RIVERS OF HISTORY
Exploring millennia of Indigenous culture and history at the junction of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, today a spot home to The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s headquarters
Long before Sussex Drive or any of the city of Ottawa stood on its shores, the Ottawa River was one of North America’s most important trading routes and home to Indigenous communities dating back at least 5,000 years, and perhaps as long as 8,500. The Algonquin nation, who long lived both north and south of the river, called it the Kitchisipi, meaning “Great River.” What we know of their and other nations’ use of the Ottawa comes to us from the archeological record, oral histories passed down for generations and early writings. There are 14 distinct archeological sites at the confluence of the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau rivers (a natural meeting and trading point) across from the 50 Sussex headquarters of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, in modern-day Parc du Lac-leamy, Que. Meanwhile, copper tools and arrows found farther upstream, on Morrison Island near Pembroke, Ont., point to a vast trade network covering much of northeastern North America. It was in the early 1600s that the first Europeans to explore the Ottawa River — Étienne Brûlé and Samuel de Champlain — paddled well beyond the modern National Capital Region. The powerful Kichesipirini Algonquin (“People of the Great River”) met with Champlain in 1613 at their home on Morrison Island, a natural fortress with up to 18-metre cliffs and rapids on both sides, where they grew corn, beans and squash, harvested fish and game, and extracted a toll from passing trade. During this period, the French, eager to cement a trading relationship that brought furs back to Europe, had allied with the Algonquins in their perennial conflicts with the Iroquois, who controlled much of the St. Lawrence and northern New York state. But the Iroquois had their own alliance with the Dutch who, unlike the French, sold firearms to their Indigenous allies. In a matter of a few years, Iroquois raids across the Ottawa Valley (including a number of skirmishes at Chaudière Falls, just west of what’s now Parliament Hill) had devastated the Algonquins and their allies. Many would flee to French-controlled territories near Oka and Trois-rivières, Que., and between 1650 and 1675, there were virtually no records of Algonquins living along the Ottawa River. In the 1680s, with hostilities ceased, groups of Odawa traders from around Lake Huron and Georgian Bay began making the trip down the Kitchisipi, and their name became synonymous with the river and region. Large-scale settlement arrived in the 19th century when timber baron Philemon Wright established Hull, the first major colony of the Ottawa Valley. That marked the final push of Algonquins out of much of the Ontario side of their traditional territory, and their pleas to the British government to retain lands were ignored. In the 1840s, a number of the remaining Algonquin moved to present-day Kitigan Zibi (“River Desert”), upstream from Ottawa along the Gatineau River. Others eventually settled at Golden Lake, the only Algonquin reserve in Ontario. Even then, the Algonquin continued to press for a return of their lands, and, because they’ve never signed a treaty for the Kitchisipi watershed, this remains an unresolved issue. While many governments have treated them as squatters on their own lands, we are assured of thousands of proud years of history along the mighty Kitchisipi.
This is the latest in a series of articles about 50 Sussex, the new headquarters of the RCGS and Canada’s Centre for Geography and Exploration. For more, visit cangeo.ca.