Naming[edit]
The river became known as
Missinnihe (
Eastern Ojibwa: "trusting creek") to the
Mississaugas First Nation who met annually with white traders there. To the First Nations, the river was "held in reverential estimation as the favourite resort of their ancestors"
[5] and the band, which ranged from Long Point on Lake Erie to the Rouge River on Lake Ontario, became known as the Credit River Indians. Their descendants are today the
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.
[5]
The origins of the English name come from the time when
French fur traders supplied goods to the native people in advance (on credit) against furs which would be delivered the following spring. It was known as the Rivière au Crédit. The trading post was set up at the mouth of the river, in
Port Credit, in the early 18th century.[
citation needed]