Monument to recognize First Nations’ role with Laura Secord

St. Catharines city council has given direction for a monument to celebrate the pivotal role played by First Nations’ people in Laura Secord’s heroic trek. The Friends of Laura Secord are planning to create a “living stone hearth monument” near the place where Secord would have emerged from the woods after scrambling up the Niagara Escarpment and was met by a First Nations encampment, said Caroline McCormick, a direct descendent of Secord. The ensuing invasion by American forces, which happened two days later, was successfully defeated thanks to First Nations people. The memorial, which is proposed to be located on land currently owned by Niagara Region, would be adjacent to the Laura Secord Legacy Trail, on the edge of DeCew’s Field, which is where Secord would have met the people in the encampment. Visitors will be asked to add a pebble or stone to the monument “as a symbolic gift and acknowledgement of friendship between First Nations and the settlers,” McCormick said.