Treaties Recognition Week

With a canoe ride down the Grand River in Ontario, these paddlers bring a 400-year-old treaty to life

With a canoe ride down the Grand River in Ontario, these paddlers bring a 400-year-old treaty to life

For 10 days every summer, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people launch their canoes each morning after a Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address and continue on their journey down the Grand River in southern Ontario. The annual Two Row on the Grand is not just any paddling trip — it's an enactment of the Two Row Wampum treaty, an agreement made more than 400 years ago between the Haudenosaunee people and Dutch settlers.