Nipissing Indian Reserve 10
Indian reserve in Ontario, Canada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nipissing Indian Reserve 10, commonly known as Nipissing 10, is an Indian reserve in Nipissing District, northeastern Ontario, Canada. It serves as the principal land base of the Nipissing First Nation, whose members are the Nbisiing Anishinaabeg, a community of Ojibwe and Algonquin descent who have lived in the Lake Nipissing watershed since time immemorial.[3][4] The reserve lies on the north shore of Lake Nipissing between the city of North Bay and the municipality of West Nipissing, approximately 320 km north of Toronto.[3]
Nipissing Indian Reserve 10
Nbisiing | |
|---|---|
Garden Village, the administrative seat of Nipissing 10 | |
  Nipissing Indian Reserve 10 Location in Ontario | |
| Coordinates: 46°22′N 79°46′W | |
| Country |  Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| District | Nipissing |
| First Nation | Nipissing First Nation |
| Treaty | Robinson–Huron Treaty, 1850 |
| Area | |
• Total | 210.07 km2 (81.11 sq mi) |
| • Land | 60.87 km2 (23.50 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[2] | |
• Total | 1,704 |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| Postal code FSA | P2B |
| Area code(s) | 705/249 |
The reserve was set apart under the Robinson–Huron Treaty of 1850, which the Nbisiing Anishinaabeg signed alongside twenty other Anishinaabe nations of the upper Lake Huron watershed.[5]
Geography
Nipissing 10 has a total area of 21,007.3 hectares (51,910 acres), reported by Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada,[1] of which Statistics Canada records 60.87 km2 as land, the remainder consisting of waters of Lake Nipissing within the reserve boundary.[2] Lake Nipissing drains westward via the French River into Georgian Bay.[4] Ontario Highway 17 traverses the reserve.[3]
The reserve comprises eleven communities, including Garden Village (the administrative seat), Beaucage, Jocko Point, Yellek, Duchesnay, Mosquito Creek, Paradise Point, Meadowside, Veteran's Lane, Beaucage Subdivision and Serenity Lane.[3] Garden Village is accessible via municipal streets in Sturgeon Falls; the remaining communities are reached directly from Highway 17.[3]
History
Archaeological evidence indicates Nbisiing Anishinaabeg occupation of the Lake Nipissing region for approximately 10,000 years.[3] The Nbisiing controlled portage routes between the Great Lakes and the Ottawa River watershed, which made them central to inland trade during the seventeenth-century North American fur trade.[4]
The lands constituting Nipissing 10 were set apart as a reserve through the Robinson–Huron Treaty, signed at Sault Ste. Marie on 9 September 1850 between William Benjamin Robinson, representing the Crown, and Anishinaabe chiefs from the north and east shores of Lake Huron.[6] Under the treaty's augmentation clause, annuities were to rise with revenues from resources extracted from the territory; the per-capita annuity was last increased in 1874 to $4 and remained unchanged for nearly 150 years.[6] In 2023, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the twenty-one Robinson–Huron First Nations, including the Nipissing First Nation, reached a $10 billion settlement of past annuities.[7]
In 2014, the Nipissing First Nation ratified the Gichi-Naaknigewin, reported as the first ratified constitution of an Anishinaabe First Nation in Ontario; it is intended to govern the First Nation in place of the Indian Act, although it has not been tested in court.[8]
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Nipissing 10 had a population of 1,704 living in 631 of its 720 total private dwellings, a 4.2% change from its 2016 population of 1,636.[2] With a land area of 60.87 km2, it had a population density of 28.0/km2 or 73/sq mi in 2021.[2]
The reserve population includes both registered members of the Nipissing First Nation and non-member residents, including individuals leasing land from the First Nation in the Beaucage and Jocko Point communities.[3] As of July 2022, the Nipissing First Nation reported a registered membership of 3,391, of whom 1,006 resided on-reserve.[3]
Governance
The reserve is governed by the elected council of the Nipissing First Nation under a custom electoral system, comprising a chief, a deputy chief, and six councillors.[4] The First Nation's administrative offices are located at Garden Village.[3] The Nipissing First Nation is a member of the Waabnoong Bemjiwang Association of First Nations, a regional chiefs' council, and of the Anishinabek Nation (Union of Ontario Indians).[4]