Késsinnimek - Roots - RacinesMon Petit Coin by Norm Léveillée
The following excerpt is from Diane Goodwillie's Book
Life on Quaker Road - History, Stories and Goodwillie Genalogy
SECTION ONE: Early Links to Quaker Road
Chapter One: Neutrals and Other First Nations
For more than 7,000 years humans have lived in southern Ontario, and, for at least one thousand years people have moved through Welland's Quaker Road district. Archeologists have discovered sites revealing the prehistory of the first inhabitants but accurate understanding of the early history of southern Ontario prior to the European invasion is difficult. Much has been lost, ignored or misinterpreted.
In Ontario, separate tribes or nations evolved from two main language groups, Algonquian1 and Iroquoian. The attached map points out the various Nations identified in the early 1600s.
Map of Iroquoian and Algonquian Settlements circa AD 1615 (O'Brien. The Pre History of South Central Ontario.)
The territory of the Algonquian nomadic fishers and trappers existed in Ontario's mid north, the St. Lawrence River basin and beside the Atlantic Ocean. Agriculture was difficult and the clans relied on fishing and hunting more than farming. Men were the leaders and the heads of family. Territorial hunting rights were passed from father to son. Algonquian speakers included the Mississauga of the Ojibway Nations (Chippewa in the USA)2 , the Algonquin, Delaware and the Mi'kmaq.
Iroquoian speaking nations lived communally in more permanent settlements and were farmers and traders. Iroquois oral history reveals that by about 900 A.D. corn was cultivated. By between 1200 and 1500 A.D. a League of Iroquois nations was formed which used diplomacy and political unity to advance their cause and keep things under control.3 Included in Iroquoian language groups were the Iroquois (made up of Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk and others), Neutral, Huron, Petun, Erie and many others.
Iroquois men and women had definite roles. Women were respected, maintained ownership of the land and homes, and exercised a veto power over any Council action that might result in war. The Iroquois Nations provided models for peace-building confederacies which later influenced writers of the American Constitution and those advocating for women's rights.4
Names for the Neutral and Iroquois Nations
After exploration in the Niagara peninsula, in 1640, the French Missionary, Father Brébeuf noted that the people lived in 40 villages with a minimum population of 12,000 persons, including 4,000 warriors.
These people were known by several names but are most commonly referred to as the Neutrals, a term introduced by the early French explorers. The Hurons called them Attawandaron meaning 'those that speak a little differently'. The Seneca and Huron often referred to both the Erie and Neutral people as the 'Cat Nation'. Other nations from the Iroquoian language group, such as the Hurons, Erie, Neutrals, who settled in southern Ontario referred to themselves collectively as the Wendat 'dwellers or villagers on a peninsula'. New York State was the homeland of the people self-named the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, or the 'People of the Long House,' but called Iroquois by the French.5
The First Farmers in the Niagara Peninsula
Some Neutral villages had women rulers but men filled most leadership positions. People of the Neutral nation lived in villages consisting of bark wigwams and communal long houses. They dressed in furs and skins and were the original Niagara peninsula farmers and traders. They made oil by boiling sunflower seeds in water then skimming off the floating oil with wooden spoons. Surplus tobacco was traded for skins, furs, and porcupine quills and quillwork with the northern Algonquin peoples.
French missionaries commented that although the Neutrals had few tools, they developed good farming practices. For example they planted about ten seeds in small hills and continued to plant so that they would have three or four years of supply in case of bad weather, poor fruiting of loss of seed stock. To clear land, trees were destroyed by carefully trimming lower branches, burning them at the base, thereby effectively ring-barking the tree. Net and spear fishing and skilled hunting practices were used, for example deer were slaughtered after being driven into pens via a triangular shaped funnel made from hedges.
At this time, Beaverdams was the hub of a network of trails stretching in all directions to St. Davids, Chippawa, Queenston, Hamilton and the head of the lakes. The major native trail in the Niagara peninsula was the Iroquois Trail from Queenston to Hamilton, which was thought to be a part of a longer trail from Albany, New York to St. Louis, Missouri and perhaps further west. The old Highway Eight, now St. Paul's Street, St. Catharines is part of the Iroquois Trail. Quaker Road also was thought to be a route used by Canada's first nations.
