The Algonquians are one of the most populous and widespread North American indigenous North American groups, consisting of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages . They historically were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and in the interior regions along Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes .
61-649: Fort Albany may refer to: Fort Albany First Nation , a Cree First Nation located on James Bay in Ontario, Canada Fort Albany (Ontario) , the historical Hudson's Bay Company trading post near the site of which the First Nation was established Fort Albany (Arlington, Virginia) , a bastioned earthwork built during the American Civil War Fort Frederick (Albany) , an English fort at
122-583: A band government organized under the Indian Act . The treaty also promised to provide for the salaries of teachers, and the cost of school buildings and equipment "as may seem advisable to His Majesty's government of Canada." In 1906, the federal government began funding St. Anne's Indian Residential School , which had opened under the direction of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Nuns of
183-556: A "'fact-finding' visit." There, according to then Chair of the Mushkegowuk Council RoseAnne Archibald , he was "caught off guard" by a rally of students chanting demands for a new school building. According to The Nation , students had been pushing for a new school "for years," because the building housing the school at the time also housed the band office and education office, and was in constant need of repairs, having at one point been shut down upon
244-487: A degree that their population increased and they reached a density of 287 people per 100 square miles as opposed to 41 in the north. Scholars estimate that, by the year 1600, the indigenous population of New England had reached 70,000–100,000. The French encountered Algonquian peoples in this area through their trade and limited colonization of New France along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The historic peoples of
305-417: A flexible, renewable agreement among equals symbolized by gift-giving and feasting, and accompanied by speech-making." According to anthropological research, their society was based around the extended family, organized into loose patrilineal bands. During the winter, these bands distributed themselves along the river watershed, and congregated into larger groups of 300-700 people at prime fishing locations in
366-466: A permanent all-season road to the communities. The project, if undertaken, will entail a "coastal road" connecting the four communities with each other, as well as a road to link the coastal road to the provincial highway system at Fraserdale , Kapuskasing or Hearst . In January 2021, the 311-kilometre James Bay Winter Ice Road was under construction, to connect Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany and Moosonee. It opened some time in winter 2021 and
427-866: A presence in the First Nation through the Fort Albany Canadian Ranger Patrol, part of the 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. The Fort Albany Patrol launched in January 1995 with 20 Cree Rangers. The community of Fort Albany is accessible by air, water, and the winter road . The winter road is used only between January and March. Air Creebec provides Fort Albany with daily passenger flights, with connecting flights to Toronto , Montreal and/or other points of travel. These arrangements are done in Timmins on Air Creebec, Air Canada , Thunder Airlines , or Bearskin Airlines . Fort Albany
488-544: A promise of a $ 4 annuity . The paylist booklet for the Fort Albany visit recorded 201 families in the community, with 278 total people receiving their gift. Charlie Stephen was the Chief that signed with an X on behalf of the Fort Albany community, along with nine headmen, who also signed with an X. According to the journals of Commissioners Scott and Stewart, both Indian Affairs employees, "full explanations were given of
549-452: A seasonal economy. The basic social unit was the village: a few hundred people related by a clan kinship structure. Villages were temporary and mobile. The people moved to locations of greatest natural food supply, often breaking into smaller units or gathering as the circumstances required. This custom resulted in a certain degree of intertribal mobility, especially in troubled times. In warm weather, they constructed portable wigwams ,
610-525: A state of emergency over a housing crisis that was forcing families into the cold due to a lack of housing. From August 23 to 26, 2012, Fort Albany and Kashechewan held a gathering called Mamkeewanan: Protecting Paquataskamik at the Old Post site, their ancestors' first settlement in the area, to commemorate their shared history. Plans were made to put up signs around the site and plan further educational excusions. The present-day community of Fort Albany
671-628: A time. Historians hypothesize that this practice kept the population down, with some invoking Liebig's law of the minimum . The southern Algonquians of New England relied predominantly on slash and burn agriculture. They cleared fields by burning for one or two years of cultivation, after which the village moved to another location. This is the reason the English found the region relatively cleared and ready for planting. By using various kinds of native corn (maize), beans and squash, southern New England natives were able to improve their diet to such
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#1732776906999732-553: A type of hut usually with buckskin doors. In the winter, they erected the more substantial longhouses , in which more than one clan could reside. They cached food supplies in more permanent, semi-subterranean structures . In the spring, when the fish were spawning, they left the winter camps to build villages at coastal locations and waterfalls. In March, they caught smelt in nets and weirs , moving about in birch bark canoes . In April, they netted alewife , sturgeon and salmon . In May, they caught cod with hook and line in
