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Sunday, January 15, 2017

Roebuck Indian Village Site Plaque

West of Spencerville, Ontario on the south side of County Road 21 east of Forsythe Road stands a plaque commemorating the site of an Iroquoian agricultural community.



ROEBUCK INDIAN VILLAGE SITE
Approximately 500 years ago an Iroquoian agricultural community
of about 1600 persons occupied this site. Archaeological
excavations suggest that approximately 40 communal longhouses,
averaging nearly 100 feet in length, stood in this village,
palisaded with a stout double stockade. The farmers on the
site grew corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. A
similar village, Hochelaga, on the present site of Montreal,
was visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535. After this first
contact with Europeans, these Indians, related to other
Iroquoian-speaking peoples in northern New York and southern
Ontario, disappeared, although archaeological evidence suggests
that some of the survivors were absorbed by the Hurons
on the Trent River system.

Erected by the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board,
Ministry of Colleges and Universities