Speaker: Dr. Gil Stelter, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph, Department of History

This illustrated talk is an exploration of the largely unknown relationship between John Galt and the Six Nation’s leader, John Brant, in the events leading up to Guelph’s founding, and then the actual construction and building of the new town. Brant was the son of the noted Iroquoian (Haudenosaunee) leader Joseph Brant, who had led the people of his Confederacy to the so-called Haldimand Tract along the Grand River after the American Revolution. Galt had long been sympathetic to the Six Nations claims that they were allies, not subjects, of the British crown. Galt demonstrated that it was possible for colonizers to work together with the local Indigenous communities in the building of new towns like Guelph and Goderich.

GHS Annual General Meeting will be held on April 4, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m.