My parents tapped on the bedroom door and asked whether my sister Rebecca and I were dressed and decent. I was dressed–never quite decent. My smooth-pressed woollen jacket was grey and smart tailored if I do say so. The jacket had a clever detachable collar. The collar matched the black velvet trim and the velvet-covered… Read more …
Squire Davis has several run-ins with the authorities. Here is one. Squire’s claim to property in the Township of Onondaga on the Six Nations Reserve is contentious. Squire stands accused of getting a man inebriated, encouraging said fellow to sign a quit claim, vis-à-vis lot 45, and, if all this isn’t sketchy enough, a certain… Read more …
The Haudenosaunee call their enemies stone giants. On his journey through life, Squire Tehawennihárhos Davis faces off with stone giants––as, one supposes, do we all. Squire’s stone giants are three: Pine Tree Chief John Smoke Sakayengwaraton Johnson, Chief George Henry Martin Onwanonsyshon Johnson (Smoke Johnson’s son and the father of actor/poet E. Pauline Johnson), and Captain… Read more …
Duncan is an intelligent and important national/international fin de siècle writer of manners. She observes, through a social lens, the decline of the British Empire. For her, the story of the beginning of the end begins in Southern Ontario’s Elgin (Brantford). Sara Jeannette Duncan’s West Street home is pictured above. It is presently Thorpe Brothers Funeral Parlour…. Read more …
The nothing-to-see-here story. “No record of any malicious bloodshed on the site has been unearthed.” Really?!! Unearthed by Stephen Heeney, the real story, if not bloody, is certainly malicious. “My brother and myself had been in about two hours when John [Smoke] Johnson and from about eight to ten other Indians armed with knives and a… Read more …
Chapter ONE: The story is inside-out. Best explanation I can offer for inwardness to ask you to do this. Look at that Christina Robertson portrait and imagine the vigilant spaniel speaks to you. You are absolutely not going to give a thought to the flattering brush and darling girls who are front and centre because, just this… Read more …
“I am John Buck’s messenger [referring to a wampum string]. Therefore, listen; John Buck says in olden times of my forefathers was able to recall their departed relatives to see them again, the living ones will make one accord whatever their number will be will get a feast at a certain house for the dead… Read more …
“Considering that Ruthven was situated on or very near the land that was sacred to the Cayuga Indians, and considering that a number of Indians ‘sold land improvements’ to [David] Thompson I, it is reasonable to assume that there must have been more than 14 Indians in Indiana over these years.” Laura Kathleen Quirk, The… Read more …
“The Grand River project was unique in one particular way. It was the only major project in Canadian history financed by Indian funds. By 1836 the Six Nations possessed 80% of the outstanding stock; their total investment subscribed without their knowledge or consent, amounted to over 40 000 pounds. Over a hundred years of protest by the… Read more …
Early victims of the Irish famine, 1845, Bride Munny and her two children Pomeroy and Chrisinny emigrate to Canada West from County Wexford. Bride Munny is married to Ginger Munny, a low grocer in Welland, but her brother Boynton “Boy” Hewson takes her and her children from Welland to the Mohawk Village near Brantford. Bride… Read more …