1250, Iroquois Ossuary at Taber Hill

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Taber Hill (sometimes spelled Tabor Hill) is located at Bellamy Road and Lawrence Avenue in Scarborough.

A plaque at the top of the hill has the following:
TABER HILL
SITE OF AN ANCIENT INDIAN OSSUARY OF THE IROQUOIS NATION. BURIALS WERE MADE ABOUT 1250 A.D.  THIS OSSUARY WAS UNCOVERED WHEN FARM LANDS WERE DEVELOPED INTO RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES IN 1956. THIS COMMON GRAVE CONTAINS THE REMAINS OF APPROXIMATELY 472 PERSONS.

The ossuary was found to be 50 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 1 foot deep.

The May 1960 issue of INDIAN RECORD discussed the plan to set up a memorial at Taber Hill. Scarborough Councillors A.W. Bailley and L.W. Stewart would be approaching the Canadian Government in relation to placing a 10 to 20-ton memorial stone at the site. Joseph Logan, chief of the Six Nations Confederacy, had indicated to council that chiefs of the confederacy had chosen an 18-line verse by Indian poet White Cloud to be carved on the stone.

The Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Scarborough submitted a report regarding Taber Hill dated May 13, 1998 to the Scarborough Community Council, that included the following information:
- the burial site was discovered on August 17, 1956 and the area was purchased as parkland;
- the Provincial Ministry of Travel and Publicity declared the area a historic site and, on October 20 and 21, 1956, a reburial service was performed at the site by the Hereditary Chiefs;
- in 1961, Scarborough dedicated a cairn and plaque in the presence of First Nations and Provincial representatives;
- in 1966, the Feast of the Dead ceremony was re-enacted; and
- in 1974, Taber Hill was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

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