We put into retrospect the historical development, culture, and facts about the Huron Tribe.
The Huron is indigenous to the St. Lawrence Valley of Lake Huron and amongst the Huron or Wyandot confederation of Iroquoian-speaking tribes of Native Americans in the United States and Canada.
The tribe, whose history dates way back to the 15th century, highlights a very rich genealogy and culture that can be observed to this present time.
Huron Tribe History
Origin and organization
As far back as five millenniums ago, the Huron tribe, also known as the wyandotte people, who spoke the Iroquoian language, occupied the vast areas from the north shores of most of the present-day Lake Ontario and northward up to the southeastern shores of the Georgian Bay.
From this community, they practiced sedentary agriculture and were nomads.
The Huron tribe encountered a French explorer named Samuel de Champlain in 1615.
Historically they spoke the Wyandot language, a Northern Iroquoian language.
It is believed that the Huron people were up to 30,000 at the time of European contact in the 15th century.
The Wendat or Huron was a confederacy and not a tribe; they had four or more tribes with collectively intelligible languages.
Conforming with tradition, this Wendat or Huron Confederacy were initiated by the Attignawantan (People of the Bear) and the Attigneenongnahac (People of the Cord), which made their alliance in the 15th century.
They were united by the Arendarhonon (People of the Rock) about 1599 and the Tahontaenrat (People of the Deer) around 1610.
The fifth group, the Ataaronchronon (People of the Marshes or Bog), may not have gotten a full membership in the Confederacy and would have a division of the Attignawantan
During the time of Jean de Brébeuf and the Jesuits, the largest Huron settlement and capital of the Confederacy was located at Ossosane.
The Huron called their traditional territory wendake.
The Huron confederacy was closely related to the Tionontate, an Iroquoian-speaking group known as the Petun (Tobacco) for their propagation of that crop.
The Petun lived further south and were divided into two groups: the Deer and the Wolves.
Considering that this tribe formed the foundation of the tribe later known as the Wyandot or Huron, they may have been called Wendat.
European contact and Huron dispersal
However, some Huron had decided to go and meet with the Europeans.
One Native called Atironta, the principal chief of the Arendarhonon tribe, journeyed to Quebec and merged with the French in 1609.
This association with the Europeans led to the Huron being ravaged by infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, which were endemic among the Europeans.
The native tribes of North America had no hereditary immunity to these diseases and suffered very high mortality rates.
Many Huron died, and they had to abandon many of their settlements and agricultural areas.
Half to about two-thirds of the Huron tribe population died in the epidemic, reducing the population to about 12,000.
This colossal loss had a high social cost, devastating families and clans and disintegrating their social structure and traditions.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Huron tribe had already been in a hassle with the Haudenosaunee confederacy to the south.
The Huron and some other tribes were involved in the trading of furs.
Still, as soon as the European powers began to involve themselves with trading, the conflict between natives heightened significantly as they struggled to control the lucrative fur trade and satisfy European demands.
However, the French allied with the Huron people because they were the most developed trading nation then.
Since the mid-century, the Huron pursued claims in the United States because of land lost and needing to be fully settled by the government.
Throughout the 20th century, contemporary Huron has continued to promote their culture and identity.
On August 27, 1999, delegates of the far-flung Wyandot bands from Quebec, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Michigan converged at their historic homeland in Midland, Ontario.
There they formally re-established the Wendat Confederacy.
Culture
Division of labor
Like other Iroquoian people, the Huron tribe were historically sedentary farmers who complemented their diet with fishing and hunting.
Traditionally, women cultivated many varieties of crops such as maize, squash, and beans as their standby diet, storing seeds of various types and functioning to produce the best crops for various purposes.
They also gather nuts, wild roots, fruits, and vegetables.
The women prepared this product by supplementing fish caught by the men.
However, the men were given to hunting deer and other animals available during the hunting season.
Men have helped with the heaviest work of clearing the fields or reinforcing the village with palisades.
Wood has traditionally been gathered and bush cleared by the slash-and-burn method.
Social structure
Each family within the tribe possessed a plot of land which they farmed; this land was retrograded to the communal property of the tribe when the family no longer used it.
The Huron have historically lived in villages measuring from one to ten acres (40,000 m²).
Most of these villages were strongly fortified and walled by high and strong palisades of wood in double and, most times, triple rowed for defense against enemy attacks.
They were also known to live in longhouses covered with tree barks, similar to other Iroquoian cultural groups, which could accommodate twenty or more families in a dwelling.
They were of different lengths, some thirty to forty feet in length.
A typical village comprises about 900 to 1,600 people organized into 30 to 40 longhouses.
Family
The Huron villages moved about every ten years as the soil became unfertile and the nearby forest, from which they got firewood, grew thin.
The Huron tribe traded with neighboring tribes, especially for tobacco, with the neighboring Petun and Neutral nations.
The culture of Huron is very gender-specific in practice.
Men set off for war or hunted for game, using bows and arrows to feed their people.
Women prepared the food, made the clothes and processed the game, farmed, and nurtured the children.
Concerning other Iroquoian people, the Huron in time past followed a matrilineal kinship system, with children believed to be born to the mother’s lineage, their status traditionally inherited from hers.
This way, however, makes her elder brother more important to her sons than their biological father.
As the children grow, they slowly become acquainted with their societal roles.
The males and the females learn from adults how to perform certain things that would help the tribe.
For instance, as children, females learn how to make doll dresses, which teaches them the skills to make garments for people.
Males are given miniature bows to practice hunting very small games.
Every child is integrated into society and assigned small errands and chores based on age.
The boys will accompany the men on some gaming events to learn primarily how to hunt, receive principles on what to do while hunting, and develop needed skills for when they are mature.
On the other hand, girls learn by observing the women carrying out their daily routines, imitating them on a smaller scale.
Huron Tribe Fact
1. The typical Huron warriors were known for their hairstyles (Mohawk), which the French believed looked like the mane of a wild boar.
2. Countless Huron tribe members migrated to the United States after being defeated by the Iroquois.
Many migrated to Ohio and Michigan after leaving Quebec.
Although the Huron people refused to leave, they were forced to relocate to Oklahoma and Kansas, along aside numerous other tribes, during the United States Indian Removal Act of 1830, a very sorrowful time in history for all Native Americans.
Although they were enemies with the Iroquois, the Huron respected and admired their skills and abilities.
The Huron imitated many of the Iroquois’ way of life as well as how the Iroquois built their houses and how they farmed.
The Huron resided in longhouses, rectangular wooden shelters with rounded roofs covered with sheets of tree bark.
They were often built on high ground near a water source.
This longhouse could reach a length of 150 feet long and could house an entire clan.
3. The Huron tribe fed on crops like squash, maize, and beans, their main food source.
They also hunted bears and deer, and other animals.
Tobacco and sunflower were cultivated mainly for trade.
4. The traditional Huron art comprised pottery, beadwork, and weaving.
They made use of colored shell beads for their currency, wampum.
The Huron also used this material as another type of art and often created complexly designed belts out of wampum.
The Huron wore decorative clothing; they embroidered it with fur strips and fringe and often used paint to add designs.
They believed that the dead were as important as the living. Bodies were exhumed, cleaned, and reburied.
A ceremony called the Feast of the Dead was often held, bringing together different tribes.
Conclusion
The Huron tribe had a well organized society with various intriguing practices and beliefs, which sadly, have intertwined with western practices of today.
While several of the tribe’s original ancestral practices might have been diluted, the keen sense of bond and community that ensured the Native American tribe survival down, can been seen in efforts made by the tribe’s member to preserve the unique identity and beliefs of the tribe.
