Christian Island, also known to Beausoleil First Nation as Chimnissing or “Big Island,” is an island in southern Georgian Bay, Ontario, and the main community of Beausoleil First Nation. Beausoleil First Nation describes itself as the People of G’Chimnissing and states that it rests on the shores of southern Georgian Bay on Christian, Beckwith, and Hope Islands.
Christian Island, together with nearby Hope Island and Beckwith Island, forms Christian Island Indian Reserve No. 30, which the Government of Canada lists as 5,530.0 hectares and associated with Beausoleil First Nation. Beausoleil’s land base also includes Christian Island Indian Reserve No. 30A, a 7.9-hectare reserve at Cedar Point west of Midland, and an interest in the 3.1-hectare Chippewa Island reserve in Twelve Mile Bay, which is shared with the Chippewas of Georgina Island and the Chippewas of Rama First Nation. Christian Islands' highest elevation is above sea level.
Christian Island is part of the Georgian Bay / Thirty Thousand Islands region. Nearby protected areas include Georgian Bay Islands National Park and Beausoleil Island National Historic Site, which Parks Canada identifies as part of the world’s largest freshwater archipelago. Parks Canada states that Georgian Bay Islands National Park is composed of 63 islands and is accessible only by boat, while UNESCO lists the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve as covering 347,269 hectares along the eastern coast of Georgian Bay.
The history of Beausoleil First Nation is connected to broader land and treaty issues involving the Chippewa Tri-Council and other First Nations in the region. In 2012, Beausoleil First Nation was one of the communities involved in the approval of the Coldwater–Narrows Specific Land Claim settlement, which the Government of Canada described as resolving a claim dating back more than 170 years. Beausoleil First Nation materials describe the claim as relating to the former Coldwater–Narrows reserve between present-day Orillia and Matchedash Bay.
Natural Environment and History Christian Island is the largest of the three main islands associated with Beausoleil First Nation and is the only one with a permanent community. Beausoleil First Nation materials describe G’chi Mnissing as meaning “big Island” in Anishinaabemowin, and describe the territory as including Christian Island, Beckwith Island, Hope Island, Cedar Point, Little Christian Island, the Stoney Islands, and the Watcher Islands. The island includes sand beaches, inland lakes, deciduous forest, wetlands, sand dunes, and a ridge along its northern end. Its natural features also include limestone bedrock and mainly sandy sediment associated with the former Glacial Lake Algonquin.
Christian Island is an important habitat for forked three-awned grass, also known as Ice Age grass. The species is listed as endangered in Canada and grows in dry, open, sandy habitats such as sand barrens, sandy openings, road and trail edges, and abandoned fields. Environment Canada identified Christian Island as the site of the largest known Canadian population of the species, with more than 100,000 individuals documented there in 2005.
The island was known to the Wendat as Gahoendoe and was later called Isle St. Joseph by the Jesuits before becoming known as Christian Island through nineteenth-century surveyors. In 1649, after the destruction of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons on the Wye River, Jesuit missionaries, French soldiers, and Huron-Wendat refugees relocated to the island and established Fort Sainte-Marie II. The French built a fortified mission with a stone outer wall, church, missionary quarters, and a well, while the Huron-Wendat lived in an adjacent village.
Fort Sainte-Marie II was occupied from June 1649 to June 1650. The winter of 1649–1650 was marked by severe famine, disease, and renewed threats from the Haudenosaunee. Archaeological research has described the conditions on Christian Island as extreme, with some starving Wendat refugees reportedly resorting to cannibalizing the remains of the dead. Parks Canada more generally describes the winter as one of famine and disease before the partial abandonment of Fort Sainte-Marie II in June 1650, when the Jesuits, led by Father Paul Ragueneau, and approximately 300 Huron-Wendat travelled toward Québec.
Christian Island is also the site of the Christian Island Lightstation Tower, one of the Imperial Towers built on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The tower was built between 1855 and 1859 under the authority of the Board of Works, Canada West, by contractor John Brown. Parks Canada describes the tower as a recognized federal heritage building and a local landmark associated with the opening of navigation on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
Anishinaabeg Origins and Traditions
Beausoleil First Nation, also known as Chimnissing, is an Anishinaabe community with roots in the wider Great Lakes region. Its history includes the Ojibwe/Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe, as well as Potawatomi and Odawa families who became part of the Christian Island community during the nineteenth century. Community history describes this not as a single migration, but as a history of displacement, refuge, kinship, and adoption among related Anishinaabeg peoples.
n the 1830s, while the British government was carrying out the Coldwater–Narrows experiment in Upper Canada, the United States was enforcing removal policies that displaced many Anishinaabeg and other Indigenous peoples westward. Potawatomi Chief Ogemahwahjwon, remembered in English as “Chief of the flowing waters,” crossed into what is now Canada in 1835 with members of his family and community. After being directed to Coldwater, he and his people were welcomed into Chief John Assance’s band through adoption. More Potawatomi families later arrived from present-day Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and an Odawa group from the Lake Michigan region was also welcomed at Christian Island in the 1850s. Some Potawatomi families came from present-day Wisconsin, while Odawa families from around Lake Michigan were also welcomed into the Christian Island community.
