The Tabor Hill Ossuary

8/18/2019 The Tabor Hill Ossuary

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Historicist: The Tabor Hill Ossuary

The bones of 500 First Nations people are found in a centuries-old

Scarborough burial pit.

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!isco)ery of the bones at Tabor Hill. Toronto Telegram* "ugust +,* +5.

http://torontoist.com/author/davidwencer/http://torontoist.com/author/davidwencer/


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On August 17, 1956, while levelling land to make way for a new subdivision, a power

shovel ripped into the side of Tabor ill, northeast of the interse!tion of "awren!e

Avenue and #ellamy $oad% A!!ording to the ne&t day's Globe and Mail , (about 1)) feet

of earth were sli!ed from the hill before the shovel gouged out a po!ket about four feet

below the surfa!e% The hole, about seven feet wide and one foot deep, was !rammed with

bones%* The shovel had un!overed a !enturies+old burial pit, one of the earliest ossuary

sites in Ontario%

t was immediately apparent that the site !ontained bones from many burials- initial

reports suggested there were at least 5)% .us arris, then the reeve of /!arborough

Township, initially dismissed suggestions that the site might be a 0irst ations burial

ground on the basis that no !orresponding artifa!ts were present% One theory he

suggested to the press was that the bones belonged to vi!tims of a late 19th+

!entury !holera epidemi!% The Star printed a further theory of arris's2 that the site at

Tabor ill (might be a disposal spot for some medi!al s!hool, where they !ould put

human remains after students were through with using them in the laboratories%*

(3e should have !harged admission,* one workman told reporters as /!arborough

residents were !rowding the site to see the une&pe!ted dis!overy% "o!al !hildren

reportedly began digging in the surrounding area, finding additional bones buried only a

few in!hes below the surfa!e%

The ne&t day, ar!haeologi!al e&perts visited the site and identified it as a 0irst ations

burial pit, likely several !enturies old% 4ames "ovekin, a graduate student and history

tea!her at $% % ing ollegiate nstitute, told the Globe and Mail that he thought it was

an rouois site from the 17th or 18th !entury, and suggested it was likely linked to aspe!ifi! !eremony, wherein (bodies were allowed to de!ompose for seven years on

platforms, s!raped !lean, and then buried during a 0east of the ead ritual%*

http://www1.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/1853/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Harrishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Harrishttp://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/03/07/toronto_forged_its_identity_amid_cholera_outbreak.htmlhttp://schools.tdsb.on.ca/rhking/http://www1.toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/1853/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Harrishttp://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/03/07/toronto_forged_its_identity_amid_cholera_outbreak.htmlhttp://schools.tdsb.on.ca/rhking/


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Scarborough ree)e /us Harris* recei)ing tobacco fro 1oe 2ogan of the Brantford of the Brantford Si3 Nations

reser)e. Toronto Star * October 40* +5.


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Over the ne&t few days, 3alter A% enyon, an ar!haeologist and assistant !urator of

ethnology at the $oyal Ontario :useum, !ondu!ted a preliminary e&amination of Tabor

ill, in the pro!ess dis!overing a se!ond burial pit at the site that was somewhat smaller

than the first% oting the large number of total burials at the site and the e&!ellent

!ondition of the bones, enyon wrote a letter to .us arris, suggesting a!tion to

preserve the ossuary and to have Tabor ill de!lared a histori! site% arris took on this

pro;e!t with !onsiderable enthusiasm, immediately announ!ing plans to form a

!ommittee with representatives from the provin!ial and federal governments, telling

the Star, (3e need finan!ial help and we need it fast% Otherwise we !ould lose a national

histori!al site%*

arris moved ui!kly% On August


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Sprin6ling sacred tobacco7 prior to the +5 reburial. The Globe and Mail * October 40* +5.

Over the ne&t few weeks, representatives from the rouois worked on planning the

event, with support from /!arborough Township% n addition to !osts !overed by the

Township, !lose to


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rouois, with several thousand outsiders observing the !eremony, in!luding ;ournalists

and various government offi!ials%

n a 1958 anthropology paper des!ribing the 1956 reburial !eremony at Tabor ill,

$obert 3illiam unning writes that (the township offi!ials did everything in their

power to insure the authenti!ity of the !eremony%* This proved impossible, however,and (almost from beginning to end the !eremony was organi?ed for the parti!ular

o!!asion,* as opposed to being purely traditional% The rouois 0east of the ead,

unning notes, is a sa!red !eremony whi!h is not open to outsiders- the publi! nature of

this event meant that some rouois representatives were relu!tant or unwilling to

parti!ipate, and de!isions needed to be made by the organi?ers as to whi!h parts of the

!eremony !ould be !ondu!ted publi!ly% Allowan!es also had to be made for translating

or e&plaining !ertain aspe!ts of the !eremony to the @nglish+speaking publi!, and for the

opportunity for spee!hes by non+rouois offi!ials%

On O!tober 19, a small group !ondu!ted a preliminary !eremony at Tabor ill%The Star wrote that (sa!red toba!!o was burned and the smoke, a!!ording to rouois

!ustom, !arries a message to the .reat /pirit%* The same group then reportedly visited a

nearby ar!heologi!al site that had only re!ently been dis!overed a few kilometres to the

west, near where ighland reek meets #rimley $oad% niversity of Toronto students

had ;ust begun digging at this site, and eventually found more than 1,))) artifa!ts

in!luding pottery fragments, tools, and pro;e!tile points%

8 of T students 9or6ing on the site located ust 9est of Tabor Hill. Toronto Star * October 40* +5.


