A History of the Rice Lake Indians by Mary Jane Muskratte Simpson

Surrender No. 159, Vol 2

We, the undersigned Chiefs and principal men of the Alnwick band of Mississauga Indians for and on behalf of our whole band in council assembled, do hereby release and surrender unto our Sovereign Lady the Queen, her heirs and successors forever, all and singular those certain parcels or tracts of land situate, lying and being in our reserve in the Township of Alnwick, in the County of Northumberland; containing by admeasurement fifteen hundred acres more or less, better known and described as follows, that is to say, the lands contained in the description annexed hereto.

In trust, to lease the same to such person or persons and upon such terms as the Government may deem most conducive to the interests of us and our people. And upon the conditions that the moneys received as rent for the same shall, after deducting the usual expenses, have been or may hereafter be allotted. Signed on behalf of the band, in witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 29th September 1875, in the presence of Wm. Plummer, S.C.I.

John Sunday, Chief (L.S.)
George Blaker " R. Brooking
Peter Crow " Missionary, witness
Mitchell Chubb " Wm. Plummer
John Bears " Supt. and Comm. Indian Affairs

Lands proposed to be surrendered by the Mississaugas of Alnwick, in order that the same may be leased for their benefit, viz.:

All those portions of Lot Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19 in Con. 1; and Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, in Con. 11 in the Township of Alnwick, which have been cleared and rendered fit for cultivation, comprising fifteen hundred acres, more or less.

Sworn Deposition

Personally appeared before me William Plummer, of the city of Toronto in the Province of Ontario, visiting Superintendent of Indian Affairs; and John Sunday, of the Mississauga Indian Reserve, of the township of Alnwick and Province aforesaid, the Chief of the Mississauga Indians, being duly sworn, severally depose and say:-

The said William Plummer, for himself, saith:

That the annexed release or surrender was assented to by the said John Sunday, he being the Chief of the said tribe or body of Indians assembled at a meeting or council of the tribe summoned for that purpose.

That such meeting or council was held in his presence and he heard such assent given. That he was duly authorized to attend such council by the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs.

And the said John Sunday saith: That he is the Chief of the Mississauga Indians aforesaid, and was entitled to vote at the council or meeting above mentioned. That the annexed release or surrender was assented to by him and the principal men of the aforesaid tribe or body of Indians. That such assent was given at a meeting or council of the tribe summoned for that purpose, at which he himself and the principal men aforesaid were present, and also the said other deponent, William Plummer.

William Plummer
John Sunday

Sworn September 30th, 1875 before G. M. Bosmelle, Judge County Court, Northumberland and Durham; and recorded March 9th, 1876 Lib.S.Folio 323, L. A. Carellier. Deputy Registrar-General of Canada.

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Hiawatha Deed, No. 186. Page 98. Vol. 11. (Attestation of True Copy)

To all whom these presents may come, be seen or known:

I, Alfred Passmore Pausette, a notary public for Ontario by Royal Authority duly appointed, residing in the town of Peterborough in the said Province, do certify and attest that the appointment and conveyance hereto annexed is a true copy of a document produced to me and purporting to be an appointment of new trustees and conveyance from Robert H. Bethune and the Reverend Edward Riddell Roberts to the Hon. A. E. Botsford, James Hall, James Meyer and George Morrice Roger, and dated the twenty-eighth of January A. D. 1881, the said copy having been compared by me with the said original, an act whereof being requested, I have granted the same under my notarial form and seal of office to serve and avail as occasion shall or may require. A.P.Pausette (L.S.)

Deed: This deed made in triplicate the twenty-eighth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one between Robert Henry Bethune, of the city of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada; Gentleman, the eldest son, and heir-at-law of the Rt. Rev. Alexander Bethune, Doctor of Divinity and Bishop of Toronto (hereinafter called "the Bishop"), who up until the time of his death, hereinafter mentioned, had long been the sole surviving Grantee-in-trust under the Crown Grant of 19th April 1834, hereinafter recited, of the first part.

The Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America, hereinafter called "the Company", of the second part; the Rev. Edward Riddell Roberts, of Chemong in the township of Smith, in the county of Peterborough, and Province aforesaid, Baptist clergyman, of the third part; and the Hon. Amos Edwin Botsford, of Jackville, in the County of Westmoreland, in the said Dominion, a Member of the Senate of the same Dominion, and a member of the Company; James Hall, of the town of Peterborough, in the County of Peterborough aforesaid Esquire; James Meyer, Esquire, Governor of the said New England Company; and George Morrice Roger, of the same town, Barrister-at-law, of the fourth part.

Whereas: the Company was originally created by an Act or Ordinance of the Long Parliament, passed on 27th July, 1649, and (at the Restoration) the Company was revised by a Charter, dated 7th, February in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles the Second. (1676)

And whereas, towards carrying into effect the purposes aforesaid the Company, more than fifty years ago, broke up its then establishment at Sussex Vale, in New Brunswick, and discontinued the system of apprenticeship on which the Company's agents there had then for many years been acting, and the Company at the same time, under the advice of the Rev. John West, an Episcopal clergyman then in Canada, directed the attention of the Company's agents chiefly to the heathen natives or Indians of the Six Nations in the neighbourhood of Brantford, and along the banks of the Grand River north of Lake Erie, and the Company at the same time invited the Rev. Richard Scott, a Minister of the Baptist denomination, then resident in New Brunswick, to repair to Upper Canada with a view to his settling there with some of the heathen natives, and he accordingly in the year 1828 went to Brantford aforesaid and after consulting with the said John West, decided to visit among the heathen natives, or Indians, who for the most part led a scattered and wandering life (but with the view of catching fish and gathering rice); and afterward resorted to some of the smaller lakes north of Lake Ontario, and not far distant from Peterborough aforesaid.

H. E. Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B; the then Lieut-Governor of Upper Canada, at an interview with the said Richard Scott, directed his special attention to the natives at Rice Lake (whom one Charles Anderson, and the Rev. Mr. Hurlburt, Methodist missionary there, were then beginning to instruct and civilize); and accordingly the said Richard Scott visited the natives then in the neighbourhood of Peterborough aforesaid, and opened schools for some of them; and in due course reported to the Company the then state and condition of the heathen natives or Indians resorting to Rice Lake and the other small lakes aforesaid; and he recommended settling them in villages of a few families, each near some of the said small lakes.

And whereas the said Richard Scott accordingly (under the Company's instructions, and as an agent authorized by the Company to spend five hundred pounds annually in civilizing the natives) petitioned the Governor and His then Majesty's Executive Council in the month of June, 1828, praying that the town of 1,120 acres on the north side of Rice Lake, and near the mouth of the River Otonabee, which plot is described in the plan drawn on these presents, might be inalienably secured to the natives resorting to that station, he, as such agent of the Company, proposing in his said petition to appropriate the principal part of the said sum to build a village, procure farming utensils, and provide the means of education and instruction in the Protestant religion for the said natives. Thereupon a License of Occupation of the said town plot was granted by the Lieut-Governor to the said, afterwards, in consequence of a letter from the Company to the Colonial Secretary of State, dated 17th August 1829, instructions were sent by him to the Governor on the 20th May, 1829, describing a final grant to be made of the said town plot.

And whereas the Company from that time to the present has constantly and at a cost in the whole of many thousand pounds assisted the natives resort to or settling near Rice Lake, and other small lakes aforesaid, to clear part of the said plot, as well as parts of two smaller tracts at land at Chemong Lake containing respectively 1,600 acres granted in April, 1837, and 64 acres granted in July 1869 to the Company in perpetuity) and to build thereon a separate dwelling for each family, as well as chapels, and a Baptist mission-house at Chemong, and a Methodist Minister's house at Rice Lake, and schools, and blacksmith and carpenter shops, and barns and other buildings, partly at Chemong, and partly at or near a village known now by the name of Hiawatha, near the shore of Rice Lake, and occasionally to rebuild or repair and improve the said buildings, and to provide books as well as tools implements and utensils and to promote agricultural and other industry among the native tribes in Upper Canada.

