Reunification of the Wendat/Wyandotte Nation at a Time of Globalization

Abstract

In the 17th century, an important period of contact with Europeans, the Wendat nation (Iroquoian linguistic family) lived in the Georgian Bay area, close to Lake Simcoe, in Ontario, Canada. Its territory is located at the northern limit of southern Ontario’s agricultural lands. Data vary regarding the total population at the beginning of the seventeenth century (the contact period), but it may be assessed to have been 29,000 souls on average (Trigger, 1976, p. 30). To start with, the Wendat nation comprised four nations distributed among several villages. A fifth nation joined later. The French called this semi-sedentary people “Hurons,” thus referring to the tuft of hair on a wild boar’s head the nation’s warriors’ hairstyle reminded them of.