BULL. 30] 



HURON 



585 



present sites of Quebec and Montreal, and 

 along both banks of this river above the 

 Sasuenay on the n. and above Gaspe 

 peninsula on the s. bank, tribes speaking 

 Iroquoian tongues, for there were at 

 least two dialects, a fact well established 

 by the vocabularies which Cartier re- 

 corded. Lexical comparison with known 

 Iroquoian dialects indicates that those 

 spoken on the St Lawrence at that early 

 date were Huron or Wendat. Cartier 

 further learned that these St Lawrence 

 tribes were in fierce combat with peoples 

 dwelling southward from them, and his 

 hosts complained bitterly of the cruel at- 

 tacks made on them by their southern 

 foes, whom they called Toudamani (Tru- 

 damans or Trudamani) and Agouionda 

 {Onkhiio>''thu' is an Onondaga form), the 

 latter signifying 'those who attack us.' 

 Although he may have recorded the na- 

 tive names as nearly phonetically as he 

 was able, yet the former is not a distant 

 approach to the well-known Tsonnon- 

 towanen of the early French writers, a 

 name which Champlain printed Cliouon- 

 touaroiion (probably written Chonon- 

 touarofion), the name of the Seneca, 

 which was sometimes extended to in- 

 clude the Cayuga and Onondaga as a geo- 

 graphical group. Lescarbot, failing to 

 find in Canada in his time the tongues 

 recorded by Cartier, concluded that "the 

 change of language in Canada" was due 

 "to a destruction of people," and in 1603 

 he declared (Nova Francia, 170, 1609): 

 "For it is some 8 years since the Iro- 

 quois did assemble themselves to the 

 number of 8,000 men, and discomfited 

 all their enemies, whom they surprised 

 in their enclosures;" and (p. 290) "by 

 such surprises the Iroquois, being in 

 number 8,000 men, have heretofore ex- 

 terminated the Algoumequins, them of 

 Hochelaga, and others bordering upon 

 the great river." So it is probable that 

 the southern foes of the tribes along 

 the St Lawrence in Cartier's time were 

 the Iroquois tribes anterior to the for- 

 mation of their historical league, for he 

 was also informed that these Agouionda 

 "doe continually warre one against an- 

 other" — a condition of affairs which 

 ceased with the formation of the league. 

 Between the time of the last voyage of 

 Cartier to the St Lawrence, in 154.3, and 

 the arrival of Champlain on this river in 

 160.3, nothing definite is known of these 

 tribes and their wars. Champlain found 

 the dwelling places of the tribes discov- 

 ered by Cartier on the St Lawrence de- 

 serted and the region traversed only 

 rarely by war parties from extralimital 

 Algonquian tribes which dwelt on the 

 borders of the former territory of the ex- 

 pelled Iroquoian tribes. Against the 

 aforesaid Iroquoian tribes the Iroquois 



were still waging relentless warfare, 

 which Champlain learned in 1622 had 

 then lasted more than 50 years. 



Such was the origin of the confedera- 

 tion of tribes strictly called Hurons by 

 the French and Wendat (Sendat) in their 

 own tongue. But the name Hurons was 

 applied in a general way to the Tionon- 

 tati, or Tobacco tribe, under the form 

 "Huron du Petun," and also, although 

 rarely, to the Attiwendaronk in the form 

 "Huron de la Nation Neutre." After 

 the destruction of the Huron or Wendat 

 confederation and the more or less 

 thorough dispersal of the several tribes 

 composing it, the people who, as political 

 units, were originally called Huron and 

 Wendat, ceased to exist. The Tionontati, 

 or Tobacco tribe, with the few Huron 

 fugitives, received the name "Huron du 

 Petun" from the French, but they be- 

 came known to the English as Wendat, 

 corrupted to Yendat, Guyandotte, and 

 finally to Wyandot. The Jesuit Relation 

 for 1667 says: "The Tionnontateheron- 

 nons of to-day are the same people who 

 heretofore were called the Hurons de la 

 nation du petun." These were the so- 

 called Tobacco nation, and not the Wen- 

 dat tribes of the Huron confederation. 

 So the name Huron was employed only 

 after these Laurentian tribes became set- 

 tled in the region around L. Simcoe and 

 Georgian bay. Champlain and his 

 French contemporaries, after becoming 

 acquainted with tlie Iroquois tribes of 

 New York, called the Hurons les bans 

 Iroquois, 'the good Iroquois,' to dis- 

 tinguish them from the hostile Iroquois 

 tribes. The Algonquian allies of the 

 French called the Hurons and the Iro- 

 quois tribes Nadowek-, 'adders,' and Iri"- 

 khowek, ' real serpents,' hence, 'bitterene- 

 mies.' The singular Iri"koii'i, with the 

 French suffix -ois, has become the fa- 

 miliar "Iroquois." The lenn Nadowe in 

 various forms (e. g., Nottaway) was ap- 

 plied by the Algonquian tribes generally 

 to all alien and hostile peoples. Cham- 

 plain also called the Hurons Ochateguin 

 and CimrioQuois, from the names of 

 prominent chiefs. The Delawares called 

 them Tolamatan, while the peoples of the 

 "Neutral Nation" and of the Huron 

 tribes applied to each other the term 

 Attiwendaronk, literally, 'their speech is 

 awry,' but freely, 'they are stammerers,' 

 referring facetiously to the dialectic dif- 

 ference between the tongues of the two 

 peoples. 



In 1615 Champlain found all the tribes 

 which he later called Hurons, with the 

 exception of the Wenrohronon and the 

 Atontrataronon, dwelling in Huronia 

 and waging war against the Iroquois 

 tribes in New York. When Cartier ex- 

 plored the St Lawrence valley, in 1534-43, 



