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Wyandot Indian Tribe
Location
Wyandot. Meaning perhaps "islanders," or
"dwellers on a peninsula." Occasionally spelled Guyandot. At an earlier
date usually known as Huron, a name given by the French from huré,
"rough," and the depreciating suffix -on.
Also called:
Hatindia8ointenm, Huron name of Huron of Lorette
Nadowa, a name given to them and many other Iroquoian tribes by Algonquians.
Telamatenon, Delaware name, meaning "coming out of a mountain or cave."
Thastchetci', Onondaga name.
Connections
The Wyandot
belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family.
Location
The earliest
known location of the Huron proper was the St. Lawrence Valley and the
territory of the present province of Ontario from Lake Ontario across to
Georgian Bay. The Tionontati were just west of them on Lake Huron. (See
also Illinois,
Indiana,
Kansas,
Michigan,
Minnesota, and
Wisconsin.)
Subdivisions
Cartier, who first met these people, gives the
following town names:
Araste, on or near St. Lawrence River below the site of Quebec.
Hagonchenda, on St. Lawrence River not far from the point where it is
joined by Jacques Cartier River.
Hochelaga, on Montreal Island.
Hochelay, probably near Point Platon, Quebec.
Satadin, location uncertain.
Stadacona, on the site of the present Quebec.
Starnatan, just below the site of Quebec.
Tailla, near Quebec.
Teguenondahi, location uncertain.
Tutonaguay, 25 leagues above the site of Quebec.
The following towns, some under their native names and others
under the names of the missions established by the French Jesuits, existed in
Ontario between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay in the first half of the
seventeenth century:
Angoutenc, between the refugee Wenrohronon town and Ossossane and about 2
miles from the latter.
Anonatea, 1 league from Ihonatiria.
Arendaonatia.
Arente.
Arontaen, near Point Cockburn, on the north shore of Nattawasaga Bay.
Cahiague, where was the mission of St. John the Baptist.
Carhagouha, in Tiny Township about 2 miles northwest of Lafontaine.
Carmaron.
Ekiodatsaan.
Endarahy.
Iahenhouton.
Ihonatiria, where was the mission of the Immaculate Conception.
Karenhassa.
Khinonascarant, the name of three small villages.
Onentisati, in Tiny Township.
Ossossane, where was the mission of the Immaculate Conception after it was
moved from Ihonatiria.
Ste. Agnes.
Ste. Anne.
St. Antoine.
Ste. Barbe.
Ste. Catherine.
Ste. Cécile.
St. Charles, 2 villages.
St. Denys.
St. Etienne.
St. Frangois Xavier.
Ste. Genevieve.
St. Joachim.
St. Louis.
Ste. Madeleine.
St. Martin.
Ste. Marie, 2 villages.
Ste. Térèse.
Scanonaerat, where was the mission of St. Michel.
Taenhatentaron, where was the mission of St. Ignace.
Teanaustayae, whither the mission of St. Joseph was moved from Ihonatiria
(?).
Teandewiata.
Tondakhra, on the west side of the northern peninsula of Tiny Township, 4
miles
northwest of Lafontaine and about 1 mile southeast of Clover Point.
Touaguainchain, perhaps where the mission of Ste. Madeleine was
established.
After the Huron had been broken up by the Iroquois there was
for a time a Huron mission on Mackinac Island, called St. Ignace, which was soon
moved to
Point Ignace on the shore to the northward. A part of the tribe settled
successively in villages called Ancienne Lorette and Jeune Lorette, 8
miles northwest of Quebec.
Villages and Towns
The following names of Huron or
Wyandot towns are recorded in Ohio after the part of the
tribe which moved west and south had collected there:
Cranetown, 2 towns: (1) on the site of the present Royalton,
Fairfield County; (2) in Crawford County, 8 or 10 miles northeast of the present
Upper Sandusky.
Junqueindundeh, on Sandusky River 24 miles above its
mouth.
Junundat, on a small creek that empties into a little lake below the mouth of
Sandusky River, Seneca County.
Sandusky, 2 towns: (1) Lower Sandusky on the site of Sandusky, Erie County; (2)
Upper Sandusky near the present town of that name in Wyandot County.
