Wyandot
With Wyandot / Wyandotte (in the US) or Wyandot / Wendat or Huronn (e) (in Canada) today is called a subject to the beaver wars (1640 and 1701) newly forming Native American tribal group from scattered, mostly Iroquoian-speaking smaller and some Algonquin tribes. At first these allied tribes were known as the Huron Petun Nation , from 1700 the current names became common in the United States and Canada.
The (historical) designation Huronn (e), Hurons, Huron People or Huronen means the "Wendat / Huron Confederation" (approx. 1420 to approx. 1650) from four allied tribes, which the French also call "nations" meaning that they were separate political and territorial entities, with similar cultures, a common origin in the distant past, and similar but not identical languages. The "Wendat / Huron Confederation" developed out of a loose defense alliance against their common enemy, the five Haudenosaunee nations or Iroquois League south of Lake Ontario ( Ontarïio ' - "The lake is big, beautiful, magnificent"). They spoke one of the Iroquois languages .
Surname
Wyandot / Wendat or Huron / Hurons?
In order to make as clear a separation as possible between the historical "Wendat / Huron Confederation" and the present-day "Wyandot / Wendat" tribes or First Nations, the article uses the designation Huronn (e), Hurons, Huron People or Hurons for the "confederation" before their annihilation and smashing by the Iroquois (until 1650) and the designation Wyandot, Wyandotte after the reorganization ( ethnogenesis ) of the individual dispersed tribes (from 1700).
The linguistically, culturally and politically closely allied Hurons, Petun (Tionontate) (in the southwest), neutrals (Attiwandaronon) (in the west) and Wenro (easternmost tribe of the neutrals, in the south) all called themselves Wyandot or Wendat ("the island inhabitants"). ) - The tribes living there probably had the impression that they lived on "islands", as they were almost always surrounded by water in the middle of a landscape rich in rivers and lakes. In order to be able to move within this area, they used birch canoes.
They called their tribal area Wendake , this stretched (from east to west) over approx. 880 km² in southern Ontario along the south coast of Lake Simcoe ( Ouentironk - "beautiful water"), Georgian Bay , Nottawasaga Bay (Algonquin: "Iroquois." at the river mouth ") and Lake Huron ( Karegnondi -" fresh water lake "," large lake ") named after them . Sometimes the Hurons and Petun are therefore considered to be a tribal group and referred to as Wendat-Tionontate or Huron-Petun . A strong linguistic similarity between the Erie (Erieronon) and the "Wendat" peoples is also reported.
The foreign name "Hurons" probably goes back to the French name "La Hure" for the central ridge of the wild boar , of which the mohawk of the Hurons reminded the French newcomers.
Originally there were an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Hurons (possibly including the petun), but through contact with European traders, devastating smallpox and measles epidemics broke out among the tribes and destroyed entire villages, clans and families. This led to the destabilization of the Huron society - especially as the Hurons were divided into two politico-religious factions through the contact with the Jesuits : The so-called "progressives" or "Christian faction" had taken over Christianity and were close to the French trading posts settled; the so-called "traditionalists" clung to their ethnic religion and customs and tried to evade the influence of the Europeans. In extremely costly battles against the Iroquois in the so-called Beaver Wars (1640–1701) for control of the fur trade, several Huron villages were destroyed, the male population either killed or abducted and adopted together with women and children. Soon, captured and now adopted former Huron warriors fought in the ranks of the Iroquois against their own people. As a result of these brutal campaigns, the Huron population quickly collapsed; a large part of the Hurons (the so-called "traditionalists) joined the victorious Iroquois - allies of the British - were adopted and settled under the Western Seneca (allies of the French); only a minority (the so-called" progressives / Christian faction ") ) fled to New France with the Jesuits, their former European allies, the French, finding it difficult to understand that the Hurons preferred to settle among their indigenous arch-enemies rather than their white "friends" - but this was an attempt by the Hurons to hold on to their culture and religion despite the devastating defeat. A third "anti-Iroquois" group joined the Petun and fled west to Fort Michilimackinac on the Strait of Mackinac .
