Rediscovering The Brothers islands

In the Kennebecasis Bay, just north of Saint John, three small islands make up what are known as The Brothers, the only reserve land in the southern part of New Brunswick.

Some believe that the three islands may be an important key to the Wolastoqiyik reasserting their rights over the land and could play a role to strengthen a recently filed title claim to the Wolastoq, its lands and watersheds.

"I feel very strongly that it is an important component of the title case," said Patrick Polchies, a council member of Kingsclear First Nation.

"If we really think about the title claim, for instance, we need to express our territory, I think sometimes by occupation. And even if it's seasonal, it's important. We need to get out to these places and make sure that people understand that it is within living memory of coming to this region."

Brothers Islands: Unearthing the significance of 'Indian Reserve No. 18'

4 years ago

Duration 14:44

The Wolastoqey Nation takes renewed interest in three Saint John-area islands known as "The Brothers Indian Reserve No. 18," where the Kennebecasis joins the Wolastoq.

Little is known today about the islands and their history, though a handful of people have memories of visiting them when they were young.

Wayne Brooks remembers visiting The Brothers as a youth in the 1970s on camping trips organized by his father and Harold Sappier, the late chief of St. Mary's First Nation.

"Well, back in the day, like, my dad would always talk about it, and Harold," Brooks recalled.

"We've got to start using it, because if not, somebody is going to try to take it over.So, as a community, Harold decided that we'll use it, we'll take kids there for camping trips."

Brooks said as he grew older, he brought his sons to the islands when they were young to keep that connection.

Though the islands are uninhabited today, they were once used as seasonal campgrounds for hunting and fishing by Simon, Andrew, Jim, Ed and Joseph Paul. The brothers would travel down the river from Quebec and stay on the islands.

The islands would later be granted to the "Malicite Tribe of Indians of the River Saint John" in 1838 by Sir John Harvey, the lieutenant-governor, for use of the Paul brothers.

Today, Indian and Goat islands are registered to Kingsclear, Madawaska, Tobique and Woodstock, though a spokesperson for the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick said there areplans to have St. Mary's and Oromocto added to the shared ownership.

But uncertainty surrounds the title of Burnt Island. In the 1920s, a copper mine was staked on the island. Because of this mineral claim, when the province transferred the administration of reserve lands to the federal government in 1959, Burnt Island was not included in the transfer.

There's still evidence of the mine today.

Bobby Ring owns a local boat business in Brothers Cove and recalls ferrying Sappier and the youth of St. Mary's First Nation to the islands in the 1970s. He also routinely took a man who staked a claim to copper on Burnt Island.

"Burnt Island, it's real close," Ring said. "On the outer face of the island there's a beach that's real rocky. You get out and you walk about 25 or 30 feet up the beach and to your left you'll see a hole full of bushes and trees. That's a copper mine."

Ring's son,Geodie, runs the boat maintenance business today. It's on the shore directly across from the islands, just beside the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club.

Geodie Ring said the islands are mostly frequented by boaters or kayakers now.

"A lot of people that just are new to the area, they'll all buy that Walmart or Canadian Tire canoe or kayak and they'll paddle out," Ring said.

He said a lot of people, including locals, have no idea any of the three Islands are reserve land.

That doesn't surprise Rachel Bryant, a University of New Brunswick professor and colonial historian. Shewrote a blog in the summer about the islands, in hopes of raising public awareness about them in the local area.

"Saint John is not often thought of as Indigenous land. When it is discussed, it is discussed in the past tense," Bryant said. "I'm interested in reminding people of whose land it is."

Bryant said there is a term that may explain why locals speak of the area as if it isn't unceded Wolastoqey territory.

"There's a phenomenon in colonial studies and it's called unwitnessing," Bryant said. "If material or something that you encounter, it doesn't fit within your understanding, or within a collective understanding of history or of place, then that material can't lodge permanently in a collective consciousness."

When Bryant published her blog, she heard from people who had visited and had no idea the islands were reserve land.

Polchies said it's time to change that.

He conducted an informalarcheological survey of The Brothers islands in 1990s that didn't turn up anything of interest. But he thinks it's time for more thorough and formal archeological work.

"There are a lot of places in the province that we probably need to be looking at to understand where we were on the land," he said. "And particularly now.

"There's a title claim before the courts, for the entire expanse of our territory, so The Brothers are an interesting component of it."