Shuniah is a municipal township bordering the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada on the east. Shuniah was incorporated by an act of the Ontario legislature in 1873, and at that time included much of present-day Thunder Bay and its predecessor and surrounding municipalities. It gradually shrunk in size until by 1936 it included only three wards, the geographic townships of McIntyre, McGregor, and McTavish. That year it had the Ontario Legislative Assembly remove a number of islands in Lake Superior that had formed the Island Ward since 1873. In 1970 McIntyre Township was amalgamated into the city of Thunder Bay. Shuniah, named after the Ojibwa word "zhooniyaa" for "money" or "silver", was settled largely due to silver mining potential identified in the mid-19th century.