Wyandot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Huron)

"Huron" redirects here. For other uses, see Huron (disambiguation).

Wendat (Huron, Wyandot, Wyandotte)
Image:Wyandot Nation.png

Total population
circa 2001: 8,000^{[citation needed]}
Regions with significant populations
Canada – Quebec, southwest Ontario; United States – Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas
Language(s)
Wendat, French, English
Religion(s)
Animism, Roman Catholicism, Other, None
Related ethnic groups
Petuns, other Iroquoians

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 on the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario before being dispersed by war. Wyandots and Hurons today live in various locations in Canada and the United States.

1 Terminology and organization
2 Religion, language and culture
3 History
4 Notes
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Terminology and organization

In the early seventeenth century, the people later known as Wyandots or Hurons 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 (Trigger 1987:27) 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 (Trigger 1987:27).

The Wendat were not a tribe but a confederacy four or more tribes with a mutually intelligible language.^[1] According to tradition, this Wendat (or Huron) Confederacy was initiated by the Attignawantans ("People of the Bear") and the Attigneenongnahacs ("Barking Dogs" or "Cord"), who confederated in the 15th century.^[1] They were joined by the Arendarhonons ("People of the Rock") in about 1590, and the Tahontaenrats ("People of the Deer") around 1610.^[1] A fifth group, the Ataronchronons ("People of the Marshes" or "Bog"), may not have attained full membership in the confederacy^[1] and may have been a division of the Attignawantan (Trigger 1987:30).

Closely related to the people of the Huron Confederacy were the Petuns (or Tionontatis, meaning "Tobacco People"), who lived further south. In the late 17th century, elements of the Huron Confederacy and the Petuns joined together and became known as the "Wyandot" (or "Wyandotte"), which is a variation of Wendat.^[1]

Religion, language and culture

Wyandots are culturally identified as an Iroquoian group. Their traditional agriculture included the production of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco.

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.

Wyandots lived in villages spanning from one to ten acres (40,000 m²), most of which were fortified in defense against enemy attack. They practiced agriculture and lived in long houses similar to other Iroquoian cultural groups. The typical village had 900 to 1,600 people organized into 30 or 40 longhouses.^[2] Villages were abandoned every few decades as the nearby forest grew thin and the soil became less fertile.

Wyandots practiced a loose monogamous marriage that could be ended by divorce by either party at any time and did not confer any degree of sexual exclusivity. Sexual restraints were few and far between, and attractive, young Wyandot women could accumulate considerable wealth bartering sexual favors.

Wyandots maintained stores and provisions and were comparatively wealthy. They engaged in extensive trade with neighboring tribes and even with tribes from as far south as the Mississippi River Delta. They traded for tobacco with the neighboring Petun nation and Attiwandaron (Erie, People of the Panther) because of its higher quality in comparison to their own. This tobacco they then traded to the Anishinaabe nations to their north and the French. They forcibly^{[citation needed]} prevented the Attiwandaron from establishing direct trade with the French, and so commanded huge profits as middlemen.

Wyandots traditionally were animists who believed spirits were present in just about everything, animate or inanimate. They had rituals which included the torture of captives, relating to the worship of a sun deity. They were reported as holding an annual ceremony in which two young girls of the tribe would wed the tribe's fishing nets, in the hopes that this would encourage the nets to perform their tasks more effectively.

Tuberculosis was endemic among Wyandots, aggravated by the close and smoky living conditions.^[3] From 1634 to 1640, Wyandots were devastated by European diseases such as measles and smallpox, and numerous villages and areas were permanently abandoned. The population decreased from 35,000 to 12,000.^[2]

History

17th century

Early written accounts of the Wyandot were made by the French, particularly Jesuits such as Armand de La Richardie, who learned the Wendat language. Before the French arrived, the Wyandot 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 Wyandot, because they were the most advanced trading nation at the time. The Iroquois tended to ally with the British, who took advantage of their hatred of the Wyandot 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 Wyandot tribes. The Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near modern Midland, Ontario, was one focus of Iroquois attacks, and many of the Jesuit missionaries were killed; 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 Christian Island, Ontario, some Wyandot relocated near Quebec City and settled at Wendake, Quebec.

18th century

The western Wyandot eventually re-established themselves in the area of Ohio and southern Michigan. This group became commonly known to English speakers as "Wyandots" (notably in James Fenimore Cooper's novel Wyandotte, published in 1843). In the late 18th century, the Wyandot obtained a position of symbolic importance as the "uncles" to the Ohio Country tribes, who waged war against the United States in the 1790s. Some Wyandot of the Wyandot Nation of Anderdon still live in Michigan. However, most of the surviving people were displaced through Indian removal in the early 19th century, and today a large population of Wyandot (over 4,000) can be found in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

19th century

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 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 they had in Ohio.^[4]

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 1855, 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 640 acres. Altogether 20,480 acres 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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 are 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 per acre.^[8]

In 1999, representatives of the Wyandot bands of Quebec, Kansas, Oklahoma and Michigan gathered at their historic homeland in Midland, Ontario, and formally re-established the Wendat Confederacy.

The historian Georges Sioui is a Wyandot from a family active in the local politics of Wendake. Bruce Trigger was a noted scholar in Wyandot studies; in honour of his work, he was adopted as an honorary Wyandot.

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 members

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.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dickason, "Huron/Wyandot", 263–65.
^ ^a ^b Warrick, Gary (October 2003) "European Infectious Disease and Depopulation of the Wendat-Tionontate (Huron-Petun)" World Archaeology 35(2): pp. 258-275
^ Hartney, P. C. (1981) "Tuberculosis lesions in a prehistoric population sample from southern Ontario" In Buikstra, Jane F. (ed.) (1981) Prehistoric Tuberculosis in the Americas Northwestern University Archaeological Program Scientific Papers No. 5, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. pp. 141-160. OCLC 7197014
^ Civilization of the Wyandot Indians, New York Times, June 1, 1853, Page 3.
^ Wyandot Indians holding an Election-Their Land Claims, New York Times, August 24, 1855, Page 2.
^ Affairs In Kansas, New York Times, October 2, 1855, Page 2.
^ Howe, Henry. Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio. Volume 2. pp. 900-902.
^ Wyandot Indians Win $5.5 Million Settlement, New York Times, February 11, 1985, Page A10.

References

Dickason, Olive Patricia. "Huron/Wyandot". Encyclopedia of North American Indians, 263–65. Ed. Frederick E. Hoxie. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN 0-395-66921-9.
Steckley, John. "Wendat Dialects and the Development of the Huron Alliance"
Trigger, Bruce G. The Huron: Farmers of the North. New York: Holt, 1969. ISBN 0-03-079550-8.
Trigger, Bruce G. (1987), The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Reprinted with a new preface ed.), Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, OCLC 17244392