章 151: May 30, 2023

During a speech in January 1879, Tonené warned his community: "The white men were coming closer and closer every year and the deer and furs were becoming scarcer and scarcer ... so that in a few years more Indians could not live by hunting alone."[1] He continued to press the government for federal financial support and the creation of a reserve through a series of meetings and letters written in Anishinaabe, which resulted in an acknowledgment from Indian agent Deputy Superintendent Lawrence Vankoughnet in 1880 that approximately 2,800 square miles of Temagami land were indeed unceded.[2] Initially Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald deferred the matter to the Ontario Premier, but in 1883 the Department of Indian Affairs agreed to an annual payment to the nation. The prices were comparable to the amounts received by other First Nations who were parties to Robinson Huron Treaty. In 1884 Tonené convened a tribal council on Bear Island to discuss the potential location for the reserve; the community agreed it should be about 100 square miles surrounding Cross Lake and at the south end of Lake Temagami.[1] The federal government agreed to the proposal, but the Ontario Premier Oliver Mowat, who had a reputation for hostility towards to Indigenous treaty rights, blocked the land transfer, primarily concerned about the value of the red and white pine[2] lumber at the location.[6]: 38 [1] It was not until 1943 that lands were finally set aside for the Temagami, and the official creation of the Bear Island Reserve not occur until 1971.[7]