| The Manitoulin Treaty of 1836 was made by Sir Francis Bond Head, appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1835, at the 1836 annual distribution of presents in August of that year. At an address to Indians assembled for the occasion he particularly addressed the Ottawa and Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians who laid claim to the Manitoulin Islands and the Ojibwa bands who occupied the Bruce Peninsula. To the Ottawas and Chippewas, he suggested that their lands be surrendered to the Crown on the condition that those islands would be set apart for the use of all Indians of Upper Canada. He persuaded the Ojibwa bands of the Bruce Peninsula to move north of the Saugeen River in order to receive protection from the Crown as well as assistance to become ‘civilised’. Bond Head had two speeches prepared, written in the form of a memorandum which were signed by the Chiefs of the two tribal groups. The documents were considered legal land surrenders, and have taken on the status of actual treaties. |
