Early Years – A Native History

At the time of the first historical contacts with Europeans in the 1600s, the Lakeview area was occupied by an alliance of Iroquois-speaking natives. Their territory included much of southern Ontario from the Niagara River to Windsor to Georgian Bay. The tribes included the Petun, (known as Tobacco) and the Hurons.

These Iroquois-speaking natives were allied to the French. The Six Nations Confederacy were independent, but were allied first to the Dutch and then to the English. These two Iroquois factions were antagonistic towards each other, which mirrored the antagonism of their European trading allies.

In the mid-1600s, the Six Nations Confederacy launched a multi-pronged attack on the northern confederacy and largely eliminated them politically. The Senecas, who were the most westerly-located group of the Six Nations, traditionally from around the Buffalo, New York area, occupied the area. This was around the north shore of Lake Ontario.

In response to this occupation, the Mississaugas tribe, allied to the Iroquois and the French, launched a coordinated invasion of Southern Ontario from their home territory at the north end of Lake Huron. They successfully drove out the Senecas. The Mississaugas was a large group that included the Cree, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Chippewa, Micmac and Algonquians.