Antoine Nation

Anamikàge (Welcome)

We are the Antoine Nation. The Matawasìbi anìcenàbi (Mouth of the river people). We are an Algonquin people who have lived on this land from time immemorial. Our territory extends north, west, south and east from the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers including the northern portion of Algonquin Provincial Park where we have hunted, fished, harvested trees, plants, minerals and everything else the land has sustained us with since long before the first settlers set foot on the land that is now known as Canada.

Our distinct Anishinabek culture, language, values, governance and way of life continues to this day, led by our Chief and Council, and supported by all our Members both within and beyond our territory. Our Algonquin ancestry is well documented, and many of our Members hold status under the Indian Act. However, we never signed a treaty and never surrendered any of our Aboriginal rights to the Crown. As a result the Crown never formally established us as a Band with a Reserve under the Indian Act. We have had to fend for ourselves and make our own way, but have persevered in continuing the Antione Nation's unique identity as a proud independent rights-holding Indigenous people of Canada who have developed our economy and privately held lands.

We are one of the ten Algonquin “collectives” recognized as parties in the Algonquins of Ontario modern treaty negotiations together with the Governments of Canada and Ontario which have been continuing since the 1990s and in 2016 successfully negotiated an Agreement-in-Principle (AIP) where we are one of the signatories. The AIP once transformed into a Final Agreement and implemented by the Crown in Right of Canada, Crown in Right of Ontario and ten Algonquin collectives which form the Algonquin Nation in Ontario will guarantee us capital, lands, and governance jurisdiction all protected under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 so that our people may achieve reconciliation with the Crown, and exercise our Aboriginal rights and title through a modern treaty of mutual respect and recognition.

Even without an Algonquins of Ontario Treaty, we continue to hold and exercise Aboriginal rights including Aboriginal title under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 as one of the “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.”

We invite you to reach out to learn more about us, our way of life, and the contributions we have made over millennia as guardians of the land and all that it offers, keepers of traditional and cultural knowledge that we pass on to future generations, and as a bedrock of what made Canada what it is today.