Business Retention and Expansion Final Report - City of Brantford

13There are two banks in our community providing the traditional products and services to customers, alongside the TwoRivers Community Development Centre, an Aboriginal CFDC offering business support and financing that is located inthe Business and Opportunity Centre. The Opportunity Centre is an office complex hosting programs focused onemployment, training and business development as well as some local businesses.Aboriginal Business Canada has a satellite officeand serves the business planning and marketingneeds of some local business clients.EducationT h e re are 13 elementary schools, one postsecondary school and two public libraries locatedwithin Six Nations and New Credit.Cultural OverviewBoth Six Nations and New Credit are locatedwithin an area historically shared as part of theBeaver Hunting Ground, under the “Dish withOne Spoon” wampum (treaty). This treaty predatedthe Haldimand Deed and helped to establishrespectful guidelines for sharing of resources for the relatively peaceful subsistence of the people. Today, thesenations continue to co-exist peacefully while still maintaining separate cultural identities.Six Nations is an Iroquoian community representative of six different nations of Iroquioan or Haudenosaune peoples.These are the Cayuga Nation, the Mohawk Nation, the Tuscarora Nation, the Oneida Nation, the Onondaga Nation andthe Seneca Nation. The most predominant languages spoken are Mohawk and Cayuga in addition to English. Their traditionalterritory ran from the tip of James Bay, down through eastern Ontario into New Yorkstate and beyond down theMississippi River. After the war of 1812, some of the Six Nations who had assisted the British retreated with their alliesto the Beaver Hunting Grounds in Ontario. Some settled in eastern Ontarioand some settled along the Grand River.The word Mississaugapeople is derived from "Missisakis" meaning "many river mouths". By the mid nineteenth centurythe Mississaugas believed they had obtained their name from the mouths of the Trent, Moira, Shannon, Napanee,Kingston, and Gananoque rivers.The term New Credit is in recognition of the fact that the Mississaugatraded goods along the shore of theCreditRiverprior to the move to their new location in 1847. This First Nation was once a mighty and respected tradingnation with the Europeans in and around an area,which included Port Credit and the City now knownas Toronto. The city of Mississaugaowes its name tothe Mississaugas of the New Credit. TheMississaugas of the New Credit First Nation is locatedon some 600 acres south of Hamilton, Ontario.There are approximately 1400 listed Ojibwe memberswith one third living on reserve. Languagesspoken are Ojibwe and English.Six Nations and New Credit are very entrepreneurialcommunities with over 335 businesses listed in ourlocal business directory database.