 The Huron, whose traditional homeland was north of the Great Lakes, were a confederacy of four major tribes: Bear, Rock, Barking Dogs, and White Thorns (also known as Canoes). The people called their confederacy Wendat or People of the Peninsula. They were given the name Huron by the French: the name came from hure, meaning “boar’s head” in reference to the head gear of the warriors. With regard to language, Huron is a part of the Iroquois language family. Culturally, the Huron were similar to other Iroquoian-speaking Indian nations in the Northeast. In the seventeenth century, the estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Hurons lived in 18-25 villages. With regard to the Huron origins, Olive Dickason, in her entry on the Huron/Wyandot in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, reports:
Their oral traditions tell of a migration from the southeast. The archaeological data shows that they were raising corn (maize) by 500 CE. Agriculture Among the Huron, agriculture produced about four-fifths of the food which they consumed. Farming centered around the Three Sisters: corn, beans, squash. They cultivated about 15 different varieties of corn, 60 different varieties of beans, and 8 different kinds of squash. As with other Iroquoian groups, the farming was done by the women in fields which had been cleared by the men. All uncleared land was considered common property. The land was cleared by first girding the trees and then burning the underbrush and trees, a process known as slash-and-burn agriculture. In addition to providing a clear space for their fields, the ash from the fire also provided additional nutrients. Generally, the cleared land would wear out in about a decade, forcing the Iroquois to clear new land, usually farther from the village. For the smaller villages – those with about 200 inhabitants – by the time the walking distance to the farthest field reached about 1 kilometer, the oldest abandoned fields could be re-opened. For the larger villages, however, it took about 50 years for the productive fields to become too distant and requiring the village itself to move. Planting would usually begin when the white oak leaves were the size of a red squirrel’s foot. While men would assist in the initial clearing of the fields, planting was done by a party of women under the supervision of the clan mothers. Women did the planting, weeding, and harvesting. The three crops complemented each other. In her article on the Three Sisters in Science and Native American Communities: Legacies of Pain, Visions of Promise, Jane Mt. Pleasant reports:
The corn stalks also provide support for the bean vines. Mt. Pleasant points out:
When the three foods are eaten together, they provide a balanced diet of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and the full complement of amino acids for protein. By 1630 it is estimated that the Huron, with a population of about 21,000, were harvesting 189,000 bushels of corn from 7,000 acres. Marriage and Family In general, the most important feature of social organization among Iroquoian-speaking people was the matrilineal: this was a named group in membership was through the female line. Each person belonged to the mother’s clan. Among the Huron, there were eight matrilineal clans: Turtle, Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Deer, Hawk, Porcupine, and Snake. The clans were exogamous, meaning the people had to marry outside of their own clan. In addition, marriage to a close relative on the paternal side was also taboo. Among the Huron, there was little public affection displayed between men and women. Sexual intercourse for both married and unmarried people tended to take place outside of the village. Premarital sexual intercourse was considered to be normal. Among the Huron, families tended to be small – 3 children – because the women abstained from sexual intercourse during breastfeeding (usually about 3 years). With regard to the gender of children among the Huron, anthropologist Elisabeth Tooker, in her monograph An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649, notes:
With regard to sexuality, heterosexual relations were considered to be normal, but homosexuality was acceptable. Having no sexual contact at all was considered to be abnormal. Tribal Government There were three levels of government among the Huron: village, tribe, and confederacy. At the village level, clan chiefs organized councils in which older men and women expressed their opinions on matters concerning the village. Each Huron village council met frequently, often daily, to discuss village affairs. Discussions would continue until consensus was evident. There were two kinds of Huron chiefs: (1) civil chiefs who were concerned with everyday life and peace, and (2) war chiefs who were concerned exclusively with military matters. Being a Huron chief required both time and an expenditure of wealth. Upon the death of a chief, the new chief would often be selected from among the relatives of the deceased chiefs. The person who was elected was usually not the child of the deceased chief, but was more often a nephew or a grandson. Law The Huron recognized four main classes of crime: (1) murder and wounding and injury, (2) theft, (3) witchcraft, and (4) treason. Murder placed an obligation on the relatives to avenge the killing. Reparation payments helped alleviate the possibility of blood feuds. Anthropologist Bruce Trigger, in his book The Huron: Farmers of the North, notes: “Huron law did not permit society as a whole to punish individuals.” Among the Huron, material gifts were often used as a way of restoring peace and mending the social fabric following a crime, such as murder or physical injury. The guilty party (including both the individual and the clan) would pay the victim’s family. According to Henry Bowden, in his book American Indians and Christian Missions: Studies in Cultural Conflict:
War and Trade For Huron men there were two ways to obtain wealth and prestige: war and trade. Traditionally, war was not waged to impose religious views on other people, or to capture new territory. Most frequently the reasons for war were honor and avenging some injury. Revenge raids were usually launched at the request of a clan mother. While brave warriors were admired, so were clever traders. Trading had prestige because individual initiative and shrewd judgment came into play. It took courage and diplomacy to open new trade routes or to organize a wide network of business alliances. The purpose of acquiring wealth through trade was not to possess or display material goods, but to be able to give them away. Giving wealth away was a way of improving social status and respect.
