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'Garden River 14, Ontario' is an Indian Reserve located along the north shore of the St Marys River, between Sault Ste. Marie and Echo Bay, Ontario.[1] It has an area of 20,703.5 hectares.[2] The Garden River runs through the reserve as a tributary of the St. Mary's River. The reserve is home of Garden River First Nation, or Ketegaunseebee Anishnabai, an Ojibwa band.[3] The reserve was created by the Robinson Huron treaty of 1850. In the treaty's schedule of reservations, the fourteenth reservation is "a tract of land extending from Maskinongé Bay, inclusive, to Partridge Point, above Garden River on the front, and inland ten miles, throughout the whole distance; and also Squirrel Island."[4] For many years subsequent to signing the treaty, Garden River First Nation disputed the survey of their reserve conducted by the Province of Canada. In April 2003, the government of Canada returned
3,492 hectares of land to the reserve from the adjacent geographic townships of Anderson and Chesley. This resolution was negotiated between the band, the government of Canada, and the province of Ontario in accord with the Indian Lands Agreement of 1986. Ontario also released all mineral rights and revenues on the returned land to Canada to administer for the use of the band.[5]
The Trans-Canada Highway, also known as Highway 17, passes through Garden River. In 2008, a four-lane bypass will be completed, on an alignment north of the current one.