Huron

Member of an American Indian people living in Ontario, Canada, northeast of Lake Huron in the 14th-17th centuries. Their language belongs to the Iroquoian family. Primarily a farming people, they were distinguished by their blackened buckskin clothes, decorated with red. In the 17th century they made an alliance with French fur traders, and French Jesuits set up missions. However, conflict with the Iroquois over control of the fur trade almost wiped out the Huron in 1649 and they were dispersed. The Huron now live in Québec, where they number some 1,500 (1990), and Oklahoma, where they are known as the Wyandot and number about 2,500 (1990).

The Huron grew maize (corn), beans, squash (pumpkin), and tobacco, supplemented by gathered plants, fish, and game. Extended Huron families lived together in rectangular barrel-roofed longhouses, and their villages were often palisaded (fortified with a fence of stakes) for protection. The Huron were divided into several clans headed by a chief, chosen by the clan mothers. Four clans - the Bear, Deer, Rock, and Cord - were members of the Huron Confederacy, a political organization established to protect tribal interests and resolve conflicts. The various clan chiefs formed the village council.

Typical dress included moccasins, tunics, breech clouts, kilts, and leggings made of blackened buckskin. Borders were often in red, especially after black cloth began to replace black buckskin. Clan symbols and other figures were often painted in red, standing out against the black background. Dyed porcupine quillwork was widely used as well as dyed moosehair embroidery.

Dispersed by the Iroquois after 1650, some Huron were granted reserve land near Québec City, Canada, while many others united with the related, neighbouring Tionontati people (also known as the Tobacco Nation). The Huron and Tionontati became known as the Wyandot, meaning ‘people of the peninsula’. Subsequent Iroquois attacks pushed the Wyandot west into Ohio. In 1794 the Wyandot and their allies were defeated by US general Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, after which they were forced to cede about two-thirds of present-day Ohio. They moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), first settling in Wyandotte County, Kansas.