HURON

When French missionaries and traders entered Ontario early in the seventeenth century, they encountered a powerful people living on the broad peninsula between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. These people referred to themselves as 'Wendat' ('Islanders' or perhaps 'Those who live on a peninsula'). It was the French who named them Huron - (from Hure ) a derogatory name implying that they were uncultured and literally 'like a boar'.

French Jesuit priests noted that the Huron consisted of five distinct tribes, gathered together as a confederacy somewhat similar to the Five Nations. The five tribes were the Attignawantan, Attigneenongnahac, Arendaronon, Tahontaenrat and the Ataronchronon. Together, they numbered about 20,000 people, each tribe occupying a distinct region of Huronia.

In a series of devastating attacks, the Huron were dispersed by warriors of the Five Nations Iroquois between 1647 and 1649.

To archaeologists, the term Huron embraces not only the historically recorded peoples of the seventeenth century, but also their ancestors who occupied much of south-central Ontario between A.D. 1400 and A.D. 1600. These Late Ontario Iroquoian people were culturally related to the Neutral and also the Five Nations Iroquois to the south of Lake Ontario.

Prehistoric Huron sites have been recorded in two distinct areas:

SOUTHERN DIVISION

Southern division Huron sites have been recorded across a broad area along the Lake Ontario shore extending from the Niagara escarpment in the west to Prince Edward County in the east. Within this region, a number of site clusters have been identified. Concentrations of sites have been found in the Humber River, Rouge/ Duffin Creek and lower Trent River valleys. These may represent original tribal homelands consisting of groups of sequentially occupied village sites.

NORTHERN DIVISION

Northern Division Huron sites lie within the area historically known as Huronia, occupying Simcoe County. These not only include the historically recorded villages of the Huron, but also a whole sequence of prehistoric Huron sites.

Concentrations of sites in the upper Trent Valley and in the Lake Scugog region may have been occupied as part of a gradual movement and blending of peoples into historic Huronia. By the end of the sixteenth century the Huron people had moved into the Simcoe county area and become consolidated as a confederacy of Tribes.

Much has been written on the history, social organization and daily life of the Huron. Most of this work is based on the writings of Jesuit Priests who lived among the Huron during the early 17th century. Their detailed observations have enable historians and archaeologists to piece together a comprehensive picture of Huron life.

SUBSISTENCE

Corn farming was the mainstay of Huron villages. Large areas of land surrounding the villages was cleared of trees. This task was performed by the men of the village, using stone axes to cut down the smaller trees. Larger ones were girdled and killed with fire. The corn was planted between the stumps and was tended by the women of the village.

Huron people practiced companion planting. Beans and squash were grown along side the corn, each plant providing cover, a climbing frame or some measure of insect protection for the other. Tobacco was grown in small plots close to the village.

A wide variety of local wild plants were also harvested.

Hunting and fishing remained important in the Huron economy. Deer provided meat, and hides were in great demand for clothing. Deer were hunted in large numbers by driving them to a point of land or to one end of a large island where they could be killed. Huron men erected drive fences and barriers in some traditional deer drive areas to assist in the hunt.

Bears, beavers and muskrats were also hunted, although virtually any animal which could be caught was considered fair game and suitable for the stew pot.

Fishing also provided an important source of food. Hooks and lines, nets and fish weirs were all used to ensure success.

BURIALS

Huron burial practices were described in detail by Samuel de Champlain who wrote that every ten years or so,

"they summon a general assembly at which, among other things, the delegates decide when and where the next festival of the dead will be held. Then they each return to their own district and uncover the bones of those who have died since the last festival. These are carefully cleaned and preserved, though they smell like newly-buried bodies. At the appointed time the relatives and friends of the dead bring the bones, together with necklaces, skins, tomahawks, pots and other valuables, and a quantity of food, to the chosen place. There they lay down their burdens and give themselves up to dancing and feasting for the ten days of the festival. Tribes come from all over the country to take part in the ceremonies. The dancing, the feasting, the general councils all serve to renew and strengthen old friendships. As a symbol of goodwill they mingle the bones of their relatives and friends with one another, saying that just as the bones of the dead are gathered in one place, so also the living will be united in friendship, as one people, as long as they live. They make a number of speeches over the bones and then after making certain faces and signs they dig a big trench sixty feet square and bury all the bones in it, together with the necklaces, beads, tomahawks, pots, knives and other trinkets they have brought with them. This they cover with earth and on top of that they build a wooden canopy supported on four posts. The burial of the dead is the most solemn of their festivals."    Samuel de Champlain  1618

