Prehistory of the North Bay Area
By John Pollock

Approximately eleven thousand years ago, the North Bay area was covered by a massive ice sheet, hundreds of metres thick. As the ice melted back towards the north, a huge inland sea (or glacial lake) formed, covering most of the area. This lake lasted for some two thousand years until it drained about eight thousand years ago. During the glacial lake times, the climate was very cold. There may have been ancestors of the present day Anishnabek People living on the shorelines and islands of this great lake but to date, no archaeological evidence has been found. This is no doubt partially due to the fact that no detailed examination and testing of glacial lake shorelines have been made by archaeologists. Farther south where such studies have been done, sites of this antiquity have been found.

Following the draining of the glacial lake Barlow-Ojibway, the climate changed drastically, moving from colder to a warmer state than present. This allowed the Great Lakes St. Lawrence hardwood forest to cover all of the North Bay area to a much greater extent than at present. During these changing times (about six thousand years ago) the ancestors of the Anishnabek Peoples such as the Nipissing First Nation, the Dokis First Nation and the Mattawa Algonquin peoples were living in the area. This has been confirmed by archaeological sites found over the last twenty years. During the Archaic era, these early peoples were big game hunters who used large spear points. They also mined deposits for flint, chert, quartzite and copper in order to make stone and metal tools. Many of these tools were traded as part of an extensive trade network developed 6,000 years ago throughout North America.

Prehistoric Aboriginal culture (like all cultures worldwide) was continually changing and evolving. In the North Bay area, the development of new technology such as the bow and arrow, fired clay pots and new stone working techniques resulted in a change in material culture and lifestyles about 2,000 years ago. In this Woodland era, the people utilized smaller stone tools and appear to have had a more diversified economy based on a broader range of plant and animal resources. Again, trade and contact between groups were well established. These Early and Middle Woodland cultures were the predecessors of the Late Woodland cultures who are the direct ancestors of present day Aboriginal Peoples. The immediate forefathers of the Nipissing and Algonquin First Nations and other Anishnabek groups had a complex and well-organized society. Archaeological evidence indicates they had invented superior ways of making fired, clay pots with their own distinctive designs, and smaller more powerful weapons. They also had a sophisticated trade network with other groups including the Huron and Neutral Iroquois Peoples in southern Ontario and the Cree peoples of northern Ontario and Quebec.

After European contact in the seventeenth century (well over three hundred years ago), the various Anishnabek Peoples first became known by their European names such as Ojibway, Cree, etc. However, the correct names are their own names in their own language. The self- designation "Anishnabek" is common to a number of tribal groupings, all of whom speak dialects of the Ojibwa language. Other members of this dialect group include the Algonquin, the Mississauga, the Ottawa, the Potawatomi and the Saulteaux.