Saugeen First Nation

Saugeen First Nation (Ojibwe: Saukiing) is an Ojibway First Nation band located along the Saugeen River and Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. The band states that their legal name is the "Chippewas of Saugeen". Organized in the mid-1970s, Saugeen First Nation is the primary "political successor apparent" to the Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory; the other First Nation that is a part of Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory is Cape Croker. The Ojibway are of the Algonquian languages family. The First Nation consist of four reserves: Chief's Point 28, Saugeen 29, Saugeen Hunting Grounds 60A, and Saugeen and Cape Croker Fishing Islands 1.

The Saugeen First Nation Web site states that "the Ojibway heritage is rich in colour and expression. This is evident in dance, works of art and the hand made craft creations".

The original historic people of Saugeen are Ojibway. They became known as Chippewa by English-speaking people who could not pronounce the word Ojibway. "Chippewas of Saugeen" is the legal name of the community. Like other Aboriginal people in Canada, in the early 1970s the Chippewas of Saugeen began referring to their community as a "First Nation."

Archaeological evidence has shown that the modern Bruce Peninsula (or the "Saugeen Peninsula" as it is known by the Ojibway) has long been home to the Chippewas of Saugeen. According to oral tradition, from time immemorial, hunting and fishing were plentiful in this area. Archaeologists have found artifacts from the Early Woodland Period (1000 BCE to 1000 CE), and have called this culture the Saugeen complex, in archeological terms. Other than pottery, the projectile points called Saugeen Point are typical characteristics of the Saugeen culture. Winter camps around Owen Sound, Cape Croker and the Collingwood area, as well as summer camps in Walkerton, Wiarton, Goderich, Tobermory and Red Bay were associated with the Saugeen complex and descendant Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway Territory. Traditional territory also included all of the Saugeen River watershed. Thus, places such as Tobermory, Meaford, Goderich, Cape Croker, Owen Sound, and Orangeville are located in the traditional Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory. The permanent settlement at the outlet of the Saugeen River, which lent its name to the region and its people, was called Zaageeng, meaning "mouth of river."

The Chippewas of Saugeen Ojibway are a member of the Council of Three Fires of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations. The Confederacy came to help in the Battle of Skull Mound and in the Battle of Blue Mountain. Four of the seven major clans or doodem are found among the Chippewas of Saugeen.

The Wyandotte/Wendat Nation also made the area their home, as did the related Petun or Tobacco people. Both of these were Iroquoian-speaking peoples. The Wyandot, also known as Huron, were driven out of the area by the Five Nations of the Haudenosee.

One of the earliest documents recognizing Nation to Nation relations between the Crown and Indigenous peoples in North America, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 stated "Indian land" could only be sold to the Crown. It attempted to reserve areas west of the Allegheny Mountains in the Thirteen Colonies to Native Americans, but the Crown could not control the movement of colonists.

People from many nations moved into Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory after the disruption of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Many came from Ohio and from the State of New York. As a result of the American Indian Removal Policies of the 1830s and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, a large number of Potawatomi Indians from Michigan and Wisconsin were forced from their homelands, settling at Cape Croker, Saugeen, and many other reserves in Ontario. In 1907, W. M. Wooster was tasked by the United States Congress to locate and record a census of Potawatomi that fled into Canada. Wooster, with the assistance of interpreter Charles Keeshick, recorded 318 Potawatomi living in Cape Croker and 306 Potawatomi living in Saugeen.