Three large Neutral villages in the Niagara peninsula were believed to be at Point Abino, near Ridgeville and Crystal Beach, Beamsville and Niagara, a word derived from the Ongniaahra pronounced OH-NEE-AH-GAH-RA meaning the strait or 'Thunder of Waters'. Burial grounds have been found at Grimsby, and Port Colborne.6
The Downfall of the Neutral Nation
The name 'neutral' can be misleading, as these people were not necessarily peaceful. Because they did not take sides in the wars between northern Huron groups and other Iroquois nations to the south, the French considered them uninvolved or impartial and hence the name.
One written report of actual warfare, in 1643, noted that 2,000 warriors of the Neutrals attacked a large, fortified Algonquin village in central Michigan. After ten days of fighting, the village was overrun, and 800 prisoners captured. Women and children were taken back to the Neutrals' villages, but male warriors were killed and the old men blinded and left to wander aimlessly in the woods.7
Members of the Iroquois League of Nations, the Mohawks and Senecas were sometimes known as 'Keepers of the Western Gate'. They lived to the south and east of Lake Erie, in present day New York State. Seneca people were great conquerors, highly skilled at warfare. They used alliances with Dutch colonials to obtain guns and were fierce opponents to any other tribe who tried to resist their takeover.
Jealousy and rivalry between various Nations exploded into a series of attacks that led to the elimination of all Neutral settlements in the Niagara peninsula by 1650. During fighting, in the 1640s, the Neutral nation maintained a non-alignment policy. They did not discourage Iroquois and Huron war parties to slip through their territory to attack each other's villages. The Iroquois blamed the Neutrals for permitting this, and, after diplomatic efforts failed to force the Neutrals to surrender Huron people hiding in their land, the western Iroquois, attacked the Neutrals. By 1650 all Neutral villages on the north shore of Lake Erie were completely destroyed although some Neutral people escaped or were taken slaves. It is thought that some Neutral members ended up by 1667 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and particularly in La Prairie (Caughnawaga or Kahnawake) just south of Montreal.
During the American Revolution, the Mississauga Nations, Algonquian speakers, supported the British. After the American Revolution, the Mississauga Indians settled along the banks of the Chippewa River and by 1788, nearly 600 Mississauga Indians lived at Queenston.8 This is how the Township of Thorold recorded the events:
Neutral country was avoided by superstitious Indians for a long time. Much later the Mississauga tribes of the Chippawa or Ojibway nation settled the district. It is from these Indians that we got the name 'Chippawa'. [an earlier name for the Welland River] … These Mississaugas continued to occupy the Thorold Township area until it was ceded to the British Government in will on May 22 1784, and in deed on December 7, 1792. The treaty signed in 1784 defined the boundaries of the Mississauga lands, and the second treaty signed in 1792, provided for the sale of all the Indian lands between lakes Erie and Ontario to the British--who wanted it for their Loyalists---for the sum of 1,180 pounds. Most of the Indians [six of the Iroquois language groups] moved to a reservation on the banks of the Grand River although a few married and remained in the Thorold Township.9
First Nations Involvement in European Conflicts
Contact between Canada's indigenous people and explorers, missionaries and traders added to troubles facing the native populations. Inter tribal jealousies and poor health increased with European fur trading. For example in the early 1600s, the Hurons in the north were reduced by more than 50% from European introduced diseases/epidemics such as measles and smallpox. First Nations aligned and fought battles with various European groups, for example the Huron tribes sided with French missionaries and fur traders during the rivalries between the French and British. The Dutch settlers provided arms to Iroquois Confederacy in Upstate New York. Some tribes stayed neutral, but as many as 13,000 from different Iroquois nations sided with the British during the Revolutionary Wars. Similarly during the War of 1812-14, most indigenous people sided with Britain and Canada. Laws were changed and land initially reserved for the indigenous people was traded or bought by the British government, thereby limiting the lifestyles of Canada's original people.
Indian Legends and Stories
Many stories of the fierce battles of inter-tribal rivalry, and of missionary and settler encounters with Indians have been passed down through the generations. Interpretations were often biased against the Indians, the term commonly used for Canada's First Nations. The accuracy of details varied. Some of these stories were based on lessons that parents wanted their pioneer children to learn.
One lesson about extreme violence is linked in history to legend called The Grasshopper War. It is told that of a clash between children for the possession of a grasshopper that led to inter-tribal war, ambushes, raids, and mass destruction. The first written publication of the story, in 1886, attributed the legend to the Delaware Indians (part of the Lenni Lanape Nation) in the areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey where Richard Howell was governor from 1793-1801. His granddaughter, Mrs. Jefferson Davis, later wrote a grasshopper war commentary when vacationing in Port Colborne in 1903. At that time, the discovery of human remains from a battle was suggested to be from Huron and Iroquois conflict in the Niagara peninsula.
