Wyandot

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Wyandot(Ouendat, Wendat, Wyandat)
Total population circa 2001: 8,000
Regions with significant populations Canada – Québec, southwest Ontario;

United States – Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas
Language Wendat, French, English
Religion Animism, Roman Catholicism, Other, None
Related ethnic groups Native Americans/First Nations
  • North American natives
"Huron" redirects here. For other uses, see Huron (disambiguation).

The Wyandot, or Wendat, are an indigenous people of North America, originally from what is now Southern Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The early French explorers called the members of a four-tribe confederacy the Huron. This name may have been applied to the Wyandot people either from the French huron (peasant), because the Wyandot were an agricultural people, growing corn and sunflowers; or, according to Jesuit Father Gabriel Lallemant, the name referred to a hure, the rough-haired head of wild boars. The Wyandot homelands, near Georgian Bay, were known as Wendake.

Later, the French, particularly Jesuits such as Armand de La Richardie, learned the Wendat language and examined their social organization. The Wyandot were divided into various "nations," comprising the Huron Confederacy. These nations were four to six in number, and included the Arendarhonon, the Tahontaenrat, the Attigneenongnahac, the Attignawantan, of whom the Ataronchronon seem to have been a subdivision. (The Wyandot were not the only Iroquoian people in the area to be organized into confederacies. The Petun nation, the tribes who lived around Georgian Bay in southern-central Ontario, were further divided into Bear, Cord, Deer, and Rock tribes. To the south, on southern Lake Huron and northern Lake Erie, were the Attiwandaronk or Neutral Indians, who were less well known to the French. And, of course, the Iroquois themselves were a league of five (later six) nations.)

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 be allies of the English, 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 (see Canadian Martyrs); the mission was eventually dismantled by the settlers so as to prevent capture in 1648. After a bitter winter on Christian Island, Ontario, some Wyandot relocated near Quebec City and settled at Wendake, Quebec.

The western Wyandot eventually re-established themselves in the area of Ohio and southern Michigan. It is this group that 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 such as at the Big Bottom Massacre. Some Wyandot of the Wyandot Nation of Anderdon still live in southern Ontario and 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.

The approximately 3,000 Wyandot in Quebec are primarily Catholic and have French as their first language, although there are currently efforts afoot to promote the use and study of the Wyandot language. For many decades, a leading source of income for the Wyandot of Quebec has been selling pottery and other locally produced crafts.

The famous actor Edmund Kean, on his North American tour in 1825 when he was very much vilified for scandals in his personal life, was on his arrival in Quebec much impressed and moved with the kindness of some Wyandot tribespeople who attended his performances. He was made chief of the tribe, receiving the name Alanienouidet.

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.

The historian Georges Sioui is a Wyandot from a family active in the local politics of Wendake; Bruce Trigger is a noted scholar in Wyandot studies and has been adopted as an honorary Wyandot.

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.

Contents

[edit] Wyandot society in the 17th century

The Wyandot lived in villages spanning from one to ten acres (40,000 m²), some of which were fortified in defense against Iroquois attack. They practised agriculture and lived in long houses similar to the Iroqouis. Villages were abandoned every few decades as the nearby forest grew thin and the soil became less fertile.

The Wyandot were able to maintain 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 lower Mississippi. They traded for tobacco with their southern neighbors, the Attiwandaron, or the Neutral Indians, so-called because they remained neutral in the conflict between Wyandot and Iroquois. This tobacco they then traded to the French. They forcibly prevented the Neutrals from establishing direct trade with the French, and as such were able to command huge profits as middlemen.

Wyandot practiced monogamous marriage, but it was a loose form of matrimony that could be ended by divorce by either party at any time. Marriage also did not confer any degree of sexual exclusivity. Indeed, sexual restraints were few and far between. Attractive young Wyandot women could accumulate considerable wealth bartering sexual favors.

The Wyandot were animists who believed spirits were present in just about everything, animate or inanimate. They had a number of rituals, including the torture of captives, relating to the worship of a sun deity. They were reported as holding an annual marriage 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.

[edit] Wyandot communities

Each modern Wyandot community is a self-governing band:

[edit] External links

[edit] Resources

  • Peter Dooyentate Clarke. 2006[reprint of 1870 edition]. 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. ISBN 0-9738924-9-8

[edit] Sources

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