Bushman and Dragonfly

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Author: Potts, Gary
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1998
• Subjects: History; Cultural Studies; Bear Island
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jcs.33.2.186; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jcs.33.2.186

For 25 years, Gary Potts was Chief of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai, the People of the Deep Water. In that capacity he led their on-going struggle to win back and protect their traditional homeland (N’Daki Menan) covering 10,000 square kilometres of the Temagami region. It was a campaign of roadblocks, negotiations and law cases that ultimately took the Teme-Augama Anishnabai’s historic claim to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1991. In 1988-89 the Teme-Augama Anishnabai blockaded construction of the Red Squirrel logging road asserting that the Teme-Augama Anishnabai still held legal title to their homeland. At one point, Camp Wanapitei was “occupied” with the enthusiastic co-operation of Bruce Hodgins as a site from which to organize volunteers participating in roadblocks to halt lumbering particularly in the old growth stands of the Waldmika triangle in the heart of N’Dald Menan. In 1996, Gaiy Potts returned to Wanapitei from his home on Bear Island on Lake Temagami, to participate in the Refiguring Wilderness Conference. His paper in this volume is, essentially, the talk he gave one evening with some small changes he made subsequently. It is a personal story of experience, of straggle and of the wisdom gained along the way. That wisdom he shares here with a wider audience. At the request of the author and the guest editors, the text remains untouched by JCS/REC editorial intervention.