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The Crown Grant to the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, also known as Treaty 3½ or the Simcoe Deed, was issued in 1793. (See also Haudenosaunee and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.) Ten years earlier, the Crawford Purchase had acquired a large piece of territory. The British granted a small portion of this purchase to the Mohawks in recognition of their support to the Crown during the American Revolution. Gradually, the Crown grant was reduced due to encroachment by non-Indigenous settlers. The ownership of the land is still being contested. (See also Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Upper Canada Land Surrenders.)

The Kanesatake Resistance, also known as the Oka Crisis or the Mohawk Resistance at Kanesatake, was a 78-day standoff (11 July–26 September 1990) between Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) protesters, Quebec police, the RCMP and the Canadian Army. It took place in the community of Kanesatake, near the Town of Oka, on the north shore of Montreal. Related protests and violence occurred in the Kahnawake reserve, to the south of Montreal. The crisis was sparked by the proposed expansion of a golf course and the development of townhouses on disputed land in Kanesatake that included a Kanyen'kehà:ka burial ground. Tensions were high, particularly after the death of Corporal Marcel Lemay, a Sûreté du Québec police officer. Eventually, the army was called in and the protest ended. The golf course expansion was cancelled, and the land was purchased by the federal government. However, it did not establish the land as a reserve, and there has since been no organized transfer of the land to the Mohawks of Kanesatake.

This is the full-length entry about Kanesatake Resistance (Oka Crisis). For a plain-language summary, please see Kanesatake Resistance (Oka Crisis)(Plain-Language Summary).

The Iroquois Wars, also known as the Beaver Wars and the French and Iroquois Wars, were a series of 17th-century conflicts involving the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as the Iroquois or Five Nations, then including the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca), numerous other First Nations, and French colonial forces. The origins of the wars lay in the competitive fur trade. In about 1640, the Haudenosaunee began a campaign to increase their territorial holdings and access to animals like beaver and deer. Hostilities continued until 1701, when the Haudenosaunee agreed to a peace treaty with the French. The wars represent the intense struggle for control over resources in the early colonial period and resulted in the permanent dispersal or destruction of several First Nations in the Eastern Woodlands.

On 4 August 1701, the French concluded a peace agreement with the Five Nations Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). This brought to an end almost a century of hostilities marked by atrocities on both sides. The Haudenosaunee were permitted to trade freely and to obtain goods from the French at a reduced cost. In exchange, they pledged to allow French settlement at Detroit and to remain neutral in the event of a war between England and France. The accord assured New France superiority in dealing with issues related to the region’s First Nations. It also gave the French the freedom to expand militarily over the next half century.

The Carignan-Salières Regiment was a regiment of French troops who were sent to New France from 1665 to 1667 to fight the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). These professional soldiers, who had little experience with fighting in the woods, invaded the lands of the Haudenosaunee but did not succeed in defeating them. Nevertheless, the French show of force led to a peace accord in 1667. Though most of the French soldiers then went home, some stayed, married and settled in New France. Many of them married Filles du Roy and now have many descendants. Quebec municipalities such as Berthier, Chambly and Verchères still bear the names of officers of this regiment.

The Crawford Purchase of 1783 is one of the oldest land agreements between British authorities and Indigenous peoples in Upper Canada (later Ontario). It resulted in a large tract of territory along the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence River and the eastern end of Lake Ontario being opened for settlement by displaced Loyalists and Indigenous peoples who fought for and supported Britain during the American Revolution. The Crawford Purchase is one of many agreements made during the late 18th and 19th centuries, known collectively as the Upper Canada Land Surrenders. (See also Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

The Covenant Chain is the name given to the complex system of alliances between the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Six Nations and Iroquois League) and Anglo-American colonies originating in the early 17th century. The first alliances were most likely between New York and the Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk). These early agreements were referred to figuratively as chains because they bound multiple parties together in alliance. Today the Covenant Chain represents the long tradition of diplomatic relations in North America, and is often invoked when discussing contemporary affairs between the state and Indigenous peoples. (See also Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

Most Indigenous ethnology collections found in Canadian museums today were gathered (and sometimes confiscated) by missionaries, government agents, amateur and professional collectors and anthropologists such as Edward Sapir and Marius Barbeau during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today, many Indigenous nations are requesting that these items be returned to their true home.

