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24 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, February 8,1994 aR EE ra an EE ee EE ia a a EE ES LEER Ci ee Sketches of Scugog is a hislorical column written by local resident and historian Paul Arculus and published in the Port Perry Star the first issue of each month. THE FIRST SETTLERS Part II * kx 0% Peter Jones Marries In 1829 Peter Jones tours the United States in order to raise funds for the Methodist mission schools and churches among the Mississaugas. The next year he toured England on a fundraising speaking tour where he met Eliza Field, the daughter of a deeply religious and wealthy factory owner. They married in New York 1833 where their interracial marriage caused quite a stir. Several scathing articles appeared in the press. Racial prejudice was rampant throughout the United States at that time. Jackson was president. He was actively involved in removing the Ameri- can Indians from their lands and repres- sive slavery was prevalent throughout the country. This era was one of the dark- est pages in United States history. Many Indians from various tribes fled north to Upper Canada to avoid relocation. Success at the Credit Jones, fully aware of these vents and fearful that they might be repeated in Upper Canada, actively campaigned for territorial rights for his people. He drew up a claim for eigh* thousand acres around the Credit River. He also felt that he needed to prove to the government that his people could be economically suc- cessful and self geverning if he was to be successful in his claim for the land. It seems ironic today that a people would have to prove that they could adapt to another person's concept of "successful" in order to justify a claim to land which was already theirs. Nevertheless, as we shall see, even that proved to be in vain. Jones wanted the Mississauga schools to be run entirely by his own people and the children taught in their own tongue as well as in English. By the late 1830s, the Credit Mississaugas had built a school, a hospital, shops, stores, barns, sawmills and many houses. They were successfully farming nine hundred acres and had purchased controlling interest in the Credit Harbour Company and had con- structed a major port capable of handling any vessel on Lake Ontario. This success caused some concern among his people. As with any society, there were those who resisted Jones' efforts for reform. Jones had the support of more than half of the Credit. Mississaugas but as many as one third remained traditionalists. Disasters Jones was ever mindful of the need to train his own people to assume leadership positions. He selected the most promising students at his school to be trained to take initiative for his people and to fight for their rights. He saw teachers, mis- sionaries interpreters as the power brok- ers in his world and he looked carefully among his flock for those whom he felt would best fill those roles. But, in 1828 his world began to fall apart. A series of epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis and smallpox struck Upper Canada. The first to die was one of his brightest students, the grandson of Chief Golden Eagle. Peter's brother John lost his wife and five children, another friend lost all seven of his children. Jones lost four of the brightest students selected for leader- ship training. The cholera epidemic had disastrous effects on the non Indian popu- lation too. This was a time when immi- gration from Britain was at a peek. In 1832 at the height of the cholera epi- demic, 66,000 arrived in Quebec from the British Isles. During that year, York, now Toronto had a population of 5,500 and 35 "plea for deeds for the lands which a day were dying of cholera! Once the epidemic subsided Jones' pro- blems seemed to increase. In 1836 a new Lieutenant Governor arrived; the notori- ous Sir Francis Bond Head. He is the man whose words and actions precipitat- ed the 1837 Rebellion led by Alexander Mackenzie. After he had been in Upper Canada only a few months, he decided to resolve the Indian problem, and create more land for the incoming immigrants by recommending that the Indians in the southern part of the colony should be shipped to Manitoulin Island! This suggestion raised visions of the Jacksonian policies to the south and was a complete contradiction to the promises made to the Indians by John Graves Simcoe in 1793. Simcoe had assured the Native population of Upper Canada that they would be given title to their lands. Rev. Peter Jones Meets Queen Victoria Sensing the urgency of the situation, Jones went to England again to present his people's case directly to Queen Victoria. Britain at this time led the world in its opposition to slavery, having abolished the slave trade and prohibited slavery in all its colonies. He was to pay many visits to England where he participated in fundraising speeches, par- ticularly among his fellow Methodists. Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary was impressed by Jones and with his all the Ojibwa presently held. He promised to begin the process of draw- ing up the deeds. Elated, Jones went on Af another ey, Tre, speaking NN a tour of Britain, arose. The Iroquois walked out of the assembly, but the Ojibwas remained and formed an alliance to present Jones' demands for land title deeds to the gov- ernment of Upper Canada. The failure to bring about a united front between the Iroquois and the Ojibwa was ironically followed by another schism; the Wesleyan Methodist Church broke apart. A power struggle among the church leaders resulted in a break between the Canadian Conference and the British Wesleyans. Jones tried desperately to keep the two factions together. He failed and reluctantly sided with the Canadian Wesleyans. Immediately interdenomina- tional rivalry broke out. Anglicans, Baptists and Roman Catholics competed for the loyalty of the Mississaugas and, indeed all the Ojibwa. It was also at this time that the Mormons began their mis- sions among the Ojibwa. Over the winter of 1840-41, Jones reluc- tantly went on a fundraising tour of Upper Canada. Unwillingly, because his first child was born in April, 1839 and he took his fatherhood responsibilities seriously. When in Kingston in January, he addressed a meeting chaired by a 26 year old lawyer with political ambitions; John A. Macdonald! Ironically the two factions of the Methodists reunited in 1847, the same year : that the Six Nations invit- ed Queen Victoria as she probably would have appeared to Peter Jones when he met her in 1838. filling She had just been on the throne for one year. Picture from Metropolitan Toronto Central Library town halls, churches and meeting halls wherever he went. He later returned to Windsor Castle to meet the young Queen Victoria. Victoria had become monarch the previous year, 1837 at the age of 18. This was the year that Upper Canada became engulfed in Rebellion. The Queen agreed with Glenelg's propo- sal to grant title deeds. It was now up to the authorities