Between 1665 and 1670, seven Iroquois settlements on the north shore of Lake Ontario in present-day Ontario, collectively known as the "Iroquois du Nord" villages, were established by Senecas, Cayugas, and Oneidas. The villages consisted of Ganneious, Kente, Kentsio, Ganaraske, Ganatsekwyagon, Teiaiagon, and Quinaouatoua. The villages were all abandoned by 1701. [1]
The northern shores of Lake Ontario were first settled as early as eleven thousand years ago. While humans have lived along the northern shores of Lake Ontario for a long time, they have not been continuously settled. The Huron-Wendat had developed a distinct homeland along the northern shores of Lake Ontario in the 15th century, but moved north toward Georgian Bay by 1615, abandoning the northern shores of Lake Ontario. [2] The Iroquois raided the Huron in Ontario during the first half of the 17th century and began to establish greater control over the hunting grounds that existed between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe. By the 1640s the Huron-Wendat population had been reduced considerably by epidemics. In 1649, the Iroquois defeated the Huron, Petun, and then the Neutral, effectively destroying their enemies in Ontario. [3]
After the destruction of the Huron in southern Ontario the Iroquois began to make more frequent excursions on the northern shores of Lake Ontario. In the 1660s, the Iroquois began to expand their settlements north. A number of theories try to explain why the Iroquois began settling the northern shores of Lake Ontario. Economic reasons are considered the strongest motivation. By the 1640s the beaver had disappeared through over hunting in the traditional Iroquois homeland in modern-day New York state. The Iroquois were competing with both the Huron, Ottawa, and Algonquins for the fur trade. By establishing settlements on the northern shores of Lake Ontario the Iroquois were able to re-establish control on the flow of furs from the north and west towards Albany and Montreal. [4]
The Iroquois settlement into Ontario was part of a broader expansion of Iroquois groups in the mid 17th century. During this time the Iroquois also moved into what is today Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Quebec. Often these settlements were significantly closer to European settlements and have been characterized as Iroquois Colonies. [5]
The seven villages that were settled on the northern shores of Lake Ontario from east to west are:
Little is known about the seven villages due to an absence of detailed archaeological evidence. The most comprehensive archaeological evidence gathered to date is from Bead Hill, which is believed to be the site of Ganatsekwyagon along the Rouge River.
The villages do share some common traits that are evident from the available sources. The northern villages were likely seasonal campsites prior to becoming larger settlements. They are located at strategic points controlling access to Lake Ontario and near seasonally abundant fish and games. Six of the seven villages are all located on the best agricultural land found along the northern shores of the lake, according to the Canada Land Inventory. The Iroquois likely grew squash, corn, and beans. [4]
The villages were also significant staging points for hunting parties moving north and for fur trading. The villages were the scene of extensive trade between both French, Dutch, English, and Ottawa traders and the Iroquois. The villages were also the site of violence due to the exchange of fur for liquor. There are number of incidents that record instances of maiming and death at Ganneious, Teiaiagon, and Ganatsekwyagon due to drinking.
As in other Iroquois settlements longhouses were in parallel to each other and surrounded by palisades. The estimated size of the villages varies from 500 to 800 persons. The villages would have had 20 to 30 structures. Quinaouatoua, was perhaps the smallest with a population of less than 100 in the fall of 1669. [7]
The villages were settled by different tribes. The Seneca settled the westernmost villages of Quinaouatoua, Teiaiagon, and Ganatsekwyagon. The Cayuga settled Ganaraske, Kente, and Kentsio, and the Oneida settled Ganneious along the eastern edge of the lake. The villages were connected to each other by a system of trail and water routes.
