SEPTEMBER 23, 1787

GREAT BRITAIN PAYS OJIBWE CHIEFS $8,500 FOR WHAT IS NOW TORONTO

At Carrying Place on the Bay of Quinte, Sir John Johnson of the British Indian Department and Deputy Surveyor General John Collins met Mississauga chiefs Wabikane, Neace, and Pakquan and agreed to pay the Ojibwa £1,700 (currently about $200,000), for the land currently comprising Toronto.  The Toronto Purchase, ratified in 1805, included a small amount of cash and 149 barrels of goods, including axes, gunpowder, gun flints, kettles, mirrors, laced hats, flannel, and rum.  Governor Guy Carleton also wanted the land near current Belleville, Ontario.  Not surprisingly, the understandings of the parties as to the permanence of the transfer differed.  In 1986, the Mississaugas opened a land claims settlement process with the Canadian Government to rectify its grievance over the Toronto Purchase.  In 2010, Canada agreed to pay $145 million for the land.  The money was distributed to the band government with each of the Mississaugas receiving $20,000; the remainder placed in trust for future generations.

Source: “September 23,” Today in Canadian History.  Retrieved 7/14/2019, http://canadachannel.ca/todayincanadianhistory/index.php/September_23
Photo:  Author unknown.  Date: 1805.  Photo of 1805 document ratifying Toronto Purchase.  City of Toronto Archives.  Public Domain in Canada:  Pre-1/1/1949.  Public Domain in the US:  Pre-1/1/1925.  Public Domain elsewhere where copyright term is author’s life plus 100 years or less.