Mantle Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village
Encyclopedia
The Mantle site in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, north-east of Toronto
, is the largest and most complex ancestral Wendat-Huron village to be excavated in the Lower Great Lakes
region to date.
In 2003, a Huron village from the late Precontact Period (i.e., immediately prior to the arrival of Europeans) was discovered during the construction of a new subdivision in Whitchurch–Stouffville along Stouffville Creek, a tributary of West Duffins Creek, on a section of Lot 33,
Concession 9. From circa 1500 to 1530 AD, 1500 to 2000 people inhabited the 10.4 acre site. The entire community likely arrived from what is known as the Draper Site
, located five kilometres south-east of Mantle in north Pickering
. The Mantle site was enclosed by a three-row wooden fort-like structure (palisade
) with 95 longhouse
s, of which at least 50 were occupied at any one time. Each longhouse was approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, 20 feet (6.1 m) high; lengths varied from 40 feet (12.2 m) to 160 feet (48.8 m), with a typical length of 100 feet (30.5 m). They were constructed from maple or cedar saplings and covered by elm or cedar bark. The layout displays a uniquely high degree of organization (when compared, e.g., to the Draper Site), and includes an open plaza and a developed waste management system.
Maize comprised 55% of the community's diet, which translates to approximately one pound of maize per person per day, or (minimally) 1,500 pounds for the community per day. More maize may have been required for trade with the Algoquin peoples to the north. The community also required between 3,000 and 6,800 deer hides per year for clothing needs.
A series of modeled human and animal effigies
on ceramic vessels were found on the site. These are similar to ones found on contemporaneous Oneida
villages in New York State, indicating the cosmopolitan nature of the community that settled the Mantle site. Unlike other indigenous villages in the Great Lakes region, the Mantle site is unique "in that it represents a community that had already come together from several villages and chose to build here." During its existence, the community was the only village near the eastern Rouge trail linking Lake Ontario
and Lake Simcoe
and north.
After two or three decades on the Mantle site, the location was abandoned in the first half of the sixteenth century. The community likely moved five kilometres north-west to the so-called Ratcliff site
and / or the Aurora/Old Fort site
. In the seventeenth century the community likely joined others to form one of the Huron tribes in the Orillia-Georgian Bay
area.
With the discovery of the Mantle site by Lebovic Enterprises, Archaeological Services Inc. was contracted to complete an evaluation of the site's significance. A decision was made to preserve about 5% of the original Mantle site, primarily along the bank of the creek. The site was documented and over 150,000 artifacts were removed for study and interpretation at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. The archeological site work took three years to complete (2003–2005). Most of the site is now a storm water pond; the homes on the south-west corner of Lost Pond Crescent are also on the village site. A small cemetery was also found outside the village walls and has been preserved and protected in accordance with the provincial cemeteries act and in consultation with First Nations
. The consequent development of the west side of the creek in the Fieldgate River Ridge subdivision around James Ratcliff Avenue was delayed significantly. The village ossuary
, a mass grave with an expected 300 to 400 skeletal remains, has not been yet been located. The Town of Whitchurch–Stouffville is planning further housing development immediately south of the Mantle site in the town's Phase Two development plan, beginning 2010.
In 2004, First Nations
peoples visited the site and performed ceremonies. The Mantle site (among others) is mentioned in the 2007 provincial inquiry into the Ipperwash Crisis
; the report highlights the importance of ancestral burial sites to First Nations
people, explains why they often become flashpoints for occupation (a need to protect them from further desecration), and recommends consultation with First Nations
regarding the disposition of a site. Consequently in 2007, the Town Council of Whitchurch–Stouffville recognized the Mantle site as one "one of the most significant Huron ancestral villages in Southern Ontario," and committed itself to work with the Huron to "assign aboriginal names to watercourses, streets and trails in and around the Mantle site and elsewhere in the municipality." In 2011, the York Region District School Board
announced that it would name the new school to built adjacent to the site the "Wendat Village Public School."
