A Woman of Courage on the West Virginia Frontier (15 page)

This duality, as well as the one involving Tawiscaron and Iouskeha, was a critical feature of the Wyandot belief system. Tawiscaron was seen as benevolent and his brother the opposite, with Aataentsic being fonder of the more malevolent brother. They were the twin forces of creation, with good and evil required to keep the world in equilibrium. After Tawiscaron’s death, Iouskeha took up the task of balancing the world with his grandmother. Therefore, rather than the Judeo-Christian belief of an absolute good and an absolute evil, the Wyandot saw the moral universe as being far more complex and much more like life itself. In fact, they viewed the idea of both an absolute good and an absolute evil as equally dangerous concepts, for either would throw the world out of the balance needed to sustain life. In their eyes, humans had to have adversity in order to live. The Wyandot, like most of the other Indian nations of the woodlands, saw the universe as a circle in which life triumphs without eliminating death and takes place within a world that is not only beautiful and good but also bleak, mysterious and, at times, dangerous.
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Furthermore, in the Wyandot view of the universe, humans were not the only creatures imbued with souls. For them, the birds, fish, deer and all living animals had souls as well. Therefore, they held rituals before and after hunting, with those coming after an animal was killed in the hunt seen as especially important. If this was not done, the spirit of the animal would be unhappy and might return to this world to tell all the other creatures of the forest and waters not to cooperate with Wyandot hunters and fishermen. Because of this belief, Wyandot rituals revolved around displaying an honest respect for animal bones, which is where they believed the animals’ souls existed.
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However, the Wyandot view of souls did not stop with humans and animals—for them inanimate objects such as rocks and water possessed souls as well. Although historians and ethnologists are uncertain if this belief meant every grain of sand or snowflake had a soul, they do know that large, powerful or otherwise unusual objects were believed to have their own spirits. Eric Seeman writes, “If a Wendat traveling through the forest found a stone shaped like a spoon or a pot, he was likely to keep it as a charm. This, he believed, had been lost by a spirit who lived in the forest, and the item itself had a soul that would allow its bearer to connect with the spirit world.”
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These beliefs persisted even after the Wyandot were exposed to Christianity in the early seventeenth century by first the Recollets and then the Jesuits. In fact, the Wyandot became convinced that the white man was the product of a different creation entirely, and they later came to tell a legend of the battle between the god of the red man and that of the white:

We are Indians, and belong to the red man’s God. That Book
[the Bible]
was made by the white man’s God, and suits them. They can read it; we cannot; and what he has said will do for white men, but with us it has nothing to do. Once, in the days of our grandfathers, many years ago, this white man’s God came himself to this country and claimed us. But our God met him somewhere near the great mountains, and they disputed about the right to this country. At last they agreed to settle this question by trying their power to remove a mountain. The white man’s God got down on his knees, opened a big Book, and began to pray and talk, but the mountain stood fast. Then the red man’s God took his magic wand, and began to pow-wow, and beat the turtle-shell, and the mountain trembled, shook, and stood by him. The white man’s God got frightened, and ran off, and we have not heard of him since
.
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Perhaps the most important product of the Wyandot belief system was that no creature of this world was in any way superior to others. In their eyes, men did not have any right to a natural superiority over women, and humans did not hold a higher rank than the animals. For the Wyandot, equilibrium and balance were critical elements in the foundation of life, of all creation. Everyone and everything on the planet were equals, and all had their role to play in the great sacred Circle of Life. Given the nature of this strong spiritual heritage of equality, it is not surprising that, prior to their first contact with the Europeans, the Wyandot were utterly unaware of the concept of human exploitation aimed at the subjugation of others and the accumulation of power by one group “to the detriment of the majority, whose lot in life, condition, and even religion must thereafter be that of acquiescence, or indeed the culture of poverty and destitution.”
¹⁵⁷
Sadly, Europeans would teach them a very painful lesson in this regard.

