Editing Wyandot people (section)

===Origin, and organization: before 1650===
Early theories placed the Wendat's origin in the [[St. Lawrence Valley]].<ref name=heidenreich/> Some historians or anthropologists proposed the people were located near the present-day site of Montreal and former sites of the historic [[St. Lawrence Iroquoian]] peoples. Wendat is an Iroquoian language. Early 21st-century research in linguistics and archaeology confirm a historical connection between the Wendat and the St. Lawrence Iroquois.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Steckley |first=John |author-link=John Steckley |title=Trade Goods and Nations in Sagard's Dictionary: A St. Lawrence Iroquoian Perspective |journal=Ontario History |date=Autumn 2012 |volume=CIV |issue=2}}</ref> But all of the Iroquoian-speaking peoples shared some aspects of their culture, including the Erie people, any or all of the later Haudenosaunee, and the Susquehannock.

By the 15th century, the [[First contact (anthropology)|precontact]] Wendat occupied the large area from the north shores of most of the present-day [[Lake Ontario]], northward up to the southeastern shores of [[Georgian Bay]]. From this homeland, they encountered the French explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]] in 1615. They historically spoke the [[Wyandot language]], a Northern Iroquoian language. They were believed to number more than 30,000 at the time of European contact in the 1610s to 1620s.{{sfnp|Brandon|1961}}{{page needed|date=August 2018}}

In 1975 and 1978, archaeologists excavated a large 15th-century Huron village, now called the [[Draper site]], in [[Pickering, Ontario]] near [[Lake Ontario]]. In 2003 a larger village was discovered {{convert|5|km|mi|spell=in}} away in [[Whitchurch-Stouffville]]; it is known as the [[Mantle Site]] and was occupied from the late 16th to early 17th century. It has been renamed the Jean-Baptiste Lainé Site, named in honor of a decorated Wendat-Huron soldier of World War II<ref>Jim Mason, "[http://www.yorkregion.com/opinion/columns/article/1395118--stouffville-history-hits-home-in-tv-documentary Stouffville history hits home in TV documentary]," ''Stouffville Sun-Tribune'', July 11, 2012.</ref> whose name in French was Jean-Baptiste Lainé. All four Lainé brothers, from the Huron-Wendat Reserve in Wendake, Quebec, fought through and survived the WWII.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Defence |first=National |date=2018-04-12 |title=The World Wars |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/popular-books/aboriginal-people-canadian-military/world-wars.html |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=www.canada.ca}}</ref> 
{{efn|Note: Both the Draper Site, near Pickering, Ontario, and the larger Mantle Site villages are in territory that may have historically been lands of either the [[Neutral people]] or [[Petun|Tobacco people]] (Petun). Each of these two peoples were Iroquoian-speaking and near relatives of the Huron. The Tobacco people are known to have also occupied the western {{convert|65|mi|km|0}} stretch of the south shore of Lake Ontario. Their survivors are known to have consolidated populations with the Huron, later developing as the Wyandot.}}

Each of the sites had been surrounded by a defensive wooden [[palisade]], as was typical of regional cultures. Four Wendat ancestral village sites have been excavated in [[Whitchurch-Stouffville]]. The large [[Mantle site]] had more than 70 multifamily [[Longhouses of the Indigenous peoples of North America|longhouses]].{{efn|Some Iroquoian longhouses were over {{convert|100|ft|m|1}} in length, and {{convert|80|ft|m|0}} was common.}}<ref>{{cite report |publisher=Archaeological Services, Inc |title=The Archaeology of the Mantle Site (AlGt-334) |date=December 2012 |url=http://asiheritage.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Mantle-Final-Report.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310230033/http://www.archaeologicalservices.on.ca/project_3.htm |archive-date=March 10, 2012 }}; see also the entries for the [[Aurora Site|Aurora (Old Fort)]] and [[Ratcliff Site|Ratcliff]] Wendat ancestral village sites in [[Whitchurch-Stouffville]].</ref> Based on radiocarbon dating, it has been determined to have been occupied from 1587 to 1623. Its population was estimated at 1500–2000 persons.

