Teiaiagon was an Iroquoian village on the east bank of the Humber River in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located along the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail. The site is currently near the intersection of Jane Street and Annette Street or the community of Baby Point.
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The establishment of the village has slipped away into time immemorial. According to Percy Robinson's, "Toronto Before the French Regime", it shows Teiaiagon as being a jointly occupied village of Seneca and Mohawk. Helen Tanner's "Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History" describes Teiaiagon as a Seneca village around the years 1685-1687, although it existed before that time, and as a Mississauga village around 1696.[1]
Though the regional population movements were complex, a major shift in the village history as displayed in archaeological evidence appears to have been connected to the formation of a league among the five Iroquois nations south of Lake Ontario before the arrival of Europeans. The "League Iroquois" engaged in escalating warfare against other Iroquoians.
Étienne Brûlé passed through Teiaiagon in 1615.[2] Hennepin and others have recorded that the village was inhabited by as many as 5000 people and had 50 long houses. By 1687, the village was destroyed by DeNonville, the French and 200 native Christian converts. With the removal of the Iroquois out of southern Ontario by the Mississaugas,[3][4] the Anishinaabe and French trade began to flourish in the region shortly after the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701. Associated with this trade, there was a very small French garrison located somewhere on the old site of Teiaiagon from 1720-1730. In 1730 the French garrison was located downriver off the site of Teiaiagon. There was a 10-acre (40,000 m2) burial ground located in the central part of the village. The area of the village-site was overtaken by the Mississauga Indians and later by the French (1750) with a fort called Baby Point. The Mississaugas also did not live at the site of the village of Teiaiagon, but had a village located across the Humber River, on the west bank of the river, near Old Mill Road and Bloor Street from 1788-1805. James Bâby from Detroit in 1816 acquired the land now called Baby Point and only had orchards located on the site of Teiaiagon. The site was relatively undisturbed as it was not farmed. The Teiaiagon area was acquired by the government for military fortress and army barracks, but then was sold to Robert Home Smith who began developing the Baby Point subdivision in 1912. In 1949, at the south-west corner of Baby Point Road and Baby Point Crescent, a plaque was erected, briefly mentioning "Taiaiagon."
Because early Europeans had difficulty in transcribing First Nations names into European orthographic systems, numerous spelling variations exist. These include Taiaiako'n, Taiaiagon, Teyeyagon, and Toioiugon.
The Haudenosaunee and the Algonquians also lived along Lake Ontario.
The village of Ganatsekwyagon was on the Rouge River in Scarborough. Alternate names included:
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Another village was Ganaraske, originally a Cayuga village that transitioned to a Mississauga village. It is now known as Port Hope, Ontario.
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