793-567: Is also accessible via the waters of James Bay and the Albany River. Moosonee Transportation Limited provides barge service, carrying supplies at least once or twice each summer by traveling up and down the coast to each community. Freighter canoes can travel from Fort Albany to Calstock and return whenever the water levels are sufficient to make river travel possible. During the summer months, people use outboard motors and canoes for other activities, such as hunting, trapping, and fishing. During
854-447: Is characterised by a yearly mean temperature below the freezing point at −2 °C (28 °F). There are very short transitional periods. Fort Albany's climate becomes colder after the bay freezes over. During summer, temperatures reach an average high of 22 °C (71.6 °F). October temperatures are relatively mild, on average six degrees milder than April. The annual precipitation rate averages 569 millimetres (22.4 in), which
915-608: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Fort Albany First Nation Fort Albany First Nation ( Cree : ᐲᐦᑖᐯᒄ ᐃᓕᓕᐗᒃ pîhtâpek ililiwak , "lagoon Cree") is a Cree First Nation in Cochrane District in Northeastern Ontario , Canada, within the territory covered by Treaty 9 . Situated on the southern shore of the Albany River on
976-531: Is noticeably higher in summer than at other times of the year. A regular occurrence in the climate of Fort Albany is the annual break-up of ice on the coast of James Bay during the spring thaw , which can cause massive flooding in the community, as well as dangerous ice floes floating downriver. During the break-up, the islands are usually disconnected from the mainland. Dangerous levels of flooding have frequently prompted residents to be evacuated in freight canoes or be airlifted to urban centres further inland. In
1037-649: Is represented by the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), a political organization that advocates and provides services for 49 First Nations across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 territory. The NAN's headquarters are located in Thunder Bay . Fort Albany sits within the provincial electoral district Mushkegowuk—James Bay since its creation in 2018. At the federal level, Fort Albany is part of the Timmins—James Bay riding. The Canadian Armed Forces have
1098-493: Is situated on the south bank of the Albany river, near where it empties into James Bay. The community is made up of three sections: one on the mainland, one on Sinclair Island, and one on Andersen Island. The community also shares the Fort Albany 67 reserve on the north shore of the river with Kashechewan. Fort Albany has a subarctic climate ( Köppen Climate Classification Dfc ) with mild summers and severely cold winters. This
1159-575: Is the language of the Mushkegowuk. Children are taught in Cree and English at an early age. The community consists of quite a mixture of linguistics, with English, French , Cree , Ojibway , and Oji-Cree spoken. The two main forms of spirituality practised in Fort Albany are Christianity ( Roman Catholicism ) and Cree spirituality . The basic economy of the area is a subsistence allowance. There are seasonal jobs that involve construction work for
1220-656: The Kashechewan First Nation , which separated from Fort Albany starting in the late 1950s. Fort Albany First Nation is situated on Sinclair and Anderson Islands, as well as on the south shore on the mainland of the river. The Nation controls the Fort Albany Indian Settlement on the south shore of the Albany River, and the Kashechewan First Nation controls the Kashechewan Indian Settlement directly across
1281-568: The ocean ; and trout , smelt , striped bass and flounder in the estuaries and streams. Putting out to sea, they hunted whales , porpoises , walruses and seals . They gathered scallops , mussels , clams and crabs and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. From April through October, natives hunted migratory birds and their eggs: Canada geese , brant , mourning doves and others. In July and August they gathered strawberries , raspberries , blueberries and nuts. In September, they split into small groups and moved up
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#17327769069991342-527: The 1950s. All the post sites have disappeared and naturalized, leaving no trace of their former use. The Mushkegowuk or Swampy Cree had hunted, fished, gathered, and lived on the western shore of James Bay and in the Albany River watershed from time immemorial by the time the first Europeans arrived. They had shared the territory with other Algonquian peoples , including the Anishinaabe , that sharing being "conditional upon mutually satisfactory relations,
1403-639: The 1990s, the First Nation built dikes to guard against high waters caused by the break-up. In 2020, Fort Albany and Kashechewan began the "On the Land" program, an initiative to support community members to live on the land during the break-up, in order to wait out the rising waters. This initiative was born out of concerns about air travel arising from the COVID-19 pandemic , and had the added benefit of promoting traditional food harvesting, intergenerational knowledge sharing, and language education. According to
1464-431: The Albany River and held a signing ceremony at Fort Albany on August 3, 1905. Fort Albany was their fourth signing on the 1905 voyage. The expedition explained some aspects of the agreement to community representatives through interpreters, after which the representatives signed with their names or a cross. The community was then given a Union Jack , and cash gifts were offered to each community member, most receiving $ 8 and
