Indigenous, Settlers, Landowners or Stewards — Whose Lands?

The tract of land that we call Flat Earth Farm has a long history. The farm is perched on Springhill, the highest point between Parliament Hill in Ottawa and the St. Lawrence river. We are farming on land that has, through the ages, sustained many people—most of whom did not lay claim to ‘ownership’ of the land. In the 18th century this land was within the known range of the Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Haudenosaunee (both Oswegatchie and Mohawk), and Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ (Omàmìwininìwag – Algonquin). As with many cultures and societies throughout the world and across time, their relationship to the land and each other was based on territorial use agreements, and not title.

This land governance arrangement did not change until the mid-19th century, when ‘title’ to the land on Springhill was given to the Campbell family. On this escarpment, on a tract of land surrounded by swampland and few neighbours, the Campbells cleared a substantial property on which they might graze sheep and build a homestead. Where did that ‘title’ come from? From the British Crown, which had laid claim to most of what is now eastern Ontario. That claim did not come through a negotiated treaty, but in part via ‘land purchases’.

Which somewhat begs the question of how one can purchase land that is not held as property. We often hear folks use the words unceded and unsurrendered. What do those words mean? Without the knowledge of many of the Indigenous communities who hunted, fished, harvested and subsisted across the lands between the Kaniatarowanénhne (St. Lawrence) and Kichi Sibi (Ottawa), in 1783 much of this territory was included in what would become known as the Crawford Purchases. As there is no record of the discussions, and no deed or ‘treaty’ documents, the Crawford Purchases are part of a group of acquisitions enigmatically referred to as the ‘Upper Canada Land Surrenders’.

“Surrenders”?

Crawford was sent to negotiate for lands on which loyal British soldiers and Indigenous allies could settle following the revolutionary war to the south. By most accounts, this involved discussions around land between what would become Brockville and Prince Edward County. The main Indigenous delegation present—representing the Mississaugas—agreed to share these lands with Loyalist settlers.

At the same time Mynass, a chief from Lake of Two Mountains, present at the same discussions, stepped forward to offer to share the territory that he claimed, for loyalist settlement. By most accounts, he said this included the land between the Gananoque and Toniato (renamed Jones Creek), and north from the St. Lawrence to the Ottawa River. And while he is always referred to as a chief, it is unclear on whose behalf Mynass believed he was speaking, whether he had the authority to make such an offer (Surtees, p.59), and what the offer involved.

As with so many of the ‘land surrenders’ of this period, there is no treaty, no documents, and no recorded account of the negotiations or outcomes. Surtees offers an explanation:

“To suggest that there was no resistance would be erroneous: the Indians did show resentment at times to both surveyors and settlers and they also resisted selling on occasion. This Indian response to the newcomers combined with the extremely delicate Indian-white and Anglo-American relations to instil in British officials a high degree of apprehension regarding land cession agreements. The sales in the years 1783-1806, therefore, were surrounded by concern, fear, secrecy and often confusion on the part of British officials who had to make the arrangements. And what emerged, as a result, was a series of land surrender agreements which were often loosely or even sloppily concluded and occasionally badly recorded” (Surtees, pp.50-51).

In 1784 Colonel Campbell, another military official, negotiated with Oswegatchies—Onondaga living on the north shore of the St. Lawrence near what is today Johnstown, with territory stretching between the Toniato and Long Sault. They “agreed to let the British have ‘the front of the Water’ to ‘give land to the troops'” (Surtees, p.77), and shifted their settlement to the south shore of the St. Lawrence (present day Ogdensburg), but made it clear to a surveyor—who began to survey more than one township north of the water—that he had gone too far (Surtees, p.77). However when the Americans, following the Revolutionary War, forced them to disperse from their south shore settlements to various other locations, “their dispersal permitted the British to disregard the Oswegatchie claims to any of the interior lands between the St. Lawrence River and the Ottawa River” (Surtees, p.78).

So you could say that Flat Earth Farm, where we have settled for this sedentary portion of our lives, sits on land that has in recent history transitioned—from informal common and collective use agreement, into private land title—not so much via ‘surrender’ or ‘purchase’, but rather more via a blend of assertion, disregard, pomp, and inexorable creep; a standard recipe for enclosure that has spanned time, space and civilizations.

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