- paul bica / Foter / CC BY
The word “niagara” comes from the languages of the Iroquois people who inhabited the region when European settlers first arrived. While a lot is written about the area’s tourist opportunities, you can take the time to learn about the history of the area when you take advantage of Niagara Falls Ontario hotel deals.
Museum of Ontario Archaeology
Delve into history with the curated exhibits at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology. A two-hour drive from Niagara Falls, the museum is a great way to spend a day while visiting the region; it also makes for a good stopover on your way to the falls from points west. Of special interest is the museum’s recreation of an Attawandaron Iroquois tribe village as it may have looked 500 years ago. There are also permanent exhibits of artifacts dating back 11,000 years and temporary exhibits of all kinds. This museum is affiliated with Western University.
Maid of the Mist Legend
At the falls themselves, imagine how the area looked before it was built up with hotels, visitor centers and modern conveniences. Although the time when Iroquois hunters stalked game by the rushing waters may seem far removed from today’s bustling tourist attraction, you can take an excursion back in time by remembering the legend of the Maid of the Mist. Tho ugh there are many versions of this tale, in most of them a beautiful young woman rides over the waterfalls in a birch-bark canoe. She is caught by the Thunder God or his sons, and with this divine help, she rescues her village from a murderous serpent. When the snake is finally killed, its sinuous body blocks the flow of water, creating Horseshoe Falls. The Maid of the Mist tour boat began taking visitors into the mist at the base of the falls in the early 1800s. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions at the falls.
Seneca Iroquois National Museum, Salamanca, NY
For a trip to the United States’ side of the falls, visitors can drive to the Allegany Indian Reservation to see the Seneca Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca. It features collections of baskets and beadwork, a reproduction of a longhouse, cornhusk dolls, paintings and sculpture. This small museum is dedicated to the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. It takes about an hour and a half to drive to Salamanca from the falls.
Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
While you’re on the New York side, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society also have a permanent gallery of Native American art in the Buffalo History Museum, which is otherwise mostly dedicated to the development of the area by European settlers. The building it’s housed in dates back to the early 1900s.
Pay Homage Chief Red Jacket and Chief Clinton Rickard
Chief of the Wolf clan of the Seneca and a famous orator, Chief Red Jacket helped his nation negotiate with the newly formed United States after it broke from Britain. At this time, many of his nation had chosen to migrate to Canada because they had allied with the British during the war, but Red Jacket still helped earmark some land for the Seneca people in New York.
Red Jacket is buried in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn, a 269-acre cemetery that is also the final resting place for more than 10,000 veterans of the United States’ War of Independence. He died in 1830.
Meanwhile, there’s a fine statue of Tuscarora Chief Clinton Rickard in Niagara Falls State Park, near the Great Lakes Gardens. Rickard was influential in pushing for the free passage of Native Americans and First Nations people across the Canadian-U.S. border. He also founded the Indian Defense League, as part of that process. He died in 1971. The statue shows Rickard in his signature buckskins and feather headdress, which he typically wore to public events throughout the 1960s. The base of his statue is covered with native flowering plants.
Author: Anne Parnell is a former high school history teacher from New Brunswick. She enjoys traveling around Canada and the United States discovering pieces of the past.