“Our traditions go back to time immemorial”, relates Dean Jacobs, Chief of Bkejwanong First Nation, Walpole Island. Archeological evidence places the first Natives on Walpole Island as long as 6000 years ago. The Three Fires Confederacy was an association of the Ojibwa, Podowadami and Ottawa tribes, linked most importantly linguistically, but also through culture and history. These Natives were a self-sufficient group which utilized the clan system to efficiently designate responsibilities, from hunting and fishing to medicine and security, thus providing for all members of their community.
Today, many Natives live on Reserves, land that the Natives put aside for themselves, while Europeans settled much of the land around them. Interestingly, Walpole Island was never a reserve and not included in any of the treaties made between the Crown and the Native people, and remains Native land today.
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