Teiaiagon
Encyclopedia
Humber River (Ontario)
The Humber River is one of two major rivers on either side of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999....
in Toronto
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...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was located along the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail
Toronto Carrying-Place Trail
The Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, also known as the Humber Portage and the Toronto Passage, was a major portage route in Ontario, Canada, linking Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe and the northern Great Lakes...
. The site is currently near the intersection of Jane Street and Annette Street or the community of Baby Point
Baby Point
Baby Point is a residential neighbourhood in west end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was formerly in the City of York, and was two independent municipalities prior to that. It is bounded on the west by the Humber River from south of Baby Point Crescent to St. Marks Road, east to Jane Street and...
.
History
The establishment of the village has slipped away into time immemorialTime immemorial
Time immemorial is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition, indefinitely ancient, "ancient beyond memory or record"...
. According to Percy Robinson's, "Toronto Before the French Regime", it shows Teiaiagon as being a jointly occupied village of Seneca
Seneca nation
The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...
and Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
. Helen Tanner's "Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History" describes Teiaiagon as a Seneca village around the years 1685-1687, although it existed before that time, and as a Mississauga
Mississaugas
The Mississaugas are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwa...
village around 1696.
Though the regional population movements were complex, a major shift in the village history as displayed in archaeological evidence appears to have been connected to the formation of a league among the five Iroquois
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...
nations south of Lake Ontario before the arrival of Europeans. The "League Iroquois" engaged in escalating warfare against other Iroquoians.
Étienne Brûlé
Étienne Brûlé
Étienne Brûlé , was the first of European French explorers to journey along the St. Lawrence River with the Native Americans and to view Georgian Bay and Lake Huron Canada in the 17th century. A rugged outdoorsman, he took to the lifestyle of the First Nations and had a unique contribution to the...
passed through Teiaiagon in 1615. Hennepin
Louis Hennepin
Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, was a Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect order and an explorer of the interior of North America....
and others have recorded that the village was inhabited by as many as 5000 people and had 50 long houses. By 1687, the village was destroyed by DeNonville, the French and 200 native Christian converts. With the removal of the Iroquois out of southern Ontario by the Mississaugas, the Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
and French trade began to flourish in the region shortly after the Great Peace of Montreal
Great Peace of Montreal
The Great Peace of Montreal was a peace treaty between New France and 40 First Nations of North America. It was signed on August 4, 1701, by Louis-Hector de Callière, governor of New France, and 1300 representatives of 40 aboriginal nations of the North East of North America...
of 1701. Associated with this trade, there was a very small French garrison located somewhere on the old site of Teiaiagon from 1720-1730. In 1730 the French garrison was located downriver off the site of Teiaiagon. There was a 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) burial ground located in the central part of the village. The area of the village-site was overtaken by the Mississauga Indians and later by the French (1750) with a fort called Baby Point. The Mississaugas also did not live at the site of the village of Teiaiagon, but had a village located across the Humber River, on the west bank of the river, near Old Mill Road and Bloor Street
Bloor Street
Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct westward into Mississauga, where it ends at Central Parkway. East of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same...
from 1788-1805. James Bâby
James Baby
James Baby was a judge and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born Jacques Bâby, the son of Jacques Baby, to a prosperous family in Detroit in 1763 and educated in Upper Canada, then part of the province of Quebec, where his uncle, François Baby, lived...
from Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
in 1816 acquired the land now called Baby Point and only had orchards located on the site of Teiaiagon. The site was relatively undisturbed as it was not farmed. The Teiaiagon area was acquired by the government for military fortress and army barracks, but then was sold to Robert Home Smith who began developing the Baby Point subdivision in 1912. In 1949, at the south-west corner of Baby Point Road and Baby Point Crescent, a plaque was erected, briefly mentioning "Taiaiagon."
Because early Europeans had difficulty in transcribing 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...
names into European orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
systems, numerous spelling variations exist. These include Taiaiako'n, Taiaiagon, Teyeyagon, and Toioiugon.
Other villages
The Haudenosaunee and the Algonquians also lived along Lake Ontario.The village of Ganatsekwyagon was on the Rouge River
Rouge River (Ontario)
The Rouge River is a two river system. Little Rouge and Rouge River are in the east and the northeast parts of Toronto and begin in the Oak Ridges Moraine in Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville...
in Scarborough
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
. Alternate names included:
- Gandat Siagon
- Ganatsekwyagon
- Ganacheieskiagon
- Gandatsetiagon
- Gandatsekwyagon
- Ganatchekiagon
- Gandatsiagon
- Ganetsekiagon
- Gandatsekiagon
- Gandatsdhagon
- Kanatiochtiage
- Ganastiquiagon
- Gandalskiagon
- Le Portage de Toronto
- Toronto Carrying Place
- Toronto Portage
Another village was Ganaraske, originally a Cayuga village that transitioned to a Mississauga village. It is now known as Port Hope
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.