Bead Hill National Historic Site of Canada

Bead Hill was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1991 because:

• it is apparently the only known remaining and intact 17th-century Seneca site in Canada.

The heritage value of Bead Hill lies in its association with the Seneca and in its integrity as an intact archaeological site. The village and the associated burial area have been dated to circa 1665-1687 CE, when they were used by the Seneca, members of the Iroquois Confederacy. Bead Hill is an example of the sedentary, semi-permanent villages characteristic of the Seneca, which were generally pallisaded and located in high, defensible locations some distance from major waterways.

Bead Hill was first discovered in the late-19th century when a pallisaded village near the mouth of the Rouge River was reported. Further archaeological surveys turned up numerous small artifacts such as glass beads, ceramic smoking pipes and European gunflints. These findings, along with the location of the village on a defensible hillside, and the presence of a burial site, are typical of Seneca villages from the 17th century. The only known surviving “Iroquois du Nord” village, the site presents enormous potential for acquiring new knowledge regarding Iroquois culture of the time period. Due to the fact that Bead Hill has never undergone large-scale excavations, the site is well preserved and relatively undisturbed.