OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio's Huron and Wyandot Indians [1]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
April 27, 2000
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Historical Collections of Ohio
Diaries of S. J. Kelly
Plains Dealer
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
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Ohio's Huron and Wyandot Indians -- part 1.

Most people do not realize that Huron and Wyandot are the same people.
Originally, more that a dozen of the Iroquoian-speakng tribes in
southern Ontario referred themselves collectively as Wendat meaning "
island people" or "dwellers on a peninsula." Rendered variously
as:Guyandot, Guyandotte, Quendat, Wyandot, and Wyandotte. The French,
however, called the members of a four-tribe confederacy the Huron, a
detrogatory name derived from their word "hure" maning rough or ruffian.
This has persisted a their usual name in Canada. When they were living
in Ohio after 1701, French and Canadians continued to use Huron, but the
English and Americans referred to them as Wyandot. Currently, most
groups prefer Wyandot rather than Huron. Also called Aragaritka
(Iroquois), Hatindia Sointen (Lorette Huron), Marian (Christian Huron),
Oenronroron 
(Iroquois), Telamatenon (Delaware " Coming out of a mountain or cave"),
and Thastchetci 
(Onondaga). Their lanuage being Iroquoian.

Quendake ( called Huronia by the French ) was the original homeland of
the Huron occuping a fairly compact area of central Ontario between the
southern end of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. After the dispersal of the
Huron by the Iroquois in 1650, one group relocated to Lorette ( just
north of Quebec ) where it has remained ever since. The remaining Huron
( merged with Tionontati, Eries, and Neutrals ) spent the next 50 years
wandering as refugees through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and upper Michigan.
By 1701 they had moved into the Ohio Valley between present day Detroit
and Cleveland where they were known as the Wyandot. Theu remained there
until they were removed to Kansas during the 1840's. Only one group of
Wyandot managed to remain in the Great Lakes, when a small band of the
Canadian Wyandot in southwest Ontario was given a reserve near
Amherstburg. For the Wyandot relocated to Kansas, problems began with
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) which opened their lands
to white settlement. The majority opted for citizenship and allotmnt and
are currently have state recognition as the Wyandot of Kansas. Most
still live in the vicinity of Kasas City, Kansas. The more traditional
Wyandot left Kansas for northeast Oklahoma after the Civil War to become
the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma.

Culture--

The Huron Confederacy was the first of the great Iroquian confederations
in the region, and as such, probably the inspiration for the later
formation of the Iroquois League. As early as 1400, the Attignawantan
and Attigneenongnahac had entered into an alliance and it is believed
that sometime after the formation of the Iroquois League, the Laurentian
Iroquois living along the St Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec,
were forced to move west. Two groups of them, the Arendahronon (1560 )
and the Tahonaenrat (1570) joined the Huron Confederacy. As the most
numerous group, the Attignawantan usually dominated the other members.
The purpose of the Confederacy was simular to that of the Iroquois
League; prevent blood fueds and fighting between its members. With a
capital at the village of Ossossane, each tribe sent representatives to
a council whose purpose was to resolve internal disputes and decide
matters of common concern regarding peace, war, and trade with
outsiders. Otherwise each member tribe retained control of its own
territory and was free to pursue its separate interests.

In like manner, each of the Huron villages managed its own internal
affairs. These villages varied in size, but the larger ones were usually
fortified and had populations well over 1,000. Fortification and large
size probably resulted from the region's constant warfare, but the
densely populated villages and large communal bark covered longhouses (
sometimes 200' long) made the Huron vulnerable to European epidemics. In
most ways, the Huron lifestyle closely resembled that of the Iroquois.
Beginning around 1100, the Iroquian people in this region began large
scale agriculture. A dramatic increase in population followed which,
unfortunately, was accompanied by a simular increase of warfare. The
Huron diet relied heavily on agriculture ( corn at first, with beans,
squash, and tobbacco added later). It was supplimented by hunting,
fishing, and gathering. Villages had to be relocated every 20 years or
so as the fertility of local soil declined.

