The Hiawatha First Nation (formerly Mississaugas of Rice Lake) is a

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

located on the north shore of Rice Lake east of the

Otonabee River The Otonabee River is a river in Peterborough County in Central Ontario, Canada. The river flows from Katchewanooka Lake, at the north end of the community of Lakefield, through the city of Peterborough to Rice Lake. It is in the Great Lakes Bas ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is found in Otonabee Township less than 15 kilometres south of the centre of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. Its name derives from the

Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

co-founder

Hiawatha Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...

. This First Nations reserve consists of approximately of land of which 1523 are under certificates of possession.

History

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

occupied this area for thousands of years before European contact. Nearly 2000 years ago, people of the Point Peninsula complex built a series of

earthen Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former term ...

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

s for ceremonial, religious and burial purposes.

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

excavations have shown the people had sophisticated knowledge to build the massive

earthworks Earthworks may refer to: Construction *Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour * Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil *Earthworks (military), m ...

. Nine mounds or burial places have been located at the south end of the park.

Serpent Mounds Park Serpent Mounds Park is a former historical and recreational park located in Keene, Ontario, Canada. Serpent Mounds operated as a provincial park, established in 1955 through a lease with the Hiawatha First Nation, a historic Mississaugas peo ...

includes an

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

mound, four to six feet high and nearly two hundred feet long, with a related egg-shaped mound by its mouth.

Population

In 2006 the population was 483, a 62.6% increase since 2001. There were 195 private dwellings.

Indian Reserves

Indian reserves assigned to the First Nation are: *Hiawatha First Nation Indian Reserve, 6 km southeast of Peterborough 868.20 ha. * Islands in the Trent Waters Indian Reserve 36A, in Peterborough County, comprising islands in

Pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

, Buckhorn and Stony Lakes. 139.60 ha. - this reserve is shared with 2 other First Nations.

References

External links

Hiawatha First Nation - Mississaugas of Rice LakeCopy of the Treaty Made November 15, 1923 between his Majesty the King and the Mississauga Indians of Rice Lake, Mud Lake, Scugog Lake and AldervilleA History of the Rice Lake Indians by Mary Jane Muskratte Simpson, Alderville, 1953Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - First Nation Profile
{{authority control First Nations governments in Ontario Mississaugas Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians Communities in Peterborough County Mississauga reserves in Ontario