Huron

The Huron, who called themselves the Wendat, created a powerful confederacy in the area between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.

The Huron Confederacy was made up of four nations: the Attignawantan, Attigneenongnahac, Arendaronon, and Tahontaenrat. In the 16th century, before European contact, their population probably numbered between 18,000 and 22,000. They lived in villages of varying size, most of which seem to have had a population of 800 or less.

A Huron village consisted of several longhouses clustered closely together. The longhouses were made by setting up a framework of poles and covering the poles with bark sheets. The average longhouse was about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide, with doors and storage space at each end. Within the longhouse long sleeping platforms ran the length of the building, with more storage space below the platforms. Each longhouse also had several fire pits along the central axis. In the summer people slept on the platforms; in the winter they slept on the floor in order to be closer to the fire. The size of longhouses varied, but, on average, most probably held about six families. The Huron sought to build their villages, some of them palisaded, in areas with ready access to water, wood, and arable land.

The Huron believed that all things, both living and inanimate, had a spirit. Powerful spirits were known as oki. The most powerful oki was the sky, but unusual human beings, such as noted warriors, shamans, and the insane, were also called oki. Next in importance were Aataentsic, who was believed to be the creator of human beings, and her son or grandson, louskeha. The Huron also believed in magic and witchcraft (see witches). A witch was a person, either male or female, who sought to injure an individual or the tribe through magical means. If caught, a witch could expect to be killed without mercy, for such crimes against the community placed one outside the bounds of protection, even by family.

The Huron participated in a variety of feasts, dances, and rituals. Dreams played an important role in Huron life, as the Hurons believed that they reflected personal desires that must be gratified. The most important Huron ritual was the Feast of the Dead. At death a Huron was either buried in the ground or placed in a bark coffin on a scaffold. Every eight to 12 years, apparently when the village was going to move, the Huron held a ceremony in honor of the dead. The bodies of those who had died were disinterred and reburied in a common grave. This ritual both honored the dead and symbolized the unity of the living.

Each Huron belonged to one of eight clans: Bear, Beaver, Deer, Hawk, Porcupine, Snake Turtle, or Wolf. A child was born into the clan of his or her mother, and Huron were expected to marry someone from another clan. When a child was born, his or her ears were pierced and he or she was given a name. As a child grew, he or she was encouraged to begin to perform the tasks he or she would perform as an adult. Since the Huron had clearly defined sex roles, these tasks were different for boys and girls.

Among the Huron women were largely responsible for agriculture, food preparation, and child care. Women raised corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and sunflowers. Farmland belonged to particular individuals or families for as long as they used it. Unused land could be taken and cultivated by any member of the community. Men cleared new fields using slash and burn techniques, which had the benefit of enriching the land with ash. Stumps that were left after burning remained until they rotted and could be easily removed. To plant corn, women made holes in the ground with a digging stick. In each hole they placed up to 10 grains of corn. As the corn grew, the women hoed up the earth around the stalks to form hills and then planted beans in the hills. When a village’s fields were exhausted or when supplies of firewood became distant, the Huron migrated to a new site. Such moves apparently took place every eight to 12 years. Women also gathered wild plants, especially berries, but these were not a large part of the Huron diet. In addition, women made many household items, including pottery, baskets, and mats. These items might be decorated with paint or colored porcupine quills.

As a general rule, men performed tasks requiring greater strength or ones that took them far from home. Men cleared the fields and constructed palisades and houses. They made fish nets, tools, weapons, and wooden armor. They also hunted and fished. Fish was an important element in the Huron diet, meat less so. According to archaeologists and anthropologists, corn made up about 65 percent of the Huron diet, and other crops, such as beans, squash, and pumpkins, made up 15 percent. Fish made up another 10 or 15 percent, and meat about 5 percent. Nonetheless, hunting was a prestigious activity, and men were honored for providing meat.

Men had primary responsibility for martial activities. The Huron had a number of enemies, the most important of whom were the Iroquois. Warfare seems to have been endemic. Among both the Huron and neighboring tribes, men fought to gain prestige, avenge the deaths of other members of their communities, and gain captives to adopt. Usually, war parties attacked in the summer or fall, when leaves were still on the trees and could help a war party to hide. Ordinarily, warriors tried to capture or kill individuals or isolated groups of people fishing or working in the fields. For this reason the Huron tried to provide male protection for women working in the fields. Warriors might also creep into an enemy village at night to try to kill enemies. To prove their bravery, they sought to return with enemy captives or the heads or scalps of enemies. Because the death of an individual at the hands of an enemy called for revenge, and because young men sought to gain prestige as warriors, the cycle of killing continued. Prisoners might be killed on the spot, brought back to the Huron’s village to be tortured and killed, or formally adopted into Huron families to replace dead members. A victim condemned to die was often first adopted into a Huron family, in which members would then address the condemned as “brother” or “nephew.” The torture might last one or several days, during which the prisoner tried to demonstrate his bravery by singing songs and taunting his captors.