in Upper Canada to sup- port and pass the necessary legislation. Peter's optimism overlooked the difficul- ties of dealing with bureaucrats separat- ed from him at this time by a vast ocean. Glenelg unfortunately res:gned from his position as Colonial Secretary in the following February. His successor did not place any priority on the issue of Indian land title deeds in the far away colony of Upper Canada and Jones' hopes were again dashed. The Trail of Tears On their way home, in October 1838, Peter and his wife stopped off at New York and heard of the American treat- ment of the Cherokees. President Jackson had ordered all the Cherokee (over 15,000) east of the Mississippi, rounded up and force marched to what is now Oklahoma. An estimated 5,000 died of malnutrition, exposure or cholera while on the march. This tragic event became known as the "Trail of Tears." He also heard that in Florida, bloodhounds were brought in to track down the last of the Seminole Indians. More Problems Jones realized that he had to renew his insistence on land titles for his people in order to avoid what had happened in the United States. In January 1840 Jones called for grand council of the chiefs and warriors of Upper Canada. This was the first modern Indian political meeting in Upper Canada. They assembled by the hundreds on the banks of the Credit River. Unfortunately, the old mistrust between the Iroquois and the Ojibwas the Credit Mississaugas to re-establish themselves on the south western corner of their property in Brant County. Credit Mississaugas Relocate The reason for their need to relocate came about as a result of a number of fac- tors. When the Credit Mississaugas had established themselves on the Credit, there were few European settlers in the vicinity. There was an abundance of trees and the Credit was alive with salmon. By 1835 there were over five thousand settlers in the township. The trees were gone, and, as a result of the numerous mills and dams built on the Credit, the salmon could no longer make their way up the river to their spawning grounds. In 1846, the Credit Mississaugas, along with other tribes were asked by the gov- ernment to abandon their smaller settle- ments and form larger ones where gov- ernment financed trade schools could be established. In return they would be given title deeds to the lands in the Bruce Peninsula. Jones saw this as the answer to his dreams. Jones convinced his Credit Mississauga Band to agree, but when they surveyed the land around Owen Sound, they found it to have poor soil, rocky and ill suited to their needs. By then the government surveyors had alrea- dy subdivided some of their Credit River property and some had been sold. They had been maneuvered out of their land! Iroquois Help It was at this time that the Iroquois came to their aid, offering them land on the Six Nation Reserve. Sadly Peter and his family left their comfortable home on the Credit in the fall of 1847. That move symbolized the decline in Peter Jones' active life. His brother John had died in May. Peter's only consolation was to be found in his own family as his wife had given birth to another son a month after the news of his brother's death. In August, Peter's old friend Egerton Ryerson baptized the newborn, George Dunlop. Jones and his wife had five sons, one dying at only 14 months of age. The other four sons were well educated, one became a lawyer and one, a doctor, Dr. Peter E. Jones, also became the chief of the New Credit Mississaugas. By 1851 Peter had become discouraged by the repeated failure of the politicians to live up to their promises and he with- drew from his leadership role in the affairs of his people. He still acted as advisor and looked after their accounts, but he restricted his public life to occa- sional speaking engagements. He focussed his energies on his family, reading and writing. He built an impres- sive home just east of Brantford. The relocated Mississaugas called their new settlement "New Credit." Peter and Eliza "named their home "Echo Villa." Peter Jones' Death In 1856 he was diagnosed as having Bright's disease, a fatal kidney disorder. On June 29, 1856, Peter Jones, with his wife, children and aging mother beside him, passed away quietly. His funeral was the largest ever seen in Brantford. Hundreds of people of many differing backgrounds paid respect to the man who is credited with saving the Mississaugas Nation from extinction. The atrocities committed by the white man; their failure to live up to their pro- mises, forcing the Mississaugas off their lands thereby having to change their whole lifestyle and introducing diseases .and alcoholism, placed the Mississauga Nation on the edge of extinction. Beginning in 1823, Peter Jones revers- ! ed that trend by fighting for civil rights, access to good education and ownership of land. He also recognized the need for the Mississaugas to learn about the white man and his ways. The Mississaugas became the best educated indigenous peo- ple in North America, in fact, during the mid century they were better educated than most of the European settlers; all as a result of Jones' efforts. In 1840 he had identified the premises upon which Indian acceptance into mod- ern society should be based: 1. deeded title to the land which was rightfully theirs. 2. access to good education. 3. equal rights for his people. Jones' Legacy In our own late 20th society we are experiencing phenomenal socio-economic changes which are in many respects very similar to the changes which were a part of the mid 18th century. Jones was well aware of this phenomenon for his own people and encouraged them to become masters of that change as much as was possible and to maintain a pride and dignity in their language, heritage and traditions. Jones established schools and model farm communities for his people. By personally visiting the Mississauga settlements across Upper Canada, he had established mission stations with schools in over 30 locations from Kingston, to Walpole Island on the shores of Lake St. Clair, to Cape Crocker in Georgian Bay and here at Lake Scugog. He had trans- lated most of the Bible into Ojibway so that his people could better understand the foreigner in their midst. His Ojibwa translation of the Hymnal is still in use today. Unfortunately, with his death, the Native Peoples lost their most effective spokesman and it would be many years before anyone his equal would rise and speak as he did, not only for his own peo- ple, the Credit Mississaugas, but for the entire people of the First Nations. Up until 1885, the only way a Native person could vote was by renouncing his Indian status. That was not changed until Sir John A. Macdonald's 1885 Bill enfranchised them without having to give up that status. Unfortunately, Laurier repealed that legislation in 1898 and it was not until 1960 that status Indians regained the right to vote again! Next month: An update on Hiram Bigelow and his family, and, more on the Mississaugas of Scugog. -- a LTR FR eT 0 TT Ng I Tr Se