Preface
This website is meant to provide a written and visual account of the indigenous history of a very specific geographic area and to put it into context with the ebb and flow of the history of Ontario and North America in general. For researchers, we hope that the following will provide a valuable starting point.
There are many good sources of information on the Wendat. Please see the selected bibliography for some of the more accessible sources. The local Anishinaabe, however, are very sparsely covered. We have attempted to pull together data from various sources and the information in this section more closely approaches the definition of original research. As for the section on the Wendat, we have stood on the shoulders of the giants who have published on the topic. We do hope our presentation provides a valuable synthesis of available sources.
It should be noted that, although Simcoe County is the focus of this study, it has been necessary to step outside these Euro-Canadian boundaries on a number of occasions. The Anishinaabe people of Muskoka, for example, were connected politically to the larger group around Lake Simcoe. For this reason, they have been included in our presentation. The use of Simcoe County in the title is not entirely accurate or useful at times but it does provide a geographic centre stage for this narrative.