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Hurons
(Wendats, Ouendats)
The Huron (Wendat) were a matriarchal people living in large semi-permanent villages in Wendake (The Land Apart, Midland) near Georgian Bay (part of Lake Huron). Their territory was described by Brother Gabriel Sagard as
In other words, the French found a cultivated land with a more or less sedentary sophisticated people who lived by farming and trade as the French themselves did. The Wendat valued generosity and courage, often engaging in raiding parties where warriors proved their worth. There were no police or gaolers. Instead, when someone did something wrong, the whole community came together to compensate the victim with gifts.
The Wendat believed in a Great Spirit, Orenda, but on a practical level worried more about ordinary spirits who demanded feasts and dancing to remain friendly. Spirits used dreams to communicate their demands to the living. Dreams and illness sent by spirits marked a man as a potential shaman who might learn to control weather, find lost objects or become skilled in divination or medicine. The Huron were notable craftsmen who worked with stone, wood, bark and hide. Clothes were made of tanned hides decorated with quillwork. Farmers grew corn, beans, and squash (the Three Sisters). Corn surpluses, crafts, wampum and fish nets were traded for furs and other items and over the years the Wendat became a hub in the great trading network that stretched as far west as the Foothills and east to the Atlantic. Within their territory there were over 300 kilometers of trails linking the four tribes (Bear, Cord, Rock, and Deer) and all the villages. Trails also led to the lands of the Petun and Neutral Indians. Long distances were travelled by birch-bark canoes 7 metres long, capable of carrying 4-5 people and 91 kg of cargo. When Champlain arrived in 1615 he found 18 villages, all within a few miles of each other and 8 of them fortified. In times of war, the nation congregated in these circular forts behind walls 35 feet high. The Wendat were divided into four main nations or tribes:
The tribes were cross-cut by 8 clan groups (Turtle, Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Deer, Hawk, Porcupine and Snake), each descended from a common female ancestor. Male chiefs of the clan formed the village councils where local and national issues were discussed. Bonds of marriage that cut across clans and bonds of birth that reinforced them, created a strong sense of unity within villages. People lived in longhouses that housed, on average, 6 families. A family consisted of a mother, her sisters and daughters and their husbands and unmarried sons. Women were the keepers of traditions and had influence in the home. They cooked, cleaned, tanned leather, cared for the kids, gathered food, made baskets and pots, wove mats and fishing nets, and farmed the land. Men cleared the land, hunted, fished, traded and fought wars, negotiated peace treaties, made stone and wood tools, canoes, and snowshoes. Children were expected to learn the skills they needed from their parents. Physical punishment was considered humiliating but boys were expected to prove their courage and endurance by suffering self-inflicted pain.
Longhouses were long, wide and windowless. They ranged from 6 to 9 metres in height and width and 25 to 30 metres in length with hearths every 6 metres. Each hearth served 2 families for a total of about 40 people per building. The number of hearths depended on the number of families, which depended on the size of the extended family. Low doors were placed at either end and if possible the house was oriented to the prevailing winds. Holes in the roof let out the smoke. A platform ran down either side of the longhouse which could be used for storage or as bunks. There were few other furnishings: mats, furs, pots and baskets and two large bins for storing corn and smoked fish. There were no internal walls and no privacy as the French understood it. A longhouse was good for about 10 years. Villages consisted of several longhouses staggered across the compound so that if one burned down, the others wouldn't catch fire. There may have been a number of smaller villages but most of the population lived in one of the larger, fortified towns. These were ringed by a triple palisade. The center ring was built from upright poles and the other two leaned in towards the center line from either side. The space underneath was filled with heavy logs and the tops were laced together. The first nine feet were covered with bark and the only entrance was through a narrow gate. There were platforms along the inner wall from which the Wendat could hurl weapons. Every 20-40 years as the soil in the area was depleted and farm production dropped off, the villagers moved to a new area. Every 10-12 years a chief would organize a Feast of the Dead when the bodies of those who had died since the last Feast were gathered together and reburied in a deep pit lined with the finest furs. Feasts and dances were held and presents were distributed to the families of the dead. The dead themselves found their way to paradise where they lived much as they had on Earth.
