Who We Are

Our present Council of Elders:

Traditional Chief Richard Lalande Chief Dream Hunter
Hunt Master Pierre Laprise Hunters Eye
Elder (Genealogist) Richard Denis Widow Kawon
Elder (Sheriff) Michel Larocque Silver Fox
Elder Steve Farell Wind Spirit
Elder (Mentor) Mitch Ryan Happy Warrior
Elder (Public Affairs) Chris Lalande Sundance

A Non-Status Community – None of our members have lived on or are part of any reservation status nation.
Assimilated – Our Indigenous ancestors chose to live with the colonizers and share and blend our cultural traditions.
Independence – To become independent financially and culturally and choose what we believe to be true responsible stewards of the land.

Our Story

The Tay River Algonquian Community traces its roots to seven original members from North Bay, Ontario, all of whom were part of the Saint Vincent de Paul Church parish, a recognized collective Indigenous community. Raised in strict French-Canadian households and educated by the Assumption Nuns from Grade 1 through Grade 12, none of us were ever informed of our Indigenous heritage. At the time, Indigenous identity was considered taboo, and discussion of it was avoided entirely.

Despite this, our families instilled in us a deep respect for the land and taught us essential wilderness skills, including hunting, fishing, snowshoeing, canoeing, and the use of medicinal plants. Our primary food sources came directly from the surrounding forests and lakes, connecting us intimately to the natural environment from a young age.

After high school, many members moved to the Ottawa area to pursue college or university education. The bonds of friendship endured, and together we purchased 375 acres of private land. On this land, we developed a log cabin, bunkhouse, lodge, machinery buildings, bridges, a sugar shack, and, most recently, a dedicated cultural center and teaching facility.

While our community initially focused on traditional hunting, fishing, and wilderness living, our work has expanded to include a wildlife and forest stewardship certification program, an operational sugar shack, and a fully realized Indigenous cultural and teaching center.

Today, our community consists of ten families, representing twenty-four Algonquian ancestors and over seventy Indigenous descendants. We take pride in preserving and sharing our cultural heritage, honoring the traditions of our ancestors, and fostering knowledge, stewardship, and connection for future generations.

HOW DID WE BECOME AN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY?

Our assimilated founding families had a difficult and arduous effort to get us to be a proud Indigenous community today. Growing up, we felt we were somehow different from the other colonizing families but never really questioned why. It was not until we left our homes and received higher education that we realized that we were taught French Canadian history and now studied English Canadian history and they were quite different. We realized that there was little Native Canadian history available.

Our curiosity now aroused, we began to ask our grandparents and parents questions. We had many private interviews with them, which only gave us reason to dig deeper. We approached our teachers and learned that ‘genealogy’ was an artful science that would provide us with answers.

Two of us decided to pursue this research field, and it took us some 40-years of continuous study. Still, later, with computers’ help, we finally established that we all had Indigenous heritage.

Today, through genealogy, we have finalized thirteen families, full ancestor lines, which gave us:

Twenty-four full-blooded Indigenous ancestors,
Ten full-family lines,
Over seventy eligible Indigenous members.

On July 23, 2019, we registered our ‘Tay River Algonquian Community’ name with the province of Ontario under #290806975.

On August 8, 2019, we officially held our first Council of Elders meeting, held at our community log cabin facility. This meeting was an extension of our long-established Eco-Lodge Game Farm and Hunting Club association, which started in 1973, with most of the same founding families.

WHY ARE WE HERE:

Our small Indigenous community members grew up in a relatively closed cultural and protected setting. The Catholic Church was extremely influential in our upbringing and social life. We grew up as French Canadians who lived off the land. We spent our childhood and teenage years being out in the bush and learning to be comfortable and at peace while in the woods.

After graduating from high school, we left North Bay to receive higher education at a college or university to start our professional careers. However, living in a big city felt uncomfortable, and the need to find refuge in the wilderness was essential to us. We began to search for the most secluded and best hunting and fishing areas close to Ottawa. To the east and south was a well-developed farm country; to the north was the Ottawa River and the province of Quebec. So, we went west and, like our ancestors, followed the rivers to the lakes. We searched and hunted along the Mississippi River and Rideau River until we found a place to settle, in Bathurst Township, now Tay Valley Township in Lanark County, Ontario.

At first, we needed to meet the farmers who owned the land and ask them permission to hunt on their property. We became friends, and with their assistance, we would go on to find and purchase the 375 acres our community owns today. We often ask ourselves, ‘why did we end up at this location? Everything seemed to come together so easily. Was it coincidence, good luck or destiny?

Recently through the Algonquins of Ontario research documents, we have learned the following ancestor’s story.

“Our Indigenous ancestor, Marie Olivier Sylvestre Manitouabeouich, a Nipissing Algonquin, is recognized as having her descendants follow Chief Pierre Shawinipenessi of Kanesatake in Quebec, near Montreal Island, to start a new life on the unceded traditional Algonquin territory, which is now the Tay Valley Township. In 1842, a small tribal band left, probably by canoe, to travel up the St. Lawrence River to Ottawa, up the Ottawa River to the Rideau River to the Rideau Lakes, then up the Tay River to Bob’s Lake. Shawinipinessi settles on an island in the east basin or Long Bay area of Bob’s Lake.

“On July 17, 1842, Shawinipinessi petitioned for a land tract of 2000 acres straddling the former township of Oso, Bedford, and South Sherbrook; the legal description lot #31, Concession 9. Chief Shawinipinessi and his tribe made a valiant effort to farm and make a go of it by hunting, fishing, growing corn and potatoes. This tract of land was very secluded and not very arable. On March 21, 1844, an order from the council concluded that the land grant’s approval.

“Then began the conflict with trespassers. First came J.R. Booth, who sent his loggers to cut down the forest, build shanty buildings and reduce the wild game. The tribe was successful in getting court orders to stop the trespassers but with no results or compensation. Canada’s government of the day did very little to protect Lanark’s Indigenous community and encouraged them to move out.

“By 1851, many tribal members were pushed out and moved to places like Ardoch and Pikwakanagan (Golden Lake). Other descendants moved to Allumette Island, then to Lake Nipissing, North Bay area, where our community elders come.”

This story begs the question; we know our ancestors influence our lives to this day. Was it by chance, our community ended up making a full circle from Lake Nipissing back to the Tay River or was it destiny?