Before Agincourt

Before the current community in Agincourt, the first peoples to inhabit this region of the Rouge River watershed were the Iroquoian, the Huron, the Seneca and the Mississaugas, almost 10,000 years ago. They stayed there for almost 3,000 years.

These Indigenous communities followed detailed ideologies and practices that helped their communities thrive. These practices included preparing food, developing farming practices and fishing practices.

Food Ideologies

Indigenous communities historically have come together to share food, developing the “Dish with One Spoon” ideology that focuses on being mindful of how much your community takes from the land, how much is left for your neighbours, and how we can share our resources.

Farming Practices

As horticulturalists, the Wendat peoples have exceptional knowledge on growing crops well, especially using three main crops: corn, beans and squash, also known as The Three Sisters. In a practice known as companion planting, vegetables offer one another nutrients they need to thrive and provide an excellent harvest.

Fishing Practices

Indigenous communities have been discovered to use fishing techniques including the fishing weir. This technique involves using tree logs placed in waters that have many fish. This blocks the fishes’ path, forcing them to  swim into a narrow opening created by the fishermen, making it easier to capture them.

An above-water view of fishing weirs used to trap fish by Indigenous fishermen on the Puyallup Indian Reservation in Washington.

An under-water view of the remains of fishing weirs in Ontario, showing the wood logs used to trap fish.

Interestingly, the name “Toronto” comes from an Indigenous word, Tkarón:to (tah-kah-ron-to/duh-gah-ron-do) which roughly translates to “tree in the water” or “the passing of knowledge through water.” The Wendat People had a similar word for Toronto, Karonto, roughly translating to “log lying in the water,” a phrase that calls back to the practice of using fishing weirs to capture fish, a major source of food for Indigenous communities.

Present day Agincourt is on the traditional lands of the Anishinabek Nation, Huron-Wendat First Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Some of the most important sites in Scarborough that were there before the neighbourhood of Agincourt include Tabor Hill, The Draper Site, and the Alexandria Site, dated to the 15th century, also known as L’Amoreaux Park.

L’Amoreaux Park, one of the most famous sites, is located near present day Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School. It was uncovered in 2000 and found to be a former home of a Huron-Wendat village, almost 2.5 hectares in size. That was large enough to have anywhere from 800 to 1000 people living in it. It had mostly longhouses, sweat lodges and garbage pits, with many artifacts of developed civilization including ground stone axes, pottery fragments, and beads – items that show that the Indigenous people who lived there had sophisticated trade networks with those around them.

Recreation of Alexandra Site: the configuration of longhouses found at the Alexandra Site.

This rich history of trade, growth, and creating community through growing and cultivating food continued to get richer with flavours from every culture as time went on. Soon, this region became a multicultural hub connected through food and the community created because of it.