h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A very interesting entry.

I went to Canada a couple of years ago and stayed on Manitoulin, a large island (the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world) where the first nation still reside. The Island is about 100 miles from one end to the other and can be seen on maps near the northern shore of Lake Huron.

At one point there was a plan to move all First Nation people from all over Canada to live on the island. Gladly this crazy plan was abandoned.

Wikwemikong is at the Eastern end of the island and they claim it is the only piece of land in the whole of the north of America (including the United States) that was never ceded to white settlers. Apparently the French arrived first and Jesuit priests advised the local people not to sign any papers produced by the British settlers.

I hope the new arrangements work well and that the people prosper.

Thanks, Vestboy.

Actually, there are a number of places in North America that have never been ceded. Goodly portions of British Columbia are argued to be such places, for example. There are also areas which have been assumed to have been the subject of treaties but not all First Nations with connections to those areas were involved in the treaty negotiations. And there is one case of which I know in which a First Nation was deliberately scattered by the Canadian government so that it's members would never be able to claim their treaty rights (Big Bear's Cree band). There is now an effort through DNA testing to reestablish the identities of the members of Big Bear's band that they can reclaim their birthright.

Can a person join the first nation or is it by birth only. I mean in the sense that a foreigner could, I guess, go through a process to become a Canadian, or an American or whatever. Is there such a process for First Nation peoples?

Under the Indian Act ( ) people can become Status Indians by marrying a Status Indian. But, there are certainly First Nations in Canada who are not Status Indians. The Indian Act is law governing the relationship between the Canadian Federal Government and the people signatory to the various treaties made between the Federal Government and the First Nations who have signed on. I suspect that it if an individual First Nation decided they wanted to accept somebody into their community as a citizen, for whatever reason, they could certainly do it. I'm not sure that the Federal Government would then be obliged to recognize that individual as a Status Indian.

I know of at least one white woman who married into a band and eventually became chief of the band. And I'm pretty sure that the Premier of our province (who is an idiot) has been given honourary membership in a number of bands, but I'm absolutely sure that he has not become a Status Indian.

You see, there are a number of layers of meaning to the idea of "membership": For the purposes of Canadian Federal regulation, based on the Treaties, you can only be an "Indian" by birth or by marriage. But the First Nations existed long before Canadian Federal regulations (as is clearly acknowledged in the Constitution, and there are a multitude of different First Nations, each with it's own traditional system of government, so, really, it's up to each First Nation to decide who is in or out.

that opens so many cans of worms doesn't it. My short time on Manitoulin led me to understand that there were certain rights which accompanied being a member of the First Nation - one was a right to hunt and kill animals throughoutt out the year. In general it weemed that this was notional as people only hunted when they had a need and many first nation people would maybe only take one deer in a whole year as that met their needs.

I wasn't sure of voting rights for first nation people as we were there in the run up to the election and I couldn't work out what was being agreed about the redrawing of constiuency boundaries and who got to vote for whom. I got th eimpression that fist nation peoples voted for theri own leaders but not the national leaders. I'm probably wrong and look forward to hearing the facts.

Gaining the right to shoot animals but losing the right to vote seems a strange sort of trade off, if that is the case.

As to whether or not Manitoulin was ceded and the seedy way the colonists attempted to have it ceded, google The Manitoulin Treaty: 140 Years Later. Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Whereabouts did people go on Manitoulin? I stayed on Mindemoya, travelled around to West Bay, then to the Ojibwa Cultural Centre, stood under the falls, and climbed the Cup and Saucer. There were a number of other places, as well, but I don't remember them offhand. Then I took the swing bridge north to The Chutes and then to Mississaugi.

First Nations people of Canada are Canadian citizens. They have the right to vote in Federal, Provincial, and Municipal elections, just like every other Canadian citizen.

I've invited someone much more knowledgeble than I in the area to come and check out my answers on this thread.

Cool. I would like to know what happened, what's happening, and what's is probably going to happen. There is a fabulous First Nation artist (one of many) living on the Island. I think her name is Rebecca. She has been selected for some really big biennale in Europe. If I stumble across any more info on this, I will post it. Ani.

Sorry. My mistake. It was First Nations artist Rebecca Belmore who was selected to represent Canada at the 2005 Venice Biennale of Visual Art. She is Vancouver-based, not Manitoulin-based. There is someone, however, who lives on Manitoulin. When I track her down, I will post to this thread. She is fabulous. Ani.

We stayed in Gore Bay. We were there for 2 weeks and had a lovely time. It gave us a chance to get to know a few people. We went to the Ojibwe Cultural Centre and talked to some of the people who worked there. We went to the lighthouse on the western tip and did days out, including the falls and the cup and saucer walk.

Thanks for clearing up the stuff about voting rights. I'm pleased to have my misunderstanding clarified.

Another interesting thing about Manitoulin, whose white residents are known as Haweaters after a particularly bad winter when they had to survive by eating haws, was that the local business people produce Haweater Dollars each year. These dollars can be traded in local businesses just like Canadian Dollars but then are no longer accepted after a set date. They were really nicely produced coins with a silver inner bit and a gold coloured surround (for people in the UK - similar in size to £2 coins). Previous years' coins are avalable for purchase in souvenir shops and some have gained significantly in value due to fewer coins being minted in certain years.

