Ehwae

Ehwae was a village of the Tionontate, whom the French called the Petun or Tobacco people. Their villages lay along the high ground south of Georgian Bay, where their fields produced the tobacco that gave them their French name. Ehwae stood at the southern end of this village country, near the Mad River, beyond several smaller settlements on the way from Wendat lands.

Jesuit missionaries visited Ehwae in the late 1630s and established a mission there in 1640, before moving it to Etharita. In 1641 the village suffered a devastating attack, and its inhabitants fled to neighbouring communities. By 1649–1651 warfare had driven the Tionontate from their homeland; survivors joined others in a dispersal that carried their communities far beyond the shores of Georgian Bay.