And whereas, the said Richard Scott towards the end of the year 1829 reported to the Company that the village at Rice Lake was furnished, and that the contractor had done great justice to the buildings, and that H. E. Sir John Colborne, K.C.B. the then Lieut-Governor, at a recent interview with the said Richard Scott had stated His Excellency's determination that the land then held by a License of Occupation should be granted to the Company for the sake and use of the Indians.

And whereas, the said Richard Scott, in the month of June 1830, reported to the Company that at another interview with him at York, His Excellency had promised the said Richard Scott that the lands at Mud Lake or Chemong Lake as well as the said town plot at Rice Lake, should be granted to the Company for the use of the Indians.

And whereas the said Richard Scott, in the month of March 1835, sent to the Company a copy of the said grant of 19th April, 1834 and (some of the clauses appearing to the Company to be open to material objection on the grounds of the vagueness of the Trust for Indians, and the want of any security for the continuance of the property to the Company's purpose of the improvement of the Indians, and the want of control on the part of the Company, and the said Richard Scott not being named therein as the Company's agent, and no power being reserved to the Company to appoint new trustees (not even one in case of the said Richard Scott's death); applications to Government were repeatedly made in and after the year 1835 by the said Richard Scott and otherwise by, or on behalf of the Company to have these objections remedied, and get the terms of the grant made more in conformity with the Company's wishes; but without success.

And the said Charles Anderson, persistently refusing to join in surrendering the said Letters Patent, notwithstanding the said Richard Scott's urgent requests, and a Minute-in-Council passed in the Executive for him and his co-trustees to do so, and under these circumstances the Company and the Company's agents became, and have since been generally more cautious than before as to their expenditure of the Company's money in or towards building on or improving the said town plot at Rice Lake.

And whereas the said Richard Scott, after an illness of many months, aggravated if not caused by his fruitless endeavours to get the said town plot secured to the Company, departed this life on the 5th April 1837, and thereupon the Company, on the 6th November 1837, appointed the Rev. John Gilmour, Baptist clergyman, then of the township of Monaghan, in the County of Peterborough, to succeed the said Richard Scott as the Company's agent and missionary to the natives at Rice and Chemong Lakes.

. . . . . . . . . .

And whereas the said George Herchmer Marchland having departed this life shortly before the month of May 1866, the Bishop, and the said Charles Rubidge, Robert Dennistown and John Gilmour, by deed dated July 1st, 1867, appointed the Rev. March Burnham to be a co-trustee with themselves of the said Letters Patent in place of the said George Herchmer Marchland.

And whereas the said John Gilmour, having from age and infirmity resigned (as from the 5th May, 1868) his appointment as the Company's agent and missionary to the natives at Rice and Chemong Lakes, and become desirous of being discharged from the powers and trusts reposed and rested in him as trustee of the said Letters Patent; the Company, in or about the month of November 1867, appointed the said Edward Riddell Roberts to succeed the said John Gilmour as such agent and missionary (an office which the said Edward Riddell Roberts has ever since held and still holds) and by a Deed dated 7th October 1868, the said John Gilmour was discharged from the trusts of the said Letters Patent, and Edward Riddell Roberts was appointed a co-trustee with the Bishop, and with the said Charles Rubidge, Robert Dennistown, and March Burnham, of the said Letters Patent, in place of the said John Gilmour.

