LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Merrill House is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples. These peoples have inhabited this land for thousands of years and all who enjoy this property are indebted to them for their generational custodianship. 

The Anishinaabe is a group of culturally related peoples that includes the Algonquin and Mississaugas, both of which have inhabited modern day Prince Edward County. The Laurentian, a Haudenosaunee people, also have a distant history in this place. Prior to the invasion of Europeans, this land was the seasonal home of the Cayuga. 

The Cayuga are a Haudenosaunee people that are largely concentrated on the southern shores of Lake Ontario. They would migrate seasonally to this peninsula (later made an island by Europeans) in order to enjoy the bounty of their land sustainability. By migrating seasonally for hunting and fishing purposes, the Cayuga allowed nature to regenerate.

As Europeans confiscated more and more of the Haudenosaunee’s land in modern day New York, the Kanien’keha:ka, or Mohawks, were forced to move north. At the time of British settlement in Prince Edward County the Kanien’keha:ka had established themselves in adjacent Tyendinaga.