Jeffrey Papatie, an Anishinabee from Lake Simon

Text & Photos : Ninka North

Lake Simon – originally named in original dialect “Cîcîp¹Sagahigancîcîp”², and – is located in the heart of a forested area in the Abiti-Temiscamingue Gold Valley.
The lake measures eighty kilometers in circumference and is a very popular resort site for its tourist activities.

Jeffrey Papatie and I had arranged to meet on its banks, and I have a few minutes before me to enjoy the panorama. At this early hour of the morning, the atmosphere

is magical; silence punctuated by bird calls and rustling trees, with the glint of the sun on the water…

Jeffrey came accompanied by Mikis and their son Jack. Mikis welcomes me with a smile. I recognize the features of the Atikamekws in her face, her eyes a little slanted, but especially this joy of living which characterizes them. Mikis is a native of Obedjiwan, the reserve located on the north shore of the Gouin reservoir, in Mauricie.

Simon is the name of the current chief of the Algonquin tribe, in the greater
Lake Victoria area“³.

In 1895, explorer Henry O’Sullivan, then Inspector of Surveys, attributed the name of the lake to Simon Papaté, son of the great chief of the Ottawas, who was a noted guide and canoeist. His name is also mentioned in the Bulletin des Recherches Historiques⁴ as Chief in the region of the Algonquin tribe of Great Lake Victoria.

The name Papatie⁵ ⁶means “woodpecker” in the original dialect. Jeffrey is one of his descendants. Born in Canandaigua, in the state of New-York⁷, like many Aboriginal people, he lived through the dark days of residential schools, an ordeal that left a deep impression on him and motivated him to follow in his tradition.
Jeffrey now works as a carpenter on building sites,

and is involved as a traditional dancer and lecturer to share his culture. We exchanged a few words and I learned that he and Mikis would be officially celebrating their marriage in two weeks’s time, which didn’t stop them from taking part in summer pow wows.

For the dancers, the perpetuation of tradition is a crucial element in their existence. In addition to the pow-wow circuit, both of them perform in schools to share life experiences that stem from it and to promote and promote their culture. In 2021, they appeared in the video of the rapper Samian, entitled “Genocide”.

Taking advantage of the beautiful light on the lake, I started photographing them. Jack got caught up in the camera for a few moments, but I had to stop the shoot in the next few minutes because we were all pressed for time.

On my side, the perspective of the road was dulling the present moment with shades of grey, similar to the clouds that had just appeared in the horizon line…

The Anishnaabe, past and present…

Anishnabee are an Aboriginal people from the Kichesipirini or Kichi Sipi Rini (People of the Great River) nation. Until the 17th century, their ancestral territory was located on Isle aux allumettes in the Outaouais, northwest of the city of Ottawa. Following a conflict within the Kitcisakik band, the group separated to reach Lake Simon.

Samuel de Champlain met the Algonquins during his voyage up the St. Lawrence River in 1603 at Tadoussac. Before the arrival of the whites, the Algonquins practiced bartering between tribes. Things became more difficult after the fur trade with the French, under the English regime.

It is the government of Alexander Mackenzie who instituted the Indian Act in 1876, under the pejorative term of “Indian Act”.
This act, which defined the status of the Indian, led to violations of the person and prejudices, among which the mention of “minor” in the eyes of the law, or the privilege

of exemption from taxes on the reserve, in spite of the misery, the loss of the ancestral way of life and the demarcation of hunting and fishing territories.

By being assimilated, the Anishinaabeg lost a traditional way of life closely linked to cultural transmission. Living from hunting, fishing, gathering and bartering, they moved to a sedentary life governed by the activities of the Whites.

As in other nations, the stigma of colonization is numerous: traces of cultural amnesia⁸generated by forced assimilation, loss of identity and culture associated with intergenerational traumas, social problems and housing shortages, to which can be added the transfer of land through abusive territorial treaties or the non-respect of established clauses: a phenomenon that is still underway under the pressure of governmental authorities and mining and forestry companies…

Spread over nine communities in Quebec, Anishinaabe are, along with the Outaouais and Obijwe, affiliated with the Anishinaabeg, literally the “real men”, or Omàmiwininiwak. They are fluent in English and have a long history of living in the region. They are fluent in English and French, but a minority still speak the original dialect, called Anicinapemiȣin or Anishinàbemiwinobijwe dialect.

Anishinaabeg have a great respect for the invisible world and creation. Many spirits, the “manitòk”, as well as totem animals are associated with the cosmogony of their respective communities. These include, of course, the bear⁹, the eagle¹⁰ , the wolf¹¹ , the crane¹², the loon¹³. Harmony and respect are key values in their spirituality. There are many holistic medicines such as medicine wheels, healing ceremonies and humor used as a way to

ward off misfortune and as a militant act. The Atikamekws also practice it commonly, as a medicine of life¹⁴. Cowrie shells are used in Ojibwe oral creation stories and Midewiwin practice, which includes dances, sacred songs and vision questing.

