Alderville has been home to the Mississauga Anishinabeg (Michi Saagiig) of the Ojibway Nation since the mid-1830’s. Before that time the Michi Saagiig people lived in their traditional lands around the Bay of Quinte (Grape Island), but with the influx of British moving north after the American Revolution their existence was under increased pressure. The Bay of Quinte became one area of settlement for those who became known as the United Empire Loyalists. The Michi Saagiig were then directly involved in “land surrenders” along the St. Lawrence River and the Bay, forced to move from their lands to allow this resettlement to occur.
When the Michi Saagiig people moved through the area now known as the Rice Lake Plains, they burned areas to clear land for various reasons (agriculture, grazing, sight lines). The fires would be so vast, they reflected in the waters of Rice Lake, thus the Michi Saagiig named this place Pamitaashkodeyong, which can be translated to Lake of the Burning Plains, or “where it burns and where it travels”. These burning practices allowed for the establishment of Tallgrass Prairie & Black Oak Savanna ecosystems, which depend on fire to thrive. By the late 1850s burning of the land had slowed, and the growth of European settlement and agriculture around Rice Lake had essentially eliminated the natural ecosystems in the area, although the community continued traditional burning practices on small pockets of land on Alderville First Nation.
Nearly 140 years later in the late 1990s, over 100 acres of land on Alderville First Nation was slated for development. Local biologist, Elder, and artist, Rick Beaver noticed a mix of rare plant species on the site that are specific to two endangered ecosystems: Tallgrass Prairie and Black Oak Savanna. Rick Beaver brought this information to Chief & Council, who declared the area a natural history site and protected it from development through a Band Council Resolution. What was then a series of old agricultural fields with remnant prairie scattered throughout, has been transformed into a thriving grassland restoration site with an abundance of plant and animal species, known as the Alderville Black Oak Savanna (Alderville BOS). The site is now the largest intact tract of native grassland habitat left within the Rice Lake Plains and Eastern Ontario, and plays a key role in the future restoration of this unique eco-region by acting as a pristine source for native plants and seed.