THE CREDIT MISSISSAUGA IN THE 19TH CENTURY, WITH A FOCUS ON NAHNEBAHWEQUAY (Mrs. Catharine Sutton), a talk for HERITAGE MISSISSAUGA by Don Smith (with Allan Sherwin), Wed. June 26, 2013, to be held at the Credit Room, Port Credit Arena, 7 p.m. The evening will consist of three parts. Don Smith will introduce MISSISSAUGA PORTRAITS, a new book on the history of the Mississauga First Nations 200 to 150 years ago; and also the 2nd edition of SACRED FEATHERS, a biography of the important Mississauga chief, Peter Jones (1802-1856). The illustrated slide talk will review the lives of Peter Jones, and seven of his contemporaries. The word “Mississauga,” is the designation the early and mid-nineteenth century British Canadian settlers used for the Ojibwe on the north of the Lake Ontario. Secondly, Don will review the life of Nahnebahwequay, or “Nahnee” (Mrs. Catharine Sutton). In conclusion, Allan Sherwin will look at the incredible knowledge of medical herbs by 19th century Mississauga women, and the health challenges faced by the First Nations. Nahnee was born in l824 on the river flats at Missinnine (or Misinnihe), or the Credit River. One year after her birth the Credit Mississauga embraced change. Nahnee grew up in the late l820s and l830s, in the early days of the Mississauga’s social revolution. Eagerly the converts to Methodism (today’s United Church) worked to become self-supporting Christian farmers. In the l830s many Credit Mississauga young people like Nahnee became literate in English, while many of their Non-Aboriginal neighbours could neither read, nor write. The villagers enclosed for pasture and cleared for farming nearly one-third of the reserve. They raised wheat, oats, peas, Indian corn, potatoes, and other vegetables. The band ran two sawmills. At the mouth of the river they laid out the village of Port Credit, and sold town lots. In 1839 Nahnee married a devout English farmer, William Sutton, and they began to raise a family. But the Credit Mississauga could not obtain a title deed, or security of tenure at the Credit. Invited to the Saugeen Territory the Suttons went north in 1845 and began a farm among the Ojibwe near Owen Sound. The Owen Sound (Nawash) First Nations adopted Nahnee and her children. Only two years later the Credit Mississauga moved west to “New Credit,” west of Hamilton, beside the Six Nations or Iroquois on the Grand River. By the early 1850s the population of southern Ontario had grown to over a million, while the First Nations’ population was just 12,000 or so. Bending to intense pressure, the Saugeen Peninsula First Nations surrendered almost all of their remaining lands including Nahnee’s land. Nahnee travelled to England in 1860 to present important land claims. She had an audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. The courageous Mississauga woman kept up her struggle for First Nation rights in the early l860s. She criticized as "wholesale robbery” the government’s attempt in l861 to purchase Manitoulin Island for Non-Aboriginal settlers. By the early 1860s, her health sharply declined. She died in late September l865, at the age of forty-one. Don Smith, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Calgary, taught Canadian History at the University of Calgary from 1974 to 2009. Allan Sherwin, now a professor emeritus of neurology at McGill University, taught and practiced at the McGill University Hospital Centre. His clinical practice included work at a clinic responsible for the health of the Mohawks of Kahnawake, which led to an interest and appreciation of their traditional herbal therapy. The Band Council of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation First Nations graciously assisted Allan with his new book, Bridging Two Peoples (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012). It tells the story of Dr. Peter E. Jones who in 1866 became the first Status Indian to graduate from a Canadian Medical school. Dr. Jones was a son of the famous Credit Mississauga Peter Jones, the subject of Don Smith’s Sacred Feathers. Allan will speak of the role of female Aboriginal herbalists as the primary healers as they were so highly respected and took charge of emergencies. In his remarks Allan will discuss the plight of Aboriginal families facing extinction from rampant health issues – neonatal/childhood mortality, tuberculosis (45% of deaths vs 10% for non-Aboriginal Ontarians). One room crowded cabins with poorly vented wood stoves a major factor. Curiously, almost no diabetes in Aboriginals until the 1950s when the food industry’s fast foods replacing traditional natural foodstuffs became responsible for epidemic diabetes on Aboriginal reserves. The incidence of obesity and diabetes in Aboriginals is four-fold greater than other Canadians. (Draft prepared April 30, 2013)
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:34:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015