Introduction and Use Of This Guide

This is a guide to documents at the Archives of Ontario which are of special interest to aboriginal researchers and to those researching the history and society of Aboriginal peoples of Ontario. The Archives of Ontario also holds material relating to the Aboriginal peoples of Québec, and of Northern and Western Canada.

The terms "First Nation" and "Indian" in this Guide's explanatory text refer to "status" or "registered" Bands and people as defined by the various federal Indian Acts since 1850, and amended by Bill C-31 in June 1985. The terms "Aboriginal people" and "indigenous people" are meant to include First Nations, non-status native people, the Inuit, and the Métis. Though the Archives of Ontario holds records on all these groups, most of the Archives' holdings deal with Ontario First Nations and non-status indigenous populations. Be warned that these terms are not necessarily the same as those used by earlier writers. For example, a great number of the Archives' earlier government records and indexing systems applied the term "Indians" indiscriminately to all Aboriginal peoples.

• How To Use This Guide:
• The Content And Arrangement Of The Documents
• Access Restrictions

How To Use This Guide:

Decide on your subject and do your background (secondary) research. This guide is not the place to begin a research project. You should already have defined your basic topic, visited a library, and read the existing writings (secondary sources) to see what archival sources have already been discovered and used. Appendix B in this guide is a short list of useful reading material on Ontario First Nations history.

For general information about Aboriginal communities, you should first consult the Ontario political organization, tribal council, or First Nations local government representing communities in your research area. For "status" Indians, the Office of the Chiefs of Ontario (2d Floor, 22 College St., Toronto, N5G 1R2, tel. 416-972-0212) or for non-"status" natives, the Ontario Métis and Aboriginal Association (158 Sackville Road, Sault Ste. Marie, P6B 4T6, tel. 705-949-5161) can provide you with useful addresses; or contact the nearest office of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The Blue Pages in your telephone book will usually have their number.

Start with the Indian Affairs records. For most topics, the best place to start is in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development records (Record Group or RG 10) at the National Archives of Canada (395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N3, tel. 613-995-5138. Hereafter cited as NA). Only a small part of the Ontario portions of NA RG 10 are available on film at the Archives of Ontario. You can safely start at the Archives of Ontario only if you are researching very specific topics -- such as the provision of services to off-Reserve Aboriginal people in the 1970s and 1980s -- or if you are doing certain kinds of genealogical research. The Archives of Ontario has many genealogical records for Ontario Aboriginal groups which are unavailable in Ottawa.

Consult maps. Appendix A of this guide is a map of aboriginal reserves and communities in Ontario over the past two centuries. Appendix C is a list of the "official" names of federally-recognized Native communities in Ontario over the last 150 years. These items should be used with caution. Some boundaries are controversial, and many communities are poorly documented in the "official" records from which this was drawn.

Use the indexes. This guide has a detailed subject index and Table of Contents. The latter lists Archives of Ontario holdings in order of presentation. The Subject Index is a "way in" to each uniquely-numbered entry in the Guide.

Find the entries you need. Each entry in the guide has a unique number. Each includes a brief background statement, a summary of contents and suggestions for use. "Finding aids" are listed if available, such as card catalogues; inventories; box, file, or item lists; calendars; subject/name indexes; and other guides. If there is a microfilm copy of the records, it is listed. If there is a restriction on access or use of the records, it is noted.

The Content And Arrangement Of The Documents

General. The Archives of Ontario has a substantial number of records on aboriginal history, very widely scattered through the Archives' total holdings. Most of them relate to contacts between Indigenous and white groups from about the 1760s to the early 1980s. Most focus on what is now Ontario. However, a reasonable number -- for example, fur trade and missionary papers -- refer to Aboriginal people of Québec, other parts of Canada, and the United States. These records also yield most of the information on Inuit and Métis people. Items dated after 1960 refer to non-status Indian issues.

First Nations History and the Aboriginal Record. The first known ancestors of today's Aboriginal people probably arrived in what is now Ontario from other parts of North America, about 10,000 years ago, just after the last Ice Age. We have scientific evidence of their early history only through archaeology. More recently, tradition and literature have added a greater depth of understanding. However, the records in the Archives of Ontario were created almost entirely by non-natives who arrived in this region within the last 400 years.

Most of the Aboriginal peoples of Ontario since the 17th Century have belonged to two large language families and a large number of smaller groups. Here is a rough ethnic breakdown of the first peoples of Ontario:

1. Iroquoian family:Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora (forming the Six Nations); Huron-Wyandot; Petun or Tobacco; Neutral; and other small groups incorporated as allies of the Six Nations.
   
   
2. Algonquian family:Anishnabeg -- including the Ojibwa (sometimes called Chippewa), Odawa, Mississauga, Saulteaux, Algonquin, Nipissing, and Pottawatomi; Cree; Delaware; Shawnee; and other small groups incorporated as allies of the Six Nations.
   
   
3. Métis People of mixed aboriginal-white parentage, many of whom are descended from fur trade communities established in Ontario as early as the 18th Century.

Note, however, that not all these groupings are relevant to aboriginal communities today, as communities mingle and influence each other.

