In 1830, Sir John Colborne, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (1828-1836), settled several nomadic bands of Indians on a reserve stretching along the portage between the Atherley Narrows and Georgian Bay. They were placed under the superintendency of Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson. The Ojibwa (Chippewa) tribe, led by Chief William Yellowhead (Musquakie), were located at the Atherley Narrows. Pressure on the government by land-hungry white settlers forced the Indians, in 1836, to relinquish their holdings, and Yellowhead's band was moved to Rama in 1838-39, where they purchased 1,600 acres. By 1846, they had 300 acres under cultivation and their settlement contained twenty houses, four barns and a school house.

Location

On the grounds of the United Church, Rama Road, Mnjikaning [Rama] First Nation, on the east shore of Lake Couchiching, north of Atherley

Themes

• Agriculture
• Communities
• First Nations