This book examines the careers of the Ojibwa chief Shingwaukonse, also known as Little Pine, and of two of his sons, Ogista and Buhkwujjenene, at Garden River near Sault Ste Marie. Theirs was a period in which the Great Lakes Ojibwa faced formidable challenges from entrepreneurs, missionaries, and bureaucrats, as well as from new policies set by the Canadian state. Shingwaukonse sought to establish links with the new government agencies, to preserve an environment in which Native cultural values and organizational structures could survive, and to devise strategies to enable the formation of band governments capable of assuming a degree of proprietorship over the resources on Native land.

Using an impressive array of evidence from a huge range of government, church, manuscript, and oral sources, Chute reconstructs a period of energetic and sometimes effective Aboriginal resistance to pressures visited on the community. She demonstrates that Shingwaukonse and his sons were vigilant in their attempts to maximize the autonomy and security of the Garden River Ojibwa even while many other parties insisted on their assimilation.

The Legacy of Shingwaukonse contributes greatly to anthropological debates about Ojibwa leadership and to a historical understanding of the relationship between Native peoples and newcomers throughout the nineteenth century.

Janet E. Chute is the principal investigator in a biographical project which led to the research, writing, and compilation of a series of entries on Mi’kmaw figures of historic note.

Janet E. Chute's profile page