Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario
Encyclopedia
Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is an 73 km² (18000-acre
) Mohawk
First Nations reserve
on the Bay of Quinte
in southeastern Ontario
, Canada
, east of Belleville
and immediately to the west of Deseronto
. It serves as the land base for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (Kenhtè:ke Kanyen'kehá:ka) First Nation.
The community takes its name from a variant spelling of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant
's traditional Mohawk name, Thayendanegea (standardized spelling Thayentiné:ka), which means 'two pieces of fire wood beside each other'. Officially, in the Mohawk language, the community is called "Kenhtè:ke", which means "the place of the bay".
, the Mohawks, who were allies of the British Crown, lost their traditional homelands in the Mohawk Valley
. As compensation for their allegiance, they were offered unsettled land in Upper Canada
. A group of Mohawks led by John Deseronto
selected the Bay of Quinte because it allegedly was the birthplace of Tekanawita, one of the founders of the original Iroquois Confederacy in the 12th century.
On May 22, 1784, the group of 20 families (between 100 to 125 people) arrived. Nine years later, the Tyendinaga tract of land was officially set aside under Crown Treaty 3½, signed on on April 1, 1793, by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe
and thereafter known as the 'Simcoe Deed'. This tract of land, measuring 92700 acres (37,514.4 ha), was legally accepted by the British Crown, and subsequently by the Canadian Government.
But a wave of Loyalists also settled in the Bay of Quinte area, many of whom were accommodated by the government on the Tyendinaga Tract. Consequently in the period from 1820 to 1843, the Mohawks lost two-thirds of the treaty lands of the Simcoe Deed. Further land loss left the Mohawk with only 71 square kilometres (17,544.5 acre) today.
After a stagnation of the land claims process following the 2006-2009 protests, Band Chief Don Maracle has recently reannounced his intentions to file for land claims in January 2011.
The reserve also serves members of the surrounding non-native communities with various tax free goods, such as cigarettes from businesses.
, an educational partner with Canadore College
, First Nations University of Canada
, Humber College
, Loyalist College
, Queen's University
, Ryerson University
, St. Lawrence College
and Trent University
. FNTI is Canada's only Aboriginal owned and controlled college, offering program in Aviation (in partnership with the Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport
), Law, Public Relations, Indigenous Community Health and the Mohawk language
.
The reserve also has a primary school, Quinte Mohawk School
. For high school, residents have the option of attending Moira Secondary School in Belleville
just to the west of the reserve, or attending the Ohahase Learning Centre, a private school managed by FNTI. Ohahase means "new road" in the Mohawk language.
The language group Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna organizes a variety of cultural educational programs, including Mohawk language classes. TTO is currently attempting to raise money for Mohawk-language immersion primary school (similar to the one at Akwesasne
) called Kawenna’òn:we.
community
-owned radio station
, known as KWE, Mohawk Nation Radio operates on a frequency of 105.9 FM
in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The station has no known callsign and has no relation to CKWE-FM
another First Nations community radio station in Maniwaki, Quebec
.
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
) Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
First Nations reserve
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not...
on the Bay of Quinte
Bay of Quinte
The Bay of Quinte is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
in southeastern 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....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, east of Belleville
Belleville, Ontario
Belleville is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is the seat of Hastings County, but is politically independent of it. and the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region...
and immediately to the west of Deseronto
Deseronto, Ontario
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located on the shore of the Bay of Quinte. The town had a population of 1,824 in the Canada 2006 Census.The town was named for Capt...
. It serves as the land base for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (Kenhtè:ke Kanyen'kehá:ka) First Nation.
The community takes its name from a variant spelling of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant
Joseph Brant
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. He was perhaps the most well-known American Indian of his generation...
's traditional Mohawk name, Thayendanegea (standardized spelling Thayentiné:ka), which means 'two pieces of fire wood beside each other'. Officially, in the Mohawk language, the community is called "Kenhtè:ke", which means "the place of the bay".
History
Following the American RevolutionAmerican 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...
, the Mohawks, who were allies of the British Crown, lost their traditional homelands in the Mohawk Valley
Mohawk Valley
The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains....
. As compensation for their allegiance, they were offered unsettled land in 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...
. A group of Mohawks led by John Deseronto
John Deseronto
Captain John Deseronto Captain John Deseronto Captain John Deseronto (alt. Deserontyon, (Odeserundiye) UE (c1740's - 1811) was a prominent Mohawk war chief during the American Revolutionary War. He was born in the 1740s, most likely in the Mohawk valley. Educated in a white school, he had become...
selected the Bay of Quinte because it allegedly was the birthplace of Tekanawita, one of the founders of the original Iroquois Confederacy in the 12th century.
On May 22, 1784, the group of 20 families (between 100 to 125 people) arrived. Nine years later, the Tyendinaga tract of land was officially set aside under Crown Treaty 3½, signed on on April 1, 1793, by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...
and thereafter known as the 'Simcoe Deed'. This tract of land, measuring 92700 acres (37,514.4 ha), was legally accepted by the British Crown, and subsequently by the Canadian Government.