The Huron (Wendat) are considered part of the larger Iroquoian
cultural and language family. The Huron-Wendat Nation is a First Nation whose community and reserve today is located at Wendake, Quebec
. The Huron as well as other local First Nation peoples have urged towns and developers in York Region to preserve aboriginal sites "for worship at the places where [their] ancestors are buried."
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, is the largest and most complex ancestral Wendat-Huron village to be excavated in the Lower Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
region to date.
In 2003, a Huron village from the late Precontact Period (i.e., immediately prior to the arrival of Europeans) was discovered during the construction of a new subdivision in Whitchurch–Stouffville along Stouffville Creek, a tributary of West Duffins Creek, on a section of Lot 33,
Concession 9. From circa 1500 to 1530 AD, 1500 to 2000 people inhabited the 10.4 acre site. The entire community likely arrived from what is known as the Draper Site
Draper Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village
The Draper Site is a Precontact period Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on a tributary of West Duffins Creek in present-day Pickering, Ontario, approximately 35 kilometres north-east of Toronto....
, located five kilometres south-east of Mantle in north Pickering
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada.- Early Period :...
. The Mantle site was enclosed by a three-row wooden fort-like structure (palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
) with 95 longhouse
Native American long house
Longhouses were built by native peoples in various parts of North America, sometimes reaching over but generally around wide. The dominant theory is that walls were made of sharpened and fire-hardened poles driven into the ground and the roof consisted of leaves and grass...
s, of which at least 50 were occupied at any one time. Each longhouse was approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, 20 feet (6.1 m) high; lengths varied from 40 feet (12.2 m) to 160 feet (48.8 m), with a typical length of 100 feet (30.5 m). They were constructed from maple or cedar saplings and covered by elm or cedar bark. The layout displays a uniquely high degree of organization (when compared, e.g., to the Draper Site), and includes an open plaza and a developed waste management system.
- The community would have required more than sixty thousand even-aged saplings to construct houses and palisade walls and the agricultural field system would have been hundreds, if not thousands of hectares in extent. ... it would appear that refuse was directed out of the interior of the village into a borrow trench situated on the outside of the palisade—thereby representing one of the first organic and inorganic waste stream management systems known in the northeast.
Maize comprised 55% of the community's diet, which translates to approximately one pound of maize per person per day, or (minimally) 1,500 pounds for the community per day. More maize may have been required for trade with the Algoquin peoples to the north. The community also required between 3,000 and 6,800 deer hides per year for clothing needs.
A series of modeled human and animal effigies
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
on ceramic vessels were found on the site. These are similar to ones found on contemporaneous Oneida
Oneida tribe
The Oneida are a Native American/First Nations people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area of upstate New York...
villages in New York State, indicating the cosmopolitan nature of the community that settled the Mantle site. Unlike other indigenous villages in the Great Lakes region, the Mantle site is unique "in that it represents a community that had already come together from several villages and chose to build here." During its existence, the community was the only village near the eastern Rouge trail linking Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
and Lake Simcoe
Lake Simcoe
Lake Simcoe is a lake in Southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called Ouentironk by the Huron natives...
and north.
After two or three decades on the Mantle site, the location was abandoned in the first half of the sixteenth century. The community likely moved five kilometres north-west to the so-called Ratcliff site
Ratcliff Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village
The Ratcliff or Baker Hill site is a 16th-century Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on one of the headwater tributaries of the Rouge River on the south side of the Oak Ridges Moraine in present-day Whitchurch–Stouffville, approximately 25 kilometers north of Toronto...
and / or the Aurora/Old Fort site
Aurora Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village
The Aurora Site, also known as the "Old Fort," "Old Indian Fort," "Murphy Farm" or "Hill Fort" site, is a sixteenth-century Huron-Wendat ancestral village located on one of the headwater tributaries of the East Holland River on the north side of the Oak Ridges Moraine in present-day...
. In the seventeenth century the community likely joined others to form one of the Huron tribes in the Orillia-Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada...
area.