While each village is identified with one group, there is a strong likelihood that the villages continued a common Iroquois practice of incorporating and adopting large groups of outsiders into settlements. For example, a Neutral style longhouse was found at Bead Hill, which was initially settled by the Seneca. Existing texts also characterized populations in Iroquois communities distant from the homeland as being multinational and multilingual. [5]
In 1668, the French began to visit the Iroquois villages to convert the local population to Christianity. Abbé Trouvé and François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon were sent by François de Laval from Montreal to establish a Sulpician mission in the village of Kente. The mission was deserted in 1680 due to a lack of success and funding. [8] Abbé Fénelon then went on a tour of other villages and would spend the winter of 1669 in the village of Ganatsekwyagon. François-Saturnin Lascaris d'Urfé visited a number of the towns on the North shore of Lake Ontario. French explorers Jean Peré and Adrien Jolliet also passed through the village of Ganatsekwyagon in 1669 on their way to Lake Superior. [9]
Relations between the Iroquois du Nord and the French were tense due to the intermediate conflicts known as the Beaver Wars. The villages were settled during a time of relative peace. In 1673 when the French established their first settlement along Lake Ontario, Fort Frontenac, in present-day Kingston, Ontario, many Iroquois from the nearby village of Ganneious resettled closer to the Fort. [10] Relations deteriorated as the political situation in present-day New York state changed, and in 1687 the French attacked the Iroquois, destroying villages in both New York state and along the northern shores of Lake Ontario.
The establishment of Fort Frontenac also appears to have shifted influence from Ganatsekwyagon to Teiaiagon. Most evidence indicates that Ganatsekwyagon was the more important settlement on the north shore due to its strategic position on the Rouge River arm of the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail. Following the construction of Fort Frontenac, Teiaiagon became more travelled for two reasons. First, the construction of the fort shifted the Iroquois toward the western route around Lake Ontario and second the French anchored at Teiaiagon instead of Ganatsekwyagon due to the superior anchorage for French trade barques. [11]
In Anishinaabe oral tradition holds that the Iroquois abandoned their villages north of Lake Ontario following a number of decisive battles won by the Anishinaabe in south and central Ontario during the Beaver Wars. In the Great Peace of Montreal, signed in 1701, the Iroquois Confederacy agreed to remain on the south shore of Lake Ontario. By 1701 the Anishinaabe group called the Mississauga had moved into the area between Lake Erie and the Rouge River. [12]
The easternmost villages of Kente and Ganneious were reportedly destroyed in 1687 by Jacques René de Brisay de Denonville. His troops took 200 prisoners from both villages, to fight in the Beaver Wars, before destroying them. [13] There are no accounts on the fate or condition of either Ganatsekwyagon or Teiaiagon after fighting broke out in 1687. It is assumed that, since both villages were no longer secure, they were abandoned some weeks earlier and the inhabitants fled to the south shore of Lake Ontario. [14]
Following the abandonment of the north of Lake Ontario by Iroquois some French geographers incorrectly place the Iroqouis du Nord and their villages on maps of southern Ontario as late as 1755. This would cause confusion among historians in the future when the Mississauga took possession of the northern shore of Lake Ontario. [15]
The following maps show evidence of the Iroquois settlements on the north shore of Lake Ontario. [16]
The Wyandot people are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America, and speakers of an Iroquoian language, Wyandot.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on 9 April 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later ill-fated expedition to the Gulf coast of Mexico gave the United States a claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. La Salle was assassinated in 1687 during that expedition.
Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is the North Channel.
The Mississaugas are a group of First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are a sub-group of the Ojibwe Nation.
The Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, also known as the Humber Portage and the Toronto Passage, was a major portage route in Ontario, Canada, linking Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe and the northern Great Lakes. The name comes from the Mohawk term toron-ten, meaning "the place where the trees grow over the water", an important landmark on Lake Simcoe through which the trail passed.
The Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout the Saint Lawrence River valley in Canada and the Great Lakes region which pitted the Iroquois against the Hurons, northern Algonquians and their French allies. As a result of this conflict, the Iroquois destroyed several confederacies and tribes through warfare: the Hurons or Wendat, Erie, Neutral, Wenro, Petun, Susquehannock, Mohican and northern Algonquins whom they defeated and dispersed, some fleeing to neighbouring peoples and others assimilated, routed, or killed.
