Treaties Recognition Week (November 1 to November 7, 2021) highlights the history of treaties and helps Ontario residents understand the significance of treaty rights, treaty relationships, their relevance today, and the impact of promises made, promises kept, and promises broken.

Throughout the week we will look at five of the treaties connected to the City of Mississauga that were signed between The Crown and the Indigenous Mississaugas between 1805 and 1820: Provisional Agreement 13-A, Treaty 14, Treaty 19, Treaty 22 and Treaty 23.

Treaties are constitutionally recognized agreements between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown. Indigenous peoples did not intend to surrender their land, but rather thought of treaties in terms of promises, sharing, and mutual support. Settlers and colonial administrators often broke these agreements.

By the 1790s, the British Crown recognized that the Indigenous Mississaugas controlled a large amount of land at the western end of Lake Ontario, which had come to be referred to on early maps as the “Mississauga Tract”. The Crown entered into a series of negotiations and treaties to acquire this tract for settlement. At the end of July of 1805 representatives of the British Crown convened a meeting with the principal chiefs of the Mississauga near the mouth of Credit River. These negotiations were held outside and in close proximity to the Government Inn.

Watch our video: The Lay of the Land: Exploring Treaties 22 & 23 and the Racey Tract.

This presentation looks at the history and geographic footprint of Treaties 22 & 23, signed in February 1820 (200 years ago!) between the Indigenous Mississaugas and the British Crown, involving lands within the Credit River Valley in what is today the City of Mississauga.

Visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/treaties-recognition-week… for a schedule of educational workshops