Beausoleil Island National Historic Site of Canada

Beausoleil Island was designated a national historic site of Canada in 2009 because:

• it is representative of the cultural landscape of the Anishinaabeg of the southern Georgian Bay region, demonstrating the land's role as a place of memory, illustrating their people's relationship with the land, and recalling the Anishinaabe presence in Southern Ontario and their subsequent displacement;
• it is the setting for traditional narratives that record the island's creation and meaning. Many of the traditions associated with the island relate to women, including their use of Beausoleil for gathering berries and other plants, and for traditional ceremonies such as girlhood to womanhood transformation rituals; and,
• witness to a long history of settlement, the evolving landscape of the island includes evidence of ancient camps and of its brief period as a reserve in the mid 19th century when the Anishinaabeg struggled to find a new way to live that was compatible with their traditions and with the rapidly growing Euro-Canadian settlement surrounding them.

As a cultural landscape Beausoleil Island represents aspects of the relationship that evolved over the centuries between the Anishinaabeg of the southern Georgian Bay area and their ancestral territories. It is the setting of many Anishinaabe oral traditions and serves as a physical link to the resources, routines and ceremonies that reflect their traditional way of life and anchor their collective memory and culture.

Known to the Anishinaabeg as a “rocky place floating about the mouth of a river”, Beausoleil Island (1089 hectares) has been inhabited by humans on an irregular basis since the late Paleo-Indian period ca. 10400-9500 BP. Representative of the Anishinaabe presence in southern Ontario it is among the earliest sites of human occupation in the province. The island was well-known to Aboriginal peoples as a bad weather refuge and stopping place and supported two villages during the Reserve period (1838-1856). Chief John Assance led his people to Beausoleil Island after having ceded their lands at Coldwater. Assance’s band settled on the island`s leeward side at Cedar Spring. By 1844, there were 14 houses, a barn, one hundred cultivated acres and a cemetery. Assance had a small Roman Catholic Church constructed, and a schoolhouse was completed in 1847. YMCA Camp Kitchewa, the second Reserve period village to the north, comprised at least fifteen dwellings and perhaps a church. Poor soil and a relatively large population made long term settlement and attempts at agriculture in the European manner unsuccessful. Some moved to settle nearby Christian Island as early as 1844. By 1852 most of Assance’s band had followed. The Anishinaabeg who remained on Beausoleil Island established homesteads, mainly on the southeast of the island, and lived traditionally by fishing, hunting and gathering.