Mississaugas

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For the city, see Mississauga.

The Mississaugas are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada, closely related to the Ojibwa. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word Misi-zaagiing, meaning "[Those at the] Great River-mouth."

Contents

[edit] History

According to the oral histories of the Anishinaabe peoples, after departing the "Second Stopping Place" about Niagara Falls, the core Anishinaabe peoples migrated along the shores of Lake Erie to what now is southern Michigan and became "lost" both physically and spiritually. However, the Mississaugas instead migrated along the Credit River, to Georgian Bay, to their traditional lands on the shores of Lake Superior and northern Lake Huron around the Mississagi River. The Mississaugas then called for the core Anishinaabe to "return to the path of the good life," to which the core Anishinaabe peoples formed the Council of Three Fires, and migrated from their "Third Stopping Place" near the present city of Detroit to their "Fourth Stopping Place" on Manitoulin Island, along the eastern shores of Georgian Bay.

By the time of the arrival of the French in 1720, the Mississaugas were already a distinct tribe of Anishinaabe people that moved from the Mississagi River area southward into Wendat territories on the Bruce Peninsula and eastward about Kawartha lakes. From this location a smaller contingent moved southeast to an area along the Credit River, just west of modern day Toronto. The name Mississaugas was given to them by the French.

Alternate spellings of their name are "Mississaga," "Massassauga" and "Missisauga," plural forms of these three, and as "Mississauga Indians." Before the Anishinaabe language replaced the Wendat language as the lingua franca of the Great Lakes region sometime during the middle of 17th century, the Mississaugas were also known by their Wendat name.

Mississaugas' Wendat exonym Tisagechroamis was used idiosyncratically by Conrad Weiser when he conducted a census in Logstown in 1748. Other variants of the spelling were Tisagechroamis, Tisaghechroamis, Tisagechroan, Tisagechroanu and Zisaugeghroanu. "The Tisagechroanu were the Mississagas from Lake Huron, a large tribe and French Indians, or under French influences. The name Tisagechroanue here is probably a misprint, for it is most often found Zisaugeghroanu." [1]

Starting in 1781, the Mississaugas made a series of land surrenders with the British Crown encompassing much of present-day southern Ontario.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Today

Historically, there are five First Nations that make up the Mississauga Nations. Today, the Mississaugas are the following:

One of the largest is the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations. As of 2005, the Mississaugas of New Credit have a population of 1,375 which makes up a small part of the Ojibwa nation of 200,000 people.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Vol. 1, History of Pittsburgh and environs, from prehistoric days to the beginning of the American revolution," George Thornton Fleming, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library, 1999
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