Print copies of the book are available, through the publisher, the
London Chapter of the Ontario Archaeological Society. The book is currently
on sale for $15.00 Canadian (plus $5 postage and handling, so, in effect,
the cost of the book WITH shipping and handling is $15 American). People can
order the book by writing:
London Chapter, OAS c/o the London Museum of
Archaeology
1600 Attawandaron Road
London Ontario 
N6G 3M6.

Foreword 

In the fall of 1990, a small legal question concerning the boundaries of the city lot on which his London, Ontario, home and studio were located caused the Canadian painter Greg Curnoe to begin researching the lot’s legal history. Although within a month he had uncovered most of the facts pertinent to his original question, the research awakened in Curnoe an enormous curiosity - both about the history of the converted 1880 factory his home and studio occupied and about the process of European ‘extinguishment’ of First Nations land rights by which it had become possible in the 18th and 19th centuries for people in southern Ontario to ‘own’ pieces of land such as the one on which it stood. The focus of Curnoe’s research became the punning word ‘deeds’ - the deeds through which a city and its streets and neighbourhoods had come into being, the paper deeds that purported to certify ownership of land, and the deeds and misdeeds through which indigenous North American cultures had been pushed from most of their lands by the European settlement of which early London had been a part.... .......

Working 12-hour days most days of the week, Curnoe researched and wrote Deeds/Nations, the present ‘directory’ to southwestern Ontario First Nations individuals between ca. 1750-1850, and Deeds/Abstracts, a 200-page companion volume on the history of his London lot, between the winter of 1991 and his death (struck by a truck while bicycling with his London Centennial Wheelers cycling club) on the morning of November 14, 1992. The last entries into the manuscript of Deeds/Nations were made, according to his computer records, shortly after 1 a.m. on November 14. Although Curnoe had been planning one more research trip - to Detroit with his friend Province of Ontario archaeologist Neal Ferris to try to recover first-person narratives or speeches by various Wyandot chiefs who had signed Surrender No. 2- he was very near to closing the Deeds/Nations project. The Wyandot speeches would have been included in a further appendix to the book, similar to appendix V...

The publishing of such speeches as the Wyandot ones which he hoped to locate in Detroit was for Curnoe one of the most important aspects of Deeds/Nations. From the outset, he had been motivated by a strong sense of responsibility to First Nations culture as himself a white individual who had benefited directly from the injustices First Nations peoples had suffered. His own ability to speak, write and paint, together with the southwestern Ontario and national Canadian societies that supported and gave meaning to his art, were to a large extent founded, in his view, on the suppression of First Nations voices, records and art in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries....

In both this book and in the companion Deeds/Abstracts, each entry that is connected to this piece of land is prefaced with the symbol Ì.

For most parts of North America, the events and social conditions of the period between European discovery and the beginning of settler history have been left to archivists and the occasional papers of scholars. The usual impression given by general North American histories is that nothing of much consequence happens in First Nations cultures once discovery occurs and European dominance is asserted. It is settlement history that is subsequently important: the arrival of immigrants, the surveying of townsites, the establishment of industries. What Curnoe’s work documents is an other to that process of settlement. During the approximately 1750 to 1850 period of this book, southwestern Ontario, from a white perspective, is sparsely populated, and on the brink of prosperity and expansion; from a First Nations perspective it is richly populated, with cultural connections that range far to the south and west, and in the midst of terrifying uncertainty and crisis.

The format of Deeds/Nations reflects both Curnoe’s long commitment to collage principles and found materials and his determination to let the historical record speak in its own voices. Each entry begins with descriptive statements in Curnoe’s own voice about the individual’s birth, death, tribal affiliation and principal role. Clauses that follow (separated by semi-colons) summarize historical attributions and descriptions that Curnoe had found could be associated with the individual; in each of these Cumoe has preserved spelling variations and stylistic idiosyncrasies that occur in his source. The entry concludes with a parenthetical note that identifies these sources he has used. On numerous occasions on which the sources are ambiguous, or allow inferences that Curnoe had been unable to confirm, he has inserted a question mark after the ‘questionable’ fact. Wherever possible, he has appended to the entry a fragment of a speech attributed to the individual.

Forward written by:
Frank Davey October, 1993
Concerning:
Deeds/Abstracts The History of a London Lot, was published by Brick Books in December, 1995 (ISBN 0-919626-78-5)

PREFACE
{EXCERPT from here}

.....................

A Brief Historical Overview:

Just as Greg Curnoe's work has demonstrated that the history of any cultural "group" is incomplete without an appreciation of "community" and the people who make up that community, so too is a historical compilation of individuals incomplete without some general historical context. So, by way of overview, we can start by stating that the period of general focus in this directory, ca. 1750 -1850, was one of dramatic and massive change in southwestern Ontario. At the beginning of this period the region was a forested frontier, with sparse French Canadian settlement along the Detroit River and environs, and numerous Native communities settled along the major waterways. By the end of this period, southwestern Ontario was a mostly rural, Euro-Canadian agricultural community, settled primarily by British immigrants and their descendants. Native communities had been relegated to a few reserves of land.