And whereas the said John Gilmour departed this life on 7th December 1870 and whereas the said Charles Rubidge departed this life on the 5th February 1873, leaving the Bishop the sole grantee-in-trust of the said Letters Patent of 19th April 1834, him surviving, and thereupon the Bishop himself, as well as the said Robert Dennistown and March Burnham from age and infirmity or otherwise became desirous to be discharged from the trusts of the said Letters Patent, and after great deliberation and protracted correspondence with the Company as to the best course to be adopted since the passing of the Indian Act. 1875 by the Dominion Parliament (which act received Royal Assent 12th April, 1876) and is known as 39 Victoria, Cap.18) the Bishop and the said Robert Dennistown and March Burnham by a memorandum written submitted through the said James Hall on 8th February 1877, communicated to the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs their desire to be discharged from the trusts of the said Letters Patent, and they at the same time requested and recommended that the Company's agent at Chemong aforesaid might be appointed Commissioner under the Indian Act, 1876.

And whereas the said Edward Riddell Roberts in the month of February 1877 received an appointment or commission of which the following is a copy:

The Rev. E. R. Roberts, a trustee of the Indian Reserve, Rice Lake, Township of Otonabee; c/l James Hall, Esq. M.P. the House of Commons, Ottawa.

"Reverend Sir;- I am desired by the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs to inform you that in compliance with the memorandum of the 8th instant, submitted through Mr. Hall, M.P. you are hereby authorized and deputed by him to carry out the provisions of the 12th section of the Indian Act, 1876, in regard to the Indian Reserve at Rice Lake, in the township of Otonabee, with a view to the removal therefrom of all persons who have or may hereafter settle, reside, hunt upon or use any land or marsh forming part thereof without the license of the Superintendent-General. I am, Rev. Sir, yr. ob't. servant, (signed) "E. H. Meredith" Deputy of the Minister of the Interior.

The lands in question are thus described:

"All that parcel or tract of land situate in the township of Otonabee in the county of Peterborough, and Province of Ontario aforesaid, and formerly described as being in the County of Northumberland in the District of Newcastle, (in the late Province of Upper Canada) containing 1,120 acres, be the same more or less, and being in the town plot reservation on the Rice Lake and River Otonabee, commencing on the shore of Rice Lake where a red cedar post had before the 19th April, 1834, been planted at the southeast angle of a certain block of land granted to Charles Anderson, Esquire; thence north 16 degrees 40 minutes west, 63 chains to where a red cedar post had been planted at the northeast angle of the said block; thence south 74 degrees 5 minutes west, 65 chains or less to within 1 chain of the River Otonabee; thence northerly following the several turnings and windings of the said river against the stream, always at the distance of 1 chain therefrom, to within 1 chain of Lot No. 7, Con.XII of the said township; thence north 74 degrees 5 minutes east along the southerly limit of the road allowance between the Reservation aforesaid and Lots No. 7 in the Cons. XI and XII of the said township. 118 chains to the northeast angle of the said reservation being in the western limit of the allowance for the road between Cons. X and XI of the aforesaid township; thence south 16 degrees 40 minutes east along the western limit of the allowance for road produced between the said concessions 96 chains 56 links to the Rice Lake, then southwesterly along the waters-edge to the place of beginning.

The said parcel or tract of land with its admeasurements and abuttals is further delineated and described in the plan drawn on these presents, the Common Seal of the above named Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, and the parts adjacent in America, was affixed to the above written Deed in pursuance of an Order of the Court of the same Company at London, on 28th January 1881; the name "James Meyer" having been throughout first written on erasures in the presence of Walter C. Venning, clerk to the New England Company.

W. M. Venning, accounted to the said Company, Signed, sealed and delivered by the above named Robert Henry Bethune in the presence of R. M. Gray, accountant, Toronto. (signed) R. H . Bethune; Edward R. Roberts; A. E. Botsford; Jas. Hall; James Meyer; G. M. Roger.

The document was witnessed by: James H. Marsh, Chemong, a Baptist Minister; James Roberts, farmer, of Smith township; James Adamson and P. Miller of Ottawa, gentlemen; W. A. Campbell, student-at-law, Peterborough; Charles G. Shaw Law clerk, Peterborough; Walter C. Venning, Solicitor, London; William Towmay, gentleman, London; and is usually known as the "Hiawatha Deed".

