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Mnjikaning is a word in Ojibway, the
language of the Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation. It has several
interpretations, but is usually taken to mean “fish fence”.
At least as early as
5,000 years
ago, Aboriginal fishers drove alignments of wooden stakes, called weirs,
into the bottom of the Narrows at Atherley, the channel between Lake
Simcoe and Lake Couchiching at Orillia, Ontario. The early fishers who put
them in place wove brush or other vegetation among the stakes to form
a complex of fences that guided fish into accessible
areas where they could be speared or netted, or kept alive for later use.
These weirs were an extremely efficient food-gathering technology.
Today, such wooden weirs are rare. Though remains of stone fish weirs can
still be seen in British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and
Northern Canada, the wooden weirs of Mnjikaning are the only ones known in
Canada.
The Chippewas of Mnjikaning First Nation value their traditional role as
stewards of the weirs. Many hundreds of years ago, their oral history
tells us, the Anishinaabe people’s nomadic ancestors visited the area
during a long migration from the Atlantic coast and learned the weir
operation from the Huron people. Later the Anishinaabe people returned to
settle here and assume the management of the weirs.
The Chippewas
of Mnjikaning First Nation are
celebrated
and revered by other Aboriginal people in different parts of North
America for their important stewardship role.
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