Huron Indian

Huron Indian. When Jacques Cartier made his voyage up the St. Lawrence River in 1534, he passed many Huron Indian villages. Sixty-nine years later Samuel de Champlain reported those villages deserted. The Huron, pushed out of the St. Lawrence valley by their enemies, the Iroquois Indians, had moved west and joined other Huron bands south of Georgian bay.    

The Huron Indian built new villages in the forest between Lake Simcoe, Georgian bay, and Lake Huron. White pine and hemlock, elm, blue beech, white cedar, spruce and silver maple surrounded the Huron Indian villages.

During the winter, because of heavy snow, Huron Indian traveled between villages on snowshoes and hauled goods on toboggans. In the summer, hunters drove deer into pounds and killed them with bow and arrow; and they fished with hook and line, spear and net.

But the Huron Indian relied chefly upon farming for their food. After the men had cleared the trees, the women prepared the fields. They laveled the earth with wooden hoes. They used digging stick to make holes in the soil. Into each they carefully placed ten seed grains of corn ( maize). Through the summer the women cared for the crops. Corn was the chief crop, but squash, beans, sunflowers and tobacco were grown too.

The fields were located near the village. Only when the firewood was gone or when the soil no longer produced a good crop did the Huron Indian move to new homes. This might happen every 10 years. A huron Indian village was made up of from 20 to 30 longhouses surrounded by a circular palisade, or wall. Each house might have from 6 to 20 families living on opposite sides of a long hall.

Much time in the village was given to feasting. There were singing feasts, thanksgiving feasts, and feasts for getting better when sick. A singing feast in preparation for going to war was a favorite. The best known feast, however, was the Feast of the Dead,  held once every 10 or 12 years.  All the Huron Indian who had died since the last feast were taken from their graves and buried with robes, pots, ornaments, tools and weapon in one huge pit. The Huron Indian danced and feasted.

But the best day of the Huron Indian passed. The French brought smallpox to the villages. In 1648 and 1649 the Iroquois Indian attacked again. The Huron Indian fled in all directions. Some took refuge with the Potawatomi Indian; others went to Oklahoma. Some were absorbed by the Iroquois; some went to live on the reservation at Lorette, near Quebec. Huron numbers today are small.