Toronto Chapter Meeting

Champlain and the Petun
by Charlie Garrad

Charles has studied the Petun Indian occupation of the Blue Mountains near Collingwood for more than 50 years. April 2016 marks his 50th anniversary as a member of the OAS of which he served as President, Executive‐Director, and Librarian. His developing expertise on the Petun received major recognition when he was invited by the Smithsonian Institution to contribute to their Handbook of Indians of North America series. In 1975, he made the first of a number of journeys to Oklahoma to address the Wyandotte Tribe, whom he identified as the descendants of the Ontario Petun. He was adopted and given written permission of the Tribe to investigate their ancestral remains in Ontario. In 1999, he and his wife Ella were adopted into the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, also descended from the Ontario Petun. A summary of part of his work was published by the Canadian Museum of History in 2014.

Charles feels that the long‐term effects of Champlain’s failed expedition west to the Petun in January 1616, which last until today, are insufficiently appreciated. He intends to rectify this.