half-dozen cars parked
out front.
And an Ontario provincial
flag and an “O.P.P. Police” sign (Ontario Provincial Police). It’s a
good place for a rural police station, right on the highway & very near an
intersecting highway. It appears to be
very conveniently located for speedy travel to wherever the officers are
needed.
The
intersection at Highway 6 leads to the town of Espanola & Manitoulin Island,
two locations that are especially significant to the native First Peoples (see Spanish,ON). The island is too far off my track
to visit, even virtually, but it seems to have great significance to the
indigenous people of the area.
Manitoulin
is the largest freshwater lake island in the world. The island itself has 108 freshwater lakes,
some of which have their own islands. In
turn, several of these "islands within islands" have their own ponds.
Lake Manitou is the largest lake in a freshwater
island in the world, and Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya is the largest
island in a lake on an island in a lake in the world.
Archeological
discoveries have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures dating from 10,000
BC to 2000 BC. During the early years of
French fur trading, Iroquois warriors began raiding the island and drove the
Anishinaabe people from the island by 1650.
The Anishinaabe burned their settlements as they left, and the island
was mostly uninhabited for nearly 150 years. Following the War of 1812 between Britain and
the United States, Anishnabek Native people began to return to the island. They ceded the island to the British Crown in
1836, and the government set aside the land as a refuge for Natives.
French Catholic
missionaries set up a school for Native boys, later adding a School for Girls, which
for many decades were funded by the federal government and operated by priests
and nuns. The schools were sometimes called
the “Spanish Indian Residential Schools” for the Spanish River or the town of
Spanish, but their location on an island kept them separate.
In addition to the Native children of the island,
other Native children were sent here.
From the perspective of the school, children from broken and abusive homes
were sent to be enrolled into the schools.
Many of the children just knew that they had been removed from their
homes, and deep resentments developed.
Some Euro-Canadians were do-gooders and some did want to wipe out Native
cultures. Some children were rescued
from abusive homes and some were stolen from decent ones. Children were beaten for speaking their
native languages and forced to learn a very strict curriculum that would help
them 'assimilate' to Euro-Canadian culture. In the schools, some education in manual
trades was achieved, but abuse was committed too.
 |
| School for Girls, burned down in 1911 |
The Manitoulin Island schools were
decommissioned in 1981, but the cultural clash and resentments continue. The
abuses at the residential schools were the subject of hearings by the Canadian
Truth & Reconciliation Commission in 2008. The island is now the site of the
administrative office of the Sheshegwaning First Nations band government.
info:
Wikipedia.com
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