Monday, July 26, 2010

about Champlain and Cahiague

From David Lamb:

Hi Bill,
Hope you are enjoying this fantastic summer!
I came across a book entitled Canadian Men of Action – CHAMPLAIN by Robert Flenley 1924 I was surprised to observe the inside map indicating the village of Cahiague’ being on the South West side of Lake Simcoe.

Page 60 of same, the writer indicates the village of Cahiague’ being on the South West side of Lake Simcoe. see attached copies.

This is right on my back door, I can only surmise that the group are aware of this information including archaeologists past and present.

This information is entirely new to me, so before I go trudging through the back forty looking for evidence or should I treat this as hogwash and get back to my wall papering laundry and washing dishes.

I would be interested if any one has a brief explanation of the observance as printed in 1924 and validity to a large native habitation at this locale.

After perusing Google Earth, maps, road travel and boating throughout the area, observance of the rich land, close proximity to the lake and exit and egress via the Holland River I cannot help think a large population lived here.

Perhaps this could be shared with other members for their point of view; then again, if I were to be informed to continue with my laundry, washing, etc I would consider this my answer.

Have a great day
Dave





Sunday, July 11, 2010

summer hiatus for weekly study group (Wednesday nights)

  • There will be no weekly study group from July 14th until August 18th.
  • The next weekly study group will occur on August 25th
  • The Huronia Chapter OAS weekly informal study group meets at 7:30 PM on Wednesdays at the Tim Horton's location on Hwy 12 west of King Street in Midland, this is opposite Boston Pizza in the large mall that also contains Walmart.

Friday, July 09, 2010

July Chapter Meeting Report

Houston, we had a problem.

Somehow a communications problem and heat wave brain cramp or an alien abduction prevented Jamie Hunter from appearing for our meeting last night at the Huronia Museum.  Without keys and a security code we could not get inside the building.  So we had a field meeting in front of the museum on a couple of picnic tables.

Marg Raynor is on the right taking minutes on her laptop.  The battery cooperated.
We dodged the forecasted thunderstorm and the mosquitoes didn't show up until just after 9 pm when the meeting was quickly adjourned to save our lives. Nine people fed mosquitoes at the meeting.

Chapter member David Lamb brought some items to show chapter members.  He has been studying how First Nations people turned simple metal files, trade goods from the Northwest Fur Company, into crooked knives.  He brought along a simple 8 inch flat file, the starting point so to speak, and then showed several crooked knives he had made using the traditonal methods.


The next photo shows the detail of the copper wire part of the handle.


The last photo shows another knife and a sheath.

A big thank you to David, thanks for bringing along your work and it was truly fascinating to hold and examine these reproductions made with traditional methods. He is also working on building his own birch bark canoe. More about that in the future as he gets further along with that undertaking.

(I must say the outdoor natural light made the photography dead easy. Not sure if we can hold outdoor meetings in February.)

The other main part of the meeting was to review how the chapter's "poster" presentation will be arranged for the September symposium. The presentation will show the work done by the Chapter to establish the correct location of the Huron village of Cahiague that Champlain visted in 1615-1616.