Dried, shelled, pounded into meal or ground into flour, 65% of the Huron diet was corn-based. Corn mush (sagamite) was flavoured with fish, meat and squash. Unleavened corn bread baked in the ashes contained fruit or deer meat. Beans, wild berries, nuts,wild pumpkins, water-lily and bullrush roots, edible moss, acorns, and maple syrup rounded out the diet. Women farmed, clearing new land every couple of years as the soil wore out. Men netted or harpooned whitefish, trout, sturgeon, pike, and catfish. They hunted deer, bear and beaver. Meat and fish were smoked or dried and the skins used for a variety of purposes. The fur trade, egged on by a passion for beaver-felt top hats in Europe, had increased interest in trapping beaver and by the 1630s the beaver population was in decline in Wendake. Hemp and wild nettles were made into rope and nets and dogs were domesticated for food or trained for hunting bear. The domestication of corn was introduced from the south as early as 1100AD and led to population growth. Around 1300, the clans started to form larger alliances and the first of the Wendat Nations - the Bear. The Cord and the Bear formed a political alliance in the early 15th century creating the basis of the Huron Confederacy which by the time of contact with Europeans was well established in Wendake with its capital at Ossossane. Trade allowed the Wendat to increase the variety of raw materials with which they worked. They may have had cold-pounded copper tools and ornaments from Michigan; they imported flint for knives, arrowheads and drills. Otherwise, they used beaver teeth for chisels, bone for awls, needles and harpoons, stone for axes, hammers and heavy tools, wood for canoes, bows, arrows, homes, plates, and spoons, plant fibres and vines for baskets, mats and nets, and so on. Clay was mixed with stones to make pots. Trade was jealously guarded from other Nations and each family was alloted their own trade routes. Rules of trade were established at Council meetings and trips were organized 100s of miles west beyond Sault Ste. Marie, south to Lake Michigan, north to the Arctic and east to the Saguenay River, where they eventually met newly arrived Frenchmen. To the south the Iroquois were establishing trade relations with the English and Dutch and heavily trapping beaver in their own territory. As the beaver population dwindled, the Mohawk and Seneca both tried to connect with the Wendat trade network but were turned away. Iroquois-Wendat relations deteriorated. Perhaps the Wendat felt the French had more to offer, for once they established relations with the Europeans, the Wendat took advantage of their extensive trade network to move goods in and out of the interior. In return for items made from industrial products like metal and glass, the Wendat organized the export of furs from the north and west to Quebec.
A side effect of this close relationship was the series of epidemics that swept through Huronia from 1637 to 1641, killing over half the people. By 1639 when the Jesuits built Ste. Marie, numbers had already dropped to approximately 9-12000 men, women and children from Champlain's estimate oft 30,000 in 1615. With their population in distress and their ability to survive in doubt, the Wendat seem to have grown more dependant on the French, which further undermined their culture. Many of the dying converted at the prodding of the persistent priests who promised eternal joy to those who were baptized and eternal torment to those who did not. At the same time, the living were allowed to trade for guns if they converted. The nations were soon divided between those who supported the old ways and those who saw advantage in French customs. Both sides accused the priests/shamans of the other side of sorcery. Meanwhile the war with the Iroquois intensified. The Wendat nation contracted in size leaving southern Ontario exposed. In 1648 the Iroquois sent 1000 warriors to hunt there in winter. In March 1649 they continued into Huronia where they attacked St. Ignace and then St. Louis. The Wendat were able to retake St. Louis for a day but it fell again. The final battled lasted all night with huge casualities on both sides. The Iroquois decided to retreat on March 19, taking with them furs, trade goods and captives. Along with them went a number of Wendat who blamed the French for their troubles. The Wendat and Frenchmen of the Ste. Marie mission now spent two weeks discussing their options. Villages were burned as Wendat chose to join the Petun and Neutral nations. Others begged the French to join them on Christian Island where they built a new fort, attracting many more refugees. It wasn't to be. There were not enough resources to succeed and in the spring 300 survivors made their way to Quebec where they settled at Lorette. Today the descendants of the Wendat are dispersed. Communities live in Ohlahoma and Kansas. Many more were adopted into other nations, including the Six Nations of the Iroquois.
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