October 29, 2004 A trip to Temagami's Bear Island

The Temagami area is a vast and wondrous place with incredible landscapes on some 600,000 hectares comparable to the busy Algonquin Park.  With hundreds of lakes including Lake Temagami and about 1200 islands the sights are unlimited.  I have written about islands before in this space and jumped at the opportunity recently to travel to Bear Island in the heart of Lake Temagami. 

North Bay painter Arli Hoffman and Dermot Wilson director of the W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery are working on the development of a fascinating exhibition based on the early life of Archie Belaney whose Grey Owl evolution began there.  The project will focus on the life of Angele Egwuna, Archie’s first wife, and their daughter Agnes, their descendants and their lives with a native influence in a changing society.  Albert Lalonde, Agnes’ son and Angele and Archie Belaney’s grandson met us and showed us the sights. 

On a beautiful fall day we traveled from North Bay to the Mine Road 6km south of Temagami and headed west to Lake Temagami where Albert met us.  The Mine road was built as a service road for a large copper mine on Temagami Island in the 1950s and has been improved as an alternate route to the long channel trip by water from Temagami. 

Lake Temagami showing Bear Island and trip route.

We stopped first at Camp Wabikon, a large camp for young people on Temagami Island and spoke with the owner and toured the camp.  Archie Belany on one of his return trips to Temagami took his teenage daughter Agnes to the former Wabakon for a dance.  It was here that 37 year old Archie met Agnes’ acquaintance, the beautiful 19 year old Gertrude Bernard from Mattawa who was working there.  They eventually developed a relationship that changed Archie’s life to the brilliant actor, author and conservationist known as Grey Owl.  Gertrude became Anahareo and went on to a long career in conservation on her own and won an Order of Canada for her long career after Grey Owl’s death.  Their story was the primary focus of a 40 million dollar Hollywood movie in 1999. 

We stopped next at an old abandoned cemetery on the island with gravestones dating back into the 1800’s.  The cemetery is an indication of former life there when a Hudson Bay Post and other activity was centered there. 

From there we went to Chimo Island where Albert and his wife Jeanette have a camp that was originally Jeanette’s family homestead.  Her father Dennis Laronde was a remarkable man who built the log house we visited and with his wife raised 7 children there.  He helped build and operate the tourist camp Chimo a few hundred yards away and built some 50 beautiful stone fireplaces around the lake.  He was good at a variety of jobs including boat building and trapping and how to survive on an island and lived to age 89.  

The Lalondes have their own cottage there now too.  We returned to the log house later in the day to an excellent pickerel dinner with all the trimmings including bannock and talked about life in Temagami.  Albert who grew up in the area knows the lake like the back of his hand.  He took many trips to Bear Island to dances in his younger years, returning in the dark of night without a problem. 

Bear Island 

Bear Island which became a reserve for the Temagami First Nation in 1971 was a Hudsons Bay Post when Archie Belany arrived there at age 18 in 1906.  He emersed himself in the native way of life, learned to speak Ojibway and to hunt and trap.  He married Angele in 1910 at the Fire Rangers site on Bear Island where the Band Office is today.  Archie and Angele lived in a tent that winter and Agnes was born there. 

Bear Island is about 1.5km square as compared to the original 10,000 sq. kilometers the Teme-Augama Anishnabai people lived on over their 6,000 year existence in the area.  Each family had its own hunting grounds and the people lived full, happy and cooperative lives until non native people arrived.  In a future article I will look at the long and frustrating effort by the First Nations people to establish a co-existence and stewardship agreement which will recognize their past history in a tangible (land and compensation) way hopefully in the near future.

a) St. Ursala’s Church – Doug Mackey photo b) Baptism at church by Deacon Roy Ettles c) Trip companions leaving church after visit L-R: Albert Lalonde, Arli Hoffman, Dermot Wilson.  Doug Mackey photo

Bear Island has a small village with about 30 houses and has hydro and its own water supply.  It also has a store, school, church, band office, police station, women’s shelter, and several businesses.  Some people live elsewhere on the island.  In the past there were successful hotels and a longstanding Hudson Bay Post store.  The problem of winter isolation has been dealt with by a winter road across the ice and almost every home has a car.  In the period at freeze up and break up an air car is available for transportation.  Many Bear Island people live off the reserve and several come to work at the reserve. 

While I talked to Doug McKenzie the Negotiation Team Leader Arli & Dermot talked to well known artist (and Chief of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai) Lindsay Cote about his art work.  We also visited Hugh McKenzie at his studio and sales outlet.  An exhibition of the work of Lindsay and Hugh was discussed. 

We also visited the beautiful St. Ursala’s Catholic Church, the centre of a lot of spiritual activity for the surrounding area.  By coincidence a request by a reader for information on a book by Roy Ettles a R.C. Church Deacon led me to meet Roy and learn that he assisted at St. Ursala’s for several years and had written about his experience in the book.  Some of my questions about getting back and forth to the island were answered with interesting stories of helicopter, snowmobile and truck rides there for Chistmas Eve Masses etc. 

Also of interest was an article on the internet by Carrie Richmond (who writes for the Nugget) from Highgrader Magazine (M.P. Charlie Angus’ publication).  Carrie writes about living for years as a child on a small island south of Bear Island and going to school on Bear Island often walking across the ice.  See http://www.grievousangels.com/highgrader/2003/island.html

Local people visit the island regularly and the photo shows Roy Ettles performing a baptism for a couple living nearby.  All in all a pleasant and informative day.