THE HISTORY OF

THE MISSISSAUGAS OF
THE NEW CREDIT
FIRST NATION
 INTRODUCTION
The intent of this brochure is to outline the general history of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First
Nation from the time before contact with Europeans in the early 1600s to the time of settlement in the
mid-1800s, onto the present Mississaugas of the New Credit Reserve in southern Ontario. The contents
of this brochure provide information on the historical way of life of ancestors of the Mississaugas of the
New Credit from the 1600s to the 1800s. The historical account presented in the following pages details
the relocation and settlement of ancestors of the Mississaugas of the Credit into southern Ontario, and
the nature and extent of use of lands in this time period.

Gathering Wild Rice by Captain Seth Eastman, the Ojibwa harvested this staple crop in late September. In order
to gather wide rice in the fall several people went out by canoe together. The individual in the stern paddled
while the others collected it and then beat the kernals free into the bottom of the canoe.
Courtesy of Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States. 3(1853):62
Map 1
Maplands
The 1 of the
The lands of the
Anishinabeg and
Anishinabeg
related and
peoples
about
related 1800
peoples, '
about 1800

Map 2
Sacred Feathers's
World: Mississauga
Map 2
Place-Names at the
Sacred
WesternFeathers’s
end of Lak
Ontario Mississauga e
World: Place-
Names at the
Western end of Lake
Ontario
 THE MISSISSAUGA NATION IN THE EARLY 1600s
The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation is part of the Ojibway (Anishinabe) Nation, one of the
largest Aboriginal Nations in North America. Before contact with Europeans and until the late 1600s,
the Mississaugas occupied a territory situated inland from the north shore of Lake Huron, just to the
west of Manitoulin Island and east of Sault Ste. Marie. The first known written record to identify and
locate the Mississaugas is a 1640 account of Aboriginal occupants of the Lake Huron by the French Je-
suits. In this document, the Mississaugas are identified as the Oumisagai. The name ‘Mississauga’ has
been given two possible meanings. One interpretation suggests the name refers to the Eagle Clan of the
Ojibway Nation. A second interpretation suggests the name refers to the mouth of the Mississagi River,
which was an important fishing location for the Mississauga people.

Like other Anishinabe people living along the north shore of Lake Huron, the Mississaugas followed
a way of life that involved mobility and recurring shifts in resource harvesting with the different sea-
sons of the year. In winter months, the Mississaugas were spread out over the Nation territory, living
in mobile groups of extended families. Family members cooperated in hunting large and small game
animals, and supplemented this main source of food with ice fishing. It was customary for families to
establish and move their winter hunting camps within certain ranges. However, there were no fixed
boundaries to hunting lands used by family groups, and in times of need people could count on neigh-
bouring groups to share food and other resources.

By early spring families moved to maple sugar grounds. At the end of the maple sugar harvest period,
all family groups gathered at spring fisheries. These fishing locations were important social and cere-
monial centres. The mouth of the Mississagi River was one of the main fishing centres for the Missis-
sauga people. Up to three villages were established in the area totalling about one thousand persons.
At this time of the year, people renewed social relationships after the long winter months, and individ-
uals developed marriage ties. Village populations performed communal religious rites. The summer
months were also the time in which the Mississaugas renewed and strengthened social, political and
economic relations with other Ojibway and Anishinabe Nations in the Lake Huron region. Mississau-
ga leaders and representatives often travelled to the Sault Ste. Marie area, which was one of the main
regional gathering centres for Anishinabe in the Upper Great Lakes.

Between late spring and early fall, people followed a much more sedentary lifestyle relative to winter.
The rich fisheries of Lake Huron allowed the Mississaugas to live in permanent villages throughout the
summer. The main subsistence activity was fishing sturgeon, trout, and whitefish. However, in addi-
tion to fishing, the Mississaugas also practised agriculture to some extent, cultivating corn, squash, and
other vegetables in family and village gardens. Summer was also the time in which people collected
bark from birch trees used to construct canoes and lodges.
With the approach of fall, the Mississaugas harvested their garden produce and collected a number
of wild fruits and vegetable products. A portion of collected fruits and vegetables, in particular corn
and blueberries, was set aside and preserved for later consumption in winter. By late fall, village pop-
ulations began to disperse along the shoreline of Lake Huron, hunting beaver and moose. After a last
harvest at fall fishing locations, people broke up into extended family groups and removed to inland
hunting ranges in preparation for winter.

