Brantford is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county's municipal government.
Brantford is situated on the Haldimand Tract, traditional territory of the Neutral, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The city is named after Joseph Brant, an important Mohawk leader, soldier, farmer and slave owner. Brant was an important leader during the American Revolutionary War and later, after the Haudenosaunee moved to the Brantford area in Upper Canada. Many of his descendants, and other First Nations people, live on the nearby Six Nations of the Grand River reserve south of Brantford; it is the most populous reserve in Canada.
Brantford is known as the "Telephone City" as the city's famous resident, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the first telephone at his father's homestead, Melville House, now the Bell Homestead, located on Tutela Heights south of the city. Brantford is also known as the hometown of Wayne Gretzky.