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Wyandot
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- "Huron" redirects here. For other uses, see Huron (disambiguation).
The Wyandot and Huron are indigenous peoples of North America known in their native language as the Wendat. Modern Wyandots and Hurons emerged in the 17th century from the remnants of two earlier groups, the Huron Confederacy and the Petun. They were located in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario before being decimated by disease and dispersed by war.
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- "Huron" redirects here. For other uses, see Huron (disambiguation).
The Wyandot and Huron are indigenous peoples of North America known in their native language as the Wendat. Modern Wyandots and Hurons emerged in the 17th century from the remnants of two earlier groups, the Huron Confederacy and the Petun. They were located in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario before being decimated by disease and dispersed by war. Wyandots and Hurons today live in various locations in Canada and the United States.
Before 1650: Hurons and Petuns
Names and organization
In the early seventeenth century, the people known as Hurons by the French called themselves the Wendat, which means "Dwellers of the Peninsula" or "Islanders". The Wendat homeland was bordered on three sides by the waters of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Early French explorers called these natives the Huron, either from the French huron ("ruffian", "rustic"), or from hure ("boar's head"), because, according to tradition, French sailors thought that the bristly hairstyle of Wendat men resembled that of a boar.
The Wendat were not a tribe, but a confederacy of four or more tribes with a mutually intelligible language. According to tradition, this Wendat (or Huron) Confederacy was initiated by the Attignawantans (People of the Bear) and the Attigneenongnahacs (Cord), who confederated in the 15th century. They were joined by the Arendarhonons (People of the Rock) about 1590, and the Tahontaenrats (People of the Deer) around 1610. A fifth group, the Ataronchronons (People of the Marshes or Bog), may not have attained full membership in the confederacy, and may have been a division of the Attignawantan.
The largest Wendat settlement, and capital of the confederacy, was located at Ossossane, near modern-day Elmvale, Ontario. Their traditional territory was known as Wendake.
Closely related to the people of the Huron Confederacy were a group known to the French as the Petuns (Tobacco People), who lived further south. The Petun comprised two groups: the Deer and the Wolves. What the Petun called themselves is not known, but considering that they formed the nucleus of the tribe later known as the Wyandot, they too may have called themselves Wendat.
Culture
Hurons, like other Iroquoian people, were farmers who supplemented their diet with hunting and fishing. Corn was the mainstay of their diet, which was supplemented primarily by fish, although some venison and other meats were eaten during the hunting seasons. Women did most of the agricultural work, although men helped to clear the fields. This was usually done by slashing and burning. Men did most of the fishing and hunting, and constructed the houses, canoes, and tools. Each family owned a plot of land which they farmed; this land reverted to the common property of the tribe when the family no longer used it.
Hurons lived in villages spanning from one to ten acres (40,000 mē), most of which were fortified in defense against enemy attack. They lived in long houses similar to other Iroquoian cultural groups. The typical village had 900 to 1600 people organized into 30 or 40 longhouses. Villages were moved about every ten years as the soil became less fertile and the nearby forest, which provided firewood, grew thin. Hurons engaged in trade with neighboring tribes, notably for tobacco with the neighboring Petun and Neutral nations.
Tuberculosis was endemic among Hurons, aggravated by the close and smoky living conditions in the long houses. Hurons were on the whole healthy, however; the Jesuits believed that the Huron were "more healthy than we".
European contact and Wendat dispersal
The earliest written accounts of the Huron were made by the French, who began exploring North America in the 16th century. News of the newcomers reached the Huron, particularly when Samuel de Champlain explored the Saint Lawrence River in the early 1600s. Some Hurons decided to go and meet the Europeans for themselves. Atironta, the principal headman of the Arendarhonon tribe, went to Quebec and made an alliance with the French in 1609.
The total population of the Huron at the time of European contact has been estimated on average at about 20,000 to 40,000 people. From 1634 to 1640, Hurons were devastated by European infectious diseases such as measles and smallpox, to which they had no immunity. Numerous villages and areas were permanently abandoned. About two-thirds of the population died in the epidemics, decreasing the population to about 12,000.
Before the French arrived, the Huron had already been in conflict with the Iroquois to the south. Once the European powers became involved, this conflict intensified significantly. The French allied with the Huron, because they were the most advanced trading nation at the time. The Iroquois tended to ally with the English, who took advantage of their hatred of the Huron and their new French allies.
The introduction of European weapons increased the severity of wars, and, by about 1650, the Iroquois had almost completely destroyed the Huron tribes. The Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near modern Midland, Ontario, was one focus of Iroquois attacks. Many of the Jesuit missionaries were killed (see Canadian Martyrs); the mission was eventually burned on abandonment by the Jesuits, so as to prevent capture in 1649. After relocating and spending the bitter winter of 1649-50 on Gahoendoe, some Huron relocated near Quebec City and settled at Wendake, Quebec, becoming the Huron-Wendat Nation.
