CPTNET
June 4, 1999
Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows), ON: THEY MOVED THE WHOLE RESERVE
INSTEAD
by Doug Pritchard

"There's my father-in-law's house," said my guide, pointing to a small log
cabin on an island at the edge of the rain-swept English River. "All the
other families had similar houses on the river. There's where we built our
community hall. There's where we kept a common herd of cows. Over there we
had a common cellar for storing the produce of our gardens."

We had come by boat to visit the "old reserve" of Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum
Anishnabek (Grassy Narrows First Nation), 80 kms north of Kenora in NW
Ontario. The Anishnabek had invited a CPT fact-finding mission to come and
learn about the latest threat to their community posed by clear-cut logging.
But this threat is set against a backdrop of several other traumas
experienced by the community. The story of the old reserve is part of that
backdrop.

In 1963, Indian Agent Eric Law announced it would be "better" if the Grassy
Narrows people were relocated to a new reserve five kilometres away on the
road to the town of Kenora. He promised the people the "civilizing" benefits
of government housing, electricity, water, sewage and a school staffed by
white teachers. When the people resisted the move, he threatened to cut off
their Family Allowance cheques.

The Anishnabek families were relocated and, 20 years later, the "benefits"
did eventually all arrive. But their community was almost destroyed. The new
reserve was on a small, stagnant lake away from the big, wide-open river.
The new houses were too close together and many lacked access to the water.
The soil was too poor to support kitchen gardens. The Indian Agent assigned
houses heedless of family ties and friendships. The road to Kenora lured
many into trouble.

The people of Asubpeeschoseewagong still treasure their memories of the old
reserve and the strength of its community. Some visit it frequently to tend
gardens or their memories of a better time.

Indian Agent Law had insisted it was "impossible" to provide a road or
school for the old reserve and so relocation was imperative. But the
old-timers reply, "I say, look here...you white people built a highway right
across Canada, a big highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. You built a
railroad too, coast to coast. Now tell me, why couldn't Indian Affairs build
a road, just a few miles to the old reserve from the Jones Road? Why? No,
they moved the whole reserve instead."