8 The War of 1812 and Its Aftermath

Indigenous peoples and settlers faced the threat of American invasion during the War of 1812 and fought—sometimes side by side, other times separately—in several key battles, including the Siege of Detroit, the Battle of Queenston Heights, and the Defence of York.

The York Militia was a volunteer militia unit drawn from settlers. It consisted of three infantry regiments from York and the York region, including Etobicoke, Scarborough, and Durham (Pickering and Whitby). The 1st Regiment of the York Militia fought at the Siege of Fort Mackinac, Detroit, Queenston Heights, and York; the 2nd at Detroit, Queenston Heights, and Lundy’s Lane; and the 3rd at Detroit, Queenston Heights, and York.¹ Several settlers from The Village at Black Creek area—such as E. Kaiser, Jacob E. Kaiser, Jacob Snider, and Abraham and William Burkholder—participated in these conflicts, as did Joseph Shepard and possibly Daniel Stong.²

Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd York Militia and captain in the Indian Department, was “on Service with the Indians during the late War until the month of November, 1812, and on the 16th of the said month was taken ill when on duty, having been actively employed the whole of that season on a deputation to the Indians at Lake Huron, &c.”³ He served at the Battle of Queenston Heights.

Peter Robinson, who later became a prominent fur trader, organized a rifle company attached to the 1st York Militia: “This company, made up of experienced woodsmen, travelled overland to join in Major General Isaac Brock’s successful attack on Detroit on August 16, 1812.”⁴ Andrew Borland, who also became a local fur trader, volunteered at age seventeen to serve in Captain Robinson’s company. At the end of July 1812, this rifle company marched to the Grand River Tract where General Isaac Brock was recruiting Haudenosaunee warriors.⁵ George Martin, a Sachem of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the grandfather of Oronhyatekha (Dr. Peter Martin), played a major role in persuading Haudenosaunee warriors to support Brock and fight at Amherstburg / Detroit in 1812. He also acted as interpreter at the Battles of Beaver Dams and Fort Niagara.⁶

Sir Isaac Brock had to make promises to the Five Nations that they would protect our lands because many of the Five Nations said, “We’ve got to stay home and stop the squatting that’s happening upon our lands.”

—Phil Monture, Six Nations of the Grand River⁷

Brock played on American fears of Indigenous warfare by sending General Hull, the Detroit commander, a summons to surrender. He warned Hull that once the battle commenced, the large Indigenous force would be “beyond my control.” Hull, for his part, warned, “No white man found fighting by the side of an Indian will be taken prisoner.”⁸ On the night of August 15, 1812, some 530 First Nations warriors, including Anishinaabek from Lakes Huron and Simcoe, followed Tecumseh and other leaders across the Detroit River in canoes and landed below the fort. The next morning, the British followed with 300 regulars, 30 Royal Artillery, 400 militia, and 70 Haudenosaunee from Grand River led by John Norton. General Hull, fearing a massacre, surrendered without firing a shot.

Indigenous warriors, including Six Nations and Anishinaabe fighters, outnumbered Britain’s regular troops in several battles and played a key role in important victories. Like the settlers, they fought to protect their homelands and families, but they fought as allies of the British rather than as British subjects. They were not naive about Britain’s intentions towards them or their remaining land. They considered the British the lesser of two evils since the American government and settlers were more aggressively taking over Indigenous territories to the south.

When you read about the War of 1812 . . . lo and behold, I find out that Lawrence Herkimer [Wybenga’s ancestor] is in the war, and he’s a messenger between Fort York and Niagara-on-the-Lake. That was pretty exciting! He didn’t have the shiny red coat. Or maybe he did. I don’t know.

—Darin Wybenga, Mississaugas of
the Credit⁹

Keeping abreast of what my ancestors did, my grandfathers did, at the time, as Chiefs, one Nanigishking, Thomas Nanigishking, a warrior of 1812.

—Emerson Benson Nanigishkung, Chippewas of Rama¹⁰

By this point, the Mississaugas needed to demonstrate their loyalty to the Crown to receive the presents they depended on. Further, the British had promised an Indigenous-controlled territory and buffer zone between the British and Americans in the much-contested Ohio Valley—a promise they abandoned in peace negotiations with the Americans and the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

The Mississaugas, led by Chief Wahbanosay, and the Chippewas from Lakes Huron and Simcoe, led by Musquakie (or Yellowhead) and Assance (Little Shell), engaged the Americans, who arrived by ship to attack Fort York on April 27, 1813. Indigenous fighting forces were often accompanied by officials from the Indian Department who spoke their languages, and in this case, Indian agent James Givins served with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

Elder Garry Sault related that the Mississaugas camped at the Humber River. When the American Navy got blown off course, they saw the fires of the Mississaugas and so loaded their longboats and rowed ashore to attack the greatly outnumbered warriors, who bravely returned fire. After a brief skirmish, heavy fire from the Americans forced them to retreat through the woods.