Wyandot Warriors The Wyandot or Huron are an Iroquoian-speaking people made up of a number of bands, whose ancestral lands were in southern Ontario, Canada. They later moved to Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, and Oklahoma. They called themselves “Wendat” meaning “island people” or “dwellers on a peninsula.” Their name was rendered variously as Guyandot, Guyandotte, Ouendat, and Wyandotte. The French, however, called members of a four-band group Huron, a derogatory name derived from their word “hure” meaning rough or ruffian. This has persisted as their usual name in Canada. Like other Iroquoian peoples, they were farmers who supplemented their diet with hunting and fishing. The women cultivated several varieties of corn, squash and beans, and collected nuts, fruit, and wild roots. The men did the hunting and fishing and built houses, canoes, and tools. They lived in longhouses, similar to other Iroquoian cultural groups, in villages that were fortified against enemy attack. They engaged in trade with neighboring tribes, especially for tobacco. Like other Iroquoian peoples, the Wyandot had a matrilineal kinship system, and children were considered born to the mother’s family and took their status from hers. Wyandot Longhouse The people first made contact with Europeans after the French began to explore North America in the 17th century. When the tribe heard about these newcomers, some of the Wyandot decided to go and meet them in Quebec and made an alliance with the French in 1609. At this time, the people were estimated at about 30,000 people. In 1639, they were described by Jesuit missionary Francois du Peron: “They are robust, and all are much taller than the French. Their only covering is a beaver skin, which they wear upon their shoulders in the form of a mantle; shoes and leggings in winter, a tobacco pouch behind the back, a pipe in the hand; around their necks and arms bead necklaces and bracelets of porcelain; they also suspend these from their ears, and around their locks of hair. They grease their hair and faces; they also streak their faces with black and red paint.” By this time, they had been devastated by European infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox. The Jesuits recorded their number as 20,000, living in 32 villages with 700 dwellings. Iroquois in War Though they were of Iroquois lineage, they had a long history of wars with the fierce Iroquois Confederacy. These wars continued once the French and English became involved in the fur trade business. The conflict between many tribes intensified as they struggled to control the lucrative fur trade and satisfy European demand. The French allied with the Wyandot and the Iroquois allied first with the Dutch and later with the English. In March 1649, and Iroquois party of about 1000 warriors entered the Wyandot country, burned their villages, and killed 300 people. The Iroquois also killed many of the Jesuit missionaries and those that survived burned the mission in order to prevent its capture. The extensive Iroquois attack shocked and frightened the surviving Wyandot. In May, they burned 15 of their own villages to prevent their stores from being taken and fled as refugees to surrounding tribes. About 10,000 fled to Christian Island in Lake Huron. Most who fled to the island starved over the winter. Those that survived relocated to an area near Quebec City, Canada. In the late 17th century, the Wyandot merged with the remnants of other tribes that had been overrun by the Iroquois, including the Tionontati and moved into lower Michigan and northern Ohio. The Wyandot became allies of the French, fighting against the British during the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. However, during the American Revolution of 1775-1783, they fought with the British. Near the end of the war, the Wyandot were regarded as fierce warriors and when Colonel William Crawford led an expedition against them at Upper Sandusky, Ohio in 1782, his army was defeated and Crawford was burned at the stake. On another occasion, when General Anthony Wayne ordered Captain William Wells to go to Upper Sandusky and bring in a prisoner who could tell them about the American Indians’ plans, Wells replied that he “could bring in a prisoner, but not from Sandusky, because there were none but Wyandot at Sandusky and they would not be taken alive.” On the Miami and Erie Canal, the last Wyandots leave Ohio. When the Northwest Indian War began in 1785 between the United States and a confederation of numerous Native American tribes for control of the Northwest Territory, the tribes were aided by the British. In the Battle of Fallen Timbers 1794, General Anthony Wayne defeated the Wyandot and other Ohio American Indian peoples. The Treaty of Greenville in August 1795 ended the war and the Wyandot surrendered most of their Ohio lands. They ceded more land in northern Ohio and southern Michigan in the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. In 1842, under the increasingly aggressive U.S. Indian Removal policy, the Wyandot were made to give up their claims to their reservation at Upper Sandusky, Ohio and the next year were sent to a reservation in what is now Wyandotte County, Kansas. After the Civil War, the Ohio Wyandot were removed to Oklahoma. Today, the Wyandot have four bands with recognition in the U.S. and Canada: In February 1985, the U.S. government agreed to pay descendants of the Wyandot Indians $5.5 million, in partial compensation for the exploitative treaty of 1842. 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. © Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated May 2020. Also See: Indian Removal Act of 1830 Indian Wars Native American Photo Galleries Native Americans – First Owners of America Sources: Cutler, William G. Cutler; History of the State of Kansas, T. Andreas, Chicago, IL, 1883 Ohio History Wikipedia |
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