Men also ran Huron government. A typical village had families belonging to several clans. The part of any clan in a given village was known as a “clan segment.” Each clan segment within a village had both a civil chief and a war chief. Both of these positions were filled largely on the basis of merit, although candidates had to be chosen from the proper clan and some lineages within the clan appear to have been more prestigious than others. The Huron valued wisdom, generosity, and skill in oratory in their leaders. Both civil and war chiefs lacked coercive power and gained followers only as long as they retained support. Decisions made by civil or war councils were not binding on individuals because the Huron valued individual freedom.

Confederacy councils met at least once a year. Each village sent its clan segment chiefs to this council. Action could not be taken without consensus, which often meant that the assembled reached no decisions. Although this governing structure provided room for opposition and relied on a willingness to reach consensus, it was not well suited to make binding decisions that could compel the nations or the confederacy as a whole to act. This loose structure, lacking coercive power, became a problem in the 17th century, when the Huron proved unable to respond effectively to the threat posed by the Iroquois.

The first contact between Europeans and the Huron took place in 1609, when a group of Huron warriors met with the French explorer Samuel de Champlain along the St. Lawrence River.

Further reading: Nancy Bonvillain, The Huron (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989); Conrad E. Heidenreich, “Huron,” in Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, gen. ed., vol. 15, Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 368-393; Elisabeth Tooker, An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1991); Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s

University Press, 1976);-, The Huron: Farmers of the

North (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969).

—Martha K. Robinson

Ibn Battuta (1304-1369) pilgrim, writer Born in Tangier in 1304, Sheikh Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lawati, otherwise known as Ibn Battuta, became the most famous African traveler of the medieval period.

Ibn Battuta began his travels in 1325, when he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. According to his memoirs, Ibn Battuta received a vision while on his pilgrimage that foretold his future travels. After completing the necessary rites pilgrims were required to perform, Ibn Battuta left Mecca to visit every country in the Islamic world (see Islam). He traveled through the Middle East recording events along the way. He returned to Mecca on a second pilgrimage and remained there for two years engaged in academic study. While in Mecca, tales of India intrigued the young scholar, so he set out to see India for himself. Preferring to travel by land instead of sea, he journeyed to India across Anatolia and the steppes of central Asia. He arrived in India and remained for seven years, even becoming a judge in Delhi. Although he became destitute, the Indian sultan Muhammad ibn Tughluq appointed Ibn Battuta India’s ambassador to China. Although Ibn Battuta described his China adventures in his memoirs, most scholars believe he never actually visited the country.

He returned to Morocco in 1349, having traveled through North Africa, the east African coast, the Middle East, and central Asia. He decided to embark on two more trips, one to Muslim Spain and the other to the Sudan. Ibn Battuta easily completed his trip to Spain the following year, then set out from Sijilmasa across the Sahara to Mali. Upon arrival in Mali, Ibn Battuta won an audience with the ruler Mansa Sulayman, the grandson of Mansa Musa I, whose wealth and generosity achieved legendary status after his famed pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. Ibn Battuta found Mansa Sulayman much less impressive than his grandfather, but Ibn Battuta’s observations of Mali culture and society provide historians with one of the most valuable resources on medieval West African history. Ibn

Battuta wrote with admiration when he described the high standards of justice and security in the Mali Empire. Crime appeared almost nonexistent, while citizens valued scholarship and learning. In a more judgmental tone, he recounted the roles of men and women, noting that people traced their ancestry matrilineally. He also noted that the citizens of Mali observed the practices and rituals of Islam faithfully but wondered at their custom of allowing both men and women to enjoy “companions” outside the bonds of marriage and the total lack of jealousy directed toward these partners.

In 1353 Ibn Battuta returned home for the last time. At the command of his sultan, Ibn Battuta dictated his travel memoirs. Upon completion he became a judge near Fez and died in 1369 at the age of 64. If all of Ibn Battuta’s travels are to be taken as the truth, he traveled approximately

75,000 miles through 44 different modern-day countries.

Further reading: Basil Davidson, The Lost Cities of Africa (Boston: Little, Brown, 1959); Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century (London: Croom Helm, 1986).

—Tom Niermann