Another critical aspect of the Wyandot belief system and their creation mythology was the idea of the centrality of the Wyandot race. They believed that they were the first people created on the “island,” and therefore, their nation was at the center in the family of all nations. In 1837, the Wyandot chief Oriwahento would say, “When all the tribes were settled, the Wyandots were placed at the head.”
¹⁵⁸

Interestingly, there was much fact from real life that lent credence to this idea. When the French first encountered the Wyandot in Wendake, they occupied the position of the chief people in the political and economic hierarchy of the northern woodlands nations. As such, they held sway over what was the most widespread and unified trading network in North America. In addition, the Wyandot language served as the standard, the
lingua franca
, for trade and diplomacy among at least fifty Native American nations.

Even long after the Wyandot were driven from Wendake, the other nations looked up to them and always allowed them to be the keeper of the sacred council fires. In 1721, the Jesuit historian Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix wrote, “The [Wyandot] nation is almost defunct, and they are reduced to two mediocre villages that are very distant from one another, yet they continue to be the moving spirit in all the councils when matters of general concern are being discussed.”
¹⁵⁹
Furthermore, even the Americans would know of and understand the Wyandot’s place among the Indian nations. In 1795, following the American victory at Fallen Timbers, representatives of twelve Indian nations met with General Anthony Wayne to sign the Treaty of Greenville, which ended the woodland tribes’ long struggle against the tide of western expansion. At the conclusion of the conference, General Wayne handed over a wampum belt with a stripe of white beads running down its center, which represented the “roads” to the “Fifteen Fires” of the fifteen United States. In doing so, Wayne referred to “your uncle the Wyandot” saying, “I place it…in your uncle’s hand, that he may preserve it for you.”
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When the Jesuits arrived in Wendake, they found four nations that formed the Wyandot Confederacy. The oldest of these were the Attignawantan and Attigneenongnahac, whose names roughly translate to “Bear Nation” and “Cord Nation,” respectively. In addition, there were the Arendahronon, or Rock Nation, and the Tahontaenrat, or Deer Nation. Like the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederation, the Wyandot Confederacy seems to have been formed for strategic reasons during the sixteenth century. All four nations had strong cultural and linguistic links, and they probably deemed it wise to unify themselves against potential outside enemies.
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The confederacy was a key factor in the Wyandot’s prosperous trade enterprise because it eliminated any undue internal competition, allowing Wendake to become known as a great clearinghouse for trade among the woodland Indians. Tribes from the north would travel there to deliver beaver, marten and arctic fox pelts in exchange for corn, which they could not grow in the higher latitudes. Meanwhile, tribes from the south of Wendake brought tobacco, which they exchanged for the warm northern furs.

However, what is perhaps most interesting about this great trade process is that the Wyandot never appeared to seek a profit. Although they clearly wished to obtain basic necessities as well as certain luxuries, their primary goal was to use trade as a foundation for peaceful relations with other Indian nations. Therefore, they did not try to achieve the best “price” for their goods but, rather, used the trading process to create a mutually beneficial dependence among the various nations while maintaining positive communications and reciprocal ties.
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These Wyandot tribes were a powerful force in the region, living in twenty-five villages, each with a population that varied from approximately 500 to 1,500 people. There are a variety of figures used to characterize the size of the Wyandot population when the Jesuits arrived in the early seventeenth century, but the most likely number was between 22,500 and 25,000 people.
¹⁶³

