jan 1, 1843 - The Wyandot Nation

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The Wyandot Nation called themselves Wendat (People of the Island) but were called Huron by the French. They were among the last eastern tribes to be resettled. The Wyandot were from p.d. Ontario, Canada. They were forced to settle in North Sandusky, Ohio. A schism occurred in the tribe and some settled along the present day Michigan-Canada border. The Ohio branch of Wyandot’s were more numerous, fought with the American Revolutionaries, and were anti-slavery. The long relationship between African-Americans and the Wyandot Tribe began as ‘Negrotown’, an African-American community on the Wyandot Reserve in Ohio. The Wyandot from Michigan and Canada border were complex politically, being pro-British, Catholic, and pro-slavery.
Tribal homes of the Wendat looked like loaves of bread oval in shape with mud and elm bark on the outside. Their lineage of inheritance was matrilineal. Children became part of the mother’s clan and could not marry into her clan. They were political leaders traditionally in the Great Council of the Iroquois Nation, officially Keepers of the Council Fires, and generally deemed more civilized, Christianized, and educated than other tribes. They became good businessmen. They were opposed to being moved from Ohio because they had had become almost completely assimilated. In fact the last pure Wyandot had died in 1820. The Wyandot’s were mostly of French mix by this time.
The Wyandot Nation was forced to make a deal for land in Kansas, negotiated, and eventually received an annual stipend for every member, and additional money from the government for the construction of a school, church, and several other buildings. The Wyandot first arrived in p.d. Wyandotte County in 1843 (750 departed and 60 died from an epidemic in route) on two steam riverboat ferries: 625 were from Ohio and 125 from Michigan.

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