This money pouch tells the story of Jacob Skinn vs the Colquhoun Estate.  Jacob Skinn was a man from the St. Regis (Akwesasne) Village who cut wood on Little Colquhoun Island.  He later dragged his house across the ice on the St. Lawrence River to the island. He was gifted the island for supporting the Hereditary Chiefs and their bid to reject the Indian Act by repopulating the islands (which were never ceded).

When I read the court documents in the Library Archives of Canada detailing the hateful, hurtful and racist actions of the Colquhoun Estate, I felt deeply ashamed of my family.  Most other things I discovered about may family can be explained by “historical context” – people living within a system of colonial structures – but these actions were individual, specific, and unjustifiable even within historical context.  Telling this story sucks.