First Nations & Pickering
 

Anthropologists have broadly defined three cultural eras: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland.

 

Paleo-Indian Era (10,500 – 9,500 years ago)

Archaeological evidence shows that those people we refer to as ‘Paleo-Indians’ were here soon after the glaciers receded (some 12,000 years ago). They were big game hunters. They challenged both the sub-arctic climate and the mega fauna (such as mammoths and giant bears) for survival. However, oral traditions of the Anishnaabe people, those of the Algonkian culture, hold that they were here long before, and actually witnessed the advance of the glaciers. It is also now assumed that there has been a continual lineage of their people upon these lands.

 

Archaic Era (9,500 – 2,900 years ago)

Over the course of a thousand years or so, the climate warmed. A culture we refer to as the Laurentian Archaic Era evolved. The change of the seasons directed their annual rounds. They followed herds of caribou, collected plant foods (seeds and berries), fished the lakes and rivers, and hunted small game as well. In this area, they were called the Misi-zaagiing Anishnaabeg (Mississauga). The Mississauga harvested salmon in the river mouths in the spring. They wintered in the now called Kawartha region. Along their travels in between, they gathered the resources of the land.

 

Woodland Era (2,900 – 500 years ago)

The beginnings of the Eastern Woodland period are largely characterized by the introduction of ceramic pottery. This suggests that those people were not moving around quite so much. About 2,000 years ago, another people arrived. These were the Iroquoian speakers, who became the Wendat (The French referred to them as Huron). As well as introducing a different culture and language, they brought the ‘Three Sisters’ – as corn, beans, and squash are known. The Wendat were farmers. They lived in villages of anywhere from 20 to 100 longhouses. Protective palisades generally surrounded the villages. Village sites are still often discovered in Pickering. Many of these areas still grow corn today. The Wendat conducted trade with the Mississaugas. They shared the land’s rich resources. The Wendat were cousins to the Iroquois Confederacy to the south (the Haudenosaunee). The Wendat and Haudenosaunee had an uneasy relationship.