By the late 1760's, following a period of conflict between British, French and Native nations (including the relatively successful seige of British posts by Native nations under the leadership of people like Pontiac), southwestern Ontario was home to several Native and European communities. Small centres of French Canadian and British settlement could be found along the Detroit River and south shore of Lake St. Clair, primarily around the fort and settlement of Detroit. In the same general area were communities of Odawa, Pottawatomi and Wyandot, mostly concentrated in villages or relatively tight areas of settlement along both sides of the Detroit River. Ojibwa communities were more widely settled in camps along the Thames, Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, Lake St. Clair and lower Lake Huron drainage, and along the drainages of eastern Michigan and Saginaw Bay. Further afield various Native communities could be found along the shore of Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan. These included groups of Wyandot, Miami and Shawnee.  While settled village communities such as the Odawa and Wyandot maintained large fields of corn and other crops, and lived in relatively fixed village locales in somewhat permanent structures, more mobile communities such as the Ojibwa relied on the pursuit of a wide range of seasonally abundant resources over much larger areas. So, given the time of year, Ojibwa communities of several hundred individuals could be gathered together at a single locale such as the St. Clair River rapids to harvest spring spawning runs of fish, or dispersed over a wide area at single family winter hunting camps, or in groups of 30-60 individuals (5-10 families) at sugaring camps, or summer agricultural base camps. While this mobility was a constant feature of Ojibwa life, it was not random or nomadic. Rather, territorial communities gathered together or dispersed to specific locales within a relatively well defined geographic region. These communities were able to pick up their homes (wigwams) and possessions, and move them to the next location, in order to harvest resources like fish, deer, or plants, rather than always travelling back and forth from a specific village site. European travellers passing through the region would often comment that they had observed "ruined Indian villages" or "the skeletons of wigwams." But these travellers were actually passing by locations which, at another time in the year, would be inhabited by Ojibwa families carrying out various domestic activities, the wigwam skeletons covered, and generally looking anything but "abandoned". In southwestern Ontario and southeastern Michigan, Ojibwa communities occupied several loosely defined territories, such as the Thames River, Lake St. Clair - St. Clair River corridor, and others. While each of these community territories could extend over a wide area, they were as well known to the members of one of those community as the laneways and buildings of the post at Detroit were to the inhabitants of that locale.

The region of western Lake Erie and southern Lake Huron was a main stage for the drama of historic events in northeastern North America during the second half of the 18th century. This was because the region was an important economic and transportation link between the upper Great Lakes and the centres of trade in eastern Canada and the United States, and because of this region s proximity to the ever-expanding frontier of American settlement, along with all the tensions and hostilities that expansion brought.

The history of the second half of the 18th century is one of seemingly continual conflict and warfare. Following a decade of relative calm after the conflicts of the early 1760's, the American Revolution of the mid-1770's led to many years of skirmishes on the western frontier. The period following the American Revolution saw a number of unresolved disputes fester, leading to more and more open conflict primarily between American and Native communities such as the Shawnee, Miami and Wyandot of northwestern Ohio. While that conflict formally ended in the mid 1790's, continuing unresolved issues between American, Native and British powers would again boil over and culminate in the War of 1812. And while the communities of southwestern Ontario were on the "hinterland" of these skirmishes (with the exception of the War of 1812), nevertheless these groups were active participants, as military allies with the British against the Americans, and as the recipients of many refugees from the conflicts in northwestern Ohio. Native families to continue traditional ways of life. This was particularly true of seasonal hunting rounds, where mobility was essential. Hunting now largely had to be accomplished from reserves. And as the region around reserves became settled by immigrants, a family would have to travel further and further away to find plentiful game, and not have to avoid competing for that game with their Euro-Canadian neighbours.

During this period, however, Native communities demonstrated remarkable flexibility. While hunting could no longer be maintained as a primary subsistence activity, reserves were still situated in areas where other resources, such as fish spawning runs and sugaring, could continue to be harvested. Also, if hunting could not be relied on as before because of restricted mobility and changes to the surrounding landscape, then increased agricultural activity became important, particularly for Ojibwa communities. However, unlike their Euro-Canadian neighbours, most Ojibwa communities did not develop a cash crop economy, as was the hope of Indian agents and missionaries. Rather, agricultural efforts tended to be largely garden plots for personal and community use. Basically, agricultural produce replaced the food staple that hunting had been. Rather than abandoning traditional lifeways, these communities had simply adjusted. Close ties to the land, and distinct community identities were not lost, despite massive and rapid change through the 19th century. And indeed, many of the communities mentioned in Greg Curnoe's directory are still vibrant and active today, and continue to contribute to the growth and identity of this region of Ontario.

Neal Ferris September, 1995

Readers interested in learning more about southwestern Ontario s Native heritage should refer to the following references. These are simply intended to get you started. Once there, these references will lead you to other sources, and, appropriately, to the historical documents themselves (please refer to the reference section for full citations):

Prehistoric Past: Ellis & Ferris

Regional Historical Overviews, Aboriginal and European Relations: Cleland; Allen 1975, 1992; White; Graham; Surtees; Trigger 1978

     Native Communities: 
     Ojibwa: Kahkewaquonaby 1861; NinDaWaabJig; Ferris; Schmalz; Smith 1990 
     Delaware: Gray; Kjellberg 
     Wyandot: Clarke; Clifton 1983; Leclair 1988a 
     Pottawatomi: Clifton 1975 
     Oneida: Mayer

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF WENDAT/WYANDOT INDIVIDUALS SW ONTARIO 1750-1850
 DEEDS / NATIONS 
Directory of First Nations Individuals in South-Western Ontario 1750 - 1850 by Greg Curnoe