In search of the Indians

Both my sister and I have much sympathy for the Native People of America, so we really wanted to see what is left of those great nations that once roamed the country we were going to visit. Of course these days, it's difficult to find places that look like the images you know from books, movies and television as, they sadly no longer exist.

However, we decided to visit the Wendeka site. The Wendeka are Huron people who used to live near the Great Lakes but fled after long disputes with the Iroquois and moved more north near Quebec. The site itself is located within their reserve. Now the reserve is nothing more than a neighbourhood of a big city. The only thing that reminds you of being in a different place is that all sings are written in French and in Huron. A stop sign say: 'Arret/Seten' for instance. BUt apart from that, you just feel like you are driving in the outskirts of a big city. Outskirts sound a bit negative and, truth be told, it's not like you will find huge villas there. It's not a trailer park either, just a normal neighbourhood.

The site itself is VERY touristy, but I would still recommend people to go there. you can skip the dance performance, as that is really full of shit. One of the dancers looked whiter than me and looked as if she was a student at a dance school doing these native american performances as a summer job. But the guided tour was excellent. Our guide wasn't huron but part Algonquin. More info about that later. She was fun! The site is a remake of a village and shows a long house (storage room), tipi's, sjaman tents, etc... The information the guide gave us was informative and fun and she could answer all my questions. I do pay more attention to tour guides lately. DOn't know why.

Anyways: brief summary of the Indian tribes in Ontario/Quebec. Basically you have the more tranquil Huron people who liked trading with the French. And then there are the Iroquois and the Mohawks who were more fierce and started wars against the Hurons and the French/British. They are all part of a larger group called the Algonquin after the language they spoke. There's more of course, but those are the names we most frequently encountered. We didn't go up north in Quebec, so we didn't see any inuit people. You don't really SEE who's indian and who isn't, as most of them have mixed with the rest of the Canadians.

We also went to Point Blue near Lac St Jean, but there was nothing to see there. The museum looked desolate, the guy at the tourist info was not in the least interested in giving us info (he wasn't even a Native American). The village looked depressing and we couldn't help thinking that these reserves are worse off than the rest of the Province. When we saw the Mohawk information center in Ontario, we didn't even bother to stop.

In the early '90s there was a Mohawk community near Montreal protesting against developpers of a golf course who wanted to ruin their holy land. They made a documentary about it and it was something that I was really interested about. We didn't go to that place, because, well, there's nothing to see there. But I tought this whole fight of the Native Americans for recognition was great. The strange thing is that the mohawks in that documentary, of which i saw some part at the Muséé de Civilisation in Quebec, were looking nothing like the image we have of Native people. They just look so european.

Funnily enough, there was a similar protest going on in Ontario when we were there. We actually drove by the Six Nation REserve; of which a lot of people are protesting against real estate developpers. Pretty heavy protest. I like that. It made headlines every day because, surprise suprise, the judge who had to decide on what to do with the protesters had a share in the new building project.

We never hear about this in the news in Europe. You just think Native Canadians live in peace with the rest of the country, but they don't.

THere are two museums that give excellent background information about the First Peoples culture and history. The musée de civilisation in Quebec and the one in Hull, on the other side of the river of Ottawa.