Huron History

     A confederation of four Native North American groups who spoke the Wyandot language, which belongs to the Iroquoian group. Their name for themselves was Wendat, Huron being the name applied to them by the French, in the early 17th century. They took over the region between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay in Ontario. They lived in palisaded villages. In 1615, when Samuel Champlain visited the Huron, they started a war with the Iroquois. The long-standing enmity between the Huron and the Iroquois reached a climax in 1648. The survivors of the Huron fled in all directions”southwest to the Tobacco Nation, south to the Neutral Nation, southeast to the Erie, and northeast to a French fort near Quebec. The migratory Iroquois hunted the Huron everywhere, in 1649 the Iroquois attacked the Tobacco Nation, causing the migration of these people in contact with the Huron. In 1650 the Neutral Nation was invaded by the Iroquois and practically wiped out, and in 1656 the Erie were almost demolished. The Huron who had fled to Quebec ultimately received a small place at Loretta, where about 500 people still live, but the remnants of the Huron and Tobacco Nation went under pressure from the Iroquois, first to Michigan, then to Wisconsin and Illinois, where the Sioux attacked them. The Tobacco Nation and Huron eventually settled (1750) in villages near Detroit and at Sandusky, Ohio. In Ohio they became known to the British as the Wyandot and as such fought with the British against the Americans in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. After the War of 1812 possession of their lands was confirmed by the United States, but by 1842 they had sold their gatherings and moved to Wyandotte co., Kansas. In 1867 they were settled in NE Oklahoma, where they settled as citizens.