INDIANS WHO INHABITED TORONTO 



this name because here the Indians obtained goods 

 " on credit " from the whites) not far from Toronto, 

 whence they moved in 1847. They have been largely 

 successful in the assimilation of the culture of the 

 whites and now compete with them in several ways on 

 an equal basis. The Mississagas are practically all 

 Christians, having been converted before the middle 

 of the nineteenth century through the efforts of the 

 Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, aided by 

 Eev. Peter Jones, a half-blood Mississaga, chief and 

 historian of his people, who translated in 1835 The 

 First Book of Moses called Genesis into " the idiom 

 of the Mississaga form of the Chippewa," as School- 

 craft phrased it. 



In language, customs, habits, religious practices, 

 etc., the Mississagas did not differ seriously from the 

 Ojibwa or Chippewa, Peter Jones described him- 

 self, e.g., as belonging to " the Messissauga or Eagle 

 tribe of the Ojebway Nation," this bird serving as 

 the " totem " or ensign of his people. The Missis- 

 sagas buried their dead in the ground and blackened 

 their faces as a sign of mourning. They had the 

 custom of keeping alive the memory of the dead by 

 conferring his name on some one else or adopting 

 some one of the same name, a number of white men 

 and women have been named for this purpose by 

 them, from Dr. Ryerson, in 1826 by the Indians of 

 the Credit, to the writer of these lines, in 1888 by 

 those of Scugog. The Mississagas were a fishing and 

 hunting people ; the mouth of the River Credit was 

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