The History of Ste. Marie II

The islands and coastline of Georgian Bay are among the most beautiful places in the Great Lakes. And throughout the past 12,000 years of human history stories of famine, war, and friendship unfolded.

The tragic tale of Ste. Marie II, details how a village with just one year of occupation illuminates the early history of Indigenous populations and their interactions with the French, English, and Dutch visitors to North America.

The Indigenous populations of this region, including the Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg, survived four long centuries of colonial domination and attempted assimilation. To this day, archaeological research continues to play an important role in efforts by First Nations to assert their rights and interests for both ancestral and contemporary territories.

This is the story of the last months of the Wendat and some of their Indigenous allies, along with the Jesuits, on Christian Island. The legacy of Ste Marie II rests with the oral histories of the Wendat and both the documentary and archaeological records of the settlements on this beautiful landscape.

A google satellite view showing the location of Ste Marie II within the Great Lakes region of Ontario. Google Maps 2018.