There was a Wyandot village in Wayne County, Mich., called
Brownstown, occupied by people of this tribe from 1809 to 1818.
History
The St. Lawrence
territories seem to have been occupied by two of the four Huron tribes
when Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River in 1534-43; at any rate
Hurons were in occupancy. When Champlain came into the country in 1603,
they were all living south of Georgian Bay. The French soon entered into
amicable relations with them and, beginning in 1615, missionaries
undertook to convert them to Christianity. These efforts were crowned with
considerable success, but were brought to an end when the tribe was
attacked and disrupted by the Iroquois in 1648-49. Part of the Huron were
then adopted by their conquerors, while part placed themselves under the
protection of the French at Quebec, their descendants being known today as
the Hurons of Lorette, and others fled to the Neutrals, the Erie, the
Tionontati, and other tribes. In 1649, however, the Tionontati were
attacked in their turn and forced along with their Huron guests to take
refuge on Christian Island in Lake Huron. Then followed a long course of
wandering; to Michilimackinac; Manitoulin Island; Green Bay; the
Potawatomi; the Illinois; the neighborhood of the Ottawa on Chequamigon
Bay, on the south shore of Lake Superior; and again to Michilimackinac. In
the latter part of the seventeenth century some moved to Sandusky, Ohio,
and Detroit, Mich. In 1745 a considerable party of Huron under the
leadership of the war chief Orontony or Nicholas went from Detroit to the
marshlands of Sandusky Bay, but in 1748, on the failure of a conspiracy
Orontony had attempted against the French, he abandoned his villages and
removed to white River, Ind. After his death the Hurons seem to have
returned to Detroit and Sandusky and gradually extended their claims over
Ohio, so that it was by their permission that the Shawnee from the south
and the Delaware from the east settled north of Ohio River. The Wyandot
allied themselves with the British in the war of 1812. At its close a
large tract of land in Ohio and Michigan was confirmed to them, but they
sold much of it in 1819, under treaty provisions, reserving a small
portion near Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and a smaller area on Huron River, near
Detroit, until 1842, when these tracts also were sold, and the tribe
removed to Wyandotte County, Kans. In 1867 they were placed upon a small
reservation in the northeastern part of the Indian Territory and are now
citizens of the State of Oklahoma.
Population
Mooney (1928) estimates that in 1600 there were 10,000 Huron
and 8,000 Tionontati.
French estimates of the first half of the seventeenth century range from
20,000 to 30,000, the former figure being one that Hewitt (in Hodge, 1907)
is inclined to accept. After the dispersal, the Hurons of Lorette were
estimated at 300 in 1736 but placed officially at 455 in 1904. The
following figures are given for the other Huron: 1,000 in 1736; 500 and
850 in 1748; 1,250 in 1765; 1,500 in 1794-95; 1,000 and 1,250 in 1812. In
1885 the Huron in Oklahoma numbered 251; in 1905, 378; and by the census
of 1910, 353. In 1923 there were 502 in Oklahoma and in 1924, 399 at
Lorette, Canada: total 901. The census of 1530 returned exactly the same
number in the United States as had the census of 1910. In 1937, 783 were
reported in Oklahoma.
Connection in which they have become noted
Connection in which they have
become noted. The Wyandot tribe is famous,
(1) from the fact that it
was the chief tribe or group of tribes encountered by Cartier when he
explored the St. Lawrence,
(2) for the flourishing missions maintained among them by the French
Jesuits,
(3) for the tragic destruction of their confederacy by the Iroquois,
(4) from the various applications of the names Huron and Wyandot, the
former including one of the Great Lakes and also rivers and counties in
Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario; places in Fresno County, Calif.; Lawrence
County, Ind.; Atchison County, Kans.; Erie County, Ohio; Beadle County, S.
Dak.; Henderson County, Tenn.; and the Huron Mountains in Marquette
County, Mich. Wyandot -was applied in the forms Wyandot or Wyandotte to
counties in Ohio and Kansas; to places in Wyandot County, Ohio; Crawford
County, Ind.; Butte County, California; Ottawa County, Okla.; and miles
northeast County, Mich.; and a famous cave, Wyandotte Cave, Leavenworth,
Ind. In the form Guyandotte, the name of the Wyandot has been given to a
river, mountains, and a town in West Virginia.
Additional Resources
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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