Reclaiming Ancient Iroquois Burial Grounds In Toronto’s High Park
To Indigenous people, burial grounds are to be given proper respect and should never be disturbed
Much progress was achieved during the May 2011 occupation to preserve Snake Mound, one of 57 remaining ancient Haudenosaunee burial mounds in Toronto’s High Park, near the edge of Lake Ontario.
For years, BMX riders had been
desecrating the area, — known to the Indigenous community as Snake (or
Serpent) Mounds — by excavating the mounds to build a dirt track.
In April, Chief Arnie General, accompanied by
Clan mothers and Faith keepers from Six Nations, went to Snake mound to
see what they believe are ancient Iroquoian burial grounds dating back
3,000 years.
The Snake mounds were carved into rounded
hills, jumps and dips. For the many who believe the site is sacred, it
was the ultimate disrespect.
The Haudenosaunee community and the
Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society (THPS) had been lobbying the
city of Toronto for over eleven years, to protect the sacred grounds and
restore the area.
In April, a meeting was set up between the
THPS and Toronto City Councillor Sarah Doucette where she was presented
with information about the Snake Mound, and that the City of Toronto’s
main archeologist Ron Williamson, was working under a suspended
license. The state of his credentials had not been denied. Doucette said
she would research the issue and then respond, however, there was no
subsequent contact.
From Fort Erie to Midland to Pickering, you can read stories about Indigenous people and their lives, told in their own words.
The Aboriginal Leadership Partners Group and the Native Canadian
Centre of Toronto worked with Indigenous communities and organizations,
municipalities and land owners on the design and installation of the
markers.
Huron-Wendat Markers
Dunsmore – Ancestral Huron-Wendat Settlement
Location: Arboretum Sunnindale Park, Barrie This
is a reconstructed ceramic vessel typical of the types found at the
Dunsmore Site. The designs on the collar and neck portions of the vessel
are used by archaeologists to date the site and to identify the ethnic
affiliation of their makers.The Dunsmore site
is a two-hectare, mid- to late fifteenth century unpalisaded ancestral
Huron-Wendat settlement that had a complex history.
The site may have included both seasonal tenancies and year-round
occupations. The settlement appears to have served as both a seasonal
fishing camp and a semi-permanent agricultural village, perhaps
involving members of several different communities. Sixteen houses of
various sizes were recorded.
The growing of corn was the major economic activity and women
planted, tended and harvested the crops. Corn could contribute as much
as 60% of the diet of the Huron-Wendat people. It was eaten in soup or
roasted over fire. It was used to make bread (or bannock) for local
consumption or during long-distances travels. In such journeys, corn was
also used in trading for other goods such as hides, fish, meat and
tobacco.
Holly – Ancestral Huron-Wendat Village
Location: Huronia Park, Barrie Photo: Courtesy of Archaeological Services Inc.The Holly site is one of a series of Huron-Wendat villages and special-purpose sites found within a 25 km2 area in southern Barrie.
The investigations of these sites have provided a significant
opportunity for examining one or perhaps two communities moving through
time. It also presented an occasion to investigate rarely observed
components of ancestral Huron-Wendat settlement-subsistence systems as
two other nearby sites (Wellington and Dykstra) are not base settlements
or villages but serve some other function.
Holly includes at least four major longhouses showing substantial
long-term domestic use and extensive re-building, possible special
purpose structures, several large middens, and multiple exterior house
rows of posts and associated features. As with some of the other major
ancestral Huron-Wendat sites in southern Simcoe County, such as Wiacek,
Hubbert and Dunsmore, no surrounding palisade was found, suggesting that
these sites were occupied during a peaceful period in the fourteenth
century.
Miller – Ancestral Huron-Wendat Village
Location: Pickering This
pipe was found at the Miller site and is the most ornate from the site.
Extending about halfway down the bulbous bowl is a very fine
herring-bone pattern; below this, and covering the stem is an irregular
pattern of punctations.The Miller site was
excavated in the 1950s by the Royal Ontario Museum and is a palisaded
thirteenth century village consisting of six longhouses.
The structures ranged in size from 45.0 feet to 60.3 feet in length
and from 20.6 feet to 27.0 feet in width. An irregular palisade was also
recorded at the site, but no positive evidence of a gate or entrance to
the village was found.
Life was not always easy for the Huron-Wendat. Such fortified
villages were more common as violent conflict increased. By the early to
mid-seventeenth century, the Iroquois, the historical enemies of the
Huron-Wendat, were allied with the English, while the Huron-Wendat were
allied with the French. Sporadic attacks by enemies led to the
construction of palisades and earthwork complexes in easily defendable
villages on top of slopes due to an ongoing concern for communal
defense.
