Omemee First Nation Culture

Trent University, and the surrounding area of Peterborough, Ontario, is home to a very diverse cultural heritage. Located 25 km outside of Peterborough is the Village of Omemee, home to 1100. This is my hometown and homeland. Omemee is settled on a intersection where the Pigeon River meets the Trans-Canada Highway, originally making expansion and transportation, easy via road or waterway. The communities first name was decided from our towns decommissioned paper mill owner, William Cottingham and inherently named the village Williamstown. After this, it was renamed Metcalfe because of the thriving cattle industry rising in the areas surrounding Omemee such as Downeyville, Reaboro, Dunsford, and Bethany. It was a short time before the community

The Pigeon River was a strong source of travel for the local First Nations, in the sense that the river provided a easy route to hunting areas in order for survival within the aboriginal community. The local First Nations presence were men and women of the Mississauga First Nation Culture which is a sub-tribe of the Anishinaabe speaking First Nations peoples which was predominantly located in southern Ontario. These people had such a large impact on the area where Omemee is located, that the word of Omemee is a Mississauga First Nations word for Pigeon, based on the local river and lake that was a main source of life for these people and the new settlers. (2) Until the 1700s roughly, the Iroquois predominantly ruled the area unopposed, where Omemee is located known as the Kawartha Lakes and Victoria County. By the 1700s the Mississauga and other First Nations tribes were at war with the Iroquois around Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay area, looking for new hunting grounds that existed in the Kawarthas.(4) Eventually the fighting stopped and the Mississauga people settled in the Omemee area. At this time the Mississauga’s were neutral in the French and British war before it concluded in 1763 where Canada became a British colony under the Queen. Much like their close cultural relatives the Algonquians, the Mississauga’s were a primitive culture with a low settled

Because of this The Great Mystery (Kitchi-Manitou) formed the great flood that covered the entire land that Mother Earth has in water which destroyed all living man and most of the animals. Only the central figure (Nanaboozhoo) floated on a log looking for land with few birds and animals flying and swimming around them. Nanaboozhoo allowed for the birds and other animals to come aboard their log to rest. Nanaboozhoo decided to dive into the water and grab some earth from the bottom and bring it back so they can make a new land to live on. After being underwater for a long time Nanaboozhoo surfaced with no earth. Next, the Loon (Mahng) went under the water to try and find earth, but like Nanaboozhoo also was unsuccessful in their dive. Next was the hell-diver (Zhing-gi-biss) dove expecting to be able to make it, but after a while he too surfaced with no earth in his possession. Many more animals dove down but failed including the Mink (Zhon-gwayzh) and also the turtle (Zhee-kay). Then came the Muskrat (Wa-zhushk), who stepped forward and said “I’ll try”. When he said this all the other animals began to laugh and point out he is the biggest of them all and will not be able to. Finally he dove down, he was gone much longer than the others and was thought to be dead but far below the waters surface Wa-zhushk had reached the earth. With