1 Trade for the copper tools they made stretched from Lake Superior to North Dakota (for flint) and the Atlantic Coast (for shells) as early as 500 BC. They were skilled at working the available copper and were some of the earliest people to develop the natural resources in the region, mining in the area from as early as 5000 BC. One Indigenous group that lived in Northwestern Ontario was the Shield Archaic Peoples, from around 7,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE. There is no written record from that long ago, but artifacts such as spear points, axe heads and scraping tools have been found that provide valuable clues about life after the glaciers retreated. Humans have been living in this area for over 10,000 years, since the time of the Paleo-Indians.

We also acknowledge the contributions of the Métis peoples. We acknowledge that Thunder Bay is built on the traditional territory of the Anishinabek, which includes the Ojibwa of Fort William First Nation, signatory to the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850. A brief history is told in the following sections. Thunder Bay has a rich and exciting past.

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