Turnbull – Ancestral Huron-Wendat Ossuary
Location: Simcoe County The
ossuary was situated overlooking the shore of Lake Couchiching, which
had been home to the ancestors in the ossuary. The site is protected
under the Ontario Heritage Act.Turnbull is a
fourteenth or fifteenth century Huron-Wendat ossuary encountered as a
result of earthmoving activities relating to the construction of a
residential subdivision.
Ossuaries of this size have been known to contain the secondary
remains of 200 to 400 individuals. Ossuary burial is a practice
characteristic of the Huron-Wendat culture and cosmology.
Generally, an ossuary was created when a village had to be moved
every 10 to 15 years due to decreasing fertility of surrounding soils
and increasing difficulty in finding firewood. Ancestors who had died
during the occupation of the village were respectfully unearthed and
then reburied all together and commingled within the ossuary. The
purpose of this sacred form of burial practice was that ancestors would
remain together, as they had in life, connected forever in a new
community.
Wiacek – Fourteenth Century Ancestral Huron-Wendat Village
Location: Barrie Limits of 1983 MTO and 1990 ASI excavations at the Wiacek site.The Wiacek site is an ancestral Huron-Wendat village located in the southern outskirts of the City of Barrie.
The site was partially excavated by the Ministry of Transportation
in 1983. Additional excavations were undertaken at the site in 1990 in
advance of the proposed construction of a subdivision. In total, seven
longhouse structures were found at the site. Radiocarbon dates and the
designs on ceramic vessels indicate an occupation in the mid- fourteenth
century.
Huron was a name given by the French meaning “boar’s head” in
reference to their hairstyle. Wendat is how they called themselves,
meaning the “People of the Island.” The Huron-Wendat lived in
bark-covered longhouses in villages sometimes surrounded by palisades.
Matrilineal families and strong clans were guided by a great diplomatic
tradition and their ability to achieve compromise.
Sebastian – Ancestral Huron-Wendat Site
Location: Pickering This
shell of a turtle was found on the surface of a pit that had been
excavated during an educational archaeology program. It was probably
discarded during its processing for food although turtle shells were
used for adornment and to make rattles.Preliminary
investigations of the ancestral Huron-Wendat Sebastien site yielded a
total of 2,246 artifacts, which represent only a sample from the
periphery of the site.
The site dates to the early thirteenth century. Artifacts recovered
from archaeological sites are often key to understanding the vital trade
and commerce of the Huron-Wendat people. Exotic artifacts help us to
recognize their enduring connections with distant nations. Marine shell,
for example, from the east coast, copper from the Lake Superior basin,
iron from Basque whaling stations and walrus ivory from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence all reveal fascinating long-distance contacts for the
Huron-Wendat.
Other artifacts help us learn about their lifeways, for example,
animal bones reflect hunting and fishing practices and their
contribution to the economy. Other artifacts relate to their clothing
and adornments. The Sebastian site has recently been home to Toronto and
Region Conservation Authority educational and public archaeology
programs.
Midland
Location: Huronia Park, Midland Fort Mackinac, Michigan by Seth EastmanMidland
and area were home to several First Nation communities prior to the
appearance of French explorers early in the seventeenth century.
Jesuit priests subsequently founded a Roman Catholic mission in
1639, Sainte-Marie, which was the first European settlement to be
established west of the pioneer communities in the St. Lawrence Valley.
After increasing attacks from the Five Nations, the Jesuits and their
followers burned the mission and abandoned it.
In the second half of the seventeenth century families were formed
by French fur trader fathers, First Nations mothers, and their
mixed-ancestry offspring. It was not until after the War of 1812,
however, that these Métis families began to settle in the Midland area
along with others who migrated from Drummond Island and Mackinac Island
to try their hand at farming.
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation Markers
Don River – Former Don River Settlement
Location: Toronto Watercolour painting of the Don River 1793 by Caroline SimcoeThe Don River flows from headwaters on the Oak Ridges Moraine.
“Wonscotonach”, the Anishinaabe place name, likely translates to
“burning bright point” and may refer to the practice of torchlight
salmon spearing. The Mississauga had a seasonal settlement here, where
they fished and hunted the marshlands for muskrat, duck and deer. This
settlement fell into disuse as the Mississaugas moved westward to a
newly established permanent village at the River Credit. Most
archaeological evidence of the Mississaugas on this site has been
destroyed. The river was essential to the Mississaugas as it connected
with trail systems that are followed by present day Yonge Street, the
gateway north.
