Ice Storm Clean-up Resources & Information
Updated: May 13, 2025 - 7:35am
The County of Simcoe announced additional support to enhance brush collection in communities impacted by the ice storm on April 8, 2025: County of Simcoe waste drop…
Anishinaabeg
Pronounciation: An – ish – in - aabe
Anishinaabe (singular form of Anishinaabeg) translates to original person and are comprised of the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Odawa (Ottawa), Chippewa, Mississauga, Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Algonquin people. The name Ojibwa was given to the group by the European colonialists and means "people whose moccasins have puckered seams". Today we use the traditional name, Anishinaabe. Their territory included the northern shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior from Georgian Bay to the prairies. More information on the history of the Anishinaabe can be read at the Innisfil library website.
Haudenosaunee
Pronounciation: Hoe – De – Nah – Show - Nee
Commonly referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy or the League of Five Nations, the Haudenosaunee of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy translates to People of the longhouse. Originally, the confederacy was comprised of five nations: The Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk. The Tuscarora joined later in the early 18th century to form what is now known as the Six Nations. Historically, the Haudenosaunee inhabited territory that extended from the Gensee River in the west, through the Finger Lakes regions to the Hudson River in the east. For more information on the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, please visit their website.
Tionontati
Pronounciation: Tee – oh – nahn – TAH - tee
The Tionontati are a lesser-known Indigenous group who occupied nine villages in the highlands South and West of Nottawasaga Bay extending West to the Southeastern shores of Lake Huron. Tionontati translates as people of the hills or on the other side of the mountain. After contact, the French nick-named them Gens de petun meaning Tobacco Nation, eventually shortening to Petun (tobacco) which can be misleading as there are no records of them growing tobacco. After a series of epidemics and conflicts in the 1600s, the small amount of surviving Tionontati amalgamated with other tribes and joined the Wendat. More information can be found at the Clearview Library – Petun to Wyandot by Charles Garrad, through the Canadian Encyclopedia, as well as on the Dufferin County Museum and Wyandotte Nation websites.
Wendat
Pronounciation: When - Dat
The Huron-Wendat nations, with colonization, and the movement of nations to the South of Lake Ontario moving north, were pushed out of this area, and some ended up joining other nations within what would become Ontario. Their community in Canada, now sits, just north of what is now Quebec City. Please visit their website for some of the history and current community initiatives and structure. There were other Wyandot nations, which ended up settling in what is now Kansas, and Oklahoma, United States.
Métis
Pronounciation: May - Tee
The Métis Nation is comprised of descendants of people born from indigenous and settler relations. Beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Métis communities emerged and developed across the Northwest within the Métis Nation Homeland, which refers to the three Prairie Provinces. Additionally, the Homeland has expanded to include parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. For more information on the region’s Métis community, please visit the Barrie Métis Council website.
Inuit
Pronounciation: ᐃ (ee) ᓄ (nu) ᐃᑦ (eet)
Most Inuit live in 53 communities spread across Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland encompassing 35 percent of Canada’s landmass and 50 percent of its coastline. For more information about Canadian Inuit, please visit the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami website.
Georgian Bay Native Friendship Centre
Barrie Native Friendship Centre