Amongst the four Wyandot nations, there existed a social and political structure based on kinship relations grounded in the nuclear family. Each Wyandot belonged to one of the four nations, as well as one of eight clans called
yentiokwa
, each of which were named for various animals: Bear, Deer, Turtle, Beaver, Wolf, Sturgeon, Hawk and Fox.
¹⁶⁴
Through these clans, the confederacy was woven into a single, unified political fabric. The Wyandot in one clan within a particular nation were tied to those of their clan in another nation, and these bonds, while essentially artificial, were as real as if they were blood ties. In fact, they were seen as more important than the bonds of a blood relationship, as they were a kinship “desired and dictated” through dreams and visions by guardian spirits. In other words, clans were “conceptualized” as kinship groupings, with members sharing a common name and claiming descent from a particular ancestor. However, there is no evidence that clan members shared any real biological or genealogical relationship. Therefore, clan kinship superseded all ethnic lines and provided a source for harmony and peaceful resolution of conflicts, as even enemies felt themselves to be kin via clan memberships and alliances.
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These clans were also matriarchal in nature, and any single individual belonged to the same clan as his or her mother. Marriage, furthermore, could never include members of the same clan, even if they were from a different tribe, nation or confederation. As a result, marriage always took place between the members of two different clans and served as a means of linking clans together, which helped create new alliances and ensure friendship. Again, even through marriage, the Wyandot sought to build a complex community via means that helped ensure harmony and prevent conflict.
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Clans played their primary political role within the village, where they constituted the basic level of government. Across the Wyandot, there were four levels of government: the lineage (the segment of a particular clan within the village), the village, the nation and the confederacy. Each lineage, which consisted of about ten matrilineages called
ahwatsira
, included between 250 and 300 individuals. Every lineage in the village chose a chief of civil affairs and a chief of defense, with the older women, the Clan Mothers, playing the most influential role in the selection process. The key characteristics of the men selected to be chiefs were intelligence, oratorical skill, willingness to work, popularity and courage, and the women of the lineage could dismiss the chief at any time if they thought his performance unsatisfactory.
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The village then formed a council composed of the various lineage chiefs as well as elders from the tribe, known as
atiwanens
. These councils often met on a daily basis, and although all matters were decided via consensus and no chief had any superiority over the others, one of the lineage civil chiefs would act as the village chief. This position was usually hereditary in nature, and it carried no real authority. Rather, the village chief served as the spokesman, the voice of the community, and it was he who announced the decisions of the village council.
¹⁶⁸

At the national level, all the village lineage chiefs met as a council, and one person, based on heredity, would act as the principal chief for the people of the nation. Again, this chief had very limited powers and could not be considered equivalent to a European head of state. Interestingly, at the highest level, that of the Wyandot Confederacy, the ruling council was formed from only the civil chiefs of the various nations, indicating they viewed their deliberations to concern primarily matters of peace and not war. The confederacy also had a principal chief, and this man would come from the Attignawantan nation, as it was seen as the senior member of all the nations.
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Furthermore, it is important to understand that, among the Wyandot, a chief was seen as someone who surrendered his own will to that of the people. Their concept of a chief was of a man obliged to submerge his own personality and personal interests in favor of the people he serves—his duty was to incarnate the spirit of the community.
¹⁷⁰
As Bruce Trigger, the noted Canadian anthropologist, would state:

[Wyandot]
chiefs had no constitutional authority to coerce their followers or to force their will on anyone. Moreover, individual
[Wyandots]
were sensitive about their honor and intolerant of external constraints, and friends and relatives would rally to the support of someone who believed himself insulted by a chief. Overbearing behavior by a chief might, therefore, encourage a violent reaction and lead to conflicts within or between lineages. In the long run, chiefs who behaved arrogantly or foolishly tended to alienate support and would be deposed by their own lineages. The ideal chief was a wise and brave man who understood his followers and won their support by means of his generosity, persuasiveness, and balanced judgment
.
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In 1634, French Jesuit priests arrived in Wendake, established a mission and, in doing so, doomed the Wyandot Confederacy to eventual destruction. Champlain had first brought a group of Recollet priests to Wendake in 1623, but their missionary efforts among the Wyandot quickly failed, primarily because their approach demanded that the Wyandot not only accept the Christian god but also abandon all their customs and culture in favor of those of European Christianity. The Jesuits, on the other hand, employed an approach to conversion that showed greater tolerance toward Wyandot culture. So long as a custom did not directly contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Jesuits did not attempt to either eliminate or reform it.
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