Emergence of the Wyandot
In the late 17th century, elements of the Huron Confederacy and the Petuns joined together and became known as the Wyandot (or Wyandotte), a variation of Wendat. The western Wyandot eventually re-established themselves in the area of Ohio and southern Michigan. Some Wyandot of the Wyandot Nation of Anderdon still live in Michigan. However, most of the surviving people were displaced to Kansas through Indian removal in the 1840s, with more going to Oklahoma in 1867 after the American Civil War. Today more than 4,000 Wyandot can be found in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.
In June 1853 Big Turtle, a chief of the Wyandot tribe, wrote to the Ohio State Journal regarding the current condition of his tribe. The Wyandots received nearly $127,000 for their lands in 1845. Big Turtle noted that in the spring of 1850 the tribal chiefs retroceded the granted land to the government. $100,000 of the proceeds was invested in 5% government stock. Removed from Ohio to the Indian Territory, the Wyandot tribe had good libraries along with two thriving Sabbath Schools. They were in the process of organizing a division of the Sons of Temperance and maintained a sizable Temperance Society. Big Turtle commented on the agricultural yield, which produced an annual surplus for market. He said that the Wyandot's general thrift exceeded that of any tribe north of the Arkansas line. The Wyandot nation
was contented and happy, and enjoyed better living conditions than formerly in Ohio.
A United States government treaty ceded the Wyandot Nation a small portion of fertile land located in an acute angle of the Missouri River and Kansas River. In addition the government granted thirty-two floating sections, which were located on public lands west of the Mississippi River. By 1855 the number of Wyandots had diminished to 600 or 700. On August 14 of that year the Wyandot nation elected a chief. The Kansas correspondent of the Missouri Republican reported that the judges of the election were three elderly braves, who were trusted by their peers. Some of the floating sections of land were offered for sale on the same day at a price of $800. A section was composed of . Altogether were sold for $25,600. They were located in Kansas, Nebraska, and unspecified sites. Surveys were not required, with the title becoming complete at the time of location.
An October 1855 article in the New York Times reported that the Wyandots were free (that is, had been accepted as US citizens) and without restrictions placed on other tribes. Their leaders were unanimously pro-slavery, which meant 900 or 1,000 additional votes in opposition to the Free State movement of Kansas.
The last of the original Wyandot of Ohio was Margaret "Grey Eyes" Solomon, a.k.a. "Mother Solomon". The daughter of Chief John Grey Eyes, she was born in 1816 and departed Ohio in 1843. She had returned to Ohio by 1889 when she was a spectator to the restoration of the Wyandot's "Old Mission Church," a Wyandot Mission Church at Upper Sandusky. She died in Upper Sandusky on August 17, 1890. For photograph see .
20th century to present
In February 1985 the U.S. government agreed to pay descendants of the Wyandot Indians $5.5 million. The decision settled the 143-year-old treaty which forced the tribe to sell their Ohio homes for less than fair value in 1842. A spokesman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs said that the government would pay $1,600 each, in July 1985, to 3,600 people in Kansas and Oklahoma who could prove they were Wyandot descendants.
A program founded in the 1940s to address grievances filed by various Native American tribes allocated $800 million to rectify promises broken by settlers who invaded their territories. The Wyandot settlement was based on an 1830 Federal law which required Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River. Originally the Wyandots were paid .75 cents per acre for land that was worth $1.50 an acre.
In 1999, representatives of the far-flung Wyandot bands of Quebec, Kansas, Oklahoma and Michigan gathered at their historic homeland in Midland, Ontario, and formally re-established the Wendat Confederacy.
Each modern Wyandot community is an autonomous band:
- Huron-Wendat Nation just outside Quebec City called Wendake, with some 3,000 members
- Wyandot Nation of Anderdon in Michigan, with headquarters in Trenton, Michigan and perhaps 800 members
- Wyandot Nation of Kansas, with headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, with perhaps 400 members
- Wyandotte Nation, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, with 4,300 members.
The Kansas and Oklahoma groups have fought legal battles over the Huron Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas for over 100 years. It was legally under control of the Wyandotte Nation, but the Kansas group strongly opposed most of their proposals for redevelopment and reinterment of Indian remains. The two nations finally came to an agreement in 1998 to preserve the cemetery for religious, cultural and other uses appropriate to its sacred history and use.
The approximately 3,000 Wyandots in Quebec are primarily Catholic and speak French as a first language. Efforts are underway to promote the use and study of the Wyandot language. For many decades, a leading source of income for the Wyandots of Quebec has been selling pottery and other locally produced crafts.
Further reading
- Clarke, Peter Dooyentate. Origin and Traditional History of the Wyandotts, and Sketches of Other Indian Tribes of North America, True Traditional Stories of Tecumseh and His League. Global Language Press, 2006. Reprint of 1870 history written by a Wyandot. ISBN 0-9738924-9-8
External links
Official tribal websites:
Other
- in Kansas City
- , 1999 documentary
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