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Reserve #39
In 1873, after many petitions, the 1745-acre Golden Lake Reserve, located at a Hudson Bay trading site on the Bonnechere River, was purchased from Ontario by Canada with our money.

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Golden Lake 1907 Postcard
1907
Pikwākanagān, ON

Credits:
Golden Lake, ON

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These reserve lands were vested with the Department of Indian Affairs in trust for us.

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Family Portrait
1890-1910
Pikwākanagān, ON

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This allowed us ‘certificates of possession’ and ‘transference between members’ rather than ownership, so we were never able to participate in the dominant culture’s system of finance whereby land can be used as collateral.

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Bernard House and Buck the Dog
1900s
Pikwākanagān, ON

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At the same time, our land around us was being given by free grant to white settlers by the government of Ontario. But it was illegal for us, as Indians, to get these free land grants.

Many of us stayed where our families had always lived in the valley, although that government
“encouraged” us to move to the reserve or we wouldn’t be recognized as Indians (by being
issued a ‘status card’).

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Matt Bernard Homestead
1900s
Pikwākanagān, ON

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Train Station Golden Lake Indian Reserve
Pikwākanagān, ON

Credits:
Golden Lake Book Store

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This process of counting, labeling, and branding us was an attempt to remove us from our ongoing relationship with the land and our traditional lifestyle of hunting,
fishing, gathering food and trapping, so that others could take our lands.

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Wild Rice Harvesting
1990s
Pikwākanagān, ON

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Canoing on Golden Lake
1940s-1960s
Pikwākanagān, ON

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The government had decided that we should become farmers,

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Anthony Bernard
1940-1950s
Pikwākanagān, ON

Credits:
Jill Closter