A longhouse was the basic house type of pre-contact northern Iroquoian-speaking peoples, such as the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, Petun and Neutral. The longhouse sheltered a number of families related through the female line. In the 1700s, European-style single-family houses gradually replaced longhouses as primary residences. However, longhouses still function as important facilities in which some Indigenous peoples conduct ceremonies, political meetings and various community gatherings. (See also Architectural History of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

The London Township Treaty of 1796 (also known as Treaty 6 in the Upper Canada treaties numbering system) was an early land agreement between First Nations and British authorities in Upper Canada (later Ontario). It was one of a series of Upper Canada Land Surrenders. The London Township Treaty encompassed a tract of land 12 miles square (about 31 kilometres square) in the southwestern part of the colony. The British originally purchased it as the location to establish the capital of the colony, but York (modern Toronto) became the capital instead. (See also Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

The War of 1812 (which lasted from 1812 to 1814) was a military conflict between the United States and Great Britain. As a colony of Great Britain, Canada was swept up in the War of 1812 and was invaded several times by the Americans. The war was fought in Upper Canada, Lower Canada, on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, and in the United States. The peace treaty of Ghent (1814), which ended the war, largely returned the status quo. However, in Canada, the war contributed to a growing sense of national identity, including the idea that civilian soldiers were largely responsible for repelling the American invaders. In contrast, the First Nations allies of the British and Canadian cause suffered much because of the war; not only had they lost many warriors (including the great Tecumseh), they also lost any hope of halting American expansion in the west, and their contributions were quickly forgotten by their British and Canadian allies. (See also First Nations and Métis Peoples in the War of 1812.)

This article focuses primarily on land campaigns; for more detailed discussion of naval campaigns, see Atlantic Campaign of the War of 1812 and War on the Lakes in the War of 1812. Additionally, this is a full-length entry on the War of 1812. For a plain-language summary please see War of 1812 (Plain-Language Summary).

1492 Land Back Lane refers to the site of a protest in Caledonia, Ontario, in July 2020, where Haudenosaunee protestors – known as land defenders – occupied a housing development they argue stood on unceded Six Nations territory. 1492 Land Back Lane is part of a long-standing issue between the Haudenosaunee, settlers and the government over land rights in Caledonia, dating back to the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784.

Eric Walters’s The Bully Boys (2000) is a work of historical fiction for young adults. It follows Tom Roberts, a young farm boy who aids and observes Lieutenant James FitzGibbon and his mercenary soldiers during the War of 1812.

The Ipperwash Crisis took place in 1995 on land in and around Ontario’s Ipperwash Provincial Park, which was claimed by the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. The underlying cause of the crisis was the appropriation of the Stoney Point Reserve in 1942 by the federal government for use as a military camp. After repeated requests for the land to be returned, members of the Stony Point First Nation occupied the camp in 1993 and in 1995. On 4 September 1995 protesters also occupied Ipperwash Provincial Park nearby. Tension between the protesters and the OPP increased, resulting in a confrontation on 6 September 1995 during which Dudley George, an Ojibwa protestor, was killed.

The term a dish with one spoon refers to a concept developed by the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region and northeastern North America. It was used to describe how land can be shared to the mutual benefit of all its inhabitants. According to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the concept originated many hundreds of years ago and contributed greatly to the creation of the “Great League of Peace” — the Iroquois Confederacy made up of the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk nations. The Anishinaabeg (the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississauga, Saulteaux and Algonquin nations) refer to “a dish with one spoon” or “our dish” as “Gdoo – naaganinaa.”

In the early 1600s, Catholic nuns and priests established the first residential schools in Canada. In 1883, these schools began to receive funding from the federal government. That year, the Government of Canada officially authorized the creation of the residential school system. The main goal of the system was to assimilate Indigenous children into white, Christian society. (See also Inuit Experiences at Residential School and Métis Experiences at Residential School .)

(This article is a plain-language summary of residential schools in Canada. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry Residential Schools in Canada.)

On 25 October 1784, Sir Frederick Haldimand, the governor of the province Quebec, signed a decree that granted a tract of land to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), also known as the Six Nations, in compensation for their alliance with British forces during the American Revolution (1775–83). This tract of land, known as the Haldimand Grant or Haldimand Tract, extended for 10 km on both sides of the Grand River (southwestern Ontario), from its source to Lake Erie. Throughout the late 1700s and 1800s, the Crown and Haudenosaunee disputed rights to the land title. Negotiations about title to the Haldimand Tract still continue between the Canadian government and the Six Nations Confederacy.

The Droulers-Tsiionhiakwatha archaeological site is located in extreme southwest Québec, in Saint-Anicet in the Haut-Saint-Laurent area.