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109
Spr ing 2012
Escarpment Magaz ine
At the time I was too busy to listen andwhen he died in 1963 I still had not
paid the subject or Charlie the attention they deserved. So, contrite, from
respect to Charlie Campbell, I studied Craigleith history as he had re-
vealed it to me. I got the plaque put up to the Mary Ward in 1972 (cen-
tennial anniversary), and the plaque to the ShaleOilWorks in 1973. The
Ontario government refused me a plaque to Sandford Fleming on the
grounds that he already had plaques (although not at Craigleith). The In-
dians I have been working on ever since. I became friends with the Flem-
ing relatives at Craigleith and recently did write an item for the Craigleith
Heritage Depot, because none of the many people who wrote about
Sandford Fleming ever came to Craigleith or understood what Sandford
did there. Through a lady at the Enterprise-Bulletin (then a family news-
paper) in 1961 I was put in touch with Jay Blair at Duntroon, who had
studied the local Indian remains all his life and he became my mentor.
After he died in 1979 I carried on his work, and his uncle’s before him.
I was able to bring to the local area University (Toronto, McMaster,
York) professors, students, formal archaeological teaching and research,
and TheOntario Archaeological Society, of which I am a Past-president
and Executive-Director.
Escarpment:
According to articles I have researched, as many as 8000
native people lived in nine villages along the Escarpment in the early
1600s. Is that correct and where specifically were these villages located?
Charlie:
The number of villages varied with the time. Because villages
moved periodically there are the remains of dozens in the area dating to
different times. There were 8when Champlain came to the area in 1616
with two under construction, 9when the Jesuits opened theMission of the
Apostles in 1639. These did not exist in Champlain’s day. A population
of 8,000 people could be about right at the early times. Then disease re-
duced the population, compounded by Iroquois attacks, famine, etc. so
there were only perhaps four villages in 1649 and only two when the
Petun left in 1650. The villages are located regularly spaced along the
foot of the Niagara Escarpment, usually on moraines, from Banda to
Craigleith. I havemapped themall by period. TheWolf Tribe to the south
arrived first, ca. 1580, their first (ca. 1580 A.D.) and second (at the time
of Champlain’s visit) Capital Villages were at Creemore, their last (de-
molished by the Iroquois 7
th
December 1649) north of Duntroon. The
Deer Tribe arrived ca. 1600. Their villages were in pairs, the first pair
(ca. 1600-1616) near Osler Bluff, the second pair (ca. 1616-1636) at
the Scenic Caves, the third and last pair (ca. 1636-1650) on the ridge
at Craigleith. From these last two the survivors left early in 1650. These
are the two that I have been trying to save. Coincidentally, one of them
was the one that Charlie Campbell first told me about.
Escarpment:
What can you tell us about the nature of the Petun?
Charlie:
The Petuns are usually misrepresented as simple tobacco
growers, subsidiary to the Hurons, and of no importance. You will be
safe to stick with this universally accepted myth. However, in my opinion
it is nonsense based on ignorance proclaimed by people who have
never even been to the Petun Country. In my further opinion – and I am
surely presently the only person to hold it – the Petun were an essential
but indirect part of the Neutral fur trade with the French, overland, be-
cause the Iroquois would not allow them to use the St. Lawrence River
through their territory. This remains an hypothesis because at this stage
I cannot entirely prove it. That I can even advance it is because of my
intimate personal knowledge of all Petun archaeological sites, which
contain tools for beaver pelt preparation and beaver bones, and two
facts that result from the work of other scholars; 1. There are probably
more than three times as many beaver bones on ALL Petun village sites
as on ANY Neutral or Huron sites. On Petun sites the percentage of
beaver bone among ALL mammal bone (including deer, bear, dog,
woodchuck) usually averages ca. 40%. On one site it is 72%.
2. Pottery found on the principal Petun Wolf village site at Creemore
was demonstrably made in a Rock Tribe village in the Trent River terri-
tory.
When Europeans (later, only French) sailed up the St, Lawrence they en-
counteredWyandot tribes (the “St. Lawrence Iroquois”), particularly the
Rock Tribe, related to the Neutrals who were living in distant south-west-
ern Ontario. The Rock could thereafter obtain abundant trade goods in
return for beaver pelts. The Neutrals had plenty of beavers but the Rock
were more than a season’s journey away. To get them to the Rock over-
land, and acquire French goods in return, over such a long distance, two
things happened. The Rock moved fromQuebec up the Trent River, from
where they still traded with French ships at Quebec. The Neutrals sent
one of their principal Tribes (the Wolf) to about half-way to the Rock
(Creemore), ca. 1580 A.D. The Rock brought French goods fromQue-
bec to Creemore. TheWolf took them to the Neutrals and returned with
beavers, which the Rock took to Quebec.
After about ten years the Rock could not maintain its position on the Trent
River and in 1590 moved to Georgian Bay, perhaps to use the Ottawa
River Route to Quebec. This brought them near the Huron Bear Tribe,
which became involved. TheNeutrals then sent a second Tribe, the Deer,
about 1600, to settle north of the Wolf and ally with both the Wolf and
the Bear, visible across Nottawasaga Bay. Unaccountably, Champlain
recorded the name “Petun” for the two tribes, Wolf and Deer, together.
The alliance of the Petun Deer and Huron Bear became strong enough
that when in 1649 the Bear abandoned their villages in fear of Iroquois
attack, it was to the villages of the Petun Deer (at Craigleith) they fled,
across the ice of frozen Nottawasaga Bay.
The Iroquois attacks so successfully disrupted the fur trade to Quebec
that the “Huron” and the “Petun” Wyandot tribes all moved away by
1650. The Hurons went in various directions, but the Petun Deer and
Wolf, with those of the Hurons that remained with them, returned to their
Neutral homeland. From there they later emigrated and journeyed for
many years andmiles to eventually reach Kansas andOklahoma, where
they are today. But that is a story for another time!
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