Paul Kane’s painting in

1846 of Menominee Indi-
ans spearing fish by torch-
light on the Fox River in
a present day Wisconsin
could easily have been
painted half a century ear-
lier - about 1800, during
the spring or fall salmon
runs on the Credit River.
The Mississaugas used the
same fishing techniques as
their fellow Algonquians
on the Upper Great Lakes.
Courtesy of the Royal On-
tario Museum, Toronto,
Canada.

Paul Kane’s painting of an

Ojibwa village near Sault
Ste. Marie, Upper Cana-
da, in the mid 1840’s. It
represents very well what
Chief Wahbanosay’s en-
campment might have
looked like at the head
of Lake Ontario during
Sacred Feathers’s early
boyhood. Courtesy of the
Royal Ontario Museum,
Toronto, Canada.
MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT INTO SOUTHERN ONTARIO
The arrival of Europeans and the establishment and growth of colonies by the early-mid 1600s brought
Aboriginal Nations in eastern North America into increasingly complex political, economic and mili-
tary alliances with the two main competing European Nations - France and England. Anishinabe Na-
tions in the St. Lawrence and Ottawa River valleys and in the Upper Great Lakes, along with the Wen-
dat (Huron) living in the Penetanguishene peninsula and Lake Simcoe area, allied themselves with
French fur traders, missionaries, and the French colonial government. Meanwhile, the Five Nations
Iroquois Confederacy living south of Lake Ontario, had developed similar alliances with England.

During the first half of the 1600s, Anishinabe and Iroquois had occasionally engaged in military con-
flicts in attempts to access territories rich in fur bearing animals, and to control important fur trade trav-
el routes. By 1650, these conflicts had grown into full-scale regional warfare. The Iroquois destroyed
villages of the Neutral, Huron and Petun Confederacies between 1649 and 1650, forcing survivors to
flee to distant refuge areas. After 1650 southern Ontario became a vast hunting territory for the Five
Nations Iroquois, who now threatened more distantly established Anishinabe, including the Ojibway
of Lake Huron.

By the 1680s, the Anishinabe of the Upper Great lakes began to mount an organized counter-offensive
against the Iroquois. In the early 1690s, the Ojibway, Odawa and Potawatomi, now politically and mil-
itarily allied as the Three Fires, initiated a series of offensives that gradually pushed the Iroquois back
into their original homeland territory south of Lake Ontario. An oral tradition of these battles was kept
by the Mississaugas for over 200 years. In 1904, a narrative account told by Chief Robert Paudash was
recorded. This oral tradition was then published in the Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records
the next year. The tradition has been validated by modern historians and historical researchers.

The oral tradition indicates that the Mississaugas played a key role in Anishinabe battles with Iroquois.
It also describes how the settlement of Mississaugas into southern Ontario dates from the final removal
of the Iroquois from the region. According to Chief Robert Paudash, the Mississaugas first defeated a
party of Mohawks on an island in Georgian Bay named Pequahkoodebaminis (Skull Island). The Mis-
sissaugas then travelled along the Severn River to Lake Simcoe where they divided into two groups.
The main group continued east to Balsam Lake, and from there down through the Trent waterway to
the Bay of Quinté.

A second group of Mississaugas travelled south from Lake Simcoe along the Holland and Humber
Rivers. The southern route followed by the Mississaugas, known as the Toronto Carrying Place, was an
ancient and well known Aboriginal overland route linking Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. Aboriginal
peoples had long used it to avoid the long water passage via Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. French
explorers learned of its existence from Aboriginal people in the mid-1600s. In the 1700s French traders,
followed by Northwest Company traders, used this route as it proved a shorter and more efficient link
between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron than any alternatives at the time.
 Depiction of the defeat of the Iroquois. Around 1900 Mesaquab (Jonathon Yorker), an Ojibwa
Depiction of the Ojibwa defeat of the Iroquis. Around 1.900 Mesaquab (Jonathon Yorke), an
from the Rama Reserve, Lake Simcoe, made this representation of a rock painting that once
Ojibwa from the Rama Reserve, Lake Simcoe, made this representation of a rock painting
thatstood
onceonstood
Quarry Point, Lake
on Quarry Point Couchiching. As it was
Lake Couchiching. As it“some years years
was "some since since
the rock
thefell
rockintofellthe
intowater,” he relied
the water/' exclusively
he relied on hisonown
exclusively his memory. The design
own memory. was made
The design for theforlidthe
was make of lid Of
a birch-
a birchbark
bark box. The Ontario Provincial Museum’s Archaeological Report for 1904 states: “The
box. The Ontario Provincial Museum's Archaeological Report for 1.904 states: "The
design is said to represent two Ojibwa warriors after the last great battle fought with the
design is said to represent two Ojibwa warriors after the last great battle fought with the Iro-
Iroquois, the central figure being a Mohawk, or canienga. Mesaquab asserts that the Ojibwas,
quois,from
coming the central figure
the north, being athe
occupied Mohawk,
territory or Canienga.
forsaken Mesaquab
by their enemies.asserts that the Ojibwas,
coming from the north, occupied the territory forsaken by their enemies.

