The Heritage Guide - Heritage Mississauga

The First 10,000 Years
Early History
Although there is some debate among
historians as to when early humans
migrated to North America, it is
understood that most migrated Beringia
Land Bridge from Northern Europe and
Asia, following migrating animals. These
early peoples gradually formed complex
and distinct cultures. This very early time
period of human activity is referred to
as “pre-contact” and spans over 10,000
years before Europeans came to North
America.
The pre-contact years relating to
the geographic space of the City of
Mississauga is divided into three distinct
periods: Paleo-Indian (9000-8500
bc), Archaic (8000-1000 bc) and the
Woodland Period (1000 bc to ad 1650).
Each period has its distinct characteristics
which document the growth and
development of Aboriginal society. The
Trail through Erin Woods
Amy Wilkinson
Paleo-Indian and Archaic periods are
characterized as a steady growth in
population and the gradual development
of trade as Native groups followed an
annual cycle, following hunting, growing,
gathering, harvesting and other seasonal
and environmental patterns.
Although these early groups had
few material possessions and physical
evidence is scarce, there are 23 known
Archaic sites concentrated in the Credit
River and Cooksville Creek watersheds
within the City of Mississauga. In the
Woodland period, the area that is today
the City of Mississauga was situated in
the middle of Iroquoian territory, largely
occupied by ancestors of the Seneca.
Over time different cultural-language
groups developed among tribes that
had little else in common, the largest
such groups being the Iroquoian and
16 Heritage Guide of Mississauga