--sidebar-
Legend of the Grasshopper War (By Lillian Arnold Lopez)
In the wilds of old New Jersey, before the white man came, the Lenape took up the land … Two tribes liked to visit back and forth whenever they could. The braves would hunt together. The wives gossiped and carried out household tasks while the children played outside.
During a visit, one boy glimpsed a streak of green and caught the biggest grasshopper that he had ever seen. He laughed with glee while playing with the new pet he had found.
When a gang of other children gathered round, he showed off its agility to their admiring eyes. However, one lad, filled with envy, wore a scowl upon his face - 'shouldn't it be his grasshopper? It was found in his home place!' In haste, he snatched the insect, thus setting off a feud.
Like a chain reaction, a free-for-all ensued. All the young people joined in the fray, attacking one another - each one taking sides, of course, with his own tribal brother. The women rushed from the teepees when they heard screams fill the air, took part also, and soon were pulling out each other's hair.
The braves returned from hunting later on and found the injured, spent and bleeding huddled on the ground. Both tribal chiefs swore vengeance, and this epic tale of woe saw the guests who'd come in friendship stagger down the path as foe. What had started off as child's play ended in a trail of gore and is recorded in their annals as the big 'Grasshopper War.'10
---End Sidebar---
Port Colborne Burial Grounds
From 1888 to 1933, wealthy Southerners, their white guests and servants (most of whom were black) escaped the hot humid summers of Memphis Tennessee to a summer place overlooking Lake Erie on the edge of Port Colborne. The Humberstone Club, also known as Southern Comfort, was located along an old Indian trail, now named Tennessee Avenue. With about 20 houses, two tennis courts, a casino and central dining hall, whole families moved by train from the southern states for the summer months. A one-man cheese making operation by Mr. Kraft was part of the Club's service, which in later days became the international conglomerate of the same name.11
Soon after the first houses were built, in 1890, the community decided to place a flagpole at the bend of the road near the entrance near their Casino. The excavation in this sandy hilly place uncovered the remains of about 500 of the area's first inhabitants. Buried copper kettles, pottery, pipes, and wampum beads were later distributed to museums in Toronto, Buffalo and Memphis, Tennessee.
Referring to this large burial ground, in 1903, the 76 year old widow, Mrs Varina Jefferson Davis, recalled The Grasshopper War legend and suggested the burial may have resulted from quarrels initially between Huron and Iroquois meeting for a harvest feast. Mrs. Davis, a gracious woman of strong individuality, rare good sense with an unusual gift of conversation published her thoughts on the grasshopper legend.12 Her writing revealed some remaining southern bitterness about the American Civil War:
Like the Hurons, the Americans feel neither regret nor pity for the sad fate of the brave men who once owned this splendid continent … what will be the verdict of the coming race, how many of the wars waged with Berserker fury by fighting men of the past will posterity adjudge to have been 'Grasshopper Wars'?13
European Settlers Encounter Canada's First Nations
The breakup of the power of First Nations along with expanding European interests and colonial wars enabled new pioneer settlement in the Niagara area.
The war that ended French rule in North America (1756-1763) gave Canada's First Nation people exclusive use of a great block of land including all of Ontario. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited all white settlement.
The Quebec Act of 1774 which aimed at solidifying Upper and Lower Canadian settler's allegiance to Britain lifted restrictions to European settlement leaving indigenous people with few land rights. The Treaty of Paris in 1783, which gave no recognition to the supportive role of the indigenous first landowners, formally ended the American colonial opposition and provided British recognition of the United States as an independent nation.
Peace and the possibility of new land resulted in massive migrations from Europe and the United States in the 1780s and 90s. This followed much negotiation and final surrender of native land to the British in 1792. A newly appointed Governor Simcoe, aided by Elizabeth Simcoe, an observant and intelligent wife, promoted lucrative offers to pioneer settlers which included 200-acre free grants to all who would establish farms and swear an oath of British allegiance. This open invitation to cheap land (known to be fertile) brought many young adventurers from America as well as British Loyalist, military personnel, and African Americans fleeing discrimination and persecution against them.
Throughout the 1800s pioneers continued to encounter native people. However gradually settlers displaced the First Nations people. For example, when the construction of the Welland Canal began in 1824, there were several families of indigenous people living in wigwams on both sides of Chippawa Creek. But the rowdy canal workers were fond of annoying and mistreating the natives, and they soon withdrew to the Six Nations Reserve on the banks of the Grand River.14
Defending the British Colony
Records show that indigenous people helped defend the British Colony against American invasion during the War of 1812 - 14. Plaque 129 located in Queenston Ontario verifies Canada's first nations involvement during the War of 1812-14.