Territorial Jurisdiction: The Governments Which Created the "Official" Records. The earliest European incursions into Ontario came less than 400 years ago, with the arrival of explorers and missionaries. From the point of view of non-aboriginal governments, the territorial history of what is now Ontario falls into six chronological periods:

• Pre-Conquest period
  • Southern Ontario to height of land: controlled by New France (1630s-1760)
    
    
  • Northern Ontario: Rupert's Land, controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company territory (1670-1870)
    
    
• Canada (1760-1763)
• Québec (1763-1791)
• Upper Canada (1791-1841)
• Canada West (1841-1866), part of the united Province of Canada
• Ontario (1867 to present; Northern Ontario added in stages in 1874, 1889, and 1912).

The tenuous French régime over what is now Southern Ontario ended in 1760. After a brief period of military government, ending in 1763, the British brought the settlements along the Great Lakes into the new Province of Québec. Four administrative districts were established in 1788 in the "Upper Part of the Province"; they became the nucleus of the new Province of Upper Canada in 1791. Upper and Lower Canada (now Southern Quebec) were reunited in 1841 to form the Province of Canada for administrative purposes: they became "Canada West" (formerly Upper Canada) and "Canada East" (formerly Lower Canada). The creation and preservation of the records reflect these jurisdictional change. You will need to understand this progression to locate the information you need for research on this colonial period.

In 1867, Ontario took on its present administrative form as a province within the federation of Canada. Since then, it has expanded its boundaries substantially. (Consult the Historical Atlas of Canada or the National Atlas of Canada for details).

From the point of view of Aboriginal peoples, however, occupation of these lands was justified on a very different basis. Though formal treaties were signed between Native and non-Native authorities, these agreements are not necessarily interpreted by First Nations today as land-cession agreements. They fall roughly into three groups:

• 1780s-1867 :The Southern Ontario pre-Confederation treaties.
• 1850-1930 :The two Robinson Treaties, along the north shores of lakes Huron and Superior, and the post-Confederation "numbered" Treaties 3, 5 and 9, covering central and northern Ontario.
• 1923 :The Chippewa and Mississauga Treaties of 1923

Who Had Administrative Responsibility for Native-White Relations?. From 1760 to 1860, the British Imperial government remained responsible for relations with Aboriginal people. It expressed its central control over aboriginal policy through such tools as the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the early Treaties. Responsibility in this area was assigned to the highest Crown representatives: the military Commander-in-Chief and the civil Governor. Thus, Indian Department officials reported directly to the Crown's representative in Ontario -- the Governor-General or Lieutenant-Governor -- not to local politicians in the provincial Executive Council (Cabinet) or the Legislative Assembly. This changed radically in 1860, when the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs' duties were transferred to the office of the provincial Commissioner of Crown Lands. At Confederation, the British Parliament gave the new federal Canadian government (not the provinces), constitutional authority over "Indians and lands reserved for Indians".

How This Affects Research on Aboriginal History. These changes in jurisdiction directly affect archival research. After 1867, textual records at the Archives of Ontario -- particularly government documents -- deal for the most part with federal-provincial disputes over aboriginal access to lands and resources or with issues of culture, justice and social policy. Before Confederation, the situation is more complicated. Many documents in provincial custody -- such as those in the Crown Lands (RG 1) and Provincial Secretary (RG 8) records -- complement, supplement, or duplicate the original Department of Indian Affairs records (NA, RG 10) at the National Archives of Canada. In almost every investigation, researchers must combine federal sources in Ottawa (both National Archives holdings and the current records of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development) with those at the Archives of Ontario described here, for a complete picture.

The Record Group system: Be warned that both the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives of Canada arrange their holdings into Record Groups (RG codes, but are completely different collections. In this guide, the prefix "NA" appears before every National Archives of Canada citation to differentiate them (eg. NA RG 10, federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development) from those of the Archives of Ontario (eg. RG 10, Ontario Ministry of Health).

There Are Gaps in the Record. There are major gaps in some collections of government records. Researchers will find, for example, that the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (RG 1) has little before 1970 on First Nations hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering. This is in spite of the fact that the Province has directly regulated such activities since the early part of this century. Many of these documents were either lost or destroyed before they could be transferred to the Archives of Ontario.

The Records Present Only One Side of the Story. The records preserved at the Archives of Ontario are overwhelmingly those of the dominant society: government officials, soldiers, traders, missionaries, police. Apart from a small collection of "Band Council" records, few of these documents were generated by Aboriginal people themselves. Whatever their topic, you as a researcher should subject the documents you use to careful critical analysis, to overcome the inherent biases of this incomplete record.

Access Restrictions

Many of the records listed here are open and available for research. Others may not be available immediately, or in full, because they are restricted. Restrictions on access may be imposed by the donors of private papers, or (on government documents) by laws such as the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1987 (hereafter the FOI/P Act). Some records, particularly those on police and justice matters -- RG 4, RG 22, RG 23, and RG 33 -- were previously open but are now restricted; or the period for which they are closed has been extended. Others are restricted by special statutes or administrative procedures, such as the Ontario Mental Health Act.

If a record is listed as restricted it is not necessarily closed for good. In most cases you may ask for review of the records, or may contact the donor. This may take considerable time. However, the result is often that part or all of the closed records are opened to you.

Researchers should use the access statements in this Guide and in the individual Finding Aids only as starting points. Please consult the Archives of Ontario's Reference Archivists if you would like access to closed items, or for information on particular holdings.

How to Contact the Archives: Send your questions or comments about our services, reading room hours, etc., to: