Teiaiagon
Teiaiagon was an
The name means "It crosses the stream."[1]
History
Étienne Brûlé passed through Teiaiagon in 1615.[3] The village was on an important route for the developing fur trade industry,[4] and it was also "surrounded by horticultural fields".[5] It was said to be about "a day's journey from the Toronto Lake, our present Lake Simcoe".[6]
On November 18, 1678,
Hennepin and others have recorded that the village was inhabited by as many as 5,000 people and had 50
The Senecas left the village, either pushed out by, or voluntarily for, the Mississaugas by 1701. With the removal of the Iroquois from southern Ontario by the Mississaugas,[9] the Anishinaabe and French trade began to flourish in the region shortly after the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701. Associated with this trade, there was a very small French garrison or Magasin Royal located near the site of Teiaiagon from 1720 to 1730. In 1730, the French garrison was located downriver of the site. A store was later built at the mouth of the Humber in 1750 and Fort Rouillé soon after, east of the Humber.
The Mississaugas did not live at the site of the village of Teiaiagon,[
Cartography
Possibly because early European explorers had difficulty in transcribing First Nations names into European orthographic systems, numerous spelling variations exist. These include Taiaiako'n, Taiaiagon, Teyeyagon, and Toioiugon.
The name "Teiaigon" appears on a 1688 map of New France drawn by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin based on "sixteen years' of observation of the author".[10] It was indicated to be on the eastern side of a small bay, from which a portage route led to the west branch of Lake Taronto.
Archeology
Excavations at Baby Point were first conducted in the late nineteenth century. Records from that excavation have been lost, though it is known that they revealed "traces of palisade walls".[5] In the late 1990s and early 2000s another excavation, conducted as a result of installation of a natural gas line to the residential neighbourhood, discovered the burial plots of two Seneca women, which were dated to the 1680s.[5] One of the women was buried with a moose antler comb engraved with a rattlesnake-tailed panther, "possibly representing Mishipizheu",[11] which morphs into a bear. The other woman was buried with three brass rings and a carved moose antler comb depicting "two human figures wearing European-style clothes flanking an Aboriginal figure".[11] Another burial plot on Baby Point was found in 2010 when a house was being renovated. Artifacts were studied and a ceremonial reburial took place.[12]
Just north of the site, in today's Magwood Park, is "Thunderbird Mound", which is believed to be an ancient burial mound.[12] The site has not been studied for its archaeology. The site is considered threatened by erosion and pedestrian traffic by the Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society.[13]
Iroquois villages on the north shore of Lake Ontario
By the late 1660s various Five Nation Iroquois had established seven villages along the shores of Lake Ontario where trails led off into the interior. In addition to Teiaiagon at the mouth of the Humber River, the following settlements have been identified by historian Percy James Robinson:[14]
- Ganneious - on the site of present-day Napanee
- Kente - on the Bay of Quinte
- Kentsio - on Rice Lake
- Ganaraske - on the site of present-day Port Hope
- Ganatsekwyagon - at the mouth of the Rouge River
- Quinaouatoua (or Tinawatawa) - Near modern-day Hamilton
See also
References
- Eid, Leroy V. (Autumn 1979). "The Ojibwa-Iroquois War: The War the Five Nations Did Not Win". Ethnohistory. 26 (4). doi:10.2307/481363.
- Groves, Tim. The Village of Taiaiako'n/Teiaiagon.
- Lizars, Kathleen Macfarlane (1913). The Valley of the Humber. Global Heritage Press (2010), William Briggs (1913). ISBN 978-1-926797-14-4.
- Schmalz, Peter S. (1991). The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. OCLC 21910492.
- Tanner, Helen Hornbeck; Hast, Adele; Peterson, Jacqueline; Surtees, Robert J.; Pinther, Miklos (1987). Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2056-8.
- Ronald F. Williamson, ed. (2008). Toronto: A Short Illustrated History of its first 12,000 Years. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company Ltd. ISBN 978-1-55277-007-8.
Notes
- ISBN 9781487584504. Retrieved Feb 18, 2022.
- ^ Tanner 1987: 33
- ^ Teiaiagon
- ^ Williamson 2008: 50
- ^ a b c d Williamson 2008: 51
- ^ Lizars 1913: 17
- ^ a b Lizars 1913: 24
- ^ Lizars 1913: 25
- ^ Eid 1979
- ^ Lizars 1913: 16
- ^ a b Williamson 2008: 52
- ^ a b "Archaeological Significance | Baby Point Heritage Foundation". Baby Point Heritage Foundation. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- ^ "Magwood Park". Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
- ^ Marcel, C.M.W. "Iroquois origins of modern Toronto". counterweights. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
43°39′22″N 79°29′43″W / 43.65601320416743°N 79.49539641090861°W