While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Wenrohronon (Awěñro'roñ'non',
probably from a combination of the noun awěñ'rǎ',
the Huron form of the common Iroquoian vocable denoting 'scum,' 'moss,'
'lather,' with the verb stem -o', 'to float,' 'to be immersed or
contained in liquid or in the earth,' 'to be in solution,' 'to be
contained in,' with the tribal appellative suffix -roñnon'.
Awěñ'ro' (ouenro in the
Jesuit Relations), the base of the term, signifies, as a geographic name,
'where scum floats on the water'; hence Awenrohronon means 'the
people or tribe of the place of floating scum.' The suggested meaning of
the name would seem to indicate that the Wenrohronon may have lived in the
vicinity of the famous on spring of the town of Cuba, Allegany county, N.
Y., described as a filthy, stagnant pool, about 20 ft in diameter, without
an outlet. A yellowish-brown oil collects on its surface, and this was the
source of the famous " Seneca oil," formerly a popular local remedy for
various ailments. The spring was so highly regarded by the Seneca that
they always reserved it in their land-sale treaties). One of the tribes
which, according to the Jesuit Relation for 1639, had been associated with
the Neutral Nation and which had lived on the eastern borders of the
Neutral Nation toward the
Iroquois, the common enemy of
all these tribes. As the territory of the Neutral Nation on the east side
of Niagara river extended at this date south ward to the "end" of Lake
Erie and eastward to the watershed of Genesee river, at least, the former
habitat of the Wenrohronon must have been south of this territory.
So long as the Wenrohronon kept on good terms with the
Neutral Nation they were able to withstand their enemies and to maintain
themselves against the latter's raids and incursions. But owing to some
dissatisfaction, possibly fear of Iroquois displeasure, the Neutral Nation
severed its relations with the devoted Wenrohronon, who were thus left a
prey to their enemies. Deciding therefore to seek asylum and protection
from some other tribe, they sent an embassy to the Hurons, who received
them kindly and accepted their proposal, offering to assist them and to
escort them with warriors in their migration. Nevertheless, the fatigue
and hardships of the long retreat of more than 80 leagues by a body
exceeding 600 persons, largely women and children, caused many to die on
the way, and nearly all the remainder arrived at Ossossane and other Huron
towns ill from the epidemic which was primarily the occasion of their
flight. The Jesuit Relation cited says: "Wherever they were received, the
best places in the cabins were assigned them, the granaries or caches of
corn were opened, and they were given liberty to make such use of it as
their needs required."
It is stated (Jes. Rel. 1647-48, xxxiii, 63, 1898) that
the southern shores of Lake Erie were formerly inhabited "by certain
tribes whom we call the Nation of the Cat (or Panther); they have been
compelled to retire far inland to escape their enemies, who are farther to
the west," and that this Nation of the Panther has a number of fixed
towns, as it cultivates the soil. This shows that the appellation "Nation
du Chat" was a generic name for "certain tribes" dwelling south and south
east of Lake Erie, whose enemies farther westward had forced at least some
of them to migrate eastward. From the list of names of tribes cited by
Brebeuf in the Jesuit Relation for 1635 (33, 1858) the names of four
tribes of the Iroquois tongue dwellings of Lake Erie and of the domain of
the Five Iroquois tribes occur in the order: Andastoerrhonons (Conestoga),
Scahentoarrhonons (People of Wyoming valley),
Rhiierrhonons (the Erie), and the
Ahouenrochrhonons (Wenrohronon).
But this last name is omitted from the list of tribal
names cited from Father Ragueneau's "Carte Huronne," recorded by Father
LeJeune in his Relation for 1640 (35, 1858), because this tribe, in 1639,
becoming too weak to resist the Iroquois, having lost the support of an
alliance with the Neutral Nation, and being afflicted with an epidemic,
probably smallpox, had taken flight, part seeking refuge among the Hurons
and part among the Neutral Nation, with which peoples they became
incorporated. The Jesuit Relation for 1641 (80, 1858) says that in the
town of Khioetoa, surnamed St Michel, of the Neutral Nation, a certain
foreign nation, named A8enrehronon, which formerly dwelt beyond "the Erie
or the Nation du Chat (or the Panther Nation)," had for some years past
taken refuge.
Father Jean de Brebeuf and Father Joseph Marie
Chaumonot started from Ste Marie of the Hurons on Nov. 2, 1640, on a
mission to the Neutral Nation; but owing to several causes, chiefly false
reports spread among them by Huron spies concerning the nature of this
mission, they were coldly received by the Neutrals as a whole, and were
subjected to much abuse and contumely.
