Wendat Project

Class 611

by: Jennifer Horvath
Emily Kovacs
Heather Cater
Elsa Vuong

Our grade six class was required to create a group project about the Wendat. This project needed to have information covering 12 different topics. These topics were: Homes; Religion; Food; Politics; Weapons, Tools, and Technology; Trade; Games; Climate; Clothing; Vegetation; Family Life; and Transportation.

Homes

Where the Wendat lived had a lot to do with what they needed to live. For instance, the soil was fertile and easy to grow crops in. Also, the great lakes around them were their fishing territory. In their land there were also hills and valleys. The hills were not like steep mountains. They were actually the opposite. These slopes where extremely easy to climb and just the right height to spy on enemies without being seen. The villages were not built on hills. They were built near the rivers and lakes. Each of these villages would have a range of 1 to 100 shelters called longhouses.

Longhouse

A longhouse was a "long house" made of wood. Inside would be 5 - 6 families each with a fire pit. The Wendat people would also store their winter supplies. All this would be enclosed in a tall wooden fence called a palisade.

Palisade

Religion

The religion of the Wendat created the rules that they followed. For example, one of their beliefs is that humans and their spirits are connected in some way. This creates their rule of praying. They would have to pray before the men went out to hunt and they would also pray for almost everything. Many of these spiritual practices had to do with physical needs (mainly food). Not only would they pray before a hunt but after too. They did this to thank the animals for their generosity. You see the Wendat were very respectful of living things and believed they needed to live in harmony with nature.

Food

The food of the Wendat needed many jobs. Both men and women had to work hard. In early spring, the men cleared the fields so the women could use digging sticks to loosen the soil after the prayer. Then the women would add various seeds that would grow crops such as corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and huge orange pumpkins, corn, squash, and beans were called "the three sisters". This is because corn squash and beans were the main part of the Wendat's diet. Corn was 65% of their diet and would be found in many meals. In some meals, such as soup, the corn would be carefully pounded into flour. The fields were grown and needed to be remade every 10-15 years.

At the arrival of summer the women would get straight to work collecting berries such as strawberries, cherries, blueberries and raspberries. They would also collect onions, pumpkins, sunflowers and nuts. The berries and nuts were dried and used as flavour in their everyday meals. The sunflowers were grown for their oil, which was used to garnish food and rub all over their bodies. But the women weren't the only ones hard at work. The men were out hunting and fishing. They hunted many animals including deer. The deer would only be eaten in feasts and in celebrations.

Foods

They didn't only hunt they fished. They fished for fish, such as white fish, trout, sturgeon, pike, and catfish. These fish would be hung on a rack and dried over an open fire. To make a common dish, they would eat the fish with corn, beans, and squash which they called sagamite.

In the autumn, the men started hunting and put the food in storage for the winter. Tobacco was grown and harvested, the corn, beans and squash also known as the three sisters were also harvested.

In winter the Wendat had to eat too. So they would collect maple syryp from the trees also since food was difficult to get, they would eat their own dogs.

Politics

In the Wendat culture, they had an organized society. In each council, the male chiefs would represent the people. Clan mothers gave advice to the council and once a year, they would attend a confederacy meeting. In each meeting, they would discuss problems and decisions about trade, territory and war, security, direction and order were needed to function properly. In the confederacy council, a civil chief would receive advice from the clan mother. He would speak for the clan mother but if he didn't do what she asked, he could be replaced with a new chief, whenever the Clan mother needed to.

Each alliance had their own local chiefs, forming a government. This is how the Wendat handled their politics.

Weapons
Tools
Technology

In the Wendat society, weapons, tools, and technology were important to everyone. Technology included new skills and ideas. They developed technology by changing raw materials into something needed, making life easier and comfortable. All of the materials came from the environment. Most of the weapons and tools made were very useful to their daily life. Scrapers and fleshers were some of the tools used to get food from buffalos. There were a lot of weapons made in the Wendat society. Bows and arrows were used to kill animals like buffalo. Wooden spears and barbed boneheads were used for fishing. They made bone-tipped hoes to use for planting. The Wendat would kill beavers with snares, arrows and clubs. Homemade fishnets and sacks were made out of hemp fibres.

Since everything came out of nature, axes had stone blades and some animal bones where used as tools.

Archery

Trade

The Wendat women where very good farmers. That's why they often had extra food to trade from their farming. Corn was the main product that the Wendat traded, but they also traded other different kinds of vegetables. They exchanged these for tobacco, fur and games.

If they didn't get what they needed in their first trade, they would trade again with another group of people, so that they could get the items they needed. Beaver fur was THE furn trade of the 17th Century. The Wendat would make good profits when they traded this.

Men would do most of the trading but when it was winter, they couldn't trade, so the raw materials would become products. That's how the Wendat got the materials they needed.

