After the Haudenosaunee were driven back to their traditional homelands across the Great Lakes, the Anishinaabeg settled again within this area, from their original home, which was located at the head of Lake Superior, otherwise known as Boweting (present day Sault Ste. Marie). They were drawn by the abundant natural resources such as wild rice and game animals. They lived in small family groups in wigwams, which were in some ways more portable than a long house. The birch bark covering would be preserved until the next season as the families moved on, and the frames could be returned to for many years in a row with little need for repair.

The Haudenosaunee or Iroquois arrived in this area in 900 C.E. and remained until the early 1700’s. The title Haudenosaunee translates to ‘People of the Longhouse.’ In this context, Haudenosaunee refers to more than a group of people. It is a philosophy, a way of life and a body of customs that stretch beyond location and proximity to one another.

The Haudenosaunee lived in villages of communal longhouses, in a single area for 15 to 20 years and would move once the soil had become depleted. Each long house was shared amongst 6 to 8 families. The Haudenosaunee follow a matrilineal social system, wherein mothers are heads of families, holding much power in the community. Women planted and cared for the crops under the direction of a clan mother.

Eventually these peoples moved back south across the Great Lakes to their traditional homelands, due to a war that was between the Mohawk/Seneca, and the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Anishnaabeg, over a violation of a treaty between the two groups.

Nanabush and the Maple Trees

When the world was new, Gitchi Manitou made life easy for the people. There was always plenty of game and the weather was always good. Whenever people wanted to get maple syrup from the trees, they only had to break off a twig and collect the syrup that dripped out.

Nanabush looked high and low and found the people in the woods. They were lying on their backs letting the maple syrup drip into their mouths. “My people will grow fat and lazy if this continues,” said Nanabush.

Nanabush climbed the maple trees and poured water into their tops to make the syrup thin. This new, thinner maple syrup was very watery and hardly sweet at all.

“No longer will syrup drip from the trees,” Nanabush told the people. “This watery sap will have to be boiled for a long time to make a little syrup. Now you will learn to appreciate this maple syrup the Gitchee Manitou has given you. The sap will only drip from the trees at a certain time of the year and will not keep people from hunting, fishing, gathering and tending the fields.”

“This is how it will be,” said Nanabush. And that is how it is even today.

The earliest group of people theorized to live within this area over 13,000 years ago, are referred to as Paleo-Indians (i.e., the Clovis Culture) and could have possibly traveled here from north-east Siberia across the Bering Land Strait into North America. When the ice caps melted following the Ice Age, water levels rose, making this stretch of land less and less accessible, until it eventually disappeared into the ocean. This is still a debate within the archaeological/anthropological community, as coastal migration theory has gained further attention to help support numerous archaeological sites in the America’s that date back to 35,000 B.C.E.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/jacques-cinq-mars-bluefish-caves-scientific-progress-180962410/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2007/02/native-people-americans-clovis-news/

In this display case, you will see examples of tools they would have used.

These tools were made of stone and bone, and were used for fishing, or hunting large game such as mastodon and giant beavers.

Many First Nation creation stories begin with a giant turtle that carried mud on its back to begin life, as we know it today. The Anishinaabeg origin story features Nanaboozhoo. When the world was flooded, Nanaboozhoo asked the birds and animals to fetch some soil so that he could restore the earth. It was not the strong or the gifted, as might be expected, who retrieved the soil. Rather it was the least of their kin, the muskrat, who dove and brought back the small bit of soil. The soil was placed on a turtle’s back and Nanaboozhoo breathed life into the soil, which became the world that we live in. This is why North America is sometimes referred to as Turtle Island.

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/fp/fpz2f30e.html#:~:text=The%20Anishnaabe%20origin%20story%20features,to%20form%20a%20crude%20raft.

We begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig (Mississauga) Anishinaabeg. The land that the Peterborough Museum & Archives currently resides on is also within the Treaty 20 area, which was settled between the Chippewa, the Michi Saagiig, and the Canada Government in 1818.

.

.

.

.