But the Wenrohronon dwelling at Khioetoa lent willing
ears to the gospel, and an old woman who had lost her hearing was the
first adult person among them to be baptized. Bressani's Relation for 1653
(Thwaites ed., xxxix, 141, 1899), however, says that among the Hurons the
Oenronronnons, whether by true or false report, added weight to the
charges against the Jesuits of being the cause of the epidemic and other
misfortunes of the people. The foregoing quotation definitely declares
that this tribe of the Wenrohronon dwelt before their migration "beyond
the Erie" or the Panther Nation. It is therefore probable that this tribe
lived on the upper waters of the Allegheny, possibly on the west branch of
the Susquehanna, and that it was one of the tribes generically called the
Black Minquaas. Writing to his brother on Apr. 27, 1639, Father DuPeron (Jes.
Rel. 1639, xv, 159, 1898), in reference to the Wenrohronon, says: "We have
a foreign nation which has taken refuge here, both on account of the
Iroquois, their enemies, and on account of the epidemic, which is still
causing them to die here in large numbers; they are nearly all baptized
before death."
Of the Wenrohronon, Father Bressani, writing in 1653
(ibid., xxxix, 141, 1899), says that they had then only recently come into
the Huron country, and that they "had formerly traded with the English,
Dutch, and other heretical Europeans." Nothing is known of the numbers of
the refugee Wenrohronon who fled to the Neutral Nation, but these were in
addition to the "more than 600" who arrived in the Huron country in 1639.
From Herrman's map of Virginia and Maryland in 1670 (published in 1673)
much information is derived in regard to the valley of the Juniata river,
the west branch of the Susquehanna, and the Wyoming or Scahentowanen
valley. As the Wenrohronon were on hostile terms with the Iroquois tribes,
and as they were known to have traded with the English, the Dutch, and
other Europeans, it would appear that they must have followed the routes
to the trading places on the Delaware and the lower Hudson customarily
followed by the Black Minquaas, with whom they seem to have been allied.
From Herrman's map it is learned also that the Black Minquaas lived west
of the Alleghany mountains, on the Ohio or Black Minquaas river, and that
these Indians reached Delaware river by means of the Conemaugh, a branch
of the Ohio or Black Minquaas river, and the Juniata, a branch of the
Susquehanna, and that prior to 1670 the Black Minquaas came over the
Alleghany mountains along these branches as far as the Delaware to trade.
These Wenrohronon were probably closely allied in interests with the Black
Minquaas, and so came along the same route to trade on the Delaware.
Diverging eastward from the Wyoming valley were three trails, one through
Wind gap to Easton, Pa., the second by way of the Lackawanna at Capouse
meadows through Cobb's gap and the Lackawaxen to the Delaware and Hudson,
and the third, sometimes called the "Warrior's path," by way of Ft Allen
and along the Lehigh to the Delaware Watergap at Easton.
From the journal of Rev. Wm. Rogers with Sullivan's
expedition against the Iroquois in 1779, it is learned that in the Great
Swamp is Locust Hill, where evident marks of a destroyed Indian village
were discovered; that the Tobyhanna and Middle creeks flow into
Tunkhannock, which flows into the head branch of the Lehigh, which in turn
joins the Delaware at Easton; that Moosick mountains, through a gap of
which Sullivan passed into the Great Swamp, is on the dividing line or
ridge between the Delaware and the Susquehanna. This indicates the routes
by which the Wenrohronon could readily have reached the Delaware river for
trading purposes at a very early date.
LeJeune (Jes. Rel. 1639, xvii, 213,1898) states that
the Wenrohronon, "those strangers who recently arrived in this country,"
excel in drawing out an arrow from the body and in curing the wound, but
that the efficacy of the prescription avails only in the presence of a
pregnant woman. In the same Relation (p. 37) he says that "the number of
the faithful who make profession of Christianity in this village amounts
to nearly 60, of whom many are Wenrohronons from among those poor
strangers taking refuge in this country." According to the Jesuit Relation
for 1672-73 (lvii, 197, 1899) there were Wenrohronon captives among tile
Seneca, along with others from the Neutral Nation, the Onnontioga, and the
Hurons; the three nations or tribes last named, according to Father Frémin
(1669-70), composed the Seneca town of Kanagaro, the Neutrals and the
Onnontioga being described as having seen scarcely any Europeans or having
heard of the true God.
The historical references above given indicate that the
Wenrohronon, before their wars with the Iroquois and before they were
stricken with smallpox, must have been a tribe of considerable importance,
numbering at least 1,200 or 1,500, and possibly 2,000 persons.
The books presented are for their historical value only and are not the opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
