Description
The Wyandot emerged as a confederacy of tribes around the north shore of Lake Ontario, with their original homeland extending to Georgian Bay of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada and the western part of the lake. Early theories placed the Huron's origin in the St. Lawrence Valley. The earliest written accounts of the Huron were made by the French, who began exploring North America in the 16th century. The total population of the Huron at the time of European contact has been estimated at 20,000 to 40,000 people.[26] From 1634 to 1640, the Huron were devastated by Eurasian infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, which were endemic among the Europeans.
Language
Wyandot, or Wyandotte, also known as Huron
Culture
The women have traditionally cultivated several varieties of maize, squash, and beans (the "Three Sisters"). They also collected nuts, fruit, and wild root vegetables, and fish caught by the men. The men hunted deer and other animals available during the game seasons. Women have done most of the crop planting, cultivation, and processing, although men help with the heaviest work of clearing fields or, historically, fortifying villages with wooden palisades. Huron medicine men were called arendiwane, a term denoting a person with great supernatural power.