Canadian archaeologist James F. Pendergast <!-- 20th-c. Canadian archeologist, not the namesake 19th-c US politician in the link --> states:
{{blockquote|text=Indeed, there is now every indication that the late precontact Huron and their immediate antecedents developed in a distinct Huron homeland in southern [[Ontario]] along the north shore of [[Lake Ontario]]. Subsequently, they moved from there to their historic territory on [[Georgian Bay]], where Champlain encountered them in 1615.<ref>{{cite journal |first=James F. |last=Pendergast |title=The Confusing Identities Attributed to Stadacona and Hochelaga |journal=Journal of Canadian Studies |volume=32|issue=4|date=Winter 1998|pages=149–167 |doi=10.3138/jcs.32.4.149|s2cid=141363427 }}</ref>}}

The Wendat were not a single nation, but a confederacy of several nations who had [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] languages.{{sfnp|Dickason|1996|pages=263–65}}

These self-governing nations included: 
* Arendaenronnon ("people of the lying rock")
* Atahontaenrat ("two white ears", referring to "deer people")
* Ataronchronon ("people of the bog")
* Attinniaoenten ("people of the bear")
* Hatingeennonniahak ("makers of cords for nets").<ref name=heidenreich/>

The Attinniaoenten and Hatingeennonniahak first allied in the 15th century.{{sfnp|Dickason|1996|pages=263–65}} Arendaenronnon joined them about 1590, and the Atahontaenrat join around 1610.{{sfnp|Dickason|1996|pages=263–65}} The fifth group, the Ataronchronon may not have attained full membership in the confederacy,{{sfnp|Dickason|1996|pages=263–65}} and may have been a division of the Attignawantan.{{sfnp|Trigger|1987|p=30}}<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Brant-Birioukov |first1=Kiera |last2=Brant-Terry |first2=Gail |last3=Birioukov-Brant |first3=Anton |last4=Maracle |first4=Karissa |last5=Currie |first5=Mark |title=Indigenous Peoples in Toronto |url=https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/9869-IG-TNO-Online-Compressed.pdf |access-date=27 June 2024 |website=toronto.ca |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 May 2017 |title=History of the Simcoe County Region |url=https://content.georgiancollege.ca/wp-content/uploads/History-of-Simcoe-County-StaffNews.pdf |website=Georgian College}}</ref>

The largest Wendat settlement and capital of the confederacy, at least during the time of [[Jean de Brébeuf]] and the Jesuits was located at [[Ossossane]]. When [[Gabriel Sagard]] was among them however, [[Quienonascaran]] was the principal village of the Attignawantan, when [[Samuel de Champlain]] and Father [[Joseph Le Caron]] were among the Hurons in 1615, a village called [[Carhagouha]] may have been the capital. Modern-day [[Springwater, Ontario|Elmvale]], Ontario developed near that site. The Wendat called their traditional territory ''Wendake''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tolatsga.org/hur.html |title=Huron History |first=Lee |last=Sultzman |date=October 2, 2000}}</ref>

Closely related to the people of the Huron Confederacay were the Tionontate,<ref name="Warren">{{cite journal |first=Gary |last=Warrick |title=European Infectious Disease and Depopulation of the Wendat-Tionontate (Huron-Petun) |journal=World Archaeology |volume=35|issue=2 |date=October 2003 |pages=258–275|jstor=3560226|doi=10.1080/0043824032000111416|s2cid=161962386 }}</ref> an Iroquoian-speaking group whom the French called the ''[[Petun]]'' (Tobacco), for their cultivation of that crop. They lived further south and were divided into two moitiés or groups: the Deer and the Wolves.{{sfnp|Garrad|Heidenreich|1978|p=394}} Considering that they formed the nucleus of the nation later known as the Wyandot, they too may have called themselves Wendat.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Steckley |first=John |title=Wendat Dialects and the Development of the Huron Alliance |journal=Northeast Anthropology |volume=54|issue=2|pages=23–36|date=Autumn 1997 |url=http://www.wyandot.org/wendat.htm}}</ref>

There were ongoing hostilities between the Iroquoian Wendat and the [[Haudenosaunee]], another Iroquoian confederacy, but the Wendat had good relations with the [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=McDonnell|first=Michael A.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/932060403|title=Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America|date=2016|isbn=978-0-8090-6800-5|pages=26–30|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |oclc=932060403 }}</ref>

[[Tuberculosis]] became endemic among the Huron, aggravated by their close and smoky living conditions in the longhouses.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hartney|first=Patrick C.|chapter=Tuberculosis Lesions in a Prehistoric Population Sample from Southern Ontario|editor=Jane E. Buikstra|editor-link=Jane E. Buikstra|title=Prehistoric Tuberculosis in the Americas|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_3aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|series=Scientific Papers| volume=5|year=1981|publisher=Northwestern University Archeological Program|pages=141–160|isbn=9780942118100}}</ref> Despite this, the Huron on the whole were healthy. The Jesuits wrote that the Huron effectively employed natural remedies<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Thwaites |editor-first=Reuben Gold |title=The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610–1791 |date=1898 |location=Cleveland, Ohio |publisher=Burrows Brothers Company |volume=XIII |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jesuitrelations130jesugoog/page/n113 103]–105 |url=https://archive.org/details/jesuitrelations130jesugoog}}</ref> and were "more healthy than we".{{sfnp|Heidenreich|1978|p=379}}