1855.] 



INDIAN,' TRIBES OF CANADA. 



209 



(juai'ter; those orbits having great eccentricity, have also gene- 

 rally great inclination to the ecliptic. 



4. Their orbits so interlace, that, if represented materially as 

 hoops, the orbit of one would support the orbits of all the 

 others; in other words, they all hang together in such a man- 

 ner, that the whole group may be replaced by any given one ; 

 " thus affording," says D' Arrest, " the strongest evidence of the 

 intimate conQection that exists amongst them." 



Indian Tribes of Canada. 



(Rprirl before the Canadian Institute, February lOth, 1855.) 

 By Wm. Bleasdell, M.A., Tuento.n, C.W. 



Of the first inhabitants of the Province, and especially of the 

 Indian tribes of Western Canada, little is known previous to 

 the settlement of the banks of the St. Lawrence by the French. 

 Apparently too little attention has been paid in times gone by 

 to the preservation of those Indian traditions, which, in the 

 absence of written records and architectural monuments, are 

 the only materials by which an idea of the shadowy past of a 

 nation or a race can be attained. 



On the discovery of the River St. Lawrence and the coloni- 

 zation of the lower .section of the Province, the north bank of 

 the river, between Quebec and the Ottawa, was occupied by the 

 Algonquin or Adirondac race of Indians. In close alliance 

 with these were the Wyandots or Quatoghies, a tribe of a dif- 

 ferent stock to the Algonquin — it being a kindred one to the 

 Iroquois. Between the Wyandots and the other Iroquois tribes 

 there existed a deadly feud. On the arrival of Jacques Cartier, 

 the discoverer of the St. Lawrence in 1534, the Wj'andots 

 occupied the lower part of the river on the south bank, as far 

 as the Island of Anticosti and the Bay of Chalcurs. 



With the Algonquin tribes and the Wyandots the Iroquois 

 Indians waged an incessant warfare, and eventually drove them 

 from the valley of the St. Lawrence — a few only of each tribe 

 remaining there. The bulk of the Algoncjuins drew oif to the 

 north-west, near Lake Nipissing ; the Ottawas of the Algonquin 

 stock, who at that time lived also on the banks of the St. Law- 

 rence, migrated to the great chain of the Manitoulin Islands in 

 Lake Huron, and the Wyandots fled to the shores of the same 

 lake, to which they communicated the name they had received 

 from the French, being called by them Hurons. 



At the same period came some others of the tribes of the 

 Algonquin stock, and occupied the country between Lakes 

 Huron and Superior and the river Ottawa. The chief and 

 most prominent amongst those are the Chippewas or Ojibwas. 

 These Indians, the most numerous and the most widely spread, 

 were of the true Algonquin race. These arc believed, at a 

 comparatively recent period, to have been sub-divided into 

 smaller tribes or divisions, bearing some local name, and differ- 

 ing scarcely in any perceptible degree in language, looks, and 

 customs. Of these the Jlississauguas, or Missi.ssaguas, the In- 

 dian occupants of the northern shores of Lakes Ontario and 

 Erie, and the Bay of Quinte, were situated most to the south. 

 Their language is pure Algonquin ; and they were designated 

 Mississauguas from the fact of their inhabiting the banks of a 

 river of that name, on the north shore of Lake Huron, between 

 La Cloche and Point Tessalon. Spreading southwards from 

 thence, in 1053, they arc stated to have extended to the tract 

 of country lying between the Niagara and Genesee rivers, south 

 of Lake Ontario. This could not have continued for any ex- 

 tended period, for they must thus have been intruding on the 



territory especially claimed by the Iroquois confederacy, with 

 whom the Mississauguas, in common with the other Algonquin 

 races, were embroiled in incessant warfare. 



And many a spot by lake and river, on headlands and on 

 islands, bore witness in those days to the fell conflict, and re- 

 echoed the startling war-whoop, traces of which struggles in 

 many places remain to this day. In the great Indian and Co- 

 lonial struggle which raged with such violence during the 

 seventeenth century, and in which the Algonquin tribes and 

 the Wyandots were ranged on one side, supporting the French 

 dominion in North America, and the Five Nations of the Iro- 

 quois confederacy were opposed to it, the Eries, a tribe of 

 the same stock as the latter, and inh abiting the banks of the 

 Niagara river and the south shore of Lake Erie, occupied a 

 neutral position, and hence were designated by the French, the 

 Neutral Nation. They eventually offended their kindred of 

 the Five Nations, which led to a war of extermination, that 

 ended in the year 1653. Since that event not a remnant of 

 them has been heard of. 



During this period, and a long time previously to this, the 

 Canadian frontier and the shores of Lake Ontario and the Bay 

 of Quinte more especially became the great battle-field of the 

 Indians of the rival races of the Algonquin and Iroquois con- 

 federacies, and it formed a sort of debatable ground, which 

 continued more or less until the final conquest of Canada, and 

 the overthrow of the French dominion in North America. In 

 1G72 Fort Frontenac, at the mouth of the river Catararqui, at 

 the outlet of Lake Ontario, was builtby that able and energetic 

 Governor of Canada, Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac ; 

 and this post became a centre of action, from whence the influ- 

 ence of the French was extended in military, trading, and mis- 

 sionary operations to the surrounding country. Thus, in the 

 course of time, Fort Frontenac became the general resort and 

 rendezvous of the Northern and Western tribes of Indians, and 

 the centre of their trade with the French. From all directions 

 they repaired thither, even, it is said, from the distance of 1000 

 miles, bearing with them the produce of the chase, the rich 

 spoils of the hunter and trapper, to exchange for European 

 goods. From Fort Frontenac, le Salle and de Tonti, with the 

 Recollect Fathers, Louis Hennipen, Membre, and Watteax, 

 sailed westward towards the Mississippi in 1679, and first saw 

 and described the Falls of Niagara. 



The former occupants of Western Canada were, as we have 

 seen, then chiefly of the Mississaugua tribe, and these, with 

 others of the Chippewa race and Algonc|uin stock, and their 

 a.ssociate tribe, the Wyandots or Hurons, of the Iroquois stock, 

 may be said to have been those who occupied the Province 

 previously and subsequent to its first colonization by the French, 

 and indeed to its subjection to British rule and enterprise. The 

 Five Nations of the Iroquois confcderac}', viz., the Mohawks, 

 Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Senecas, having their terri- 

 tory originally comprehended in the present State of New \ ork, 

 though they have had the majority of thcirtribos settled within 

 the Province since the war of the American Revolution, yet 

 they cannot be considered as the aborigines of Canada, but as 

 refugee Loyalist Indians. Their confederacy w:xs increased by 

 the addition of the Tuscaroras in 1712, and thus they formed 

 the Six Nations. There is, indeed, a tradition tha< these Iro- 

 quois came from beyond the great Lakes, and subd ucd or ex- 

 terminated the inhabitants of the country south of them, but 

 there is an uncertainty respecting this, and it proves nothing 

 respecting their origin, for the time might have been when the 

 ancestors of these pas.sed from the south to the countr^• noith 

 of the Lakes. 



