Lately, it has become required, apparently, for every quasi official institution in Toronto to begin every communication and announcement with: "Before we begin, we would like to recognize that we are standing on the ancestral homelands/sacred land of the Iroquois, the Wendat, the Huron, the Ojibwa, the Mississauga, and the Algonqian peoples...." Younger is hearing it every day at school. I imagine it comes from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations.
First, a few observations: I am not up on my native history as much as I should be, but this list is a trifle deceptive, not because these people weren't here, but because, first, from what I recall, the Wendat and the Huron are the same people - Wendat being the Huron name for themselves. Secondly, I believe the Mississauga were a subgroup of the Ojibwa nation. Thirdly, there were Algonquin tribes, but at the same time 'Algonquian' generally refers to a large language group, which includes the Iroquois, the Huron, the Ojibwa and several other Native groups, including a mysterious group known only as 'the Neutrals'. Or, at least, that is what we call them now. The Hurons are recorded of referring to them as 'The Men Who Talk Funny,' suggesting that the Neutrals were part of the same language group, but with their own dialect. What they called themselves, we have no way of knowing. The Iroquois and the Huron wiped them out long ago. I don't believe there is any indication that the Neutrals ever occupied this area, so their exclusion from the list is probably justified.
Which sort of brings me to my second point: These groups were blood enemies. I am not sure when the Algonquians as a separate group from the other Algonquian dialects were around this area, but the Huron and Iroquois claimed this land from time to time. Eventually the Iroquois pushed out the Huron as the Hurons came out on the losing end of their centuries long struggle, which ended with Huron being virtually wiped out or assimilated into other groups. The Iroquois were in turn pushed out by the Mississauga. The point is, when you have a large number of blood enemies all claiming the same territory, you do not have anyone's ancestral homeland as the term is generally understood. You have contested territory. This was only one group's homeland until another group took it away from them.
Which may be why they switched to calling it 'sacred land' at my daughter's school. The term is a little more numinous and harder to debate when no one is really sure what is meant by that.
3 comments:
A small correction about the fate of the Wendat/Huron First Nation. When I lived last in Kansas, I lived in Wyandotte County. Next to the public library was a small park that was actually an historic burial ground called the Huron Cemetery.
I got curious as to what, if any, connection the Huron had with the Wyandotte. In my research, I discovered what you point out, that Huron was the French name for the Wendat People, and also that 'Wendat' had become Wyandot or Wyandotte in English.
I also discovered that there are recognised Bands of the Wendat in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Michigan in the US and in Quebec in Canada. So they weren't all wiped out or assimilated!
This is wrong on so many levels. Firstly, they were not truely nations, having almost no concept of the same. Second, this is not their land, as is manifestly obvious today. Third, this is pure ideological nonsense intended to make contemporary people feel shame and a lack of identity. Just say no to cultural marxism. TSE
yes, the territory of the Huron confederacy was enormous, and there many bands within it, some of them probably quite distinct. However, there are very few who can claim to be of the Huron or Wendat today. A combination of factors lead to their virtual disappearance.
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