Manitoulin Island
Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing
Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is equipped with 2766 km ² the largest located in a lake island in the world ( lake island ). Along with several smaller islands Manitoulin Iceland is today the administrative district of Manitoulin District. The island is connected via an old railway bridge to the mainland.
" Manitoulin " means "ghost island " in the language of the Anishinabe. Today's Odawa and Ojibwa call the island Odwa - minis, Island of Ottawa. 2001 had 10,603 inhabitants Manitoulin, more than one in three was a member of the Anishinabe, Potawatomi or Odawa. For the Anishinabe, the island was always sacred area in which they buried their dead and prepared for visions. Today there are six Indian reservations: Aundeck, Omni Kaning, Sheguiandah, M'chigeeng, Shesigwaning and Wikwemikong, corresponding to the six First Nations, ie the Shesehgwaning, Sheguiandah, the Whitfish River, Zhiibaahaasing and M'chigeeng First Nation and Wikwemikong.
The island consists mainly of dolomite and geologically belongs to the Niagara Escarpment. There are 108 lakes in which, in some cases, in turn, are small islands. Manitou Lake is 104 km ², the world's largest lake on an island in a lake. Manitoulin has three rivers, Kagawong, Manitou, and have Mindemoya River, the rich salmon and trout occurrence.
History
In Sheguiandah was found in 1954 artifacts that show that the island was inhabited 10,000 years ago.
The first known Europeans who settled on the island was Father Joseph Poncet, a French Jesuit, the near Wikwemikong built in 1648 on a mission. The Jesuits called the island " Isle de Ste. Marie ". Diseases introduced by the visitors reduced the indigenous population of the island. For unknown reasons, the Indians left the island to 1700. According to oral tradition, the island was burned at her leaving, to cleanse them. Until about 1825 it remained uninhabited.
During the war from 1812 to 1814 again began Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi to colonize the island after they had fled from the United States. The Americans fired at the west of the island. Many Odawa, who had been allied with the British, were unable to return and moved to Manitoulin where their ancestors originally came from. In July 1818 negotiated 350 Odawa and Ojibwe on Drummond Iceland - the 1828 Canada ceded to the United States - with Canadian government officials. At the same time subjected to white refugees who had been allied with Great Britain, on the Bruce Peninsula. They decimated the wild stocks, and thus endangered the resident Indians. Sir Peregrine Maitland, Governor of Upper Canada, Manitoulin was a refuge, both for the Indians of Michigan, as well as making use of the Bruce Peninsula and told them to an eternal home.
His successor, John Colborne led the Odawa to accept more refugees, or whomever he would send to the island. Sir Francis Bond Head in 1836 concluded a treaty of the entire island appealed to the Indians. In 1837 it was estimated the number of settlers on 268 1838 there were 307 in 1850 was Waiebijewung, today's Little Current; its inhabitants were a few years later deported to the reserve Aundeck Omni Kaning, which lies a few kilometers away.
Many Anishinabe came back with Father Jean -Baptiste Proulx from Michigan, whither they had fled. This resulted in Wikwemikong a community. The island was ceded in 1836 to the Crown and to the Indian reservation. Jean -Baptiste Proulx taught in 1838 a Catholic mission, which the Jesuits took over in 1845.
The Manitowaning, founded in 1837 was the first European settlement on the island. On August 4, 1862, the island was released under contract to settlement by non- Indigenous, but Wikwemikong refused, so it is considered as single, never been ceded to Canada Reserve. To him belongs the eastern part of the island. Every year in August a powwow in Wikwemikong, are at the forefront in the singing, dancing and traditional food.