The modern Wyandot emerged in the late 17th century from the union of the survivors of two formerly important Iroquois confederations - the "Wendat / Huron Confederation" and the "Tionontati / Petun Confederation". Other groups, also driven out and dispersed by the Iroquois League, joined the newly organized tribal association; including members of the former "Neutral Confederation", the Wenro, the Erie, the Susquehannock and some smaller Algonquin and Iroquois tribes. Among the ethnic group now generally known as "Wyandot / Wyandotte", the Petun are by far the largest tribe and their descendants are still the majority of the Wyandot, so that today the culture and the Wyandot language are probably more similar to the Petun than the Hurons.
The southern Wyandot groups had to move westward within the United States and were settled in Oklahoma , the northern groups settled on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. Today there are three recognized Wyandot tribes in the United States and a Wyandot First Nation in Canada, which together number about 8,000 tribal members.
In 1999, the Wyandot Confederation was renewed when the leaders of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas , Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma , Wyandot Nation of Anderdon, and Huronne Wendat von Wendake joined forces in Midland , Ontario .
language
Jesuits set up mission stations like Sainte-Marie-au-pays-des-Hurons and LaJeune Lorette in the Huron region in the 17th century . The language of the Hurons was studied by the Jesuit Pierre Potier in the middle of the 18th century. In his Elementa Grammaticæ Huronicæ from 1745 he gives two clues for the formation of a name. On the one hand the word ahouénda , which refers to a piece of possibly isolated land, possibly an island, and on the other hand aouenda , which means voice, command, language or promise. Potier noted that the addition of the prefix sk aouendat results in a meaning in the sense of "one voice" and at the same time "that one island". In his opinion, this double meaning was a possible explanation for the origin of the proper name.
Further descriptions go back to the Jesuit Jean de Brébeuf , the first evidence of the Howgh interjection, which is still used stereotypically for Indian languages today . Brébeuf wrote the oldest and still used Canadian Christmas carol Jesous Ahatonhia (Jesus, he is born) in the Huronian language, whereby God is referred to with the expression " Gitchi Manitou ", which comes from the Algonquin language. The baby Jesus lies in a piece of birch bark and in diapers made of rabbit skin , instead of shepherds there are hunters in the field and the wise men from the Orient are chiefs from neighboring areas who offer him fox skins and beaver pelts as gifts .
The Wyandot language has been almost extinct since the 1960s (→ see Iroquois languages ).
history
The Wendat / Huron Confederation before the arrival of the Europeans
Originally the Hurons and the other Wendat peoples were part of the Iroquois people, but separated from them and allied with the Algonquin peoples. Like the Iroquois, they lived in longhouses and farmed.
The confederation consisted of the following four "nations" or tribes:
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Attinniaoenten or Bear People (also: Attignawantan, Attignaouentan, Attignousntan - "people of the bear"): With almost half of the Huron population, they were by far the largest and most powerful tribe and lived between Georgian Bay and the Wye River ; around 1640 they lived in thirteen villages:
- Southern Bear People / Southern Attinniaoenten
- Northern Bear People / Nördliche Attinniaoenten
- Hatingeennonniahak or Cord People (also: Attigneenongnahac, Attiguenongha - "those who make lines for fishing nets"): second largest tribe, lived along the Mount St. Louis Ridge between the Sturgeon and the Coldwater River, inhabited three main villages.
- Arendaenronnon or Rock People (also: Arendahronon - "people of the lying rock"): most easterly tribe, lived on the banks of Lake Couchiching westwards to the Coldwater River, inhabited four villages, their main village was Cahiague .
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Atahontaenrat or Deer People (also: Tahontaenrat, Scanonaerat, Scahentoarrhonon - "two white ears", i.e. "people of the deer"): smallest tribe, lived southeast of the "Bear People" in a single large village in the area north of the Orr Lake.
- Ataronchronon or People of the Bog ("people of the moor, the swamp"): were not politically recognized as a full member and therefore had no right to vote in the council. They were represented by the "Bear People" during the council meeting. Presumably these are clan members of the "Northern Bear People"; later, fleeing Wenrohronon (from 1638) and bands of the Algonquin (from 1644) joined by the Haudenosaunee .
