Description
From Huronia to Wendakes: Adversity, Migration, and Resilience, 1650-1900 seeks to fill a gap that is largely missing from history - countering the common impression that Wyandot or Wyandotte disappeared after 1650, when they were driven from their homeland Wenadke Ehen, also known as Huronia, in modern-day southern Ontario. This collection of essays brings together lesser-known historical accounts of the Wendats from their mid-seventeenth-century dispersal through their establishment of new homelands, called Wendakes, in Quebec, Michigan, Ontario, Kansas, and Oklahoma. What emerges from these varied perspectives is a complex picture that encapsulates both the cultural resilience and the diversity of these peoples. Together, the essays reveal that while the Wendats, like all people, are ever-changing, their nations have developed adaptive strategies to maintain their predispersal culture in the face of such pressures as Christianity and colonial economies. Just as the Wendats have linked multiple Wendakes through migrations forced and voluntary, the various perspectives of these emerging scholars are knitted together by the shared purpose of filling in Wendat history beyond the seventeenth century. This approach, along with the authors' collaboration with modern Wendat communities, has resulted in a rich and coherent narrative that in turn enriches our understanding of North American history. Thomas Peace is Assistant Professor of History at Huron University College. Kathryn Magee Labelle is Assistant Professor of Aboriginal History at the University of Saskatchewan.