Niagara Treaty
Location: Fort Mississauga, Niagara-on-the-Lake Reproduction of 1764 Treaty of Niagara Covenant Chain Wampum BeltThe
Niagara Treaty of 1764, entered into by the British and a number of
Indigenous Nations, extended the “Covenant Chain” alliance between the
British Crown and the Iroquois in eastern North America to other First
Nations in the north and west.
A series of treaty discussions took place in 1764 at Niagara,
including a great congress in July 1764 that involved more than 2,000
British, Crown and Aboriginal participants. Members of the Iroquois
Confederacy, the Mississauga/Algonquin, and the Huron Nations were among
the participants. Today, the resulting arrangements between the Crown
and First Nations are viewed by First Nations as involving an enduring
promise of mutual support and respect.
The Niagara Treaty was entered into at Fort Niagara, which stood
directly across the Niagara River from Fort Mississauga. The Treaty was
consummated with the exchange of traditional “Wampum Belts”, woven with
small beads, which conveyed the spirit and meaning of the agreement. The
treaty proceedings at Niagara in 1764 were instrumental in establishing
an enduring relationship of peace and friendship between the British
Crown and Great Lakes First Nations that previously had been allied with
the French.
Mouth of the Humber – Toronto Carrying-Place Trail
Location: Humber River, Toronto Toronto Carrying-Place Trail within boundaries of 1805 Toronto PurchaseThe Toronto Carrying-Place Trail was a major portage route, linking Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe and the northern Great Lakes.
It was a convenient trail for hunters, traders, explorers, missionaries and native community members.
The Anishinaabe people in south and central Ontario won many battles
against the Iroquois in the Beaver Wars. The victories forced the
Iroquois to return to their traditional lands in what is now upstate New
York. After a successful French-led expedition against a Seneca village
on the Humber in 1687 or 1688, the Mississaugas built a seasonal
village on the west bank of the river and used it for summer hunting,
fishing and farming. In the winter, the Mississaugas would move north
along the Carrying-Place Trail to hunt for food and furs.
By the mid-1800s, encroaching settlements disturbed this balanced,
seasonal way of life and pressured the Mississaugas to relocate.
Credit River – Former Credit Mission Village
Location: JC Saddington Park, Mississauga
In 1826, the government built a village for the Mississaugas on
their traditional lands on what is now the upper portion of the golf
club property overlooking the Credit River Valley.
The village began as 20 dressed-log houses including a combined
chapel and schoolhouse. The Mississaugas of the Credit Mission buried
their dead at an unknown location under the present golf course.
The Credit Mission Village prospered and by the late 1830s there
were nearly 50 houses with some 500 acres under cultivation. In
addition, they owned and operated two sawmills and a schooner. They were
known as the “good credit Indians” due to good business practices and
the site took on their name.
Settlement pressures and an inability to secure title to the lands
they occupied led to the Mississaugas moving from the Credit Mission
Village in 1847 to their present day location in Brant/Haldimand County.
Dundurn Castle/Burlington Heights
Location: Dundurn Park, Hamilton Portrait of Kahkewaquonaby (Reverend Peter Jones)The Mississaugas (Anishinaabe Peoples) have lived in the Niagara and Great Lakes region since the late 17th century.
Known as Head-of-the-Lake on the North shore of Lake Ontario, this
site was a strategic communication and trade junction. A trading post
established by Colonel Richard Beasley became a key location of trade
for the Mississaugas who established a permanent settlement nearby.
Dundurn Castle now stands in this location.
In 1802, Mississauga Chief and Methodist Missionary the Reverend
Peter Jones was born on the Heights. Jones worked tirelessly to promote
Christianity among his people and helped them adapt to an increasingly
dominant non-native world. The Heights had a military function during
the War of 1812, in which the Mississaugas participated.