In the tribal area of the Wendat-Tionontate (Huron-Petun) , later called "Wendake" or "Huronia" (today's Georgian Triangle in southern Ontario), the ancestors of the "Tionontate / Petun" settled first (approx. 1300 to 1420 AD) and the "Southern Bear People" and the "Cord People"; the latter two formed a political alliance at this time, which formed the beginning of the Wendat / Huron Confederation. Ossossane on the banks of Nottawasaga Bay was chosen as the capital and seat of the council fire . With approx. 40 long houses and 1,500 inhabitants it was the largest settlement of the "Bear People" and mostly inhabited by members of the "Southern Bear People". Ossossane lay along an important network of roads that connected the Wendat / Huron and Tionontati / Petun territories.
Later (1420 to 1550 AD) the "Northern Bear People" immigrated, presumably due to population growth and diseases caused by it, as well as conflicts over the limited resources and joined the "Southern Bear People" there. The two then formed a political unit and were therefore the largest and most important tribe within the confederation. However, they never lost their awareness of their own identity and spoke widely differing dialects.
During the first contact up to the destruction of the Wendat / Huron Confederation (approx. 1550 to 1650 AD), the Saint Lawrence Iroquois were expelled from eastern Ontario and southern areas of the ancestors of the Petun and Hurons left. Apparently members of the "Rock People" and "Deer People" migrated because the Jesuits registered their arrival in the historical "Wendake / Huronia" about 50 years before the arrival of the missionaries in Georgian Bay. It can be assumed that the linguistically related "People of the Bog" shared the migration - possibly even being the vanguard who first joined the "Bear People" and "Cord People". The "Rock People" joined the Confederation around 1560–1590, the "Deer People" around 1570–1610. Another development at this time was the rapid population growth of the Petun. This is likely due in some way to the "cruel wars" between the Hurons and Petun, which the Jesuits were told to have taken place at some point during this period. However, it is not clear whether the fighting took place first or whether the migration of entire tribes northwards triggered them. However, the division of the "Tionontati / Petun" into two "nations" (sometimes interpreted as clans, phratries or moieties) - "Wolf People" and "Deer People" - could indicate that a significant part of the immigrant "Deer People" are themselves joined the "Tionontati / Petun" and not the Hurons.
Each tribe sent representatives to the joint council in Ossossane, which discussed war and peace, alliances, trade and hunting. At the height of their power, the Huron Council had about 52 members.
Their trade and alliance partners included neighboring, also Iroquois-speaking peoples who were also politically organized in "confederations": the Petun (Tionontati) ("people in the hills / mountains, i.e. the Blue Mountains", two nations), the Neutral (Attiwandaronon) ("those who speak a little differently", at least five nations), the Wenrohronon ("people at the place of the floating swamp / from the wet moss", easternmost tribe of the neutrals), the Erie (Erieronon or Yenreshronon) ( "People with a long tail", four / five nations) and the Susquehannock (Andastoerrhonon) ("people of the black ridge", nine leading nations) in the south.
They also maintained close trade contacts as well as political and social relationships with the Algonquin peoples of the Anishinabe, Odawa, Nipissing and other Algonquin-speaking tribes such as the Innu (then called Montagnais) of the Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River Valley. With these nations they exchanged excess maize , beans and " Indian hemp " (from whose firm bast fibers, which are obtained from the inner bark, clothes, ropes and fishing nets were made) for tobacco and exotic objects such as native copper , catlinite and mussels (see : Shell money ) and wampum .
With this they had encircled the Iroquois League from the west, north and south and put it under strong economic and military pressure.
Allies of France against the Iroquois and the British
Soon after the arrival of the French, their longtime allies, they gained a dominant position in the fur trade. In 1609 they joined the military and trade alliance that the Innu and Algonquin had formed with the French by participating in a raid on the Mohicans, a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederation. But the French had made the mighty Iroquois League their enemy, which first allied with the Dutch and later with the British in the Covenant Chain and was supplied with weapons by the Europeans. This gave the numerically weaker Iroquois an enormous military clout against the surrounding tribes.