We lose five of our Chiefs there in this little battle. They retreat up the Humber, and when they get to around where High Park is, they set up on top of the bluffs, and they showed the Americans that they were sharpshooters too.

—Garry Sault, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation¹¹

The Americans, realizing they had landed in the wrong place, retreated and moved east to re-engage with the British at Fort York. The wounded Mississaugas were tended by Given’s wife at his home. Mississauga leader Peter Jones remembered:

I was too young to take up the tomahawk against the enemy, and therefore was not engaged in the war. Well, however, do I recollect being told that the “Yankees” were coming into Canada to kill all the Indians, and wondering what kind of beings the Yankees could be, I fancied they were some invincible munedoos [Spirits]. My old grandmother, Puhgashkish [wife of Wahbanosay], was supposed to have been killed at the time York, now Toronto, was taken by the Americans, for being [disabled] she had to be left behind when the Indians fled into the backwoods, and nothing was ever afterwards heard of her.¹²

The invading force of about two thousand Americans had already captured the fort by the time the Six Nations arrived on the scene. The Americans invaded and looted the town of York and occupied it for nearly two weeks.

Chief Musquakie suffered a severe facial injury when a ball shattered his jaw at the Battle of York. Because of his injury, he passed on the chieftainship to his son, William Yellowhead, also known as Musquakie.¹³

In 1815, William Claus, the deputy superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, presented the “Pledge of the Crown [Wampum] Belt” to the Haudenosaunee, Mississaugas, and other allies to represent the interwoven “love and friendship” between them and promised that they could keep their customs.¹⁴ In recognition of their service, Chiefs Assance and Musquakie received medals from the Crown.¹⁵ Although the Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee had been told they would receive pensions for their war service, no muster roll of Indigenous warriors was kept (as it was for the British army and the militia). General Drummond called for a Council to be assembled on March 3, 1815, at Burlington Heights. There, he told the assembled Nations, including the Anishinaabek, “Chiefs and Warriors: I have given directions that the money promised to the widows of the Chiefs and warriors killed in action shall be paid in the course of 15 or 20 days, also the pensions promised to those worthy men who have been disabled by wounds received in action.”¹⁶ It appears they never received them.

Later in the nineteenth century, a new Canadian patriotism invented a more heroic version of the militia’s exertions in the War of 1812 and downplayed or completely ignored the contributions of Indigenous warriors other than Tecumseh.¹⁷ Jones reflected: “The Ojebways, as well as other Indian tribes, rendered the British great assistance in fighting the Americans. In that war many of our fathers fell, sealing their attachment to the British Government with their blood. It is generally believed, that had it not been for their efficient and timely aid, Canada would have been wrested from the Crown of Great Britain.”¹⁸

Indigenous Dispossession after 1815

It is often said that neither the British nor the Americans won the War of 1812. It is clear, however, that Indigenous peoples lost. Despite fighting in disproportionately higher numbers and contributing significantly to the defence of Canada, their military and political influence declined once peace was established and the British no longer needed Indigenous allies. Settlers and colonial officials viewed them not as treaty partners in an ongoing mutually beneficial relationship but as impediments to economic development. The British saw presents, long given to renew treaty relations and maintain loyalty, as an expensive and unnecessary burden on a treasury depleted by war.

We are no longer allies. We are now just an annoyance, basically. So instead of being the wartime partner, that trading partner and so on, we are just in the way of development.

—Ben Cousineau, Chippewas of Rama¹⁹

Giving, reducing, withholding, and delaying presents had been a British tactic to ensure compliance since the 1790s, when the Duke of Portland advocated this strategy to ensure the Mississaugas would sell their lands west of York at a price dictated by the British:

They must be brought to consider themselves in no way entitled to those presents; that they are indebted for them to his Majesty’s spontaneous bounty, and owe them solely to his paternal regard for their welfare and comfort—That it is therefore incumbent on them to shew their gratitude to His Majesty for the benefits they receive from him by promoting to the utmost of their power, the interests of His Government in Canada.²⁰

Given the huge cost of the War of 1812, the British sought ways to reduce Indian Department expenditures. Although they continued to give annual presents, hold Councils, and pay lip service to the alliance, presents were reduced, adding to the hardship experienced by Indigenous groups whose game and fish had been depleted and whose hunters had often been prevented from hunting on ceded lands.

