The Mississauga are a subtribe of the Anishinaabe-speaking First Nations people located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are closely related to the Ojibwa. The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word Misi-zaagiing, meaning "[Those at the] Great River-mouth." It closely related to the Ojibwe word Misswezahging, which means ‘a river with many outlets.’
According to the histories of the Anishinaabe, after departing the "Second Stopping Place" near Niagara Falls, the core Anishinaabe peoples migrated along the shores of Lake Erie to what is now southern Michigan. They became "lost" both physically and spiritually. The Mississaugas migrated along a northern route by the Credit River, to Georgian Bay. These were considered their historic traditional lands on the shores of Lake Superior and northern Lake Huron around the Mississagi River. The Mississaugas called for the core Anishinaabe to Midewiwin meaning 'return to the path of the good life'. The core Anishinaabe peoples formed the Council of Three Fires and migrated from their "Third Stopping Place" near the present city of Detroit to their "Fourth Stopping Place" on Manitoulin Island, along the eastern shores of Georgian Bay.
By the time the French explorers arrived in 1534, the Mississaugas were a distinct tribe of Anishinaabe peoples, living along the Mississagi River and on Manitoulin Island. On the 1675 Carte du Mississippi et des lacs Supérieur, Michigan et Huron, the Mississaugas were recorded as "Missisakingdachirinouek" (Misi-zaaging dash ininweg: "Regular-speakers of the Great River-mouth"). They had moved from the Mississagi River area southward into the Kawartha lakes region. From this location, a smaller contingent moved southwest to an area along the Credit River, just west of modern-day Toronto. The French identified the peoples as Mississauga.