Due to the competition among the tribes in the fur trade , the Haudenosaunee / Iroquois League and the tribes in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley (including the Wendat) had overran their areas and were forced to obtain the sought-after furs through trade or war . Since the Iroquois League was surrounded only by hostile tribes, they either had to subdue them or expect to be destroyed themselves. In view of dwindling resources, this led to the conflict between the Iroquois League and the British on the one hand and the Hurons, their indigenous allies and the French on the other hand, and escalated into the so-called Beaver Wars (French and Iroquois Wars) (1640 and 1701). . The Iroquois tried to extend their territory to the territory of the neighboring tribes, mainly Algonquians, in order to be able to act as an intermediary in the fur trade between the French and the western tribes. The wars were marked by extreme brutality on both sides and are considered to be one of the bloodiest clashes in North American history. The expansion of the Haudenosaunee / Iroquois League under the leadership of the Mohawk ("Guardians of the Eastern Gate") and Seneca ("Guardians of the Western Gate") and the expulsion of the inferior tribes changed the tribal geography throughout eastern North America.
There had already been initial disputes over the culturally and materially significant wampum trade between the Mohawk and the powerful Mahican Confederation (five tribes along the Hudson River and its tributaries, the Mohawk and Hoosic Rivers ). When the New England - Algonquians along the Atlantic coast quickly gained the upper hand over the Iroquois, who were not equipped with Dutch rifles and steel tomahawks , it was clear to the latter that they had to establish direct trade contacts with the Dutch in order to catch up with weapons.
Around 1610 Dutch traders reached the valley of the Hudson River (an important trade route to the tribes in the Great Lakes area and inland), supplied the Iroquois with the weapons they wanted to jointly fight the Susquehannock in the south, and in 1618 mediated between the warring ones Mohawk and Mahican make peace. In 1624 the Dutch set up their first trading post, Fort Oranije (south of today's Albany, New York) near the Mahican capital "Schodack / Shodac", and from 1626 they began to build their colony Nieuw Nederland along the river . In addition, the Dutch tried to trade in fur with the Algonquin tribes living in the north and north-west through Mahican middlemen. Now the Iroquois saw themselves threatened on both sides by well-armed Algonquians.
However, the Dutch had armed the Mohawk, which was easier to reach thanks to the newly built Fort Oranije, with rifles, so that the clashes soon escalated. The Iroquois League (1624-1628) fought the powerful Mahican Confederation to gain access to trade with the Dutch. After the Mahican were defeated and driven eastward across the Hudson River, the Mohawk rose to become the most important trading partner of the Dutch (and later the British) in the Hudson Valley.
Around the same time (around 1626 to 1630) the Susquehannock began to attack the numerous Lenni Lenape and drove them south to Delaware and New Jersey. When New Sweden (Nya Sverige) established its first settlement on the Delaware River in 1638, the Lenni Lenape of the Susquehannock needed permission to enter into treaties, as they were considered tributaries and not sovereign people.
The Hurons were severely decimated (some estimates go as high as half ) by several epidemics ( flu , measles and smallpox ) (some estimates range up to half ) and rob many of their leaders from several epidemics ( 1635-1640 ) . The Hurons were therefore - after the English had briefly conquered Québec (1629 to 1632) - won over by Jean Nicolet for a boycott of the English. Meanwhile, the Mohawk and Oneida used their militarily strengthened position to increasingly attack the southern allies of the Hurons, the Susquehannock, so that the latter were increasingly worn out and weakened.
The outnumbered Iroquois were able to successfully isolate the Hurons by first attacking their indigenous allies. After several Iroquois attacks and raids (1636 to 1637), various Algonquian tribes (1642 to 1646) fled to the Upper Ottawa River Valley (one of the main trade routes for the sale of fur), and the Innu / Montagnais withdrew eastwards to Québec. The Wenro and their tribal area were the first to be overrun by the Iroquois - under the leadership of the Seneca -, abandoned their villages and fled north across the Niagara River to Ontario, where about 600 tribal members found shelter among the Hurons. Why their Indian allies - the Neutral and Erie - suddenly abandoned the Wenro in the fight against their common enemy is not clear. Maybe they were hoping for some protection from the Iroquois.
