586 



HURON 



[b. a. e. 



Iroquoiau tribes occupied the x. bank of 

 the river iiuletinitely northward and 

 from Saguenay r. eastwanl to Georgian 

 bay, with nointrusiveahen l>ands (despite 

 the sul>sei]uent but doubtful claim of the 

 Onontchataronon to a former possession 

 of the island of Montreal ), and also the 

 s. wateished from the i5ay of (iaspe w. to 

 the contiguous territory of the Iroquois 

 confederation on the line of the R. water- 

 shed of L. C'hamplain. 



The known names of towns of these 

 Laurentian Iroquois are Araste, Hagon- 

 chenda, Hocholaga, Hochelay, Satadin, 

 Stadacona, Starnatan, Tailla, Teguenon- 

 dahi, and Tutonaguy. But Cartier, in 

 speaking of the people of Hochelaga, 

 remarks: "Notwithstanding, the said 

 Canadians are subject to them with eight 

 or uLne other peoples who are on the said 

 river." All these towns and villages 

 were abandoned previous to the arrival 

 of Champlainon the St Lawrence in 1603. 

 Of the towns of the Hurons, Sagard says: 

 "There are about 20 or 25 towns and 

 villages, of which some are not at all 

 shut, nor closed [palisaded], and others 

 are fortiheil with long pirces of timber in 

 triple ranks, interlaced one with another 

 to the height of a long pike [16 ft], and 

 reenforcedon the inside with broad, coarse 

 strips of bark, S or 9 ft in height; below 

 there are large trees, with their branches 

 lopped off, laid lengthwise on very short 

 trunks of trees, forked at one end, to 

 keep them in place: then above these 

 stakes and bulwarks there are galleries or 

 platforms, called ondaq-'u ( 'box ' ), which 

 are furnished with stones to be hurled 

 against an enemy in time of war, and 

 with water to extinguish any fire which 

 might be kindled against them. Persons 

 ascend to these l)y means of ladders quite 

 poorly made and dithcult, which are 

 made of long pieces of timber wrought by 

 many hatchet strokes to hold the foot 

 firm in ascending." Champlain says that 

 these palisades were 35 ft in height. In 

 accord with the latter authority, Sagard 

 says that these towns were in a measure 

 permanent, and were removed to new 

 sites only when they became too distant 

 from fuel and when tlieir fields, for lack 

 of manuring, became worn out, which 

 occurred every 10, 20, 30, or 40 years, 

 more or less, according to the situation of 

 the country, the richness of the soil, and 

 the distance of the forest, in the middle 

 of which they always liuilt their towns 

 and villages. Champlain says the Hu- 

 rons planted large quantities of several 

 kinds of corn, which grew finely, 

 squashes, tobacco, many varieties of 

 beans, and sunflowers, and that from the 

 seeds of the last they extracted an oil 

 with which they anointed their heads 

 and employed for various other purposes. 



The government of these tribes was 

 vested by law in a detinite number of 

 executive othcers, called "chiefs" (q. v.) 

 in English, who were chosen by the suf- 

 frage of the child-bearing women and 

 organized by law or council decree into 

 councils for legislative and judicial pur- 

 poses. There were five units in the 

 social and political organization of these 

 trilies, namely, the family, clan, phratry, 

 tribe, and confederation, which severally 

 expiessed their will through councils co- 

 ordinate with their several jurisdictions 

 and which made necessary various grades 

 of chiefs in civil affairs. In these com- 

 munities the civil affairs of government 

 were entirely differentiated from the 

 military, the former being exercised by 

 civil officers, the latter by military offi- 

 cers. It sometimes happened that the 

 same person performed the one or the 

 other kind of function, but to do so he 

 must temporarily resign his civil au- 

 thority should it be incumbent on him to 

 engage in military affairs, and when this 

 emergency was jiast he would resume his 

 civil function or authority. 



In almost every family one or more 

 chiefship titles, known by particular 

 names, were hereditary, and there might 

 even be two or three different grades of 

 chiefs therein. But the candidate for the 

 incumbency of any one of these dignities 

 was chosen only by the suffrage of the 

 mothers among the women of his family. 

 The selection of the candidate thus made 

 was then submitted for confirmation to 

 the clan council, then to the triltal coun- 

 cil, and lastly to the great federal council 

 composed of the accredited delegates from 

 the various allied tribes. 



The tribes composing the Hurons rec- 

 ognized and enforced, among others, the 

 rights of ownership and inheritance of 

 projierty and dignities, of liberty and se- 

 curity of person, in names, of marriage, 

 in personal adornment, of hunting and 

 fishing in specified territory, of prei-e- 

 deuce in migration and encampment and 

 in the council room, and rights of religion 

 and of the blood feud. They regarded 

 theft, adultery, maiming, sorcery with 

 evil intent, treason, and the murder of a 

 kinsman or a co-tril)esman as crimes 

 which consisted solely in the violation of 

 the rights of a kinsman by blood or 

 adoption, for the alien I ad no rights 

 which Indian justice and equity recog- 

 nized, unless by treaty or solemn compact. 

 If an assassination were committed or 

 a solemnly sworn peace with another 

 people violated by the caprice of ;in in- 

 dividual, it was not the rule to punish 

 directly the guilty person, for this would 

 have been to assume over him a juris- 

 diction which no one would think of 

 claiming; on the contrary, presents de- 



