Wyandot Totally Explained

Everything about Huron totally explained

ť "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, who 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", because the Wendat homeland was bordered on three sides by the waters of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Early French explorers called them 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. 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.
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 isn't 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. Women did most of the agricultural work, although men helped to clear the fields, which 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 that 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 m²), 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, and 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 diseases such as measles and smallpox, and numerous villages and areas were permanently abandoned. About two-thirds of the population died in the epidemics, decreasing the population to about 12,000.
   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, using polls which were located at a lodge about 200 yards from the confluence of the Kansas River and the Missouri River. 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 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 Wayandots were free 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 this reference site

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 a 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're 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 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 a self-governing 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 of Oklahoma in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, with between 3,000 and 4,000

The Kansas and Oklahoma groups have fought legal battles over the Huron Indian Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas for over 100 years, and continue to do so in the 21st century. The local Wyandots wish to preserve the 400 plus grave cemetery, while the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma wants to use the land to establish commercial gambling.
The approximately 3,000 Wyandots in Quebec are primarily Catholic and speak French as a first language. There are now efforts 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 Information

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