Wenro

Traditional residential area of the Wenro and neighboring tribes around 1630.

The Wenro or Wenrohronon were North American Indians who belonged to the Iroquois language family . They probably lived in the area east of Niagara Falls near Oak Orchard Swamp in what is now New York State . The tribe was almost wiped out by the Iroquois in 1638 and has been considered extinct since 1643.

Surname

Wenro is the short form of the Huronian name Wenrohronon and means "people at the place of the floating swamp". The name probably refers to a river in the Oak Orchard Swamp (English oak orchard swamp), the location of their main village. Other names came from the Iroquois, such as Ahouenrochrhonon and Ouenrionon , which had a similar meaning.

residential area

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Wenro lived in an area east of Niagara Falls. They were a small tribe and probably had little more than 2,000 members who lived in two or three villages. Their western neighbors were the neutrals or Attiwandaronon and in the east was the residential area of the Seneca , who belonged to the Iroquois League of the Five Nations . The exact location of their traditional territory is, however, controversial among ethnologists . Wenro's residential area is not shown on any map. Oral tradition tells that they lived a day's journey from the Iroquois and that the distance to the Hurons was more than 400 km. This suggests an area around 50 km east of the Niagara River . Here lies the Oak Orchard Swamp , which suggests a connection with their names, people of the swimming swamp . The ethnologist JNB Hewitt suspected, however, that the Oil Springs (dt. Oil wells) in the place Cuba in New York were meant. However, there are no early historical sites in this region, nor is the area between the former territories of Seneca and Attiwandaronon.

Culture

Very little is known about the Wenro culture as there was no direct contact between them and Europeans. Wenro refugees, who lived in the Huron villages in 1639 and were visited by the French, were an exception. It is safe to assume that they lived a very similar way of life to their Iroquois neighbors. The Wenro were semi-sedentary , farming and mainly growing corn, pumpkin, beans and tobacco. There was also wild fruits, nuts, mushrooms and edible roots and tree bark, as well as the meat of wild animals and fish. Their political and social organization is unknown, but it stands to reason that they were matrilineal .

Their villages were probably protected by palisades and consisted of a number of long houses . The French were impressed by their exceptional hunting skills and the amount of game they harvested. They cultivated and traded high quality tobacco . According to the French reports, there were further differences in the extensive body painting and tattooing, as well as the lack of shame.

history

The Wenro formed the easternmost tribe of a confederation called Neutral or Attiwandaronon , whose eastern neighbors were the Seneca from the Iroquois League. Their traditional territory was at the eastern end of Lake Erie, east of Niagara Falls, and had a strategic position in the trade of the tribes around the Great Lakes . The proximity of the powerful Iroquois Confederation apparently prompted the small tribe to seek protection from their western neighbors, the Attiwandaronon, with whom they had close linguistic and cultural ties.

The neighboring Iroquois (Seneca) had chased over their territories and almost wiped out the beaver. They were thus forced to obtain the furs through trade or war. But since they were surrounded by hostile tribes, they either had to subdue them or expect to be destroyed themselves. Faced with dwindling resources, this led to conflict with the Hurons, their allies and other confederations around the Great Lakes.

In the autumn of 1638, around 600 Wenro refugees reached the northern Huron villages. Most of them were women and children from two villages who had fled the Iroquois raids. This arrival was witnessed by the French missionary Jérôme Lalemant , who had just arrived . He made one of the first reports of the migration of a large tribal group to another tribe. The refugees were in addition to a smallpox - epidemic ill. They lost many tribe members to the disease on their escape route and for two months afterwards. The Wenro had planned their migration and had previously sent some messengers to the Hurons and asked the northern neighbors to accept them. Apparently the Wenro had expected the raids of the Iroquois, but did not want to be accepted by the Attiwandaronon, since they had terminated the alliance with them in the same year. Nevertheless, around 1640 some fled Wenro lived in villages of the Attiwandaronon.

After the escape of the Wenro, the area west of the Seneca remained deserted to the Niagara River. Except for a group of Wenro warriors who resisted the Iroquois until 1643. According to archaeological digs, there were no historical Attiwandaronon settlements in the area. The Wenro's flight to the Hurons allowed the Attiwandaronon Confederation to maintain its position of neutrality in the conflict between the Hurons and the Iroquois League. According to the report of the French missionaries Brébeuf and Chaumonot on the occasion of their second visit to the Attiwandaronon, there were no war preparations against the Seneca in 1640.

Rather, they fought against their traditional enemies, the Assistaeronon . At the beginning of the 1640s a force of around 2000 Attiwandaronon warriors raided the villages of the Assistaeronon and took 800 prisoners. In 1649 the Huron Confederation was destroyed by the Iroquois League, all tribesmen and with them the Wenro they took in were either killed or captured and some of them later adopted. The Wenro, who fled to the Attiwandaronon, suffered the same fate when they were defeated by the Seneca in 1651. The last mention of the Attiwandaronon by the French was in 1671.

literature

Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 407. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4
↑ ^a ^b ^c Wenro History , accessed September 6, 2012
↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 409.
↑ ^a ^b Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 410.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, pp. 409-410.

[1] Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 407. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4

[dickshovel-2] Wenro History , accessed September 6, 2012

[3] Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 409.

[kultur-4] Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 410.

[history-5] Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15: Northeast, pp. 409-410.