A further escalation in violence contributed to the fact that the English wanted to break the Dutch trade monopoly with the Mohawk by offering the latter firearms. In return, the Dutch began to supply the Iroquois in unlimited quantities with weapons and ammunition. The French gave more weapons to their allies, but these were generally inferior to Dutch weapons and were initially only given to Christian converts . Suddenly the Iroquois were much better armed than any other tribe (including the French).
Now (from 1640) the Iroquois concentrated their attacks against the eastern villages of the Hurons (since these hosted Wenro refugees); as early as the spring of 1635, the Seneca had inflicted a great defeat on the Hurons. The Algonquin and Innu / Montagnais were completely driven out of the Upper St. Lawrence Valley by the Mohawk and Oneida in 1641, while in the west the Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga directed their attacks particularly against the Hurons. In 1645 the French tried to stop the violence by means of a peace treaty with the Iroquois - but without being able to solve the actual cause, the Iroquois' desire to deal directly with Hurons and French furs. When new conflicts broke out, they behaved neutrally towards the Iroquois and their former Indian allies.
After two years of unsuccessful negotiations, the Iroquois organized massive attacks on the land of the Hurons in 1647 and destroyed the villages of the Arendaenronnon ("Rock People") . In 1648 a 250-strong Huron canoe fleet fought its way over the Iroquois blockade to Quebec. In their absence, the Iroquois penetrated deep into Wendake in July, destroyed the missionary village of St. Joseph and killed the Jesuit priest. In coordinated winter attacks in March 1649, 2,000 Mohawk and Seneca warriors attacked the mission locations of St. Ignace and St. Louis in two hours. Hundreds of Hurons were killed or captured while two other Jesuits were tortured to death. Before that, the Hurons had suddenly and surprisingly refused any help from the allied Susquehannock, who had always stood by the Hurons during the wars. In the winter of 1648/1649 the Hurons were completely overrun by the Iroquois, and in the following period their resistance collapsed abruptly. When the Hurons gave up their capital, Ossossane , most of them fled to neighboring tribes, many of them to the Erie.
The Iroquois then demanded that the Erie hand over the Hurons to them, which the Erie refused. As a result, there was two years of extreme tension between the two peoples.
Other Hurons had surrendered immediately and joined the victorious Iroquois, by whom they were immediately - like Hurons already captured - adopted and accepted as full members of the league.
The Petun fared no better, especially when the Iroquois incorporated 1,000 captured warriors. When the western Iroquois ( Seneca , Cayuga and Onondaga ) attacked the neutrals (Attiwandaronon) in 1650, the Susquehannock joined the war against the Iroquois.
However, when the Mohawk attacked the Susquehannock together with the Oneida in 1651, they could not help the neutrals (Attiwandaronon). In addition, despite the clashes with the Iroquois, the Erie refused to support them because of the reception of the Huron refugees. So it did not take long until another formerly allied nation of the Hurons, the Attiwandaronon, was defeated and almost annihilated around 1655. The looming Erie war against the western Iroquois broke out after all 30 Erie ambassadors were killed by the Iroquois during a peace conference.
Since the French were powerless after the crushing victories of the Iroquois over the Hurons and Attiwandaronon and the Erie had to fight the western Iroquois from 1653 to 1656, the Susquehannock were on their own. The war against the Mohawk and Oneida lasted until 1656, when the Susquehannock had to slowly pull down the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River .
The Erie could inflict heavy casualties on the Iroquois, but without firearms they were doomed. In 1679 the last large independent groups of the Erie disappeared, in 1680 they finally ceased to exist. They had either joined the Hurons or were absorbed as enslaved auxiliaries of the Iroquois.
Ethnic reorganization as Wyandot
The diseases (such as measles and smallpox ) introduced by the French and British during the fur trade and proselytizing had reduced the populations of the Hurons and their allies (Wendat and Algonquin) by an estimated one-third to one-half , as had the extremely brutal beaver wars of the Iroquois -Liga led to the destruction of entire settlements, flight and displacement within "Wendake" and crop failures, which in turn led to the outbreak of epidemics among the weakened population. This external and internal stress in the indigenous communities - which were heavily influenced by the Jesuits - also led to a religious identity crisis for the Hurons and their indigenous allies. The so-called "traditionalists" among the Hurons spoke out in the council for a turn away from the French and the Jesuits, the "Progressives / Christian Fraction" argued, however, that only the firepower and support of the French and the Christian God ensure the survival of the Hurons could.