Between 1815 and 1824, the settler population of Upper Canada doubled from 75,000 to 150,000, while the Indigenous population remained at about 8,000. By 1840, the settler population had grown to nearly half a million.²¹ Ten years later, it reached nearly 1 million. To serve this huge influx of immigrants, Indigenous Nations were pressured to cede more land to provide acreage for new farms. Yet much of the land already ceded was inaccessible to settlers because it had been designated as Crown or Clergy Reserves. One-seventh of every surveyed township was reserved for the colonial government and one seventh for the Church of England, the colony’s official church.

Greatly outnumbered, Indigenous peoples were induced to sign land cessions for almost all their remaining territory. If they didn’t, the government threatened, squatters would simply take over their lands or steal timber or other resources. According to historian Gerald M. Craig, “To a very large extent, Upper Canada was settled by squatters, and it was never practicable to evict very many of them; the speculators and the government simply had to make terms with them.”²² It does not appear that the government tried very hard to protect Indigenous lands against such depredations.

In 1818, the Mississaugas ceded 648,000 acres north of the previous Head of the Lake Purchase up to the territories ceded that same year by the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe (Ajetance Treaty 19 and Lake Simcoe–Nottawasaga Treaty 18, respectively). Mississauga Chief Joseph Sawyer and John Jones (Mississauga son of Augustus Jones and brother of Peter Jones) recalled that William Claus, deputy superintendent-general of the Indian Department, persuaded them to put their remaining lands “in trust” with the Crown in 1820 by telling them: “The white people are getting thick around you and we are afraid they, or the Yankees will cheat you out of your land, you had better put it into the hands of your very great Father the king to keep for you till you want to settle, and he will appropriate it for your good and he will take good care of it, and will take you under his wing, and keep you under his arm, & give you schools, and build houses for you when you want to settle.”²³

Following this advice, the Mississaugas of the Credit signed over virtually all their Toronto-area lands, including on the Credit River, believing they would be held in trust and protected. They later learned the agreement had been recorded as two land cessions (Treaties 22 and 23) and the land subdivided and sold off.

The Mississaugas never intended to cede their lands on the Credit. In 1828, they discovered to their horror that they retained legal title to a mere 200 acres on the east side of the Credit River, on the other side of the river from their village. They could be forced from their village at any time. Chiefs Sawyer and Jones stated: “Several years ago we owned land on the twelve mile creek, the Sixteen and the Credit. On these we had good hunting and fishing and we did not mean to sell the land but keep it for our children for ever.”²⁴

In this and other instances, Indigenous intentions and the law of the land—Indigenous law—had no standing in the eyes of colonial officials. Only British understandings of these supposedly mutual agreements were deemed valid. British law prevailed.

So we went from 4 million acres of land in 1781 to 200 acres of land on the east bank of the Credit River [in 1820].

—Darin Wybenga, Mississaugas of
the Credit²⁵

After the War of 1812, the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe were likewise dispossessed of vast territories. The first land cession was the 1815 Lake Simcoe Purchase (Treaty 16).²⁶ The ceded territory was 250,000 acres of rich farmland in the area west of Lake Simcoe and south of the Matchedash Tract, from Kempenfelt Bay to Penetanguishene Bay, for a one-time payment of 4,000 pounds. The government wanted to secure the route to Georgian Bay for North West Company traders so they could use the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail and avoid American interference.²⁷ This cession included the Penetanguishene Road (now Highway 93), built for military purposes during the War of 1812. It was signed by Chiefs Snake, Musquakie, and Assance. The provincial commissioner, Elisha Beman, and James Givins were among those who signed for the Crown.

The Lake Simcoe–Nottawasaga Purchase (Treaty 18), the Rice Lake Purchase (Treaty 20), and the Ajetance Treaty (Treaty 19) were all signed in 1818, opening up most of central Ontario to settlement. Through Treaty 18, the Chippewas of Lakes Huron and Simcoe ceded more than 1.5 million acres for an annual payment of 1,200 pounds to be shared between the three bands. The area was surveyed into townships between 1820 and 1836 but with the understanding that the Chippewas had not given up their rights to hunt and fish.²⁸

Our history is like many other First Nations in Canada. We once called a massive territory ours. And then it shrunk down to a couple of thousand acres through a series of treaties and surrenders or alleged surrenders and so on.

—Ben Cousineau, Chippewas of Rama²⁹

But speaking of land, 1818 . . . to me that was devastating. How can that be? How can that happen?

—Emerson Benson Nanigishkung, Chippewas of Rama³⁰

Some Anishinaabek were dispossessed without any treaty or compensation. Some of the lands of the Mississaugas of Lake Scugog were ceded through the Rice Lake Purchase of 1818, but land on the west side of the lake was not formally ceded until 1923. The Mississaugas were simply pushed aside as lands were granted to settlers.

