Post by blackcrowheart on Mar 4, 2006 11:15:59 GMT -5
Scientists confirm native legend in Tobermory
Updated Sat. Oct. 5 2002 11:24 PM ET
CTV News Staff
Researchers have been investigating the underwater landscape of Georgian Bay for the past six years, wondering what it was like millennia ago. It turns out the local native elders may have had the answer all along.
Ontario's Bruce Peninsula is a geological wonder. It's the portion of the Niagara escarpment that divides Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
The area around Tobermory, at the very tip of the peninsula, has become a diver's paradise -- tall ships from the last century are now sunken treasures.
But, there's another kind of buried treasure in Georgian Bay's waters -- history. At the bottom, right in the lake bed, scientists are discovering a whole other world.
Thanks to a new technology that scans the lake bed, marine geologist Steve Blasco has recreated an ancient world. He has found evidence of river channels and dramatic waterfalls.
"This is the start of the waterfall, not unlike that of Niagara falls, but much narrower," says Blasco.
Blasco also discovered that most of what is now under water was dry land thousands of years ago. In fact, you could actually walk from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island.
But, Donald Keeshig, an Ojibway elder from the nearby reserve at Cape Croker, already knew that. He remembers a native legend that tells of a "tunnel" -- a passage of land his ancestors once crossed.
"A native or person from this side went into that tunnel and went in to see how far it goes and he walked and walked and walked," says Keeshig.
Blasco, the scientist, is also familiar with the legend.
"(The natives) were able to travel north, and they met natives coming from the other direction that were dressed quite differently, and had different weapons," he says.
The underwater mapping has proved that there was dry land and that those natives really could have met on foot. Researchers have even found tree stumps underwater, some more than 9,000 years old.
"It's like a wonderment. It's something that I'm starting to believe. That oral history is valuable," says Keeshig.
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1033874718995_37?hu/b=SciTech
Updated Sat. Oct. 5 2002 11:24 PM ET
CTV News Staff
Researchers have been investigating the underwater landscape of Georgian Bay for the past six years, wondering what it was like millennia ago. It turns out the local native elders may have had the answer all along.
Ontario's Bruce Peninsula is a geological wonder. It's the portion of the Niagara escarpment that divides Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
The area around Tobermory, at the very tip of the peninsula, has become a diver's paradise -- tall ships from the last century are now sunken treasures.
But, there's another kind of buried treasure in Georgian Bay's waters -- history. At the bottom, right in the lake bed, scientists are discovering a whole other world.
Thanks to a new technology that scans the lake bed, marine geologist Steve Blasco has recreated an ancient world. He has found evidence of river channels and dramatic waterfalls.
"This is the start of the waterfall, not unlike that of Niagara falls, but much narrower," says Blasco.
Blasco also discovered that most of what is now under water was dry land thousands of years ago. In fact, you could actually walk from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island.
But, Donald Keeshig, an Ojibway elder from the nearby reserve at Cape Croker, already knew that. He remembers a native legend that tells of a "tunnel" -- a passage of land his ancestors once crossed.
"A native or person from this side went into that tunnel and went in to see how far it goes and he walked and walked and walked," says Keeshig.
Blasco, the scientist, is also familiar with the legend.
"(The natives) were able to travel north, and they met natives coming from the other direction that were dressed quite differently, and had different weapons," he says.
The underwater mapping has proved that there was dry land and that those natives really could have met on foot. Researchers have even found tree stumps underwater, some more than 9,000 years old.
"It's like a wonderment. It's something that I'm starting to believe. That oral history is valuable," says Keeshig.
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1033874718995_37?hu/b=SciTech