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Tionontati Indian Tribe History
Tionontati ('there the mountain
stands.' Hewitt). A tribe formerly living in the mountains south of
Nottawasaga bay, in Grey and Simcoe counties, Ont. They were first visited
in 1616 by the French, who called them the Nation du Petun, or Tobacco
Nation, from their having large fields of tobacco. In 1640 the Jesuits
established a mission among them. The tribe then had 2 clans, the Deer and
the Wolf, and 9 villages. On the destruction of the Huron tribes by the
Iroquois, in 1648-49, many of the fugitives took refuge with the
Tionontati. This drew down upon the latter the anger of the Iroquois, who
sent a strong force against them in 'Dec. 1649. Etarita, one of their
principal villages, was surprised during the absence of the warriors, the
houses burned, and many of the inhabitants, together with the missionary,
massacred. The Tionontati, with the Hurons, who had joined them, now
abandoned their country and fled to the region southwest of Lake Superior.
In 1658 there were about 500 of the tribe at the Potawatomi mission of St
Michel, near Green bay, Wis. Soon afterward they were with the Hurons at
Shaugawaumikong (La Pointe), and about 1670 the two tribes were together
at Mackinaw, at the entrance to Lake Michigan. The Tionontati soon became
blended with the Hurons, and the united tribes were henceforth known under
the modernized name of Wyandot. As late, however, as 1721 the Tionontati,
then living with the Hurons near Detroit, preserved their name and
hereditary chieftaincies. They were frequently designated as Tionontati
Hurons and have also been confounded with the Amikwa. Their villages, so
far as their names are known, were Ehouae (St Pierre et St Paul),
Ekarenniondi (StMatthieu), Etarita (St Jean), St Andre, St Barthelemy, St
Jacques, St Jacques et St Philippe, St Simon et St Jude, St Thomas.
Index of Tribes or Nations
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