Information about Wyandot

This article is about the indigenous people. For the county in Ohio, see Wyandot County, Ohio

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

Wyandot (Ouendat, Wendat, Wyandat)
Total population
circa 2001: 8,000
Regions with significant populations
Canada – Quebec, southwest Ontario; United States – Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas
Languages
Wendat, French, English
Religions
Animism, Roman Catholicism, Other, None
Related ethnic groups
Native Americans/First Nations North American natives Northeast natives other Iroquoian peoples

The Wyandot, or Wendat, are an indigenous people of North America, originally from what is now Southern Ontario, Quebec, Canada and Southeast Michigan. They are culturally identified as an Iroquoian group, and were a confederacy of four tribes. Their agriculture included the production of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. Early French explorers called them the Huron, either from the French huron (peasant), or, according to Jesuit Father Gabriel Lallemant, from hure, the rough-haired head of wild boars. The Wyandot homelands, southeast of Georgian Bay, were known as Wendake.

Contact with Europeans

The Wyandot were divided into various "nations," comprising the Huron Confederacy. There were four to six nations, including the Arendarhonon, Tahontaenrat, Attigneenongnahac and Attignawantan (that apparently included the Ataronchronon). This confederacy was similar to that of other Iroquoian peoples in the region: the Tionontate nation south of Georgian Bay was divided into Bear, Cord, Deer, and Rock tribes; the Attiwandaronk or Neutral Indians on northern Lake Erie and western Lake Ontario, were organized in a structurally similar fashion to the Iroquois, who were a league of five (later six) nations.

Early written accounts of the Wyandot were made by the French, particularly Jesuits such as Armand de La Richardie, who learned the Wendat language and examined their social organization. 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 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 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.

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 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.

Religion, language and culture

The approximately 3,000 Wyandot 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 Wyandot of Quebec has been selling pottery and other locally produced crafts.

Wyandot communities

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 southern Ontario and 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

Society in the 17th century

The Wyandot 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 1600 people organized into 30 or 40 longhouses.^[1] Villages were abandoned every few decades as the nearby forest grew thin and the soil became less fertile.

Wyandot 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.

The Wyandot 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 lower Mississippi. They traded for tobacco with the neighboring Tionontate nation and Attiwandaron because of its higher quality in comparison to their own. The Attiwandaron were also called the Neutral Indians because they remained neutral in the conflict between the Wyandot and Iroquois. This tobacco they then traded to the Anishinaabe nations to their north and the French. They forcibly prevented the Neutrals from establishing direct trade with the French, and so commanded huge profits as middlemen.

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 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 the Wyandot, aggravated by the close and smoky living conditions.^[2] From 1634 to 1640, the Wyandot 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.^[1]

19th century

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 purportedly made an honorary chief of the tribe.

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 formerly in Ohio.^[3]

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 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

20th century

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 an acre.^[6]

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 was a noted scholar in Wyandot studies; in honour of his work, he was 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.

References

External links

• Huron Indian Cemetery
• Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma
• Wyandot Nation of Kansas
• Watch the documentary Kanata: Legacy of the Children of Aataentsic

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

Sources

• Wendat Dialects and the Development of the Huron Alliance
• Bruce G. Trigger. 1969. The Huron: Farmers of the North. Holt, Rinehart and Winston , USA. ISBN 0-03-079550-8
• Bruce G. Trigger. 1987. The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-0627-6
• The Archaeology of Southern Ontario To 1650. Edited by C. Ellis and N. Ferris. London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society, 1990. ISBN 0-919350-13-5