Whitesand First Nation

The Whitesand First Nation (Severn Ojibwa: ᐗᐱᓀᑲ)^[1] is an Ojibway First Nation reserve in Northern Ontario, Canada. They have reserved for themselves the 249-hectare (615-acre) Whitesand reserve. The community of Armstrong Settlement is their main community, located coterminously with Armstrong, Thunder Bay District, Ontario. In June 2008, their total registered population was 1,086 people, of which their on-reserve population was 311.

Originally located along the northwest shore of Lake Nipigon near Mount St. John, and near the Whitesand River which gives name to the group, Whitesand First Nation was without a home from 1942 when high water levels began eroding the shoreline and flooding out their buildings and burial grounds. Due to the economic influence of the Canadian National Railway, many Whitesand First Nation members settled along the CNR rail line. Largest of these settlements took place in Armstrong. Consequently, when a new Reserve was negotiated, it was located immediately north of that community.

Whitesand is policed by the OPP an agreement made between chief and council and OPP (OPP: Ontario Provincial Police)