Games

The Wendat were very fond of fun and games. They made their children toys made out of hide, corn husks from after a meal, and even pieces of wood . Bone was reserved for tool making and stone for weapons. Children were allowed to experiment and experience life. They learned many lessons first hand and from mistakes they had made. The favourite games of the Wendat included guessing games, gambling and even lacrosse which is still around today, talk about ancient! Most active games were contest on the players skills about real life. That's how most children learned hunting skills. They played games like archery where you hit a target with your arrow double ball and other strength games such as snowsnake. Snowsnake was a very simple game to play, but it took strength and skill to win! First someone got an approximately two metre rod. One end of the rod was sort of hooked or turned up. The player would throw the snowsnake as far as they could. The player who throw the stick and make it slide the farthest, would be the winner. Today, the record is 12 metres.

Climate

The climate of the Wendat people was very similar to ours today. The summers were hot, the winters cold and snowy. They had four seasons too. Although they had the same climate as us, their jobs were very different from ours. They had separate jobs for each season. In Spring, the men and women prepared the ground for growing crops. Most food for the rest of the year was grown in these prepared grounds or gardens. During the Summer women, elders, and children moved into small shelters in the grassy fields. These shelters were made out of bark but, were only temporary Summer homes because, in Winter it wouldn't be warm enough in the bark shelters. The women also weeded the growing crops in Summer, gathered herbs for medicines, and made repairs to tools and weapons. The men left the village to go hunting, fishing and to go on trading expeditions. In Autumn the men hunted deer in communal groups. They hunted deer mainly for their hides to make clothing like, moccasins and used their fat for food and pemmican. They caught deer like they caught buffalo, in pounds. But the "deer pounds" were made, weapons were made and repaired. Winter time wasn't a time for much work. During winter, the Wendat usually told stories around a campfire, danced and played games as well as played music. This was a time to create art and decorate clothing. You could say winter was the creative, fun time of year.

Clothing

The clothing of the Wendat was quite simple. It was always made of something from the environment around them. They used mainly deerskin, which was cleaned and tanned by the Wendat women. The cleaning and tanning made the deerskin soft, but strong. They tanned the hide with buffalo liver and brain. After tanning, the hides were loosely stretched to make shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, and moccasins. The clothing was stitched together with sinew, the muscles that holds bones together, or laced together with thin strips of leather. In the warm weather, children and men wore as little as possible. During the cooler weather the men wore two pieces of leather suspended from a thong which was tied around the waist. They also might wear a tunic or leggings and a jacket. Women wore long dresses or skirts and sometimes a jacket. In the very coldest weather, which was winter, the Wendat wore fur jackets with hoods. To decorate the clothing they wore, the Wendat often used porcupine quills and tiny beads made out of shells found by the shores.

Vegetation

The Wendat's vegetation consisted mostly of different types of trees. Some types of trees are Hemlock, Maple, Beech, Oak, Spruce, Pine, Elm, Ash, and Birch. There was also wilde food growing. Canadian plums, Shagbark, Hickory trees, Sweet Crab apple trees and American Chestnut trees. The Wendats relied on plants and vegetation found near the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Region

Family Life

Family life deals with human psychological needs. We all need to be loved, have a sense of belonging, and our own identity. The Wendat lived in Longhouses. They didn't migrate so the longhouse was a permanent place to live. Each longhouse held approximately six families. Most people in the longhouse descend from one woman. Long houses contained a particular clan. Clans were named after animals, birds, and fish. Examples would be the Bear clan, or the Hawk clan. Each longhouse had a clan mother called the Matriarch. She was often the oldest and wisest. The Matriarch was respected by all members of the clan. The women would influence the male leaders. Women were guardians of family and guests. They were also in charge of the village traditions. When women married they didn't change their names, nor did the men. The children were part of their mother's clan and took their last name. Women had a lot of different jobs. They cooked, sewed, tanned leather, watched children, cleaned cooking fires/hearths, gathered food, made baskets and pots, wove mats/fishing nets, farmed, and took care of family and guests. The men were brave warriors, hunters, fishermen and traders.

Palisade

Transportation

The Wendat used different types of transportation depending on the season. In summer their main mode of transportation was the canoe. They used birchbark to make lighter canoes. Birchbark canoes were lightweight for swift travelling. Sometimes they used dugout canoes. Dugout canoes were made from hollowed out logs. They were quite heavy and clumsy and were not used for long journeys. They often acquired canoes through trades with other tribes.

Canoe

Steps for Making a Canoe.

1) Stakes were driven into the ground to hold the bark sheets.
2) The wood for the ribs was soaked in hot water.
3) The pieces were bent inside the bark within the frame.
4) Bark sewn to the frame with large strips of spruce root.
5) The seams were sealed with hot pine or spruce pitch.

A tumpline was a leather strap that went around the Wendat's head. Long lines were wrapped around the bundle or the specially designed baskets. The lines were attached to the leather strap. Snowshoes were used for winter travelling. The frames were made from wood. The webbing was made from rawhide strips. Rawhide was animal hide that was cleaned but not tanned. The men made the frames while women made the webbing.

References

Books
Canada Revisited (p. 52, 53-54, 59, 64, 68, 70, 74)

Websites
http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/english/historicalinfo.html
http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/huron/Wendat.htm
http://www.wyandot.org
http://smcdsb.on.ca/ffx/first%20peoples/Elizabethfinal/the huron (elizabeth).htm