Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma

A Brief History of the Wyandotte Nation

The Wyandotte are one of the few Native American Nations, in the history of the North American continent that can specifically place a year on their birth, that being 1650. The Wyandotte are composed of remnants of the Tionontati Nation (Petun) and the Attignawantan Nation, the largest and most powerful tribe of the Wendat Confederacy (Huron Confederacy). Survivors of the Tionontati and Attignawantan Nation’s accumulatively numbered around 1,000 in 1649 from Nations that both numbered tens of thousands just a few years earlier. Small in numbers and almost identical in culture and language they joined forces for survival and fled west in the winter of 1649, after suffering near extermination at the hands of the Iroquois Confederacy, during a series of wars from 1637-1652 known as ‘‘The Beaver Wars.’’

Weak and disorganized the survivors united, consolidating their strengths they became the Wyandotte in early 1650, to combat the Iroquois, who still was seeking the extermination of their once dominate cousins. Wandering all the way to the Black River in what is now the state of Wisconsin, from their ancestral lands on the eastern shores of Lake Huron, the Wyandotte befriended the Sioux, only to incite their vengeance when a young Wyandotte man, inappropriately “courted” the daughter of a Sioux chief. Eventually settling down in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the 1670’s between Chequamegon and Mackinac the Wyandotte reestablished old trade routes and quickly became a dominant and respected Nation. Assuming the respect and position once held by the Wendat Confederacy, it’s from the name Wendat that the Wyandotte assumed their name, historically and traditionally know as Wyandot, the name in their original language is Wandat. In 1700, the Wyandotte sued for peace with the Iroquois and it was granted.

In 1701 the Wyandotte were invited by Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac, a Frenchman, to join him in the defense of his new Fort Detroit. With peace firmly established with the Iroquois, the Wyandotte settled in Detroit and eventually migrated into the Ohio Valley, left unoccupied because of the Iroquois onslaught from previous years.

Upper Sandusky, Ohio became the unofficial Wyandotte ‘‘capitol’’ for over 100 years. From Upper Sandusky the Wyandotte grew in strength and numbers and became the most influential Nation in the Ohio Valley. During the American Revolution the Wyandotte remained loyal to the fledgling American government, but because of geopolitical differences there were factions of Wyandotte remaining in the Detroit area that sided against Upper Sandusky and their new chosen friend. Being loyal to the United States during the Revolutionary War didn't mean that the two Nations didn‘t have differences. In 1795 after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in which all but one Wyandotte Chiefs were killed by American forces under General Anthony Wayne... Tarhe survived and severely wounded signed the Treaty of Greenville. After the signing of the treaty the Wyandotte never again went to war against the United States and remained strong allies, upholding their terms of treaty, until their removal by the United States Government from Ohio in 1842.

With the promise of 148,000 acres of free unoccupied land in Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, the Wyandotte moved, only to find that there was no land. The Delaware Nation gave three sections of land to the Wyandotte at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, with an additional thirty nine sections, later being sold, for a total of forty two sections totaling only 26,880 acres. Originally known as Wyandotte City, the area that initially brought much grief and devastation upon the Wyandotte people through typhoid outbreaks killing hundreds, is known today as Kansas City, Kansas.

Removal to Indian Territory was supposed to eliminate ‘‘white encroachment’’ upon Wyandotte lands. Wrong! With the establishment of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories in 1854, a Wyandotte citizen, William Walker served as Provisional Governor of the newly established Kansas Territory. Living on some of the most valuable land west of the Mississippi River, the whites poured onto Wyandotte lands and not even the governor could stop them. ‘‘The Wyandotte Indians having become sufficiently advanced in civilization and being desirous of becoming citizens...’’ were asked to sign a treaty in 1855, dissolving their status as an Indian Tribe and relinquishing all claims to land in Kansas. A large number of Wyandotte accepted this treaty and became United States citizens, but a small band under the leadership of Matthew Mudeater fled to Indian Territory... Oklahoma in 1857, the last, safe place for Indians to live in peace.