According to Chief Robert Paudash, after the Iroquois retreated to their homeland south of Lake
According to Chief Robert Paudash, after the Iroquois retreated to their homeland
Ontario, the Mississaugas negotiated a peace treaty with the Mohawk Nation. Upon returning from
south of Lake Ontario, the Mississaugas negotiated a peace treaty with the Mohawk
theseNation.
negotiations, the Mississaugas
Upon returning decided
from these to settle the
negotiations, permanently in southern
Mississaugas decided Ontario.
to settle Although an
exact date cannot be confirmed, historians generally agree that the process of southern Ontario settle-
permanently in southern Ontario. Although an exact date cannot be confirmed,
historians generally agree that the process of southern Ontario settlement by
ment by Mississaugas occurred in about 1695.
Mississaugas occurred in about 1695.

Onelarge
One largegroup
groupestablished
establishedthemselves
themselvesin inthe
the valley
valley of
of the
the Otonabee oror Trent
Trent River,
River, along Lake
along
Ontario andLake Ontario
the St. and the
Lawrence st. Brockville.
up to Lawrence up to BrockYille.
A second A second group
group established established
themselves to the west, in
themselves to the west, in an area between Thronto and Lake Erie. This latter group
an area
arebetween Toronto
the direct and Lake
ancestors of theErie. This Mississaugas
present latter group areof the
the direct ancestors
New Credit Firstof the present Missis-
Nation.
saugas of the New Credit First Nation.
 THE MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT:
HISTORICAL TERRITORY, RESOURCE AND LAND USE
The Mississaugas who settled in the area between Toronto and Lake Erie occupied and used a
large territory in south-western Ontario throughout the 1700s and into the 1800s. In about 1720, French
traders established a fur trade post at the western end of Lake Ontario. From this time onwards, the
Mississaugas were regularly involved in the regional fur trade. By 1750, another French trade post
had been built in the area of present-day Toronto (Fort Rouille). A practice soon developed by which
French, and later English fur traders would extend credit to the Mississaugas at a particular river lo-
cation. As a result, this river became known as the Credit River. By extension, the Mississaugas estab-
lished in the region became known to Europeans as the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Over time, the Mississaugas of the

Credit came to view the territory they
occupied and used in southern Ontar-
io as their traditional territory. In the
1800s, several detailed and consistent
geographic descriptions of what was
by then considered the traditional ter-
ritory of the Mississaugas of the Credit
were outlined in written documents.
One such description was provided to
the Governor General by Chiefs Joseph
Sawyer and John Jones in 1844:

The extent of country owned and pos-

sessed by the River Credit Indians
from time immemorial, extended as far
down as the river Rouge thence up the
said river Rouge to its source, thence
Westerly along the dividing ridge be-
tween Lake Huron and Ontario to
the head waters of the Thames thence
southerly to Long Point on Lake Erie,
thence down Lake Erie, Niagara River,
and Lake Ontario to the place of the be-
ginning.

In 1848 the Reverend Peter Jones,
whose Mississauga name was Kah-Ke-
Wa-Quo-Na-By, provided a similar de-
scription of the traditional territory of
his people in the Christian Guardian.
Portrait of Kahkewaquonaby, Reverand Peter Jones, Peter Jones Collec-
tion, Victoria University Library, Toronto. Matilda Jones, April 1832
The Reverend Peter Jones was at the time a well-known missionary and advocate not only for his
people, the Mississaugas of the Credit, but also for many other Aboriginal Nations and communities
in Ontario. By 1855, then as Chief of the New Credit Band, Peter Jones provided a further description
of the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit in a statement to the Indian Depart-
ment. This description is quoted in an insert on the map of Credit Mississauga Territory presented in
this brochure. The Reverend Peter Jones was at the time a well-known missionary and advocate not
only for his people, the Mississaugas of the Credit, but also for many other Aboriginal Nations and
communities in Ontario. By 1855, then as Chief of the New Credit Band, Peter Jones provided a fur-
ther description of the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit in a statement to the
Indian Department. This description is quoted in an insert on the map of Credit Mississauga Territory
presented in this brochure.