Social organization began with extended families  and a matriliniel clan
sytem. Rather than the patrilineal descent of Europeans. Huron clam
membership was determined by the mother-although it was possible to
switch clans through adoption.The original Huron clan names have been
lost, but they were grouped into three phratries ( clan groupings for
ceremonial and social purposes ) correspnding roughly to names of the
member tribes; Bear, Cord, and Rock. After fifty years of wandering to
escape the Iroquois, the Tionontati constituted the largest single group
of the Wyandot. Two of the three Wyandot phratries (Wolf and Deer)
belonged to them. Only the Bear clan of the Turtle phratry was Huron. By
1750 the Wyandot had ten clans in three groups; Turtle ( Big Turtle,
Hawk, Prairie Turtle. Small Turtle); Deer ( Bear, Beaver,Deer,
Porcupine, Snake); and Wolf ( one clan of the same name). The Wyandot
were governed by a council made up by chiefs of each clan. One member of
the council was elected head chief, although by custom, he was usually
the chief from either the Bear or Deer clan.

Unlike the Iroquois, the Huron women did not directly own all property.
The farmland was owned by the matrilineal clans. Unique to the Huron was
the " Feast of the Dead."  Held every 10-12 years, the remains of all
who had did since the last ceremony were disinterred and reburied in a
communial buriel pit. Only then were their souls able to go to the "
land beyond where the sun sets." Huron justice could be harsh. Convicted
murderers were often tied to their victim's corpse and allowed to
starve. In later times offenders were shot by firing squad. One critical
difference between the Iroquois and Huron was the birchbark canoe.
Iroquois constucted their canoes from elm-wood ( which made them heavy),
and as a result , they usually preferred to travel on foot, but the
Huron, surrounded by a network of rivers and lakes, used their canoes to
travel great distances and trade their agricultural surplus with other
tribes, including the Iroquois.

It was to this advantage in transport and trade which first aroused the
interest of the French in the Huron. The fur trade, reinforced later by
Jesuit missions, blossomed into a political and cultural alliance that
endured beyond the defeat and dispersal of the Huron by the Iroquois.
The Huron did disappear in 1649, but survived to become the Wyandot.
Allied with Ottawa, they became the "eldest Children" of Onontio 
( French Governor of Canada ) and the cornerstone of the French Alliance
with the Great Lakes Alogonquin. Within this organization, the Wyandot
were regarded as something akin to a "founding father" with important
links, through their adopted Huron relatives, to the Iroquois League.
Even after the French defeat in 1763, the Wyandot commanded a respect
and influence among the Great lakes and Ohio Valley tribes, far greater
than the number of their warriors would have suggested.

By 1728, 80% of the beaver traded on the Albany market was coming from
the French allies. The French were aware of what was happening, and in
1730 they urged the Wyandot to leave Detroit and move to Montreal to
keep them away from the Iroquois and British. The Wyandot decided to
stay near Detroit, but some groups moved south into Ohio and settled
along the southern shore of Lake Erie and the Sandusky plains setting
the stage for a century of war for control of Ohio.

At the time, Ohio was empty--- no one lived there, and because of this,
it was especially attractive, not only for its rich farmland, but
hunting since there had been virtualy no human habitation for the
previous 50 years. The Iroquois claimed it by right of their conquest of
the Erie, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and several tribes whose names have been
lost because they disappeared during the Beaver wars before the European
contact. The League also claimed Kentucky and the entire Ohio Valley
west to the Illinois River for the same reason. This was simple enough,
but the next part may be confusing! The British also claimed Ohio since
the Iroquois had been placed undr their protection by the Treaty of
Ryswick (1697) which ended the King William's war between Britain and
France. It would take some time before the the Iroquois ( or anyone
else) could understand how an agreement sgned in Europe between European
Kings gave the British a right to Iroquois land. Meanwhile, there were
rival claims by Virginia and Pennsylvania to the British claim to the
Iroquois claim. The French claim was less complicated; exploration of
the area during the 1660's and their military defeat of the Iroquois.
Their was no mention of any claim of the native allies of the French who
did the actual fighting.
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To be continued in part 2--