Moving to Indian Territory did not afford or guarantee the Wyandotte peace or protection. With the outbreak of the Civil War old Wyandotte foes, the Cherokee Nation, brought chaos and terror upon the small numbers that was peaceably neutral and struggling just to live off of the land. Again in an attempt to just survive and not be annihilated the Wyandotte moved back to “friends and family” in the Kansas City area. Moving back to Indian Territory after the Civil War had ended, in 1867 the United States Government signed a treaty with the Wyandotte, recognizing land ceded by the Seneca Nation, as land for a future home. This treaty recognized that the small band that refused to accept the terms of the 1855 treaty was indeed again a recognized Indian Tribe. The Wyandotte that accepted United States citizenship were excluded from Tribal citizenship and were classified as Absentee Wyandot, and remain so to this day.

From 1867 through the early 1900’s the Wyandotte in Indian Territory numbered only a few hundred people. Culturally stressed and already intermarried with whites the Wyandotte struggled at keeping their Cultural and National identity. In 1911 and 1912 a Canadian linguist named Charles Marius Barbeau spent the summer months in Oklahoma collecting Cultural material in the form of language and oral traditions that would prove to be National treasures. With Oklahoma becoming a state in 1907, now for the third time, the Wyandotte people were faced with the loss of land because of direct white encroachment. Economically too the Wyandotte were in a terrible shape as most were farmers and produced just enough to live on and maybe sell the rest for income, their only wealth was the land and many sold out to the whites. In the early 1900’s it was not popular or safe to be an Indian, as you may be taken and sent across country to a reform school. Many Wyandotte already looking very white chose to set aside their heritage and live among the whites safely and comfortably in peace. Others not wanting to forsake their heritage left the Wyandotte and went to the Seneca-Cayuga, where today there are many Wyandotte that can be found on the Seneca-Cayuga rolls. Many of the Wyandotte and Seneca traditions are similar and because of this when it became too much of a burden to continue the Traditional Wyandotte ways, they were “buried” or “absorbed“ into the Seneca-Cayuga.

For most of the early 1900‘s it seemed that the Wyandotte in Oklahoma were embattled with the Absentee Wyandot in Kansas over the Huron Indian Cemetery. A lot of bad press and legal strife, added to the struggles of retaining even a glimmer of cultural identity after the loss of the traditional language when a Wyandotte could no longer distinctly say I am a Wyandotte in his or her Native tongue. Things seemed to be falling apart, it appeared that very few wanted to be Wyandotte or took an interest in Wyandotte things. Because of these reasons and others in 1956 Congress terminated the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma as a Federally recognized tribe. But not all was lost. Through the efforts of a dedicated few like Chief Leonard Cotter and Artie Nesvold, they would not let the Wyandotte die, the Wyandotte were to live again... because of the Huron Indian Cemetery.

In 1971 the Huron Indian Cemetery is entered on the National Register of Historic Places and major renovation of the cemetery property is begun. At the dedication ceremony in 1978, it is announced that President Carter had restored the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma's status as a Federally recognized supervised tribe on the previous day – May 15th. The Wyandotte had just been granted a start to a new life; hope had once again been given to a proud, historic Nation. In 1983 Leaford Bearskin was elected Chief of the Wyandotte in Oklahoma and his ambitious vision was shared with the Wyandotte people... to be economically independent and reinstated as a self governing Nation. Under his direction in 1995 the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma acquires "Self-Governance" status from the B.I.A., and is doing well at becoming economically independent.

With a tribal roll numbering over 4,500 members worldwide, the Wyandotte are a relatively small Nation. But their impact upon the history of the North American continent is tremendously rich and scattered from Lake Huron to Wyandotte, Michigan; Wyandot County Ohio; Kansas City, Kansas (originally incorporated as Wyandotte City, Corp. in 1856); Wyandotte, Oklahoma and Wyandotte, California. Through the efforts of an ambitious Wyandotte Tribal Corporation and economic development, and too with a resurgence in the reinstatement of the traditional language, using the collection of Charles Marius Barbeau when he was in Oklahoma almost 100 years ago... the Wyandotte people are alive and very well.

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