The Grand River, formerly known as the River Ouse, is a large river in Ontario, Canada. It lies along the western fringe of the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario which overlaps the eastern portion of southwestern Ontario, sometimes referred to as Midwestern Ontario, along the length of this river. From its source near Wareham, Ontario, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Ohsweken, Six Nations of the Grand River, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland. One of the scenic and spectacular features of the river is the falls and Gorge at Elora.
The colony of Canada was a French colony within the larger territory of New France. It was claimed by France in 1535 during the second voyage of Jacques Cartier, in the name of the French king, Francis I. The colony remained a French territory until 1763, when it became a British colony known as the Province of Quebec.
Fort Frontenac was a French trading post and military fort built in July 1673 at the mouth of the Cataraqui River where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario, in a location traditionally known as Cataraqui. It is the present-day location of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The original fort, a crude, wooden palisade structure, was called Fort Cataraqui but was later named for Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France who was responsible for building the fort. It was abandoned and razed in 1689, then rebuilt in 1695.
Teiaiagon was an Iroquoian village on the east bank of the Humber River in what is now the York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located along the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail. The site is near the current intersection of Jane Street and Annette Street, at which is situated the community of Baby Point.
Joseph-Antoine le Fèbvre, sieur de La Barre was a French lawyer and administrator best known for his disastrous three years as governor of the colony of New France (Quebec).
Jacques-René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville was the Governor General of New France from 1685 to 1689 and was an important figure during the intermittent conflict between New France and the Iroquois known as the Beaver Wars.
François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1641–1679) was a Sulpician missionary in New France. He was ten years older than his half-brother, François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.
Fort de Buade was a French fort in the present U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula across the Straits of Mackinac from the northern tip of lower Michigan's "mitten". It was garrisoned between 1683 and 1701. The city of St. Ignace developed at the site, which also had the historic St. Ignace Mission founded by Jesuits. The fort was named after New France's governor at the time, Louis de Buade de Frontenac.
The Wenrohronon or Wenro people were an Iroquoian indigenous nation of North America, originally residing in present-day western New York, who were conquered by the Confederation of the Five Nations of the Iroquois in two decisive wars between 1638–1639 and 1643. This was likely part of the Iroquois Confederacy campaign against the Neutral people, another Iroquoian-speaking tribe, which lived across the Niagara River. This warfare was part of what was known as the Beaver Wars, as the Iroquois worked to dominate the lucrative fur trade. They used winter attacks, which were not usual among Native Americans, and their campaigns resulted in attrition of both the larger Iroquoian confederacies, as they had against the numerous Huron.
The Pays d'en Haut was a territory of New France covering the regions of North America located west of Montreal. The vast territory included most of the Great Lakes region, expanding west and south over time into the North American continent as the French had explored. The Pays d'en Haut was established in 1610 and depended on the colony of Canada until 1763, when the Treaty of Paris ended New France, and both were ceded to the British as the Province of Quebec.
Bead Hill is an archaeological site comprising the only known remaining and intact 17th-century Seneca site in Canada. It is located on the banks of the Rouge River in Rouge Park, a city park in Toronto, Ontario. Because of its sensitive archaeological nature, it is not open to the public, nor readily identified in the park. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1991, eventually becoming a unit of the national park system in June 2019.
Ganneious, also spelled Ganneous, is a former village, first settled by the Oneida, located on the North Shore of Lake Ontario near the present site of Napanee, Ontario, Canada. Starting in 1696, it was occupied by the Mississauga.:10 The name is most likely a likely misprint for the French "Gannejout(s)", meaning Oneida.
Tinawatawa, also called Quinaouatoua, was an Iroquois village of the Seneca people on the western end of the Niagara corridor, described as "a fertile flat belt of land stretching from western New York to the head waters of the Thames River". It was located on the western end of Lake Ontario.
The Carruthers Creek is a stream in the Durham Region of Ontario, Canada. Its watershed lies within the boundaries of Pickering and Ajax.