Between about 1695 and the mid-1820s, the Mississaugas of the Credit continued to follow a
yearly cycle of movement and resource harvesting in their southern Ontario territory. This yearly sea-
sonal cycle was generally comparable to the way of life followed by the Mississaugas on the north shore
of Lake Huron.

In winter months, extended family groups were dispersed throughout the territory of the Mis-
sissaugas of the Credit. Hunting provided the major means of subsistence in winter. A number of
large and small game, birds and fur bearing animals provided important sources of food and pelts for
commercial trade. Deer were abundantly available, and bear were also harvested although to a lesser
extent. Beaver and muskrats were important fur bearing animals whose pelts were traded in exchange
for European goods. However, these fur bearing animals were also harvested for food, and their meat
supplemented dietary needs of families.

In spring, families first moved to sugar bushes to tap maple trees. After the maple harvest, fam-
ilies congregated at the Credit River, the site of an important salmon fishery. Furs and pelts were also
brought to trade posts at this time. Fishing was supplemented by hunting small game and fowl, prin-
cipally ducks, geese and partridges.

Summer provided an abundance of resources for subsistence. Women planted corn and other
vegetables, tended to crops and collected a variety of wild foods. Berries, mushrooms, roots, and where
available, wild rice in the fall, were important wild foods that could be preserved for winter months.
Fishing, supplemented by hunting, were the main economic activities engaged in by men throughout
summer months. By fall, people often returned to the Credit River for salmon fishing and for obtaining
credit (trade goods) from European traders prior to returning to winter hunting grounds.

Toward the end of the 1700s, growing Euro-Canadian settlement in the Lake Ontario region
started to interfere with the seasonal movements and resource harvesting activities of the Mississaugas
of the Credit. However, the growing villages and towns also provided some opportunities for the Mis-
sissaugas of the Credit to supply this population with food and manufactured goods through barter
sales. The diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (wife of the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada)
details a number examples of receiving supplies of salmon, pike, geese, ducks and maple sugar from
barter sales by Mississaugas of the Credit in the 1790s.
Indian Sugar Camp, engraving by J.C. McRae of a wartercolour by Seth Eastman. The women usually left for the maple
sugar groves during the final muskrat hunt in the spring. The Henry Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information
Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, 6 vols.

In the 1820s, the Mississaugas of the Credit established a mission settlement on the Credit River under
the direction of the Reverend Peter Jones. The mission settlement quickly developed as a successful
agricultural community. Over the following years, the Credit River settlement gained considerable
political importance as a regional centre where a number of Ojibway Grand Councils were held.

However, throughout this time period, the Mississaugas of the Credit continued to travel extensively
for hunting and fishing. Many community members had developed close family relationships with
Ojibway and other Aboriginal peoples from several First Nation communities in southern Ontario, in-
cluding Muncey, Owen Sound and the Six Nations Iroquois on the Grand River. As Euro-Canadian set-
tlement intensified along the western end of Lake Ontario, Mississaugas of the Credit travelled further
inland and to more remote hunting grounds, for example, in the Muskoka area, to harvest renewable
resources.
 THE RELOCATION TO NEW CREDIT
Between the late 1700s and into the 1800s a number of events would have long lasting impacts
on the Mississaugas of the Credit and their land base. These events happened within broader social,
political and economic changes that included the development of Euro-Canadian settlement in Missis-
sauga territory, colonial government land grants to the Six Nations Iroquois and land purchases from
the Mississaugas.

Throughout the 1700s, the Mississaugas and the Iroquois Confederacy (which after the early
1700s included Six Nations) maintained peaceful relations. In the early-mid 1700s, the Mississaugas
were even admitted into the Confederacy. This formal political alliance would not last, in part because
of British attempts to undermine a growing pan-Indian alliance movement. However, it is clear that
friendly relations between Mississaugas of the Credit and Iroquois were maintained. At the request of
the British colonial government in 1784, the Mississaugas agreed to a land grant permitting settlement
of the Six Nations along the Grand River.

The land grant to the Six Nations was part of a series of ‘land surrenders’ (as the British con-
ceived the agreements) involving the Mississaugas first in 1784, and then later between 1787 and 1805.
In this time period, according to the English texts of agreements, the British colonial government ‘pur-
chased’ tracts of land along the Grand River and the entire Niagara Peninsula. In 1787 and 1788 two
additional large tracts of lands were purchased. The ‘Toronto Purchase’ covered much of what is today
central metropolitan Toronto. The ‘Gunshot Treaty’ covered Mississauga lands north of Lake Ontario.
Both of these land agreements remain controversial today. The original land purchase documents con-
tained defects by British legal standards at the time. For example, the 1787 Toronto Purchase was not
ratified by the British government until 1805, and the Gunshot Treaty was almost immediately consid-
ered invalid by colonial authorities.

