Early Contact Period (1610-1700)

Europeans first arrived in what is now southern Ontario during the second decade of the seventeenth century. At the time, this area was quite different than it is today. Dense forests of enormous maple, oak, pine and chestnut sheltered a myriad of fur bearing animals such as beaver, bear, and wolf. Sixteen Mile Creek teamed with fish, including Atlantic salmon that returned yearly to spawn. From its source high in the Niagara Escarpment, the creek tumbled twenty- two miles downhill, dropping nearly 1,000 feet before emptying into Lake Ontario.

At the time of first European contact, the Ontario aboriginal population of 50,000 to 100,000 belonged to two major language families. Iroquoian speaking peoples, such as the Huron, Petun, and Neutral, were primarily horticulturists, while Algonquian speaking peoples, such as the Algonquin (Algonkin), Ojibwa (Anishnabe, or Chippewa), Nippissing, and Ottawa (Odawa) were primarily hunter- gatherers. The Huron (Wendat) inhabited the region between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, the Petun (Khionontateronon), lived southwest of the Huron and the Neutral (Attiouendaronk) were located along the northeast shore of Lake Erie, the Niagara Peninsula and areas immediately west of Oakville. To the north of Lakes Huron and Superior dwelt the Ojibwa. South of Lake Ontario, in what is now New York State, lived the Five Nations Iroquois--a confederacy comprised of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk.

The Iroquoians lived in semi-permanent villages of longhouses surrounded by palisades. In fields immediately outside the village, the women tended corn (maize), beans and squash. Fish and meat were provided by the men. Every ten to fifteen years, as firewood and village fields became exhausted, the village was moved to a new location several kilometres away. At that time, the dead would be exhumed and honoured with a "Feast of the Dead" to which neighbouring villages were invited. At the conclusion of the feast, ancestors were reburied in a communal pit called an Ossuary.

The Iroquoians were a matrilineal and matrilocal society. Descent was through the mother's line and a husband would reside in the longhouse of his mother-in-law along with his wife and children. As younger daughters married the longhouse would be extended to accommodate the expanding family.

Each Iroquoian belonged to a clan (named after birds and animals) and each village contained individuals from several clans. The clans were exogamous which means that no one could marry within his or her own clan. Clan mothers, usually the matriarchs of each clan, held considerable power and were responsible for choosing the chiefs. A chief had no real power and depended on his skill as an orator to bring his people to a consensus. If his performance was not satisfactory, he was removed and a new one was chosen.

Every February the Iroquois celebrated a midwinter ceremony called Ononharoia, which involved dancing, curing illness, and interpreting dreams. Their view of the afterlife included the belief that every individual had many souls each with a different function.

While the Ontario Iroquoians were military and economic allies of the French, their cousins the Five Nations Iroquois in New York State allied themselves first with the Dutch and later with the English. Although they shared a similar culture, the Five Nations Iroquois and the Huron were mortal enemies.

Europeans desired North American beaver pelts so that they could manufacture fashionable felt hats. Aboriginal people were eager to supply the peltry. To evade the Five Nations Iroquois, who controlled Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River, the Huron were forced to travel a more northerly route by way of Lake Nippising and down the Ottawa River to reach the French.

To please their French trading partners, the Huron allowed the Jesuits, or Black Robes, to live among them. It is from the Jesuits' meticulous journals that we have learned much about the Huron and other Iroquoians. As a few converted to Christianity, factionalism began to develop. At the same time, European diseases such as smallpox decimated the Huron population. Meanwhile, having exhausted their own hunting grounds of beaver, the Five Nations Iroquois looked northward to the rich hunting grounds of central Ontario. By 1649-1651 the Iroquois had driven the weakened Huron, Petun and Neutral from the area and were free to hunt north of Lake Ontario. While retaining their main villages in New York State, they established smaller villages along the north shore of Lake Ontario. By 1670 a Seneca village called Teyaiagon was strategically situated at the mouth of the Humber River. This and other Iroquois villages were abandoned by 1688.

Although trading allies of the French, the Ojibwa were not adverse to trading also with the English at Albany if they could obtain a better price for their furs. This brought the Ojibwa and Five Nations Iroquois into direct competition for the furs of southern Ontario. By the end of the century, the Five Nations Iroquois faced with their own internal problems of disease and factionalism could ill afford to antagonize the Ojibwa. They sought peace with the Ojibwa and conspired to act as middlemen between the Ojibwa and the British. Hoping to prevent the flow of furs south to Albany, the French built Fort Frontenac (present day Kingston) and a fort at Niagara. The Ojibwa had no interest in the Iroquois' scheme, declared war on them, and succeeded in pushing the Five Nations Iroquois out of Ontario and back to their homeland in New York State.

By the end of the seventeenth century there were no Iroquois remaining in Ontario. That left a void in the rich hunting grounds of southern Ontario. Over time some of the Ojibwa drifted south to occupy the abandoned Iroquois villages, and to inhabit the north shore.

Many trails linked the villages and hunting grounds together and it is probably safe to assume that Sixteen Mile Creek and its surrounding forests were frequently visited. All of these various aboriginal groups probably had occasion to fish and hunt here, although none erected permanent settlements in present day Oakville.

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