John Cameron (chief)
Encyclopedia
Chief John Cameron also known as Chief Ogimauh-binaessih (from the Anishinaabe language: Ogimaa-binesiinh, "chief little-bird") or Chief Wageezhegome (from the Anishinaabe language: Wegiizhigomi, "Who Possesses the Day"), was one of two principal Indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 Mississauga Ojibwa chiefs, member of the eagle doodem, and farmer. He was born in May of 1764 at Credit River
Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 km²...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, and died September 30, 1828 at the Credit Mission
Credit Mission
The Credit Mission was an Indian Mission on the Credit River in Upper Canada.Funded with the proceeds from Purchase #22 or #23, building began in 1826 under the leadership of Peter Jones. When construction began, about 200 Indians lived at the settlement in temporary structures. Thirty log cabins...

 (Mississauga), Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

.

Early life

Wageezhegome was born in May of 1764 at Credit River
Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 km²...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. During his youth, he witnessed significant changes in his people's lifestyle, marked by the arrival of thousands of white settlers after the 1776 American revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 into what is now southern Ontario. This quickly led to treaty negotiations in which the Mississauga surrendered of much of their hunting territory and fishing grounds. Close contact with the settlers also introduced a series of epidemics, such as the smallpox epidemics in the New World reaching them, against which the Indians had no immunity. As the Mississaugas’ society collapsed, many of the Mississaugas turned to alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

. However, Wageezhegome did not. Instead, Wageezhegome leaned some English and rudimentary farming skills. He attended a school and adopted the name of John Cameron. After the death of his tutor David Ramsay, Cameron settled on the flats of the Credit River
Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 km²...

 to farm.

Chief

In August 1805, Cameron succeed his father as one of the band’s two chiefs. Presumably during this period, Wageezhegome then received the title Ogimauh-binaessih, and freely used all three of his names after this period. He was a signatory to several treaties, including Surrenders #3¾, #8, #13, #13a, #14, #22 and #23.

When Peter Jones arrived at the Credit in late 1824, John Cameron gave Jones his full support. Cameron converted to Christianity in 1824; he moved to Brantford in 1824 and back to the Credit River in 1826. Shortly before Jones’s arrival the 60-year-old chief had married Wechikiwekapawiqua (baptized Catharine Cameron), the Jones’s 17-year-old half-sister.

At the Credit Mission, Cameron’s daughter, Charlotte, was born on February 24, 1828. Later that year he suddenly became ill and he died on September 30, 1828. Peter Jones, who succeeded him as chief the next year, later recalled that he had said shortly before dying, “I thank the Lord that I have lived to see all my people serve the Great Spirit.”

See also

  • Indigenous peoples of the Americas
    Indigenous peoples of the Americas
    The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

  • Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas
    Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas
    Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation...

  • Population history of the Americas indigenous peoples
    Population history of American indigenous peoples
    The population figures for Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus have proven difficult to establish and rely on archaeological data and written records from European settlers...

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