bannerstones, gorgets), bifaces or tool blanks, animal bone and waste flakes, a byproduct of the tool making process.

Early, Middle and Transitional Woodland Periods

Occupations became increasingly more permanent in this period, culminating in major semi-permanent villages by roughly 1,000 years ago. Archaeologically, the most significant changes by Woodland peoples are the appearance of artifacts manufactured from modeled clay and the emergence of more sedentary villages. The earliest pottery was crudely made by the coiling method and early house structures were simple oval enclosures. The Early and Middle Woodland periods are also characterized by extensive trade in raw materials, objects and finished tools, with sites in Ontario containing trade items with origins in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. A rise in mortuary ceremonialism is also evident, culminating in the construction of large burial mounds.

Late Woodland Period

By the Late Woodland period there was a distinctive cultural occupation of the western portion of Ontario, including Essex, Kent and Lambton counties, plus some portions of neighbouring ones as well. The primary Late Woodland occupants in the Windsor area are identified by archaeologists as belonging to the Western Basin Tradition. Murphy and Ferris (1990:189) indicate that these people had ties with people in southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio and represented an in situ cultural development from the earlier Middle Woodland peoples. The Western Basin Tradition seems to have been centred in the territory of the eastern drainage basin of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and the southern end of Lake Huron. Murphy and Ferris (1990) refute an Iroquoian affiliation for Western Basin and instead favour an Algonquian designation.

Contact Period Indigenous Settlement

By the time of European arrival in the 17th century, other Indigenous populations had established significant communities in the Windsor area and along the Detroit River. The earliest historical references to Indigenous villages in the Windsor area are drawn from the mid-17th century French explorers. According to early travelers, there was a Neutral (Attawandaron) village (Skenchioe) in the Windsor area, and a mixed Neutral and Wenro (Awenrehonon) settlement named “Khioetoa" (Lajeunesse 1960:4). In 1640, Jesuit missionaries reported Indigenous village sites and corn fields along the Detroit River. Early historic accounts also describe the village containing the Mission of St. Michael. By 1651 the Huron, Wenro and Neutral communities fled their homelands in