Families & Doodemnaan (Clans)

Here we see a list of families who were present for the distribution of presents at Holland Landing, October 1818.

“Presents” were essential goods, given out by the Crown. The annual “distribution of presents”, which normally took place in Manitoulin or Holland Landing throughout history, was the Crown’s interpretation of traditional gift-giving. As the Crown attempted to understand Indigenous customs and protocol, they learned to utilize our ways to further their own goals. For example, for a long time, our ancestors were given guns and ammunition at gift-giving. However, the Crown grew wary of arming our ancestors in case of rebellion or worse, taking up arms for gchi-mookmaan (“big knife” aka America). Thus, they stopped handing out guns and ammunition, which were regularly used for hunting, in order to alleviate their worries about safety and security.

Although the old script in the documents may be difficult to read, it contains some fascinating information. From left to right, we see the family name; the family clan (listed under “tribe”); and then how many men, women, boys, girls and total household members are present. Clans represented were catfish, pike, otter, caribou, bark, oak, crane, hawk, and even peacock. Some of the names are still found in our area today and of course we can recognize the clans too.

This document was originally shared with Rama First Nation by researcher Laurie Leclair. Gchi miigwech to Laurie for finding and sharing this important piece of our history.