1525-922: The Algonquian peoples is not known. At the time of the European arrival, the hegemonic Iroquois Confederacy , based in present-day New York and Pennsylvania , was regularly at war with their Algonquian neighbors. The Algonquian peoples include and have included historical populations in: Colonists in the Massachusetts Bay area first encountered the Wampanoag , Massachusett , Nipmuc , Pennacook , Penobscot , Passamaquoddy , and Quinnipiac . The Mohegan , Pequot , Pocumtuc , Podunk , Tunxis , and Narragansett were based in southern New England. The Abenaki were located in northern New England: present-day Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont in what became
1586-512: The Canadian acquisition of Rupert's Land, and the new railroad, Indigenous people living in the James Bay watershed faced many problems including declining animal resources, sickness , and trespassing European poachers and mining prospectors. In the late nineteenth century, the ancestors of the present-day Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations people established their first settlement in
1647-818: The Cross in 1902 at the site of the Fort Albany Mission on Albany Island. The school was part of the Canadian Indian residential school system . According to the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada , St. Anne's "was home to some of the most harrowing examples of abuse against Indigenous children in Canada." Students at the school came from First Nations around the James Bay region, including Fort Albany, Attawapiskat , Weenusk , Constance Lake , Moose Fort , and Fort Severn . The school
1708-768: The Illinois Country were the Shawnee , Illiniwek , Kickapoo , Menominee , Miami , Sauk and Meskwaki . The latter were also known as the Sac and Fox, and later known as the Meskwaki Indians, who lived throughout the present-day Midwest of the United States. During the nineteenth century, many Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River were displaced over great distances through
1769-610: The King had ordered a feast of tea and bannock. It is not clear whether the commissioners promised that the Crees' hunting and fishing rights would be unchanged, or that nobody would have to live on reserve, both of which were promised when the expedition reached Moose Factory and New Post. Following the explanation of the treaty, William Goodwin spoke on behalf of the community, and presented his message in Cree syllabics , expressing their thanks to
1830-490: The King. Part of Goodwin's message was reproduced in a 1906 magazine article by Scott. Following the signing and payment, a celebratory feast took place, medicine was offered, and the expedition moved on, travelling down the coast in York boats to Moose Factory. The text of Treaty 9 called for reserve lands to be set aside based on a proportion of 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometres) per family of five, as well as establishing
1891-507: The Treaty and its provisions" and the signing meeting included "[making] choice of Reserve." The third commissioner, a miner from Perth representing Ontario, explained in further detail in his journal what was discussed, namely the gift and annuity, that the King "wished to set aside a tract of land for their sole use and benefit upon wh[ich] no white man would be permitted to trespass," and that
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1952-624: The United States and eastern Quebec in what became Canada. They traded with French colonists who settled along the Atlantic coast and the Saint Lawrence River. The Mahican were located in western New England in the upper Hudson River Valley (around present-day Albany, New York). These groups cultivated crops, hunted, and fished. The Algonquians of New England such as the Piscataway (who spoke Eastern Algonquian ), practised
2013-641: The United States passage and enforcement of Indian removal legislation; they forced the people west of the Mississippi River to what they designated as Indian Territory . After the US extinguished Indian land claims, this area was admitted as the state of Oklahoma in the early 20th century. Ojibwe/Chippewa, Odawa , Potawatomi , and a variety of Cree groups lived in Upper Peninsula of Michigan , Western Ontario , Wisconsin , Minnesota , and
2074-478: The ability of LaBelle and the Bank of Nova Scotia to halt all business in the community for five days as an example of institutional racism . On July 2, 1996, Arthur Scott was elected to be the new chief of Fort Albany. Within a few months of Scott's election, a petition calling for his removal as chief was signed by 186 people, claiming that Scott was "arrogant and running the band undemocratically," including firing
2135-688: The area, known as Old Post. The site was occupied until the mid-1950s, when families were forced to relocate due to intense spring flooding of the area. In order to ensure the protection of their rights, as well as to halt the decline of the local beaver population, Indigenous leaders petitioned the Dominion government to make a treaty . They were asking for a treaty along the lines of the nearby Robinson Treaties of 1870 and Treaty 3 of 1873. At first, due to conflict over provincial boundaries, jurisdiction over natural resources, and how much responsibility province's had to pay treaty annuities, Canada ignored
2196-742: The assembly. Scott alleged that the band's finances had been mismanaged by the previous council, and claimed that the band's construction company was not owned by the band, but by its former manager. In 2007, mould, fungus, and dangerous toxins were found contaminating 26 recently-constructed houses, which caused residents to get sick. Deputy Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council Leo Friday and a local doctor offered building code violations, improper drainage, and faulty construction as possible causes. Commentators drew comparisons with similar problems faced by Kashechewan. In late April 2008, Fort Albany experienced its worst flood since 1985,