Hi Vestboy. What are haws? I did not know Manitoulin had a local currency. We have a local currency here in St Lawrence Market (Toronto): the Toronto Dollar. Joy Kogawa (of Obasan fame) started it. Joy works really hard for the homeless. She lives two blocks down the street from me.

Do you have any stories about cup and saucer? I have some photos. Can anyone help me by telling me how I can post photos? Somebody started a page on h2g2 where people can post photos of themselves. As soon as I can unearth my Outward Bound photo, I will post that.

Whoever started that page: it would be nice to have a page of Canadian neighbourhoods. My Manitoulin photos would be great in there and I could also take my camera oot n aboot the St Lawrence Market. Let me know. Meanwhile, everyone have a great Thanksgiving. Ani.

If you find out how to post photos I'd be really pleased to post some of my Manitoulin ones too. I have a few of the Cup and Saucer Trail and the surrounding scenery.

I think Haws are the swelling you get after the flower dies on a plant. Like Rosehips on a rose. Sort of like the fruit on a plant you don't normally associate with fruit. They contain a fair bit of sugar so I guess if the rest of the food supply has run out it would meke a good substitute. Probably very ehalthy too - rosehip syrup used to be given to babies as it was nice tasting and high in vitamin C.

I used to be involved in setting up community currencies and I have several separate entries in hootoo asking people to help me in setting up a children's currency. I've been to various European countries talking about currencies and have set up a couple in outer London.

I wish you a happy Thanksgiving too - but we don't celebrate it here in the UK. We're the ones who stayed at home!

<> Hilarious. Well Hallowe'en is just around the corner. I gather you don't get to dress up in naughty costumes either. But isn't there a Guy Fawkes day? What do you do for that?

So the Haweaters ate only these flower-fruits one winter? Brave souls.

Community currency: my friend's ancestor created the the Joyce Bank and the Joyce currency in Ireland when people were only allowed to use the English banking system. It kept a lot of people from going hungry. Ani.

We're becoming quite 'americanised' here and hallowe'en is being celebrated more and more by trick or treat with children dressing up, which a few years ago never happened.

Years ago people might have a children's party where there were traditional games of apple bobbing (apples floated in a bowl of water and you have to try and pick one out with your teeth!) or apples being coated in syrup and then hung from strings. The participants had to try and eat the apple without using their hands. Syrup behind the ears was quite a common sight!

Guy Fawkes - celebrating a failed attempt to kill the king and blow up parliament - involves children making a 'guy' out of stuffed old clothes and then standing next to the model and asking passers by for a 'penny for the guy.' This loot is then spent on sweets or fireworks (though it is now illegal to sell fireworks to children).

On Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night the guy is hoisted onto the top of the unlit bonfire and then the fire is lit and people watch as the guy catches fire and is burned. Some of the countryside bonfires are really huge and people travel from miles around to see them. In days gone by people would put potatoes in the foot of domestic bonfire and eat them when they had baked.

Fireworks are let off and for days either side of bonfire night you will hear explosions in the street. Nowadays, in cosmopolitan UK, we have people also celebrating Diwali (a festival celebrated by the Hindu, Sikh and Jain religions) which this year falls on November 11th - so the fireworks seem to go on for weeks.

Alternative currencies: yes, they are great for helping people to survive. Argentina had a currency meltdown in recent years and many people traded with an alternative currency to make ends meet. During the depression in the USA there were all sorts of currencies that helped people to cope.

When you have people who are fit and able to work and also things that need doing saying it can't be done because we don't have money was described by someone as being like a builder saying, "I can't build your house because I've run out of feet and inches (centimetres and metres for the metrically minded)". It's crazy!

Vestboy. Thank you for your colourful description of Guy Fawkes day and so on. From what you say it seems that Autumn in Britain is one long party. (I'm booking the next flight.)

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I see Canadian Anti-economics has not been lost on you. (I'm booking the next flight)

I live near Heathrow Airport so I'll be waiting

Have you heard of John Turmel? I met him over here in the UK once. Quite a character!

I believe he's in the record books for having stood for and losing the most elections. His party is the Abilition Party - aimed at abolishing interest rates. This would massively reduce the problem of repaying debts for the poorest people in the world. Doen't sound like a bad idea to me.

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I'll be the one standing beside the big yellow taxi, shouting out the names of Underground stations. Now, to remain on topic, how can we have Manitoulin added to the London Underground map?

If the Americans succeed at building the transAtlantic underwater express rail line, then we may yet see Manitoulin on the LUM. Is this the topic of a new thread? I need to know, because I am being sniffed at this morning for wandering around in conversational curlicues. Ani.

Btw, the folk at http://www.manitoulin.on.ca/ are slowly creating a discussion board. It should be ready soon. I am looking forward to chatting with the folk there. There is a link on my space to an analysis of the Treaty of Manitoulin, in case people are interested. Ani.

Will you be bringing the yellow taxi with you. We have black cabs here in London - and minicabs too which could be any colour or many depending on where they got the doors and dodgy panels to repair the dents.

As a rule of thumb people calculate journey times on the inner reaches of the underground by counting the stations and multiplying by two minutes. Do you think the adding of a Canadian Spur would cause this calculation to be incorrect?