Chief Bigwin identified in photo from 1933
Letter from Fred Watkin
I was verifying an old picture of my mother Ruth seen in the photo here with a First Nations man she remembered was named Chief Bigwin. Your article and picture from the Anishinabek News October 2009 helped verify that it really was Chief Bigwin. He is wearing the same outfit, belt and holding the same curved object and is also relatively short (5’ 5”?) compared to the “unidentified man” in your picture. In the attached picture my mother thinks she was nine years old – so it was 1933 and apparently summertime based on the high sun and the clothing. The picture was taken on Coldwater Street in Orillia.
Ruth is currently 90 years old living in Toronto and still has a sharp mind. Note that my mother’s parents were the Salvation Army officers stationed in Orillia at that time.
Here is Ruth (nee Alderman) Watkin’s description of the events surrounding this picture (circa 1933):
Chief Bigwin’s home burned to the ground and he asked his friends to bring him to the Salvation Army in Orillia. A knock came at the door and my oldest sister Dot (Dorothea) answered it. Two men had brought him and his little organ – that they managed to save from the fire. I remember Dot coming upstairs to the bedroom and telling my other sister Marj and me that she had just seen a “real Indian”. We didn’t want to believe her, but she described this man with the big feathered headgear etc.. Sure enough the next morning he was sitting in our parlor. The men had subsequently taken him to the S.A. hall where my Mom and Dad (Captains Herbert and Lulu Alderman) were. He lived with us for about ten days and he was in his 90s.
Chief Bigwin had already been ‘saved’ (converted to Christianity) and used to stand on the steps of the city hall and preach. He always wore his First Nation’s regalia. Note that he was considering going to England to that big Salvation Army congress in 1914 but backed out at the last minute. He would have gone down with the Empress of Ireland had he gone.