Most of the so-called "traditionalists", at least 3,000 Hurons, had joined the Haudenosaunee during and after their defeat. These "traditionalists" (most of the "Rock People" and the "Deer People") established a separate village under the Western Seneca (allies of France, the "Eastern Seneca" were allies of the British) and were able to retain their independent identity for a long time. The approximately 1,000 tribesmen of the "Christian Fraction" (the majority of the "Bear People", the "Cord People" and some "Rock People") left the mission station Sainte-Marie-au-pays-des-Hurons in 1649 together with the Jesuits and fled to Gahoendoe and Christian Island in Georgian Bay. Continuous raids by the Iroquois and a poor supply of food meant that only about 300 tribesmen survived the coming winter due to hunger and cold. The majority fled north and settled on the Île d'Orléans at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River , about five km northeast of the provincial capital Québec. They were later joined by another 300 refugees. In the meantime, some survivors of the Petun had joined the rest of the Hurons. Together they also left the island in 1651.
In order to successfully end the peace negotiations with the Iroquois, which had been ongoing since 1653, the French convinced the Hurons of the Île d'Orléans to join their enemies (the Iroquois had vehemently demanded the extradition of Hurons who had fled as a basis for the conclusion of peace). During the years 1656–1657 the "Rock People" moved to the Onondaga and some of the "Bear People" to the Mohawk , but the majority of the "Bear People" and all "Cord People" refused and moved first to Sillery (today Part of Quebec City) and later to Jeune-Lorette / New Lorette (today's Wendake ), where they still live today.
A third group - mostly referred to as "anti-Iroquois" (mostly "traditionalists") - joined the Petun and fled west to Fort Michilimackinac on the Straits of Mackinac , the seat of the council fire of the Council of Three Fires ("Council of Three Fire"). This group - mostly Petun - settled along Green Bay around 1650 . Here they were joined by an Odawa village. Soon they moved on to the upper reaches of the Mississippi, but were attacked by Dakota Sioux and had to flee again: first to Chequamegon Bay, a bay of Lake Superior , and in 1671 back to Michilimackinac. In 1704 the Wyandot and Odawa settled in the Detroit - Windsor area near the newly built Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701 .
Since that time (around 1700) the newly formed bands of dispersed peoples (survivors of the Petun, neutrals, Wenro, Erie, Susquehannock and a few smaller - in particular no longer identifiable - Algonquin and Iroquois tribes) were no longer Huronn by the Europeans (e), Hurons or Hurons , but (especially in the later USA) called Wyandot, Wyandotte or Wendat , which was intended to express that this tribe was no longer identical with the original "Wendat / Huron Confederation" and "Tionontati / Petun Confederation".
The various Wyandot groups were loyal allies of New France during the French and Indian Wars (1689 to 1763) , after which they fought mostly on the side of the British in the fight against the advancing American frontier .
In these battles, the Wyandot were a militarily and politically important part of the various pan-Indian alliances or confederations in the fight against the settlers. At that time, however, these alliances were usually no longer organized at the tribal level, but individual villages from different tribes came together to fight for the French or British, and later for the British or Americans. In addition, it was not unusual for the territories and memberships of the respective "confederations" to overlap, since the individual village communities often belonged to two (sometimes even three) alliances.
The Wyandot were generally known to be belligerent and eloquent and therefore emerged as one of the leading nations (alongside Lenni Lenape, Shawnee and Miami) of the tribes to the Europeans.
By fleeing to New France, the Wyandot from Jeune-Lorette / New Lorette had joined the so-called Seven Nations of Canada ( Mohawk : Tsiata Nihononwentsiake - "the Seven Council Fires " or "the Seven Villages"), one of the Northern Mohawk's dominated Indian alliance of seven villages along the St. Lawrence River (from west to east): Onondaga from Sawekatsi (Oswegatchie) ( Ogdensburg in New York State), Mohawk from Akwesasne (St. Regis) , Mohawk from Kahnawake , Mohawk and Anishinaabeg (Algonquin and Nipissing ) from Kanesatake ( Oka ), Western Abenaki from Odanak (Saint Francis) , Eastern Abenaki from Wôlinak (part of Bécancour ) and Wyandot from "Jeune-Lorette (Wendake)". These "Seven Nations of Canada" or "Seven Villages" had their capital and their common council fire in Kahnawake and were strongly influenced by Catholicism .
