By Jeff Tribe

 

Nahneebahweequay’s life exemplifies the nuanced complexity of combined Indigenous/colonial history, and the importance of recording and recognizing it along the path to truth and reconciliation.
“We should know her story,” said Sim Salata, Curator Grey Roots Museum and Archives. “She should be part of the history of the province.”
A remarkable individual living in a challenging time for Indigenous people, Nahneebahweequay translates as “Upright Woman” in Ojibwe. She was also known by her Christian moniker of Catherine or Catharine Sutton.
Broadly, compiling information from the Grey Roots Museum and Archives and the Government of Canada National Historic Person website, she was born around 1824 at the Credit River Village, now in Oakville. Educated to read, write and speak both English and her native Anishnaabemowin, she was raised as a Christian through the influence of her Methodist preacher uncle Kahkewaquonaby (Sacred Feathers, Peter Jones). As a child, Nahneebahweequay accompanied him on a formative trip to England to petition the British Crown for First Nations land rights, a journey she would replicate as an adult.
Nahneebahweequay met her future husband William Sutton through Kahkewaquonaby. When the Credit band was moved off its traditional lands to resettle at New Credit (adjacent to Six Nations, near Brantford) in 1846, the Suttons were one of a few families to instead accept the Nawash band’s offer of land near Owen Sound. The family was recorded as living in the future Sarawak Township in the 1851 census, on 200 acres for which the band provided title.
The Suttons were occupied as missionaries and farming instructors near Sault Ste. Marie and in Michigan during the development and signing of Treaty 82, which surrendered Grey County Nawash lands in 1857 under subsequently contested circumstances.
Nahneebahweequay would battle against the terms and methods of 1850s treaties for the remainder of her life. Specifically for what had been her family’s 200 acres, she attended an auction to “buy back” the property. Initially successful, the purchase was rescinded citing a rule preventing the sale of the land to First Nations persons. 
Ironically, Nahneebahweequay had also lost her First Nations’ status and annual annuity by marrying a non-Indigenous (white) person, a double-barreled Catch-22.
Her fight against injustice included, along with David Sawyer and Abner Elliott, petitioning The Legislative Assembly of Canada for title or fair compensation for their lands. Her portion of an 1858 petition documented on the Grey Roots website (greyroots.ca) refers to an expenditure of “more than $1,000” and “many years of hard toil” resulting in the erection of a “commodious house”, barn, stables and extensive clearing, bringing 40 or 50 acres into a “good state of cultivation.”
Nahneebahweequay’s quest would also include an audience with the Duke of Newcastle, September 11, 1860 at Canada House (The Duke was on a goodwill tour of Canada with Prince Albert, the future King Edward VII of England), and a royal audience with the prince’s mother Queen Victoria after a cross-Atlantic voyage, funded in part by members of the Quaker church.
Nahneebahweequay was pregnant with the couple’s sixth of eight children at the time, marvels Salata, giving birth while in England.
“I would say she was a pretty strong woman, that’s for sure,” Salata understated.
Nahneebahweequay’s activism for herself and other First Nations people continued until her September 25, 1865 death. In correspondence amounting to a eulogy, her husband William described her as kind to all, a special friend to the poor and suffering, and a favourite among all classes of people, both white and Indigenous.
Title would eventually be gained to their 200 acres, although only in William’s name, and that after her death, says Salata. “Which is a terrible thing.”
Located outside Owen Sound, Grey Roots is home to around 40 donated personal items owned by a woman some affectionately refer to as “Nahnee”, including her wedding ring, a doeskin children’s moccasin, raccoon bone awl and garters in which her full name is spelled out.
“Her handiwork is incredible,” said Salata.
The archives also holds correspondence from or relating to Nahneebahweequay, both originals embedded within William’s farm records and transcripts bringing her powerful voice to light, 175 years later.
There is significant interest in her story, says Salata, including the suggestion it should be included in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, as well as Nahneebahweequay’s National Historic Person designation by Parks Canada in April, 2021.
“I think people recognize she is something else.”
Obtusely perhaps and yet fittingly, an impressive eight-foot copper sculpture rep-resenting Nahneebahweequay stands inside the University of Guelph Arboretum Centre, staring outward to an aluminum companion sculpture of ‘Queen Victoria’ (currently off-site for repairs). The donated sculptures were placed in 2001 in conjunction with the Art Gallery of Guelph, separated by a water feature symbolically representative of the Atlantic Ocean.        Nahneebahweequay’s statue is “imposing,” said Arboretum volunteer Janet Scott, befitting a “forceful, well-educated woman” who had eight children around the challenging combination of homesteading and missionary work.
“Life was probably not very easy.”
The sculptures are the work of London artist Tom Benner, said Scott, emerging from a regional movement supporting a combined narrative around people’s rights and the environment.
“This brought both of these things together,” said Arboretum Director Justine Richardson.
The Arboretum, a living research laboratory for Ontario native trees, has 12 kilometres of shaded pathways including an Indigenous trail added a couple of years ago by a First Nations student at the university, featuring four interpretive stops. The statues have accompanying signage offering an opportunity to learn more of Nahneebahweequay’s story.
“It’s really important we have truth and work toward reconciliation and serve that role here,” said Richardson.
Nahneebahweequay’s legacy also helped inspire and continues to shape The Moccasin Identifier initiative (https://moccasinidentifier.com), a dynamic effort to preserve and highlight Indigenous history before its physical connection to the land is lost. First Nations historian and activist Carolyn King was the first female elected chief of the Mississaguas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN), is a member of the Order of Canada and her own nation’s equivalent, recipient of the eagle feather. Speaking at the annual 2011 MCFN historical presentation specifically to Nahneebahweequay’s property with regards to a “digital dot” program virtually marking sites of Indigenous significance, King was challenged with the preference for a universally-recognizable physical symbol.
Under tight deadlines prior to an Ontario Heritage Trust meeting the following week, King considered and rejected the eagle feather and (clan) dodems as too sacred, before arriving at the moccasin’s literal physical connection.
Four designs representing Ontario’s major Indigenous linguistic groups (Cree, Wendat, Seneca and Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe) were developed, forming the basis for installations and an educational program which has been embraced within schools, communities and corporate environments. What began as a regional initiative has expanded to provincial and national scope.
“We call ‘Nahnee’ our inspiration,” said King, noting her struggle is representative of broader First Nations challenges through a multi-generational fight for recognition, respect and being honoured for who they are and who they were, as well as access and ownership to the land in the colonial context of “surveyor’s lines on the land.” 
“She really tells our story.”
King’s approach has always been “non-threatening”, shared under-standing and respect between nations on both sides of treaties through what she terms “Indigenous 101” education. 
“It’s our story but it’s also everyone’s story. We say we are all treaty people.”
There has been consistent messaging through the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous People, the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People and most recently, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which also significantly included 94 calls to action.
“You can question when does it hit the ground?” said King.
King remains optimistic progress has been made, tragically driven in part by the discovery of massed children’s graves at the former Kamloops residential school site.
“But we have to tell our story and be out there.”
She believes Nahneebah-weequay’s story will be instrumental as The Moccasin Identifier initiative moves forward. Her courage in writing and speaking out also provides inspiration for seeking meaningful progress amongst what can be tough audiences.
“The fight for equality, existence, recognition as a people,” King summed up in conclusion. “She laid the groundwork for what we are trying to do.” ◊