2257-480: The band council's website, the community has a population of around 1200, while the band consists of approximately 5000 band members, which are shared with Kashechewan First Nation. A majority of the residents surveyed for the 2021 Canadian census (420 of 775) reported speaking an Indigenous language to some degree at home, all but 75 of which also spoke English to some degree. 350 residents surveyed reported only speaking English at home. The Swampy Cree language
2318-746: The community. Since 2022, the government has followed a custom election code, after having used the method laid out in the Indian Act since 1909. The current chiefs and councillors are: The nation is part of the Mushkegowuk Council , a council of chiefs for eight Cree nations in Northern Ontario which coordinates the activities of its member nations. The head office of the Council is located in Moose Factory. Fort Albany
2379-534: The current site of Albany, New York, later known as Fort Albany [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fort_Albany&oldid=1216171478 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2440-529: The discovery of asbestos in the ceilings and walls. Ultimately, the minister's visit frustrated leaders in the region, since he did not commit to solutions for the problems they were presenting him with. A new school building finished construction in November 2001. In 1995, the band council's bank account was frozen for five days when M. J. LaBelle Co. Ltd. enforced a garnishment against the government for $ 60,000 of debt. Chief Edmund Metatawabin characterized
2501-404: The elected education committee one year before their mandate expired. On September 5, 95 members of the band held what they referred to as a "custom election", the likes of which had not been seen in Fort Albany in around three decades. The "custom election" elected Bernard Sutherland as chief. Scott refused to step down, and did not recognize the "custom election", turning down his own nomination at
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2562-486: The federal government, demanding new infrastructure, Indigenous rights , and self-government . The Grand Council of Treaty 9 was founded in February 1973 as an advocacy organization for First Nations governments party to Treaty 9. It later reorganized into the Nishnawbe Aski Nation . In 1958, sectarian violence erupted between Anglican and Roman Catholic families in Fort Albany, which led one Anglican family to leave
2623-448: The land. Since 1909, an elected band government has been in charge of the reserve. Following the split with Kashechewan in 1977, each community has had its own band council. Fort Albany's electoral system followed the Indian Act until 2022, when a custom election code was put in place. Fort Albany First Nation is governed by a band council, consisting of a chief, deputy chief, and seven councillors, all of whom are elected by members of
2684-536: The main population centre on the south shore and island that constituted the Old Post, and relocate to the north shore of the river. This site would become known as Kashechewan . In the following three years, most of the Anglican families of Fort Albany moved to the north shore. By 1960, the Department of Indian Affairs recognized the new community as independent, but Fort Albany and Kashechewan continued to share
2745-681: The major capital projects like the dyke, the new school, and the Mid Canada Line. There are the traditional economic activities like trapping, fishing and hunting. There are a small number of employment opportunities including the Fort Albany First Nation Administration office, Mundo Peetabeck Education authority, Peetabeck Health Services. Fort Albany Power Authority, James Bay General Hospital, Northern Store, Air Creebec, and other small private owned businesses. From August 4 to 6, 2005, Fort Albany hosted
2806-782: The region. By May 1905, Canada and Ontario were determining the terms of the written treaty. According to an exhibit by the Archives of Ontario, the Province's demands included "that no Indigenous reserves in the treaty territory would be located in areas with hydro-electricity development potential greater than 500 horsepower ." The Dominion and the Province agreed to the terms of Treaty No. 9 (also known as The James Bay Treaty ) in July 1905, without consulting any Indigenous peoples, who they then went to for ratification. The Treaty Expedition, which included Duncan Campbell Scott , traveled down
2867-503: The requests. Following a petition from local Indigenous leaders in summer 1901, the treaty-making process begun. Upon the discovery in 1904 of minerals in Northwestern Ontario, the creation of a treaty became more urgent for the government of Canada. In negotiations with the provincial government, they set about creating a treaty in order to secure the possibility of mining, timber, rail, and hydro-electric development in
2928-450: The result of ice floes breaking through the dikes constructed along the Albany River during the annual breakup. 334 people were evacuated to cities further south starting April 28, with around 300 more evacuated the following day out of a total population of around 900. Deputy Chief Andrew Linklater was disappointed by the federal government's delayed response. On October 28, 2011, alongside Kashechewan and Attawapiskat, Fort Albany declared
2989-415: The river. The First Nation is located near the former site of Fort Albany , one of the oldest Hudson's Bay Company trading posts, from which it gets its English name. The current community is not the site of the old post, which was re-located several times including on Anderson Island, Albany Island (c.1721) and a location just northeast of the current community. The last trading post was closed up around
