[4] Ganneious was settled temporarily as part of a mid 17th-century northward push by the Iroquois confederacy, from their traditional homeland in New York state.
[5] The village was one of seven northern bases for the Iroquois from which to hunt beaver and other fur-bearers and to control the flow of furs from the north and west to the markets at Albany.
[6][7] In 1673, the French built Fort Frontenac, which is located in modern day Kingston, Ontario and approximately 40 kilometres east of Ganneious.
In 1675, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Father Louis Hennepin undertook a journey to Ganneious to convince the Oneida settled there to relocate closer to Fort Frontenac.
After having discours'd them some time, we return'd, bringing with us a considerable number of the Natives, in order to form a little Village of about Forty Cottages to be inhabited by them, lying betwixt the Fort and our House of Mission.In June 1687, under pressure from King Louis XIV to capture 'prisoners of war for his galleys'[citation needed] the inhabitants of Ganneious were rounded up and held as captives by Jacques Rene de Brisay de Donneville.