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By Foot and Paddle: NOTL Museum’s next lecture

Travis Hill will talk about the importance of the Niagara River to Indigenous people during the NOTL Museum’s next lecture.
Travis Hill will talk about the importance of the Niagara River to Indigenous people during the NOTL Museum’s next lecture. (Photo supplied)

Travis Hill, citizen of the Tuscarora Nation, member of the Beaver Clan of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and a Fort Erie resident, will present next Thursday’s lecture at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum.

Hill has been a part of the Niagara Parks team for almost 20 years, and is the manager of Niagara Parks Old Fort Erie heritage site. Widely respected for his cultural knowledge, Hill will speak about the Indigenous relationship with the Niagara River, its significance, influence, and history. 

Since the retreat of the last great ice age, Indigenous peoples of many nations have arrived, fought, lived, or travelled through Niagara.  All have been drawn to its unique natural resources and ease of transportation, by land or water — by foot or paddle, says Hill. Their trails and portage routes provided the basis for many modern-day roads and highways today.

Recent archaeological finds in Fort Erie also reveal the extent of a massive flint-knapping industry dating back at least 11,000 years, and show extensive trading of tools and weapons between Indigenous peoples.  

 “And when you see artifacts that are in fact pieces of beautiful art,” says Hill, “you know these people were not just at war, or nomadic, they had well-developed communities.”

Hill has given presentations on Indigenous culture and interpretation throughout Ontario and the U.S

 Join the NOTL Museum’s lecture series and learn about the astonishing Indigenous history in Niagara, and the centuries-old significance of Niagara waterways to Indigenous people

The lecture is Thursday, July 21, at 7.30 p.m., 43 Castlereagh St.  NOTL.

Registration is required. Call 905-468-3912. Tickets are free for members, $10 for non-members.

For more information visit  www.notlmuseum.ca