Alderville First Nation is a band of

Mississaugas The Mississauga are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwe. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word ''Misi-zaagiing'', meaning " ho ...

, a sub-nation of the

Ojibway The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

s. The Alderville and Sugar Island 37A reserves belong to that First Nation

band government In Canada, an Indian band or band (french: bande indienne, link=no), sometimes referred to as a First Nation band (french: bande de la Première Nation, link=no) or simply a First Nation, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subjec ...

First Nation

The Alderville First Nation is an

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...

First Nation located in southern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. As of December 2017, Alderville First Nation had 1,162 registered band members, of which their on-Reserve population was only 323 people, meaning the majority of their registered population live outside the reserve (off-reserve) in neighbouring communities.

Governance

The community is governed by an elected Chief and Council and maintains political affiliations with the

Ogemawahj Tribal Council Ogemawahj Tribal Council is a non-profit Regional Chiefs' Council representing Mississaugas, Ojibwa and Potawatomi First Nations in southern Ontario, Canada. The Council provides advisory services and program delivery to its six member-Nations. Ma ...

, a non-political Regional Chiefs' Council, and the

Anishinabek Nation The Anishinabek Nation, also known as the Union of Ontario Indians, is a First Nations political organization representing 39 member Anishinabek Nation First Nations in Canada in the province of Ontario, Canada. The organization's roots predate ...

political organization.

Indigenous reserve

The reserve comprises two areas. The main reserve, the Alderville First Nation (formerly designated as Alderville Indian Reserve 37 by

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people Indians or Indian people are the citizens and nationals of India. In 2022, the population of India stood at over 1.4 billion people, making it the world's second-m ...

), is located near the south shores of Rice Lake in Ontario (). It consists of six non-contiguous areas within the Alnwick/Haldimand Township approximately north of

Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is ...

, and occupies a total area of . They also maintain a smaller parcel of land on nearby Sugar Island, the Sugar Island 37A Indian Reserve (). It has been home to the Mississauga division of the

(Ojibwa) Nation since the mid-1830s.General History
Alderville First Nation.

History

For centuries until the early 19th century, the ancestors of the people who would found Alderville First Nation had lived in their traditional lands around the

Bay of Quinte The Bay of Quinte () is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf ...

- located approximately east of the Nation's current location. However, with the influx of refugee settlements following the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

, the community found itself under increased pressure. Having lost its American colonies, the British relocated the soldiers and civilians loyal to the crown (also known as the

United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America du ...

) around the Bay of Quinte area. A swath of land between Belleville and

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

was purchased from the Mississaugas in the 1783

Crawford Purchase The Crawford Purchase was an agreement that surrendered lands that extended west along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario from the Mississaugas to the British crown to enable Loyalist settlement in what is now a part of ...

, and the land around the Bay of Quinte was given specifically to the Mohawks under the leadership of Chief John Deserontyon, who had been dispossessed of their traditional territory in modern-day

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

. This group of Mohawks came to be the

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) ( Mohawk: ''Kenhtè:ke Kanyen'kehà:ka'' ) are a Mohawk First Nation within Hastings County, Ontario. They control the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, which is a Mohawk Indian reserve on the Bay of Quinte ...

on what is now known as the

Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is the main First Nations in Canada, First Nation Indian reserve, reserve of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. The territory is located in Ontario east of Belleville, Ontario, Belleville on the Bay of Quin ...

. The Mississaugas of the area lived alongside the Mohawks and other

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

for the first few decades after the latter's canoes made landfall. In the 1820s, many people in the community converted to

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

, and in the case of the two or three hundred Mississaugas who converted, this led them to settle on the small Grape Island, located off Gravelly Point in Prince Edward County.

Cannabis industry

Alderville Reserve is home to "The Green Mile", a concentration of cannabis dispensaries that are sometimes described as a

grey market A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market p ...

, neither subject to nor operating by provincial dispensary laws.Austen, Ia
"2 years after legalizing cannabis, has Canada kept its promises?" Boston Globe
(Jan. 23, 2021)

Notable members

Albert Smoke Albert Smoke (March 1894 – December 17, 1944) was a Canadian long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Smoke, a Mississauga Anishinaabe First Nations, was born in 1894 and was raised at Curve Lake. Sm ...

(1894–1944), Olympic long-distance runner

References

External links

Alderville First NationAboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada profile
* {{Anishinaabe Mississaugas