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Treaty 19

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Compiled by Amelia Healey, GRASAC Research Assistant

Treaty 19, “Provisional Agreement with the Mississagues of the River Credit, for the surrender of 648,000 Acres of Land – IT 059.” October 28, 1818. RG 10, Volume number: 1842/IT059, Microfilm reel number: T-9938. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=3951604&new=-8585976778906523178.

Overview

The Ajetance Treaty, or Treaty 19, is between the Mississaugas of the Credit and British Crown. From October 27 to 29, 1818, Mississauga leaders including Chief Ajetance (or Adjutant), and British representatives met at the Credit River and signed Treaty 19 on October 28. The treaty outlines the surrender of 648,000 acres of land (in the current-day regions of Halton and Peel) in exchange for an annual payment of £522.10 in goods in perpetuity.  

The Mississauga surrendered the land directly to the Crown in a public council, following protocol rooted in the 1763 Royal Proclamation and the 1764 Treaty of Niagara. These legal documents and agreements confirmed that settlers could not use land without a collectively negotiated treaty. Despite this, the Mississaugas experienced frequent settler encroachment on their unceded land. 

The Mississaugas of the Credit experienced hardship with infectious diseases, the loss of hunting and fishing grounds, and increasing colonial policies and practices particularly after the War of 1812 and Canadian Confederation in 1867. While the population of the Mississaugas of the Credit’s decreased from 500 to approximately 200 after the War of 1812, the British population increased from 95,000 in 1814, to 186,488 in 1828. 

In need of essential resources, other Anishinaabe Peoples signed treaties with the Crown in 1818 as well, including the Chippewa of Lake Simcoe (Treaty 18) and the Michi Saagiig near Rice Lake (Treaty 20). The Mississaugas of the Credit previously entered several treaties with the Crown, including the Between the Lakes Treaty, No. 3 (1791) and the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13 (confirmed in 1805). 

Dates

  • Council met from October 27-29, 1818.
  • Document signed on October 28, 1818.

Places

  • Council meetings for the treaty took place at the “Rivierre au Credit” on October 27, 28, and 29, 1818.
  • The treaty encompassed 648,000 acres of land located in the contemporary regions of Halton and Peel.

Nations and Representatives

  • Mississauga
    • The Treaty 19 document lists the Mississauga representatives as “Adjutant, Chief of the Eagle Tribe, Weggishigomin of the Eagle Tribe, Kawwahkitahqubi of the Otter Tribe, Cabibonike of the Otter Tribe, and Pagitaniquatoibe of the Otter Tribe.”
  • British
    • Represented William Claus, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs. Additional attendees included James Givins, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Hands, Jr. Clerk Indian Department, William Gruet, Interpreter for the Indian Department.

Negotiations

  • 648,000 acres of Mississauga land.
  • Annual payment £522.10 in goods “at the Montreal price” in perpetuity.

Prior Negotiations

  • Treaty of Niagara, 1764
  • Mississauga Treaty at Niagara, 1781
  • Between the Lakes Treaty, Treaty No. 3, 1792
  • Brant Tract Treaty, Treaty No. 8, 1797
  • Toronto Purchase, Treaty No. 13, 1805
  • Head of the Lake, Treaty No. 14, 1806

Subsequent Negotiations

  • Treaty 22, 1820
  • Treaty 23, 1820

Sources

Heritage Items

  • 28 October 1818, Credit River Surrender, Library and Archives Canada, Indian Affairs, D-10a, Series A, Volume 1842, Reel T-9938, GAD REF IT060, http://grasac.org/gks, (heritage item id no. 3288).

Language Items

  • None identified yet.

Primary Documents

Secondary Sources

  • Miller, J. R. Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty-Making in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Pg 95-104.
  • Morin, Jean-Pierre. Solemn Words and Foundational Documents: An Annotated Discussion of Indigenous-Crown Treaties in Canada, 1752-1923. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 2018. Pg 80.
  • Smith, Donald B. Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians. Toronto [Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 39.
  • Smith, Donald B. “The Dispossession of the Mississauga Indians: A Missing Chapter in the Early History of Upper Canada.” Ontario History LXXII (June 1981). Pg 42-43.
  • Surtees, Robert J. “Indian Land Surrenders.” Treaties and Historical Research Centre: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, February 1984. Pg 76-78.
  • Thoms, J. Michael. “Ojibwa Fishing Grounds: A History of Ontario Fisheries Law, Science, and the Sportsmen’s Challenge to Aboriginal Treaty Rights, 1650-1900.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of British Columbia, 2004. Pg 140-142.

More Sources

  • Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. “Ajetance Treaty, No 19 1818.” November 3, 2020.

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