Wiikwemkoong First Nation

Wiikwemkong
Wiikwemkong Unceded Reserve
Welcome sign
Welcome sign
Nickname: 
Wiiki
Wiikwemkong is located in Southern Ontario
Wiikwemkong
Wiikwemkong
Coordinates: 45°42′N 81°43′W / 45.700°N 81.717°W / 45.700; -81.717
CountryCanada
ProvinceOntario
DistrictManitoulin
First NationWiikwemkoong
Government
 • TypeFirst Nation
 • ChiefTim Ominika
 • MPCarol Hughes (NDP)
 • MPPMichael Mantha (NDP)
Area
 • Land412.97 km2 (159.45 sq mi)
Population
 (2021)[1]
 • Total
8,431
 • Density6.3/km2 (16/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
Postal code span
P0P 2J0
Area code705
Websitewww.wiikwemkoong.ca

The Wiikwemkong First Nation is a First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. The Wiikwemkong Unceded Territory (nicknamed Wiky, previously named Wikwemikong) is the First Nation reserve in the northeast of Manitoulin Island in Manitoulin District, Ontario, Canada. Wiikwemkong is an unceded Indigenous reserve in Canada, which means that it has not "relinquished title to its land to the government by treaty or otherwise."

The local Ojibwe placename is wiikwemkong (Manitoulin dialect; notice the vowel dropping) with the locative -ong ('at') form of wiikwemik 'bay with a gently sloping bottom'.[2] The spelling Wikwemikong is from dialects spoken elsewhere (or in earlier times) that retain the i. The initial element wiikwe- occurs in other forms as 'bay'; the final element -mik cannot be for amik 'beaver' (its local form is mik), a folk etymology that violates the rules for Algonquian stem formation. It can be identified as a variant of the medial element aamik-, which appears, for example, in Southwestern Ojibwe minaamikaa 'there are breakers, shoals, banks (of sand or rocks)',[3] which has initial min- 'islandlike'. The presence or absence of aa- is found in several medial elements in Ojibwe and other Algonquian languages.[4]

The reserve's former name was Manitoulin Unceded Indian Reserve. The Wiikwemkong Band changed it on August 20, 1968, to Wikwemikong Unceded Indian people.

The reserve is occupied by Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples under the Council of Three Fires.

  1. ^ Branch, Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications (3 November 2008). "Home". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved 30 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Richard A. Rhodes: Eastern Ojibwa-Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary, 1985, p. 363.
  3. ^ Frederic Baraga 1880
  4. ^ Ives Goddard, pers. comm. to Carl Masthay, 2016.