But a wave of Loyalists also settled in the Bay of Quinte area, many of whom were accommodated by the government on the Tyendinaga Tract. Consequently in the period from 1820 to 1843, the Mohawks lost two-thirds of the treaty lands of the Simcoe Deed. Further land loss left the Mohawk with only 71 square kilometres (17,544.5 acre) today.
Land Claims Dispute
Currently the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte are embroilled in a land claim struggle with the Canadian government over a stretch of land referred to as the Culbertson Tract. The Mohawks allege it was illegally purchased in the 19th Century, the terms and conditions for purchasing land from Natives which had been set out in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 required there to be a community vote before the Mohawks could sell the land to any outsider. Research and documentation has shown that these terms and conditions may not have been followed.. Within the Simcoe Deed there are provisions for removing 'intruders' by the government of the reserve.After a stagnation of the land claims process following the 2006-2009 protests, Band Chief Don Maracle has recently reannounced his intentions to file for land claims in January 2011.
Demographics
As of January 2011, the registered population of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Nation is 8,006 members (the third largest band in Ontario), of whom 2,124 live on the Tyendinaga reserve and 5,864 live off reserve.The reserve also serves members of the surrounding non-native communities with various tax free goods, such as cigarettes from businesses.
Education
Tyendinaga is home to First Nations Technical InstituteFirst Nations Technical Institute
First Nations Technical Institute is an Aboriginal owned and controlled post-secondary institution. Established in 1985 through innovative and dynamic partnerships between the Tyendinaga Mohawk Council, FNTI Board of Directors, Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of...
, an educational partner with Canadore College
Canadore College
Canadore College is a college of applied arts and technology located in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1967 as a campus of Sudbury's Cambrian College, and became an independent institution in 1972...
, First Nations University of Canada
First Nations University of Canada
The First Nations University of Canada is a university in Saskatchewan, Canada with campuses in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert...
, Humber College
Humber College
Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning is a polytechnic college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Humber offers more than 150 programs including: bachelor’s degree, diploma, certificate, post-graduate certificate and apprenticeship programs, across 40 fields of study. Humber serves...
, Loyalist College
Loyalist College
Loyalist College is an English-language community college in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.- History :...
, Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
, Ryerson University
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...
, St. Lawrence College
St. Lawrence College, Ontario
St. Lawrence College is a College of Applied Arts and Technology with three campuses in Eastern Ontario, namely Brockville , Cornwall and Kingston .-History:...
and Trent University
Trent University
Trent University is a liberal arts and science-oriented institution located along the Otonabee River in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.The enabling legislation is the Trent University Act, 1962-63. The University was founded through the efforts of a citizens' committee interested in creating a...
. FNTI is Canada's only Aboriginal owned and controlled college, offering program in Aviation (in partnership with the Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport
Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport
Tyendinaga Airport is a registered aerodrome that is open to the public and caters mainly to general aviation. The aerodrome is located southwest of Tyendinaga, Ontario, Canada, north of the Bay of Quinte between Kingston and Belleville.-History:...
), Law, Public Relations, Indigenous Community Health and the Mohawk language
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
.
The reserve also has a primary school, Quinte Mohawk School
Quinte Mohawk School
Quinte Mohawk School is an elementary school located in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, Canada. It feeds graduating students to Moira Secondary School, in nearby Belleville, Ontario....
. For high school, residents have the option of attending Moira Secondary School in Belleville
Belleville, Ontario
Belleville is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is the seat of Hastings County, but is politically independent of it. and the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region...
just to the west of the reserve, or attending the Ohahase Learning Centre, a private school managed by FNTI. Ohahase means "new road" in the Mohawk language.
The language group Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna organizes a variety of cultural educational programs, including Mohawk language classes. TTO is currently attempting to raise money for Mohawk-language immersion primary school (similar to the one at Akwesasne
Akwesasne
The Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne is a Mohawk Nation territory that straddles the intersection of international and provincial borders on both banks of the Saint Lawrence River. Most of the land is in what is otherwise the United States...
) called Kawenna’òn:we.
Media
A First NationsFirst Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
community
Community radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
-owned radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
, known as KWE, Mohawk Nation Radio operates on a frequency of 105.9 FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The station has no known callsign and has no relation to CKWE-FM
CKWE-FM
CKWE-FM is a First Nations community radio station that operates at 103.9 FM in Maniwaki, Quebec, Canada.Owned by Jean-Guy Whiteduck on behalf of the River Desert Band, the station received CRTC approval in 1986....
another First Nations community radio station in Maniwaki, Quebec
Maniwaki, Quebec
Maniwaki is a town north of Gatineau and located north-west of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, Canada. The town is situated on the Gatineau River, at the crossroads of Route 105 and Route 107, not far south of Route 117...
.