Nipissing First Nation

Nipissing 10
Indian reserve
Nipissing Indian Reserve No. 10
Community centre in Garden Village
Nipissing 10
Coordinates: 46°22′N 79°46′W / 46.367°N 79.767°W / 46.367; -79.767Coordinates: 46°22′N 79°46′W / 46.367°N 79.767°W / 46.367; -79.767
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
District	Nipissing
First Nation	Nipissing
Government
• Chief	Scott McLeod
• Deputy Chief	Muriel Sawyer
Area
• Land	61.22 km2 (23.64 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	1,450
• Density	23.7/km2 (61/sq mi)
Website	www.nfn.ca

The Nipissing First Nation consists of historic First Nation band governments of Ojibwe and Algonquin descent who, following succeeding cultures of ancestors, have lived in the area of Lake Nipissing in the Canadian province of Ontario for about 9,400 years. They are referred to by many names in European historical records, since the colonists often adopted names given to them by other nations.

The Nipissing are generally considered part of the Anishinaabe peoples, a grouping of people speaking Algonquin languages, which includes the Odawa, Ojibwe and Algonquins. This broad heritage is likely the result of the Nipissings' living at a geographical crossroads, a watershed divide.

Lake Nipissing drains via the French River into Georgian Bay and, to the east of Lake Nipissing, Trout Lake drains via the Mattawa River into the Ottawa River. Living at the crossroads between two watersheds, the Nipissing were key to trade to the East, West, North and South of Lake Nipissing. The French portaged the watershed divide extensively to reach the Great Lakes by canoe from their settlements around Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.

To the west the Nipissing trade routes extended as far as Lake Nipigon and their Ojibwa neighbours, and to the north as far James Bay, where they traded with the Cree and, later, the English. Their trade network to the east extended as far as present-day Quebec City, also on the St. Lawrence. The Iroquoian-speaking Huron people lived nearby to the South. Archaeological evidence shows that the Nipissing integrated some Huron styles and techniques in their pottery.