British Immigration after 1815

After the War of 1812, the imperial government rejected Simcoe’s policy of promoting American settlement. Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Gore forbade magistrates to administer oaths of allegiance to Americans, which made it nearly impossible for Americans to secure title to land. Even American-born settlers already established in Upper Canada were not automatically granted the same citizenship rights as British settlers. To offset the risk of disloyalty and republican political sympathies infecting the colony with democratic ideas, the British encouraged and subsidized immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. A huge influx arrived after the Napoleonic Wars, when crossing the Atlantic was safer. Many immigrants were poor Irish or Scots, but a smaller number were from educated, well-to-do English families. They became incorporated into the ruling elite and entrenched British culture on Yonge Street.³¹

Lord Selkirk also brought British colonists to Red River (near what is now Winnipeg), but they left that colony in 1815–16 because of conflict with the Métis. Seventeen men and their families travelled via Penetanguishene and arrived at Holland Landing. Their extreme poverty led many to hire themselves out along Yonge Street. A number moved to West Gwillimbury in 1819.

British immigration peaked in the 1840s, bolstered by large numbers of Irish fleeing the potato famine. But the Irish had been the most numerous British immigrants since the 1820s. A large number settled in York / Toronto but others sought land in the farming districts. In most of the counties north of Toronto, the Irish constituted at least 20 per cent of the population with large concentrations in neighbouring Peel and north in South Simcoe. By the 1850s, there was an Irish enclave in Newmarket and Irish towns in the Humber Valley. By 1871, 43 per cent of Toronto’s population was of Irish origin.³²

Many British settlers and colonial officials in Upper Canada and Great Britain saw themselves as part of an expanding British Empire, particularly after the Napoleonic Wars, which ended in 1815. For many, the superiority of British culture and government went unquestioned. It was their right to rule over other peoples, although some British officials in the Colonial Office in England, motivated by a genuine if paternalistic humanitarianism, acted as a partial check on settlers and their governments in their dealings with Indigenous peoples.³³

For many, imparting British culture—“civilization”—to Indigenous peoples was seen as a “gift.” Others were skeptical that Indigenous peoples could be civilized at all.

Black-Indigenous Relations after the War of 1812

As they had done during the American Revolution, Black soldiers fought in the War of 1812, notably alongside Indigenous allies in the Battle of Queenston Heights. After the war, they pressed the British government for the military land grants promised to soldiers. In 1819, fifteen Ontario “men of colour” were granted 100-acre lots in Oro Township (southwest of Lake Simcoe), but not all took up their grants. A second wave of refugees from the United States arrived between 1828 and 1831. Eventually, about sixty Black settlers and their families acquired land in the area. The government hoped they would help provide provisions to the fort at Penetanguishene and, if war with the United States broke out, help defend the region.

This settlement was south of the Chippewa communities at the Narrows and the later Coldwater-Narrows Reserve on land ceded by the Anishinaabek in the 1815 Lake Simcoe Purchase (Treaty 16), but the nature of their interactions is unknown. Black settlers were among the first agricultural settlers in the area, but many did not stay long, as the land was of poorer agricultural quality than elsewhere. After 1831, when Oro Township was opened to white settlement, the value of the land increased. Many Black settlers sold their properties and relocated elsewhere. By 1900, their settlement had disappeared.³⁴

After the War of 1812, secret routes along Indigenous pathways or military trails also brought enslaved freedom seekers from the American South to refuge in Upper Canada. By 1834, the year after slavery was abolished in the British Empire, the population of York was 9,000, including at least 400 Black residents. According to the 1842 census, Toronto had 470 and the Home District 803 “Coloureds” across various townships.³⁵ The Township of York held the second-highest population of Black residents outside of St. John’s Ward in Toronto proper. Etobicoke Township, to the west of York Township, had the next largest Black community, and thirty Black residents were counted in Vaughan Township.³⁶

Fragmentary evidence suggests the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Black people was complex, given the exploitative context of British and white supremacy. For example, Mississauga Methodist missionary Peter Jones viewed enslaved Africans with compassion, expressed support for abolition, and visited an abolitionist organization in England in 1838, but he also reproduced popular racist tropes that placed Africans at a lower level of civilization than Indigenous peoples. The Credit Mission Village passed legislation in 1844 to prevent a Black husband of a Mississauga woman from living in the village.³⁷ While some Haudenosaunee provided aid to those escaping slavery, Joseph Brant is believed to have owned more than thirty enslaved Africans.³⁸ At the same time, given the forced transportation of enslaved Africans to North America, and their need to seek refuge and freedom from slavery in Canada, their position as “settlers” in relation to Indigenous peoples and lands was different from that of colonizing white Loyalists or British settlers.³⁹