Archaeological examination of Huron ossuary pits has shown that they were usually about 3 metres deep and up to 10 metres in diametre. Bones of the hundreds of people they contained were usually mixed, and as Champlain indicated, little attention seems to have been paid to keeping the bones of any one individual separate from the rest.

Although the burial of the dead in mass graves is by far the most well known Huron burial practice, not all Huron received this final end. Children were sometimes buried within longhouses, either beneath the floor of the building or under well used pathways in the hope that their spirits could return into the wombs of pregnant women walking in the village. Other burials within longhouses may have been overlooked during the gathering of the dead for ossuary burial, or excluded from the ceremony for some reason. People who in life displayed unusual behaviour or strange physical characteristics may have not been considered suitable candidates for the mass journey to the afterlife.

It may also be possible that because of the archaeological 'visibility' of ossuaries, other patterns of burials have been overlooked. Burial areas outside Huron villages are increasingly being located, suggesting that ossuary burial was only one of a number of Huron burial traditions.

VILLAGES

Each Huron village contained a number of longhouses. These large multiple-family dwellings were constructed of poles and covered with elm bark to provide a weatherproof shelter.

Longhouses range in size from 10m to 75 m in length and are usually 7.5m wide. Each house was organized around a central corridor, flanked by sleeping platforms. Fire pits (up to seven per house) lay near the centre of the corridor and provided a focus for each family. 

Palisades were the defensive walls surrounding the village. These were made of closely set, stout posts up to 30 feet high. Some villages were defended by up to six rows of posts, although two or three was more normal. Some villages expanded by tearing down part of the palisade wall and rebuilding it to enclose a larger area. At some villages, such as Draper, near Toronto and Coulter near Kirkfield, this happened on a number of occasions.

Excavations at some Huron village sites have located longhouses outside the palisade walls of the village. These buildings may have provided shelter for visitors to the community such as traders and others seeking refuge.

Middens are refuse heaps containing the accumulated garbage thrown out by the occupants of the village. They are often located near the ends of longhouses, between structures, or adjacent to (or through) the palisade walls. These heaps are rich in humus, ash, animal bone, burnt plant remains (corn cobs etc.) and broken artifacts.

ARTIFACTS

HURON / PETUN POTTERY

The pottery made by Huron and Petun people is typical of the pottery produced by many Iroquoian people during the last two hundred and fifty years of prehistory (ie.A.D. 1400-1650). Huron pots were usually made by the paddle and anvil method. Pots were usually globular, with rounded bottoms, wide mouths and slightly constricted necks. Many vessels had collars and some had castellations (raised points on the rim). Huron potters also made a number of other pottery vessels forms including bowls and cups. Clay pots were used for cooking and for storing food.

Decoration was usually applied to the collar, neck and shoulder of the pots. This was often composed of simple geometric arrangements of incised oblique, vertical or horizontal lines. 

STONE TOOLS

Huron people are not noted either for the quantity or the excellence of their stone tools. Compared to the Neutral villages, Huron village sites contain remarkably few stone tools. This may be because Huronia is located quite some distance from any readily accessible source of high quality chert. Most chert tools found on Huron sites are either made from locally collected pebbles from glacial till deposits. However, few Huron sites have produced much evidence that the manufacture of chipped stone tools was a priority. Huron chipped stone tools usually consist of small triangular points and chert flakes with modified edges for use as knives and scrapers.

Tools and objects of decoration made from mammal, bird and fish bone are common on Huron village sites. These materials would have been readily available as a by-product of hunting and fishing, and it is not surprising that they were actively used for a variety of purposes. Some typical tools include bone points, such as those illustrated to the left, beads made from cut and polished sections of bird leg bone and awls for piercing. Ground and shaped deer phalanges (toe bones) are a frequently found on Huron sites. The exact use of these objects is not known.

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