3050-458: The same chief and council. In the 1977 they came to have separate band councils. Fort Albany and Kashechewan are treated as separate bands, and function as separate bands today. New Fort Albany is mostly a Roman Catholic community, while Kashechewan is mainly Anglican . In late 1994, Minister for Indian Affairs Ron Irwin visited Fort Albany, among other Western James Bay First Nations, on what independent magazine The Nation referred to as
3111-669: The same time that a new school building was completed to replace it. In the 1950s and 1960s, the fur trade era was coming to an end, and the Cree had begun to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. Around this time, the Old Post site was abandoned in favour of the current site of Fort Albany, on the eastern end of Sinclair Island. The federal government began to provide housing for Cree people who wanted to settle permanently at Fort Albany, and government transfer payments began, initially around $ 35 per year for most families. With increased community organization and concentrated resources, Indigenous people began more vocally to assert their rights to
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#17327769069993172-490: The school was transferred to the Fort Albany band council. In 1990, then-chief of Fort Albany Edmund Metatawabin set in motion a reunion conference about the abuses he and other residential school survivors had experienced at the school, which led a 5-year long investigation including 900 interviews, and finally to seven people being charged with criminal offences in the late 90s, with another former staff member charged in 2023. The school's rectory burned down in 2001, around
3233-445: The streams to the forest. There, they hunted beaver , caribou , moose and white-tailed deer . In December, when the snows began, the people created larger winter camps in sheltered locations, where they built or reconstructed longhouses. February and March were lean times. The tribes in southern New England and other northern latitudes had to rely on cached food. Northerners developed a practice of going hungry for several days at
3294-532: The summer. Around 1675, Charles Bayly , the first overseas governor of the Hudson's Bay Company explored the area around the mouth of the Albany river. In 1679, he established a trading post at the site, where the company traded goods with the Indigenous people of the area. During the ensuing centuries of the fur trade era, the Mushkegowuk did not sell or give away any land, but traded furs and goods with
3355-504: The third annual Creefest (Ininiw Maskoshewin), a Mushkegowuk Council-organized festival celebrating Cree culture. In 2021, former Chief Mike Metatawabin and Swiss musician Manuel Menrath [ de ] collaborated on a live online performance of Metatawabin's spoken word set to Menrath's music. The piece was titled "Songs of the Land: A Spoken Word Experience" and included themes of his experience at St. Anne's residential school and
3416-710: The time of the first European settlements in North America , Algonquian peoples resided in present-day Canada east of the Rocky Mountains , New England , New Jersey , southeastern New York , Delaware , and down the Atlantic Coast to the Upper South , and around the Great Lakes in present-day Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Michigan , Minnesota , and Wisconsin . The precise homeland of
3477-628: The traders at the posts, who numbered no more than a few dozen at a time. As of 1856, the Hudson's Bay Company estimated that there were 1,100 Indians living in the Albany District, which at the time included the trading posts of Fort Albany, Marten Falls , Osnaburg, and Lac Seul . The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, passing near the height of the land that defined the James and Hudson Bay watershed. Between Confederation ,
3538-483: The west coast of James Bay , Fort Albany First Nation is accessible only by air, water, or by winter road . The First Nation is a signatory of Treaty 9 , and is part of the Mushkegowuk Council , within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation . The community is policed by the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service , an Indigenous police service. It shares band members and the Fort Albany 67 Indian Reserve with
3599-518: The winter months, skidoos are the main transportation around the community. There are pick-up trucks, vans, and all-terrain vehicles owed by both businesses and individuals. The winter road was completed in the early spring of 1974. It is also used extensively during the winter months. This road is maintained by contractors. The road links all the surrounding communities, such as Attawapiskat , Moosonee , Moose Factory , and Kashechewan . Feasibility studies have recently been undertaken on construction of
3660-531: Was relocated to the north shore of the Albany River in 1932. It burned down in 1939 and was rebuilt. Once the Ste-Thérèse-de-l'Enfant-Jesus residential school in Chisasibi opened in the 1930s, children from Fort Albany also attended that school. The Government of Canada took over the management of St. Anne's in 1965, and took over the residence in 1970. In 1976, the residence stopped operating, and
3721-441: Was said to accept loads up to 50,000 kilograms in weight. The road is operated by Kimesskanemenow LP, "a limited partnership between the four communities it connects". Algonquian peoples Before contact with Europeans, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, with many of them supplementing their diet by cultivating corn , beans and squash (the " Three Sisters" ). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice . At
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