With the discovery of the Mantle site by Lebovic Enterprises, Archaeological Services Inc. was contracted to complete an evaluation of the site's significance. A decision was made to preserve about 5% of the original Mantle site, primarily along the bank of the creek. The site was documented and over 150,000 artifacts were removed for study and interpretation at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. The archeological site work took three years to complete (2003–2005). Most of the site is now a storm water pond; the homes on the south-west corner of Lost Pond Crescent are also on the village site. A small cemetery was also found outside the village walls and has been preserved and protected in accordance with the provincial cemeteries act and in consultation with First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
. The consequent development of the west side of the creek in the Fieldgate River Ridge subdivision around James Ratcliff Avenue was delayed significantly. The village ossuary
Ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary...
, a mass grave with an expected 300 to 400 skeletal remains, has not been yet been located. The Town of Whitchurch–Stouffville is planning further housing development immediately south of the Mantle site in the town's Phase Two development plan, beginning 2010.
In 2004, First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
peoples visited the site and performed ceremonies. The Mantle site (among others) is mentioned in the 2007 provincial inquiry into the Ipperwash Crisis
Ipperwash Crisis
The Ipperwash Crisis was an Indigenous land dispute that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario in 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park in order to assert their claim to nearby land which had been expropriated from them during World War II...
; the report highlights the importance of ancestral burial sites to First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
people, explains why they often become flashpoints for occupation (a need to protect them from further desecration), and recommends consultation with First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
regarding the disposition of a site. Consequently in 2007, the Town Council of Whitchurch–Stouffville recognized the Mantle site as one "one of the most significant Huron ancestral villages in Southern Ontario," and committed itself to work with the Huron to "assign aboriginal names to watercourses, streets and trails in and around the Mantle site and elsewhere in the municipality." In 2011, the York Region District School Board
York Region District School Board
The York Region District School Board, also known as YRDSB, is the English-language public school board for York Regional Municipality located in Ontario, Canada. The York Region District School Board is currently the province's third largest school board, with an enrollment of over 115,000 students...
announced that it would name the new school to built adjacent to the site the "Wendat Village Public School."
The Huron (Wendat) are considered part of the larger Iroquoian
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
cultural and language family. The Huron-Wendat Nation is a First Nation whose community and reserve today is located at Wendake, Quebec
Wendake, Quebec
Wendake is the current name for the Huron-Wendat reserve, an enclave within Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. One of the Seven Nations of Canada, this was formerly known as Village-des-Hurons , and also as -Lorette....
. The Huron as well as other local First Nation peoples have urged towns and developers in York Region to preserve aboriginal sites "for worship at the places where [their] ancestors are buried."
Further reading
- Birch, Jennifer. "Rethinking the Archeological Application of Iroquoian Kinship." Canadian Journal of Archeology 32 (2008). pp. 194–213, esp. p. 205.
- Birch, Jennifer. "Coalescence and Conflict in Iroquoian Ontario." Archeological Review from Cambridge 25, no. 1 (2010). pp. 29–48.
- Sioui, Georges E. Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle. Trans. J. Brierley. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1999.
- Trigger, Bruce. The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. 2 vols. Montreal: McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1982; also "Sixteenth Century Ontario," in Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered. Montreal: McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1986. Pp. 149–161.
- Warrick, Gary A. A Population History of the Huron-Petun, A.D. 500-1650. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Williamson, Ronald F., ed. Toronto: An Illustrated History of its First 12,000 Years. Toronto: James Lorimer, 2008. Ch. 2 (with some photographs of the Mantle Site project, pp. 37, 40, 45, 47).
External links
- The Huron-Wendat Museum, Wendake, QuebecWendake, QuebecWendake is the current name for the Huron-Wendat reserve, an enclave within Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. One of the Seven Nations of Canada, this was formerly known as Village-des-Hurons , and also as -Lorette....
- Huron-Wendat Nation, Wendake, QuebecWendake, QuebecWendake is the current name for the Huron-Wendat reserve, an enclave within Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. One of the Seven Nations of Canada, this was formerly known as Village-des-Hurons , and also as -Lorette....
. - Agondachia Association, Ossossane Fondation, Wendake, QuebecWendake, QuebecWendake is the current name for the Huron-Wendat reserve, an enclave within Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. One of the Seven Nations of Canada, this was formerly known as Village-des-Hurons , and also as -Lorette....