Huron are a First Nations people who lived in what is now eastern Canada. First Nations is a designation used in Canada for indigenous (native) peoples. In the 1500’s, the Huron became the first native people of North America to meet French explorers. The Huron called themselves Wendat, which means peninsula dwellers. The name Huron comes from a French word meaning rough, which is what the French called them. Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes, is named for these people. Like the Iroquois, who were called Haudenosaunee, the Huron formed a confederation with other tribes. However, they did not join the organization of tribes known as the Iroquois League, Haudenosaunee, or the Five Nations.
The Huron grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. The men cultivated tobacco. Women tended all the other crops. Men also fished and hunted for food. Like the Iroquois tribes, the Huron built tall wooden fences called palisades around villages to protect them from attack. Huron villages included many large rectangular dwellings called longhouses. Each longhouse held several families united in a single clan.
The Huron played an important role in the fur trade of North America. Beginning in the early 1600’s, French traders obtained furs from the Huron in exchange for many trade goods. Some of these trade goods made life easier for the Huron and other tribes. But this would lead to conflict over trade goods and furs, and between all the peoples trying to control the northeast. The Huron were not trappers, but they acquired the furs from other indigenous groups through trade.
The Huron often fought against tribes of the Iroquois League. In the mid-1600’s, Iroquois League tribes subdued the Huron to maintain control of the fur trade in their territories. Many English and French leaders were also part of this conflict over fur trade. Many Huron fled west in Canada and into what is now the United States. The Huron supported France in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), while some of the Haudenosaunee fought on the side of the British. The Huron in the United States moved farther west after the 1830’s.
Today, the Huron have three reservations (lands set aside for a tribe by treaty). They are in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Quebec. Each reservation is independent and has its own government.
See also Erie.
