588 



HURON 



[b. a. e. 



quoiH from the Dutch was an important 

 factor in their subsequent successes. By 

 1643 they had obtained about 400 guns, 

 while, on the other hand, as late as the 

 final invasion of their country the Hurons 

 had but very few guns, a lack that was 

 the direct cause of their feeble resistance 

 and the final conquest by the Iroquois 

 confederation of half of the country e. of 

 the Mississippi and n. of the Ohio. In 

 July, 1648, having perfected their plans 

 for the final struggle for supremacy with 

 the Hurons, the Iroquois began open hos- 

 tility by sacking two or three frontier 

 towns and Teanaustayae (St Joseph), the 

 major portion of the invading warriors 

 wintering in the Huron country unknown 

 to the Hurons; and in March, 1649, these 

 Iroquois warriors destroyed Taenhaten- 

 taron ( St Ignace ) and St Louis, and car- 

 ried into captivity hundreds of Hurons. 

 These disasters completely demoralized 

 and disorganized the Huron tribes, for 

 the greater portion of their people were 

 killed or led into captivity among the 

 several Iroquoian tribes, or perished 

 from hunger and exposure in their pre- 

 cipitate flight in all directions, while of 

 the remainder S(jme escaped to the Neu- 

 tral Nation, or "Hurons de la Nation 

 Neutre," some to the Tobacco or Tionon- 

 tati tribe, some to the Erie, and others 

 to the French settlements near Quebec 

 on the island of Orleans. The Tohonta- 

 enrat, forming the populous town of 

 Scanonaenrat, and a portion of the Aren- 

 dahronon of the town of St-Jean-Bap- 

 tiste surrendered to the Seneca and were 

 adopted by them with the privilege of 

 occupying a village by themselves, which 

 was named Gandougarae (St Michel). 

 As soon as the Iroquois learned of the 

 Huron colony on Orleans id., they at 

 once sought to persuade these Hurons to 

 migrate to their country. Of these the 

 Bear people, together with the Bowl 

 band and the Rock people, having in an 

 evil day promised to remove thither, 

 were finally, in 1656, compelled to choose 

 between fighting and migrating to the 

 Iroquois country. They chose the latter 

 course, the Bear people going to the Mo- 

 hawk and the Rock people to the Onon- 

 daga. The Cord people alone had the 

 courage to remain with the French. 



The adopted inhabitants of the new 

 town of St Michel (Gandougarae) were 

 mostly Christian Hurons who preserved 

 their faith under adverse conditions, as 

 did a large number of other Huron cap- 

 tives who were adopted into other Iro- 

 quois tribes. In 1653 Father Le Moine 

 found more than 1,000 Christian Hurons 

 among the Onondaga. The number of 

 Hurons then among the Mohawk, Oneida, 

 and Cayuga is not known. 



Among the most unfortunate of the 



Huron fugitives were those who sought 

 asylum among the Erie, where their pres- 

 ence excited the jealousy and perhaps the 

 fear of their neighbors, the Iroquois, with 

 whom the Erie did not fraternize. It is 

 also claimed that the Huron fugitives 

 strove to foment war between their pro- 

 tectors and the Inxjuois, with the result 

 that notwithstanding the reputed 4,000 

 warriors of the Erie and their skill in the 

 use of the bow and arrow (permitting 

 them dextrously to shoot 8 or 9 arrows 

 while the enemy could fire an arquebus 

 but once), the Erie and the unfortunate 

 Huron fugitives were entirely defeated in 

 1653-56 and dispersed or carried away into 

 captivity. But most pathetic and cruel 

 was the fate of those unfortunate Hurons 

 who, trusting in the long-standing neu- 

 trality of the Neutral Nation which the 

 Iroquois had not theretofore violated, fled 

 to that tribe, only to be held, with the 

 other portion of the Huron people still 

 remaining in their country, into harsh 

 captivity (Jes. Rel. 1659-60). 



A portion of the defeated Hurons es- 

 caped to the Tionontati or "Huron du 

 Petun," then dwelling directly westward 

 from them. But in 1649, when the Iro- 

 quois had sacked one of the Tionontati 

 palisaded towns, the remainder of the 

 tribe, in company with the refugee Hu- 

 rons, sought an asylum on the Island of 

 St Joseph, the present Charity or Chris- 

 tian id. , in Georgian bay. It is this group 

 of refugees who became the Wyandots 

 of later history. Finding that this place 

 did not secure them from the Iroquois, 

 the majority fled to Michilimakinac, 

 Mich., near which place they found fer- 

 tile lands, good hunting, and abundant 

 fishing. But even here the Iroquois 

 would not permit them to rest, so they 

 retreated farther Avestward to Manitoulin 

 id., called Ekaentoton by the Hurons. 

 Thence they were driven to He Huronne 

 (Potawatomi id., because formerly occu- 

 pied by that tribe), at the entrance to 

 Green bay, Wis., where the Ottawa and 

 their allies from Saginaw bay and Thun- 

 der bay, Manitoulin, and Michilimaki- 

 nac, sought shelter with them. From 

 this point the fugitive Hurons, with some 

 of the Ottawa and their allies, moved 

 farther westward 7 or 8 leagues to the 

 Potawatomi, while most of the Ottawa 

 went into what is now Wisconsin and 

 N. w. Michigan among the Winnebago and 

 the Menominee. Here, in 1657, in the 

 Potawatomi country, the Hurons, num- 

 bering about 500 persons, erected a stout 

 palisade. The Potawatomi received the 

 fugitives the more readily since they 

 themselves spoke a language cognate 

 with that of the Ottawa and also were 

 animated by a bitter hatred of the Iro- 

 <]Uois who had in former times driven 



