[URBAN NOTE] "A guide to Indigenous Toronto"

[rfmcdonald]

blogTO features a guest post from history professor Alison Norman, talking about the First Nations past and present of the city of Toronto. (It is there; you just have to go digging.) Abundant linkage, and more, is at the site.

When Europeans began settling the area we now call home, the Indigenous people on the land were the Mississaugas, who settled on the Credit River. There had been earlier settlement in southern Ontario by Wendat people and other Iroquoians - archaeological sites dot the city. The land was purchased from the Missisaugas by the British Crown in a deal later known as the Toronto Purchase.

Like many others land purchases, it was a shoddy deal for the Indigenous peoples who believed the agreement was for the lease of the land, and not the outright purchase. A land claim in 2010 sided with the Mississauga, and paid them $145 million. Today the Mississaugas of New Credit live next to the Six Nations of Grand River near Brantford, and are recognized as the host First Nation for the Pan Am games later this year.

It isn't clear how many Indigenous people call Toronto home today. While the City puts the number around 19,000, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada put the number closer to 37,000. Some Indigenous groups in the city put the number even higher. In the past, it sometimes seemed that Indigenous people had very low visibility in this city, but this is no longer the case. Toronto has many places where one can learn about Indigenous history and culture.

First stop should be the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto on Spadina. The NCCT has a long history of providing a place for Indigenous people in the city, but also for non-Indigenous to come and learn more about Indigenous culture. Through the Toronto Native Community History Program they offer a fantastic bus tour of the city that visits historical landmarks illustrating the Indigenous presence in Toronto.

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And visiting The Cedar Basket gift shop is necessary, although if you don't make it in, you can order moccasins, corn husk dolls and even sweet grass online.

Anyone interested in the history of Toronto should download the First Story app, created by the NCCT and the Centre for Community Mapping. The goal of the app is to build both pride and awareness of in the long Indigenous presence in the city, as well as the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the development of Toronto. It provides intriguing and useful information about particular sites around the city that are either important historically or that play a crucial role in Indigenous culture today.