Description
The Honniasont (Oniasont, Oniassontke, Honniasontkeronon) were a little-known indigenous people of North America originally from eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They appear to have inhabited the upper Ohio River valley, above Louisville, Kentucky. Peoples of the Northeast formed loosely organized bands and villages based on shared language and cultural traits. Bands tended to be smaller and to live in places where wild foods such as wild rice, salmon, or shellfish were plentiful. They moved often in pursuit of food sources.
Language
Honniasont may have been considered an Iroquoian language
Culture
Peoples of the Northeast formed loosely organized bands and villages based on shared language and cultural traits. Bands tended to be smaller and to live in places where wild foods such as wild rice, salmon, or shellfish were plentiful. They moved often in pursuit of food sources. Each tribe had clan groups that were named after an animal. Members would put their clan animal on pottery and clothing, and they sometimes drew the animal to use like a signature. A clan could have a hundred members, who’d spend most of the year living together in a hundred-foot-long bark house. During summer, many clans moved closer to the coast or to large lakes where they could fish. To stay cool, they lived in dome-shaped shelters called wigwams, which were made of young trees, bark, and cattails.