After the Assance Band relocated to Christian Island in the late 1850s, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa families lived together there for generations, although not all residents had the same treaty or annuity rights. In 1911, Christian Island Band member Henry Jackson began helping non-Treaty Potawatomi relatives seek formal admission into the band. On June 1, 1916, eligible male voters approved the admission of 62 non-Treaty Anishinabek by a vote of 54 to 10. The admitted families included the surnames King, Sandy, Sunday, Isaac, Mixemong, Toby, Copegog, Monague, and Marks. On the same day, the band also rejected a separate government proposal to surrender Hope Island and Beckwith Island.
Anishinaabe oral traditions also connect the people to the wider southern Georgian Bay landscape. Beausoleil Island, known to the Anishinaabeg as Bimadinaagogi, is described as a place of memory, gathering, ceremony, and creation stories.
In one tradition, two supernatural beings fought over a young Anishinaabe woman who gathered berries in the area; after they died, their bodies formed Beausoleil Island and Giant’s Tomb Island. The island remains closely associated with women, berry gathering, medicines, and ceremonies connected to the transition from girlhood to womanhood.
Shipwrecks Christian Island is a favourite destination for scuba divers given the close proximity of a number of old shipwrecks (most going back a century or more) near Christian Island, and near the adjacent, uninhabited Hope Island. These include: Mapledawn (North West of Christian Island), steel freighter built in 1890 and sank 1924; Saucy Jim (East of Christian Island), sank 1910; gain vessel Michigan (North West of Hope Island), sank 1843; schooner Lottie Wolf (North East of Hope Island), sank 1879; and Marquette (East of Hope Island), sank 1867. Lake Huron (in which Georgian Bay is located) is the final resting place to hundreds of other sunken vessels, many of them of great historic value. These shipwrecks are generally well preserved, owing to the cold, fresh water habitat.
Cultural & Community Events
Island in the Sun Pow Wow Christian Island hosts an annual pow wow known as ''Island in the Sun'', or the G’Chimnissing Island in the Sun Pow Wow. Held on Beausoleil First Nation territory, the event brings together singers, dancers, drummers, vendors, community members, and visitors for a cultural gathering that includes Grand Entry, song, dance, and traditional ceremonies. Beausoleil First Nation community materials describe the pow wow as an annual July event on Christian Island, while Christian Island Elementary School also hosts a school pow wow in May for local students and community members.
A 2006 notice for the event referred to “New Pow-wow Grounds at Douglas Lake,” while later event listings continued to identify the site as the Christian Island Pow-wow Grounds. In 2025, former Beausoleil First Nation Chief Guy Monague, through Little Ojibway Log Construction, completed a permanent octagonal pow wow arbour in the community. The structure was described as being built at the Christian Island Pow-wow grounds for drummers to sit during pow wow events.
Governance - Modern chiefs of Beausoleil First Nation
2018-2021 Guy Monague In accordance with Indian Act election regulations at the time, Beausoleil First Nation held their general elections every two years. The June 23, 2018 election resulted in the following:
Chief: Guy Monague Chief Councillor: Joanne Sandy Councillor: Kristin Monague Councillor: Lauraine Judith Jamieson Councillor: Hank Monague Councillor: Angela Beedie Councillor: C. Susan Copegog
Guy Monague served as Chief of Beausoleil First Nation from 2018 through 2021, after previously serving as a Beausoleil councillor for a few terms in the 1990s. He succeeded Mary McCue-King, who was elected in 2016. McCue-King presently serves as the executive director of the Ogemawahj Tribal Council. The newly elected Chief and Council were sworn in on July 6, 2018. Since November 2016, Terra Sandy Roy has served as Youth Chief, with Lance Copegog as Deputy Youth Chief.
His leadership period included major community issues such as the Williams Treaties settlement, the Christian Island ferry replacement project, and the COVID-19 pandemic response. After leaving office, Monague returned to construction and registered Little Ojibway Log Construction in 2023, later completing community projects including a youth pavilion and a permanent pow wow arbour on Beausoleil First Nation territory.
During Guy Monague’s term as Chief, Beausoleil First Nation was one of the seven Williams Treaties First Nations involved in the 2018 negotiated settlement of the Alderville litigation. The settlement resolved long-standing issues related to the 1923 Williams Treaties, including compensation, land-related provisions, recognition of continuing treaty harvesting rights, and commitments from Canada and Ontario to issue formal apologies. Monague welcomed the settlement on behalf of Beausoleil First Nation, framing it as the conclusion of a difficult chapter connected to the treaty’s interpretation and as a step toward reconciliation and renewal for the community.
Leadership During Covid-19