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The Crawford Purchase is part of Dish With One Spoon Territory and therefore would have been shared by many Nations over the centuries including the Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Nations of the Anishinaabe. By the late 1700s when the British were looking for land to relocate the British Loyalists from America they negotiated with the Mississauga living near present day Bay of Quinte and Kingston, Ontario. Initially this deal was supposed to secure land for the Mohawk Loyalists whose land had been traded away by the Crown without their consent. Apparently during talks with William Crawford the Mississauga said, almost as an afterthought, that they wouldn’t mind if some of the Europeans settled here as well. It is important to know that there are no official documents, wampums, or signatures from these negotiations. The Crawford Purchase exists only as a letter from Mr Crawford himself detailing in his own fancy script what he thinks he acquired.
This “Treaty”, completed in October of 1783, deals with a block of land that stretches along the north shore of Lake Ontario from the Trent River and modern Trenton to approximately Mallorytown, near Brockville and goes inland “as far as a man could travel in a day.” Crawford also claimed that all the islands were ceded. The Mississauga immediately and continuously contested the inclusion of any islands.
In return, for all this land the Mississaugas got clothing for their families, guns for everyone, some powder and ball for winter hunting, 12 laced hats, and enough red cloth for 12 coats.