In the meantime, the Wyandot (Petun, Huron et al.) Of Detroit-Windsor split again into two factions in 1738, as they had different views on trade contacts and prices for the furs brought in, and this led to conflicts with the French and Odawa (the latter were as Middlemen and traders known among the tribes). One faction moved to the other bank of the river from Detroit, the second faction moved to northwest Ohio and built several villages on the Sandusky River , next to "Lower Sandusky" also " Upper Sandusky " or "Half-King's Town" (named after Dunquat , the " Half-King "of the Wyandot; in Wyandot County, Ohio), as well as in 1748 some further into the Ohio Country (later part of the Northwest Territory ). "Upper Sandusky" was the most important city of the Wyandot during the 18th and 19th centuries. Century, it and the surrounding settlements such as " Captain Pipe's Town " of Lenni Lenape chief Hobocan ( nickname : "Tobacco pipe", * ca. 1740, † 1818) and the "Detroit-Wyandot" were close allies of the British from Fort Detroit . Both the "Ohio-Wyandot" and the "Detroit-Wyandot" were also members of the Council of Three Fires ( Anishinabe (g) , Odawa and Potawatomi ), a powerful coalition of Algonquin-speaking peoples who in turn formed part of the Wabanaki Confederation ( Abenaki , Penobscot , Mi'kmaq , Passamaquoddy and Maliseet ) was allied. The Wyandot were also known under the Council of Three Fires as Nii'inaawi-Naadawe / Nii'inaa-Naadowe ("Naadawe / Nadowe (Iroquois) within our tribal area"), as many Wyandot families or entire villages often belong to them settled.
In the Seven Years War in North America (1754 to 1763) the three Wyandot groups - the "Wyandot von Jeune-Lorette (Wendake)", the "Detroit Wyandot" and the "Ohio Wyandot" - fought first for the French, then joined War of the Pontiac uprising (1763 to 1766) led by Odawa chief Pontiac to break British supremacy, later they fought alongside the British in the American War of Independence (1775 to 1783) and in the British-American War of 1812 the American. Their descendants, now acculturated, live in the Windsor area.
In the Treaty of Greenville of 1795 , the Wyandot under their chiefs Tarhe (1742-1818) and Leatherlips (1732-1810) ceded their land claims to the United States as part of the defeated pan-Indian "Western Confederacy".
In addition, the group in Ontario consisted of only about a hundred members by 1760. By 1850 it grew again to around 300. This rediscovery or re-identification of tribes and ethnic groups, or the emergence of new tribes, was not uncommon on the advancing frontier . In addition to the Wyandot, one can also name the Seminoles and the Delawars ( Lenni Lenape ).
Today's Wyandot groups
Today there are four groups of Wyandot, a First Nation in Ontario, Canada, and three groups in the United States, but only two of them are recognized as tribes at the federal level:
- Nation Huronne-Wendat (formerly Huron of Jeune-Lorette , their settlement and the Wendake reserve of the same name are located within the city of Québec , about 3,000 tribal members, once members of the Seven Nations of Canada or Seven Nations of The Iroquois Confederacy , were the so-called " Progressives "(Christians) and are descendants of the majority of the" Bear People "and all" Cord People ".)
- Wyandot Nation of Kansas (a federally recognized tribe, administrative seat is Kansas City , about 400 tribal members)
- Wyandotte Nation (formerly Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma , a federally recognized tribe, administrative seat is Wyandotte, Oklahoma, about 4,300 tribal members)
- Wyandot Nation of Anderdon (administrative seat is Trenton , Michigan, approximately 1,200 tribal members)
Literary meaning
The Hurons entered literature through James Fenimore Cooper's tales of leather stockings . There they are portrayed as fearsome, talented warriors. However, these tales take place in the 18th century , while the military power and importance of the Hurons ended as early as the 17th century. The decisive factor for Cooper was probably that the Hurons were regarded as fidèle de France , i.e. as friendly towards the French. Johann Gottfried Seume romanticizes in his poem "The Hospitality of the Huron" the Wyandot who live around the Huron Sea and their way of life.
tourism
The Huronian cemetery in Kansas City , now a memorial, became famous. Its preservation despite an internal Indian conflict over sales and new buildings goes back to the Indian lawyer Lyda Conley and her sisters, who in 1909 succeeded in rescuing it with national attention.
