Sophia Toulouse

Mrs. Sophia Toulouse (nee Ashkimo) is # 1475 on the 1907 Wooster Roll where she is identified as the head of a family with no children and brother of Wilson Ashkimo # 1472. Sophia's traditional name is recorded as "Nibanokwe" meaning "Night traveller" which is a highly unusual translation since the name seems to be more about a "Summer woman" so the reference to a night traveller is an inference. In Anishinaabemowin "nibin" is "summer" and "kwe" at the end of a word denotes "woman". The reference to "night woman" is very interesting since not far from Spanish River Reservation where Mrs. Sophia Toulouse lived is a canoe route that crossed northern Georgian Bay far from shore and cuts off 30 miles of travel otherwise necessary by those who follow the shore by canoe (as documented in 1784 by Alexander Henry who was astonished at the practice). Georgian Bay is a very large body of water so taking this shortcut away from sight of land at night required superb knowledge of weather and constellations of the night sky to ensure a safe navigation. Such ventures were taken only at night in the summer (nibin) when the winds were calm and when the celestial map was overhead on a clear night. If Sophia Toulouse's expertise was as a navigator on summer nights over broad stretches of Great Lakes water she held a valuabe life-saving skill of considerable economic importance in the days before the coming of the railroad. Much more research is needed on this topic and the possible involvement of Sophia Toulouse in this highly specialized and somewhat risky traditional enterprise.

For a fuller and more accurate understanding of Sophia's traditional name and translation and the context of the name, scrutiny and comment are required by those with expertise in nuances of the Anishinaabemowin language and Potawatomi culture, especially those with knowledge of traditional historic canoe night navigation over large bodies of Great Lakes water.

In 1907 when Sophia Toulouse was age 48 she was living at Spanish River Reservation, Ontario (on the north shore of Lake Huron) where she held full rights in Canada.

The name "Spanish" is a curious name for a river in the northern Great Lakes but the river flows to The North Channel of Lake Huron between Manitoulin Island and the north shore mainland and this channel was part of a major long distance voyageur trading route between Québec and Montreal on the east and the Mississippi Valley via Lake Michigan on the west. Any traveller through the area who was of Spanish extraction would be nicknamed "The Spaniard" ("L'Espagnol" in the French language) so "L'Espagnol" is usually a nickname, not a surname. French genealosists use the "nickname" convention. So, for instance, a man named "André Marcil" (of no known association with the Spanish River) is a 17th century pioneer of New France (Canada), born in France, emigrated and married in New France (Canada) and died there, all before the year 1700. This man is recorded genealogically because of some Spanish association as "André Marcil dit l'Espagnol". The Geni database shows this format for André Marcil (and others). There is no hint that "André Marcil "L'Espagnol" was in any way associated with the Spanish River but Marcil's Geni file shows how French genealogists label the name. See André Marcil dit l'Espagnol .

For an account by Andy Thompson on how the Spanish River (Pogamasing in Anishinaabemowin) got its name see http://pogamasing.com/2012/03/14/how-the-spanish-river-got-its-name/ which is copied as follows:

How the Spanish River Got Its Name by ANDY THOMSON on MARCH 14, 2012

There have been a number of explanations for how the Spanish River derived its name. The most common story that I found in books and websites involved a group of Ojibwa (Anishnabe), from the North Shore area, who ventured to the southern United States on a trade mission. They allegedly brought back with them a Spanish-speaking young woman, either as a captive or as a gift, from another Aboriginal nation from the Spanish controlled territory west of the Mississippi River. She married the son of a chief and taught her children to speak Spanish. The French-speaking fur traders in the area recognized the language and called them “Les Espagnoles.” After the arrival of the British, they became known as the Spanish, and the river where they lived, the Spanish River.

In spite of the generally accepted theory of the Spanish origin, I believe there is a more plausible explanation. This version of the Spanish origin was put forth by a reporter who called himself “The Wanderer” in an April 4, 1885, article in the Globe. He wrote: “Shortly after the [1760] conquest of Canada by the British, a Spanish adventurer, who appears to have been in the British Service at one period, wound his way up the Great Lakes to Algoma. His name and lineage are now uncertain, though two of his grandsons live on Spanish River at present”.

The credentials of “The Wanderer” are unknown, but much of what he wrote coincides with the memories of Louis Espagnol’s granddaughter, Jane Espaniel (the anglicized version of Espagnol) McKee. She stated that Louis’ grandfather was the original Spaniard and that his name was Emmanuel. His son became a prominent figure in the area and was known by various names such as Frise (curly hair) or the Spaniard in the Hudson’s Bay records, and Espaniole in government documents.

This is supported by a note written in 1837 by T.G. Anderson, a government official in Manitowaning, to request that the chief ’s flag be replaced as it had worn out. Anderson identified him as “The bearer (the Spaniard)…and lives in the vicinity of La Cloche,” which was close to the Spanish River.

Confirmation also comes from JohnMcBean, the Hudson’s Bay chief factor of the Lake Huron District from 1821 to 1837. In 1827, McBean wrote in his journal that a person he called Frise came often to the post with his sons. Later, McBean (1834 journal) used Frise interchangeably with “Spaniard.” Strangely, McBean never refers to him as a chief, or that he was Spanish-speaking, but there are references to his living near the Spanish River. Frise may well have lost his ability to speak Spanish, but he was referred to as the Spaniard due to his father’s ethnic origin.

In McBean’s journals, there is a strong association with the Spaniards and the river, so it is easy to understand why the Europeans came to call the river after the family who lived by it. The Spanish River, however, was not the name used by the Anishnabe.

According to Sagamok elder Peter Owl, the original name was Minitegozibe, meaning “river of many islands.” From the beginning of the 19th century, newcomers gave the river various names. The French first named the river Aouechissaton in 1657 and then changed it to the Tortue in 1774. On a British map of 1809, it was called the Estiaghicks. McBean called it the Eskimanitigon on his 1827 map of the region, as it was the name he understood from his hunters. However, the Spanish name prevailed, and it was the name given by the English cartographer H.W. Bayfield on an 1822 map of the upper Great Lakes. The Minitegozibe name has been reintroduced and the new Ontario park on the Spanish River is now called the “Spanish River Valley Minitegozibe Signature Site.”