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3hile !orn and beef soup was prepared in two large !auldrons over a fire, a new hole

was dug for the re+internment of the bones% A!!ording to unning, the digging was

initiated by si& of the !hiefs% (3orkers !hanged often% t was diffi!ult digging in the hard

pa!ked loam and !lay% 3hen the pit neared five feet in depth, the members of the press

stepped in and volunteered to finish the ;ob%* 3hen the new pit was ready, the

spe!tators were moved ba!k, and the rouois representatives reburied the bones, laying

wolf pelts flat on top%

0ollowing the reburial, a banuet was held by the Township at the /!arborough .olf

lub% espite a sense of goodwill and friendship apparently dominating the !eremony,

the spee!hes ended on a low note when 4a!k Bi!kersgill, then the federal minister of

!iti?enship and immigration, attempted to improvise a spee!h% A!!ording to

the Telegram, Bi!kersgill (plunged in up to his hips /aturday night when he attempted

to tell a banuet attended by


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Ar!haeologi!al investigation of the Tabor ill site !ontinued over the subseuent

months% The autumn 1956 issue of Ontario History featured !ompanion pie!es by

3alter enyon des!ribing the Tabor ill ossuary, and 4% orman @merson, of the

niversity of Toronto, des!ribing his findings at the nearby village site to the west% The

two pie!es were pre!eded by an editorial !omment suggesting that ar!haeologi!al

resear!h was still !onsidered a novelty within the Ontario history !ommunity2 (The

historian and the layman are growing in!reasingly aware of the a!tivity of a relatively

new type of historian in Ontario, the ar!haeologist,* it begins% (3hatever the

relationship between ar!haeology and history may be, most of us en;oy the histori!al

!hroni!le whi!h the spade and trowel is unfolding and are often ama?ed at the histori!al

time depth whi!h is being added to our Ontario s!ene%*

enyon estimated the total number of burials at Tabor ill to be C7


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/ome of the histori!al !onfusion about Tabor ill may be !onne!ted with use of the

word (rouois%* 3hile (rouois* is often used to refer to the group also known as the

/i& ations or the audenosaunee, it has also been used in an ar!haeologi!al !onte&t to

refer to a larger group of 0irst ations peoples whose languages and !ulture shared

some !ommon !hara!teristi!s, but who were !learly different peoples- this larger group

in!ludes the audenosaunee, but also the 3endat and other peoples% 0or this latter

meaning, the term (rouoian* is now preferred, but earlier sour!es sometimes used

(rouois* in both !onte&ts%

The audenosaunee and the 3endat were, in fa!t, histori!al enemies for many years%

unning notes that (these two were regarded by early E@uropeanF e&plorers and

missionaries as two ethni! groups separated by diale!t and by !ultural idiomGnamely

burial rites%* 0or unning, then, one parti!ularly interesting aspe!t of the 1956 0east of

the ead !eremony at Tabor ill was that it was (an unsuspe!ting group of rouois

gathered with full !ontemporary regalia !arrying out the rouois EaudenosauneeF

0east of the ead !eremony in the foreign !onte&t of a uron E3endatF ossuary%*

0urther !ompli!ating matter for historians and other writers is that both the

audenosaunee and the 3endat traditions have !eremonies known as the (0east of the

ead%* 3riting in


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;hotos fro the annual Feast of the !ead cereony at Tabor Hill. Toronto Star * Septeber 44* +5,.

espite the indi!ation that Tabor ill was re!ogni?ed as a 3endat site only a few

months after its dis!overy, it !ontinued to be asso!iated with the audenosaunee

through the 196)s% A smaller 0east of the ead !eremony was held by the

audenosaunee at Tabor ill in O!tober of 1957, and it be!ame !lose to an annual

o!!urren!e, being held as late as 1966% n that year, a preview of the event inthe Scarborough Mirror notes that (it is essentially an ndian affair% 3hile white people

are wel!omed, they are kept at a distan!e from the top of the hill !eremony, usually with

the help of /!arborough's #endale boy s!out troop%*

.us arris's vision of a full rouois village at Tabor ill never !ame to fruition, as other

politi!ians wanted the surrounding land se!ured for development% n 1961, a boulder

was pla!ed at the top of the hill% On one side is a plaue, ere!ted by the Township,

identifying the site as (an an!ient ndian ossuary of the rouois nation%* On the other

side is a poem, indi!ated as an (rouois Brayer,* !redited to 3hite loud% A!!ording to

the Globe and Mail , the audenosaunee (asked that the east fa!e of the stone!ontaining the Erouois BrayerF be flattened so that the rising sun may shine upon it%*

As late as 1981, arrisGthen the mayor of /!arboroughGgave an interview with the

Toronto Star, e&pressing regret that there was still no 0irst ations museum in

/!arborough% On!e the area around Tabor ill filled in with houses, arris !laims he

suggested the idea of a museum to the :etro Toronto Hoo, but was rebuffed% /till, he

hoped he might be able to pursue the pro;e!t after he left offi!e% (At least,* he told


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the Star, (we have kept our promise to the ndians and the sa!red burial ground when

we said the bones would never be disturbed again%*

Additional material from:

• Robert R. Bonis, A istory of /!arborough Scarborough !ublic "ibrary, #$%&'(

• R. )m. *unning, +ro-uois east of the *ead: /e0 Style,1 in Anthropologi!a,

/o. % #$2&'(

• 3. /orman 4merson, +The 5illage and the 6emetery1 inOntario istory , 5ol. 7&,

/o. 7 Autumn #$2%'(

• The .lobe and :ail August #&, August 89, August 88, August 8&, Setember #8,

Setember 82, October #2, October #$, October 89, October 88, *ecember #,

#$2%( ebruary $, October 8%, #$2;( May $, 3uly #, #$2&( Aril 2, #$%9( March

88, 3uly #&, Setember %, #$%#( October 8&, #$%ersity !ress, 89#ember

The Tabor Hill Ossuary

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