The Onabigons gifted Sault a beaded medallion “for KEEPING PERCY’S REMAINS SAFE in her traditional territory for so many years.”
I commented to a friend that gee, it must have been a TON OF WORK for Chief Sault to keep that grave “safe” all those years! She’s only been chief (of the Mississaugas of the Credit River) since December 2023, and “her traditional territory” is also the traditional territory of a dozen other Mohawk “Nations” – and millions of Canadians.
So I ask: Where’s the Province of Ontario’s medallion for keeping Percy ALIVE for 20 years, marking and maintaining his grave for 59 years, and now paying for his exhumation?
No gratitude or acknowledgement there, just excoriation for “hid[ing] him until he died,” as Claire scolds.
Excellent article, Michelle. I’ve looked into the family history of the Nabigons/Onabigons, and indeed there were many deaths specifically attributed to TB, and many with no cause noted that may have also been attributable, in whole or in part, to TB. Percy had a great aunt and uncle who both died of TB within one week of each other, leaving several orphans who were then adopted by Percy’s great grandparents. Those grandparents eventually had 10 children from their own union and two or three each from their first marriages, their first spouses having been lost to TB. In many cases dates of death aren’t known because the people who might have otherwise recorded or remembered them were also ill or had died.
It's easy to forget nowadays that babies arrived about every 18 months to two years, regardless of parents’ health or means or support, often resulting in extremely large families (at least where mothers managed to survive through their full child-bearing years, or parents remarried).
Percy may have been “well cared for” as a child (according to the standards of the day, and according to Claire Onabigon), but the younger siblings just kept a-coming: four girls born in the decade after the twins. Percy’s mother’s date of death appears to be unknown, so it’s possible that she died while some of her children were still young. Percy’s father died at 66.
It’s also worth mentioning that the family descended from fairly elite lines of mixed-blood HBC managers and employees, many of them with some prominence in their communities, and some level of literacy. They appear to have been the ‘upwardly mobile’ of their reserves, and were voluntarily assimilating into white society, but the afflictions of the late 19th and early 20ieth centuries were equal-opportunity killers.
Life was very hard for people, like Percy and his family. Now, like flies on their sad corpses, many feed off their misery
Those who happened to watch the video in the most recent CBC piece about Percy might recall that one of the guests at the exhumation was a Six Nations chief, Claire Sault, who is filmed in the video saying, “Imagine how many more Percys there are.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/percy-onabigon-remains-repatriated-residental-school-1.7525722
The Onabigons gifted Sault a beaded medallion “for KEEPING PERCY’S REMAINS SAFE in her traditional territory for so many years.”
I commented to a friend that gee, it must have been a TON OF WORK for Chief Sault to keep that grave “safe” all those years! She’s only been chief (of the Mississaugas of the Credit River) since December 2023, and “her traditional territory” is also the traditional territory of a dozen other Mohawk “Nations” – and millions of Canadians.
So I ask: Where’s the Province of Ontario’s medallion for keeping Percy ALIVE for 20 years, marking and maintaining his grave for 59 years, and now paying for his exhumation?
No gratitude or acknowledgement there, just excoriation for “hid[ing] him until he died,” as Claire scolds.
Excellent article, Michelle. I’ve looked into the family history of the Nabigons/Onabigons, and indeed there were many deaths specifically attributed to TB, and many with no cause noted that may have also been attributable, in whole or in part, to TB. Percy had a great aunt and uncle who both died of TB within one week of each other, leaving several orphans who were then adopted by Percy’s great grandparents. Those grandparents eventually had 10 children from their own union and two or three each from their first marriages, their first spouses having been lost to TB. In many cases dates of death aren’t known because the people who might have otherwise recorded or remembered them were also ill or had died.
It's easy to forget nowadays that babies arrived about every 18 months to two years, regardless of parents’ health or means or support, often resulting in extremely large families (at least where mothers managed to survive through their full child-bearing years, or parents remarried).
Percy may have been “well cared for” as a child (according to the standards of the day, and according to Claire Onabigon), but the younger siblings just kept a-coming: four girls born in the decade after the twins. Percy’s mother’s date of death appears to be unknown, so it’s possible that she died while some of her children were still young. Percy’s father died at 66.
It’s also worth mentioning that the family descended from fairly elite lines of mixed-blood HBC managers and employees, many of them with some prominence in their communities, and some level of literacy. They appear to have been the ‘upwardly mobile’ of their reserves, and were voluntarily assimilating into white society, but the afflictions of the late 19th and early 20ieth centuries were equal-opportunity killers.
For more info on TB, pls read the excellent substack by Roman Bustrianyk, co author ofntge book, Dissolving Illusions..