INDIANS AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS
October 13, 1812
Warriors of the Six Nations of Iroquois (Mohawks, Oniedas Onondagos, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras), mainly from the Grand River, fought as allies of the British in this historic battle with the Americans. Speaking distinctive dialects and with different religious beliefs, these Indians were drawn together for the battle by John Norton, a resourceful and courageous commander. Norton, a man of Cherokee and Scottish ancestry, was a Mohawk (Teyoninhokarawen) by adoption. With John Brant (Ahyouwaeghs), the youngest son of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), and John Bearfoot, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, the Iroquois fought for their own survival as a people and in support of the British.
Indians Help Laura Secord
Colonial settlers defense of Upper Canada included brave women such as Laura Secord with her courageous journey to Beaverdams, to warn Lieutenant Fitzgibbon15 of American soldiers plans to attack. In June 1813, Laura travelled alone from St. Davids, [although she started from Queenston with another female relative] through the St. Catharines area until she met up with Indians at DeCew Falls who supported British defence of Canada:
Afraid she might meet one of the American units on the main road, Laura Secord [a 37 year old housewife with five small children and a wounded husband at home]chose the Swamp Road, despite the wolves and rattlesnakes common to the area. On this road, she lost one shoe, then the second at Twelve Mile creek. It had been an extremely rainy season and the Twelve Mile Creek was so swollen that the bridge had been swept away. Laura Secord found a fallen tree trunk and using it as a bridge, she crawled carefully over the raging waters.Suddenly she was startled to find herself in the midst of an Indian encampment, where, no doubt, the Indians were equally surprised to find a white woman. They did not speak English and it was difficult to make them aware of her mission. Finally she was able to convince the chief that it was important that she be taken to see Lieutenant Fitzgibbon without delay.16
Footnotes:
(1) 'Algonquin' or 'Algonkin' is used in reference to the tribe, but 'Algonquian' either refers to the Algonquin language or to the group of tribes that speak related dialects. Similarly 'Iroquois' refers to members of the Confederation and 'Iroquoian' to those with language links. Ref. Algonquin website.
(2) 'Ojibway' or 'Ojibwe' and 'Chippewa' are not only the same tribe, but the same word pronounced a little differently due to accent. If an 'o' is placed in front of Chippewa (o'chippewa), the relationship becomes apparent. Ref. The First Nations website
(3) See websites: Iroquois History and Attiwandarons & Petuns.
(4) Johanson. 1982 & Iroquois History Website.
(5)Johansen.1982. & First Nations Website.
(6)Michael 1967: p.4.
(7)First Nations History Website.
(8)Falls Thunder Alley Website 2005.
(9)Michael 1967: p. 6.
(10)Lopez, Pineylore website & Conway. 1994: p.7-10.
(11)Conway 1994: p.20.
(12)Jefferson Davis c.1903.
(13)Berserker according to the Oxford dictionary is a wild Norse warrior, who fought on the battlefield with a frenzied fury.
(14)Michael 1967: pg. 136.
(15)Fitzgibbon was in charge of a volunteer company known as the "Green Tigers" on the move constantly and never sleeping in the same place twice but located at the nearby Beaverdams encampment.
(16)Michael 1967: p.43-51.
Life on Quaker Road - History, Stories and Goodwillie Genalogy
Table of ContentsSECTION ONE: Early Links to Quaker Road
Chapter One: Neutrals and other First Nations in the Niagara Peninsula
Chapter Two: Slavery and Black People in the Niagara Peninsula
Chapter Three: Wildlife and Settling the Land
Chapter Four: Goodwillie and Page Family HistorySECTION TWO: Quaker Road Stories
Introduction: Who Wrote the Farm Stories?
Chapter Five: The Goodwillie Farm and Surroundings
Chapter Six: Horses, Roads and Cars
Chapter Seven: Local Happenings: School, Parties and Events
Chapter Eight: Farming and Fruit Canning Factory
Chapter Nine: Last Days on the Quaker Road Farm
Diane Goodwillie indicated to me that the book "Life on Quaker Road - History, Stories and Goodwillie Genalogy", ISBN 1-4120-7024-4, will be available early October from Trafford Publishing: www.trafford.com .
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Copyright © 2003 & 2004 & 2005 Norm Léveillée
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Created 1 Feb 2003