First Nations
 First Nations Information Station is located at the corner of Randall and Thomas street, overlooking the creek flats where the Mississauga grew corn before of the coming of Europeans. On the column we learn about both the prehistoric and post contact lives of the native peoples in this region.
Oakville's First People (9000 BC to AD 1847)
The first people to enter North America probably migrated across the Bering Land Bridge during the Ice Age, when sea levels were much lower than today. Hunting woolly mammoths and other big game, they eventually spread throughout North America, arriving in southern Ontario 11,000 years ago. The first inhabitants of southern Ontario were migratory people who subsisted through hunting, gathering and fishing. Over the millennia the climate warmed and plant and animal resources increased. These changes made widespread travel and a nomadic lifestyle less necessary.
Around 500 A.D., agriculture was introduced into southern Ontario and Iroquoian-speaking people began to settle in villages of longhouses. Further north, Algonquin-speaking people maintained the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, living in wigwams and moving with the seasons. They displaced the Iroquois in the 17th century.
Read David S. Smith's essay "The Native History of the Regional Municipality of Halton and the Town of Oakville: Part I"
Hunter-Gatherers and Fisher People (9000 BC to AD 500)
After the ice melted away from southern Ontario, Paleo-Indians moved into the region. Southern Ontario was a treeless tundra then, like today's Arctic. The Paleo-Indians travelled widely, hunting caribou with spear points made of chert, a type of quartz that could be chipped to produce very sharp edges. They wore clothing of hides and furs, and lived in caves, under rock overhangs, and in lean-tos made of brushwood. Gradually over the millennia the people became less nomadic. They settled into specific territories and watersheds, built burial mounds in some areas, and began to produce pottery.
Read David S. Smith's essay "The Native History of the Regional Municipality of Halton and the Town of Oakville: Part II"
The First Horticultural People (AD 500 to 1610)
In the Late Woodland period (AD 500-1000) people of the Princess Point Complex introduced corn into southern Ontario. Evidence of their culture has been found at Cootes Paradise in Hamilton and along the Credit River. The Princess Point culture ultimately led to the Iroquoian-speaking people who lived in the area (AD 1000 - 1600) and whom French explorers encountered at the beginning of the 17th century. These people settled on river flats where they could farm. Living in longhouse villages surrounded by palisades, they supplemented their crops of corn, beans and squash by hunting, fishing and trapping.
Read David S. Smith's essay "The Native History of the Regional Municipality of Halton and the Town of Oakville: Part III"
Early Contact Period (1610-1700)
Europeans first arrived in what is now southern Ontario during the second decade of the 17th century. At the time, the area was populated by three major groups of Iroquoian-speaking people: Huron, Petun and Neutral. By 1650 these aboriginal inhabitants were dispersed by the Five Nations Iroquois who lived in what is now New York State. During the period 1667-1688, the Iroquois established several outposts along the north shore of Lake Ontario. By 1700, the Iroquois were in turn replaced by the Algonquian-speaking Ojibwa. All of these groups probably fished and hunted along Sixteen Mile Creek, although none erected permanent settlements here.
Read Sheila Campbell and Betty-Jean Lawrence's essay "Early Contact Period (1610-1700)"
The Mississauga People (1701-1800)
Many of the Ojibwa who moved into southern Ontario during this period came to be known as the Mississauga. These First Nations people were primarily hunter-gatherers who travelled in small bands. In winter they hunted in the interior and during the warmer months they frequented the mouths of the rivers and creeks flowing into the Great Lakes. The Ojibwa called Sixteen Mile Creek Nanzuhzaugewazog or "having two outlets" because of the gravel bar dividing its mouth. Here they fished for salmon and planted a small quantity of corn on the flood plain. The Mississauga also had an active trade, first with the French and later with the British.
Read Sheila Campbell and Betty-Jean Lawrence's essay "The Mississauga People (1701-1800)"
The Treaty Period (1801-1847)
Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, European settlement could not proceed without a formal treaty with the aboriginal proprietors of the land. In 1805 the Mississauga agreed to surrender all the lands from Etobicoke River to Burlington Bay.
Since the fishery was important to them, the Mississauga insisted on reserving for themselves the lower portions of the rivers, including Sixteen Mile Creek, together with the flood plains where they had their camps and small cornfields. These reserved parcels were also ceded to the Crown in 1820. The Mississauga moved out of the area in 1847. Their descendants now live at the New Credit Reserve near Hagersville, Ontario.
Read Sheila Campbell and Betty-Jean Lawrence's essay "The Treaty Period (1801-1847)"
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