In Canada, the term "Huronia" is used for tourist purposes for the former settlement area of today's Wyandot. In addition to the rebuilt Jesuit mission station Sainte Marie aux pays des Hurons , which existed from 1639 to 1649, a reconstructed historical settlement can be visited in the Wendake reserve near Québec.
See also
literature
- Kathryn Magee Labelle: Dispersed but not Destroyed. A History of the Seventeenth-Century Wendat People , University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 2013.
- Sirinya Pakditawan: The stereotyping Indian representation and its modification in the work of James Fenimore Cooper. Diss., Hamburg 2008.
- Karl Schormann: The Fall of the Hurons. War and feud as an expression of a culture. Books on Demand, Bremerhaven 2002, ISBN 3-8311-4287-4 .
- John Steckley (ed.): De religione. Telling the seventeenth-century Jesuit story in Huron to the Iroquois. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3617-0 .
- Elisabeth Tooker: An Ethnography of the Huron Indians. 1615-1649 (= Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 190, ZDB -ID 799398-5 = Congress 88 , Session 1. House Document. 31). United States Government Printing Office , Washington 1964 (Reprint. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 1991, ISBN 0-8156-2516-2 ).
- Gary Warrick: A Population History of the Huron-Petun, AD 500-1650 (= Studies in North American Indian History ). Cambridge University Press, New York et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-44030-1 .
Web links
- Official website of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas (Engl.)
- Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma
- Wyandot of Anderdon Nation , Michigan
- Nation Huronne Wendat , Québec (French)
- Tolatsga: History of Huron (Engl.)
- Huron Indians , in: Catholic Encyclopedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ - Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
- ↑ Lionel Lindsay offers an older account of this mission site: Notre-Dame de la Jeune-Lorette en la Nouvelle France: étude historique from 1900
- ↑ Pierre Potier: Elementa Grammaticæ Huronicæ . 1745.
- ^ The Life of the Huron Wendat
- ↑ The Wendat (Huron) at Contact ( Memento from August 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The dialects of the "Southern Bear People" and "Cord People" were closer to the dialects of the "Petun" and differed noticeably from those of the other three immigrant tribes
- ^ Wendat Dialects and the Development of the Huron Alliance
- ↑ In addition to their money-like character, wampum belts always had properties of the individually valuable or even sacred. The handing over of a wampum affirmed promises, contracts or marriages. Wampum belts with a special pattern, which belong to the so-called object font, were used to transmit messages and were exchanged for the transmission of important events (such as peace treaties or friendship alliances).
- ↑ The Seven Nations of Canada - The Other Iroquois Confederacy ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ With the accession of later built Mohawk settlement in Akwesasne (St. Regis) grew the "Seven Nations" briefly "Eight Nations" to, but the troops of the victorious United States destroyed in 1806, the settlement Sawekatsi (Oswegatchie) and the Oswegatchie mentioned As former allies of the British, Indians had to leave their settlement. Most sought refuge in Akwesasne, St. Regis and other Mohawk communities in what is now Canada
- ↑ further name variants: Petawontakas, Dunquad, Daunghquat; Lenni Lenape name: Pomoacan, but referred to as "Half-King" among Europeans; not to be confused with Tanaghrisson , a leader of Seneca in Ohio County and representative of the Ohio tribes towards the French and British, who was also referred to by the British as "Half-King". This designation referred to his status as an official spokesman who was allowed to conclude contracts (which, however, the speakers ("kings") of the Iroquois League had forbidden him)
- ^ Huron, in: Canadian Encyclopedia ( Memento of March 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Johann Gottfried Seume : The hospitality of the Huron in the Gutenberg-DE project
- ↑ Welcome! ( Memento from May 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
