Created by: Brunela, Sneha, Jannath, Alson

                            Table of Contents 

Sky Woman

The Creation Story 

Long before the world was created, there was an island in the sky inhabited by sky people. One day a pregnant sky woman drops through a hole created by an uprooted tree and begins to fall for what seems like eternity.

Coming out of darkness, she eventually sees oceans. The animals from this world congregate, trying to understand what they see in the sky. A flock of birds is sent to help her. The birds catch her and gently guide her down onto the back of Great Turtle. The water animals like otter and beaver have prepared a place for her on turtle's back. They bring mud from the bottom of the ocean and place it on turtle's back until solid earth begins to form and increase in size.

Turtle's back becomes Sky Woman's home and the plants she's brought down with her from Skyworld, including tobacco and strawberries, are her medicine. She makes a life for herself and becomes the mother of Haudenosaunee life, as we know it today.

Sky woman and her story is a well known creation story shared among many indigenous tribes. Some tell it slightly different, others describe it in far more detail, however all blend humans animals and nature. Now that you know how the earth was created in the eyes of the Haudenosaunee, lets explore the people that have inhabited the place you call home. 

History of North York: 

Tkaronto area

North York is the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, Haudenosaunee and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. It is acknowledged that Toronto is covered by treaty 13.

This territory is the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, settlers and all newcomers, have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.

This was a treaty made between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee after the French and Indian War. Newcomers were then incorporated into it over the years, notably in 1764 with The Royal Proclamation/The Treaty of Niagara.

The Ojibway (Chippewas), Odawa and Potawatomi Nations formed the Confederacy of the Three Fires of peoples who shared similar languages and territories and who met together for military and political purposes. Each Nation had their role in that Confederacy. The Ojibway (Chippewas) were the providers, the Odawa were the warriors and the Potawatomi were the firekeepers. The Council of the Three Fires had a number of meeting places. One of the most used and the most central was Michilimackinac.

By the mid 1700s, the Council of Three Fires became the core of the Great Lakes Confederacy. The Hurons, Algonquins, Nipissing, Sauks, Foxes, and others joined the Great Lakes Confederacy, and after the Treaty of Niagara of 1764, which marked the formal beginning of the peaceful relations with Great Britain, this powerful body provided the British with important allies in times of war and a balance to the Iroquois Confederacy to the south and east.

During the 1800s, traditional structures and procedures changed, wampum became less important as a means of keeping records when more people could read and write, and the government no longer responded to the belts. Gradually,

a structured Indian organization 

came into being, made up of the 

same Chiefs who had taken part 

in the older Councils.

The Grand General Indian Council 

of Ontario and Quebec first met 

under that name in 1870. Almost all 

of the Lake Huron took part, while the

Six Nations Iroquois kept their own traditional Councils and relations with their people across the border. According to the minutes of the annual meetings, much of the Grand Council’s time was spent on reviewing the Indian Act.

In 1949, the Union of Ontario Indians (UOI) was established to replace the Grand General Indian Council. At that time, it represented most of the First Nations in Ontario, with the exception of a number of Independents and isolated First Nations who could not participate. 

In 1969, the UOI was reorganized to reflect the wider scope of Indian politics across the province. By 1972, three other Provincial Territorial Organizations were formed: The Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and Grand Council Treaty 3.

Today, the UOI represents 39 Anishinabek First Nations. As of June 2017, Leadership Council gave direction to use the corporate entity of the Union of Ontario Indians for legally-binding agreements, and to use Anishinabek Nation for all other purposes. The goals of this approach are to reinforce the existence of the Anishinabek Nation and to create greater unity amongst the Anishinabek First Nations.

The cities of Etobicoke, Toronto, North York, York and Vaughan are located within the boundaries of the Toronto Purchase Treaty lands.

In 1998, the Mississaugas of the Credit filed a claim against the Government of Canada relative to the 1805 Toronto Purchase Treaty. The Mississaugas contended that the Crown had unlawfully acquired more land including the Toronto Islands, than had been originally agreed upon in the Toronto Purchase Treaty of 1787.   It was further claimed that the Crown had not paid a reasonable sum for the land obtained in the 1805 agreement.  In 2010, the Government of Canada settled the Toronto Purchase Claim and the Brant Tract Claim for compensation of $145 million- at that time the largest claims settlement in Canadian history.

York University

Land Acknowledgement

The land I am standing on today is the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabek, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. I also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaty signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands

I ACKNOWLEDGE

Decolonization starts with recognizing the indigenous nations who lived here first. Place is not just about the geographical location but also includes the social and cultural aspects of the community. 

We want to hear your stories and the significance towards  this place. Think of how this place got to be the way it is now and why you might experience it the way that you do. Through bioregionalism, your stories will cultivate active and thoughtful participation of place, adding on to the stories we have just seen.

To add your story, just simply add a new page, and you can insert a big text box and write about your story. It is encouraged to also add audio to your narration by selecting voice and record your story with your own voice. This will evoke a sense of oral digital storytelling between our class. Let's get to it, and remember to have fun and listen to other's stories !

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