Hiawatha, No. 211. Page 148. Vol. 11

Know all men by these presents that we, the Chief and principal men of the Rice Lake band of Indians resident upon the Indian reserve at Rice Lake, entitled to vote at a meeting or council thereof summoned for that purpose according to our rules, and held in the presence of Mr. Edwin Harris our Agent, duly authorized to attend such council; have this day consented and agreed to surrender and yield up to unto her most gracious Majesty the Queen, her heirs and successors, in trust, to be held leased for the benefit of Miss Bessie McCue, an Indian of our band, the following parcel or tract of land and premises being all and singular that certain lot known as Lot No. 4, east side of the Concession Road, in the village of Hiawatha, Rice Lake, township of Otonabee; and more particularly described as follows, that is to say: Commencing at the northwest corner of Lot 3 in the village aforesaid, thence north 16 degrees 40 minutes west along the east side of the concession road a distance of 1 chain 87 links; thence at right angles to said road easterly a distance of 5 chains 80 links to the western boundary of the railway; thence southerly along the western boundary of the railway to the Northern boundary of Lot 3; thence following the northerly boundary of Lot 3 a distance of 4 chains and ninety links to the place of beginning; containing 1 acre, as shown on a sketch plan made by Thomas J. Daintry, P.L.S. dated September 13th, 1855.

In witness whereof, we, the undersigned Chief and principal men have hereunto set our hands and seals this December 24th, 1883, and in the forty-seventh year of her Majesty's Reign." Signed, sealed in the presence of Edwin Harris, having been previously read and interpreted. Signed by the following:

M. G. Paudash; Robert Soper; Robert B. Crowe; William Anderson; L. B. Crawford; Robert Paudash; Jeremiah Crowe; Joseph Loukes; John Crowe; James Howard; Edward Crowe; Madden Howard; Paul Elm; E. Anderson; Andrew Anderson.

The above carries also the usual sworn statement by the Agent, Edwin Harris, of authorization and assent by the band, signed by Harris and George Paudash, sworn before T. M. Benson 29th December 1883; and was Recorded 17th April 1884: LIB. 95, folio 438 and signed L. A. Catellair, Dept. Reg.-Gen. of Canada. Hiawatha No. 250, deals with the surrender of a small strip for lease, it differs very little in form from all such documents; and is signed by M. G. Paudash, Jeremiah Crowe, Wellington Crowe, Charles Anderson; Robert Soper; Robert Paudash; Joseph Loukes; James Crowe; David A. McCue; Andrew Anderson; Paul Elm; Daniel Cowie. The usual authorization and assent sworn by Harris and Paudash; Recorded March 1st, 1888, LIB. 127, folio 155 before Catillier, Dep. Reg-Gen of Canada as above.

Photo

Alderville Council 1888

From Indian Treaties and Surrenders, Vol. 3, we find the following names signed at Hiawatha in one of 1892:

John D. Muskratte, Jeremiah Crowe, Wellington Crowe, James Howard, Dan Cowe Jr., Robert Paudash, Dan Fawn, Henry Howard, Dan Cowe, Madden Howard, Andrew Anderson, James Jarvis, Joseph Loukes, Messang George Paudash, Chief; and of course, Edwin Harris, the Agent.

Another, made and signed at Alderville on June 13th, 1899 gives the signatories:

Peter Crowe, Chief; Mitchell Chubb, Chief; Enoch Crowe, Samson Comego, Madden Crowe, John Sunday, George Salt, George Blaker Sr; John Paul, Joseph Beaver; Robert Gray; John Blaker; Josiah Tobico; Hiram Beaver; Joseph Chubb; William Loukes, Sec'y; John Thackeray, Agent; before Mr. Walter Grigg, J. P.

Yet another made at Curve Lake in 1901:

Joseph Irons, Chief; Daniel Whetung Jr; Samson Fawn; Willie Whetung; George Taylor; Richmond P. Tobico; George Johnston; John W. Jacobs; Joseph Whetung; Isaiah Kezhigo; with William McFarlane the Agent.

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