Toronto Islands
Location: Toronto Plan of York surveyed and drawn by Lieut. Phillpotts Royal Engineers, 1818The Mississaugas’ traditional lands are located in southern Ontario. They spent their summers on these lands near the mouths of rivers
and streams and on these Toronto Islands. The Toronto Islands were
originally a long peninsula named “Menecing”, which translates “On the
Island”. The peninsula was a series of connected sand spits that held
spiritual significance for the Mississaugas. The long beach was
considered a place of healing and the Mississaugas brought their sick
here to recuperate. Early references speak to the healthy atmosphere and
the “peculiarly clear and fine” air of the peninsula. In addition to
its restorative power, the peninsula was used for numerous ceremonial
purposes including childbirth and burials. In the 1850s, a series of storms disconnected the body of the
peninsula from the mainland and led to the creation of the Toronto
Islands as they exist today. ( 1850 is the year that some researchers consider a time reset for the new civilization when an world wide mud flood was taking place. For a while Toronto was named mud city. Some of the old buildings in downtown Toronto have the sings of the mud flood buildings)
Brant’s Ford on the Grand River
Location: Brant’s Crossing, Brantford Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), c. 1807 by William BerczyFollowing
the American Revolution, some of the Haudenosaunee, (the people of the
longhouse) commonly referred to as Six Nations or Iroquois, relocated to
the Haldimand Tract along the Grand River from New York in 1784.
A Mohawk Village comprised of 400 inhabitants, log cabins, a long
house and chapel was established near a shallow part of the Grand River
which was used as a safe crossing point. It was named Brant’s Ford,
later Brantford, after Joseph Brant, an important Mohawk military and
political leader.
In 1813, Brant’s son, John, led a small contingent of warriors,
aided by some British troops, and turned back an American advance that
threatened to destroy the Mohawk Village. Today,
Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, now Ontario’s oldest
Protestant church (built in 1785) is all that remains of the settlement
that once stood here. The Mohawk Institute, a notorious residential
school in operation from 1831 to 1970 also stands close to the site of
the village.
Six Nations of the Grand River
Location: Brantford Grand River 1828Members
of the Haudenosaunee, (the people of the longhouse) commonly referred
to as Six Nations and Iroquois, who allied themselves with the British
during the American Revolution, faced persecution in the years that
followed the establishment of the United States government.
In 1784, as a result of petitions to the Crown, Sir Frederick
Haldimand, the Governor of Quebec (1778-1786), issued a proclamation
that authorized the “Mohawk Nation and such others of the Six Nation
Indians” to settle on a tract of land along the Grand River, “six miles
deep from each side of the river” from Lake Erie to its head. About
2,400 Six Nations people relocated to the Grand River from their
homeland in upstate New York.
Today, the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory has the largest First Nation population in Canada.
Indian Council House at Niagara
Location: Paradise Grove Park, Niagara-on-the-Lake Council House becomes Fort George HospitalNear
this place stood a Council House measuring 72’ by 26’ where Crown
representatives met with Native leaders to bolster their treaty
relationship.
Originally, the “King’s Fire” (the fire lit on behalf of the king at
the meeting place between the British and their Native allies) was
kindled near Albany, New York. The “King’s Fire” was moved to Fort
Niagara during the American Revolution, and relocated here in 1797.
In 1812, leaders of the Haudenosaunee, (the people of the longhouse) commonly referred to as
Six Nations and Iroquois, held a Condolence Ceremony at Council
House for Major General Isaac Brock and Lieutenant Colonel John
Macdonell who were killed in action at Queenston Heights.
In 1813, the Council House was burnt by retreating American Forces and was rebuilt in 1815.
Following the relocation of the capital of Upper Canada to York in
1822, the Indian Department ended use of the Council House and it was
repurposed as a hospital.
Native Trail Networks
Location: Hamilton Niagara Trails 1812According
to Six Nations oral tradition, many major roads in southern Ontario are
built upon ancient paths created by Native hunters, traders and
diplomats.
These pathways connected the Native settlements to hunting grounds,
trading posts, and forts. The most widely used was the Iroquois Trail,
running along the base of the escarpment from Albany, New York, passing
through Queenston and Ancaster and ending near Detroit, Michigan. The
Mohawk Trail ran parallel, from St. Davids to Ancaster.
The Niagara River Trail started in Niagara-on-the-Lake and followed
the Niagara River to the base of the escarpment at Queenston, connecting
Lake Ontario to the Iroquois Trail. Another important pathway later
became Plank Road, which is now Number 6 Highway. This pathway ran
through the Six Nations reserve and connected favored fishing locations
on Lake Ontario with Port Dover on Lake Erie. As you travel around the
Golden Horseshoe, think of the ones who first walked these same routes.
Highlights
Some of the markers tell stories that date back as far as the 1300s
and recount Indigenous people’s agricultural, economic and cultural
history. Some highlights:
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.
The Mississaugas became known as the “good credit Indians” due to good
business practices and the site took on their name: Credit Mission
Village. Read more from the marker.
