The township was named in 1822 after a pet dog of Lady Sarah Maitland (1792–1873), wife of Sir
Peregrine Maitland,
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. Two other adjoining townships were also named for her pet dogs, Tay and Flos (now Springwater Township). Humans have occupied the area now known as Tiny Township for at least 11,000 years. Excavations in what is now
Awenda Provincial Park in the 1970s uncovered four archaeological sites dating from the
Paleo-Indian period. For much of the Pre-Contact period, the Indigenous peoples of the area would have been hunter-gathers living mostly in small family groupings which would come together in larger groupings during particular times of the year to collect resources such as fish or berries. Around 1100 C.E., agriculture was introduced to south Central Ontario, with people growing corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and sunflowers. This led to the development of villages centred around longhouses. By 1600 C.E., the five nations of the
Huron-Wendat Confederacy had established their villages in the territory they called Wendake, a part of which included what we now call Tiny Township. The Jesuits built the mission
Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and wrote extensively about the Huron-Wendat culture. In 1636, Jesuit missionary
Jean de Brébeuf observed and wrote about
The Huron Feast of the Dead which occurred at the Huron-Wendat village of
Ossossané which was located in what is now Tiny Township. Diseases brought by the French in this period had a devastating effect on the Huron-Wendat. It is estimated that circa 1600, just prior to European contact, the total population of Wendake was between 20 000 and 25 000 people. However, a series of epidemics between 1634 and 1642 reduced the population to about 9000 people. Attacks by the
Haudenosaunee in 1648 and 1649 dispersed the Wendat people, with most traditionalists joining the Haudenosaunee, while others joined with the related, neighbouring
Petun people. The remaining Huron-Wendat who followed the missionaries fled to French Territory. The Town of
Penetanguishene separated from Tiny Township on June 29, 1875, followed by the Town of
Midland on October 24, 1878. == Demographics ==