The validity of these early ‘land surrenders’ by the Mississaugas of the Credit is also ques-
tionable on other grounds. The Mississaugas understood these agreements very differently from the
colonial government. The British saw land as a commodity and thought they were purchasing land or
rights to land once and for all. The Mississaugas conceived of their relationship to the land in spiritual
terms. They did not believe that land could be ‘sold’, or that their rights to use land and access resourc-
es for food and living, could be absolutely and permanently signed away.

After 1800, the growth of Euro-Canadian settlement in the Toronto area put increasing pressure
on the ability of the Mississaugas of the Credit to continue to make a living. At first, the Mississaugas of
the Credit responded by seeking to protect their ability to make a living on their territory. The Missis-
saugas petitioned the colonial government to secure for them exclusive rights to key fisheries in ‘land
surrender’ agreements. The text of the 1805 Toronto Purchase defined specific, exclusive rights to fish-
eries for the Mississaugas in the Twelve Mile Creek, the Sixteen Mile Creek, the Etobicoke River, and
the Credit River. In 1829, the Mississaugas of the Credit sought further protection of their fishing rights
in a petition to the Upper Canada government to secure their salmon fishery on the Credit River. Later
that year, an Act of Parliament was passed confirming exclusive rights of the River Credit Mississaugas
to hunt and fish along that river. The Act was confirmed again in 1835.
their fishing rights in a petition to the Upper Canada government to secure their
river. The
salmon Act
fishery on was confirmed
the Credit again
River. Later thatinyear,
1835.an Act of Parliament was passed
confirming exclusive rights of the River Credit Mississaugas to hunt and fish along that
river. The Act was confirmed again in 1835. Yet by the early 1840s th
Mississaugas of the Cred
Yet by the
early 1840s
Yet by the 1840s the
the early
Mississaugas that their
of the of
Mississaugas Credit ability
realized
the Credit
to make
real-
that their
ized their
ability
that to settlement
their make
abilitya to
living
make on
ata the
living Credit
their settlement at their
on the was in jeopardy.
settlement
River on the I
Riverinbecoming
Credit was Credit
jeopardy.was in jeopardy.
It increasingly
was It c
becomingwasincreasingly
becoming increasingly
clear thatclear
that the
the community
the community
community
would have would would ha
to have
anrelocate
relocatetotorelocate
areato an
less to
area an direct-
less
directly area less
ly disturbed
disturbed by disturbed by
Euro~Canadian Euro-Canadian
by Euro~Cana
settlement.
settlement. After After
considering considering
settlement. After consid
several several
options, options,
in 1847 in 1848
the the Mis-
several
sissaugas accepted options,
anoffer in 1847
offer from
Mississaugas accepted an
from the Six Mississaugas accepted a
the Six Nations to establish a new
Nations to establish a
settlement
from on a tract of land situ-
new settlement on thea tractSixof Nations
land to
ated in the southwest portion of
the Sixnew settlement
situated in the southwest portionon a tra
Nations Reserve.
of the Six Nations Reserve.
situated in the southwes
of the Six Nations Reser

MISSISSAUGAS OF
TUE NEW CREDIT
FIRST NATION

MISSISSAUGAS OF
TUE NEW CREDIT
FIRST NATION
A number of reasons convinced the leaders and people that this tract presented better possibilities
for successful relocation relative to other options. The land was within the traditional territory of the
Mississaugas of the Credit, and relatively close to the existing settlement on the River Credit. Also, the
land was of superior quality compared to other tracts, and presented greater potential for agricultural
development. Finally, over the years, the close ties between the Mississaugas of the Credit and the Six
Nations people had resulted in a number of intermarriages. The opportunity to maintain close family
ties proved an important attraction.

The relocated community became known as the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. This tract
of land was formally confirmed as the Mississaugas of the New Credit Reserve in 1903, which remains
to this day.

A special thanks to Praxis Research Associates, 6352 St. Louis Drive, Ottawa, Ontario for researching
and writing the MCNFN History.
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation
Tel: 905-768-1133
2789 Mississauga Road
R.R. #6 Hagersville, Ontario
N0A 1H0