Despite assimilation, the practice of Midewiwin¹⁵ – a spiritual society founded by the Algonquins of the Upper Great Lakes – which is said to have been created by the Great Manitou, continues to this day.

The “hutte de sudation”, often referred to in English as the “Sweat Lodge”¹⁶, is still used for purification purposes to honour the Creator Gitche Manitou; a ritual that is believed to have lost its authenticity¹⁷.

Simosigan Reserve

Simosagigan is a reserve similar to most Aboriginal communities in Quebec, with its church at the crossroads of the streets that line it, its modern infrastructures such as the Amikobi elementary school and the Amik-Wiche high school, the band council offices, and its modest family homes that are always overcrowded. This is a common phenomenon, as all Aboriginal nations in Quebec have been experiencing constant population growth for several decades.

Newspaper clippings recount dramas and incidents over the years that look the same. Violence, suicides, alcohol consumption, drugs, post-traumatic stress of elders having known the residential schools, are the lot of these multigenerational families accustomed to be satisfied with little. With the exception of the highly

coveted positions in the band council’s administrative offices, jobs are scarce on the reserve.

As everywhere in these small communities, the majority of families continue to suffer from poverty. Employment remains scarce, despite the few jobs provided by a wood processing and construction company, and those provided by mining¹⁸ and tourism.

Today, the community, which acts in an eco-responsible manner, has recently expressed its concerns about the management of its territory in environmental matters, and is committed to enforcing its own limits in this regard.

“Burn the sage, may Gitche Manitou¹⁹hear your prayers!”

"We declare that we are deeply rooted in the same ancestral lands since Creation and that we derive our sustenance from its waters, animals, fish, birds, plants and natural resources ". 

The excerpt is from the declaration signed in May 2010²⁰https://territoireanishnabe.wordpress.com/declaration/by the Anishinabeg communities of Abitibiwinni, Eagle Village, Kitcisakik, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Lake Simon, Long Point and Wahgoshig. It exposes the values and principles of traditional Anishinabeg life.

The gift for future generations…

Anishinaabe occupy a territory located in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. Until now, they have never signed a a treaty, but the Algonquins of Ontario began a negotiation process in 2016 with the government²¹… These issues are particularly relevant as claims are springing up in the region, an event that is also affecting southern Quebec

These are questions that make sense at a time when claims are springing up like mushrooms in the region, an event that is also affecting southern Quebec .

“When the time comes for ‘consultations’, the decisions to grant operating permits have already been made,” writes Band Council member Lucien Wabanonik²²

in his brief on the state of relations between the Lac Simon Council and the Quebec government.

But it is important to know that these consultations, whether for mining or forestry, have no other outcome than agreements with Aboriginal nations, which gives them very little room to make decisions…

The future of the region? Tons of tailings and waste rock…
No need to worry?
On the contrary, because the power of the mines is very consequent if we refer to article 246²³of the Act respecting land use planning and development, which states :

"No provision of this Act, of a metropolitan plan, of an RCM plan, of an interim control by-law or resolution or of a zoning, subdivision or building by-law may have the effect of preventing the designation on a map of a claim, the exploration, research, development or exploitation of mineral substances made in accordance with the Mining Act, as well as the storage of gas made in accordance with the Act respecting the storage of natural gas and the natural gas and oil pipelines."

In 2023, like everywhere else in Quebec, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry promises “harmonious development of mining activity”²⁴ and numerous consultations in order to hear the population on the “claims” legislation, but not on the advance of the mining steamroller .

The Ontario company Minière 03 wants to develop a new open-pit gold mine open-pit gold mine in the heart of the Malartic gold mining camp, over a period of ten years, fifteen kilometers northwest of Val-d’Or²⁵; a region riddled with mines, already pointed out for the fragility of its fauna and flora by environmentalists. Val d’Or is only thirty-eight kilometers from Lac Simon, on a territory called Anichinabeg…

Six pits will be built for the intensive extraction of thousands of tons of ore every day; with the prospect of tons of mine tailings and mine waste rock (excavation waste, sludge made of dust, water and rock). The company plans to drill 24,800 meters in 2023.

This time too, as is customary, an environmental assessment and consultation tables will follow one another. But as we know, ecology is a secondary issue, without economic stakes. As for tourism, it will be able to use the future national parks, reduced but paying, and the promise of hunts for amateurs of trophies of a fauna in the process of extermination.