Kineubenae

Born in the mid-18th century, Kineubenae grew up in the last decades of Ojibwa domination of present-day southern Ontario, before the American Revolution.

Retaining for themselves the "Mississauga Tract," an area lying between Burlington Bay (Hamilton Harbour) and the Credit River, they agreed in 1784 to the surrenders on the understanding, in Kineubenae’s later words, that "the Farmers would help us," and that the Indians could "encamp and fish where we pleased."

Meanwhile, the Mississaugas were suffering from a high mortality rate; close contact with Europeans had brought diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, against which they had no natural immunity.

Then, in return for ceding the entire lakefront of the tract (the Indians retained the interior section until 1818), Kineubenae extracted a promise from the British that the Mississaugas would keep the river mouths and their rights to the fisheries there.

In 1806, he complained about the white man who had taken over his cornfield at Bronte Creek and then destroyed it, as well as that of a poor Indian widow who had four children to support.

For nearly two decades he had led his people and during this time most of their lands had been taken, the fish and game populations had declined drastically, and their own numbers had been severely reduced.

As the warriors squatted around him the old chief, Kineubenae, slowly began to tell of the fast in which, through the grace of unseen spirit powers, he had obtained protection against arrows, tomahawks, and even bullets.