Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma

History of the Huron People to 1614

James Hunter
Executive Director Huronia Museum / Huron Indian Village - Midland, Ontario, Canada

Around A.D. 1300, certain clans seem to have come together to form the first and largest of the Huron Nations: the ATTIGNOUSNTAN, whose family crest or totem was the Bear. Around AD1420, another Nation of people- the ATTINGNEENONGNAHAC, whose totem was the Cord, joined the Attignousntan to formally establish the Huron Confederacy. This political alliance wasformed to reduce and resolve conflicts and was represented by a Council. The Confederacy would provide a dispute mechanism between Nations to solve issues of peace, trade and war aswell as other problems, but it did this on a purely voluntary basis.

Each Nation also retained its own territory, identity, privileges, traditions and full responsibility for its own internal and externalaffairs which was administered by a Council. In turn, every village within each Nation wasadministered by its own civic council which sent representatives to the Nation Council. Following the dispersal of the Laurentian Iroquois located along the St. Lawrence River and eastern Ontario, two more groups applied for and were admitted to the Huron Confederacy.

The ARENDAHRONON, whose totem was the Rock, joined about A.D. 1560, and the TOHONAENRATS, whose totem was the Deer, joined about A.D. 1570. Each Nationsent representatives to the Confederacy Council, which seems to have expanded to include 52 members from the four Nations. The village of Ossossane was the capital of the Huron Confederacy.

OUENDAKE was the term used by the Ouendat for their traditional homeland. It referred to the Huron as "Islanders" or people living "in the separated land". Huron territory was literally surrounded by the waters of southeastern Georgian Bay and Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe with various rivers and interior lakes. Thus, transportation over water by birch bark canoe enabled the Hurons to travel from Ouendake to the far flung reaches of Hudson Bay, Lake Winnipeg, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Chesapeake Bay. They became superb long distance traders and travelled throughout eastern North America. It was this aspect of their society that attracted European interest in the Hurons. As the Europeans developed permanent fishing and trading activities in the New World, interest in Native groups took shape and alliances began to form.

By A.D. 1600, the Huron people were about to enter the pages of recorded history with the reestablishment of a French presence along the St. Lawrence in 1603, the creation of a permanent settlement at Quebec in 1608 and a formal trading alliance between the French and Huron Confederacy which was ratified at Quebec in 1614. The Huron people and Huron society would undergo profound change as a result of this association. It would ultimately lead to the dispersal of the Huron people between 1647 and 1651, and the creation of new political and social groupings that together, with other EuroCanadian immigrants, now form a large part of Canadian society.